13.Life is filled with regrets.Ask anyone around you what their regrets are and they usually have no difficulty coming up with many items on their"regret list".And for some reason our twenties are ripe for a field of regrets.Perhaps it's because as we get older we look back on that period of adulthood as the height of freedom and autonomy.As we move into middle age,we look back and wish that we had made better choices and taken more opportunities.Here's a list of things that we regret not doing in our 20s.
1.Traveling more
I regret not travelling more,and so does nearly everyone that I have asked.Before kids,and mortgages and marriages,when our commitments and expenses are lower,the opportunities for travel are much greater,but tor some reason many of us think we'd have time for travel later.We dreamed of visiting the pyramids of Egypt,surfing off the Hawaiian coast,dining at a Parisian café,drinking espresso in Rome,trekking through the rainforest,and so much more.Sadly,many of us never made these journeys and the opportunities passed by.
2.Making an earlier investment
How many times have we kicked ourselves for not starting our 40l Ks in our twenties,for not putting our excess cash in long term investment,for not investing in our future early.No matter how much we try,we can never get back to the head start that we have missed.Playing catch-up in our 40s and 50s is very difficult.
3.Better planning
I regret not focusing more on where I wanted to go in life,what I wanted to do,who I wanted to be and what it would take to get there.With some more planning in our 20s,we'd be further ahead in our 40s and perhaps a bit happier as well.
4. ___________________________
I wish I had learned to ski and paint,speak Italian and tango.I regret not living somewhere else before settling down.Others have said they regret not pursuing their hobbies or learning to skydive or climbing mountains.I prefer to stay on the ground,but I do regret not learning more,not trying new things.
5.Pursuing a more meaningful career
Many of us wish we had taken more career risks,opted for meaning over money,pursued the career path we wanted instead of what we were expected to do or simply following the path that was laid out before us.How much better to have explored our options and pursued meaningful work in our 20s than to have spent 20years doing something we don't love.
Life is good; don't misunderstand.Few of us walk around every day pining for our youth,at least I hope not,but we do occasionally look back with a wistful sigh and wish that we had planned more,lived more,and stretched ourselves more when we had the freedom and energy to do so.

63.According to the passage,why do our twenties become a field of regrets?D
A.Because we lack social experience.
B.Because we are short of opportunities.
C.Because we tend to make wrong decisions.
D.I Because we don't make good use of that period.
64.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?D
A.It's never too late to make all investment.
B.We should follow the path laid out before us.
C.It's better to travel more after getting married.
D.The earlier we plan in our 20s,the happier we become.
65.What's the best subheading for Para.5?A
A.Seizing more experiences
B.Developing more habits
C.Playing outdoors more
D.Having a better time
66.What's the author's main purpose of writing the passage?A
A.To advise valuing our 20s.
B.To think highly of youth.
C.To describe his regrets.
D.To complain about life.
11.There are still many things that Peter Cooke would like to try his hand at-paper-making and feather-work are on his list.For the moment though,he will stick to the skill he has been delighted to perfect over the past ten years;making delicate and unusual objects out of shells.
   As he leads me round his apartment showing me his work,he points to a pair of shell-covered ornaments(装饰品) above a fireplace.‘I shan't be at all bothered if people don't buy them because I have got so used to them,and to me they're adorable.I never meant to sell my work commercially.Some friends came to see me about five years ago and said,"You must have an exhibition-people ought to see these.We'll talk to a man who owns an art gallery".'The result was an exhibition in London,at which 70 percent of the objects were sold.His second exhibition opened at the gallery yesterday.Considering the enormous prices the pieces command-around£2,000 for the ornaments-an empty space above the fireplace would seem a small sacrifice for Cooke to make.
"I do wish,though,"says Cooke,‘that I'd taken this up a lot earlier,because then I would have been able to produce really wonderful things-at least the potential would have been there.Although the ideas are still there and I'm doing the best I can now,I'm more limited physically than I was when I started.Still,the work that he has managed to produce is a long way from the common shell constructions that can be found in seaside shops.‘I have a miniature(微型的)mind'he says,and this has resulted in boxes covered in thousands of tiny shells,little shaded pictures made from shells and baskets of astonishingly realistic flowers.
Cooke's quest for beautiful,and especially tiny,shells has taken him further than his Norfolk shore:to France,Thailand,Mexico,South Africa and the Philippines,to name but a few of the beaches where he has lain on his stomach and looked for beauties to bring home.
67.What does the reader learn about Peter Cooke in the first paragraph?B
A.He has produced hand-made objects in different materials.
B.He hopes to work with other materials in the future.
C.He has written about his love of making shell objects.
D.He was praised for his shell objects many years ago.
68.When looking round his apartment,the wrierA.
A.is attracted by Cooke's personality
B.realizes he doesn't like Cooke's work at all
C.feels uncertain about giving Cooke his opinion
D.senses that Cooke wants his products to be admired
69.The‘small sacrifice'in Paragraph 2 refers toA.
