With healthy self-confidence you’ll take more chances and overcome obstacles faster. How do you boost your self-confidence? Here are some easy-to-try-out trips.
Speak well of yourself. We become what we think about most of the time. 【小题1】 If you continually tell yourself you “can’t do something”, you’re sure to create that reality for yourself, because that is how you see yourself. On the other hand, if you repeatedly say and think to yourself something like, “I am capable of creating a life I love”, soon you will begin creating a life you love.
Surround yourself with self-confident people and positive environments. It sounds a bit obvious, but if you have friends that lack confidence, you probably do too. If you’re surrounded by people who criticize others and speak poorly of themselves, get out! Remove yourself from their company.  【小题2】 Seek out friends who are confident and you’ll feel your confidence increasing.
 【小题3】 Don’t say you’re going to do something unless you really intend to do it. We’ve all met the “big talkers” – people who talk about their big plans but never do anything to make them happen. The “big talkers” lose face because no one believes they’ll do what they say they’re going to do.
Accept fear and obstacles as a natural part of life and growth. Don’t beat yourself up when you find yourself gripped(抓住) by fear and other emotions. 【小题4】Be aware when these feelings are present but don’t let them stop you. Keep moving forward by telling yourself you’re much more than the obstacles you face and failures you experience.
 【小题5】 Once a month, take a few moments to write down all that you have done well. Acknowledge the work you do and your strengths on a regular basis. In doing so, you’ll begin seeing and appreciating all the good you do.

Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be , music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundation. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure. I have read in a Hindoo book, that “there was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which be lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme.” We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should give us an account of the realities he beheld, we should not recognize the place in his description. Look at a meeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop. Or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had as fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.

The writer’s attitude toward the arts is one of

[A]. admiration. [B]. indifference. [C]. suspicion. [D]. repulsion

The author believes that a child.

[A]. should practice what the Hindoos preach.

[B]. frequently faces vital problems better than grownups do.

[C]. hardly ever knows his true origin.

[D]. is incapable of appreciating the arts.

. The author is primarily concerned with urging the reader to

[A]. look to the future for enlightenment. [B]. appraise the present for its true value.

[C]. honor the wisdom of the past ages. [D]. spend more time in leisure activities.

The passage is primarily concerned with problem of

[A]. history and economics. [B]. society and population.

[C]. biology and physics. [D]. theology and philosophy.

There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external (外在的) result or a product that can easily be identified and measured．The worker who gets a rise, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language—all these examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts．

By contrast, the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way．The process is not the road itself, but the attitudes, feelings people have , and their caution or courage, as they meet with new experiences and unexpected difficulties．In this process, the journey never really ends；there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept．

In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to face the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may “fail” at first．How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is necessary for our ability to grow．Do we see ourselves as quick and curious? If so, we tend to take more chances and be more open to unfamiliar experiences．Do we think we’re shy and indecisive? Then our sense of fear can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and we think we are slow to adapt change or that we’re not smart enough to deal with a new challenge．Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all．

These feelings of insecurity (不安全) and self-doubt are both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow．If we protect ourselves too much, then we stop growing．We become trapped inside a shell of our own making．

1.In the author’s eye, one who views personal growth as a process would ______． 

A．succeed in climbing up the social ladder

B．grow up from his own achievements

C．face difficulties and take up challenges

D．aim high and reach his goal each time

2.Which of the following can be viewed as the process of personal growing?

A．Our manager was always willing to accept new challenges．

B．Jane won the first prize in the speech competition．

C．Jerry picked up French during his stay in Paris．

D．Father’s salary rose from 5, 000 to 7,000．

3.For personal growth, the author is in favor of all the following EXCEPT _______．

A．being curious about more changes

B．being quick in self-adaptation

C．having an open mind to new experiences

D．staying away from failures and challenges

4.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．It is not so easy to measure personal growth

B．To try and fail on the new road facing the unknown is unavoidable

C．There are only two ways to see a person’s growth

D．If you are too shy to take any risks in life, you cannot grow up

While drunken driving may be on the decline, traffic safety experts remain puzzled over how to deal with another alcohol?related danger: drunken pedestrains.

Pedestrians struck and killed by cars often are extremely drunk. In fact, they are intoxicated more frequently-and with higher blood?alcohol levels-than drunken drivers who are killed in accidents, various studies have shown. Forty percent of adult pedestrians involved in fatal crashes have a blood?alcohol level of at least 0.10-which by law in most states signifies intoxication-compared to only 25 percent of drivers in deadly accidents, according to recent federal data.

Some types of pedestrain accidents have been declining nationally, especially those involving children, but the number of adult pedestrians who are drunk when killed in traffic has remained relatively steady at 2500 a year. The total number of pedestrians killed annually in U.S. traffic accidents is at least 7000, or one of every seven highway accidents resulting in death.

“We’re dealing here, we think, with a very severe drinking problem that leads to a severe highway safety problem,” said Richard Blomberg, president of Dunlap and Associates Inc, in Norwalk, Coon.

Blomberg, whose consulting company found a very high rate of alcohol involvement in a controlled study of pedestrian accidents in New Orleans, was among several researchers who spoke on the topic at the annual meeting of the Research council’s Transportation Research Board(TRB)  in Washington in January.

Pedestrian accidents have not received enough attention in the past, according to Kay Colpitts, who chairs the board’s committee on pedestrians. Few methods exist to monitor walking habits, she said, and researchers have been mystified about how to prevent disasters.

5.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A.Traffic Safety.                   B.Drunken Drivers.

C.Drunken Pedestrian Accidents.     D.A Severe Highway Safety problem.

6.Among the causes of walkers’ accidents, the most serious problem is .       

A.long delays in traffic signals that may make people cross streets without paying attention to traffic rules

B.alcohol

C.a lack of adult keeping eyes on many children involved in accidents

D.former drunken drivers whose licenses are not allowed to use for a time

7.According to recent federal data, drunken drivers with an over 0.10 blood?alcohol level in deadly accidents .      

A.are 15 percent less than drunken adult walkers with the same level

B.are 2500 a year

C.are at least 7000 in US traffic accidents

D.make up one?seventh of highway accidents

8.According to the passage, what is Blomberg?

A.A researcher.                        B.A specialist in traffic safety.

C.A clerk of a consulting company.        D.A government official