When Benjamin Cherkasky was in eighth grade, ...

When Benjamin Cherkasky was in eighth grade, he quit the swim team. It wasn’t because he lacked the passion; he just couldn’t accept failures in matches. “I’m not Michael Phelps, why am I even on the team?” he said.

A US therapist (治疗专家) who researches perfectionism at Northwestern University realized years later what had happened. Cherkasky’s perfectionism was creating unrealistic standards. Unable to meet them, he quit.

“My perfectionism prompted (导致) very high expectations, and that caused real suffering,” he said.

Cherkasky is not alone in feeling that perfectionism can breed　 anxiety. So many millennials (千禧一代) suffer from the ills of perfectionism that psychologists are issuing warnings and schools are emphasizing the need to accept failure.

Northwestern had held several seminars that offered tips on how students could deal with a perfectionism problem.

Jessica Rohlfing Pryor, a psychologist leading the events, said every generation is a sponge for the messages it receives.

“Millennials, more than any other generation in American society, are receiving clear messages around achieving,” she said. “There’s an absence of messaging that trying your hardest is still OK.”

The American Psychological Association also found out that recent generations of college students have reported higher levels of perfectionism than earlier generations.

This “desire to achieve along with being overly critical of oneself and others” affects young people’s mental health, according to its research, which analyzed data from over 40,000 college students.

Researchers noted that social media adds comparative pressure, along with the drive to earn money and achieve career goals. Perfectionists often create even higher goals, which can lead to a higher risk of failure.

In college, Cherkasky found himself surrounded by so many intelligent people that he felt he should have been achieving a higher level than he was. “It makes you feel kind of crazy,” he said.

This type of thinking can lead people to putting in less effort, which, as they fall behind, can create more anxiety. “It makes people feel kind of isolated.” Cherkasky added, “And that can cause students to drift away from their school”. Northwestern is not the only school eager to help students.

Brown University includes perfectionism in its counseling (咨询) services, asking students if they ever feel that what they accomplish isn’t good enough.

1.Why did Cherkasky quit the swim team in eighth grade?

A.He wanted more time to study. B.He found he had no passion for swimming.

C.He couldn’t reach the goal he set for himself. D.He always did badly in swimming competitions.

2.Which of the following would Pryor probably agree with?

A.Millennials are unwilling to work hard.

B.Young people should accept being imperfect.

C.Young people should learn to deal with pressure.

D.Perfectionism can benefit individuals and society.

3.What did the American Psychological Association discover?

A.Social media users were more likely to be perfectionists.

B.Perfectionism could have a negative impact on physical health.

C.Few universities offered help to students with mental problems.

D.College millennial students suffer more perfectionism problems than ever.

4.The author describes Cherkasky’s experience in college mainly to show ______.

A.the harm of being a perfectionist B.the effect of isolation on perfectionists

C.the pressure college students experience D.the challenges underachievers have to overcome

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

When I was in school, the class I dreaded most was my eighth grade art class. The teacher put down my every attempt at completing an assignment. I simply couldn’t produce art the way she wanted it. Luckily, I’d already proven myself in other creative areas. Yet, that art teacher was successful in convincing me that I had no talent for painting, drawing, or anything related to them. Imagine my surprise when I published my nature photography and became a volunteer art teacher!

Unfortunately, my story is all too familiar to many people who come through my workshops and practice. Even more unfortunately, the vast majority of people were so discouraged in childhood that they cut off the creative impulse (冲动) in most areas of their lives. Their teachers, parents, or classmates convinced them they had no talent, so they gave up. The pain of failure was simply too great.

Why have we forgotten creativity is an experience, not a result? Let’s consider why we express creativity in first place. To be creative is to be human. Everything we’ve at our disposal (处理) is the result of someone’s creative expression and willingness to take a risk. Even so, for creativity to flower and feel free of encumbrance (累赘), it needs to be about the joyful moments spent creating, not just about what we’ve to show for those moments. Whatever pattern you need to break, try to make it about the pleasure and not about the outcome.

Therefore, I’d urge you to curb your perfectionism not enthusiasm! Perfectionism is the leading killer of artistic expression. Relax a little and bring back your childlike nature when you create. Children instinctively (本能地) know how to give over to the joy --- until someone teaches them otherwise! Let your creation be whatever it wants to be. See if it can lead you rather than the other way around. Let your unconsciousness come through, and let the expression of yourself be beautiful regardless of how it compares to anything else. After all, it’s yours, and no one but you could create it!

