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C. they don't need electricity D. they are small and can get into small places C You just think you know what will make you happy. Researchers in the new science of happiness know better. They have evidence that married people on average end up being no happier than they were before the wedding. Winning the lottery(彩票) will probably reduce your pleasure in ordinary events that used to make you happy. And being in good health isn’t as much of a factor as the right genes when it comes to satisfaction. A couple of years ago, Seligman and Diener studied 222 Illinois college students to find out what the happiest 10% had in common. It turned out they were extroverts (性格外向), had more friendships and romantic relationships, but didn’t exercise more and didn’t feel they had more good events in their lives than those who weren’t as happy. Some of the results come as a surprise. A classic study of lottery winners and people with spinal cord(脊髓) injuries, for instance, found that neither event changed their lives as much as observers thought they would. Gilbert is looking into how accurately people predict what will make them happy. It turns out, not accurately at all, what we think will bring us pleasure—a new car, the home, teaming winning the NCAA championship, a move to California—usually doesn’t bring us as much as we expected, and the positive effect doesn’t last as long. The good news is that we also overestimate(高估) the effect of bad events. Even with data from research pouring in, scientists still don’t have an easy answer to what we all want to know: How do I get long-term life satisfaction? The answers they do have are often the same ones that philosophers and priests have been giving us for centuries. It’s just nice to have them supported with enough data. 64. The topic discussed in the passage is ______. A. a research on happinessB. the level of happiness C. the secrets of happinessD. the prediction of happiness 65. Which of the following is the most important factor of happiness? A. the proper genesB. health C. marriage D. unexpected money 66. The happiest people have the following characters except that ______. A. they are richB. they are outgoing C. they are very sociableD. they don’t pay more attention to exercise 67. Which of the following is True according to the passage? A. We ourselves know what makes us happy the best. B. The happiest 10% in the world have nothing in common. C. People can predict the things that make them happy accurately. D. We just need to do what the philosophers and priests tell us to keep happy. D History has arrived Nine-year-old Barack Obama was looking through a magazine. But the African-America boy was shocked by a series of photos. The pictures were of a black man who destroyed his skin with chemicals that might make him white. For the first time, the boy began to doubt who he was. “I stood in front of the mirror and wondered if something was wrong with me,” Obama said. However, now the boy who used to struggle with his identity(身份) doesn’t see it as a problem any more, but an advantage for his career. Obama made history by being elected as the first black president of the US. He defeated John MaCain in a landslide (压倒性的) victory. Obama’s story starts in opposite corners of the world. His white mother was born in the heartland of the US. His black father grew up in a tiny village in Kenya. They met during in Hawaii, but his father left the family when Obama was just two years old and his mother moved to Indonesia. At 10, Obama moved back to live with his white grandparents in Hawaii where his sense that he didn’t belong grew. At his class a white boy asked Obama if his father ate people. Out of embarrassment, Obama lied to his classmates that his father was prince, “I kept asking who I am and I ended up trying drugs and drinking,” Obama recalled. Things came to change after the young man made friends with those with a similar background at college. Their experiences back in Africa helped Obama to finally face up to his African origin. He worked hard to become a star at Harvard Law School and the third black senator (参议院) in US history. At the beginning of his campaign (竞选) for the White House, few people supported him. Many doubted his unusual background, which left him neither “black” enough nor white enough. But Obama turned his pain of growing up into a tool to make Americans believe: “There is not a black America, an Asian America. There’s the United States of America.” Barack Obama’s victory is “a historic victory that changed and overcame centuries of prejudice (偏见). His success helped realize Martin Luther King’s dream that a man is judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character,” wrote ABC news. 68. From the above passage we can know that Barack Obama was born in ________. A. Kenya, Africa B. Hawaii, the USA C. Indonesia, Asia D. an unknown city, in Latino America 69. He lied to his classmates that his father was prince because __________. A. he felt ashamed of his African origin B. he had unusual background — neither black nor white C. his black father deserted him when he was very young D. he didn’t have the sense of belonging 70. Which of the following is arranged in correct order of time? a. Obama is the third black senator (参议院) in US history. b. Obama’s mother settled down in Indonesia with Barack Obama. c. Obama stood out among his classmates in Harvard Law School. d. Obama lived with his white grandparents in Hawaii. e. Obama’s black father left him and his mother. A. c, d, a, b, e B. e, d, b, c, a C. d, b, a,e, c D. e, b, d, c, a 71. What does the title “History has arrived” probably mean? A. Barack Obama eventually defeated his white opponent, John MaCain in a landslide victory. B. Barack Obama’s victory has given blacks and other minorities a true national role model. C. Barack Obama has become the first African-American President, overcoming centuries of prejudice. D. Through his great efforts, Barack Obama became the third black senator in the US history. E Like every language, American English is full of special expressions, phrases that come from the day-to-day life of the people and develop in their own way. Our expression today is “to face the music”. When someone says, “Well, I guess I’ll have to face the music,” it does not mean he’s planning to go to the concert. It is something far less pleasant, like being called in by your boss to explain why you did this and did that, and why you didn’t do this or that. Sour music indeed, but it has to be faced. At sometime or another, every one of us has had to face the music, especially as children. We can all remember father’s angry voice, “I want to talk to you.” and only because we did not obey him. What an unpleasant business it was! The phrase “to face the music” is familiar to every American, young and old. It is at least 100 years old. And where did this expression come from? The first explanation comes from the American novelist, James Fenimore Looper. He said, in 1851, that the expression was first used by actors while waiting in the wings to go on the stage. When they got their cue (提示) to go on, they often said, “Well, it’s time to face the music.” And that was exactly what they did ---facing the orchestra (管弦乐队) which was just below them. And an actor might be frightened or nervous as he moved on to the stage in front of an audience that might be friendly or perhaps hostile, especially if he forgot his lines. But he had to go out. If he did not, there would be no play. So the expression “to face the music” came to mean “having to go through something, no matter how unpleasant the experience might be, because you knew you had no choice.” Other explanations about the expression go back to the army. When the men faced an inspection by their leader, the soldiers would be worried about how well they looked. Was their equipment clean, shiny enough to pass the inspection? Still the men had to go out and face the music of the band as well as the inspection. What else could they do? (责任编辑：admin) |