Short Answer Questions. 
Directions: The following 2 questions are based on Passage Four in this test paper. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly by referring back to Passage Four. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.

     English people are less genetically diverse today than they were in the days of the Vikings, possibly due to two deadly diseases that swept their country centuries ago, a new study says.
     The study compared DNA from ancient and modem Englanders and found that the country has a smaller gene pool than it did a thousand years ago.
     The findings come in contrast to modem England’s reputation as a cultural melting pot, where in many major cities you are as likely to hear Urdu from India or Yoruba from Nigeria being spoken on the streets as English. 
     Rus Hoelzel, a geneticist from the Britain’s University of Durham, and his colleagues obtained DNA samples from the skeletal remains of 48 ancient Britons who lived between A. D. 300 and 1000. The researchers studied the DNA, which was passed down from mothers to their children. By comparing the DNA with that of thousands of people from various ethnic backgrounds living in England today, they found that genetic diversity was greater in the ancient population. The team also compared the ancient DNA with samples from people living in continental Europe and the Middle East, and found a similar lack of genetic variety.
     One possible explanation for this narrowing of diversity might be two major outbreaks of plague that swept England and much of Europe — the Black Death (1347 — 1351) and the Great Plague (1665 — 1666).
     The Black Death epidemic is estimated to have killed as much as 50 percent of the population of Europe. Three centuries later, a fifth of the population of London died in the Great Plague. However, these diseases didn’t kill randomly, Hoelzel explained. “The plague killed some people while others remained resistant,” he said.
     Eske Willerslev, a specialist in ancient DNA from the University of Copenhagen, said he is surprised by the findings but agrees that the historic epidemics may explain the loss in diversity.
     Since the diseases, it appears that England hasn’t been able to make up the loss to the gene pool, despite the high rate of immigration into the country over the past 200 years.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
The following questions are based on Passage below. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly by referring back to Passage 4. Write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. 

     When the American Association of University Professors（AAUP）was organized in 1915, its founders proclaimed an ideal of academic freedom as essential to the definition of a university. At first some academic administrators resisted aspects of the due process in hiring and firing that the AAUP insisted; but within the next two decades academic freedom, more or less as the AAUP had defined it, was widely accepted. By 1940 when an important restatement of the AAUP principles was widely adopted, the ideal had become a standard assumption in American academic thought. Certainly by the end of the era of the early 1950s academic freedom had attained sacred status among professors and was spoken of as though it were an ancient absolute associated with universities since the ancient time.
     The direct inspiration for the modern American conception of academic freedom came, however from Germany, or at least from the romanticized（理想化的）impressions of Germany that the many thousands of American academics who studied there brought back with them. Particularly important for the American organizers of the academic profession after 1890 was the German Lehrfreiheit（教学自由）, referring to freedom for university professors.
     In Germany this freedom included, first, the rights for professors to teach whatever they chose with a minimum of administrative regulations and, second, the freedom to conduct one's research and to report one's findings in lectures and publications without external restraint. The Americans typically understood Lehrfreiheit as the modern ideal that truth is progressive and that for science to advance it must be freed from tradition and assumption. In 19th century Germany this outlook was associated with the term Wissenschaft（科学）, which meant more than just the English word "science," suggesting an ideal scientific research for truth. German Protestant universities only gradually won full approval of such autonomy, including freedom from occasional Christian church interference.
     Nonetheless, they were always far in advance of American schools and by the time of the establishment of the German Empire Lehrfreiheir had become a legal practice protected by law. It controlled the universities and protected them from direct interference of other interests. In a society far more conscious of status than the United States, Lehrfreiheit did not suggest any general commitment to freedom for all citizens. Once the wider applications of modern Lehrfreiheit were accepted, they were proclaimed as essential to any institution calling itself a "university."

The following questions are based on the below passage. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly.

