It feels like every time my mother and I start to have a conversation, it turns into an argument. We talk about something as simple as dinner plans and suddenly, my mother will push the conversation into World War 3. She’ll talk about my lack of bright future because I don’t plan to be a doctor. And much to her disappointment, I don’t want to do any job related to science, either. In fact, when I was pushed to say that I planned to major(主修) in English and communications, she nearly had a heart attack.

   “Why can’t you be like my co-worker’s son?” she bemoans (哀叹) all the time. Her coworker’s son received a four-year scholarship and is now earning 70,000 dollars a year as an engineer. I don’t know what to answer except that I simply can’t be like Mr. Perfect as I’ve called the unnamed co-worker’s son. I can’t be like him. I am the type of the person who loved to help out in the community, write until the sun goes down, and most of all, wants to achieve a career because I love it, not because of a fame or salary.

   I understand why my mother is worried about my future major. I’ve seen my mother struggle to raise me on her small salary and work long hours. She leaves the house around 6:30 am and usually comes home around  5 pm or even 6pm. However, I want her to know that by becoming a doctor, it doesn’t mean I’ll be successful. I’d rather follow my dreams and create my own future.

21. Which of the following topics do the writer and his mother often talk about?

   A. the writer’s studies        B. the writer’s future job

   C. dinner plans                         D. wars around the world

22. We can infer from Paragraph 1 that the writer’s mother _____.

   A. doesn’t want the writer to major English

   B. doesn’t think the writer should be a doctor

   C. gets along very well with the writer

   D. doesn’t think working in the scientific field is a good idea

23. Which of the following statements is probably TRUE about the writer?

   A. He wants to be like his mother’s co-worker’s son.

   B. He wants to find a job in his community in the future.

   C. He doesn’t think his mother’s co-worker’s son is perfect.

   D. He wants to do something he really likes in the future.

    Patricia was worried. She had a job interview, and she wanted to look good. She decided to get some new clothes. The store owner, Pallas Hansen, helped Patricia find a suit. But when she left the store, she didn’t pay for the suit!

      How could Patricia do this? She was in a special store called Career Closet in San Jose, California. Pallas Hansen and Charlotte Krumwiede started this nonprofit store to help women. They knew that many women don’t find jobs because they don’t have the right clothes for a job interview. Women who don’t have a lot of money have to use their money to buy food and clothes for their children. They can’t buy clothes for themselves.

      Pallas and Charlotte started the store in 1992 after they heard about a store like this in Chicago. Volunteers work in the store. Working women donate most of the clothes to the store. This makes it possible for the customers at Career Closet to get clothes for free.

      Career Closet has helped 2,500 San Jose women, but clothes aren’t the only things women get at the store. They also get confidence. Patricia is 36 years old. Her husband was hurt in an accident, and Patricia needed a job to support her seven children. She went to Career Closet and got a jacket, a skirt, and a blouse. “The whole day made me feel special,” she said. Patricia was a success at her interview, and she got the job. One reason why she got it was that she was wearing the right clothes for the workplace.

     Pallas says, “I love this job. Sixty percent of the women get jobs. It’s like being a fairy god-mother.”

24. What do the women get besides clothes at Career Closet?

      A. Money               B. Shoes             C. Confidence        D. Chances

25. Where do the clothes at Career Closet come from?

       A. Volunteers working in the store                       B. Patricia

C. Pallas Hansen and Charlotte Krumwiede        D. Working women

26. We can know from the passage that ____________.

      A. women need to wear fashionable dress for work.

      B. dressing properly in working place is important.

      C. women are trained for the interview in Pallas’s shop.

      D. women get the job training in Pallas’s shop.

27. The best title for the passage might be _____.

      A. Getting Clothes Free of Charge               B. Fashion 

      C. Success of women                                   D. Job Interview

Xinhua News---The Beijing government has set out to recruit thousands of university graduates to work as junior officials in rural areas to both improve rural administration and ease the city’s employment problems.

    The government plans to recruit 3,000 university graduates this year, 1,000 more than last year, to work as assistants to village heads or party secretaries in suburban areas.

    People interested in jobs in Beijing’s rural villages and towns can send applications to Beijing Municipal Bureau of Personnel or log on to www.bjbys.com from February 1 through March 15.

“We hope university graduates will seize this opportunity to use their knowledge in rural villages and to start their careers,” Sun Zhenyu, the Deputy Director of Beijing Personnel Bureau, told Xinhua News Agency.

    The government has promised successful candidates a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan in the first year, 2,500 yuan the second year and 3,000 the third year, provided their performance is up to the required standards, Sun said.

    Wang Lina, who graduated from Beijing Union University last year, was one of the first graduates to find work in the city’s countryside. After majoring in Industial and Commercial Administration, Wang served as the assistant to the village head of Ertiaojie Village in suburban Beijing’s Pinggu District. For one project, Wang contacted people at Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences and arranged for the local farmers to receive training in strawberry planting. Her efforts paid off. The village had a plentiful harvest of organic strawberries earlier this year.

