We do some strange things when we don’t like the way our life is going．Too often we blame(责怪)someone else．‘‘I wish my parents were more understanding．”
“I have such a bad Chemistry teacher!”
“My friends are so boring and self-centered．They make my life worse and worse．’’
Blame! Blame! Blame!
It seems natural to sing this self-pitying song，but the truth is，if you don’t like your life，you should do something about it．No one else knows exactly how you feel or what you need．No one can read your mind correctly．You are the only one with the power to cheek your life，and if you want it to be different，you can change what you’re doing．
When you’re in trouble，don’t give away your power to decide how you feel about yourself. Choose how you want to think and act．Other people can’t make you unhappy or angry．They only act in their own way and then it’s up to you to decide how you will respond(回应)．For example，your friends go out to lunch without you and you feel very angry．How are you going to act? You may blame your friends，“They are not kind．Who needs them anyway?” Or you may tell your friends how you feel，listen to their explanation，and let them know you’d like to be invited next time．
When you decide everything in your own way，you’re getting hold of your own life and shaping(塑造)it according to your tastes and feelings．You can choose to be happy，to make friends and to build an interesting life．When you blame others for what is or isn’t happening in your life，you have stopped growing or learning．
One of the most important rules is that you can never change another person by your direct action．The only person you have the right to change is yourself．Once you change，the other person has something different to respond to and change is possible．If you want change in your life，begin with yourself．
【小题1】What should we do if we don’t like our life?

A．Change what we’re doing．	B．Read our minds correctly．
C．Sing that self-pitying song．	D．Tell others what we want．

【小题2】If the writer’s friends have dinner together without him，he may _________.

A．ask somebody else to talk to them

B．do the same thing to them in return

C．talk to them and try to find out why

D．forget it and be still friendly with them

【小题3】What’s the writer’s idea about how to change others?

A．He thinks it’s impossible to change others．

B．He believes our love can change everything．

C．He chooses to talk with others directly．

D．He prefers to change ourselves first instead．

【小题4】At the beginning of the passage three examples are given __________.

A．to support the idea that people often blame others

B．to suggest that there are various problems in people’s life

C．to show that not all chemistry teachers are fit for their job

D．to explain the reason why some people’s life is worse and worse

【小题5】What’s the best title of the passage?

A．Blame! Blame! Blame!	B．Who Controls My Life?
C．Change! Change! Change!	D．What Makes Me Unhappy?

1) Your teens don’t want you to be their friends. What they need is for you to be a reliable responsible role model worthy of their respect, and not some overgrown child who wears too tight jeans or T-shirts with slogans advocating the good points of 100 proof liquor.

2) Don’t debate the teen ever. If she wants to debate, suggest she sign up for the Debate Club. If you buy into their teen logic (which is basically illogic, the product of an immature brain and every extreme of emotion known to mankind) your mouth will go dry. Teens need to know that no means no. Remember when your teen was two years old and he said “no” a lot? Well now it’s your turn, particularly when your teen wants to engage in behaviors that are dangerous.

3) Don’t buy your teen a car. If you do, he will total it in record time. Guaranteed. The teen should earn the car, or at least a portion of it (and by that I don’t mean one of the tires). You know how you take much better care of an item of clothing you spent a fortune on compared to one you bought in a bargain basement? It’s the same thing, only a car can do serious damage.

4) Encourage sports participation even if your teen has two left feet. In some sports, two left feet won’t knock him out of the box, so to speak. Sports participation develops perseverance and cheerfully functioning as a team member. You also will know where your child is every day after school (on the field, that is, or at a rival school). Just make sure you root for the right team, okay? Been there, done that.

5) Let the school know you in a good way so that school personnel do not dive under the desk when you approach. If you are asked to speak at the school, your teen will feel mighty proud. If you make something for the bake sale, try to make it taste edible and if you can’t see it through, do yourself and your child a favor and buy something at the local bakery or supermarket.

6) To know your teens’ friends is to know your teens. Teens have a secret life, and a parent’s goal is to find out secrecy that is sometimes thicker than the CIA and the KGB combined. If you really want to know what your kid is up to, get to know their friends. How? By being warm and kind, and by asking questions that don’t sound like an interrogation（审讯）, but serve that purpose without their knowing it.

