Living an Adventurous Life

Nearly ten years ago, I was told that I had a brain tumor （瘤）, and this experience changed my attitude about adventure forever．I thought that I was going to die and that all my adventures were over．I did not have a brain tumor, it turned out, but rather multiple sclerosis （多发性硬化症）, which meant that, although they were not over, the nature of my adventures could have to change．

Each morning that I wake up is a fresh event, something that I might not have had．Each gesture that I make carries the weight of uncertainty and demands significant attention: buttoning my shirt, changing a light bulb, walking down stairs．I might not be able to do it this time．If I could not delight in them, they would likely drown me in anger and in self-pity．

I admire the grand adventures of others．I read about them with interest．With Peter Matthiessen I have hiked across the Himalayas to the Crystal Mountain．I have walked with Annie Dillard up, down, into, and across Tinker Creek in all seasons．David Bain has gone with me along 110 miles of Philippine coast, and Ed Abbey has rowed me down the Colorado River．I enjoy the adventures of these courageous figures, who can strike out on difficult trips – 2 miles, 250 miles, 3000 miles – ready to bear cold and tiredness, indeed not just to bear but to celebrate．

But as for me, I can no longer walk very far from the armchair in which I read．Some days I don’t even make it to the backyard．And yet I’m unwilling to give up the adventurous life, the difficulty of it, even the pain, the anxiety and fear, and the sudden brief lift of spirit that makes a hard journey more attractive．

I refine adventure, make it smaller and smaller．And now, whether I am moving on my hands and knees across the dining room to help my cat, lying wide-eyed in the dark battling another period of sadness, gathering flowers from the garden, meeting a friend for lunch, I am always having the adventures that are mine to have．

Which of the following is TRUE about the author’s reaction after the illness?

       A．The author is drowned in anger and self-pity．

       B．The author travels to places he/she has dreamed of．

       C．The author can’t take care of himself/herself any longer．  

       D．The author adapts to the condition successfully．

Why does the author admire the people mentioned in Paragraph 3?

       A．Because they write popular novels．                          B．Because they are great adventurers．

       C．Because they are famous geographers．               D．Because they fight with hardship in life．

Which of the following shows the author’s strong love for adventures?

       A．The author spends almost every day looking for adventures．

       B．The author works hard to make more money for adventures．

       C．The author imagines having adventures while reading．

       D．The author expects to recover only to continue adventures．

Mark Twain said that “habit is habit, and not to be flung(扔) out the window by anyone, but coaxed (劝诱)downstairs a step at a time.” The chances of successfully changing negative behavior        when you make gradual changes that give you time to        negative patterns for positive ones.

On any given day, countless numbers of us get out of bed and        to begin to change a given behavior “today.” Whether it be exercising more, drinking less, managing time        or some other change in a negative behavior, we start out with high       . In a short time, however, a vast majority of people fail and are soon doing        it was they thought they shouldn't be doing.

 After considerable research, some researchers believe that behavior changes usually do not        if they start with the change itself.       , they believe that we must        a series of “stages” to adequately prepare ourselves for that        change. Once you have analyzed all the factors that        what you do, you must decide which behavior-change technique will work best for you.

According to the psychologist Albert Ellis, most        problems and related behaviors arise from irrational (不理性的) statements that people make to        when events in their lives are different from what they would like them to be. For example, suppose alter doing        on an exam, you say to yourself, “I can't believe I failed that easy exam, I’m so stupid.” By changing this irrational “catastrophic” self-talk into rational,        statements about what is really going on, you can increase the        that positive behaviors will occur.

 Positive self-talk might be        as follows: “I really didn’t study enough for the exam. I just need to prepare for the next       .”

 Such self-talk will help you to recover quickly from        and take positive steps to correct the situation. Some other technique like purposefully        or stopping negative thoughts and refusing to dwell on(沉湎于) negative images can also spare you wasted energy, time and emotional resources and move on to positive changes.

