第三部分：阅读理解（共两节，40分） 第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，共30分） 阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Year of Giving
Yesterday I started the Year of Giving, my first day of a year-long journey into exploring the act of giving and the meaning of charity. I chose December 15 as the starting date, which marked three years since my mother died from heart disease. She was one of the most generous people that I have ever known. She always thought of others first and certainly serves as an inspiration to me.
I had a rather busy day yesterday, ironic (具有讽刺意义的) for someone who is unemployed right now. In the morning I went to the gym, and unsuccessfully got the phone call from the unemployment office for some job searching. Before I knew it, it was noon. I grabbed a quick lunch and rushed down to a meeting. On my way to Connecticut, I wondered if I would see someone that I would feel forced to give my first $ 10 to. I was running late and decided to do it afterwards.
After the meeting I had about half an hour to find the first person of my Year of Giving! I decided to check out DuPont Circle. I had met a guy there named Jerry once and thought he would willing accept my $ 10. He wasn’t there, but I did see a man sitting by himself who looked really lonely, so I approached him. Now I had to figure out what I was going to say, I think I said something like, “Hi, can I sit down here?” “I would like to know if I could give you $ 10?” He asked me to repeat what I had said, I did, then he looked at me funny, got up and left.
I then started walking south where I spotted a man standing by the bus stop on Connecticut Ave. He appeared to be in his 60s. I don’t know what drew me to him, but I thought I would make my second attempt. I was a bit nervous and asked him which bus came by that stop. Then I explained that I was starting a year-long project to give $ 10 to someone every day and that I wanted to give my $ 10 for today to him. The gentleman, I
later found out that his name was Ed, responded without hesitation that he could not accept my offer and that there were many people more deserving the money than him. This was exactly one of the things that I hoped would happen. People would think of others before themselves.
56. The author set the starting date on December 15 to ____.
A.help the charity B. remember his mother
C. make an explosion D. fulfill a wish if his mum
57. In the author’s first attempt to give away the money, ____.
A. he was considered ridiculous B. he hesitated for a long time
C. he was forced to donate the money D. he had no time to take action
58. In the author’s second attempt, the gentleman refused his offer because ____.
A. he didn’t need other’s help B. he thought more for others
C. he didn’t care about money D. he wanted to get more money
59. We can refer that the author was inspired by ____.
A. true friendship B. his own kindness
C. generous donations D. human’s good nature
B
Mars on Earth
Devon Islander has always been a cold and uninhabited(无人居住的) place in the Canadian Arctic. Day after day there are high winds and the temperature is below freezing. But for the first time, despite the terrible weather conditions .Devon Islander is the new home for a group of explorers from NASA. They are living here for a months in order to train and learn how to live and work on Mars. The group’s members come from various backgrounds and nationalities, but they all have the same purpose: to find out how people can live on Mars in the future.
They have chosen Devon Islander because the environment and landscape is similar in many ways to Mars. The surface is freezing cold and the ground is rough. However, there are some differences on Mars, where the atmosphere is poisonous to breathe, Devon
Islander is easier to travel to and it has its own dangers that you won’t find on Mars. For example, you might meet a hungry polar bear on Devon Islander!
One thing the learn wants to develop is suitable clothing for Mars. This includes a space suit. The suit they are testing at the moment is strong enough but it’s too difficult and tiring. In addition, people will need to do experiment on Mars while wearing the suit so they have to be able to move around easily. One team member, Andy Overbeeke, specializes in space suit engineering. He explains: “You have to think about what they’re really going to operate in.”
Another part of daily life on Mars will be meals and food. Creating a new home on Mars requires a lot of food. So the big question is: can you grow plants in order to survive? Scientists believe that growing plants on Mars might be possible. Mars and Earth have many similarities. They both have about the same amount of dry land and a 24-hour day. However, the atmosphere on Mars is totally different, so Canadian scientist Alain Berinstain is attempting to grow plants in a special greenhouse that you could also build on Mars. The greenhouse needs to run 365 days a year, so it uses a combination of solar energy and wind power.
