____words, I think, do a better job of describing what it’s like to be a high school student nowadays than “pressure”．

A．Some           B．Many           C．Few                D．Any

Nowadays everybody seems to think that they know English. Many people speak it but few speak it really well. Practice is necessary in speaking English well.
Reading is also one of the things that will help you to speak English better. Read whenever you can and whatever you like! Read papers and Internet sites that you like in English every day. Then, you will see that the number of known words is increasing and you are able to speak with more skills. Then you will have made the foundations (基础) and a good basis of English. It is not good to stop and get stuck there.
Going to England or an English–speaking country is a good choice, but many people cannot afford it. If you cannot go, reading and speaking with your friends will also help you to practice your English. However, I think it is very good to visit some English – speaking country to see and test your knowledge in everyday life. You will understand the everyday usage of the language in its natural environment. There your level of English is going to improve even faster. Your ability to speak English is better. Nothing can match the excitement and happiness when a native speaker tells you that your English is very good!
Finally, in order to speak English well, you must be persistent (坚持的) and do it every day. It is like playing the piano. Pianists play it every day and so should you. Include English in your life and you will see where it is going. Practice, practice! Read, write and improve your language skills and you are on you way when you will be able to speak it with more and more confidence!
【小题1】Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

—What do you think of this matter?

—This is a matter of ________ importance, I think.

1. A.
   especial
2. B.
   common
3. C.
   usual
4. D.
   special

The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like “I never do anything right” into positive ones like “I can succeed.” But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?
　　Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
　　The study’s authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is very positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your stupid friend that he has the potential of an Einstein, you’re just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
　　In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students’ self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, “I am lovable.”
　　Those with low self-esteem didn’t feel better after the forced self-affirmation. In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren’t urged to think positive thoughts.
　　The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking.
【小题1】What do we learn from the first paragraph about the self-help industry?

The orderly came back in a few minutes with a rifle（步枪）and some Burmans. He told us that the elephant was in the rice fields below, only a few hundred yards away. As I started forward practically the whole population of the quarter flocked out of the houses and followed me. They had seen the rifle and were all shouting that I was going to shoot the elephant. It was fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd; besides, they wanted the meat. It made me a little uneasy. I had no intention of shooting the elephant—I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself—and it is always uneasy to have a crowd following you. I marched down the hill, looking and feeling a fool, with the rifle over my shoulder and an ever-growing army of people knocking and pushing at my heels. Beyond the huts there was a rice field a thousand yards across, muddy from the first rains. The elephant was standing eight yards from the road. He took not the slightest notice of the crowd. He was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and feeding them into his mouth.
As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him. It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant — it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery. There, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow. I thought then and I think now that his attack of “must” was already passing off, in which case he would merely wander harmlessly about. Moreover, I did not in the least want to shoot him.
But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. It was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and growing every minute. I looked at the sea of the faces above the colorful clothes—faces all happy and excited over this bit of fun, all certain that the elephant was going to be shot. They were watching me as they would watch a magician about to perform a trick. They did not like me. But with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward. And it was at this moment that I first felt the hollowness, the uselessness of the white man's control in the East. Here was I, standing in front of the unarmed crowd—seemingly the leading actor; but in reality only a puppet (傀儡). I understood in this moment that when the white man turns ruler of complete power it is his own freedom that he destroys.
【小题1】The people were glad to think the elephant was to be shot mainly because ______.