（1）Everyone is trying to convince you of something. And you spend a lot of time trying to decide what you should do, that is, trying to convince yourself. Thinking critically is a defense against a world of too much information and too many people trying to convince us. But it is more. Reasoning is what distinguishes us from beasts. Many of them can see better, can hear better, and are stronger. But they cannot plan, they cannot think through, they cannot discuss in the hopes of understanding better.
（2）A student majoring in anthropology（人类学）took the course of critical thinking. Then he went over his term paper, analyzing it as we would in class, and made some changes in it. He showed me the professors' comments, which were roughly "Beautifully reasoned, clear. A+." He said it was the first A+ he'd ever gotten. I can't promise that you'll get an A on all your term papers after taking this course. But you'll be able to comprehend better what you're reading and write more clearly and convincingly.（3）Once in a while I'll tune into a sports talk show on the radio. All kinds of people call in. Some of them talk nonsense, but more often the comments are clear and well reasoned. The callers know the details, the facts, and make serious projections （推测）about what might be the best strategy based on past experience. They comment on what caused a team to win or lose; they reason with great skill and reject bad arguments. I expect that you can too, at least on subjects you consider important. What we hope to do in this course is hone（磨炼）that skill, sharpen your judgment, and show you that the methods of evaluating reasoning apply to much in your life.（4）In trying to understand how to reason well, we ll also study bad ways to convince, ways we wish to avoid, ways that misuse emotions or rely on deception. You could use that knowledge to become a bad trial lawyer, but I hope you will learn a love of reasoning well, for it is not just ethical to reason well; it is more effective in the long run. Critical thinking is part of the study of philosophy: the love of wisdom. We might not reach the truth, but we can be searchers, lovers of wisdom, and treat others as if they are, too.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
The following questions are based on the below passage. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly.
     My friend's ten-year-old daughter Julia has a new hobby. Like many of her school pals, she hopes to become a video blogger——"a vlogger". She's started to record clips of herself for others to watch and "like". She showed me a few, and then gave me a list of famous vloggers to watch. Their names sounded so bizarre. But they are totally familiar to teenage girls.
Like an earnest marketing executive, Julia explained to me that it was all a matter of numbers. If her videos are viewed 40,000 times on YouTube, she can have advertisements placed on them; 100,000, and companies would start sending her products to promote. One million and she'd be a YouTube star.
     This seemed a peculiar phenomenon but Julia is not alone. In fact, her dream is perfectly normal for her generation: one in three children between the ages of 11 and 16 have uploaded a video to YouTube. Who can blame them? Vlogging can now be a well-paid career. Unlike the more traditional dream jobs——pop star, doctor, footballer, scientist——it doesn't take much effort. All it requires is a smartphone and gallons of youthful self-confidence.
     There're plenty of people with that. The 27-year-old British vlogger Zoella has made millions from her channel. Ryan, the six-year-old American host of the YouTube channel RyanToysReview, made ₤8.5 million last year from reviewing toys and sweets.
     Popular genres on YouTube are the "haul video"——where a vlogger reviews recently received items——and the "unboxing video", in which products are opened and then discussed. The message is: "I've got this, and you haven't." And then comes, "here's where to buy it". What the vloggers seem to have worked out is that the internet is a giant sales opportunity.
     Not every girl can be Zoella, so the real winners are the tech companies, who are constantly improving their systems to extract the maximum revenue from their audiences. They are keen to show their desire to help protect children from the darker areas of the internet. "YouTube Kids" is an app (应用软件) which is meant to filter out inappropriate videos, but that is easier said than done. Algorithms (计算程序) haven't yet developed the moral sense to know what is good for children.
     My friend said she was concerned about her daughter's vlogging but that it was difficult to intervene, for most girls in her class were obsessed with it. The girls all hope they might earn millions, travel the world and become famous.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
The following questions are based on the below passage. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly.

