DEARAUNTYfMy husband’s niece is 13 and what I would call “a handful . She wants to stay with us for while, and her mother and grandmother have told me what a great influence I would be on her. Her v 题目和参考答案——青夏教育精英家教网—

Work-life balance: Ways to restore harmony and reduce stress
Finding work-life balance in today’s frenetically paced world is no simple task.
Spend more time at work than at home, and you miss out on a rewarding personal life. Then again, when you face challenges in your personal life, such as caring for an aging parent or coping with marital problems, concentrating on your job can be difficult.
Whether the problem is too much focus on work or too little, when your work life and your personal life feel out of balance, stress — along with its harmful effects — is the result.
The good news is that you can take control of your work-life balance — and give yourself the time to do the things that are most important to you. The first step is to recognize how the world of work has changed. Then you can evaluate your relationship to work and apply some specific strategies for striking a healthier balance.
How work invades your personal life
There was a time when employees showed up for work Monday through Friday and worked eight- to nine-hour days. The boundaries between work and home were fairly clear then. But the world has changed and, unfortunately, the boundaries have blurred for many workers. Here’s why:
●Global economy. As more skilled workers enter the global labor market and companies outsource or move more jobs to reduce labor costs, people feel pressured to work longer and produce more just to protect their jobs.
●International business. Work continues around the world 24 hours a day for some people. If you work in an international organization, you might be on call around the clock for troubleshooting or consulting.
●Advanced communication technology. Many people now have the ability to work anywhere — from their home, from their car and even on vacation. And some managers expect this.
●Longer hours. Employers commonly ask employees to work longer hours than they’re scheduled. Often, overtime is mandatory. If you hope to move up the career ladder, you may find yourself regularly working more than 40 hours a week to achieve and exceed expectations.
●Changes in family roles. Today’s married worker is typically part of a dual-career couple, which makes it difficult to find time to meet commitments to family, friends and community.
Married to your work
It can be tempting to rack up the hours at work — especially if you’re trying to earn a promotion or some extra money for a child’s education or a dream vacation. For others, working more hours feels necessary in order to manage the workload.
But if you’re spending most of your time at work, your home life will likely pay the price. Consider the pros and cons of working extra hours on your work-life balance:
●Fatigue. Your ability to think and your eye-hand coordination decrease when you’re tired. This means you’re less productive and may make more mistakes. These mistakes can lead to injury or rework and negatively impact your professional reputation.
●Family. You may miss out on important events, such as your child’s first bike ride, your father’s 60th birthday or your high-school reunion. Missing out on important milestones may harm relationships with your loved ones.
●Friends. Trusted friends are a key part of your support system. But if you’re spending time at the office instead of with them, you’ll find it difficult to nurture those friendships.
●Expectations. If you regularly work extra hours, you may be given more responsibility. This could create a never-ending and increasing cycle, causing more concerns and challenges.
Sometimes working overtime is important. If you work for a company that requires mandatory overtime, you won’t be able to avoid it, but you can learn to manage it. Most importantly, say no when you’re too tired, when it’s affecting your health or when you have crucial family obligations.
Striking the best work-life balance
For most people, juggling the demands of career and personal life is an ongoing challenge. With so many demands on your time — from overtime to family obligations — it can feel difficult to strike this balance. The goal is to make time for the activities that are the most important to you.
Here are some ideas to help you find the balance that’s best for you:
●Learn to say no. Whether it’s a co-worker asking you to spearhead an extra project or your child’s teacher asking you to manage the class play, remember that it’s OK to respectfully say no. When you quit doing the things you only do out of guilt or a false sense of obligation, you’ll make more room in your life for the activities that are meaningful to you and bring you joy.
●Leave work at work. Make a conscious decision to separate work time from personal time. When with your family, for instance, turn off your cell phone and put away your laptop computer.
●Manage your time. Organize household tasks efficiently. Do one or two loads of laundry every day, rather than saving it all for your day off. A weekly family calendar of important dates and a daily list of to-dos will help you avoid deadline panic. If your employer offers a course in time management, sign up for it.
●Get enough sleep. There’s nothing as stressful and potentially dangerous as working when you’re sleep-deprived. Not only is your productivity affected, but also you can make costly mistakes. You may then have to work even more hours to make up for these mistakes.
●Communicate clearly. Limit time-consuming misunderstandings by communicating clearly and listening carefully. Take notes if necessary.
●Nurture yourself. Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as walking, working out or listening to music.
●Set aside one night each week for recreation. Take the phone off the hook, power down the computer and turn off the TV. Discover activities you can do with your partner, family or friends, such as playing golf, fishing or canoeing. Making time for activities you enjoy will rejuvenate you.
Remember, striking a work-life balance isn’t a one-shot deal. Creating balance in your life is a continuous process. Balance doesn’t mean doing everything. Examine your priorities and set boundaries. Be firm in what you can and cannot do. Only you can restore harmony to your lifestyle.
小题1:What will happen if you’re spending most of your time at work?