A.the loss of Cooke's ornaments
B.the display of Cooke's ornaments
C.the cost of keeping Cooke's ornaments
D.the space required to store Cooke's ornaments
70.What does Cooke regret about his work?D
A.He is not as famous as he should have been.
B.He makes less money than he should make.
C.He is less imaginative than he used to be.
D.He is not as skillful as he used to be.
10.Technology today has stolen away our voices and robbed our children of memories.I've been keeping count of how often people sing around the house these days.The fact is,they don't.
My earliest memories are of my mother crooning lullabies(催眠曲) in a gentle low voice as she rocked each infant in turn.She said she"didn't have a singing voice,"but her low,wavering alto will always mean comfort to me.Every time I have sat through the night with a feverish body or held a pre-schooler through a nightmare,the melodies returned,words appearing and disappearing like fragments of a dream but held together by the hum (低声吟唱)of love.
Today,young mothers are routinely presented with lullaby tapes at the baby shower.When baby cries,the idea goes,they will be able to switch on the high-tech audio system and the little one will drift off with the voices of strangers in his ears,perfectly on pitch.If I had my way,new parents would learn the songs themselves,throw out their stereos,and give their child the gift of their own sleepy voices through the midnight hours.
These days,when we go on a trip,my daughters take along tiny personal stereos and headphones.They are lost in their private worlds,and I can't help wishing that at least here,in the car my girls would be forced to listen to their mother's voice raised in lost-the-words again,sure I'm out-of-tune songs that they might then pass down to another generation.Those sophisticated earphones have robbed them of something I think every kid should carry from childhood car trips into adulthood.
I drove away from that party humming,and all the way home the good old songs kept tumbling out.Dammit (该死),I thought,why did I ever stop singing in the car and start turning on the radio instead?Why don't I sign anymore while I'm doing the dishes?I'm going to yank those stereo wires right out of the wall when I get home.We're going to sing grace before meals,sing coals around the piano,sing in the shower instead of switching on that waterproof radio that stol away our voices and our souls.
63.The author hates today's technology becauseC.
A.driving a car requires high concentration
B.children are learning pop songs from tapes
C.children have lost touch with good old songs
D.high-tech systems do not record the voices of aged people
64.The underlined sentence"the little one will drift off"in Paragraph 3 means that"D".
A.the play of the high-tech system is of little use
B.the high-tech system will play on and on
C.the low voice will delight the baby
D.the baby will slowly go to sleep
65.To the author,the voices of strangersB.
A.are not familiar to the baby
B.lack the motherly love the baby needs
C.work better to stop the baby's cry
D.surely sound more pleasant
66.What the author wishes to make her girls do is toC.
A.help memorize the words while she is singing
B.take off their well-designed earphones
C.listen and learn the old songs from her
D.remember their childhood car trips.
9.Last spring,members of Alaska's Troop 34,based in Fairbanks,trudged (跋涉) out into the snowy wilderness to take part in their state's Take a Kid Trapping program.In many parts of the state,beavers (海狸)are pests and need to be controlled.
The 10-to-12-year-old girls found out where beavers lived,set traps,and skinned the two animals they caught.The girls hope to catch ten more beavers so that the entire troop can make mittens and hats with the fur.They also want to cook beaver meat.
Troop leaders and members say the Scouts are doing a good deed by helping control the state's beaver population.But animal-rights activists say trapping is cruel.They want the Girl Scouts to stop in their tracks.
Beavers aren't only causing a problem in Alaska.Residents in Sampson County,N.C.,have turned to a local committee to help them battle the growing beaver population there.
County landowners are frustrated after the county spent more than  50,000 in eight years trying to reduce the beaver population through a government program.The joint state and federal program included paying money to trappers for every beaver carcass  they trapped.
Many local residents say that the program didn't work because there were too few trappers.That's why the county set up its own committee to investigate other ways to control the area's beaver population.
The county will rely on its own beaver-trapping program.It has hired a trapper to set traps in various areas.The county will pay 10 for every beaver carcass.
Why do many people say that beavers are a nuisance?For beavers to survive,they need lots of water.Water provides the large rodent (啮齿动物)with a place to hide from meat-eating animals.Beavers also store food underwater for the winter.When there's not enough water in a particular area,beavers get busy building dams.
Beaver dams can cause major flooding and damage to the surrounding countryside as the animals cut down trees to use in their construction projects.Beavers build canals to transport heavy objects.
59.What is Alaska's Troop 34?C
A.A team of the Boy Scouts.
B.An army.
C.A team of the Girl Scouts.
D.A sports team.
60.Why does the troop hope to catch ten more beavers?C
A.To fulfill their task.
B.To sell them for money.
C.To get enough fur.
D.To exchange them for mittens and hats.
61.Which of the following statements is true?A
A.Sampson County has to find a new way to control the beaver population there.
B.The government program in Sampson County has proved to be a success.
C.The local government has controlled the number of beavers in the County.
D.More and more trappers now start to set traps in Sampson County.
62.Local residents hate beavers because they canD.
A.cause damage to dams
B.block up canals with heavy objects.
C.do great harm to construction projects.
D.badly damage the environment and cause floods.
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