1.What made the author give up his dream of art? (no more than 15 words)

2.What does the third paragraph mainly tell us? (no more than 10 words)

3.Please explain the underlined word “curb” in English. (no more than 5 words)

4.According to the passage, what is necessary for a creative person? (no more than 10 words)

5.Do you think you are more creative as a student? Please give an example. (no more than 25 words)

高三英语阅读表达中等难度题查看答案及解析

Benjamin West, the father of American painting, showed his talent for art when he was only six years of age. But he did not know about brushes before a visitor told him he needed one. In those days, a brush was made from camel’s hair. There were no camels nearby. Benjamin decided that cat hair would work instead. He cut some fur from the family cat to make a brush.

The brush did not last long. Soon Benjamin needed more fur. Before long, the cat began to look ragged（蓬乱）. His father said that the cat must be sick. Benjamin was forced to admit what he had been doing.

The cat’s lot was about to improve. That year, one of Benjamin’s cousins, Mr. Pennington, came to visit. He was impressed with Benjamin’s drawings. When he went home, he sent Benjamin a box of paint and some brushes. He also sent six engravings（版画） by an artist. These were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had ever seen. In 1747, when Benjamin was nine years old, Mr. Pennington returned for another visit. He was amazed at what Benjamin had done with his gift. He asked Benjamin’s parents if he might take the boy to Philadelphia for a visit.

In the city, Mr. Pennington gave Benjamin materials for creating oil paintings. The boy began a landscape(风景) painting. William Williams, a well-known painter, came to see him work. Williams was impressed with Benjamin and gave him two classic books on painting to take home. The books were long and dull. Benjamin could read only a little, having been a poor student. But he later said,＂Those two books were my companions by day, and under my pillow at night.＂While it is likely that he understood very little of the books, they were his introduction to classical paintings. The nine-year-old boy decided then that he would be an artist.

1.What is the text mainly about?

A.Benjamin’s visit to Philadelphia.

B.Williams’ influence on Benjamin.

C.The beginning of Benjamin’s life as an artist.

D.The friendship between Benjamin and Pennington.

2.What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 3 suggest?

A.The cat would be closely watched.

B.The cat would get some medical care.

C.Benjamin would leave his home shortly.

D.Benjamin would have real brushes soon.

3.What did Pennington do to help Benjamin develop his talent?

A.He took him to see painting exhibitions.

B.He provided him with painting materials.

C.He sent him to a school in Philadelphia.

D.He taught him how to make engravings.

4.Williams’ two books helped Benjamin to _____________.

A.master the use of paints

B.appreciate landscape paintings

C.get to know other painters

D.make up his mind to be a painter

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

I got this strange idea that I would run for student body president (学生会主席) when I was in the eighth grade. To run for student body president is not a surprising decision for most outgoing and popular people. But in fact, I tended to daydream, read books that were not on the required list, and sat at the table at the cafeteria with the only two friends I had, Denise and Janice. What happened within two months led me to the single best method to succeed in achieving something.

Claire was perfect-in-front-of-adults and had decent grades, though she was rude to me, which motivated me to sign up to run against her for student body president. Denise decided we should form a mastermind group to get me elected. We met everyday, right after school, reviewing a list of students. We brainstormed reasons why each one might want to vote, in their own interests for me or more likely against Claire.

We used a method we learned from Denise’s sister. It meant that we looked for students who were most likely to influence a group of other students. Those are the people we approached first. My narrow victory was a surprise to many, frankly, including the three of us.

That’s how I got my first taste of the power of what’s now called Collective Intelligence. With the right model for how we meet, we become more valuable together than apart.

When a group commits to supporting each other by meeting regularly and acting by mutually agreed upon rules of engagement, remarkable things will happen. We tend to bring the best out in each other, as thousands have learned around the world through their mastermind groups. Individuals become tight-knit teams. We become happier and higher-performing with and for each other. It is never too late for you to start your own mastermind group of no more than seven members around a strong sweet spot of mutual interest, which will definitely evolve into something different and more meaningful over the years.

1.Why was it a surprising decision for the author to run for president?

A.She was lonely then. B.She was popular.

C.She was not very outgoing. D.She often daydreams.

2.What’s the way of Denise’s sister?

A.Helping hand out posters.

B.Looking for influential people.

C.Helping learn from others.

D.Helping have public campaigns.

3.How did the author beat Claire?