Good nutrition (营养)and a balanced diet will help your children grow up healthily .No matter how old your kids are , you can take steps to improve nutrition and to encourage smart eating habits .Here are some suggestions.
Family Meals
Family meals are comforting for both parents and kids. Children like to guess what they are going to have and parents get the chance to introduce new food to children and to find out which food they like and which ones they don’t.
Teens may turn up their noses at your plan of a family meal. It is not surprising because they’re trying to establish independence. Yet studies find that teens still want their parents’ advice, so use the mealtime as a chance to reconnect.
Stocking up (储备) on healthy food
Kids, especially younger ones, will eat mostly what they can get at home. That’s why it’s important to control the supply lines — the food which you serve for meals and have on hand for snacks. You should have enough fruits, vegetables, lean meat and other good sources of protein, such as eggs and nuts, and healthy snacks, such as yogurt, peanut butter and whole-grain biscuits.
Being a good example
The best way for you to encourage healthy eating is to eat well yourself. Kids will follow the lead of the adults they see every day. By eating fruits and vegetables and avoiding fast food and sugary drinks, you’ll be sending the right message.
No conflicts over food
Parents might find themselves shouting at children to get them to have healthy food in front of them. This in fact can make children dislike what they are aske d to eat.
Get kids included
Most kids will enjoy making the decision about what to make for dinner. Talk to them about making choices and planning a balanced meal. It can help them make good decisions on their own about the food they want to eat.
小题1:Family meals provide the chances for parents to do the following things EXCEPT ________.

A．guessing what kids are going to have

B．finding what kids like and dislike

C．introducing new food to kids

D．reconnecting with kids

小题2:What does the phrase “on hand” mean?

A．Being dealt with.

B．Out of one’s reach.

C．Made by persons instead of machines.

D．Close by and ready when needed.

小题3:According to the passage, which should NOT be done by parents?

A．Form a healthful eating habit themselves.

B．Force kids to have vegetables.

C．Stock up on some fruits at home.

D．Make meal plans with kids.

小题4:The best title for the article is “________”.

