The 2012 London Olympic Games are around the corner. If you have the chance to visit Britain yourself, you can see at every bus stop the British people form a queue. You may have read about it, but you will still feel amazed to see it with your own eyes.

It’s an amazing social behavior; it brings the British to a higher level of civilization(文明). At least that is what one German professor thinks. The professor named Joseph Heinrich and his workmates say that standing in line is the “highest form of cooperative(协作的) group behavior”.

The social rules(细则) of standing in line are also interesting. For example, you need to be able to decide the correct distance to the person in front of you. Get too close and there is a danger of entering other people’s personal space. This is a serious mistake and often makes other people angry. However, when you leave too much space, the next person is likely to ask: “Are you in the queue?” This may sound polite but in fact it means: “Can’t you stand in line properly?”

In no other countries can you see the one-man queue except in Britain. If a British person arrives at a bus stop and no one else is there, he will not simply wait. Instead, he stands at the head of the queue.

Tourists are often unfamiliar with local customs(习俗), and if they do not get in line behind the British person, he or she will tell them strictly: “This is a queue.”

Though it might seem that the British people take their queues too Seriously, one thing is certain: queues can save lives. In dangerous situations, standing in line has prevented them from getting very frightened.

In the serious train accident in 1999, people who were hurt formed a queue as they escaped from their trains. One writer later wrote about a polite man who let her pass with a quiet “after you”.

Topic

Queuing in Britain

Professors’

(34)

of queuing

● The British have    (35)     a higher level of civilization.

● It is the highest form of cooperative group behavior.

Social rules

of queuing

● You should stand    (36)     too close to nor far from the person in front of you.

● Even if there is only one British person waiting for a bus, he queues too.

● If tourists do not queue, they will be strictly reminded to    (37)     the local custom.

The power

of queuing

The British queued and kept calm even in face of    (38)    .

Saying no starts small

“All right then — just one more piece...” Words every girl has said when they are faced with the delicious cheesecake. Of course, many of us know we may eat the whole thing in the end.

It isn’t just girls. Most of us find it hard to say “no” to something attractive. However, scientists now say that willpower is very important to success and a happy life.

Scientists in different countries have been studying the effects of willpower on people’s lives for a long time. The results are similar, according to an article on February 7 in the Guardian, a famous British newspaper.

In one experiment, scientists told young children that they could either have a marshmallow (圆形软糖) now, or two marshmallows in 15 minutes. Waiting obviously needed more willpower. Scientists then continued studying the children as they grew up. They wanted to see if some children always had stronger willpower. They also wanted to see how having stronger willpower affected their lives.

Years later, scientists found that the children who had waited for two marshmallows were all healthier, happier and richer adults. Oppositely, the children who had shown weaker willpower at that young age were more likely to be in low-paid jobs, to be overweight, to have social problems.

But there is hope, Roy F Baumeister, an American social psychology(心理学) professor (教授) told the Guardian. Baumeister says we can train our willpower just like we train our muscles. Even a little practice can strengthen our overall self-control if we do it regularly.

You could start by making yourself stand up straight, speaking in complete sentences, or using a computer mouse with the other hand. Scientists have found that people who manage to change little habits often perform much better in laboratory willpower tests.

Like muscles, willpower can “get tired”. Don’t try to do too many things at the same time, or when you don’t have enough energy, for example when you are ill. If you already feel tired, you can try to recharge(恢复) your willpower with a good night’s sleep and by eating well.

30. The example of a girl eating cheesecake is used to

A. prove that girls have weak willpower

B. introduce the topic of willpower to the readers

C. show that cheesecake is especially attractive to girls

D. show the connection between willpower and success

31. What can we infer from the experiment?     

A. The scientists had already known the results before the experiment.

B. It showed that willpower is the most important to success and a happy life.

C. The children who chose to wait were more likely to be successful in their lives.     

D. The children who chose only one marshmallow at first had stronger willpower.

32. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the training of willpower?

A. You should have a goal every day. 

B. Good rest and proper diet can help.

C. Willpower needs to be exercised regularly.

D. Keep willpower from being used too much.

33. What is the article mainly about?

A. How willpower and muscles are similar and how they can be trained.

B. How willpower affects people’s lives and how it is similar to muscles.

C. How willpower is important to success and how we can make it stronger.

D. How willpower is connected with success and how they affect each other.

All the wisdom of the times, all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries, are easily and cheaply available to all of us in books, but we must know how to make use of this treasure. The unluckiest people in the world are those who have never discovered how satisfying it is to read good books.

I’m very interested in people and finding out about them. Some of the most amazing people I’ve met could only be found in a writer’s imagination, then in his book, and then, again, in my imagination. I’ve found in books new friends and new worlds.

Reading is fun, not because the writer is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the writer’s or even goes beyond his. Your experience, compared with his, brings you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.

Every book stands by itself, like a one-family house, but books in a library are like houses in a city. Although they are separate(分开的), in some way they are connected with each other. The same ideas, or related(相关的) ones, appear in different places; the human problems that repeat themselves in life repeat themselves in books, but with different solutions(解决方法) according to different writings at different times. Books influence each other. They connect the past, the present and the future and have their own generations (age groups), like families. Wherever you start reading, you connect yourself with one of the families of ideas, and in the end, you not only find out about the world and the people in it, you find out about yourself, too.

Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate on(专注于) books somebody tells you “ought” to read, you probably won’ t have fun. But if you put down a book you don’t like and try another till you find one that means something to you, and then relax with it, you will almost certainly have a good time — and if you become, as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder, or more gentle, you won’t suffer during the process.

27. Which of the following ideas may the writer of this article agree with?

A. You will never meet amazing people in your life unless you read.

B. You think actively instead of getting facts passively when reading.

C. You will get much delight from any book that you are told to read.

D. You can relax yourself by reading because it involves little thinking.

28. What can we learn from Paragraph 4?

A. We can often find something connected with ourselves in books.

B. Different writings at different times share the same characteristics.

C. The same problems will appear in different books with similar solutions.

D. Reading books which are written for your generation is more helpful to you.

29. What’s the writer’s purpose of writing this article?

A. To advise us to enjoy ourselves by reading. 

B. To encourage us to make full use of libraries.

C. To encourage us to find out solutions in books.

D. To advise us to discuss books with other people.

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