What kind of life do you seek for? One that is frustrating and full of complaints every day? Or one that is filled with thankfulness, gratefulness and a positive mind?

    The moment we open our eyes each day, we should be grateful that we are still alive．We are given a brand-new day．We are given another day to love．We are given another day of hope．We are given another chance to do whatever we have failed to accomplish．Those who have chosen to leave this place do not have any second chance．

    We should be grateful every day．By being grateful, we will treasure the things around us．We will learn to appreciate life in a better way．Treat others better and find ourselves in a better mood every day．When we are thankful and grateful for the things we have, the universe tends to give us more．

    By being thankful and grateful for our personal health, we will focus our attention on it and we would want to have a better well-being for our health．We will want to eat healthier food to nourish our body．After all, the body is the temple of our soul．We have to treat it well so that it can carry us a longer journey in life．

    When we face problems in life, be thankful and grateful too．They are designed specifically for us so that we will be stronger and wiser．We are like a strong oak tree, facing the harsh weathers time to time．After each storm, we will grow stronger and strengthen our foundations for the next harsh weather．

    The year 2010 has come to an end．Have you achieved what you aimed for in the past year? Be grateful for those you have achieved and especially for those you have not—both successes and failures．Failures and mistakes will give you valuable lessons．So, pick yourself up and try again this year．Good luck！

1.According to the text, how many kinds of life are mentioned?

    A．One．           B．Two．           C．Three．          D．Four．

2.What does the word "harsh" underlined in the text refer to?

    A．severe           B．pleasant                             C．fine        D．mild

3.According to the text, the life filled with thankfulness should be the following except that we        .

    A．learn to enjoy our life in a better way

    B．face problems in life and choose to leave

    C．focus our attention on our health

    D．treat others better and find ourselves in a better mood

4.The sentence "We are like a strong oak tree…" in the fifth paragraph, we can see that the author used the writing technique of ____．

    A．telling a fairy story                B．stating facts

    C．discussing matters                  D．imitating things

5.What would be the best title for the text?

    A．Kinds of Life                        B．Be Positive

    C．Be Grateful Every Day                D．Pick Yourself Up

If you ask Americans whether or not they think their former president George W. Bush is smart, most of them will probably tell you they don’t think so. However, Bush’s IQ score is estimated to be above 120, which puts him in the top ten percent of the population.

It doesn’t seem to make sense. How come someone with such an IQ score is not considered smart? Researchers say: IQ does not tell the whole story. Some people have high IQ scores, but still they can be poor thinkers and decision-makers.

Keith Stanovich, a Canadian professor of human development and applied psychology, has been looking into the “clever fools” phenomenon for 15 years. He says IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties(能力), including logic, learning ability, working-memory capacity (how much information you can hold in mind), etc. Those faculties play a part in one’s academic success, but rational thinking is more important for us to make good judgments in real-life situations.

IQ tests fail to work when it comes to rational thinking. That’s because they are unable to assess things such as a person’s ability to weigh up information, or whether an individual can set aside the cognitive biases(认知偏差)that may be misleading.

“A high IQ is like height in a basketball player,” says David Perkins, who studies thinking and reasoning skills at Harvard University. “It is very important, all other things being equal. But all other things aren’t equal. It takes a lot more to be a good basketball player than being tall, and it takes a lot more to be a good thinker than having a high IQ.”

1.According to the text your academic success depends on your __________.

2.If you need to decide where to invest your money, you must use your ______________

3.We know from the text that ____________

4.What is the text mainly about?

“The more you learn, the more you earn,” said the pop singer Cyndi Lauper as she accepted her high school diploma(证书) , at the age of 35 ! Although Cyndi made it without a high school degree, most people don't. In the USA today, about 75% of jobs need some education or technical training further than high school. The lowest wage earners in the USA are those without high school degrees; college graduates(毕业生) outearn those without a college education. People with master's degrees（硕士学位）outearn those with only a bachelor (学士学位); and the highest incomes of all are earned by people with advanced professional or academic degrees. These generalizations explain why most of young Americans go to college. However, despite the averages, more diplomas don't always mean more money. Many skilled blue-collar workers, salespeople, business executives, and entrepreneurs(企业家)outearn college professors and scientific researchers. And great athletes and entertainers outearn everyone else!

1.Cyndi Lauper ______. 

A．had been studying in high school before she was thirty-five

B．wasn't clever because she graduated from high school too late

C．got her high school diploma when she was already thirty-five

D．didn't like studying

2.According to the passage,______.

A．high school diploma and high school degree are the same thing

B．people can't get both high school diploma and degree

C．people must get both high school diploma and degree

D．people can get both high school diploma and degree or either

3.Why do most American young people go to college?

