Everyone agrees that all the creatures want happiness and are afraid of pain and grief. The question, however, is “What is real happiness?” The desire for happiness has no meaning without understanding the real nature of happiness.
Generally, ordinary beings consider sensual(感觉的) pleasures as happiness, and their actions are directed toward gaining these. According to them, searching for happiness means searching for pleasures of the senses. The question, “What is happiness?”, does not arise(出现) in their hearts, because in their hearts they think of a life full of sensual joys as a happy life.
Some thinkers say, “Happiness does not lie in the objects of enjoyment; happiness or unhappiness lies in the imagination.” To prove their belief they give examples like the following one. A man has a two-storey house. When he thinks of those who have a house with three storeys or more, he feels unhappy. When he thinks of those who have just a cottage, he feels happy. Such happiness does not lie in possessions(占有物), but in the imagination. They advise people to take inspiration from those who have few possessions but are quite happy. If you only consider people wealthier than yourself, you will always be unhappy.
If you want to be happy, they say, look at the poor. But it is unreasonable to hold that happiness lies in the imagination. And it is inappropriate to think that someone is happy if he only imagines himself better than the poor and the unhappy. This attitude also satisfies the sense of pride of possession. This can never be called happiness. Unless we find out where happiness lies, we cannot really become happy.
Some ask people to do this or that, and say, “This way your desires will be satisfied. That way you will get what you want and become happy.” People holding these views regard happiness as satisfaction of desires and unhappiness as denial(否定) of such satisfaction.
【小题1】What kind of life can make common people feel happy?

A.Life without pain and grief.
B.Life full of sensual pleasures.
C.Life with desire for possessions.
D.Life full of imagination.
【小题2】The underlined word “cottage” in Paragraph 3 probably refers to ________.
A.a house in one’s imaginationB.a modern building
C.a desired objectD.a small house
【小题3】The author may agree that ________.
A.by comparing themselves with the poor, people will feel happy
B.people won’t feel happy without a desire for happiness
C.possessing wealth may lead to a sense of pride
D.people have to experience pain and grief before finding happiness
【小题4】The best title for this passage would be “________”.
A.What Is Happiness?B.How to Get Happiness
C.Happiness and DesireD.Happiness and Imagination

My mother is a diligent and kind woman. She is very busy from morning till night. As a teacher, she works hard.   1.    Both my brother and I love her dearly as she loves us.

My mother has been teaching math at a middle school in my hometown. She goes to work early in the morning and does not return home until late in the afternoon.    2.  She treats them with patience and teaches them well. For her excellent quality and very good teaching results, she has been elected as a model teacher several times.

  3.    Every day, when she comes back home from work, she sets about doing housework, sweeping the living room and bedrooms or cleaning the furniture, and putting everything in good order. She seems to be busy all the time. As she has been very busy working every day, she looks older than her age. But she looks as cheerful and happy as ever. Mother never buys expensive dresses for herself, but she often buys some inexpensive but high quality clothes for us.  4.    She just eats a plain meal outside when she is too busy to cook herself. She lives a busy yet simple life, without any complaints.

Often she says to us, “work while you work, and play while you play. That is the way to be happy and gay. If you do not work, you will become lazy and be of no use to society”. What a piece of good advice this is!   5. This advice of hers will always serve as a guide to my behavior. My mother is great indeed, and I always feel proud of her.

A.She enjoys listening to classic music.

B.As a mother, she takes good care of us and gives us every comfort.

C.She loves her students and cares for them.

D.She never goes to expensive restaurants to enjoy meals.

E. My mother is hard-working and never wastes money.

F. I never forget it and always bear it in my mind.

 

Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A-F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.

Learn how to relax

The right amount of stress is a necessity

Share your stress

Take care of yourself

E. Try physical activities

F. Be a participant

1._____________

Stress comes from mental or emotional activity and physical activity. It is unique and personal to each of us. You need stress in your life. Without stress, life would be dull and unexciting. Stress adds flavour, challenge, and opportunity to life. Too much stress, however, can seriously affect your physical and mental peace. A major challenge in this stress-filled world of today is to make the stress in your life work for you instead of against you.

