In her outstanding book, “Choose the Happiness Habit”, Pam Golden wrote, “Take the story of two twin brothers for example. One grew up and became an alcoholic (酒鬼), while the other became a successful businessman. When the alcoholic was asked why he became an alcoholic, he replied, “Because my father was a drunk.” However, the successful businessman’s answer was also “Because my father was a drunk.” when asked why he succeeded. The same background. The same upbringing (培养). However, the results were quite different. Why? The reason is that they had different choices. The brothers chose different thoughts which formed the situations they found themselves in at last, so they had different experiences.

There was a time in my life when I thought difficulty was due to “bad luck”. Have you ever heard the saying “When it rains, it pours”? That was my answer when others asked me how things were going on when I was in trouble. So what do you think I got? “RAIN”. More and more “RAIN”. I couldn’t understand why bad luck was always with me.

Pam Golden says, “You’re either living in the problem or you’re living in the solution.” Now, when I’m faced with what I used to think was a negative (消极的) situation, I use a different way to think about it. I force myself to replace those negative thoughts that make me lose heart in my mind with positive thoughts which encourage me to fight against the difficulty bravely. Sometimes I write down some ideas that may be a solution, which I combine with the lessons I have learned from the bad situations and the difficulties that troubled me in the past, and often, I find a solution to the problem soon. It seems that I should thank the difficulty I met with. The RAIN that poured in my world has become great experiences that provide me with valuable experience, from which I can benefit.

Now, it doesn’t “rain” as much in my life as it used to. In fact, most days are beautiful, cloudless and sunny! Sometimes I do get a rain, but I think it makes me stronger just like the rain helps plants grow up.

56. The example of the twin brothers shows that _______________.

A. making good choices is the most important        

B. education decides a person’s future

C. upbringing makes a big difference                     

D. it is luck that leads to success

57. What does “RAIN” mentioned in the second paragraph refer to?

A. Water.                    B. Good luck.             C. Success.                    D. Difficulty.

58. What is talked about in the third paragraph?  

A. How the author collects useful experience.      

B. How the author deals with difficulty now.

C. How the author gets help from others.            

D. How the author lives in the problem.

59. Now, the author’s attitude towards “RAIN” is _______________.

A. negative                 B. unclear                   C. positive                   D. unknown

60. Which of the following agrees with the author’s attitude in the text?

A. All things are difficult before they are easy.        

B. Meeting with difficulty is not a bad thing.

C. Misfortunes tell us what fortune is.                   

D. Things at the worst will mend.

Do you think that daydreaming is a waste of time? Probably so．

"On the contrary,'' says L．Giambra, an expert in psychology （心理学 ）．“Daydreaming is quite necessary．Without it, the mind couldn’t get done all the thinking it has to do during a normal day．You can’t possibly do all your thinking with a consciousness （有意识）．Instead, your unconscious mind is working out problems all the time．Daydreaming then may be one way that the unconscious and conscious states of mind have silent dialogues．"

    Early psychology experts paid no attention to the importance of daydreams or even considered them harmful．At one time daydreaming was thought to be a cause of some mental illnesses．They did not have a better understanding of daydreams until the late 1980s．Eric Klinger, a professor of psychology, is the writer of the book DAYDREAMING．Klinger says, “We know now that daydreaming is one of the main ways that we organize our lives, learn from our experiences, and plan for our futures．Daydreams really are a window on the things we fear and the things we long for in life．”

    Daydreams are usually very simple and direct, quite unlike sleep dreams,

which may be hard to understand．It’s easier to gain a deep understanding of your life by paying close attention to your daydreams than by trying to examine your sleep dreams carefully．Daydreams help you recognize the difficult situations in our life and find out a possible way of dealing with them．

    Daydreams cannot be predicted （预测）．They move off in unexpected directions which may be creative and full of ideas．For many famous artists and scientists, daydreams were and are a main source of creative energy．

1．What's the writer’s opinion of daydreaming?

     A．He agrees with the early experts in psychology．

B．He is for L．Giambra and Eric Klinger．

     C．He doesn’t prefer either side．

D．He hasn’t formed his own idea yet．

2．Which of the following statements is true?

A．Daydreaming is less harmful than sleep dreaming．

B．L．Giambra’s opinion of daydreaming is opposite to Eric Klinger’s．

C．Early experts firmly stuck to their own opinion on daydreaming．

D．Daydreams can come very suddenly and unexpectedly

3．Which of the following can lead to daydreams according to the text?

A．Absence of attention                    B．Illness in mind．

C．Lack of sleep at night                               D．None of the above．

4．After reading the passage we can conclude _______．

A．daydreaming is neither harmful nor useful to daydreamer

B．daydreams are not the same as, but similar to sleep dreams

C． daydreaming is the result of silent dialogues between conscious and unconscious states of mind

D．daydreams are of great help to us in solving problems

America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending sometimes deeply into both families.
ericans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily. Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.
For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home.
【小题1】In which part of a newspaper can this article be found?

America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending sometimes deeply into both families.

ericans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily. Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home.

1.In which part of a newspaper can this article be found?

A．Culture.           B．News.            C．Story.             D．Travel.

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.

B．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

3.The underlined words “flower”(in Line 5) probably means ___________.

A．weaken           B．develop           C．stretch           D．disappear

4.From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be___________.

A．treated hospitably at his home             B．offered a ride to his home

C． warmly welcomed at the airport           D．treated to dinner in a restaurant

5.The writer mainly talks about ___________ in the text.

A．friendships between Chinese              B．Americans’ hospitality

C．different views of friendship               D．friendships between Americans