閱讀下列材料，從每題所給的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)（A、B、C和D）中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)。

A                                                                               

     A woman from Japan was telling a friend about her trip to the United States. The woman had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City and Chicago.

“I studied English before I left home,” she said. “But I still was not sure that people were speaking English.”

 Her problem is easy to understand. Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere. They have a language of their own. Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work. Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry.

One such saying is “get your act together”.

When things go wrong in a business, an employer may get angry. He may shout, “Stop making mistakes. Get your act together.

Or, if the employer is calmer, he may say, “Let us get our act together.” Either way, the meaning is the same. Getting your act together is getting organized. In business, it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action.

It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began. But, it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry. Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes. The director may have said, “Calm down, now. Get your act together.”

Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late 1970s. Mister Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in 1978. The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together.

Now, this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet. One company even called its yearly report, “Getting Our Act Together.”

The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people. It is “cut to the chase”.

She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one company. One official was giving a very long report. It was not very interesting. In fact, some people at the meeting were falling asleep.

Finally, the president of the company said, “Cut to the chase.”

Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant material. Hurry and get to the good part.

Naturally, this saying was started by people who make movies. Hollywood movie producers believe that most Americans want to see action movies. Many of their movies show scenes in which the actors chase each other in cars, or in airplanes or on foot。

Cut is the director’s word for stop. The director means to stop filming, leave out some material, and get to the chase scene now.

So, if your employer tells you to cut to the chase, be sure to get to the main point of your story quickly.

1. After the woman visited the United States she might feel that __________.

   A. it’s difficult to make money        B. It’s easy to master English

   C. her English was poor             D. people there weren’t very friendly

2. In which situation could the words “get your act together” be used?

   A. Visitors make a tiresome and unpleasant trip to someplace.

   B. Players perform badly in a match.

   C. Audience is satisfied with the actor’s performance in a movie.

   D. A task is completed successfully

3. According to the text, the expression “get one’s act together” __________.

   A. was first used by a Japanese business woman

   B. was commonly read by readers in a newspaper in 1978.

   C. originally came from a yearly report of a company

   D. was forbidden to be used in the government policy

4. What do the sayings “get your act together” and “cut to t he chase” have in common?

   A. their origins  B. Their meanings   C. Their uses    D. their popularities

5. The text is most likely to be found in a book about _________.

   A. life attitude              B. travel journals   

C. successful business       D. language culture

                                       B

No woman can be too rich or too thin. This saying often attributed to the late Duchess of Windsor embodies much of the odd spirit of our times. Being thin is deemed as such a virtue. The                                  

problem with such a view is that some people actually attempt to live by it. I myself have fantasies of slipping into narrow designer clothes. Consequently, I have been on a diet for the better—or worse—part of my life. Being rich wouldn’t be bad either, but that won’t happen unless an unknown relative dies suddenly in some distant land, leaving me millions of dollars. Where did we go off the track? When did eating butter become a sin, and a little bit of extra flesh unappealing, if not repellent? All religions have certain days when people refrain from eating and excessive eating is one of Christianity’s seven deadly sins. However, until quite recently, most people had a problem getting enough to eat. In some religious groups, wealth was a symbol of probable salvation and high morals, and fatness a sign of wealth and well—being. Today the opposite is true. We have shifted to thinness as our new mark of virtue. The result is that being fat –or even only somewhat overweight—is bad because it implies a lack of moral strength.

Our obsession(迷戀) with thinness is also fueled by health concerns. It is true that in this country we have more overweight people than ever before, and that, in many cases, being overweight correlates with an increased risk of heart and blood vessel disease. These diseases. , however, may as much to do with  our way of life and our high—fat diets as with excess weight. And the associated risk of cancer in the digestive system may be more of a dietary problem—too much fat and a lack of fiber—than a weight problem. The real concern, then, is not what we weight too much, but that we neither exercise enough nor eat well. Exercise is necessary for strong bones and both heart and lung health. A balanced diet without a lot of fat can also help the body avoid many diseases. We should surely stop paying so much attention to weight. Simply being thin is not enough. It is actually hazardous if those who (or already are) thin think they are automatically healthy and thus free from paying attention to their overall life—style. Thinness can be pure vainglory(虛榮).

