题目内容
18. –May I use your pen?
--________!
A. Doesn’t matter B. Go ahead C. Of course, you could D. No, I don’t mind
C
Who's in control of your life? Who is pulling your string? For the majority of us, it's other people-society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we
learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry(模仿)，their passions a quotation.”
So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug－we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix(一剂毒品)，we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.
But just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom－the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot-control what other people think. People have their own agenda(日程安排), and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probable pleasing no one in the process.
So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way－make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values－not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic(真实的), effective, purposeful and happy life.
【小题1】What Oscar Wilde says implies that .
| A．most people's thoughts are controlled by others. |
| B．we have thoughts similar to those of others. |
| C．most people have a variety of thoughts. |
| D．other people's thoughts are more important. |
| A．The price of taking the drug is freedom. |
| B．Changing opinions may cost us our freedom. |
| C．We may lose ourselves to please others. |
| D．We need to pay for what we want to get. |
| A．it's important to accept others' opinions. |
| B．it's better to do what we like. |
| C．we shouldn't care what others think. |
D．we shouldn't change our won opinions. |
| A．making suggestions. | B．analyzing causes and effects. |
| C．providing examples and facts. | D．discussing questions |
Spring is coming, and it is time for those about to graduate to look for jobs. Competition is tough, so job seekers must carefully consider their personal choices. Whatever we are wearing, our family and friends may accept us, but the workplace may not.
A high school newspaper editor said it is unfair for companies to discourage visible tattoos (纹身）nose rings, or certain dress styles. It is true you can’t judge a book by its cover, yet people do “cover” themselves in order to convey (传递)certain messages．What we wear, including tattoos and nose rings, is an expression of who we are．Just as people convey messages about themselves with their appearances, so do companies．Dress standards exist in the business world for a number of reasons, but the main concern is often about what customers accept.
Others may say how to dress is a matter of personal freedom, but for businesses it is more about whether to make or lose money. Most employers do care about the personal appearances of their employees (雇员), because those people represent the companies to their customers.
As a hiring manager I am paid to choose the people who would make the best impression on our customers. There are plenty of well-qualified candidates, so it is not wrong to reject someone who might disappoint my customers．Even though I am open-minded, I can’t expect all our customers are.
There is nobody to blame but yourself if your set of choices does not match that of your preferred employer. No company should have to change to satisfy a candidate simply because he or she is unwilling to respect its standards, as long as its standards are legal.
【小题1】Which of the following is the newspaper editor’ opinion according to Paragraph 2?
| A．People’s appearances carry messages about themselves. |
| B．Candidates with tattoos or nose rings should be fairly treated. |
| C．Customers’ choices influence dress standards in companies. |
| D．Strange dress styles should not be encouraged in the workplace. |
| A．Candidates have to wear what companies prefer for an interview. |
| B．Hiring managers make the best impression on their candidates. |
| C．Companies sometimes have to change to respect their candidates. |
| D．What to wear is not a matter of personal choice for companies. |
| A．Appearances Matter | B．Personal Choices Matter |
| C．Employees Matter | D．Hiring Managers Matter |
| A．enthusiastic | B．positive | C．negative | D．sympathetic |
A few months ago as I wandered through my parents’ house, the same house I grew up in, I had a sudden, scary realization. When my parents bought the house, in 1982, they were only two years older than I am now. I tried to imagine myself in two years, ready to settle down and buy the house I’d still be living in almost 30 years later.
It seemed ridiculous. On a practical level, there’s no way I could afford to buy a house anytime soon. More importantly, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not sure where I’ll be living in two years, or what kind of job I’ll have. And I don’t think I’ll be ready to settle down and stay in one place.
So this is probably the generation gap that divides my friends and me from our parents. When our parents were our age, they’d gotten their education, chosen a career, and were starting to settle into responsible adult lives.
My friends and I – “Generation Y” – still aren’t sure what we want to do with our lives. Whatever we end up doing, we want to make sure we’re happy doing it. We’d rather take risks first, try out different jobs, and move from one city to another until we find our favorite place. We’d rather spend our money on travel than put it in a savings account.
This casual attitude toward responsibility has caused some critics to call my generation “arrogant”, “impatient”, and “overprotected”. Some of these complaints have a point. As children we were encouraged to succeed in school, but also to have fun. We grew up in a world full of technological innovation: cellphones, the Internet, instant messaging, and video games.
Our parents looked to rise vertically(垂直的)--starting at the bottom of the ladder and slowly making their way to the top, on the same track, often for the same company. That doesn’t apply to my generation.
Because of that, it may take us longer than our parents to arrive at responsible, stable adulthood. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In our desire to find satisfaction, we will work harder, strive for ways to keep life interesting, and gain a broader set of experiences and knowledge than our parents’ generation did.
1.When the author walked through her parents’ house, she _______.
|
A．was frightened that she had no idea what she wanted from life |
|
B．started to think about her own life |
|
C．realized I should buy a house. |
|
D．wondered why her parents had settled down early |
2.What is the main “generation gap” between the author and her friends and their parents according to the article?
|
A．Their attitude toward high technology. |
|
B．Their ways of making their way to the top. |
|
C．Their attitude towards responsibility. |
|
D．Their ways of gaining experience. |
3.Which of the following might the author agree with?
|
A．It’s all right to try more before settling down. |
|
B．It’s better to take adult responsibility earlier. |
|
C．It involves too much effort to rise vertically. |
|
D．It’s ridiculous to call her generation “arrogant”. |
4.What can we conclude from the article?
|
A．The author is envious of her parents enjoying a big house at her age. |
|
B．Growing up in a hi-tech world makes “Generation Y” feel insecure about relationships. |
|
C．“Generation Y” people don’t want to grow up and love to be taken care of by their parents. |
|
D．The author wrote this article so that others would be able to understand her generation better. |
5.What is the main theme of the article?
|
A．The sudden realization of growing up. |
|
B．A comparison between lifestyles of generations. |
|
C．Criticisms of the young generation. |
|
D．The factors that have changed the young generation. |