Sharpen your axe (斧头)

A young man approached the foreman (工头)of a logging crew and asked for a job.

“That ” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you fell this tree.”

The young man stepped forward and skillfully a great tree. , the foreman exclaimed, “You can start Monday.”

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and on Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your on the way out today.” , the young man replied, “I thought you paid on Friday.”

“ we do,” said the foreman. “But we’re letting you go today because you’ve . Our daily felling charts show that you’ve from first place on Monday to last place today.”

“But I’m a worker,” the young man objected. “I arrive first, leave last, and have worked through my coffee breaks!”

The foreman, the young man’s honesty, thought for a minute and then asked, “Have you ____ your axe?”

The young man replied, “No, sir, I’ve been working too hard to take time for !”

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so that we don’t take time to sharpen the axe. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to sharp?

There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we all need time to , to think and meditate(谋划), to learn and . If we don’t take time to sharpen the axe, we will become and lose our effectiveness.

1.A. depends B. expects C. experiences D. makes

2.A. cut down B. pulled down C. moved away D. put down

3.A. Scared B. Disappointed C. Impressed D. Approved

4.A. ran off B. went by C. came on D. went along

5.A. spirit B. effort C. work D. paycheck

6.A. Discouraged B. Moved C. Astonished D. Satisfied

7.A. Unfortunately B. Excitedly C. Commonly D. Normally

8.A. fallen behind B. finished up C. cut up D. speeded up

9.A. reduced B. dropped C. decreased D. climbed

10.A. excellent B. new C. young D. hard

11.A. usually B. even C. yet D. ever

12.A. noticing B. observing C. sensing D. watching

13.A. repairing B. sharpening C. breaking D. operating

14.A. that B. one C. those D. something

15.A. busy B. tired C. easy D. ready

16.A. more B. rather C. less D. most

17.A. make B. turn C. grow D. stay

18.A. explore B. motivate C. relax D. work

19.A. grow B. observe C. play D. practice

20.A. full B. dull C. stupid D. lazy

London-Lazy students can now give up on work altogether as two Oxford University students have made scores of A-grade essays on the website for students to copy.

The essays are on the new website, “revise.it”

The website includes an “EssayLab” designed to make cheating (舞弊) as effective and effortless as possible.

Its homepage announces to surfers (网上冲浪者): “The revise.it EssayLab is a bank of hundreds of A-Level essays covering popular topics.”

“Next time you are asked to write an essay, why not see what we have on the subject-if you are in a lazy state of mind you can even use our guide to writing the essays and then just hand them in.”

Nick Rose and Jordan Mayo, both 19 and first from Manchester, spent much of their first year as students at the university setting up the website. There is no charge for downloading the essays.

“I have never been very good at essay writing,” Rose admitted. “We don’t see essay bank as a cheating way. It’s a surprising valuable resource. You can learn a lot by reading other people’s work on the subject.”

Among other tips, the website suggests inventing important speeches to give essays extra weight: “Popular people to quote (引用) are Douglass Hurd or Disraeli.”

Hurd was a foreign secretary in the 1980s and Disraeli was a 19th century prime minister.

Teachers are expressing their opinions by e-mail that they are angry about the website that “encourages students to cheat”, but students disagree.

According to Rose: “Exams are a fight. It’s us against them.”

1.It can be inferred from this passage that ______.

A. students who visit the website “revise. it” are all lazy

B. students in Oxford University are all lazy

C. websites in Oxford University are all set up by students

D. websites can provide people with different kinds of information

2.Nick Rose and Jordan Mayo set up their website for the purpose of ______.

A. helping students to cheat in exams

B. helping students to improve their writing

C. making money to pay for their schooling

D. making their teacher free

3.What Rose said at last suggests that in England ______.

A. it is difficult for students to pass their exams

B. it is difficult for teachers to finish their teaching

C. students are not satisfied with the education system

D. students are too lazy to learn anything

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