Laura Fagan is a British girl. She is 29 years old now. She has a special job. Her job is an offical cake-taster. She began to work two years ago. She loves her job very much. She needs to try as many as 20 desserts a day. She needs to travel to different cities to taste different desserts.
Although the job seems to be great, it is hard. Usually , Laura begins tasting desserts as early as 8 a.m., and is still tasting new desserts at 6 p.m. before she goes back home. Fortunately, the job hasn’t made her too fat. She only worries about her teeth.
“ Of course I was afraid of becoming fat when I started the job, so I try to do exercise as often as possible. The main thing is my teeth. I don't think my dentist would be happy if I told him what I do, so I try to brush my teeth as often as possible.” “When I tell people what I do, they say ‘ that’s the best job in the world’, and then they ask me what my favorite dessert is.”
Laura loves her job although it is hard. “ I can learn about new trends(趋势) in food. It is a hard job but someone has to do it.” she said.
【小题1】To be a cake-taste is to _________________.

Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are decided to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.

Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference. Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, the average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.

“Dollars buy status (social position), and status makes people feel better,” say some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways, scientists or actors, for example, may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.

In his research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desires, not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health, rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap. Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the measures of only income.”says Michalos.

Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen. In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotion questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people. Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their time running out. Older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.

“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”

1.Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs__________.

A. make them feel much better

B. provide chances to make friends

C. improve their social position

D. satisfy their professional interests

2.Professor Alex Michalos found that people feel less happy if _________.

A. the gap between reality and desire is bigger

B. they have a stronger desire for friendship

C. the hope for good health is much greater

D. their income is far below their expectation

3.We can infer from the passage that older people _________.

A. would like to have more goodbye kisses than young people

B. are used to living a hard life because they are kind to others

C. express their positive opinions just as some young people do

D. find it easier to feel happy because they are more realistic

4.According to the passage, the feeling of happiness _________.

A. increases gradually with age

B. is controlled partly by desires

C. has little to do with wealth

D. is decided mostly by genes

A 2-year-od boy is being described as a hero after using Face Time to save his mother after she was badly hurt.
According to a report from KGUN, Laura was trying to stop a fight between two dogs when one of the dogs bit(咬) part of her middle finger almost completely off.
Laura tried to call 911 herself, but she said her hands were too badly hurt to make the call. “ I asked my daughters to call 911, and they’re four, and they were quite afraid to even touch the phone, because it was covered in my blood(血),” Laura told KGUN.
The mother continued to lose a lot of blood and thought she would go into a deep sleep—until her 2-year-old son Bentley came up with a dishcloth from the kitchen. After cleaning some of the bold off his mother’s iPhone, Bentley continued to use Face Time to call Laura’s friend Connie.
“All I could see was his little forehead. I said ‘Hi Bentley’ and it was quiet for a little bit. Then I heard Laura shouting,” Connie told KGUN.
Connie then called 911, and Bentley unlocked the door to let firefighters into the house.
Laura told KGUN she is very thankful for her little hero and has since taught all of her children how to call 911.
【小题1】Laura was badly hurt when she was _______.

根据句意，选用方框内的词语，用其适当形式填空

Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are decided to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.
Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference. Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, the average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
“Dollars buy status (social position), and status makes people feel better,” say some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways, scientists or actors, for example, may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.
In his research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desires, not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health, rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap. Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the measures of only income.”says Michalos.
Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen. In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotion questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people. Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their time running out. Older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.
“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”
【小题1】Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs__________.