A.Mainly by doing something for others’ interests.

B.Mainly by getting help from Denise’s sister.

C.Mainly by using her great communicative ability.

D.Mainly by making use of group intelligence.

4.What can be the best title for the text?

A.Path to Greater Success and Friendship

B.Methods to Be Student Body President

C.Effective Ways to Find Good Friends

D.Clever Ways to Get Support from Others

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Last Christmas, when I was in the fourth grade and my brother was in the first grade, our school held its yearly Holiday Shop. At the Holiday Shop students can buy things like necklaces, key chains, and other small items for their friends and family as Christmas gifts. Since my brother really wanted to take part, my mom gave him two dollars to buy his Christmas gifts.

My mom didn’t know that he had picked out a special necklace for her. When he got home from the Holiday Shop that day, he couldn’t wait to show it to me. He pulled out a little green box and opened it. Inside was a gold chain with a little red flower and a man-made diamond next to gold letters that spelled out,“Grandmother”.

“Wow,” I said.“It’s beautiful.” Since my brother was in the first grade and was just learning to read, he didn’t realize that the necklace said “Grandmother” instead of “Mother”. I knew that on Christmas morning, when he found out he had bought the wrong necklace, he would be very unhappy, so I said nothing more about it. My brother ran and put the necklace under his bed to hide it from Mom until Christmas morning.

When he wasn’t looking, I took the necklace and put it in my backpack. The next day I took it back to school and asked the woman who ran the Holiday Shop if I could change it for the “Mother” necklace. She said yes. When I got home that day, I put the necklace under my brother’s bed.

When my mom opened it up on Christmas morning, my brother was so exalted! My mom’s eyes were filled with joy. She knew what had happened, which made the necklace even more special to her!

My brother still does not know what I did, but I knew I had done the right thing.

1.What do we know about the gift the author’s brother bought

A. The author didn’t like it.

B. It wasn’t worth the price.

C. It was designed for Mother.

D. The author changed it for another one.

2.The underlined word “exalted” is the closest in meaning to “______”.

A. amazed　　 　　 B. disappointed　　

C. excited　　　　 D. worried

3.It can be inferred from the text that _____.

A. the author’s mother didn’t know what she had done

B. the author helped her brother secretly

C. the author’s grandma also received a gift

D. the author paid for the right necklace

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

There was no one quite like my father in our town. When any other man had an extra dollar, he bought a drink; when Father had an extra dollar, he bought a book. Other people had pictures on their walls; we had books, 3000　 of them, lining every vertical surface of our little four-room house.

Father was the most persistent scholar I ever knew. He earned seven degrees, attended 11 different colleges and universities, and in 1951, when he was 82, sent us a cheerful little note from England to say that he had just enrolled for a graduate course in Elizabethan literature at Oxford.

I was the immediate beneficiary of Father's unbelievable hunger to learn. Every spring, he would take me hiking through the mountains to study mineral formations. On clear winter nights, he would set up a telescope and wake me to view the stars. After I grew up, wherever I traveled around this earth, the stars remained my friends.

Plain, distinct speech was a particular concern of my father and he was constantly drilling me in the art of elocution （演讲技巧）.Before I was three, he was reading aloud to me from the Bible, Shakespeare and Mark Twain. Thereafter, read aloud to him so he could work on my diction. By the time I was in the fifth grade, I could recite from a whole range of classical literature and poetry.

Of course, there had been times as a young man, when I got tired of study and devoted my time to playing. Then Father would admonish me succinctly by quoting a saying from Shakespeare, "If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious （乏味的）as to work."

Obviously, his efforts were not entirely in vain, for my voice has enabled me to earn a fair livelihood. But that fact doesn't begin to define the enormous debt I owe my father.

1.What contributed to my father's being a successful scholar?

A.His gift for academic studies.

B.The academic environment in our town.

C.The wealth of his family.

D.His lifelong passion for knowledge.

2.Which is closest in meaning to the underlined words in Paragraph 5?

A.Criticize me briefly. B.Comfort me patiently.

C.Praise me gently. D.Challenge me bravely.

3.Which of the words below can best describe the author's father?

A.Stubborn and lazy. B.Kind and generous.

C.Consistent and strict. D.Understanding and moody.

4.What may be the best title for the passage?