1. When your kids are doing something that might negatively affect their future, you should _____.

A. have your kids express their opinions fully and then discuss with them

B. think about how you can be their close friends

C. report that to their school immediately

D. say no and tell them that they must stop

2. According to the passage, as a parent, you should encourage your kids __________.

A. to wear too tight jeans              B. to sign up for the Debate Club

C. to be greatly involved in sports       D. to make as many friends as they can

3. The underlined word “total” in the third paragraph probably means ________.

     A. damage     B. add      C. buy      D. earn

4. The passage mainly wants you to know that __________.

     A. kids have their secrecy and freedom

B. Raising Teenagers calls for certain parenting skills

     C. your teen needs some house rules         

D. the family is changing

 

 

      When Joe Ward went fishing in Florida one day last September, he didn’t need a weather report to tell him that big trouble was on the way. All he had to do was observe the behavior of the area’s wildlife. “The fish were just biting like crazy, like they were storing up,” says Ward. “There wasn’t a bird anywhere, not even a gull, which is very unusual down here. And on the banks, the insects—the ants, everything—were climbing high.” The next day Hurricane Frances hit. Was this an isolated incident? Hardly. “Some people say that animals have a sixth sense. I don’t know if I’d go that far,” says Wildlife Conservation Society research scientist Diana Reiss. “There’s a lot we still have to learn about their behavior. But I don’t think there’s any question that animals can hear, feel and notice things that we can’t.”

     When Sri Lanka Wildlife Department deputy director, H. D．Ratnayake, surveyed the destruction left by last December’s tsunami, he was shocked by what he had not seen before. Tens of thousands of humans were killed. But there was very little mortality(死亡率) among wildlife. At Yala National Park, the phenomenon was especially noticeable. Though the human death number nearby was more than 200, officials found no wildlife dead bodies. After the tsunami, wild tales keep surfacing. Residents have reported seeing herds of antelope thundering from a coastal area to the hills before the giant wall of water hit. And nesting flamingos（红鹳）left low-lying areas, heading for the safety of higher ground. How did they know trouble was on the way？Scientists credit a well-tuned sensory (感觉的,感官的) system. “Animals have to adapt to their environment to survive,” Reiss says. Changes in atmospheric conditions also may have played a part, some scientists say.

     Wildlife photographer Mike Blair remembers the day he witnessed how waterfowl (水鸟) can sense change in the weather. That morning the weather was mild, with a few snow geese on the marshes (湿地) at the wildlife protecting place. But as the day progressed, flight after flight of geese crossed the sky and settled on the wetlands. The next day temperatures decreased widely and a snowstorm hit. “The refuge staff said there were 20,000 geese there at the start of the day,” says Blair. “By the end of the day, they were estimating there were 300,000 or more.” Wildlife biologists believe migrating waterfowl have a built-in sense to predict the approach of large storms and are particularly responsive to changes of pressure in the air.

1．What will the antelope do before a storm?

     A．They will rush to the top of the hills.

     B．They will go to the coastal land to store some food.

     C．They will leave their home and move to another place forever.

     D．They will move to the wetlands to avoid the storm．

2．In Reiss’s opinion, why can animals survive some disasters while humans cannot?

     A．Because they have a sixth sense.

     B．Because they can feel the changes in atmospheric conditions.

     C．Because they can feel and notice something we human beings can’t.

     D．Because human beings are well-developed and don’t need to adapt to the environment.

3．What’s the main idea of the passage?

     A．The migration of the wildlife animals.

     B．What will the waterfowl do when there is a disaster.

     C．Animals have a six sense to predict the coming natural disaster.

     D．The number of human beings’ destruction is larger than the wild animals’

When Joe Ward went fishing in Florida one day last September, he didn’t need a weather report to tell him that big trouble was on the way. All he had to do was observe the behavior of the area’s wildlife. “The fish were just biting like crazy, like they were storing up,” says Ward. “There wasn’t a bird anywhere, not even a gull, which is very unusual down here. And on the banks, the insects—the ants, everything—were climbing high.” The next day Hurricane Frances hit. Was this an isolated incident? Hardly. “Some people say that animals have a sixth sense. I don’t know if I’d go that far,” says Wildlife Conservation Society research scientist Diana Reiss. “There’s a lot we still have to learn about their behavior. But I don’t think there’s any question that animals can hear, feel and notice things that we can’t.”

