[单项选择]At all ages and at all stages of life, fear presents a problem to almost everyone. "We are largely the playthings of our fears," wrote the British author Horace Walpole many years ago. "To one, fear of the dark; to another, of physical pain; to a third, of public ridicule; to a fourth, of poverty; to a fifth, of loneliness—for all of us our particular creature waits in a hidden place."
Fear is often a useful emotion. When you become frightened, many physical changes occur within your body. Your heartbeat and responses quicken; your pupils expand to admit more light; large quantities of energy-producing adrenaline (肾上激素) are poured into your bloodstream. Confronted with a fire or accident, fear can fuel life-saving flight (逃离). Similarly, when a danger is psychological rather than physical, fear can force you to take self-protective measures. It is only when fear is disproportional to the danger at hand that it becomes a problem.
Some people are simply more vulnerable to fear than others. A visit to the newborn nursery of any large hospital will demonstrate that, from the moment of their births, a few fortunate infants respond calmly to sudden fear-producing situations such as a loudly slammed door. Yet a neighbor in the next bed may cry out with profound fright. From birth, he or she is more prone to learn fearful responses because he or she has inherited a tendency to be more sensitive.
Further, psychologists know that our early experiences and relationships strongly shape and determine our later fears. A young man named Bill, for example, grew up with a father who regarded each adversity as a temporary obstacle to be overcome with imagination and courage. Using his father as a model, Bill came to welcome adventure and to trust his own ability to solve problem.
Phil"s dad, however, spent most of his time trying to protect himself and his family. Afraid to risk the insecurity of a job change, he remained unhappy in one position. He avoided long vacations because "the car might break down." Growing up in such a home, Phil naturally learned to become fearful and tense.Fear can be a useful emotion to us because it can ______.
A. stimulate many physical changes within our body
B. quicken our heartbeat and responses
C. pour large quantities of adrenaline into our bloodstream
D. help us respond quickly to danger and protect ourselves
[单项选择]According to Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip (系列漫画) Dilbert, the annual performance review is "one of the most frightening and weakening experiences" in every employee"s life. Adam"s stories and comic figures poke fun at the workplace, but his characterization of people"s feelings about the annual performance review has its serious side. Although a recent study of 437 companies indicates that effective annual performance reviews can help raise profits, most employees of those companies hate them.
In theory, annual performance reviews are constructive and positive interactions between managers and employees working together to attain maximum performance and strengthen the organization. In reality, they often create division, undermine morale, and spark anger and jealousy. Thus although the object of the annual performance review is to improve performance, it often has the opposite result. A programmer at an IT firm was stunned to learn at her annual performance review that she was denied a promotion because she wasn"t a "term player". What were the data used to make this judgment She didn"t smile in the company photo.
Although this story might sound as if it came straight out of Dilbert, it is a true account of one woman"s experience. By following a few ideas and guidelines from industry analysis, this kind of ordeal can be avoided:
To end the year with a positive and useful performance review, managers and employees must start the year by working together to establish clear goals and expectations.
It may be helpful to allow employees to propose a list of people associated with the company who will be in a good position to assess their performance at the end of the year; these people may be co-workers, suppliers, or even customers.
Goals should be measurable but flexible, and everyone should sign off on the plan.
By checking employees" progress at about nine months, managers can give them a chance to correct mistakes and provide guidance to those who need it before the year is out.
When conducting the review, managers should highlight strengths and weaknesses during the past year and discuss future responsibilities, avoiding punishment or blame.
In short, when employees leave their performance reviews, they should be focusing on what they can do better in the year ahead, not worrying about what went into their files about the past.The word "ordeal" in Paragraph 3 probably refers to ______.
A. likelihood of promotion
B. depressive experience
C. poor performance
D. unrealistic expectation
[单项选择]Many Americans harbor a grossly distorted and exaggerated view of most of the risks surrounding food. Fergus Clydesdale, head of the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says bluntly that if the dangers from bacterially contaminated chicken were as great as some people believe, "the streets would be littered with people lying here and there."