6. In the eyes of the author, an odd phenomenon nowadays is that _______________.

A. the Duchess of Windsor is regarded as a woman of virtue

B. looking slim is a symbol of having a large fortune

C being thin is viewed as a much desired quality

D religious people are not necessarily virtuous

7. Swept by the prevailing trend, the author ______.

A. had to go on a diet for the greater part of her life

B. could still prevent herself from going off the track

C. had to seek help from rich distant relatives

D. had to wear highly fashionable clothes

8. In human history, people’s views on body weight _______

A.. were closely related to their religious beliefs        B. changed from time to time

C. varied between the poor and the rich               D. led to different moral standard

9. The author criticizes women’s obsession with thinness _______-.

A． from an economic and educational perspective

B. from sociological and medical points of view

C from a historical and religious standpoint

D. in the light of moral principles

10. What’s the author’s advice to women who are absorbed in the idea of thinness?

A They should be more concerned with their overall life style.

B They should be more watchful for fatal diseases.

C They should gain weight to look healthy

D They should rid themselves of fantasies about designer clothes

C

The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby maintains that separation from the parents during the sensitive “attachment” period from birth to three may scar a child's personality and predispose to emotional problems in later life. Some people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlby's work that children should not be subjected to day care before the age of three because of the parental separation it entails， and many people do believe this. But there are also arguments against such a strong conclusion.

　  Firstly, anthropologists point out that the insulated love affair between children and parents found in modern societies does not usually exist in traditional societies. For example， we saw earlier that among the Ngoni the father and mother of a child did not rear their infant alone——far from it.

Secondly， common sense tells us that day care would not so widespread today if parents， caretakers found children had problems with it. Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out， and even if they were， the results would be certain to be complicated and controversial.

Thirdly， in the last decade， there have been a number of careful American studies of children in day care， and they have reported that day care had a neutral or slightly positive effect on children's development. But tests that have had to be used to measure this development are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue. But Bowlby's analysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects. The possibility that such care might lead to, say，more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later can only be explored by the use of statistics.

Whatever the long-term effects, parents sometimes find the immediate effects difficult to deal with. Children under three are likely to protest at leaving their parents and show unhappiness. At the age of three or three and a half almost all children find the transition to nursery easy，and this is undoubtedly why more and more parents make use of child care at this time. The matter， then，is far from clear-cut，though experience and available evidence indicate that early care is reasonable for infants.

11.This passage primarily argues that ___.
A infants under the age of three should not be sent to nursery schools.
B whether children under the age of three should be sent to nursery schools.
C there is not negative long-term effect on infants who are sent to school before they are three.
D there is some negative effect on children when they are sent to school after the age of three.

12.The phrase “predispose to” （Para. 1，line 2） most probably means ___.
A tend to suffer      B get into       C get into dispose to        D lead to

13.According to Bowlby's analysis，it is quite possible that ___.

A Children's personalities will be changed to some extent through separation from their parents.

B children will be exposed to many negative effects from early day care later on.

C early day care can delay the occurrence of mental illness in children.                                     
D some long-term effects can hardly be reduced from children's development.

14.It is implied but not stated in the second paragraph that ___.
A traditional societies separate the child from the parent at an early age.
B Children in modern societies cause more troubles than those in traditional societies.
C A child did not live together with his parents among the Ngoni.
D Children in some societies did not have emotional problems when separated from the parents.

15.The writer concludes that ___.
A it is difficult to make clear what is the right age for nursery school.
B It is not settled now whether early care is reasonable for children.
C It is not beneficial for children to be sent to nursery school.
D It is reasonable to subject a child above three to nursery school.

                                      D

There’s an energy crisis in America, and it has nothing to do with fossil fuels. Millions of us get up each morning already weary over the day holds. “I just can’t get started.” People say. But it’s not physical energy that most of us lack. Sure, we could all use extra sleep and a better diet. But in truth, people are healthier today than at any time in history. I can almost guarantee that if you long for more energy, the problem is not with your body.

What you’re seeking is not physical energy. It’s emotional energy. Yet, sad to say life sometimes seems designed to exhaust our supply. We work too hard. We have family obligations (義務(wù)). We encounter (遭遇) emergencies and personal crises. No wonder so many of us suffer from emotional fatigue (疲勞), a kind of utter exhaustion of the spirit.

And yet we all know people who are filled with joy, despite the unpleasant circumstances of their lives. Even as a child I observed people who were poor or disabled or ill, but who nevertheless faced life with optimism and vigor (活力). Consider Laura Hillenbrand, who despite

an extremely weak bo dy wrote the best-seller Seabiscuit. Hillenbrand barely had enough physical energy to drag herself out of bed to write. But she was fueled by having a story she wanted to share. It was emotional energy that helped her succeed. Unlike physical energy, which is finite (有限的) and diminishes (減少) with age, emotional energy is unlimited and has nothing t o do with genes or upbringing. So how do you get it? You can’t simply tell yourself to be positive. You must take action. Here are six practical strategies that work.