    I rolled my eyes as I watched a mom help her five-year-old daughter out of the pool: "Honey, you're amazing. You'll be the next Olympian!" In reality, she swam more like a struggling pigeon than an elegant swan, but the daughter beamed with confidence. This example illustrates the problem with our know-it-all generation. We're programmed to enjoy compliments, and our gears break down when we encounter a new type of software: criticism.
    Praise can be necessary for boosting confidence. However, my generation is offered it to the point of overkill. The gold stars on papers with poor scores and the unspoken promise of ice cream after any "accomplishment" fuel a desire for meaningless compliments. Elders essentially worship children until we become condescending (目空一切的) persons; then students run home complaining about teachers who don't use sweet words, and their parents become verbal punching bags. It has become vicious cycle.
    Aside from the feeling of great satisfaction, this addiction invites arrogance. The teenage attitude—eye-rolling, attention-drawing—is a product of this cycle. Protected by flattery (谄媚), children develop a feeling of perfection.
    We're so self-involved that we don't believe criticism has a place in our lives. Even "constructive criticism" is often a code word for praise. It is vital that we become comfortable with the harsh comments others throw at us and take them at their face value. They aren't invisible weapons, but rather small doses of reality to help us better ourselves.
    Raised in a culture filled with constant praise, it is hard not to yield to the sense of self-worth. It is important to realize that self-esteem is dramatically different from ego. Psychologist Jean Twenge recommends humility (谦逊), self-evaluation, mindfulness, and thinking of others as a cure for this sense of entitlement. Cutting ourselves off from the constant praise will drastically change the way we perceive ourselves and those around us—an important step to reversing this epidemic.
    Before we can set goals for solving poverty, establishing peace, or eliminating any worldly troubles, we must first address the critical faults within ourselves. We are nothing close to the flawlessness we believe we represent, and we must embrace criticism. My generation is wearing horse blinders. Unless we reverse this vicious cycle, our world will still retain its false "perfection".

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

The following questions are based on the below passage. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly.

     In 1575, the French scholar Louis LeRoy published a learned book in which he voiced despair over the changes caused by the social and technological innovations of his time, what we now call the Renaissance. We also feel that our times are out of order; we even have reason to believe that our descendants will be worse off than we are.
     The earth will soon be overcrowded and its resources exhausted. Pollution will ruin the environment, upset the climate, and damage human health. The gap in living standards between the rich and the poor will widen and lead the angry, hungry people of the world to acts of desperation including the use of nuclear weapons as blackmail. Such are the inevitable consequences of population and technological growth if present trends continue.
     The future is never a projection（投射）of the past. Animals probably have no chance to escape the tyranny of biological evolution, but human beings are blessed with the freedom of social evolution. For us, trend is not destiny. The escape from existing trends is now facilitated by the fact that societies anticipate future dangers and take preventive steps against expected changes.
     Despite the widespread belief that the world has become too complex for comprehension by the human brain, modern societies have often responded effectively to critical situations. The decrease in birth rates, the partial prohibition of pesticides and the rethinking of technologies of the production and use of energy are but a few examples illustrating a sudden reversal of trends caused not by political upsets or scientific breakthroughs, but by public awareness of consequences.
     Even more striking are the situations in which social attitudes concerning future difficulties undergo rapid changes before the problems have arisen. There have been the heated arguments about the problems of behavior control and of genetic engineering, even though these is as yet no proof that effective methods can be developed to manipulate behavior and genes a population scale.
     One of the characteristics of our times is thus the rapidity with which steps can be taken to change the orientation of certain trends and even to reverse them. Such changes usually emerge from grassroots movements rather than from official directives.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
The following questions are based on the below passage. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly.
    Languages are considered endangered when their last fluent speakers reach old age and when children are no longer learning it as their primary tongue. UNESCO reveals that 18 of the world's 2,464 officially "endangered" languages have just one living speaker. With the exception of just three, these are all based in the so-called "global south". Economic, political, cultural and social power is held by those who speak the "majority languages" while those that don't are often marginalized and under pressure to shift towards learning a more "global" language.
    Not all people experiencing language shift feel marginalized though. Many Nigerians, for example, happily embrace the use of English as a world language, viewing it as progressive. Others, however, see their native language as a significant marker of ethnic and national identity. Nigerian artist AdéBantu expressed this in his song, criticizing the Nigerian school system which prohibits children from speaking their native languages.
    Tribalingual founder, Inky Gibbens, began her social mission to "save, preserve and support" rare cultures and traditions after discovering that the native language of her grandparents—Buryat, a dialect of Mongolia—was classified as "severely endangered" by UNESCO and finding that there was no means of learning it online.
    Some people suggest that there are three categories of response to language endangerment: Do nothing, document languages before they disappear, or promote language revitalization (复兴). Scholars have since considered a fourth response, which aims to examine the causes of language endangerment and promote sustainable (可持续性的) environments for them.
    However, the majority of funding goes into recording rather than revitalizing endangered languages. A core belief at Tribalingual is that the only means of saving languages and cultures is by teaching them. Documenting alone risks reducing rare languages to "static objects," as they are denied the chance to thrive in practice.
    "When I founded Tribalingual, I wanted to have a minimum viable product to take to market and test my assumption that there were people out there actually interested in learning about unique languages and cultures," Gibbens says. "Through my network I found people who were passionately committed to preserving and teaching their culture and language. Luckily for us, there were also many learners who share our excitement about culture and language."
    According to Gibbens, Tribalingual "is fast becoming a global network of culture and language enthusiasts who are passionate about preserving our world's diversity." As the "first online learning platform for teaching rare and endangered languages," it treats all languages and cultures equally, regardless of socio-political situation.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS 

