For about a decade, I knew that I needed to improve my handwriting, but I always put it off. “My typing skills are good, my communication skills are good, and all my other abilities are adequate for the job I do and the life I live. Why would I need to improve my handwriting in such a modern world?” I thought.
I was sort of hit by the fact that my handwriting needed improving quite suddenly in the form of a note from my boss. Obviously one of the notes I had posted on the office message board had been misunderstood because of my handwriting. My boss demanded that I learn to write in a neat way, something I couldn’t ignore any longer.
I tried a lot of different methods to improve my handwriting. Nowadays, there are more resources than before. You don’t even have to go to the store and can buy handwriting training materials online. I tried out a lot of these, and my handwriting did improve somewhat. Now I make sure I form every letter correctly. This is inconvenient and time-consuming, but it is better than having my comments misread.
People come up to me and tell me how nice my handwriting is. I have never thought of that, but this is exactly what has happened. It really is a pleasure, but it isn’t enough. In the long run, I actually have to go to a handwriting coach to improve my handwriting. It seems like I have years and years of bad habits that I have to break, and this isn’t something I could handle on my own. I need someone to teach me how to write clearly from the ground up.
【小题1】The underlined word “adequate” in the first paragraph probably means “    ”.
Aclear enough       B. common enough    C. good enough  D. special enough
【小题2】The writer made the decision to improve his handwriting because        .

For some reason, it takes constant reminders that we primates（灵长目）need nurturing.
In a recent study of 46 baby chimpanzee（黑猩猩）orphans, Kim Bard of the University of Portsmouth in England and her colleagues demonstrated that primate babies that have tight relationships with mother figures do much better on cognitive（认知）tests than babies who receive only food, shelter, and friendship with peers. But this is not breaking mews. In fact, it’s old news.
In the 1950s, Harry Harlow conducted a series of experiments with baby monkeys that showed, without doubt, that lack of love and comfort makes for a crazy monkey.
Harlow constructed a cage that included a wire monkey “mother” topped with a plastic face. In this wire he fixed Mom with a milk bottle. The cage also held another wire mother covered with terry cloth. The baby monkeys spent all their time with the cloth mother and only went to the wire mother to feed, demonstrating that a soft touch beat something to eat any day.
Harlow’s monkey work was important because, at the time, child care “experts” and everybody’s grandmother had a “no touch, no comfort” policy toward children. They advised parents not to respond to crying babies, felt babies should sleep alone to grow up independent, and for God’s sake put those kids down. But Harlow’s work changed all that. Mothers were soon permitted to have their newborns next to them in the hospital.
The current chimp research based on Harlow’s work shows that mother love not only makes for a psychologically well-adjusted child, but also makes for a smart kid. Bard and her colleagues evaluated the abilities of the chimps when they were 12 months old with standard human tests for children of that age, tests that ask little kids to imitate some action.
The highly raised chimps did better than the ones that were not loved, and what do you know, the well-raised chimps did even better than human kids on this small IQ test.
So we hear it once again. We are primates, social animals which need care and love. We need to be held and talked to and made to feel that at least one person wants to be with us all the time. And if we get that kind of connection, we are sure to be fine, even better than fine.
【小题1】The study Kim Bard and his colleagues did ______.

For most people, graduation is an exciting day – the culmination (顶点) of years of hard work. My graduation day... was not.
I remember that weekend two years ago, Family and friends had traveled far to watch our class walk across the stage. But like everyone else in my graduating class, I had watched the economy go from bad to worse during my senior year. We graduates had degrees, but very limited prospects (前景). I hadn’t secured a job, and I knew that the next day, when my lease (租约) ended, I would no longer have a place to call home.
The weeks ahead weren’t easy. I gathered up everything I couldn’t carry and put it into storage. Then, because I had no opportunities in my small university town, I packed up my car and drove to California to find work. But what I thought would take a week dragged into two, then four, and 100 job applications later, I found myself still jobless. The due date to begin paying back my student loans was creeping even closer.
Have you ever felt utter dread? That feeling became a constant in my life. The most frustrating part was no matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t seem to make any progress.
So what did I do to maintain my sanity? I wrote. Something about putting my words on a page made everything clearer. Something about writing gave me hope.
I channeled my frustration into a children’s book. Beyond the river was the story of an unlikely hero, a little fish who refused to give up.
And then one day, with no writing degree or contacts in the writing world – just hard work and perseverance – I was offered a publishing contract for my first book. After that, things were in place, I was offered a second book deal. Then, a few months later, I got an interview with the Walt Disney Company and was hired shortly after.
The moral of this story is… don’t give up, even if things look bleak now.  Two years ago I was drinking cold soup right out the can. Things change. All we need is the courage to push beyond the river.
【小题1】When it was time to graduate, the author felt _____.

