Years ago, a cigarette commercial asked if you were smoking more, but enjoying it less. That describes the way many of us live today. We are doing more, but enjoying it less. And when that doesn’t work, we compound the problem. In our frantic search for satisfaction, we try stuffing still more into our days, never realizing that we are taking the wrong approach.

The truth is simple; so simple it is hard to believe. Satisfaction lies with less, not with more. Yet, we pursue the myth that this thing, or that activity, will somehow provide the satisfaction we so desperately seek.

Arthur Lindman, in his devastating book, “The Harried Leisure Class,” described the futility of pursuing more. His research focused on what people did with their leisure time. He found that as income rose, people bought more things to occupy their leisure time. But, ironically, the more things they bought, the less they valued any one of them. Carried to an extreme, he predicted massive boredom in the midst of tremendous variety. That was more than twenty years ago, and his prediction seems more accurate every year.

Lindman, of course, is not the first to discover this. The writer of Ecclesiastes expressed the same thought thousands of years ago. It is better, he wrote, to have less, but enjoy it more.

If you would like to enjoy life more, I challenge you to experiment with me. How could you simplify your life? What could you drop? What could you do without? What could you stop pursuing? What few things could you concentrate on?

The more I learn, the more I realize that fullness of life does not depend on things. The more I give up, the more I seem to gain. But words will never convince you. You must try it for yourself.

Arthur Lindman predicted twenty years ago that ______.

A. more things brought more value   B. the more people had, the less they valued them

C. people didn’t like to pursue more   D. massive boredom came from less variety

What does the article suggest to make our life happier?

A. To enjoy more things.             B. To buy more things.

C. To sell things we do not need.       D. To get rid of useless things.

The passage is probably written to ___________.

A. introduce Arthur Lindman and his book       B. tell the readers what is satisfaction

C. introduce how to simplify people’s life         D. persuade people to simplify their life

Some teens believe drugs will help them think better, and be more popular. These days, drugs can be found everywhere. Many teens are tempted(诱惑) by the excitement or escape from reality that drugs seem to offer.

Drugs are chemicals that change the way our bodies work. When you put them into your body, drugs find their way in your blood and are taken to parts of your body, such as your brain.

The effects of drugs can be different depending on the kind of drug taken, how much is taken, how often it is used, how quickly it gets to the brain, and what other drugs or food are taken at the same time. Although drugs can make you feel good at first, they can finally do a lot of harm to the body.

There are many kinds of drugs available, and there are many reasons for trying them regularly. People take drugs just for pleasure they believe they can bring. Often it’s because someone told them that drugs would make them feel good or that they’d have a better time if they took them.

Many teens use drugs because they’re unhappy or think drugs will help them escape their problems. The truth is that drugs don’t solve problems—they simply hide feelings and problems. When a drug wears off, the feelings and problems remain, or became worse. Drugs can ruin every aspect of a person’s life.

1.The main idea of the second paragraph is probably _________.

2. People take drugs regularly _________.

3. __________ cause teens to take drugs.

4. Which of the following is NOT true ?

5.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

US president Barack Obama told students that it takes hard work in school to prepare for a rewarding career in his “back to school” speech,   36   last Tuesday in Virginia, US. Here is excerpt （节选）from his speech:

I know that sometimes, you get the  37     that you can be rich and successful without any hard work –  38    your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things. But the truth is, being successful is   39    .You won’t love every subject you study. Not every homework assignment will seem completely important to your life right this minute. And you may not succeed at    40      the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most   41   .JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was   42   12 times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was    43     his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said. “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures  44    you. No one’s    45   being good at things; you become good at things through hard work.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of    46     . It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new.

And even when you’re  47      , even when you’re discouraged, and when you feel like other people have given up on yourself, you won’t give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

36. A. addressed                   B. claimed                    C. delivered                   D. announced

37.A. feelings                B. definition            C. concept                       D. sense

38. A. that                            B. which                        C. what                           D. whatever

39. A. inaccessible                    B. hard                        C. rough                           D. unavailable

40.A, anything                          B. everything                  C. nothing                         D. something

41. A. effort                  B. attempts                    C. failures                         D. successes

42. A. denied             B. turned away        C. declined           D. rejected

43. A. cut from                          B. cut off                        C. cut down            D. cut in

44. A. confirm                           B. define                       C. identify                         D. prove

45. A. brought up             B. raised                         C. fed                            D. born

46. A. strength              B. courage                        C. weakness                      D. perseverance

47. A. struggling                  B. fighting              C. trying                           D. succeeding

I know what you’re thinking: Pizza? For breakfast? But the truth is that you can have last night’s leftovers with it in the morning, if you want to.

I know lots of women who skip breakfast, and they have a ton of different excuses for doing it. Some say they don’t have time. Others think they’re “saving” calories (卡路里), still others say they just don’t like breakfast food .  

But the fact is that eating in the morning is very important when you’re trying to lose weight. “Eating anything from 300 to 400 calories would be better than nothing at all,” says Katherine Brooking, who developed the super-easy eating plan for this year’s “SELF CHALLENGE”. And even pizza can be healthy if it’s loaded with vegetables, as long as you stick to only one small piece.  

Breakfast is one meal I never miss, and the same goes for most weight loss success stories. Research shows that eating breakfast keeps you from overeating later in the day. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that breakfast skippers have a bigger chance of gaining weight than those who regularly have a morning meal.  

So eat something in the morning, anything. I know plenty of friends who end up having no breakfast, or they just have coffee or orange juice. I say, try heating up last night’s leftovers. It may sound crazy, but if it works for you, do it! I find if I tell myself, “You can always eat it tomorrow,” I put away the leftovers instead of eating more that night. Try it, and you may save yourself some pre-bedtime calories. And you will watch your body gain the fat-burning effects.  

The underlined word “leftovers” in Paragraph 1 probably means _________.  

A. food remaining after a meal              B. breakfast

C. meals made of vegetables                D. pizza with fruit

What can we infer from the text? 

A. Working women usually have breakfast in a hurry.  

B. Many people have wrong ideas about breakfast.  

C. If we have pizza loaded with vegetables, we will certainly not gain weight.

D. Eating vegetables helps us to save energy.  

According to the last paragraph, it is important to_________.  

A. eat something for breakfast              B. be careful about what you eat 

C. heat up food before eating it              D. eat calorie-controlled food 

The text is written mainly for those _________.  

A. who go to work early                    B. who want to lose weight 

C. who stay up late                       D. who eat before sleep

When I was growing up, I seldom heard the words “I love you” from my father. If your father never   1  them to you when you are a   2 , it gets more and more   3 for him to say those words as you get older. To tell you the truth, I could hardly   4  when I heard those words from my father. Neither could I remind when I had last said those words to 5  . I decided to   6 my shyness aside and make the first move. 7  hesitating for some time, in our next  8 conversation, I spoke out the words suddenly, “Dad ... I love you!”
There was a  9 at the other end. It wasn’t after a while did he awkwardly(笨拙地) reply, “Well,  10 to you!” I laughed and said, “Dad, I  11  you love me, and when you are ready, I know you will say what you want to say.”Fifteen minutes later my mother called and  12  asked, “Paul, is everything okay?”
A few weeks later, Dad  13 our phone conversation with the words, “Paul, I love you.” I was at work during this conversation and the 14  was (were) rolling down my cheeks as I finally “  15  ” the love. As we both sat there in tears, we  16  that this special moment had taken our father and son  17 to a new level.
A short while after this special moment, my father  18 escaped death from the following heart surgery. Many times since his return to the usual state of health, I have  19  , if I did not take the first step and Dad did not  20 the surgery, I would have never heard him say those words.