Babies are born yogis. Once we were all able to pull our toes up by our ears and laugh about it. Then we aged, got injured, and began carrying stress in our shoulders and back. In short, we lost our balance.

Yoga(瑜伽) is an ancient practice that helps create a sense of union in body, mind, and spirit. It brings us balance. I was seriously out of balance when I started practicing yoga in 1999. I had plantar facilities in both feet, and my doctor had warned me against all the things I loved to do: walking, hiking, and playing tennis. I was desperate for exercise. Yoga became my salvation and even enhanced my other fitness activities. I practice yoga at least twice a week, but I consider yoga to be part of my daily life because after a while you no longer just practice yoga—you love it.

Yoga becomes part of your physical life. Your body grows stronger, more toned, and more flexible as you move from one pose to the other. I spent a week in Mexico at a yoga retreat, and it was the first vacation on which I lost weight. “Rather than building muscle, yoga builds muscle tone,” says Shakta Kaur Khalsa, author of the K.I.S.S. Guide to Yoga. “Because yoga helps maintain a balanced metabolism (新陈代谢), it also helps to regulate weight. Additionally, yoga stretches muscles lengthwise, causing fat to be removed around the cells.” I do yoga poses throughout the day. After hours at my computer, I stretch my stiff shoulders and arms. When I need a boost of energy, I do energizing poses. When I am feeling exhausted at the end of the day, I do restorative poses.

Yoga becomes part of your mental life. Yoga teaches you to focus on breathing while you hold the poses. This attention to breath is calming; it dissolves stress and anxiety. I use yogic breathing on the tennis courts, in the dentist’s chair, and in traffic jams. You should always leave a yoga practice feeling energized, not tired. If you feel tired after yoga, it means you spent the time “fighting” yourself, trying to force yourself into poses. In yoga, you “surrender” to the pose by letting go of the tension.

Yoga becomes part of your spiritual life. Yoga is practiced by people from all religions; it is not restricted to any religious group. Yoga teaches “right” living in how we deal with ourselves and others. As I work on a difficult pose, I learn patience, forgiveness, and the value of gentleness. Yoga advocates proper eating, but you don’t have to be a vegetarian to practice yoga.

1.What would be the best title for this passage?

A.What’s Yoga?

B.How I Do Yoga Poses

C.The Benefits of Yoga

D.The Varieties of Yoga

2.According to the third paragraph, yoga can help people __________.

A.grow taller

B.lose weight

C.become flexible in thinking

D.make more friends

3.People feel tired after yoga because __________.

A.they consume energy in practicing yoga

B.they respond well to yoga poses

C.they spend too much time on yoga

D.they force themselves into yoga poses

4.If this passage continues, what will the writer most probably write about in the next paragraph?

A.Yoga as a means to keep fit.

B.Who may like yoga

C.Popularity of yoga all over the world.

D.Encouraging people to do yoga.

 

阅读下面短文,掌握其大意,然后从各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项。

There are many kinds of friends. Some are always ___1___you, but don't understand you. Some say only a few words to you, but understand you. Many people will step in your life, but only ___2___friends leave footprints (脚印).

  I shall always recall (回忆) the autumn and the girl with the ___3___ . She will always bring back the friendship between us. I know she will always be my best friend.

  It was the golden season. I could see the yellow leaves ___4___  on the cool ___5___. In such a season, I liked walking alone in the leaves, ____6__ to the sound of them.

  Autumn is a __7____ season and life is uninteresting. The free days always get me ___8___ . But one day, the sound of a violin  __9____into my ears like a stream (小溪) flowing in the mountains. I was so surprised that I jumped to see what it was. A young girl, standing in the wind, was__10____ in playing her violin.

  I had __11____ seen her before. The music was so nice that I listened quietly. Lost in the music, I didn't know that I had been ___12___ there for so long but my existence (存在) did not seem to disturb her.

  Leaves were still falling. Every day she played the violin in the corner of the building  ___13___ I went downstairs to watch her performance. I was the only listener. The autumn seemed no longer lonely and life became ___14___.  __15____ we didn't know each other, I thought we were already good friends. I believe she also loved me.

  Autumn was nearly over. One day, when I was listening carefully, the sound suddenly ___16___. To my astonishment (惊讶), the girl came over to me.

  “You must like violin.” she said.

  “Yes. And you play very well. Why did you stop?” I asked.

  Suddenly, a __17____ expression appeared on her face and I could feel something unusual.

  “I came here to see my grandmother, but now I must leave. I once played very badly. It was your listening every day that _18_____ me.” she said.

  “In fact, it was your playing _19_____ gave me a meaningful autumn,” I answered, “Let's be friends.”

  The girl smiled, and so did I.

  I never heard her play again in my life. I no longer went downstairs to listen like before. Only thick leaves were left behind. But I will always remember the fine figure (身影) of the girl. She is like a __20____—so short, so bright, like a shooting star giving off so much light that it makes the autumn beautiful.

1..

A.with

B.for

C.against

D.to

2..

A.good

B.true

C.new

D.old

 

3.

A.sound

B.song

C.play

D.violin

 

4.

A.shaking

B.hanging

C.falling

D.floating

 

5.

A.wind

B.snow

C.air

D.rain

 

6.

A.watching

B.listening

C.seeing

D.hearing

 

7.

A.lively

B.lovely

C.harvest

D.lonely

 

8.

A.up

B.off

C.down

D.over

 

9.

A.flowed

B.grew

C.entered

D.ran

 

10.

A.lost

B.active

C.busy

D.interested

 

11.

A.once

B.never

C.often

D.usually

 

12.

A.waiting

B.stopping

C.standing

D.hearing

 

13.

A.because

B.so

C.when

D.but

 

14.

A.interesting

B.moving

C.encouraging

D.exciting

 

15.

A.But

B.However

C.Even

D.Though

 

16.

A.stopped

B.began

C.gone

D.changed

 

17.

A.happy

B.sad

C.strange

D.surprised

 

18.

A.surprised

B.excited

C.encouraged

D.interested

 

19.

A.that

B.which

C.it

D.who

 

20.

A.song

B.dream

C.fire

D.sister

 

I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.

I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.

It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.

Then I met an agent(代理商)who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.

The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.

It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract(合同)of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding(有回报的).

1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?

A.I was waiting for good fortune.

B.I was trying to find an admirable job.

C.I was being aimless about a suitable job.

D.I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time.

2.The author decided to write a novel ______ .

A.to finish the writing course

B.to realize her own dream

C.to satisfy readers’ wish

D.to earn more money

3.How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?

A.Disturbed.

B.Ashamed.

C.Confident.

D.Uncertain.

4.What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?

A.It pays to stick to one’s goal.

B.Hard work can lead to success.

C.She feels like being unexpectedly lucky.

D.There is no end in sight when starting to do something.

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网