People living on Mars will also want their own transportation. For this, the team on Devon Island have built the “Martian Rover”. It’s a huge heavy vehicle that can travel over rocks and rough terrain. This kind of testing takes many days but so far the work has been valuable and effective. As a result, the whole team now believes their work is crucial and that it’s possible for humans to land on the planet Mars and create a home there. Addy Overbeeke adds, “We know that it’s man’s destiny to go out and do space exploration. It’s always time to think about what you want to do in the future.”
60. The explorers are living on Devon Island to ____.
A. receive a training in astronomy
B. set up an advanced research lab
C. learn how to live and work on Mars
D. make a living in an uninhabited land
61. To keep food supply on Mars, people should ____.
A. create a new home B. improve the atmosphere
C. build special greenhouses D. reduce the area of dry land
62. According to the passage, we know that ____.
A. humans may live on Mars in the future
B. Martian Rover has failed to stand the test
C. Mars and Devon Island have the same soil condition
D. scientists have mastered the method to grow plants on Mars
C
While you may think that being smart and talented would logically make someone successful in running a business, unfortunately, this is often not the case.
This problem starts back in school when the stressful “group projects” are first assigned .The smartest don’t want to risk their grade in the class by dividing the work equally and hoping that art average student does his part well. They just take over and do the whole project themselves.
And thus begins the smart-people work cycle. The smartest people do just about everything better than most everyone else until it comes to running a business. They are not better; they are screwed. A smart person who can’t stand someone else doing a job badly does everything himself. Then, he is stuck with the one-man band “job-business” and ends up not being able to grow. However, it is quite interesting and strange that some slacken are better suited to be a business leader than the “smart” people. The figured out early on to surround themselves with smart people who would do the work that they themselves don’t want to do.
Smart and talented people often have a gift for the unusual, complicated or different. They don’t like to follow the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid), which is required to make a business succeed. Maybe you think the global presence of McDonald’s complex, but in reality, in the company, every single task is broken down into easy-to-follow steps and everything has been standardized. These successful companies have just a few smart enough people to run the majority of the tasks in a way that can’t be screwed up by their
average employees. So, being smart or talented isn’t going to help you unless you can use those smarts to figure out a way to simplify those tasks that will make a business successful.
Another issue with the smart people starting businesses is that they often have the most to lose. The smarter you are, the more options you have available to you. You will be able to make a lot of money in various fields and have room in your career to become promoted. This means that when you start a business, you have a lot more to risk than those who are not equally smart. This is often referred to as the“golden handcuffs”dilemma.
So, don’t be surprised when the person “MOST Likely to Succeed” from high school ends up as an employee and it is one average student that finds success in his or her own business.
63. In group work, smart students often take over the whole project because they believe ____.
A. the work is not divided equally
B. they can perform better than others
C. the group projects are too stressful
D. average students are unwilling to participate
64. McDonald’s is used as an example to prove that ____.
A. a business calls for smart people’s talent
B. average employees can perform complex tasks
C. smart people are important for a successful business
D. simplified tasks are required for the success of a business
65. The underlined expression in Paragraph 5 refers to the situation where smart people ____.
A. have fewer options in a company
B. risk more when starting business
C. are unwilling to put money to a business
D. can have a good income in many different fields
66. What is the best title for the passage?
A. Potentials for Success B. Bases for Business
C. The Ordinary Achieve Bigger Success? D. Talent Means Successful Business?
D
We know that hugs make us feel easy inside. And this feeling, it turns out, could actually ward off stress and protect r the immune (免疫) system, according to a new research from Carnegie Mellon University.
It’s a well-known fact that stress can weaken the immune system. In this study, the researchers sought to determine whether hugs----like social support more broadly ----could protect individuals from the increased sensitivity to illness brought on by the particular stress that come with interpersonal conflict.