The following questions are based on the below passage. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly.

​     I was supposed to have been a nice, church-going Swiss housewife, but I ended up a psychiatrist in the American Southwest for my belief in the power of unconditional love that set me to work with AIDS-infected patients. 

     I was destined to work with dying patients, I had no choice when I encountered my first AIDS patient. I felt called to travel some 250,000 miles each year to hold workshops that helped people cope with the most painful aspects of life, death and the transition between the two.
     Later in my life, I was compelled to buy a 300-acre farm in rural Virginia, and I poured all the money I earned from publishing and lectures into making it a reality. I constructed a healing center where I held workshops, allowing me to cut down on my busy travel schedule. I was planning to adopt AIDS-infected babies, who would enjoy however many days remained of their lives in the splendor of the outdoors. After announcing my intention of adopting AIDS-infected babies, I became the most despised(厌恶) person in the whole Shenandoah Valley, and even though I soon abandoned my plans, there was a group of men who did everything in their power short of killing me to get me to leave. They fired bullets through my windows and shot at my animals.
     The simple life on the farm was everything to me. The fields rolled out as far as I could see.Ancient trees offered their silent wisdom.
     Then, on October 6, 1994, my house was set on fire. It burned down to the ground and all my papers were destroyed. Everything I owned turned to ash.
     I was hurrying through the airport in Baltimore, trying to catch a plane home, when I got the news that it was on fire. The friend who told me begged me not to go home, not yet. But my whole life I had been told not to become a doctor, not to talk with dying patients, not to start an AIDS hospice(临终养老院), and each time I had stubbornly(倔强地)done what felt right rather than what was expected.
That is how I have lived. If I am opinionated and independent, if I am stuck in my ways so what? That is me.

Short Answer Questions
The following 2 questions are based on the following passage. Read the passage carefully again and answer the questions briefly. 

    Evidence that pesticides have long-term deadly effects on human beings has started to accumulate, and recently Robert Finch, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, expressed his extreme worries about the pesticide situation. Simultaneously the petrochemical industry continues its unconscious poison-selling. For instance, Shell Chemical has been carrying on a high-pressure campaign to sell the insecticide Azodrin to farmers as a killer of cotton pests. They continue their programme even though they know that Azodrin is not only ineffective, but often increases the pest density. They’ve covered themselves nicely in an advertisement which states “Even if an overpowering migration develops, the flexibility of Azodrin lets you regain control fast. Just increase the dosage according to label recommendations.” It’s a great game-get people to apply the poison and kill the natural enemies of the insects. Then blame the increased insects on “migration” and sell even more pesticide!
     Right now fisheries are being wiped out by over-exploitation, made easy by modern electronic equipment. The companies producing the equipment know this. They even boast in advertising that only their equipment will keep fishermen in business until the final kill. Profits must obviously be maximized in the short run. Indeed, Western society is in the process of completing the destruction of the planet for economic gain: And, sadly, most of the rest of the world is eager for the opportunity to imitate our behavior. But the underdeveloped peoples will be denied that opportunity一the days of robbing the planet of its resources are drawing surely to a close.
     Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest disaster in the history of man have already been born. Both worldwide disaster and thermonuclear war are made more probable as population growth continues. These, along with famine, make up the trio of potential “death rate solutions” the population problem—solutions in which the birth rate-death rate imbalance is redressed by a rise in the death rate rather than by a lowering of the birth rate. Make no mistake about it, the imbalance will be set right. The shape of the population—growth curve is one familiar to the biologist. It is the outbreak part of an outbreak—crash sequence. A population grows rapidly in the presence of abundant resources, finally runs out of food or some other necessity, and crashes to alarm level or dies out. Man is not only running out of food, he is also destroying the life support systems of the spaceship Earth.

