When someone gives you advice, listen without judgment, try to find value in what you’re hearing, and say “Thank you”．This wise advice is easy to understand yet hard to practice．I’ll give you an example from my life when I totally blew it in terms of practicing what I teach．
In my work I travel constantly．I always put off going to the airport until the last second．My wife, Lynda, was sitting next to me in the front seat．I was racing along and not paying much attention．Lynda cried out, “Look out! There is a red light up ahead．”
Being a trained behavioral science professional --- who teaches others the value of encouraging advice --- I naturally screamed at her, “I know there is a red light up ahead! Don’t you think I can see?” When we arrived at the airport, Lynda didn’t speak to me．I wondered why she seemed mad at me．
During the flight to New York, I did a cost-benefit analysis．I asked myself, “What was the cost of just listening when Lynda called out the warning? Zero．” I then reasoned, “What was the potential benefit? What could have been saved?” Several potential benefits came to mind, including her life, my life, and the lives of other people．
I landed in New York feeling ashamed of myself．I immediately called Lynda and told her my cost-benefit story．I convinced her, “The next time you help me with my driving, I am just going to say, ‘Thank you．’”
A few months passed, and I had long forgotten the incident．Again, I was racing off to the airport, when Lynda cried out, “Look out for the red light!” I was embarrassed, and then shouted, “Thank you!”
I’m a long way from perfect, but I’m getting better．My suggestion is that you get in the habit of asking the important people in your life how you can do things better．And be ready for an answer．Some people may tell you things like “Look out for the red light．” When this happens, remember that there is possibly some potential benefit．Then just say, “Thank you．”
【小题1】What do we know about the author?

Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self-respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as “honor” help you create this life of good feelings.
Here is an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk’s mistake, we would drive home with a sense of mean excitement. Later we might tell our family of friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don’t tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk’s attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased. Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it’s easy to think and act honorably again when we’re happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it’s started ,it’s easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
【小题1】According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our ______.

 One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the   36 _, the couple went to the front desk hoping to  37 for the night.

“Could you   38   give us a room here?” the husband asked.

The clerk, a   39   man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and   40   that there were three conventions(大会) in town.

“All of our   41   are taken,” the clerk said. “But I can’t send a   42   couple like you 43   into the rain at 1 o’clock in the morning. Would you please be   44   to sleep in my room? It’s not exactly a suite（套房）, but it will be good enough to make you   45   for the night.”

The couple said no politely.

“Don’t   46   me. It is just fine with me,” the clerk told them.

As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, “You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel. Maybe someday I’ll build   47   for you.” The three of them had a good   48  .

Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten it   49   he received a letter from the old man. It recalled(使回忆) that stormy night and contained a round-trip（双程的）   50   to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit. The old man met him in New York, and   51  him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34^th Street.

He then pointed to a great new   52   there,  a palace of reddish stone. “That,” said the old man, “is the hotel I have just built for you to   53_ .”

“You must be   54  ,” the young man said.

“I am sure I am not,” said the old man, the name of   55   was William Waldorf Astor, and the magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk, George C. Boldt became its first manager.

1.A. rain             B. anger          C. snow           D. hunger

2. A. leave           B. go             C. stay           D. look

3. A. surely          B. possibly       C. really         D. freely

The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”
“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”
“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”
I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all you people do?”
“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”
“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”
“That’s good, sir.”
“How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.
“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”
After the girl told me they had no backup(备用) computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re still flying, aren’t they?”
“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”
“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”
“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”
“I wouldn’t know, ” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘It’ can’t tell me.”
By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.
【小题1】The best title for the article is _______.

From good reading we can derive pleasure, companionship, experience, and instruction. A good book may absorb our attention so completely that for the time being we forget our surroundings and even our identity. Reading good books is one of the greatest pleasures in life. It increases our contentment when we are cheerful, and lessens our troubles when we are sad. Whatever may be our main purpose in reading, our contact with good books should never fail to give us enjoyment and satisfaction.
With a good book in our hands we need never be lonely. Whether the characters portrayed are taken from real life or are purely imaginary, they may become our companions and friends. In the pages of books we can walk with the wise and the good of all lands and all times. The people we meet in books may delight us either because they resemble human friends whom we hold dear or because they present unfamiliar types whom we are glad to welcome as new acquaintances. Our human friends sometimes may bore us, but the friends we make in books need never weary us with their company. By turning the page we can dismiss them without any fear of hurting their feelings. When human friends desert us, good books are always ready to give us friendship, sympathy, and encouragement.
One of the most valuable gifts bestowed by books is experience. Few of us can travel far from home or have a wide range of experiences, but all of us can lead varied lives through the pages of books. Whether we wish to escape from the seemingly dull realities of everyday life or whether we long to visit some far-off place, a book will help us when nothing else can. To travel by book we need no bank account to pay our way; no airship or ocean liner or stream-lined train to transport us; no passport to enter the land of our heart’s desire. Through books we may get the thrill of hazardous adventure without danger. We can climb lofty mountains, brave the perils of an Antarctic winter, or cross the scorching sands of the desert, all without hardship. In books we may visit the studios of Hollywood; we may mingle with the gay throngs of the Paris boulevards; we may join the picturesque peasants in an Alpine village or the kindly natives on a South Sea island. Indeed, through books the whole world is ours for the asking. The possibilities of our literary experiences are almost unlimited. The beauties of nature, the enjoyment of music, the treasures of art, the triumphs of architecture, the marvels of engineering, are all open to the wonder and enjoyment of those who read.
53．Why is it that we sometimes forget our surroundings and even our identity while reading?
A．No one has come to disturb us.
B．Everything is so quiet and calm around us.
C．The book we are reading is so interesting and attractive.
D．Our book is so boring that we are to finish it at a fast speed.
54．How would you account for the fact that people like their friends in books even more?
A．They are like human friends exactly.      B．They are unfamiliar types we like.
C．They never desert us.                 D．They are purely imaginary.
55．Which of the following is true according to the text?
A．Your wish to visit some far-off place can be realized thought the pages of the books.
B．To escape from the dull realities of everyday life you should take up reading.
C．Books can always help you live a colourful life.
D．You may obtain valuable experience from reading good books.
56．By saying “…the whole world is ours for the asking,” the author implies that___________.
A．in books the world is more accessible to us
B．we can ask to go anywhere in the world
C．we can possess everything in this world
D．we can make a round-the-world trip free of charge