In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social-progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.

However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: "I may have lost, but it doesn't matter because I really didn't try." What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistake belief that-one's self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.

1.What does this text mainly talk about?

A. Competition helps to set up self-respect.

B. Competition is harmful to personal quality development.

C. People hold different opinions about competition.

D. Failures are necessary experience in competition.

2.Some people favor competition because they think it __.

A. builds up a sense of pride

B. pushes society forward

C. improves social abilities

D. develops people's relationship

3. The underlined phrase "the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 refers to those who

A. are strongly against competition

B. highly value competition

C. try their best to win

D. mostly rely on others for success

4. Which viewpoint does the author agree to?

A. Self-worth relies on winning.

B. Competition leads to unfriendly relationship.

C. Fear of failure should be removed in competition.

D. Winning should be a life-and-death matter.

The Farmer, His wife, and the Open Door

Once upon a time, there lived a poor farmer and his wife. One day, having finished their day’s labor and eaten their simple supper, they were sitting by the fire. 1. It was blown open by wind.

“Darling, shut the door!” said the man.

“No way, shut it yourself!” said the woman.

“I will not shut it, and you shall not shut it,” said the man, “but let the one who speaks the first word shut it.”

2.

In the middle of the night they heard a noise, and looking around, they found that a wild dog had entered the room, and that he was busy eating their food. Not a word, however, would either of these silly people say, and the dog, having eaten as much as he wanted, went out of the house.

3.

When she was out, a barber entered, and said to the husband, “Why are you sitting here all alone?” 4. The barber then shaved his head, but still he did not speak; then he shaved off half his beard, but even then the man kept silent. “The man is crazy!” cried the barber, and he quickly escaped out of the house.

At the moment, the wife returned from the shop. 5. .

“You spoke the first word,” said the farmer, “so please shut the door.”

A. His words pleased the wife, and so the old couple, well satisfied, went in silence to bed.

B. And then they had a quarrel over who should shut the door.

C. The next morning the woman went shopping by herself.

D. The old couple fell asleep happily at night.

E.The farmer didn’t answer a word.

F.She, seeing her husband in such a strange condition, cried, “Ah! What have you been doing?”

G.The farmer and his wife were stupid.

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项,选项中有两项为多余选项

Forgiveness

To forgive is a virtue, but no one has ever said it is easy. When someone has deeply hurt you, it can be extremely difficult to let go of your hate. However, forgiveness is possible, and it can be surprisingly beneficial to your physical and mental health. People who forgive show less sadness, anger and stress and more hopefulness, according to a recent research.

1. Try the following steps:

Calm yourself. 2. You can take a couple of breaths and think of something that gives you pleasure: a beautiful scene in nature, or someone you love.

Don’t wait for an apology. Many times the person who hurt you does not intend to apologize. They may have wanted to hurt you or they just don’t see things the same way. 3. Keep in mind that forgiveness does not necessarily mean becoming friends again with the person who upset you.

Take the control away from your offender(冒犯者). Rethinking about your hurt gives power to the person who causes you pain. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you.

4. If you understand your offender, you may realize that he or she was acting out of unawareness, fear, and even love. You may want to write a letter to yourself from your offender’s point of view.

Don’t forget to forgive yourself. 5. But it can rob you of your self-confidence if you don’t do it.

A. Why should you forgive?

B. How should you start to forgive?

C. Recognize the benefits of forgiveness.

D. Try to see things from your offender’s angle.

E. For some people, forgiving themselves is the biggest challenge.

F. To make your anger die away, try a simple stress-management technique.

G. If you wait for people to apologize, you could be waiting an awfully long time.

“People are ruder today because they are rushed and more ‘time poor’ than ever before,” says Patsy Rowe, “ Manners have fallen off the radar(雷达).” Due to our strong attraction to electronic equipment it is a wonder that more people don’t wake up each morning and greet the singing birds with complaining about the noise. Here are some examples of rudeness.

Some people prefer to do almost everything over the Internet. To them, dealing with an actual human is like an evolutionary step backward. It feels very slow because humans don’t work at 4G speeds. When you have dinner with friends, you will often notice someone paying more attention to his mobile phone. We have programmed ourselves to think that every new message brings life-changing news, so taking calls and checking our texts are more important than talking to the people we are with. What is worse, some people even tend to send anonymous(匿名的)rude messages by email.

However, rudeness is never acceptable. Don’t assume it is OK to be rude if the person you’re in touch with won’t recognize you. If you have something awful to say, have the courage to face the person and say it, write a letter or email and sign it, or forget it. Upsetting people with unsigned messages is cruel and disgusting.

We shouldn’t blame technology for our shortcomings. Technology is here to help us, but we should not allow it to take over our lives. An important step is acknowledging our shortcomings. People spend a lot of time pointing out bad manners but it would be even more helpful if we’d publicly acknowledge good manners when we see them.

1.What can be inferred from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1?

A. People can tell good from bad behavior.

B. Radar is able to observe human behavior.

C. People care little about their behavior.

D. Radar can be used to predict human behavior.

2.Some people are less willing to deal with humans because__________.

A. they are becoming less patient

B. they are growing too independent

C. they have to handle many important messages

D. they have to follow an evolutionary step backward.

3.The author thinks sending unsigned awful messages is ___________.

A. Ridiculous B. disgusting

C. acceptable D. reasonable

4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. We should applaud good behavior.

B. Technology can never be blamed

C. We should keep pointing out mistakes.

D. Technology will take over lives one day.

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