CAREFUL READING 

Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer.

     In the 1950s, the Sami of Finland had an economy based on fishing and reindeer herding (放养驯鹿), which provided most of the food. Reindeer had several other important economic and social functions. They were used as animals to haul wood for fuel. Their hides were made into clothing. Reindeer were also key items of exchange, both in external trade and internal gift-giving. A child was given a reindeer to mark the appearance of its first tooth. When a couple became engaged, they exchanged a reindeer with each other and when they married, reindeer were the most important wedding gift. 

     By the 1960s, all this had changed because of the introduction of the snowmobile. After that, the herds were no longer kept closely domesticated (围养) for part of the year, during which they became tame. Instead, they were allowed to roam freely all year and thus became wilder. On snowmobiles, the men covered larger amounts of territory at round-up (把牲畜赶回畜栏）time to bring in the animals, and sometimes several round-ups occurred instead of one.
     Herd size declined dramatically. Reasons for the decline included the stress caused to the reindeer by the extra distance traveled during round-ups and the tear aroused by the noisy snowmobiles. Round-ups were now held at a time when the females were near the end of their pregnancy, another factor causing reproductive stress. As the number of snowmobiles increased, the number of reindeer decreased. 

     Another economic change involved the dependence on the outside through links to the cash economy. Cash was needed in order to purchase a snowmobile, gasoline, and to pay for parts and repairs. This led to social inequality, which had not existed previously: the cash cost of effective participation in herding exceeded the resources of some families, who had to drop out of serious participation in herding; the use of snowmobiles changed the age pattern of reindeer herding in favor of youth over age; thus, older herders were squeezed out; the snowmobile pushed many Sami into debt; the dependence on cash and indebtedness forced many Sami to migrate to cities for work.

Speed Reading

Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer. 

     Where did the movies begin? It is often said that they are an American invention, but this is not entirely true. The motion picture has been the most international of arts before the dawn of the 20th century. 
     Soon after 1889, when the famous American inventor Thomas Edison first showed motion pictures through a device called the kinetoscope, other devices for the same purpose appeared all over the world. One other important contribution by Edison was the introduction of 35mm as the international standard film width. When it became possible to use any 35mm machine for showing movies from any part of the world, the international trading of films could begin. 
     During the first years, there were no special movie theaters. Films were often shown in buildings which had formerly been stores. In America, these became known as nickelodeons because each member of the audience paid a nickel (five cents) to watch the movie. 
     At first, movies pleased people just because the experience of watching them was new. In the black and white shadows, one could see larger-than-life images of reality and they moved! But images alone cannot keep people interested forever. Then cameras were taken to South Africa and Cuba to photograph wars in action. Prizefights were filmed, and so were religious processions. But none of these attractions could please the crowds for long. 
     What gave the movies the possibility of becoming an art form was the introduction of narrative. Someone realized that a film could tell a story. 
     Edwin S. Porter was a director and cameraman for Thomas Edison’s company. He advanced the art of the film by a giant step when, in 1903, he produced The Great Train Robbery. Although this account of a mail robbery and the pursuit of the robbers was very simple, it required the filming of several different locations. The result was a film that not only shifted freely from place to place but even enabled viewers to see two actions that occurred at the same time. They watched the robbers escape and then saw the pursuers gathering for the pursuit. Within this brief, eight-minute movie lay the seeds of a true art form. 
     In 1908, Biograph, a small film company in New York, employed a man who was to become the first true genius of motion pictures. He was D. W. Griffith, an unsuccessful actor and writer of plays, who had worked briefly for Porter. Griffith preferred writing to acting, but at Biograph he worked as a writer, an actor and a director. In less than five years, he directed almost 300 pictures, raised Biograph to a leading position among film companies, and laid the foundations for modern film art.

