I watch documentaries, not movies.I read history books, not fiction.I use every free moment to accomplish one of the tasks on my never-ending checklist, and I am completely filled with thoughts of productivity.An hour sleeping is an hour wasted.And like the rest of 21st century America, I like it.But this fixation on productivity is increasingly destroying character and transforming men into robots.
New York Times columnist David Brooks warned American University students of this cultural decline in a speech.“We cut off all things spiritual and emotional in a competitive urge to stand out”, he said, “The pressure to succeed professionally, to acquire skills, to do the things you need to do to succeed in an information age economy really became the overwhelming(难以应付的) pressures, and it sort of eclipses the thinking about character and morality.”
Many students happily go to college, viewing it as a next step on their rise to professional achievement.Forcing as many success-building activities into their schedules as they can, they enjoy keeping busy with little sleep.“Today’s outstanding kids are likely to spend their afternoons and weekends shuttling from one skill-improving activity to the next,” Brooks wrote in an article, “We fear failure more than we desire success.”
A century ago, college was about character building.Today, our characters are in decline.We are experts on economics, material things and professional skills.We fail to discuss and understand relationships, emotions and all things spiritual.
Philosopher Karl Popper divided the world into two categories: Clocks and Clouds.Clock problems are those that can be taken apart, examined and solved through deductive reasoning(演绎推理).Clouds cannot be taken apart.Cloud problems represent whole systems that need to be understood in a different way.
“When we have a Cloud problem, we try to turn it into a Clock problem,” Brooks said.And in a reason-centered culture, adding titles to one’s resume becomes a trend.At American University, 85 percent of seniors (and 89 percent of business majors) graduate with at least one practical experience which is often helpful to a student’s future career, but can sometimes draw focus away from academics.
To prevent the death of man’s character, Brooks urges rediscovering our human natures through falling in love.And by love he means love for a task, job, or another person.“Synchronicity is key to happiness,” he said.Rather than crazily increasing our long lists of accomplishments, we need to lose ourselves in what we do, and success will come on its own.
1.From Paragraph 1, we can learn that people __________.
A.are controlled by time
B.are keen on reading books
C.are changing their characters
D.are eager to achieve more
2.In Paragraph 2, the underlined word “eclipses” means _________.
A.deletes B.weakens
C.worsens D.emphasizes
3.The last paragraph mainly tells us that __________.
A.love is more important than focus
B.the focus on human natures counts
C.more work contributes to happiness
D.success comes from devotion to work
4.The purpose of this passage is to __________.
A.bring awareness to character building
B.stress the importance of productivity
C.warn about the pressure to seek success
D.criticize students’ desire for achievements
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题
I watch documentaries, not movies.I read history books, not fiction.I use every free moment to accomplish one of the tasks on my never-ending checklist, and I am completely filled with thoughts of productivity.An hour sleeping is an hour wasted.And like the rest of 21st century America, I like it.But this fixation on productivity is increasingly destroying character and transforming men into robots.
New York Times columnist David Brooks warned American University students of this cultural decline in a speech.“We cut off all things spiritual and emotional in a competitive urge to stand out”, he said, “The pressure to succeed professionally, to acquire skills, to do the things you need to do to succeed in an information age economy really became the overwhelming(难以应付的) pressures, and it sort of eclipses the thinking about character and morality.”
Many students happily go to college, viewing it as a next step on their rise to professional achievement.Forcing as many success-building activities into their schedules as they can, they enjoy keeping busy with little sleep.“Today’s outstanding kids are likely to spend their afternoons and weekends shuttling from one skill-improving activity to the next,” Brooks wrote in an article, “We fear failure more than we desire success.”
A century ago, college was about character building.Today, our characters are in decline.We are experts on economics, material things and professional skills.We fail to discuss and understand relationships, emotions and all things spiritual.
Philosopher Karl Popper divided the world into two categories: Clocks and Clouds.Clock problems are those that can be taken apart, examined and solved through deductive reasoning(演绎推理).Clouds cannot be taken apart.Cloud problems represent whole systems that need to be understood in a different way.