　 When Sri Lanka Wildlife Department deputy director, H. D．Ratnayake, surveyed the destruction left by last December’s tsunami, he was shocked by what he had not seen before. Tens of thousands of humans were killed. But there was very little mortality(死亡率) among wildlife. At Yala National Park, the phenomenon was especially noticeable. Though the human death number nearby was more than 200, officials found no wildlife dead bodies. After the tsunami, wild tales keep surfacing. Residents have reported seeing herds of antelope thundering from a coastal area to the hills before the giant wall of water hit. And nesting flamingos（红鹳）left low-lying areas, heading for the safety of higher ground. How did they know trouble was on the way？Scientists credit a well-tuned sensory (感觉的,感官的) system. “Animals have to adapt to their environment to survive,” Reiss says. Changes in atmospheric conditions also may have played a part, some scientists say.

　 Wildlife photographer Mike Blair remembers the day he witnessed how waterfowl (水鸟) can sense change in the weather. That morning the weather was mild, with a few snow geese on the marshes (湿地) at the wildlife protecting place. But as the day progressed, flight after flight of geese crossed the sky and settled on the wetlands. The next day temperatures decreased widely and a snowstorm hit. “The refuge staff said there were 20,000 geese there at the start of the day,” says Blair. “By the end of the day, they were estimating there were 300,000 or more.” Wildlife biologists believe migrating waterfowl have a built-in sense to predict the approach of large storms and are particularly responsive to changes of pressure in the air.

1．What will the antelope do before a storm?

　 A．They will rush to the top of the hills.

　 B．They will go to the coastal land to store some food.

　 C．They will leave their home and move to another place forever.

　 D．They will move to the wetlands to avoid the storm．

2．In Reiss’s opinion, why can animals survive some disasters while humans cannot?

　 A．Because they have a sixth sense.

　 B．Because they can feel the changes in atmospheric conditions.

　 C．Because they can feel and notice something we human beings can’t.

　 D．Because human beings are well-developed and don’t need to adapt to the environment.

3．What’s the main idea of the passage?

　 A．The migration of the wildlife animals.

　 B．What will the waterfowl do when there is a disaster.

　 C．Animals have a six sense to predict the coming natural disaster.

　 D．The number of human beings’ destruction is larger than the wild animals’

 

This is an open letter to the three people who stole my handbag from the department store I am employed as a shop assistant.

When you took my bag, I don’t know what you thought you were going to get. With my wages, there’s not much left on a Tuesday. I hope the ￡5 was useful to you. I have informed the social security office so you won’t be able to cash the child benefit next week. I hope that won’t leave you too short．But if you really need a couple of pounds, I suppose you could always cash one of the two checks left in my check book．Of course, I phoned the bank right away and the check-cashing card is no longer valid(有效的), so it won’t be much use to you.

Actually I don’t mind about the money too much. We single parents who work to support our families understand only too well what it means to be short of cash. However, I don’t suppose it went very far among the three of you. Sorry about that!

I wish you had left the bag behind and just taken the wallet and check book．There were all kinds of papers in it, and notes and things that I really need. I really think that was very inconsiderate of you . I mean, how would you like something like that to happen to you?

Well, perhaps the bag will turn up. It wasn’t even an expensive one, just a plain, old brown leather handbag. You probably dumped it in the nearest rubbish bin or threw it into the bushes. We’ve looked around, of course, but no one saw which way you went after you left the shop.

I’m not really angry with you．I know how the pressures of modern living can affect us, but I am sad at the loss of my personal things. I feel offended and helpless. The police were very icy, and they just shrugged（耸） their shoulders. “It happens all the time,” they told me. Some small comfort, I suppose. But I’ve lost just a little more faith in human nature. And as my young son said when I told him what had happened, “Why? Mummy, why us?” I couldn’t answer that question. I wonder if you can.

1.In writing Paragraph 2, the writer wants to __________.

A. describe the contents of the bag in detail        B. give some suggestions to the three thieves

    C. tell the thieves they could hardly get any money  D. state the fact that she was careless with the money

2.Which of the following is the most valuable to the writer?

    A. The cash in her bag.                       B. The papers and notes in the bag.

    C. The handbag itself.                        D. The check books in the bag.

3. What can we conclude about the police?

    A. They have doubts about human nature.                     B. They show sympathy for the woman.

    C. They think the case quite common.                        D. They are unable to find the thieves.

4. Why does the author write the letter?

    A. To give the thieves a serious warning.                   B. To complain about the fall of human goodness.

    C. To call people’s attention to their belongings.         D. To express her affection for her valuable bag.