SPEED READING

Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer. 

     Ever since humans have inhabited the earth, they have made use of various forms of communication. Generally, this expression of thoughts and feelings has been in the form of oral speech. When there is a language barrier, communication is accomplished through sign language in which motions stand for letters, words and ideas. Tourists, the deaf, and the mute have had to resort to this form of expression. Many of these symbols are very colorful and exact and can be used internationally; spelling, however, cannot.
     Body language transmits ideas or thoughts by certain actions, either intentionally or unintentionally. A wink can be a way of flirting or indicating that the party is only joking. A nod signifies approval, while shaking the head indicates a negative reaction. 

    Other forms of nonlinguistic language can be found in Braille (a system of raised dots read with the fingertips), signal flags, Morse code, and smoke signals. Road maps and picture signs also guide, warn and instruct people.
     While verbalization is the most common form of language, other systems and techniques also express human thoughts and feelings.

SPEED READING

Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer. 

     American workers continue to demand shorter and shorter working hours each week. The possibility of a four-day working week is now being seriously considered; some companies are already experimenting with it. Since machines have helped to reduce the time needed for work, at the office, factory, and in the home, men and women have more leisure time today than ever before in the country's history.
     It is true that much leisure is used in play. America is a country of sports-of hunting, fishing and swimming, and of team sports like baseball and football. Millions of Americans watch their favorite sport on television, play in community orchestras, make their own films or recordings, go camping, visit museums, attend lectures, travel, garden, read, and join in hundreds of other activities.
    America is a "do-it-yourself" country. The people enjoy building things for their homes, sewing their own clothes, even making their own photographs. They do these things for fun as well as for economy.
     But as much as Americans enjoy their free time, the country is at the same time a "self-improvement" country. More than 25 million adults continue their education, chiefly by going to school in the evening, during their own free time, at their own expense. Added to the time spent on personal activities, Americans also devote a great amount of their time to the varied needs of their communities. Many hospitals, schools, libraries, museums, parks, community centers, and organizations that assist the poor depend on the many hours citizens devote to these activities, often without any pay.

SPEED READING 

Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET. 

     The blogging craze of a couple of years ago, when it was estimated that ten new blogs were started somewhere in the world every minute, now seems to have died down a bit. Yet thousands of blogs—probably the better ones—remain. Blogs are now no longer seen as the exclusive possession of geeks, and are now seen as important and influential sources of news and opinions. So many people read blogs now that it has even been suggested that some blogs may have been powerful enough to influence the result of the recent U.S. election.
     Blogs are very easy to set up. All you need is a computer, an internet connection and the desire to write something. A blog differs from a traditional internet site in two ways. First, a blog is one page consisting mostly of texts, though a few pictures are sometimes provided. Second, and more importantly, a blog is a space for people to respond to what you write. The best blogs are similar to online discussions, where people write in response to what the blogger has written. Blogs are regularly updated—busy blogs are updated every day, or even every few hours.
     Not all blogs are about politics, however. There are blogs about music, films, sports, books—any subject you can imagine has its enthusiasts typing away and giving their opinions to fellow enthusiasts or anyone else who cares to read their opinions.
     But how influential, or important, is the blogosphere really? One problem with blogs is that many people who read and write them seem only to communicate with each other. When people talk about the influence of the blogosphere, they do not take into account the millions of people around the world who are not bloggers, never read blogs, and don't even have access to a computer, let alone a good internet connection.
     Sometimes, it seems that the blogosphere exists only to influence itself, or that its influence is limited to what is actually quite a small community. Blogs seem to promise a virtual democracy—in which anyone can say anything they like, and have their opinions heard—but who is actually listening to these opinions? Little hard evidence shows that blogs have influenced people in the way that traditional mass media such as television and newspapers are able to do.

SPEED READING
Complete the following sentence with the proper form of the word in the bracket.

