Why do people drink too much, eat too much, smoke cigarettes or take drugs? What’s to blame for all the bad behavior? Most people would say that, while these self-destructive (自我毁灭的) acts can have many root causes, they all have one obvious thing in common: they are all examples of failures of self-control, lacking the will power to resist(抵抗) them.

According to a recent study, however, if you really think about it, something about that simple answer doesn’t quite make sense. In fact, it turns out that sometimes it’s having will power that really gets you into trouble.

Think back to the time you took your very first sip of beer. Disgusting, wasn’t it? When my father gave me my first taste of beer as a teenager, I wondered why anyone would voluntarily drink it. And smoking? No one enjoys their first cigarette — it tastes awful. So even though smoking, and drinking alcohol or coffee, can become temptation (诱惑) you need will power to resist, they never, ever start out that way.

Just getting past those first horrible experiences actually requires a lot of self-control. Ironically (讽刺的是), only those who can control themselves well, rather than give in to them, can ever come to someday develop a “taste” for Budweiser beer, Marlboro cigarettes, or dark-roasted Starbucks coffee. We do it for social acceptance. We force ourselves to consume alcohol, cigarettes, coffee and even illegal drugs, in order to seem experienced, grown-up, and cool.

These bad habits aren’t self-control failures — far from it. They are voluntary choices, and they are in fact self-control successes. Self-control is simply a tool to be put to some use, helpful or harmful. To live happy and productive lives, we need to develop not only our self-control, but also the wisdom to make good decisions about when and where to apply it.

1. What do most people think causes bad behavior?

A. Being forced by others.

B. Not having enough will power.

C. Enjoying their first experiences.

D. Following the examples of their friends.

2.The author mentions his experience in the third paragraph to prove ____.

A. will power helps develop bad habits sometimes

B. drinking beer is harmful to the health of teenagers

C. self-control should be developed when one is young

D. everyone can be challenged by different temptations

3.In the last paragraph, the author stresses that ____.

A. without self-control, no one can succeed

B. bad habits don’t always lead to bad results

C. applying self-control correctly is important

D. people can develop wisdom from bad behavior

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A. My First Sip of Beer B. Do You Have Will Power ?

C. Will Power Benefits Us D. Dark Side of Self-control

The new high-speed railway line between Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur self-governing region,and Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province,has cut train travel time by half to less than 12 hours.

The dramatic improvement will benefit many families planning reunions for Spring Festival.

“For the first time,I feel home is not that far away after all,”said Liang Shaofu as he boarded a high-speed train in Urumqi with six members of his family.

The 35-year-old left Lanzhou to set up a dry fruit business in Xinjiang eight years ago,and he has now settled in Urumqi.

The 1,776-km line, which passes through Qinghai province and is the country’s first high-speed railway to be built in a high-altitude region, came into service on Dec 26.

“We normally drive home for Spring Festival to avoid the difficulties of buying seven train tickets for the whole family during the peak season.” Liang said. “Driving can be very tiring and dangerous sometimes,so one year we even decided not to go back to Lanzhou simply to avoid the trip.”

More than 600,000 passengers traveled on the line during its first month,and the Urumqi Railway Bureau said the introduction of high-speed services will ease transport pressure during the Spring Festival peak season.

The existing usual railway line could no longer support Xinjiang’s development. All passenger trains will gradually shift to the new link,leaving the old one to be used for goods. As a result,Xinjiang’s annual goods ability could reach 200 million metric tons from the current 70 million.

The line passes through areas that experience high winds, and it also crosses parts of the deserted Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the bone-dry sands of the Gobi Desert.

The project could help China to promote its high-speed railway technology abroad,said Ma Xi zhang, director of the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway project’s management department in Xinjiang.

1.How long did it take to go from Urumqi to Lanzhou by the usual train before?

A. about 12 hours B. About 6 hours

C. About 18 hours D. About 24 hours

2.What’s the main advantage of the new high-speed railway?

A. It takes more time to go to Urumqi to Lanzhou.

B. It will be more convenient for people all over the country to Xinjiang.

C. All the people in Lanzhou can return home on festivals.

D. It helps to improve Xinjiang’s development.

3.From the passage we can learn________.