1.A. decline       B. remain  C. disappear      D. improve

2.A. substituteB. cancel     C. find       D. ignore

3.A. refuse        B. determine     C. hesitate         D. advocate

4.A. more B. better   C. worse   D. less

5.A. values         B. requirements        C. expectations D. levels

6.A. whicheverB. however         C. wherever      D. whatever

7.A. succeed     B. fail         C. exist      D. fade

8.A. NeverthelessB. Otherwise C. Instead D. Moreover

9.A. look throughB. break through    C. go through    D. pull through

10.A. initial        B. temporary     C. instant  D. eventual

11.A. involve     B. influence       C. explain D. adjust

12.A. emotionalB. physical         C. technical       D. professional

13.A. all    B. others   C. someone       D. themselves

14.A. poorly      B. carefully        C. completely    D. slowly

15.A. positive    B. ridiculous      C. negative        D. explicit

16.A. danger     B. awareness     C. amount D. probability

17.A. written     B. phrased         C. listed     D. captioned

18.A. research  B. test        C. talk        D. problem

19.A. tirednessB. habits     C. disappointment     D. burdens

20.A. recalling  B. starting C. blocking         D. holding

As the economy begins to recover, salary increases should do the same.

    In the past few years, employers have raised workers’ salaries by about 4 percent per year--except for 2009, when the figure dropped to a historically low 2.1 percent, according to a survey of World at Word. About one-third of companies froze raises altogether.

   For 2010, World at Work’s survey projects an average salary increase budget of 2.7 percent, a figure that shows the situation has improved but the job market is still weak. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of companies said they would freeze raises--far fewer than in 2009, but still more than in most years.

  How can you get a raise? Avalos and others offer the following tips:

* Do your job well. This means producing high-quality work, of course, but also keeping the big picture in mind.

“It really comes down to positioning yourself as a high performer, somebody who is aware of business goals and helps the company meet their goals as an organization”, Avalos said

* Be visible. When times are tough, some workers think. “I’m going to hunker down and hope that nobody notices me, because I don’t want to be on a layoff list,” said Richard Phillips, owner of Advantage Career Solutions. This is a mistake, because you’re unlikely to get a raise if no one knows what you have accomplished. “If anything, what you want to do is be more visible.”

 * Make your boss’s life easier. This means everything from having a good attitude to taking on extra tasks. If you don’t know how you can help your boss, ask.

* Ask for a raise. Talk to your boss and present your case: Here’s what I’ve done, here’s how it fits with the company’s goals, and here is why I think it’s worth a salary increase. In some cases, even if your company has an official raise freeze, you can get a raise if you make good case.

  If the answer is no -- or if you’re not ready to ask directly -- Phillips suggests asking, “What would you like to see from me that would put me in line for a raise?”

A question like this can improve your standing. “Just asking the question says to the boss, ‘I’m thinking about where I fit in here, what I can do,” Phillips said, “That in and of itself has value.”

The passage is mostly from a\an________.

A. novel                                                   B. science fiction       

C. magazine                                              D. biography

Employers have raised workers’ salaries by about _______percent in 2007.

A. 4                      B. 2.1                   C. 2.7               D. 10

If you want to get a raise, the most important thing you should keep in your mind is to ______.

A. have your job done well                        B. be visible everywhere as possible as you can

C. ask your boss for a raise directly           D. change your job

All the statements are true except________.

A. the situation has improved but the job market is still weak

B. salary increases should recover as the economy does

C. producing high-quality work will surely help you get a raise

D. that in and off an employee makes no difference

       Justin’s bedroom was so full of flat bicycle tires, bent tennis rackets, deflated（瘪掉的）basketballs, and games with missing pieces that you could barely get in the door. His parents pleaded with him to clean out his room.

       “What use is a fish tank with a hole in the bottom?” his father asked. But Justin simply smiled and repeated his motto, “Never throw anything out, you never know when it might come in handy.”