     Are you happy? Do you remember a time when you were happy? Are you seeking happiness today?
     Many have sought a variety of sources for their feelings of happiness. Some put their hearts and efforts into their work. Too many turn to drugs and alcohol. Meanwhile, untold numbers look for it in the possession of expensive cars, exotic vacation homes and other popular "toys". Most of their efforts have a root in common: people are looking for a lasting source of happiness.
     Unfortunately, I believe that happiness escapes from many people because they misunderstand the journey of finding it. I have learned many people say that, "I'll be happy when I get my new promotion," or "I'll be happy when I get that extra 20 pounds." It is dangerous because it accepts that happiness is a "response" to having, being or doing something.
     In life, we all experience stimulus and response. Today, some people think that an expensive car is a stimulus. Happiness is a response. A great paying job is a stimulus. Happiness is a response. This belief leaves us thinking and feeling: "I'll be happy when ...''
     It has been my finding that actually the opposite is true. I believe that happiness is a stimulus and response is what life brings to those who are truly happy. When we are happy, we tend to have more success in our work. When we are happy, we more naturally take better care of our bodies and enjoy good health. Happiness is not a response but a stimulus.
     Happiness is a conscious choice we make in daily life. For unknown reasons to me, many choose to be upset and angry most of the time. Happiness is not something that happens to us after we get something we want. On the contrary, we usually get things we want after we choose to be happy.

Speed Reading

Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer. 

     The human thumb made man. Its development was as important an event in man’s growth as his success in learning to walk upright. The thumb shaped the human hand. Without it, man might not have survived. Luckily, the hand developed only one thumb. Two thumbs on one hand would be like having two or more cooks in a small kitchen. They would get in each other’s way. As one English writer said almost 500 years ago, “Ah, each finger today is a thumb, I think.” 
     That is how we still describe a man who cannot get anything right. We say he is “all thumbs”. There are days when this happens to all of us, days when everything we do seems to go wrong. We cannot even get the right shoes on. The typist cannot hit the right key. The carpenter’s hammer misses the nail and hits his finger. Nothing can be done but throw up one’s hands and moan (悲叹), “God, I am all thumbs today!” 
     Clearly, the hand can have just one master—the thumb. It gives the hand a freedom and control of movement that are beautiful to see. This can be seen in old sculptures and stone carvings. We have a special phrase to express this mastery of the thumb. When one is ruled by another, completely controlled by him, we say the person is “under the other’s thumb”. A sick man, for example, often finds himself “under his doctor’s thumb”. Tenants have often complained about being “under the thumb of the landlord”. 
     There was a time, very long ago, when such tenants might in anger “bite their thumbs” at the landlord. Such a gesture was an insult that could not be accepted lightly. People no longer do this. But they do something as childish and as offensive and ugly. They “thumb their noses” at somebody they want to defy or insult.

SPEED READING
Skim or scan the following passages and then decide on the best answer.
     From Monday to Friday, many of us have an early start and a long day. By the time we've gone to bed and managed to fall asleep, we've been woken up by the alarm to do it all again. Come the weekend, we're totally exhausted. We sleep in way past our usual wake-up time just to stay in sync (同时) enough to start again on Monday.
     Welcome to social jet lag. That's the term for the difference between our working-week sleeping pattern, when our sleep times relate to our responsibilities, and the weekend, when we can wake when we choose. And depending on what type of person you are, the difference can be significant.
     For night owls——those whose natural rhythm is to wake and go to bed later——there can be significant health-related issues, according to a recent study published by Taylor and Francis Group online. The study concludes the bigger the difference between working-week and weekend sleep times, the greater the health issues——including a higher risk of heart disease and other metabolic (新陈代谢的) problems. And because so many jobs and tasks start early, night owls are effectively forced into harmonizing with the early birds.
     So what can night owls do: force themselves to integrate by sacrificing their lie-in? "It's the worst thing you can do," says Professor Till Roenneberg at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. This is because people's sleep pattern is half determined by genetics. The other half is related to their age and environment. Getting less sleep is unlikely to realign (调整) your genetic tendencies.
     Our bodies evolved to coordinate with the rise and fall of the Sun. We should feel sleepy as the light gradually disappears. But modern life, with its artificial light and modern devices, such as computers and smartphones, means we have turned away from the normal way. Now we are exposed to more light for longer periods of time, keeping our bodies awake longer. For night owls, who already tend to sleep later, this delays things even further.
     One solution, beyond changing society's early-start tendencies, is to reorient our body clock by manipulating our exposure to light. By taking more sunlight in the morning and minimizing the amount of artificial light we are exposed to in the evening——particularly on electronic devices——we can rebalance our bodies to feel sleepy earlier. It's far from easy, but better than losing your whole weekend to sleep.

