I pulled the car into the garage and got out, just like every night for the past 16 years. The difference was that I wouldn’t have a job to go to in the morning.
I used to be a vice-president in technology for a national bank until it went bankrupt (倒闭). Not only did I work long hours, I was also on call 24 hours a day, weekends and holidays. If someone had a tech problem, even at 2:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, I was on it. My kids joked that even though they were the teenagers, I was the one who was absorbed in the cell phone and had to be told not to text at the dinner table.
My wife, Michelle, had been able to go to back to work full-time as an office manager once she heard my job was threatened. But our three kids would go to college — our son, TJ, was a high school senior, and the girls, Sarah and Tara, were in the ninth grade — and I wanted to give them the education and opportunities they deserved.
I stepped out into our yard. The lawn and flower beds that my mom had looked after so carefully were full of weeds. There was a tree in the middle of the yard that I remembered my parents planted when I was a boy. It needed pruning (修剪). But I’d put on a lot of weight. I went up to the house. Michelle greeted me at the door with a hug. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. “Maybe you should think of this time as a break. You deserve one.”
“I’m sorry, Dad,” TJ said. “I know how much your job meant to you.” His concern was mirrored in the girls’ faces. When had they grown up?
“I’ll take care of this,” I told them. “I’m going to find a new job and get our lives back to normal.”
The next morning I got up before everyone else. I searched for a job online. I e-mailed friends with connections. By midmorning the quiet of the house was driving me crazy. I missed the noise of the office. I saw those overgrown flower beds. I made my way to the backyard with the hoe (锄头).
I settled into a new routine. Every day, I took breaks to do other things I’d neglected when I was working all the time. The new lawn I’d planned for so long began to take shape. So did I. With the physical labor, the extra weight dropped off, and I felt healthier than I had in ages. And I cleaned the empty family rooms completely and bought some video games. Soon TJ, Sarah and Tara were bringing their friends over after school. There were so many teenagers hanging out in the family room that I called “the kid zone”. At weekends Michelle and I gardened together. On summer evenings the five of us hung out.
One day I noticed TJ sitting alone, looking thoughtful. I knew he had worries about going to college and he’d lost touch with some of his friends.
“TJ, I know how it feels to lose something,” I began.
“I know, Dad,” he said. “I learned that from watching how you’ve handled being unemployed. You might have been stressed, but you never let it affect our family. You kept us together.”
I looked at my son, and it hit me. This was the last year he was at home. The girls would be off to college soon too. Luckily, I had this time to be the husband and father my family needed. I’d had the chance to find a healthy balance between work and family — a balance that even after I found a new job with a great company, I have made sure to keep.
1. The second paragraph mainly intends to tell us that the writer .
A. was a cell phone lover
B. disliked the long work hours
C. devoted all his life to work
D. wanted to change jobs
2. We can learn from Paragraph 4 that .
A. the writer’s family still lived in the house where the writer grew up
B. the writer’s wife hoped he could use the free time to lose weight
C. the writer liked pruning the tree that he planted when small
D. the writer did not like the lawn and flower beds in the yard
3. By saying “When had they grown up?” in Paragraph 5, the writer may regret .
A. not going back home every day on time
B. spending little time with his three children
C. not asking what his children needed most
D. letting his children know his unemployment
4. “Other things” mentioned in the eighth paragraph don’t include .
A. doing the housework
B. tending the garden
C. applying for jobs
D. looking after his children
5. What did the writer conclude from what TJ said?
A. If TJ didn’t go to college, he would keep in touch with his friends.
B. Although people had worries now and then, life had to go on.
C. Being unemployed meant nothing to the whole family.
D. If he hadn’t had this time with them, he’d be wishing for it.
6. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. A plan made after I lost my job
B. A reminder to focus on family
C. My family
D. My job
CABCDB
日常生活类阅读的概念:
日常生活这一话题主要涉及人们衣食住行等方面的活动。这一话题的选材主要针对人们日常的工作,生活以及学习情况。做这一类题时,最主要的是要把握好人物的活动内容,时间和地点。
日常生活类阅读题答题技巧:
【题型说明】
该类文章内容涉及到人们的言谈举止、生活习惯、饮食起居、服饰仪表、恋爱婚姻、消遣娱乐、节日起源、家庭生活等。文章篇幅短小,追根溯源,探索各项风俗的历史渊源,内容有趣。命题也以送分题为主,如事实细节题、语义转换题、词义猜测题和简单推理判断题等。虽然这类文章读起来感觉轻松,试题做起来比较顺手,但绝不能掉以轻心。因为稍不留神,就会丢分。
【备考提醒】
为了保证较高准确率,建议同学们做好以下几点:
1、保持正常的考试心态。笔者在教学中发现,越是容易的试题,同学们越是容易失分。为什么呢?因为在这种情况下,同学们极易产生麻痹思想,认为题目好做,就不引起高度重视,于是思维不发散、不周密。而命题人就是利用同学们的这一弱点,设计陷阱题。所以,无论试题难易与否,我们都要保持正常的考试心态。试题容易,不欣喜;试题难,不悲观。
2、根据前面讲到的方法,认认真真、细细心心做好事实细节题。
3、做好语义转换题。这类题是根据英语中一词多义和某些词语在文中能表达一定的修辞意义的原则而设计的。要求同学们解释某生词的含义,确定多义词或短语在文中的意思,确认文中的某个代词所指代的对象,或者对英语中特有的表达、格言、谚语进行解释。这种题要求同学们一定要根据上下文猜测词义或理解句子,切不可望文生义。
4、做好简单推理判断题。简单推理判断题要以表面文字为前提,以具体事实为依据进行推理,做出判断。这种推理方式比较直接,只要弄清事实,即可结合常识推断出合理的结论。
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A. Reasons that employers use tests B. Procedures involved in recruitment’ C. Hints to follow while taking tests D. Disadvantages of interviews for recruitment E. Importance of interview F. Adoption of psychological tests to hire employees |
80. |
Nowadays more and more foreign enterprises and companies are no longer relying on interviews for recruitment. Years of studying interviewing has made clear that it is not a very objective process. Personnel officers often hire the person they like best or even the one they think most physically attractive. Looking good is no guarantee of doing the job well.
81. |
To get a more objective view, many companies are also using psychological tests, to hire both for relatively routine job and for positions at senior levels of management. It is impossible to say how many employers use tests, but estimates of test sales in the
82. |
Recruitment can involve steps in two ways. Step 1 is always the same: job application. The company decides whether you might be suitable based on your qualifications and your previous job experience. Step 2 can be screening. A specific test is given at this stage to rule out those who might not be worth interviewing. Some large employers use tests ---especially IQ based tests precisely to eliminate the unsuitable. Only those who pass Step 2 go to the interview. Step 2 can also be testing and interview combined. If the company thinks you might be suitable after looking at your application, they ask you to come to be tested and to be interviewed. It is seen very much as part of the same step.
83. |
Tests claim to be scientific and objective. A large body of research has shown that interviews by themselves are not very reliable as a method of selection. People’s judgments are often very subjective: whether they like the look of someone counts for more than almost anything else. But reliable and valid tests can offer rapid and more objective information about would-be employees. If a candidate talks well in an interview but his test results suggest that he is a careless person who cannot concentrate, and employer is likely to think twice about hiring him.
84. |
Taking a serious test for a job is rather different form taking a game-like test. You can spend just a little time answering questions of that kind of test, and you can deny the answers and say they are not accurate. But you can not go to a serious test without enough preparation since you can not afford to be denied and eliminated again and again. What can you do to do justice to yourself in tests? Here are three tips: Understand, Analyze, Practice.