A. Xinjiang’s annual goods ability can increase nearly four times

B. the new railway technology may help more railway lines to be built abroad

C. the high-speed railway lines can’t be built across the bone-dry sands

D. the old railway lines can only carry goods now

4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. The new high-speed railway line is good for all people to go home.

B. The new high-speed railway line benefits businessmen to carry goods.

C. Taking the new train is safer than driving home from Urumqi to Lanzhou.

D. Businessmen seldom went home for Spring Festival before.

阅读理解

Although I started learning English during my college years, when I entered the States, I only understood two English words “Yes” and “No”. We learned many grammar rules but we could not make the language connections to the real English world. Language frustration worries almost all first generation immigrants. For example, I got a letter from a Chinese-American who has lived in the States for a long time and has a good IT job saying “My 11-year-old girl writes quite well, but as her parents, we could not even read her article.”In addition, my Chinese-American professor friend has difficulty reading a novel. Improving our English skills has become a long journey for all of us. Honestly, if I have a chance, I really want to reach out to everyone in the world who has had a similar experience: learning a second language in adulthood. I wish I could encourage them to speak out about the culture shock, frustration they felt about the differences between West and East.

I have mainly focused on my English writing since 2008 after I found “Literacy Volunteers”, an organization that specially focuses on helping immigrants improve their English. I decided to challenge myself, writing a story like an American. I saw many wonderful Americans there. As soon as I met my teacher Alice, I asked her to be my private language tutor and have taken Tims English class. Every week Alice and I have worked on my English essays sentence by sentence.

To observe the culture differences between West and East, occasionally, I posted a few of my English essays online. I mentioned previously about American culture; when people read the same article or even face the same situation, American and Chinese act very differently. In my viewpoint, these differences make America the strongest country in the world. I know you have the right to express your own opinions, but accusing others without proof is not acceptable.

1.The underlined word “frustration” in the first paragraph means .

A. failure and setbacks B. words and problems

C. understanding and progress D. slang and idioms

2.In the passage, “Literacy Volunteers” is .

A. only intended to help the Chinese-Americans

B. an organization which is set up to make a profit

C. of great use to people like the author

D. a school showing how to enjoy literature

3.From the last paragraph we can learn that .

A. Americans and Chinese are of the same idea about something

B. culture shock only exists between Chinese and Americans

C. accusing others freely can be acceptable in America

D. culture differences have great influence on the people

4.The purpose of the passage is .

A. to show how hard a Chinese-American lives in America

B. to share her experience of improving her English

C. to imply grammar rules are not important

D. to warn Chinese-Americans of English

C

More surprising,perhaps,than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving (兴盛).As Skolnick notes,Americans are marrying people—relative to Europeans,more of us marry and we marry at a younger age.Moreover,after a decline in the early 1970s,the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing.Even the divorce rate needs to be taken in this pro-marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry.Thus,marriage remains,by far,the preferred way of life for the vast majority of people in our society.

What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family.Twenty-five years ago,the typical American family consisted of a husband,a wife and two or three children.Now,there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children.And there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage,or the husband’s,or both.Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage;sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses.

Thus,one can find the very type of family arrangement.There are marriages without children;marriages with children from only the present marriage;marriages with “full time”children from the present marriage and “part-time” children from former marriages.There are stepfathers,stepmothers,half-brothers,and half-sisters.It is not all the unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! There are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family.But even so,even in the midst of all this,one thing remains constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.

1.By calling Americans marrying people the author means that ______.

A.more of Americans,as compared with Europeans,prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age

B.Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans

C.there are more married couples in USA than in Europe

D.Americans are more traditional than Europeans

2.Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families?

A.A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife.

B.Many types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable.

C.Americans prefer to have more kids than before.

D.There are no nuclear families any more.

3.Even though great changes have taken place in the structure of American families ______.

A.the functions of marriage remain unchanged

B.most Americans prefer a second marriage

C.the vast majority of Americans still have faith in marriage

D.marriage is still enjoyed by all Americans

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