浙江省温州市十校联合体2015-2016学年高二上学期期末联考英语试题

-- _____________ he passed the exam with ease.

    A man wanted to become wealthy. He was told a story one day that there was a 1 pebble (鹅卵石）among the pebbles on the beach of the Black Sea. It could turn everything it touched into 2. This pebble could be 3 only by touching it: unlike the other pebbles it was 4 when touched. The man rushed to the beach of the Black Sea and began to 5 the pebble.

    6 he picked up a pebble that felt cold, he threw it into the sea. He 7 this practice day after day. Each pebble that felt cold was 8 thrown into the sea.

    One morning, he 9 to take hold of a pebble that felt warm, unlike the other  10. The man threw the pebble into the sea. He hadn't 11 to, but he had formed a habit. Habits can be hard to 12.

    In fact, if we repeat any behaviour 13 enough, it becomes a habit. But some habits can work in our favour, such as 14 attitudes and healthy ways of life. Our habitual attitudes and behaviour can either 15 us or hinder(阻碍) us.

    Is there behaviour or an attitude you would like to make into a 16? Then reinforce (强化) it by  17 it at every opportunity.

When it comes to habits, 18 may not make perfect. But practice will certainly form 19 behaviour. Your habits will form who you are. So form the habits that are 20to you and let them mold (塑造) you into the person you want to be.

A

    I'm a TV show host. One Sunday, I took my 7-year-old daughter by the sea for lunch. On arriving at the beach, I saw JoJo, a wealthy man in the hotel business. We sat down to chat in an open air cafe while I watched my daughter enjoy herself on the swings in front of us.  Our conversation varied from business to entertainment to the economy.

    Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by a stranger, who politely asked permission to speak to me. Often people want to tell me something about my controversial TV show, when I'm out on the streets.

    He asked to speak to me privately, so we stood a bit away from my table. He said, “I'm James, 35 years old, father of a 7-year-old girl, who's very sick. She needs treatment abroad. The doctors said that if she was treated in the UK, she would probably survive. But I'm poor, so can you please help me?”

    Speechless, I stared in the man's eyes full of tears and asked how I could help. After we talked for a while, I went to sit back at the table. JoJo asked me, “What's wrong with you? Your face changed.” I told him and he was very sorry for this family and said I had the means through the media to help him. Later we headed off to our destinations(目的地).

    All weekend I thought about James, his daughter and his family. I even considered doing a special TV show to raise money for this sick child.

    On Monday morning I was at the office after I finished presenting my show, when my secretary said a man needed to speak to me. It was JoJo. He walked into my office. Actually JoJo is so busy with his hotel business that I never imagined he had time to come and see me at the studios.

 “Please, call the man with the sick child and tell him that I'll pay all expenses for his sick daughter's treatment.” JoJo said, with a check in his hand. “I've been married for 35 years. I wasn't lucky enough to have a child. I want to help this child now.” I picked up the phone to call James.

    Now James' daughter is well and living a normal life, so James and his wife are the happiest couple on earth. JoJo often visits her. I'm so happy that there are so many good people on this earth.

B

    Kids Wall Art

    Large wall posters for kids. Your kids will love these cool posters by artist Carla Daly. Your kids will enjoy decorating their bedroom walls with these posters and their friends will think they are the coolest!

    As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remembering less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

    In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the computer. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called "transactive memory (交互记忆)"

    According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access(获取) it at a later date. This doesn't mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.

    Some years ago on a hot summer day in south Florida, a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole that was behind his house. In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out of the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went.

    He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator (美洲鳄鱼) was swimming toward the shore. His mother in the house was looking out of the window and saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, she ran toward the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could.  It was too late.

    Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. The alligator was much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard her screams, raced from his truck, took aim, and shot the alligator.

    Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived.  And, on his arms were deep scratches where his mother's fingernails dug into his flesh in her effort to hang on to the son she loved.

The newspaper reporter, who interviewed the boy after the trauma(痛苦的经历), asked the boy if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And, then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, “But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Mom wouldn't let go.”

We have scars, too. Not from an alligator, but the scars of a painful past. We foolishly get into dangerous situations, not knowing what lies ahead. The swimming hole of life is filled with danger and we forget that the enemy is waiting to attack. That is when the tug-of-war begins. If you have the scars of love on your arms, be very, very grateful. And never judge another person's scars, because you don't know how they were made.

A. Some of those scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret.

B. You are a child of God. He wants to protect you, and provides for you in every way.

C. Hearing her voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother.

D. That began an incredible tug-of-war (拔河赛) between the two.

E. His legs were extremely scarred by the violent attack of the animal.

Dear Wendy,

    Thank you  your inviting me to go on holiday with you. I thought this would be a very good  to see you again. I still remember the time when we chatted the night through,

     (discuss) our plans for the future. It  that everything would be OK with our arrangements (安排) this weekend. , one of my relatives,   has been in the United States for two years, will visit my family this Saturday. My parents expect me to stay at home. As a , I regret  (tell) you that I have to  our plans. I think we can meet during the summer holiday. When that time comes, we will be together again and enjoy the  (beauty) scenery of Wenzhou.  

    Best wishes

                            A great person I admire

    The great person I admire is ……