1. Do something new.

Very little that’s new occurs in our lives. The impact of this sameness on our emotional energy is gradual, but huge: It’s like a tire(輪胎) with a slow leak（漏）. You don’t notice it at first, but eventually you’ll get a flat. It’s up to you to plug the leak—even though there are always a dozen reasons to stay stuck in your dull routines of life. That’s where Maura, 36, a waitress, found herself a year ago. Fortunately, Maura had a lifeline—a group of women friends who meet

regularly to discuss their lives. Their lively discussions spurred Maura to make small but nevertheless life altering changes. She joined a gym in the next town. She changed her look with a

short haircut and new black T-shirts. Eventually, Maura gathered the courage to quit her job and start her own business. Here’s a challenge: If it’s something you wouldn’t ordinarily do, do it. Try

a dish you’ve never eaten. Listen to music you’d ordinarily tune out. You’ll discover these small things add to your emotional energy.

2. Reclaim life’s meaning.                        

So many of my patients tell me that their lives used to have meaning, but that somewhere along the line things went stale (厭倦的). The first step in solving this meaning shortage is to figure out what you really care about, and then do something about it. A case in point is Ivy, 57, a pioneer in investment banking. “I mistakenly believed that all the money I made would mean something.” she says. “But I feel lost, like a 22-year-old wondering what to do with her life.” Ivy’s solution? She started a program that shows Wall Streeters how to donate time and money to poor children. In the process, Ivy filled her life with meaning.

3. Put yourself in the fun zone.

Most of us grown-ups are seriously fun-deprived（缺乏的）. High-energy people have the same day-to-day work as the rest of us, but they manage to find something enjoyable in every situation. A real estate broker I know keeps herself amused on the job by mentally redecorating the houses she shows to clients（客戶）. “I love imagining what even the most run-down house could look like with a little tender loving care,” she says. “It’s a challenge—and the least desirable properties are usually the most fun.” We all define fun differently, of course, but I can guarantee this: If you put just a bit of it into your day, you energy will increase quickly.

4. Bid farewell （告別）to guilt and regret.

Everyone’s past is filled with regrets that still cause pain. But from an emotional energy point of view, they are dead weights that keep us from moving forward. While they can’t merely be willed away, I do recommend you remind yourself that whatever happened in the past, nothing can change that. Holding on to the memory only allows the damage to continue into the present.

5. Make up your mind.

Say you’ve been thinking about cutting your hair short. Will it look stylish—or too extreme? You endlessly think it over. Having the decision hanging over your head is a huge energy drain. Every time you can’t decide, you burden yourself with alternatives. Quit thinking that you have to make the right decision; instead, make a choice and don’t look back.

6. Give to get.

Emotional energy has a kind of magical quality: the more you give, the more you get back. This is the difference between emotional and physical energy with the latter. You have to get it to be able to give it. With the former, however, you get it by giving it. Start by asking everyone you meet, “How are you?” as if you really want to know, and then listen to the reply. Be the one who hears. Most of us also need to smile more often. If you don’t smile at the person you love first thing in the morning, you’re sucking energy out of your relationship. Finally, help another person—and make the help real, concrete. Give a massage to someone you love, or cook her dinner, then, expand the circle to work. Try asking yourself what you’d do if your goal were to be helpful rather than efficient. After all, if it’s true that what goes around comes around, why not make sure that what’s circulating around you is the good stuff?

16. Laura Hillenbrand is an example quoted to show how ________ in life.

A. physical energy can contribute to one’s unsuccess

B. emotional energy can contribute to one’s success

C. physical energy can contribute to one’s success

D. emotional energy can contribute to one’s unsuccess

17. The author believes emotional energy is ________.

A. inherited and genetically determined       B. related to inherited and genes

C. not inherited and genetically determined    D. related to inherited and upbringing

18. Even small changes people make in their lives ________ their emotional energy.

A. cannot help control                 B. cannot help increase  

C. can help control                   D. can help increase

19. Ivy filled her life with meaning by launching a program to ________.

A. help herself     B. teach herself     C. teach poor children     D. help poor children

20. The real-estate broker the author knows enjoyed ________.

A. redecorating the houses             B. mentally redecorating the houses

C. the same day-to-day work           D. defining fun differently

CDBAD     CABBA                  BBBCD               BCDDB