A．Eat healthily

B．What is a healthy meal

C．Help kids form healthy eating habits

D．How to grow up healthily

Dear Michelle,
My Dad hates my Mom. He tells me that she is a liar and that I should not trust her. Of course, they are divorced but they have “joint custody” (共同监护). What a joke! I am 15, my brother is nine, and we have a life of hell, frankly.
We live one week on and one week off. This was the brilliant idea of both of my parents, which was fair to them but ruining my life. I cannot get away from his voice and his putting my mom down. Sometimes I think about running away.
A Hopeless Ant
Dear Hopeless Ant,
First, thank you for trusting me with your problem. If all you said is correct, then there are several things that you can and should do to help yourself, your brother, and oddly enough, your parents.
You need a family counselor. Such a person could listen to each family member alone and then meet together to talk about the situation.
If refused, you need to talk to a counselor in your school. You need to be heard, and you need an adult who will listen. A school counselor can organize a meeting with your parents.
Perhaps you need to write to your mother. Writing things down allows people to go over it more than one time.
I cannot imagine that she will stand passively by and do nothing at all to help once she reads how you feel. Your father needs a letter as well. He may not realize the destructive effect that it has on his children.
Lastly, have a plan in mind when all else fails that is not self-destructive. Life passes very quickly, sweetheart, and you will grow up and have your own life.
Until then, you need to keep yourself safe. Never doubt that it will get better. Write back and let me know how everything is going.
Michelle
小题1:The Hopeless Ant wrote the letter to ________.

A．express dissatisfaction with his parents

B．ask for advice seriously

C．make his father punished

D．just make a joke

小题2:The Hopeless Ant hated his father because ________.

A．his father always told a lie

B．his father wasn’t friendly to his mother

C．his father divorced his mother

D．the Hopeless Ant couldn’t stay with his parents

小题3:According to the text, which of the following is the Hopeless Ant in need of at present?

A．Keep himself/herself away from danger

B．Have a talk with his/her parents.

C．Have his/her own family plan

D．Write letters to families.

小题4:In which part of a magazine will the text probably appear?

小题1:Where did Li Hua see Mrs Daniels’ advertisement?

A．At London University.	B．In a newspaper
C．On the Internet.	D．On TV.

小题2:Why did Li Hua write the Email?

A．To make friends with Mrs Daniels.

B．To apply to study at London University.

C．To get more information about Mrs Daniels’ lessons.

D．To find out more information about Aston College.

小题3:Which of the following information did Li Hua NOT mention in his email?

A．His age

B．His reasons for learning English

C．His language level

D．The language skills he wants to focus on.

小题4:Li Hua wants to take the lessons to improve his ______.

A．listening and writing	B．writing and speaking
C．listening and grammar	D．listening and speaking

One afternoon I toured an art museum while waiting for my husband to finish a business meeting．I was looking forward to a quiet   36   of the splendid artwork．
A young 37 viewing the paintings ahead of me 38 nonstop between themselves．I watched them a moment and decided the lady was doing all the talking．I admired the man's  39 for putting up with her 40   stream of words． 41   by their noise, I moved on．
I met them several times as I moved  42   the various rooms of art．Each time I heard her continuous flow of words, I moved away 43   .
I was standing at the counter of the museum gift shop making a  44   when the couple approached the  45 ．Before they left, the man  46   into his pocket and pulled out a white object．He  47   it into a long stick and then  48   his way into the coatroom to get his wife's jacket．
"He's a  49   man, " the clerk at the counter said．" Most of us would give up if we were blinded at such a young age．During his recovery, he made a promise his life wouldn't change．So, as before, he and his wife come in  50   there is a new art show．"
"But what does he get out of the art?" I asked．"He can't see．"
"Can't see! You're  51 ．He sees a lot．More than you and I do," the clerk said．"His wife  52   each painting so he can see it in his head．"
I learned something about patience,  53   and love that day．I saw the patience of a young wife describing paintings to a person without  54   and the courage of a'' husband who would not 55   blindness to change his life．And I saw the love shared by two people as I watched this couple walk away, their arms intertwined．

Taste is such a subjective matter that we don’t usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone’s preference is that it’s one person’s opinion. But because the two big cola companies—Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we’ve wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic (传统型) or Pepsi, Diet (低糖的) Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they’d have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants’ choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse----only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people got all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price.
小题1:According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to ________.

A．show that a person’s opinion about taste is mere guess-work

B．compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks

C．find out the role taste preference plays in a person’s drinking

D．reveal which cola is more to the liking of the drinkers

小题2: It is implied but not stated in the first paragraph that ________.

