C

Ask most people anywhere in the world what they want out of life and the reply will probably be: “to be happy.” Ed Deiner, an American psychology professor, has spent his whole professional life studying what makes people happy, comparing levels of happiness between cultures and trying to find out exactly why we enjoy ourselves.

Many people would say that this question does not need an answer. But Professor Deiner has one anyway. “If you’re a cheerful, happy person, your marriage is more likely to last, and you’re more likely to make money and be successful at your job. On average, happy people have stronger immune systems, and there is some evidence that they live longer.”

So who are the world's happiest people? It depends on how the word is defined. There is individual happiness, the sense of joy we get when we do something we like. But there is also the feeling of satisfaction we get when we know that others respect us and approve of how we behave. According to Professor Deiner, the Western world pursues individual happiness while Asia prefers mutual (相互的,彼此) satisfaction.

“In the West, the individualistic culture means that your mood matters much more than it does in the East. People ask themselves if they are doing what is fun or interesting. They become unhappy when they can’t do any of these things. If you ask people from Japan or China if they are happy, they tend to look at what has gone wrong in their lives. If not much has gone wrong, then they are satisfied.”

People from Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries had the happiest culture, Professor Deiner found. “The biggest cultural difference is to do with pride and shame. Hispanic (西班牙语言的) cultures report much more pride and much less shame than others.”

Income also made a big difference to people’s happiness, but only at the lowest levels. Average income earners in the US were much happier than people in poverty. But millionaires were only a little bit happier than people on average incomes. It seems that money makes us happy when we have enough to feel secure.

1.According to the passage, happy people enjoy the following benefits except ______.

A. a long marriage B. profession success

C. better health D. respect from others

2.What can be inferred from the fifth paragraph?

A. Hispanic cultures lay stress on pride and shame.

B. Spanish people take too much pride in themselves.

C. Attitude towards pride and shame results in Spanish happiness.

D. If you are from Spain, you are the happiest.

3. In the last paragraph, the author seems to tell us ______.

A. Poor people enjoy the same happiness as millionaires

B. the higher income one gets, the happier life he lives

C. Enough money can make us feel safe and happy

D. Average income earners live the happiest life

4.The passage mainly discusses ______.

A. cultural differences in happiness

B. reasons for happiness

C. the happiest culture

D. benefits of happiness

When you were young, ginger ale(姜味汽水)may have been a popular choice for reducing the unpleasant feelings caused by your upset stomach on the road to get to school. For years, ginger has been used to reduce the effects of nausea(作呕). But do you know it’s now also being looked at to fight cancer?

Scientists have discovered that ginger can kill cancerous cells in two different ways. On the one hand, ginger causes the cancer cells to “commit suicide” by destroying themselves while leaving the surrounding healthy cells untouched. Ginger can prevent the growth of diseased cells by destroying the environment they grow in. On the other hand, ginger tricks the diseased cells and causes them to fight among themselves. Researchers are now looking into one of the toughest cancers to fight. However, scientists find repeated treatment of disease by drugs can actually lose its effectiveness over time as the cancer builds up resistance(抵抗力)to the same treatment. This raises researchers’ confidence that ginger would help stop resistance from the cancer.

In a study, the cancer clearly stopped growing in the body of the mice that had been given ginger. The bad news is that such encouraging research has only been conducted on mice. The good news, however, is that it seems humans might be able to get the same benefit just by eating products with ginger and ginger root in them.

Cancer prevention and fighting abilities aren’t the only potential benefits you may get from adding a bit more ginger to your diet.

Drinking ginger ale when your stomach was upset as a child wasn’t just a placebo(安慰剂).Numerous studies and research, including the Mayo Clinic’s strict grading system, agree that ginger has some sort of anti-nausea characteristics.

Some believe that ginger works well against nausea after operations, while others use it to reduce motion sickness such as seasickness and car sickness. The Mayo Clinic, however, advises the use of ginger only to reduce nausea during pregnancy. While more research needs to be done, early studies are very promising, especially in that small amounts of ginger don’t seem to do any harm to the mother or baby.

Other health benefits from ginger exist as well. Since ginger is often considered to be useful in warming bodies, it can improve the condition of people’s joints including knees and ankle joints. Some suggest that ginger can help cure a cough associated with the common cold. Another benefit of ginger is that it seems to have no real side effects, which is one of the main reasons it appears to be safe during pregnancy.

But for safety, you should always consult a doctor for instructions on daily use before starting, even with something like ginger that seems to have little to no side effects.

1.Why do scientists think ginger can be used to fight against cancer?

A.Ginger can destroy diseased cells in two different ways.

B.Ginger is commonly considered as a kind of pain killer.

C.Ginger warms people’s bodies and helps them recover from operations.

D.Ginger has no harmful side effects according to a large amount of medical research.

2.We can learn from the third paragraph that___________.

A.ginger works well only for warm-blooded animals

B.ginger and its root have the same effect on humans as mice

C.people are likely to gain great benefit by having ginger

D.the research on ginger is promised to be carried out only on mice

3.What is the text mainly about?

A.Ginger’s medicinal effects.

B.The benefits of ginger ale.

C.A new discovery about ginger.

D.Detailed research on ginger.

4.What will most probably be talked about following the text?

A.How to use ginger in daily life.

B.Products made from ginger.

C.Ginger’s growing environment.

D.Why ginger can warm bodies.

You’ve probably heard about sports coaches, fitness coaches, vocal music teachers, career counselors, psychiatrists(精神病医师) and other specilalists who teach skills and help us cope with daily life.

But there’s a rapidly growing kind of professional who does a little bit of everything. She or he is called a “life coach”. People who are at crossroads in their lives and corporations that want to give certain employees a career boost are turning to them for help.

The idea that one person’s success story can change other people’s lives for the better goes back at least to the 1930s. Dale Carnegie’s famous self-improvement program “How to Win Friends and Influence People” came along soon thereafter.

But this new style of life coaches includes more than enthusiastic speakers or writers. They use their own experiences in business, sports, military service, or psychotherapy(心理疗法) to help others make critical life decisions.

They often give their approach a slogan, such as “energy coaching” or “fearless living” or “working yourself happy”.

Dave Lakhani in Boise, Idaho, for instance, works with salespeople to develop what he calls a “road map”. He says an ongoing relationship with a coach is like having a personal fitness trainer for one’s career and life outside work.

Lakhani’s Bold Approach coaching firm also donates some of its time to help people who are anything but successful—including battered women and struggling sigle mothers.

But others in the so-called “helping professions” are not thrilled about the life-coaching movement. They say that anyone, trained or untrained, can call himself or herself a life coach, and that slick(华而不实的) promoters who mess with people’s lives can do more harm than good.

1.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A. Working Yourself Happy

B. Life Coaches Help with Tough Decisions

C. How to Cope with Daily Life with Life Coaches

D. The Life-Coaching Movement

2.The underlined phrase “life coach” in Paragraph 2 means “ ”.

A. the career counselor who teaches skills

B. the psychiatrist who helps us cope with daily life

C. the fitness coach who teaches us lessons

D. the specialist who help us make important life decisions

3.The last paragraph is mainly about .

A. the introductions of life coach

B. the disagreements of life coach

C. the effects of life coach

D. the experiences of life coach

4.What is the author’s attitude towards life coaches?

A. Cautious B. Approving C. Casual D. Disapproving

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