A．Because their parents force them to go to college.

B．Because they can't get a job if they don't go to college.

C．Because the situation of the society make them go to college.

D．Because they like studying.

4.What may the underlined word “outearn” mean?

A．Earning more money.                    B．Earning less money.

C．Earning no money.                       D．Working better.

5.Which of the following is right?

A．If you don't have a diploma, you can't earn money.

B．Those who have diplomas always earn more money than those who don't have diplomas.

C．Less diplomas always mean less money.

D．Great athletes may earn more money than other people.

Dog owners now have a little help understanding their furry friends．A new device（装置） called Bow-Lingual “translates” dog barks into English, Korean or Japanese．Bow-Lingual Japanese inventors spent much time and money analyzing dog barks．They found that dog noises can be broken down into six different emotions: happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, assertion and desire．

Part of the Bow-Lingual device hangs on the dog’s collar．The other part is a handle-held unit for the owner．When the dog barks, the unit displays translated phrases．

Some people have scoffed at Bow-Lingual．“Who would pay $120 to read a dog’s mind?” they ask．

But those who have purchased（购买） Bow-Lingual praise the device．Pet owner Keiko Egawa, of Japan, says it helps her sympathize（同情） with her dog Harry．“Before we go to the park, he always says he wants to play,” says Egawa, “and after a walk, he always says he is hungry．”

Bow-Lingual is not yet available（可用的） in Chinese．So you’d better keep studying Studio Classroom, or soon your dog may know more English than you do!

1.This passage is mainly talking about _____．

         A．Bow-Lingual’s inventors           B．dog barks and their different emotions

         C．talking dogs                      D．a little help for dog owners

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

         A．Dog owners now can understand their dogs better．

         B．Bow-Lingual enables dogs to talk in English, Korean or Japanese．

         C．People who have used Bow-Lingual say it helps them better understand their dogs．

         D．More and more Chinese dog owners would keep studying Studio Classroom in order to know more English than their dogs．

3.What does “scoffed at” mean in the fourth paragraph?

         A．Shouted at．                    B．Questioned about．       

         C．Laughed at．                   D．Doubted about．

4.The writer of this passage is most likely to be _____．

         A．a reporter             B．a dog owner

         C．an advertiser                D．an expert on dog barks

Young drivers are over-represented in alcohol--related driving accidents. In recent years, people aged 16 to 24 were involved in 28 percent of all alcohol--related driving accidents, although they make up only 14% of the U. S. population. Young people are also over--represented in drinking driver injuries and deaths. Even when their blood alcohol contents (BACs) are not high, young drinkers are involved in driving accidents at higher rates than older drivers with similar BACs.

Fortunately, driving accidents have been declining among young people, just as they have among the general population. And deaths associated with young drinking drivers (those 16 to 24 years of age) are down, having dropped 47% in a recent 15--year period.

In contrast to popular belief, drinking among young people is dropping and has been doing so for many years. For example, statistics demonstrate that within a period of about 20 years, the proportion of American high school seniors who have ever consumed alcohol is down 13%；the proportion of those who have consumed alcohol within the previous year is down 15%.

Exaggerating the degree of drinking problems of young people may create an unexpected problem. When young people go to college falsely believing that most others are drinking heavily, then they may try to follow suit. Thus, those who exaggerate the problem of alcohol abuse actually contribute to the problem and make it worse. However, when students find out that most others don’t drink as much as they incorrectly believed, they are very likely to drink less and even give up. So, honest accuracy rather than dishonest exaggeration is the most effective way to reduce alcohol abuse and the problems it causes.

60. We can learn from the first paragraph that ____.

A. in the U. S. people aged 16 to 24 caused half of the alcohol--related driving accidents

B. young drinkers are more likely to cause accidents than adult drinkers

C. young drinkers are able to keep calm when their BACs are not high

D. people aged 16 to 24 make up a quarter of the U. S. population

61. It can be inferred from Para. 3 that ____.

A. high school seniors turn to alcohol to get rid of their pressure

B. it’s a fact that young people are drinking more nowadays

C. the number of high school students in the U. S is dropping

D. most people believe more and more young people are becoming addicted to drinking

62. The underlined phrase “follow suit” in the last paragraph means ____.

A. stop drinking

B. wear the same suit as others do

C. start drinking

D. hate what others do

63. Which of the following statements does the author agree to?

A. Driving should be forbidden among people aged 16 to 24.

B. Many young people in the U. S. are acting totally irresponsibly.

C. The drinking problems of young people are turning for the better.

D. Students will stop drinking if they believe most others are drinking heavily.