“We know that people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off cold viruses. We also know that people who report having social support are partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as depression and anxiety, “the study’s lead author, psychologist Dr. Sheldon Cohen , said in a statement. “We tested whether awareness of social support is equally effective in protecting us from sensitivity to infection caused by stress and also whether receiving hugs might partially account for those feeling of support and thus protect a person against infection.”
In the experiment , over 400 healthy adults filled out a questionnaire about their perceived (感知) social support and also participated in a nightly phone interview for two weeks . They were asked the frequency they engaged in interpersonal conflicts and received bugs that day.
Then, the researchers exposed the participants to a common cold virus, and monitored them to assess signs of infection. They found that both perceived social support and more frequent hugs reduced the risk of infection associated with experiencing interpersonal conflict. Regardless of whether or not they experienced social conflicts, infected participants with greater perceived social support and more frequent hugs had less severe illness symptoms.
“This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means
of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the effects of stress,” Cohen said. “The apparent protective effect of hugs may result from the physical contact itself or hugging being a behavioral indicator of support and closeness. Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection.”
If you need any more reason to go wrap your arms around someone special, consider this: hugs also lower blood pressure, reduce fearsome around death and dying, improve heart health and decrease feeling of loneliness.
67. In Paragraph 1, the underlined words “wand off “can be replaced by ____.
A. produce B. increase C. prevent D. support
68. Dr. Sheldon Cohen’s experiment shows that ____.
A. hugs can hide serious illness symptoms
B. social conflicts can monitor signs of infection
C. social support can reduce the risk of having a cold
D. depression and anxiety result from less social support
69. The passage aims to convey that ____.
A. hugs can have protective effects B. social support can sure diseases
C. interpersonal conflicts cause infections D. stress can weaken our immune system
70. The passage is most likely to be found in ____.
A. a social science magazine B. a commercial brochure
C. a medical report D. an academic essay
第二节（共5小题:每小题2分，共10分）
根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出恩给你填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Make a Joke of It
I’m working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in----no need to catch up, just jump in right now.
Everyone says, and it’s true, that one of the most effective ways to handle negative emotions is to lighten up. __71__If you’re angry, joke around. Easier said than done, however.
I had a chance to keep my resolution to “make a joke of it” last night. My husband finally took on the job of dealing with my daughter’s adventure in orthodontia(牙齿矫正术). The orthodontist’s office is right around the Corner from his office, and he agreed that he’d schedule the appointments and take her. This was GREAT!
On our flight to Kansas City for the holidays, the Big Girl lost her “functional appliance” which she wears in her mouth. __72__We got back home a week later, and the Big Man didn’t call to make an appointment! Days went by. I reminded him periodically, but nothing happened.
__73__Last night, I stamped into our bedroom ready to turn on my anger at full volume. “This really matters, this is important, she’s growing now, what’s the point, it’s expensive, you promised you’d do it.” Etc. Then I thought, “Make a joke of it.”
So I went over, put my arm around the Big Man, and said nicely, “You know what? If you don’t call the orthodontist’s tomorrow, I’m going to be very angry. I’m not threatening, just giving you fair warning.” And I laughed while I said it.
“I know, I know!” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll send myself an Email right now.” And he did. __74__
I’m not sure if making a joke of it was more effective than getting angry, but I don’t think it was less effective. I was happier about it, and the Big Man was happier about it. __75__
It’s easy to say “make a joke of it”, but it’s hard to do when you’re feeling angry, scared, bored, or upset. Have you found a way to get yourself to make a joke?
A. And today he made the appointment.
B. If things are sad, try to find a reason to laugh.
C. We looked everywhere on the plane; it was gone.
D. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
E. You’d think flight rage is a uniquely Chinese problem.
F. And it was a much nicer way to have that unpleasant exchange.
G. Whenever I thought about this delay, I became extremely annoyed.