A．the competition between the two colas is very strong

B．blind tasting is necessary for identifying fans

C．the purpose of taste tests is to promote the sale of colas

D．the improvement of quality is the chief concern of the two cola companies

小题3:The word “burnout” (Line3, Para. 5) refers to the state of _________.

A．being seriously burnt in the skin

B．being badly damaged by fire

C．being unable to function because of excessive use

D．being unable to burn for lack of fuel

小题4:The author’s purpose in writing this passage is to ________.

A．emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other

B．recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control of colas

C．show that taste preference is highly subjective

D．argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy

It happened to me recently. I was telling someone how much I had enjoyed reading Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and how it had changed my views of our President. A friend I was talking to agreed with me that it was ,in his words, “a brilliantly（精彩地）written book”. However, he then went on to talk about Mr Obama in a way which suggested he had no idea of his background at all. I sensed that I was talking to a book liar.
And it seems that my friend is not the only one. Approximately two thirds of people have lied about reading a book which they haven’t. In the World Book Day’s “Report on Guilty Secrets”, Dreams From My Father is at number 9. The report lists ten books, and various authors, which people have lied about reading, and as I’m not one to lie too often (I’d hate to be caught out ),I’ll admit here and now that I haven’t read the entire top ten . But I am pleased to say that, unlike 42 percent of people, I have read the book at number one, George Orwell’s 1984. I think it’s really brilliant.
The World Book Day report also has some other interesting information in it. It says that many people lie about having read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky(I haven’t read him, but haven’t lied about it either )and Herman Melville.
Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to “impress” someone they were speaking to. This could be tricky if the conversation became more in –depth!
But when asked which authors they actually enjoy, people named J. k. Rowling, John Grisham, Sophie Kinsella (ah, the big sellers, in other words). Forty-two percent of people asked admitted they turned to the back of the book to read the end before finishing the story(I’ll come clean: I do this and am astonished that 58 percent said they had never done so).
小题1:How did the author find his friend a book liar?

A．By judging his manner of speaking.

B．By looking into his background.

C．By mentioning a famous name.

D．By discussing the book itself.

小题2:Which of the following is a “guilty secret” according to the World Book Day report?

A．Charles Dickens is very low on the top-ten list.

B．42% of people pretended to have read 1984.

C．The author admitted having read 9 books.

D．Dreams From My Father is hardly read.

小题3:By lying about reading, a person hopes to.

A．control the conversation

B．appear knowledgeable

C．learn about the book

D．make more friends

小题4:What is the author’s attitude to 58%of readers?

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
For several years, Americans have enjoyed teleshopping---watching TV and buying things by phone. Now teleshopping is starting in Europe. In some __46__ countries, people can turn on their __47__ and shop for clothes, jewelry, food, toys and __48__ things.
Teleshopping is becoming popular in Sweden. __49__, the biggest Swedish company sells different kinds of things on TV in fifteen European countries, and in one year, it makes $10 million. In France, there are two teleshopping channels, and the French __50__ about $ 20 million a year in buying things through those channels.
In Germany, __51__ last year teleshopping was only possible on one channel for one hour every day. Then the government allowed more teleshopping. Other channels can __52__ for telebusiness, including the largest American teleshopping company and a 24-hour teleshopping company. German __53__ are hoping these will help them sell more things.
Some people like teleshopping because it allows them to do their shopping without __54__. With all the traffic problems in cities, going shopping is not an easy thing. But at the same time, other Europeans __55__ like this new way of buying things. They call __56__ “junk on the air.” Many Europeans usually worry about the quality of the things __57__ on TV. They think high quality is the most important thing, and they don’t believe they can be sure about the quality of the things __58__.
The need of high quality means that European teleshopping companies will have to be __59__ the American companies. They will have to be more careful about __60__ of the things they sell. They will also have to work harder to sell things that the buyers cannot touch or see by themselves.

A．is difficult to deal with	B．enjoys making friends
C．is easy to get along with	D．gets easily influenced

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