       When Justin was away from home, he always carried his blue backpack--a smaller version of his bedroom--a place to store the many objects that he collected. It was so worn and stretched that it hardly resembled a backpack anymore.

       Justin had earned a reputation for figuring things out and getting people out of otherwise hopeless situations. Many of his classmates and neighbors sought him out when they needed help with a problem. On the first day of school, his friend Kenny, came looking for Justin.

       “Do you think you have something in your bag that could help me remember my locker combination?” he asked. “I lost the piece of paper it was written on. I have a science class in two minutes and if I'm late on the first day it’ll make me look bad for the rest of the year.” Kenny looked really worried.

       “Relax,” Justin said, taking his backpack off and unzipping the top. “Remember how you borrowed my notebook in homeroom to write the combination down? Well, I know how we can recover what you wrote.”

       He took the notebook and a soft lead pencil out of his bag. The page that Kenny had written on had left faint marks on another page in the notebook. Justin held the pencil on its side and rubbed it lightly over the marks. Slowly but surely the numbers of the locker combination appeared in white, set off by the gray pencil rubbings.

       “That's amazing!” Kenny said. “I owe you one.” And he dashed off to open his locker.

       It was just another day in the life of the boy whose motto was “Never throw anything out, you never know when it might come in handy.”

1.Why is Justin's room such a mess?

    A. He always forgets to clean it.               B. He shares the room with his brother.

    C. He has no time to clean it.                 D. He never throws anything away.

2.In what way is Justin’s backpack a smaller version of his bedroom?

    A. He uses it as a place to store objects.

    B. He uses it to carry his books and sports equipment.

    C. His parents tell him to clean it all the time.

    D. He's had it for as long as he can remember.

3. The underlined phrase "pleaded with" means

    A. ignored               B. asked             C. pushed              D. Ordered

4.How does Kenny feel toward Justin?

A. Annoyed.     B. Disinterested.             C. Grateful.         D. Angry.

A woman decorating her Christmas tree Monday was shot in her left arm when a bullet went through her living room window．Police said the incident occurred at about 5:00 p.m. A .22 caliber shell（口径的弹壳） casing was found across the street from the victim's home．Police did not find a weapon in the neighborhood．

Mrs．Wilma Johnson was treated at a local hospital and allowed to go home．A hospital spokesman said she should recover nicely．She is in her late 50s, divorced, and living with Bob, the older of her two adult sons．Bob wasn’t home at the time of the shooting．

Police will patrol the area more frequently as a result of this shooting．They don't know if the shooting was intentional or accidental．They are asking the public to help if they know anything．They interviewed the neighbors．One neighbor said he heard a gunshot, but in this neighborhood, he said, he was used to hearing gunshots．

The police also questioned Mrs．Johnson’s ex-husband, Joe, who lives three blocks away．Joe said if he was going to shoot at his ex-wife, he’d make sure he shot her in her butt（头）．“That’s a target you could hit from a mile away as she is like a Tele-tubby.” he laughed．Despite such remarks, the police spokesperson said Joe is not a suspect at this time．

What was the woman doing when she was shot?

       A．She was decorating her room．                    B． She was cooking dinner．

       C．She was sleeping in her room.      D． She was decorating her Christmas tree．

Where is Mrs. Wilma Johnson now ?

       A．She is in hospital．                                 B． She is at home．

       C．She is in another world.                           D． She is in a funeral．    

Which of the following is true according to the third paragraph?

       A．Some neighbors saw the gunman by accident.

       B．The police found the gunman soon after the gunshot．

       C．There used to be gunshots in the area.

       D．The gunshot happened by intention.

What was her ex-husband’s words “That’s a target you could hit from a mile away”?

       A. His ex-wife was too fat                                 B．He still loved his ex-wife．

       C．She was sensitive to anything.                     D． He hated his ex-wife．