“When we have a Cloud problem, we try to turn it into a Clock problem,” Brooks said.And in a reason-centered culture, adding titles to one’s resume becomes a trend.At American University, 85 percent of seniors (and 89 percent of business majors) graduate with at least one practical experience which is often helpful to a student’s future career, but can sometimes draw focus away from academics.
To prevent the death of man’s character, Brooks urges rediscovering our human natures through falling in love.And by love he means love for a task, job, or another person.“Synchronicity is key to happiness,” he said.Rather than crazily increasing our long lists of accomplishments, we need to lose ourselves in what we do, and success will come on its own.
1.From Paragraph 1, we can learn that people __________.
A.are controlled by time
B.are keen on reading books
C.are changing their characters
D.are eager to achieve more
2.In Paragraph 2, the underlined word “eclipses” means _________.
A.deletes B.weakens
C.worsens D.emphasizes
3.The last paragraph mainly tells us that __________.
A.love is more important than focus
B.the focus on human natures counts
C.more work contributes to happiness
D.success comes from devotion to work
4.The purpose of this passage is to __________.
A.bring awareness to character building
B.stress the importance of productivity
C.warn about the pressure to seek success
D.criticize students’ desire for achievements
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
If you’re ever reading a book or watching a movie and get the distinct feeling you’ve come across the story before — or even better, can predict exactly what's going to happen next — there could be a good reason for that.
Researchers from the Computational Story Laboratory at the University of Vermont studied the complete text of some 1,737 fiction works available on Project Gutenberg, an online collection of more than 50,000 digital books in the public area. They discovered that English literature consists of just six kinds of emotional arcs (情感弧线) that make up nearly all of the most well-known stories. By analysing the sentiment (情感) of language used in these texts, the researchers were able to show the emotional ups and downs for the stories as a whole. They discovered that negative words like “poverty”, “dead”, and “punishment” dragged the emotion down, while positive terms like “love”, “peace”, and “friend” brought it up.
According to the researchers, those six core (核心的) emotional arcs are:
“Rags to riches” (An ongoing emotional rise)
“Tragedy, or riches to rags” (An ongoing emotional fall)
“Man in a hole” (A fall followed by a rise)
“Icarus” (A rise followed by a fall)
“Cinderella” (Rise–fall–rise)
“Oedipus” (Fall–rise–fall)
Interestingly, based on download statistics from Project Gutenberg, the researchers say the most popular stories are ones that use more complex emotional arcs, with the “Cinderella” and “Oedipus” arcs registering the most downloads. Also popular are works that combine these core arcs together in new ways within one story, such as two “Man in a hole” arcs stuck together, or the “Cinderella” arc coupled with a tragic ending.
1.Readers often feel familiar when reading a new story because stories have similar ______.
A. beginnings B. endings
C. characters D. emotional arcs
2.How did researchers carry out their study?
A. By conducting surveys among readers.
B. By reading books borrowed from libraries.
C. By analysing works from an online collection.
D. By interviewing authors of the well-known stories.
3.Which set of works may drag emotion down?
A. Hope, fortune and riches.
B. Disease, murder and war.
C. Smile, health and beauty.
D. Cold, earthquake and spring.
4.According to the last paragraph, which kind of works are most popular among readers?
A. Works with an ongoing emotional rise.
B. Works with an ongoing emotional fall.
C. Works with a rise followed by a fall.
D. Works with more than one rise and fall.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
According to the rules, students must not ____ their books during examinations.
A.read | B.watch | C.notice | D.look at |
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
After seeing the movie.____.
A.the book was read by him | B.the book made him want to read it |
C.he wanted t read the book | D.the reading of the book interested him |
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
This book is said to be a special one, which ______ many events not found in other history books.
A.writes B.covers C.deals D.refers
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
This book is said to be a special one, as it ____ many events not found in other history books.
A. writes B. prints C. covers D. reads
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
This book is said to be a special one, which __________ many events not found in other history books.
A.writes | B.covers | C.prints | D.reads |
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
I enjoyed the movie very much. I wish I _____ the book from which it was made.
A. have read B. had read C. should have read D. are reading
高三英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析
I enjoyed the movie very much. I wish I ______ the book from which it was made.
A.have read | B.had read | C.should have read | D.am reading |
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
He finished ______the book yesterday evening.
A.seeing | B.watching | C.reading | D.looking |
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析