C

Personal growth can be understood in a variety of ways. Type “personal growth” into a book search and you will find thousands of books to choose from to help you reach your full potential. It’s so easy to treat personal development as something that is optional and so few people ever take the time to actively improve themselves. On the other hand, you may have been developing as a person, but never consider it as something that can be named.

Personal growth and self-development are some of the most important activities you can do. Rather than regarding this as a selfish act, working on yourself to become a better person benefits those around you, as well as those in your community and workplace.

Many of your actions may already be fit for “self-improvement”. This self-improvement, however, is mostly unconscious and for most people it’s a case of pursuing “things” and “stuff” with the all-too-common assumption  that when we get enough stuff, we will be happy. You don’t have to search too far to find how wrong this theory is.

Every day we read about seemingly successful people, those who “have it all” and find themselves in a chain of unhappy relationships or life events, which sadly end in tragedy. Charles Atlas, the famous body builder, said, “True success lies in the development of the self.” This is a surprising philosophy (哲理) for someone who spent his life developing the physique (体格).

Materially, we may be wealthy or poor, but if your inner life is not fulfilled, you will feel out of balance with the rest of your life and may try to make for this by seeking substance elsewhere — alcohol, over-working, drugs and unhealthy relationships.

What does my true self look like when I take away my house, car, etc.? Note down your goals as a person. Do you recall what they were 10, 20, or even 30 years ago? Have they changed or got lost on the way? Now imagine yourself as an older person. What do you want to look like, sound like and feel like? Is this OK with you or would you like to change this picture? Answering these questions will give you clues regarding where you could work on your personal growth.

Personally speaking, I see my own personal growth as developing my creativity and spirituality, while building a healthy body as my 40s progress. It sounds like a big task, but I break this down to bite-sized pieces, such as making some specific changes in eating and exercise patterns, going to a yoga class, picking up one of my many unused paintbrushes and just painting something rather than taking an art school course, and suddenly that’s achievable.

Set out your goals, first steps and plan of where and how you are going to carry them out. Get the support of a friend or family member to encourage you and review your progress every three months or so to keep you on track. Just start with small but meaningful changes that you notice, and if it feels strange, remember that change often does. Remember you’re making these changes for long-term personal gain, so it’s quite natural to feel a little uncomfortable at first, but be persistent, review your plan and adapt. This is your plan for growth, which can be changed and adapted to your circumstances.

39. As for the self-improvement,        .

A. most people do it well in their daily life

B. most people in fact regard it as a selfish act

C. most people consider it means building a healthy life

D. most people think it is trying to achieve enough stuff

40. According to the passage, a real successful person is one        .

A. who has spent his life doing business

B. who does feel happy in his inner world

C. who has gathered a great amount of wealth

D. who has made friends with many famous people

41. How does the author develop his personal growth?

A. He is always imagining himself as an old person.

B. He spares his time to take an art school course.

C. He improves himself both in creativity and spirituality.

D. He manages to collect many second-hand paintbrushes.

42. We can conclude from the passage that        .

A. personal growth is important in our life

B. most people don’t believe personal growth

C. the author is the most successful man

D. personal growth determines your goals

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D

We will one day be able to talk to animals using cellphone-sized equipment, says a leading expert in animal behavior. Professor Slobodchikoff is developing new technology that translates the calls of the prairie dog (草原犬鼠) and says the technology can be used to translate other animals’ “languages”. He also suggested that the technology could one day be improved to enable humans to talk back to animals.

In an interview, Professor Slobodchikoff explained he was using the new artificial intelligence (AI) software to record the calls of prairie dogs. He was then using the AI techniques to analyze the barks and translate them into English.

He explained that from his research, he knew that prairie dogs warn other members of the group about potential dangers in great detail — even describing a threat as being “a thin, brown wolf approaching quickly”.

The professor, who had spent the past 30 years analyzing the behavior of animals, added, “I think the equipment we are developing will allow us to talk to our dogs and cats. So the dog says ‘bark!’ and the equipment analyzes it and says, ‘I want to eat chicken tonight.’ Or the cat can say ‘meow’, and the equipment says, ‘You haven’t cleaned my litter box recently.’” He predicted that it would take between five and ten years of wide-ranging research to get to this point.

He believed that if such technology became a reality, it would change the world. Consider that 40 percent of all households in America have dogs, 33 percent have cats. And consider that four million dogs are killed every year because of the problems of behavior. Most problems are caused by the lack of communication between animals and human beings. Human beings can’t get across to animals what they expect, and animals can’t get across to human beings what they are experiencing. If we had a chance to talk back and forth, the dog could say, “You’re scaring me.” And you could say, “Well, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that I was scaring you. I’ll give you more space.”