SPEED READING
Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer.

     There are several places in the world that are famous for people who live a very long time. These places are usually in mountainous areas, far away from modern cities. Doctors, scientists and public health experts often travel to these regions to solve the mystery of a long, healthy life. The experts hope to bring to the modern world the secrets of longevity.
     Hunza is high in the Himalayan Mountains of Asia. There, many people over one hundred years of age are still in good physical health. Men of ninety are new fathers, and women of fifty still have babies.
     People in the Caucasus Mountains are also famous for their longevity. In this area, there are amazing examples of very long-lived people. Although birth records are not usually available, a woman called Tsurba probably lived until age 160; a man called Shirali may have lived until age 168. His widow was 120 years old. In general, the people not only live a long time, but they also live well. They are almost never sick, and when they die, they have not only their own teeth but also a full head of hair and good eyesight.
     Vilcabamba, Ecuador, is another area famous for the longevity of its people. This region—like Hunza and the Caucasus—is also in high mountains, far away from cities. In Vilcabamba, too, there is very little serious disease. One reason for the good health of the people might be the clean, beautiful environment. The temperature is about 70° Fahrenheit all year long; the wind always comes from the same direction; and the region is rich in flowers, fruit, vegetables and wildlife.
     In some ways, the diets of the people in the three regions are quite different. Hunzukuts eat mainly raw vegetables, fruit and chapattis—a kind of pancake; they eat meat only a few times a year. The Caucasian diet consists mainly of milk, cheese, vegetables, fruit and meat; most people there drink the local red wine daily. In Vilcabamba, people eat a small amount of meat each week, but the diet consists largely of grain, corn, beans, potatoes and fruit.
     Experts found one surprising fact in the mountains of Ecuador: most people there, even the very old, drink a lot of coffee, large amounts of alcohol, and smoke forty to sixty cigarettes daily!
     However, the diets are similar in two general ways: (1) the fruits and vegetables that the people of the three areas eat are all natural; that is, they contain no chemicals; and (2) the people take in fewer calories than people do in other parts of the world. A typical North American takes in an average of 3,300 calories every day; a typical inhabitant of these mountainous areas, between 1,700 and 2,000 calories.
     Inhabitants in the three regions have more in common than calories, natural food, their mountains and their distance from modern cities. Because these people live in the countryside and are mostly farmers, their lives are physically hard. Thus, they do not need to go to health clubs because they get a lot of exercises in their daily work. In addition, although their lives are hard, the people do not seem to have the worries of city people. Their lives are quiet. So, some experts believe that physical exercise and freedom from "worry" might be the two most important secrets of longevity.

SPEED READING
Complete the following sentence with the proper form of the word in the bracket.

     You're busy filling out the application form for a position you really need. Let's assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn't it tempting to lie just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University? More and more people are turning to utter deception like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well-known university.
     Registrars at most well-known colleges say they deal with deceitful claims like these at the rate of about one per week. Personnel officers do check upon degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicant is lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them "impostors (骗子)"; another refers to them as "special cases". One well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by “no such people”. To avoid outright lies, some job-seekers claim that they "attended" or "were associated with" a college or university, After carefully checking, a personnel officer may discover that "attending" means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that "being associated with" a college means that the job-seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claims says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century—that's when they began keeping records, anyhow. If you don't want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a phony diploma.
     One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from "Smoot State University". The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the "University of Purdue". As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.

WORD FORMATION
Complete the following sentence with the proper form of the word in the bracket.

（unite）A  effort is always more effective than an isolated complaint.