    Nationwide, about 150,000 university graduates found employment in rural areas last year, according to the figures provided by the Ministry of Education.

The ministry predicts that 4.95 million students will graduate from universities across the country this year, 820,000 more than last year. About 1.4 million of them are unlikely to find jobs when they graduate.

    In Beijing, a record of 200,000 people are expected to graduate from university this year. Less than half of them are expected to be offered jobs, according to Beijing Personel Bureau.

28. From the story of Wang Lina we can learn that _________.

     A. Wang had great difficulty in helping villagers plant organic strawberries

     B. local farmers can get big harvests if they work together with her

     C. the sooner you go to the countryside, the sooner you will be successful

     D. university graduate can realize their value no matter where they work

29. The underlined word “recruit” in the first paragraph probably means _________.

     A. force                B. employ                  C. encourage                 D. train

30. The last two paragraphs seem to tell us that ________.

     A. it is not easy for graduates to find jobs nowadays

     B. more and more graduates will work as junior officials

     C. the universities should not enroll so many students

     D. there are more and more jobs provided by the Ministry of Education

31. Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?

     A. The Government’s Help for University Graduates

     B. A Good Choice for University Graduates

     C. Job Hunting for University Graduates   

D. What is the Best Career?

The Enigma (谜）of Beauty

　   The search for beauty spans centuries and continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back over 4, 000 years show both men and women painting their nails and wearing makeup. In 18th-century France, wealthy noblemen wore large wigs (假发）of long, white hair to make themselves attractive. Today, people continue to devote a lot of time and money to their appearance.

　   There is at least one good reason for the desire to be attractive: beauty is power. Studies suggest that good-looking people make more money, get called on more often in class, and are regarded as friendlier.

　   But what exactly is beauty? It's difficult to describe it clearly, and yet we know it when we see it. And our awareness of it may start at a very early age. In one set of studies, six-month-old babies were shown a series of photographs. The faces on the pictures had been rated for attractiveness by a group of college students. In the studies, the babies spent more time looking at the attractive faces than the unattractive ones.

　   The idea that even babies can judge appearance makes perfect sense to many researchers. In studies by psychologists, men consistently showed a preference for women with larger eyes, fuller lips, and a smaller nose and chin while women prefer men with large shoulders and a narrow waist. According to scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and women that these traits —the full lips, clear skin, strong shoulders —equal health and genetic well-being.

　    Not everyone thinks the same way, however. “Our hardwiredness can be changed by all sorts of expectations —mostly cultural,” says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. What is considered attractive in one culture might not be in another. Look at most Western fashion magazines: the women on the pages are thin. But is this “perfect” body type for women worldwide? Scientists' answer is no; what is considered beautiful is subjective and varies around the world. They found native peoples in southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded overweight in Western cultures.

　    For better or worse, beauty plays a role in our lives. But it is extremely difficult to describe exactly what makes one person attractive to another. Although there do seem to be certain physical traits considered universally appealing, it is also true that beauty does not always keep to a single, uniform standard. Beauty really is, as the saying goes, in the eye of the beholder.

32. People's ideas about beauty ________.

A. have existed since ancient times                            B. can be easily described

C. have little influence on a person's success                    D. are based upon strict standard

33. In Paragraph 3, the babies in the study ________.

A. were rated for their appearance

B. were entered in a beauty contest

C. were shown photos of a group of college students

D. were able to tell attractive faces from unattractive ones

34. The underlined word “traits” in Paragraph 4 probably means ________.

A. qualities           B. measurements        C. judgments              D. standards

35. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A. the ideas of beauty vary as people grow up

B. the search for beauty is rooted in lack of confidence

C. the standards for beauty are based on scientific researches

D. the understanding of beauty depends on cultural backgrounds

How can we all get more laughter into our lives? Here is what the experts suggest:

　　   36    

　　Nancy Alguire, a teacher in Clifton Park, N.Y. was once painfully shy and she seldom laughed. Then she married a circus clown (小丑). “I became interested in the clowns,” she recalls, “One day I put on a costume and paint my face. That afternoon my whole life changed. I learned to laugh and enjoy life in a way I had never done before.”    37      To this day, she still makes it a rule to be with people who enjoy life and laughing.

　  　  38    

　　It doesn’t take you too much time and can be easy. Collect favorite cartoons and jokes. Also, keep a paper for writing down humor you find in everyday life. “Good ideas come and go fast, you have to capture them quickly or they are gone,” says Virginia Tooper.

　　Laugh when you need it most.

　　“     39    ”   says comedian Bill Cosby. “And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it,” he insists.

Gray Alan, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota, claims that laughter is a skill we can all gain—because it comes naturally.    40     Just remember: we are just here for a period, so get a few laughs.