A.A Successful Scholar B.Enormous Debt

C.Secrets of My livelihood D.Father and Son

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

　When I was in the third grade, I was picked to be the princess(公主）in the school play. For weeks my mother had helped me practice my lines. But once on stage, every word disappeared from my head. Then my teacher told me she had written a narrator's（解说者的）part for the play, and asked me to change roles. Though I didn't tell my mother what had happened that day, she sensed my unhappiness and asked if I wanted to take a walk in the yard.

It was a lovely spring day. We could see dandelions(蒲公英）popping through the grass in bunches, as if a painter had touched our landscape with bits of gold. I watched my mother carelessly bend down by one of the bunches. "I think I am going to dig up all these weeds, "she said." From now on, we'll have only roses in this garden."

"But I like dandelions, "I protested." All flowers are beautiful-even dandelions!"

My mother looked at me seriously. "Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way, doesn't it?" she asked thoughtfully. I nodded. "And that is true of people, too," she added.

When I realized that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry and told her the truth.

　“But you will be a beautiful narrator,”she said, reminding me of how much I loved to read stories aloud to her.

Over the next few weeks, with her continuous encouragement, I learned to take pride in the role. The big day finally came. A few minutes before the play, my teacher came over to me. “Your mother asked me to give this to you,” she said, handing me a dandelion. After the play, I took home the flower, laughing that I was perhaps the only person who would keep such a weed.

1.The girl did not play the role of the princess mainly because_______.

A. she felt nervous on the stage.

B. she lost her interest in that role.

C. she preferred the role of the narrator

D. she had difficulty memorizing her words

2.Why did the mother suggest a walk in the garden?

A. To remove the dandelions

B. To enjoy the garden scene

C. To have a talk with her daughter.

D. To help her daughter with the play.

3.What is the main idea of the story?

A. Everybody can find his or her own way to success.

B. Everybody has his or her own value in the world.

C. Everybody should learn to play different roles

D Everybody has some unforgettable memory.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

In 1959, when Jean Harper was in the third grade, her teacher gave the class an assignment to write a report on what they wanted to be when they grew up. She poured her heart into her report and expressed her dream of becoming an airline pilot. Her paper came back with an "F" on it. The teacher told her it was a "fairy tale". Jean was heartbroken and ashamed. As the years went by, Jean was beaten down by the discouragement and negativity she encountered whenever she talked about her dream. "Girls can't become airline pilots; never have, never will. You're crazy. That's impossible. "Finally Jean gave up.

In her senior year of high school, her English teacher was a Mrs. Dorothy Slaton, a demanding teacher with high standards. One day Mrs. Slaton asked this question: "If you had unlimited finances, unlimited access to the finest schools, unlimited talents and abilities, what would you do?" Jean felt a rush of the old enthusiasm, and with excitement she wrote down the very old dream.

The next thing that Mrs. Slaton said changed the course of Jean's life. The teacher leaned forward over her desk and said, "I have a little secret for you. You do have unlimited abilities and talents. When you leave school, if you don't go for your dreams, no one will do it for you. You can have what you want if you want it enough."

The hurt and fear of years of discouragement disappeared all of a sudden. Jean felt thrilled and told her about her dream of becoming a pilot. Mrs. Slaton slapped the desk top. "Then do it!" she said.

So Jean did. It didn't happen overnight. In her l0 years of hard work, even facing varieties of laugh, frustration and opposition, she never gave up her dream. Instead, she went on doing everything her third-grade teacher said was fairy-tale.

Eventually, Jean Harper became a Boeing 737 captain for the United Airline Company.

1.Jean’s third-grade teacher thought her dream to be ____________.

A. great　　　　 　　　　 B. impossible

C. challenging　　　　　 D. reasonable

2.Mrs. Slaton may hold the view that _____________.

A. only some of her students have great potential

B. her students are good enough to be admitted to the best schools

C. belief contributes to realizing a dream

D. Jean was to have her dream realized

3.According to the passage, we can infer that___________.

A. Jean’s dream was always in her deep heart

B. Jean owed her success to all her teachers

C. most people around Jean approved of her dream

D. Jean achieved her dream with ease

4.Which is the best title of the passage?

A. A Respectable Teacher　　 B. How to Realize a Dream

C. Hard Work Pays off　　　　 D. Reach for the Sky

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

How did the man feel when he was called on?

A. Worried and frightened.　　 B. Quite embarrassed.　　 C. Deeply ashamed.

高三英语短对话困难题查看答案及解析

The reason _______ he explained to us was quite simple.

A. why             B. that              C. how                D. when

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析