As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through lift, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.                             
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.                                               
The amount of stress a person can withstand(抵抗)depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "fight" or "flight" and in more primitive days the choice made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress is, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease have established links with stress. Since we cannot remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it.                                                              
【小题1】People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because_____.                                                 

A．they do not know how to enjoy themselves

B．they do not believe that relaxation is important for health

C．they are travelling fast all the time

D．they are becoming busier with their work

A．We can find some ways to avoid stress.

B．Stress is always harmful to people.

C．It is easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work.

D．Different people can withstand different amounts of stress.

---Hello,______

---It must be about two years since we last met. What have you been doing with yourself?

--- I've been doing all sorts of things.

A.I haven't seen you for ages

B how long have you been like this?

C. where have you been these years?  

D.nice to see you again.

Nowadays more and more people are trapped in too busy work to relax themselves. We have no time to tell a bed-time story to our children, or enjoy a nice dinner with our family, or take a break to think about how we live the precious life, or even meet friends. All we notice is that the distinctions that used to guide and steady us ------ between Sunday and Monday, public and private, here and there ------ are gone. We have more ways to communicate, but less and less to say. Partly because we’re so busy communicating.
Maybe that’s why more and more people I know, even if they have no religious commitment, seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or tai chi. Some friends of mine try to go on long walks every Sunday, or to “forget” their cell phones at home. A series of tests in recent years has shown that after spending time in quiet rural settings, subjects “exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and generally improved cognition. Their brains become both calmer and sharper.” More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends on neural processes that are “inherently slow. ” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for.
In my own case, I turn to eccentric and often extreme measures to try to keep my sanity and ensure that I have time to do nothing at all. I’ve not yet used a cell phone and I’ve never Tweeted or entered Face book. I try not to go online till my day’s writing is finished, and I moved from Manhattan to rural Japan.
None of this is a matter of principle or asceticism (苦行主义): it’s just pure selfishness. Nothing makes me feel better-----calmer, clearer and happier----than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” That is the highest of the highest we have been longing for----The Joy of Quiet.
【小题1】The writer sometimes doesn’t do anything because ________.

---- Hello, John. I haven’t seen you since we were at university.
---- ________. It’s been a long time.

Last night, I was waiting for a taxi. After 5 minutes, I was  36 . The driver seemed to be angry. I asked him what the   37  was. He said he had just come from the airport without a   38  , which was basically $70 in lost fare.
Over the course of the ride, the anger   39  died down. He mentioned he had read an article saying the   40  people are the ones that give, so he hoped he’d have more   41  to give in his life. I was starting to   42  being with him! We continued talking about why   43  is so beneficial both to the giver and the receiver and different ways to   44  it.
As we arrived at my destination,  I  45  my fare. But I pulled out an extra $20 and said, “Since we’ve been talking about this whole time, I wanted to share that   46  with you. I’ve already paid my fare, but here’s an extra little bit. You can   47  it, since you’re already down $70 from the airport. But if you want to experience the  48 of the gift, then tell the next passenger in this taxi that their ride is a gift from another and they can   49 their gratitude(感激) in whatever way.”
The man turned toward me, tears in his eyes, and said, “Sir, I have a better   50  . You give that $20 to a   51  person around here and I’ll treat the next passenger with a   52  ride myself.
Wow. This man was   53  10 minutes ago. I got out and walked around trying to   54 someone who needed help before heading to my destination.
It was an honor meeting that driver and    55   the lesson of how everyone is capable of giving.