Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus (马戏表演). One family between us and the ticket counter made a big impression(印象) on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. Their clothes were clean. The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands.

The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly said, “Please let me buy eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus.”The ticket lady told him the price. The wife’s head dropped, and the man’s lip began to quiver (抖动). The father asked, “How much did you say?”

The ticket lady told him the price again.

The man didn’t have enough money.

Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground (We were not wealthy either). My father reached down, picked up the bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket.”

The man knew what was going on. He wasn’t begging for money but certainly thanked the help in a difficult, embarrassing situation. He looked straight into my dad’s eyes, took my dad’s hand in both of his, and with a tear streaming down his cheek, he replied, “Thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family.”

My father and I went back to our car and drove home. We didn’t go to the circus that night, but we didn’t go without.

1.Why was the writer impressed by(留下深刻印象) the family?

A. Because the family was very poor.

B. Because the family was very happy.

C. Because the family was very noisy.

D. Because the family was very large.

2.When the ticket lady told them the price, the wife .

A. hardly heard B. hardly understood

C. felt disappointed D. felt confused

3.Which of the following words can be best used to describe the writer’s father?

A. Honest. B. Kind. C. Patient. D. Careful.

Imagine that you’re looking at your company-issued smartphone and you notice an e-mail from Linkedln: “These companies are looking for candidates like you!” You aren’t necessarily searching for a job, but you’re always open to opportunities, so out of curiosity, you click on the link. A few minutes later your boss appears at your desk. “We’ve noticed that you’re spending more time on Linkedln lately, so I wanted to talk with you about your career and whether you’re happy here,” she says. Uh-oh.

It’s an awkward scene. Attrition (损耗)has always been expensive for companies, but in many industries the cost of losing good workers is rising, owing to tight labor markets. Thus companies are intensifying(增强)their efforts to predict which workers are at high risk of leaving so that managers can try to stop them. Tactics (策略)range from electronic monitor to sophisticated(复杂的)analyses of employees’ social media lives.

Some of this work may be a reason to let employees to quit. In general, people leave their jobs because they don’t like their boss, don’t see opportunities for promotion or growth, or are offered a higher pay; these reasons have held steady for years.

New research conducted by CEB, a Washington-based technology company, looks not just at why workers quit but also at when. “We’ve learned that what really affects people is their sense of how they’re doing compared with other people in their peer group, or with where they thought they would be at a certain point in life, says Brian Kropp, who heads CEB’s HR practice. “We’ve learned to focus on moments that allow people to make these comparisons.”

Technology also provides clues about which star employees might be eyeing the exit. Companies can tell whether employees using work computers or phones are spending time on (or even just opening e-mails from) career websites, and research shows that more firms are paying attention to these things. Large companies have also begun tracking badge swipes(浏览痕迹)---- employees’ use of an ID to enter and exit the building or the parking garage---to identify patterns that suggest a worker may be interviewing for a job.

1.From the first paragraph, we can infer Linkedln is___________.

A. an e-mail B. a job from the Internet

C. a professional social network D. a world-famous company

2.What’s the main idea of the second paragraph?

A. The cost of losing good workers is rising.

B. Companies are stricter with workers than before.

C. Measures have been taken to find the potential workers who want to quit.

D. Finding new jobs has been a trend for most workers.

3.According to the research by CEB, which of the following might be the most probable reason for workers to quit their jobs?

A. They don’t like their bosses. B. Workers are always doing comparisons.

C. Not seeing opportunities for promotion. D. To find a higher-paid job.

4.What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A. To make a review on a phenomenon. B. To tell us the leader’s concerns.

C. To show a new trend in the job market. D. To stress the role of new technologies.

Tu Youyou, born in December, 1930, is a Chinese scientist and educator. She is best known for discovering artemisinin (青蒿素) used to treat malaria (疟疾), which has saved millions of lives. For her work, Tu received the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Scientists worldwide had tried over 240, 000 medicines to treat malaria without success. In 1969, Tu Youyou, then 39 years old, decided to turn to traditional Chinese herbs(草药) for possible solutions. She looked into the Chinese medical classics in history, visiting traditional Chinese doctors all over the country on her own. She gathered her findings in a notebook, in which she recorded 640 methods of treating malaria. She and her team also experimented with over 2, 000 traditional Chinese herbs.

During this time, her husband was forced to work in the countryside, and their young daughter had to take care of herself in Beijing.

Years of research all came down to one type of herb named qinghao. The animal tests showed it was completely effective in mice and monkeys, So Tu volunteered to be the first human subject. “As head of this research group, I had the responsibility’ she said. It was safe with, her; so she continued to try it out with more human patients.