Though the public increasingly demands no-risk food, there is no such thing. Bruce Ames, chairman of the biochemistry department at the University of California, Berkeley, points out that up to 10% of a plant"s weight is made up of natural pesticides (杀虫剂). Says he: "Since plants do not have jaws or teeth to protect themselves, they employ chemical warfare." And many naturally produced chemicals, though occurring in tiny amounts, prove in laboratory tests to be strong carcinogens—a substance which can cause cancer. Mushrooms (蘑菇) might be banned if they were judged by the same standards that apply to food additives (添加剂). Declares Christina Stark, a nutritionist at Cornell University: "We"ve got fat worse natural chemicals in the food supply than anything man-made."
Yet the issues are not that simple. While Americans have no reason to be terrified to sit down at the dinner table, they have every reason to demand significant improvements in food and water safety. They unconsciously and unwillingly take in too much of too many dangerous chemicals. If food already contains natural carcinogens, it does not make much sense to add dozens of new man-made ones. Though most people will withstand the small amounts of contaminants generally found in food and water, at least a few individuals will probably get cancer one day because of what they eat and drink.
To make good food and water supplies even better, the Government needs to tighten its regulatory standards, stiffen its inspection program and strengthen its enforcement policies. The food industry should modify some long-accepted practices or turn to less hazardous alternatives. Perhaps most important, consumers will have to do a better job of learning how to handle and cook food properly. The problems that need to be tackled exist all along the food-supply chain, from fields to processing plants to kitchens.The author considers it impossible to obtain no-risk food because ______.
A. no food is free from pollution in the environment
B. pesticides are widely used in agriculture
C. many vegetables contain dangerous natural chemicals
D. almost all foods have additives
[单项选择]Tattoos didn"t spring up with the dawn of biker gangs and rock "n" roll bands. They"ve been around for a long time and had many different meanings over the course of history.
For years, scientists believed that Egyptians and Nubians were the first people to tattoo their bodies. Then, in 1991, a mummy was discovered, dating back to the Bronze Age of about 3,300 B.C. "The Iceman", as the specimen was dubbed, had several markings on his body, including a cross on the inside of his knee and lines on his ankle and back. It is believed these tattoos were made in a curative effort.
Being so advance, the Egyptians reportedly spread the practice of tattooing throughout the world. The pyramid-building third and fourth dynasties of Egypt developed international nations with Crete, Greece, Persia and Arabia. The art tattooing stretched out all the way to Southeast Asia by 2,000 B.C. Around the same time, the Japanese became interested in the art but only for its decorative attributes, as opposed to magical ones. The Japanese tattoo artists were the undisputed masters. Their use of colors, perspective, and imaginative designs gave the practice a whole new angle. During the first millennium A.D., Japan adopted Chinese culture in many aspects and confined tattooing to branding wrongdoers.
In the Balkans, the Thracians had a different use for the craft. Aristocrats, according to Herodotus, used it to show the world their social status. Although early Europeans dabbled with tattooing, they truly rediscovered the art from when the world exploration of the post-Renaissance made them seek out new cultures. It was their meeting with Polynesian that introduced them to tattooing. The word, in fact is derived from the Polynesian word tattau, which means "to mark".
Most of the early uses of tattoos were ornamental. However, a number of civilizations had practical applications for this craft. The Goths, a tribe of Germanic barbarians famous for pillaging Roman settlements, used tattoos to mark their slaves. Romans did the same with slaves and criminals.
In Tahiti, tattoos were a rite of passage and told the history of the person"s life. Reaching adulthood, boys got one tattoo to commemorate the event. Men were marked with another style when they got married.
Later, tattoos became the souvenir of choice for globetrotting sailors. Whenever they would reach an exotic locale, they would get a new tattoo to mark the occasion. A dragon was a famous style that meant the sailor had reached a "China station". At first, sailors would spend their free time on the ship tattooing themselves and their mates. Soon after, tattoo parlors were set up in the area, surrounding ports worldwide.
In the middle of the 19th century, police officials believed that half of the criminal underworld in New York City had tattoos. Port areas were renowned for being rough places full of sailors that were guilty of some crime or another. This is most likely how tattoos got such a bad reputation and became associated with rebels and delinquents.Tattoo was believed to be created ______.
A. together with biker gangs and rock "n" roll bands
B. in 1991 when a mummy was discovered
C. firstly in Southeast Asia by 2,000 Ｂ
D. by Egyptians and Nubians