In a world where comparisons happen non-stop, it is difficult to look outside yourself and to ever be   21   with who you are. There’s always someone who’s a bit   22  . The only solution is to reach   23   and measure against what Warren Buffett calls your own inner yardstick. There is no more   24   measure for comparison than who your were yesterday, last week or last decade, when you were at your   25  .

Nothing useful ever comes from comparison to others .Either you see yourself as better than someone and you get   26  , or you see someone else as better than you and you feel like all your hard work is for   27  . It is a fool’s game. Not one of us is exactly   28  . The only direct and honest comparison is   29   yourself. Everything else is apples to oranges.

My opinion is that you are only   30   to compare yourself to someone else if their life   31   is the same as your own. Good luck finding that   32  . And one thing is for sure. No matter how hard you work and how dedicated（埋头苦干的）you are, there will always be someone who can run a little faster, jump a little higher, score a little better or look a little nicer in a swimsuit. And if there’s not, you can   33   someone is coming up fast   34   you. So how can you always win in life? Become your best   35  .

Having an image of your most recent past limits is the perfect thing to   36   you to the next level. If you ran 7 flights of stairs yesterday, then do 8 today. Who   37   if the guy next to you did 15? It doesn’t make a bit of   38  . You are a more   39   person today than you were yesterday. Your own   40   is all you need.

1.A. patient                                   B. strict                                 C. content                   D. concerned

2.A. stronger                                 B. better                               C. lazier                       D. wiser

3.A. inside                                     B. out                                    C. for                            D. up

4.A. accurate                           B. useful                                 C. careful                    D. powerful

5.A. end                                    B. best                                    C. convenience          D. side

6.A. satisfied                            B. busy                                   C. inspired                  D. lazy

7.A. nothing                                  B. fun                                    C. sure                         D. success

8.A. equal                             B. unique                              C. alike                         D. common

9.A. within                                     B. by                             C. for                            D. of

10.A. instructed                           B. allowed                            C. directed                  D. suggested

11.A. situation                     B. position                            C. occasion                 D. accommodation

12.A. game                                    B. match                               C. friend                      D. enemy

13.A. conclude                    B. bet                                    C. announce               D. declare

14.A. before                                 B. beside                              C. below                      D. behind

15.A. assistant                     B. competitor                      C. coach                      D. teacher

16.A. contribute                           B. expose                             C. push                        D. devote

17.A. cares                                    B. says                                   C. wonders                 D. asks

18.A. effort                                   B. sense                           C. difference               D. change

19.A. successful                           B. happy                               C. lucky                        D. fit

20.A. benefit                     B. progress                           C. habit                        D. result

People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group, and getting eaten as a result. That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists.

The research team have discovered that subordinate fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors. “In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals, a male and female, had breeding （繁殖） rights within the group,” explains Marian Wong. “All other group members are nonbreeding females, each being 5-10% smaller than its next largest competitor. We wanted to find out how they maintain this precise size separation.”

The reason for the size difference was easy to see. Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group. More often than not, the evicted fish is then eaten up.

It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish. Whether they did so voluntarily, by restraining how much they ate, was not clear. The research team decided to do an experiment. They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened. To their surprise, the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered, clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast.

The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group. Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves, so keeping their competitors small.

While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious, Dr. Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understanding how hierarchical （等级的） societies remain stable.

The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive to humans. “As yet, we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature,” the researchers comment. “Data on human dieting suggests that, while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness, rarely does it improve long-term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females’ own ideal.”

1.When a goby grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it        .

A. faces danger                      B. has breeding rights

C. eats its competitor                                 D. leaves the group itself

2.The underlined words “the evicted fish” in Paragraph 3 refer to        .

A. the fish beaten up                B. the fish found out

C. the fish fattened up              D. the fish driven away

3.The experiment showed that the smaller fish        .

A. fought over a feast                                 B. went on diet willingly

C. preferred some extra food         D. challenged the boss fish

4.What is the text mainly about?

A. Fish dieting and human dieting.

B. Dieting and health.

C. Human dieting.

D. Fish dieting.

While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to compete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I’m not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold – his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout “Come on, you can do it!” and he did.
A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch an underdog.
【小题1】From the passage we can learn that the young man         .

BEIJING — China’s education authority will tighten the widely criticized policy of “extra credits” for the national college entrance examination to ensure a fairer chance for all exam-takers.

Under the policy, high school students who win awards in national Olympic competitions could get ‘‘extra credits’ up to 20 points for the national college entrance exam. Students with talent in sports and students who are from ethnic groups can also benefit from this policy. The extra credits have increased these students’ chances of being admitted by famous universities. Some parents were found to have helped their children fabricate(伪造)award experiences or falsify qualifications to get extra credits.

“It has harmed education equality，” the ministry said.

Xiong Bingqi, vice-chief of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said the policy is designed to help students who have special talents but may be weak in academic performance to have a chance to receive higher education. uIt will still be needed but it is time to make the rules fairer," he said.

The ministry said it will reduce the range of competitions whose winners can get extra credits, and limit the winners, privileges(优先权).

The new policy will apply to students who begin high school in 2011, it said.

Chen Lei, a mother of a 10-year-old girl, said she welcomed the ministry's policy adjustment as she does not want her daughter to become an Olympic competition geek.

But not all the Chinese parents welcomed the new policy. “It is like a thunderbolt for me. My - 13-year-old son has spent so much time studying Olympic math，and participated in so many technological competitions during vacations. It is useless now,” said Dong Wen, a 43-year-old mother.

A student said, “Many students have changed the current study plan, and they can abandon the competition. I will be interested in learning the courses which can improve my abilities.”   

Yuan Guiren, minister of education, told China Daily that the reform is an attempt to consider  the overall quality of an applicant. “But the country will not stop the national college entrance  examination as it is still the most objective way to evaluate talent in China，” lie said.

1.It can be inferred from the passage that_____.

A．high school students with talent in sports are weak in academic performance

B．students who win awards in Olympic competitions can’t get extra credits in 2011

C．the number of competitions whose winners can get extra credits will be smaller

D．the extra credits have reduced students' chances of being admitted by famous colleges

2.What does the underlined word “geek” probably mean?

A．a winner          B．a smart learner     C．a competitor       D．a dull student

3.Which person in the passage was strongly against the new policy?

A．Xiong Bingqi       B．Chen Lei          C．Dong Wen         D．Yuan Guiren

4.What might be the best title for the text?

A．“Extra credits policy in China to be adjusted

B．Promotion of national Olympic competitions

C．Advice on the national college entrance exam

D．Chinese government to push education reform