In 2007, her office was in an old apartment building in Beijing. Before 2011, Tu Youyou had been described as “almost completely forgotten by people1”, Yet in 2015, the Nobel Prize committee said her discoveries had given the world powerful new ways to fight a powerful disease which affected hundreds of millions of people every year. In terms of improving human health and reducing suffering, Mrs. Tu’s contribution is beyond words.

1.How did Tu Youyou find qinghao as a treatment?

A. By testing it on children. B. By researching for years.

C. By reading foreign books. C. By asking malaria patients.

2.What does the underlined word “effective” mean in Paragraph 4?

A. Successful. B. Useless. C. Unclear. D. Normal

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph about Mrs. Tu?

A. She couldn’t afford an apartment in Beijing.

B. She didn’t want her findings to be known.

C. She didn’t care much, for fame while researching.

D. She wasn’t able to describe her findings dearly

In 2005, I had a stroke and was taken into hospital. I was paralyzed down one side, with only a pad and a pen to ______ . But on my first day, after writing a note to the nurse, I found my right _______ wandering across the page. It was so ______ because I just copied a cartoon as a child, and I hadn’t drawn since then. The act was ______; ______ when a nurse asked me what I was doing did I look down to see patterns all over the paper.

From then on I woke up every night at 2 a.m. And kept drawing until dawn. It didn’t feel _______. I’d never drawn before in my life but now couldn’t _______.

The _______explained that very occasionally, following a stroke, a patient’s brain rewired itself to avoid the damaged area. Sometimes this can ______ a new ability in a patient: in my case, _______.

I’d never had the ______ interest in art in my life. I was an engineer by trade, and now, ______, memories and thoughts appeared to me as abstract ______ . It was just something that happened. Drawing had become like breathing: something I did instinctively and without _______.

In 2007, I heard about Second Life, the online virtual world. Inside, I _______art galleries selling digital art for real ______ and I decided to ______ my work for the first time. Two months later, someone ______ me saying he had bought two of my pictures online and wanted one in real life.

Now I’m a ______ artist—in my first year I’ve earned around £30,000. I’ve been featured in some art exhibitions, ______ many of my pictures appeared on the cover.

1.A. remember B. touch C. communicate D. grasp

2.A. leg B. arm C. foot D. hand

3.A. annoying B. comfortable C. boring D. strange

4.A. unconscious B. powerful C. useless D. stable

5.A. merely B. only C. just D. hardly

6.A. valuable B. normal C. complicated D. fascinating

7.A. ignore B. stand C. insist D. stop

8.A. artist B. scientist C. actor D. doctor

9.A. forbid B. adjust C. expose D. arrange

10.A. drawing B. writing C. singing D. thinking

11.A. deepest B. slightest C. strongest D. hardest

12.A. actually B. fluently C. logically D. suddenly

13.A. images B. ideas C. methods D. affairs

14.A. change B. style C. choice D. reaction

15.A. suggested B. enjoyed C. avoided D. discovered

16.A. money B. life C. interest D. program

17.A. show B. buy C. quit D. record

18.A. commanded B. praised C. contacted D. impressed

19.A. gifted B. hard-working C. professional D. wealthy

20.A. so B. but C. while D. through

THE WAY TO READ FAST
Perhaps you have been told about some habits(习惯) which stop a person reading fast and have been strongly asked to break those habits which you might have.

Do you still have any of these bad habits7 Check yourself by answering "yes" or "no" to these questions:

1. Do you move your lips(嘴唇) when reading silently?

2. Do you point to words with your finger as you read?

3. Do you move your head from side to side as you read?

4. Do you read one word at a time?

If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, start at once to break the habit.

If you move your lips, hold your fingers over them, or hold a piece of paper between your lips while you are reading. Then if your lips move, you will know it and can stop them.

If you point to words, hold the two sides of your book, one side with your left hand, the other side with your right hand. Then you will not have a free finger to use in pointing while reading. If you move your head, place your chin(下巴)in one hand, and hold your head still(不动地).

If you read no more than one or two or three words at a time, you need to work very hard in learning to take in more words at each glance(看一眼) as your eyes travel across the lines of words.

1.You may hold your fingers over your lips while reading

A. to hold a piece of paper between them B. to feel whether y our lips move or not

C. to tell others to be silent D. to stop yourself talking to others

2.When your eyes travel across the lines of words,

A. you need to read the words out B. you need to look at every word carefully

C. you need to remember every word D. you need to read several words at a time

3.When you read,

A. don’t use your finger to point to words B. don’t hold your books with your hands

C. don’t hold your head still D. don’t do any of the things mentioned(提到)above.

4.This passage mainly talks about .

A. the importance of fast reading B. the bad habits in reading

C. the way to read fast D. both A and B

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