“What I’m hoping, actually, is that down the road, we will form partnerships with animals rather than exploit (利用) them,” Professor Slobodchikoff said. He added that many people are afraid of animals or they have nothing to do with them because they don’t think that animals have anything to contribute to their lives.

He says, once people are able to talk to animals, they will realize that animals are living, breathing, thinking beings, and that they have much to contribute to people’s lives.

Previous attempts to help human understand animals include the BowLingual. The Japanese equipment claims to translate barks from dozens of different breeds (品种) of dogs. The equipment was successful enough to be brought to the American market. But reports of the BowLingual’s accuracy have been mixed, with popular product-review website Epinions giving it a low 1.5 star average. Later the same company developed a following product for cats called Meowlingual although this was less successful.

43. Professor Slobodchikoff is developing the new technology by 　　　.

A. recording prairie dogs’ barks with a tape recorder

B. talking to prairie dogs using cellphone-sized equipment

C. teaching prairie dogs to speak English via advanced software

D. recording and analyzing prairie dogs’ barks with AI technology

44. What does the underlined part “this point” in the fourth paragraph refer to?

A. Detailed analysis of animals’ behaviors.

B. Effective communication between dogs and cats.

C. Humans using the equipment to talk with dogs and cats.

D. Humans using AI technology to communicate with all animals.

45. According to the passage, Professor Slobodchikoff expects people to 　　　.

A. make full use of animals

B. treat animals as good partners

C. experience what dogs must experience

D. contribute a lot to the protection of animals

46. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Humans aren’t able to talk to animals now.

B. Some people think the Bowlingual is not very accurate.

C. Professor Slobodchikoff has full confidence in his research.

D. Large quantities of dogs are killed due to the increase in number.

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E

Glaciers in the Alps of Europe pose a scientific mystery. In a span of about 50 years, some of the biggest glaciers retreated more than half a mile. But nobody could explain the glaciers’ rapid decline.

Scientists trying to understand Europe’s climate for the past several hundred years have turned to the glaciers in the Alps because they kept records of temperature and precipitation (降雨量) during that time.

“If you look back through the 1600s and the 1700s, the glaciers were big and quite stable,” says Tom Painter. That’s probably because Europe was in a prolonged cold spell, known as the Little Ice Age. “And then around the 1860s, the glaciers all started to retreat to the length that they had not in the previous few hundred years,” he says.

Some historians think that retreat marks the end of the Little Ice Age. But there’s a problem: Europe didn’t actually heat up until the 1910s or the 1920s. In fact, if you go by just air temperature and precipitation, the glaciers should have advanced, not retreated.  So why did the glaciers start to melt?

“It dawned on me that industrialization was starting then,” Painter says. “We have these visions from Charles Dickens and others of that time — the mid-1800s — of a huge amount of soot (煤烟) being pumped out into the atmosphere, not just in England but in France and Germany and Italy.”

Painter’s previous research has shown that dust blowing onto the Rocky Mountains is making the snow melt much faster there because dark snow absorbs more sunlight. He found a record of soot from ice samples higher up in the mountains. And he thinks there was human influence.

“Industrial pollution from Europe wasn’t blowing onto Iceland or Norway, which remained cold and frosty,” says Gifford Miller. “Maybe it gave the Alpine folks in Switzerland and the Italian Alps a head start in cultivating highlands again,” he says. Could that be why we have Swiss milk chocolate today instead of Norwegian chocolate? “Could be,” Miller says, with a chuckle. Actually, it turns out that the Swiss did invent milk chocolate a decade or two after the glaciers started to give way to more pastureland (牧场), so the soot idea is not an entirely crazy idea.

But Miller learns a much bigger lesson from understanding how soot and dust can bring about quick changes to the world’s glaciers. “Things that impact on the climate system in an abrupt way are the things that people should be concerned about for the future.”

47. The underlined phrase “go by” in Para.4 probably means “_____”.

A. get back to          B. look for

C. obey the rules of   D. judge from

48. It can be learned from the passage that _____.

A. Alpine glaciers had melted before industrialization

B. snow on the Rocky Mountains melted faster because of dust

C. the melting of glaciers has nothing to do with human influence

D. Charles Dickens described glacial melt water in the Alps in his novels

49. Miller mentioned Swiss milk chocolate to prove _____.

A. milk chocolate was invented first in Switzerland

B. Swiss chocolate was better than Norwegian chocolate

C. the Alpine folks didn’t benefit from rapid industrialization

D. the melting of glaciers had a great impact on the life of the Swiss

50. What is the best title for the passage?

A. Pollution may have melted Alpine glaciers

B. Pollution may have advanced Alpine glaciers

C. Pollution may have raised temperatures in the Alps

D. Pollution may have caused soot to gather in the Alps