For most people, graduation is an exciting day – the culmination (顶点) of years of hard work. My graduation day... was not.

I remember that weekend two years ago, Family and friends had traveled far to watch our class walk across the stage. But like everyone else in my graduating class, I had watched the economy go from bad to worse during my senior year. We graduates had degrees, but very limited prospects (前景). I hadn’t secured a job, and I knew that the next day, when my lease (租约) ended, I would no longer have a place to call home.

The weeks ahead weren’t easy. I gathered up everything I couldn’t carry and put it into storage. Then, because I had no opportunities in my small university town, I packed up my car and drove to California to find work. But what I thought would take a week dragged into two, then four, and 100 job applications later, I found myself still jobless. The due date to begin paying back my student loans was creeping even closer.

Have you ever felt utter dread? That feeling became a constant in my life. The most frustrating part was no matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t seem to make any progress.

So what did I do to maintain my sanity? I wrote. Something about putting my words on a page made everything clearer. Something about writing gave me hope.

I channeled my frustration into a children’s book. Beyond the river was the story of an unlikely hero, a little fish who refused to give up.

And then one day, with no writing degree or contacts in the writing world – just hard work and perseverance – I was offered a publishing contract for my first book. After that, things were in place, I was offered a second book deal. Then, a few months later, I got an interview with the Walt Disney Company and was hired shortly after.

The moral of this story is… don’t give up, even if things look bleak now.  Two years ago I was drinking cold soup right out the can. Things change. All we need is the courage to push beyond the river.

1.When it was time to graduate, the author felt _____.

A．Bored            B．Relieved          C．depressed         D．hopeful

2.After the author’s graduation, _____.

A．he went on a short trip with his family to California

B．things turned even worse than he had expected

C．he focused on writing instead of applying for jobs

D．he found his salary was hardly enough to pay back his student loans

3.When did the author’s career life begin to run smoothly according to the article?

A．After he got his first publishing contract.

B．After he began to write his book Beyond the river.

C．After he finished his book Beyond the river.

D．After he got hired by the Walt Disney Company.

4.What is the main message the story intends to convey?

A．Opportunity lies everywhere.

B．Perseverance is essential to success.

C．It’s important to adapt yourself to society.

D．We should devote ourselves to whatever we do.

For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A,B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

When I was a college student, I did a lot of travelling abroad. That was because a professor  50 me to do so. She said,“Now is the time for you to travel around the world,    51    your knowledge through actual experiences and have fun!” I agreed with her.

Since I started to work for a    52   company, however, I have done most of my travellling through the Internet. By using the Internet, I have seen the sights of many cities on my computer screen. And I have really made business   53  , too. With the help of the Internet, I have also got    54   about food in different countries.

Therefore, I was beginning to feel that actual trips were   55  necessary when I happened to read a famous chef’s comment on the Internet. He said,“It is very difficult to have real Italian food in a foreign country, because we enjoy food and the atmosphere around us at the same time. So why don’t you fly over to Italy and enjoy real Italian   56  ?” Those words reminded me of my   57  advice. As information technology   58  ,you might be able to do without making some real trips. But this also means that you will miss the various   59  you can get from travelling.

Today there are people who   60  direct communication with others and spend much of their time on the Internet. It is not surprising to see a group of people   61  not with each other but into their micro phones. It seems as if such people are   62  by an invisible wall. They seem to be losing out on a good chance to   63  and talk with other people. I do not think that they are taking good advantage of information technology. We should use information technology as a tool to make our daily communication more fruitful. However, we should never let it   64 our time for face-to-face communication. Let’s make use of information technology more  wisely, and have great fun in experiencing the actual world.

1.                A．promised       B．allowed         C．hurried   D．encouraged

2.                A．build up        B．use            C．practice D．exchange

3.                A．computer       B．food           C．clothing  D．machine

4.                A．plans          B．bargain         C．progress  D．trips

5.                A．information     B．taste           C．cooks    D．feelings

6.                A．even more      B．no longer       C．much D．actually

7.                A．shoes          B．dishes          C．customers D．situations

8.                A．friend’s       B．parents’       C．professor’s   D．boss’

9.                A．produces       B．advertises       C．forms    D．advances

10.               A．news          B．pleasures       C．troubles   D．places

11.               A．avoid          B．keep           C．lose  D．enjoy

12.               A．meeting        B．talking         C．communicating  D．travelling

13.               A．stopped        B．met           C．surrounded    D．hurt

14.               A．look at         B．employ         C．travel D．meet

15.               A．spare          B．increase        C．reduce    D．make use of