2. ____________

When you are nervous, angry, or upset, release the pressure through exercise or physical activities. Running, walking, playing tennis, or working in your garden are just some of the activities you might try. Physical exercise will relieve that “uptight” feeling, relax you, and turn the frowns (皱眉) into smiles. Remember, your body and your mind work together.

3.____________

You are special. Get enough rest and eat well. If a problem is beyond your control and cannot be changed at the moment, don’t fight the situation. If you are irritable (急躁的) and tense from lack of sleep or if you are not eating correctly, you will have less ability to deal with stressful situations. If stress repeatedly keeps you from sleeping, you need a break from your daily routine to just relax and have fun, or you should ask your doctor for help. Be good to yourself.

4.____________

One way to keep from getting aboard, sad, and lonely is to go where it’s all happening. Sitting alone can make you feel disappointed. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, get involved. Offer your services in neighbourhood or volunteer organizations. Help yourself by helping other people. Get involved in the world and the people around you, and you’ll find they will be attracted to you. You will be on your way to make new friends and enjoy new activities.

5.____________

The best way of avoiding stress is to relax. Unfortunately, many people try to relax at the same pace that they lead the rest of their lives. For a while, forget your worries about time, productivity, and “doing right”. You will find satisfaction in just being, without struggling hard. Find activities that give you pleasure and that are good for your mental and physical well-being. Read a good book or listen to beautiful music to create a sense of peace. Forget about always winning. Focus on relaxation, enjoyment, and health.

 

It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.

I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!

Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.

Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb comes from an adjective not a noun.

Now my children bought me a mobile phone, known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message for them on their phone. Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself!

1.“I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means          .

A.it was a firm arrangement

B.he prefers a pencil to a pen

C.the arrangement should be written as a diary

D.it was an uncertain arrangement

2.A website address can be easily found if it has been______.

A.favorited          B.messaged         C.emailed           D.texted

3.Which of the following has not been used as a verb yet?

A.message          B.mobile            C.email             D.page

4.The best title for this passage is____.

A.Technology and Language.               B.Development of the English language

C.New Technology and New words            D.New Verbs from Nouns

 

It is only during the last few years that man has generally realized that in the world of nature a balance exists between all forms of life. No living thing can exist by itself. It is part of a system in which all forms of life are joined together. If we change one part of the nature order, this will almost certainly bring about changes in some other parts.

  The cutting of forests reduced the supply of oxygen. The killing of weeds and insects by chemicals led to the wide-spread poisoning of animals and birds. The throwing of waste products into the ocean hurt life in the sea, while waste gases changed the chemical balance of the atmosphere and shut out some of the sun’s necessary life-giving rays.

  And so we could go on adding more examples until in despair(绝望) we might feel like giving up the struggle to control these harmful human activities. Man is very clever at changing the world around him to satisfy his immediate needs, but he is not so clever at looking far ahead, or at thinking about what the future results of his action might be. Man may well destroy himself because of his silly action.

1.The first paragraph tells us that _____.

A.all living things in nature depend on each other

B.everything in nature can’t exist without the help of man

C.man has known the importance of the balance of nature for a long time

D.no living thing can live naturally

2.In the second paragraph the examples given are used to prove that _____.

A.all forms of life belong to a system in which all the parts can be changed for one another

B.it is only during the last few years that man has generally known the balance of nature

C.there are some living things which can exist by themselves without change

D.we can’t change one form of life without destroying the balance of nature

3.The last paragraph suggests that in order to get his immediate benefits(利益) _____.

A.man is always anxious to control his activities within limits

B.man is always too eager in planning for distant future

C.man often fails to think about their future results of his action

D.man often feels that he will have to give up in despair

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

A.Cutting down woods does little harm to human beings.

B.Man has to pay much more attention to the future results of his present action.

C.Oxygen comes from forests.

D.The passage tells us to try our best to get as much as possible immediately.

 

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