Unfortunately, I believe that happiness escapes mostly because they misunderstand the process and journey of finding it. I have heard many people say that, “I’ll be happy when I get my new promotion.” or “I’ll be happy when I earn that extra 20 pounds.” The list goes on and on. You probably have a few of your own you could add if you want.
This thinking is dangerous because it presupposes that happiness is a “response” to having, being or doing something. In life, we all experience stimulus and response. Stimulus is when a dog barks at you and bares his teeth. Response is when your heart beats faster, your palms get sweaty and you prepare to run. Today, some people think that an expensive car is a stimulus. Happiness is a response. A great paying job is a stimulus. Happiness is a response. A loving relationship is a stimulus. Happiness is a response. This belief leaves us thinking and feeling: “I’ll be happy when…”
It has been my finding that actually the opposite is true. I believe that happiness is a stimulus and response is what life brings to those who are truly happy. When we are happy, we tend to have more success in our work. When we are happy, people want to be around us and enjoy loving relationships. When we are happy, we more naturally take better care of our bodies and enjoy good health. Happiness is NOT a response — rather, it is a stimulus.
Happiness is a conscious choice we make every day of our lives. For unknown reason to me, many choose to be painful, unsuccessful and angry most of the time. Happiness is not something that happens to us after we get something we want — we usually get things we want AFTER we choose to be happy.
I have made only one simple rule for my own happiness: Every day above ground is a GOOD day. Therefore, I tend to have a lot of good (and happy) days continually.
【小題1】The second paragraph mainly tells us that people seek happiness_______.

A．in the same way

B．in different ways

C．by working hard

D．by taking drugs

A．something causes an action	B．something helps to expand
C．a(chǎn)ttention	D．improvement

When Dean Arnold got his first job, he was miserable (痛苦的), Each time he went to work, he coughed and he couldn’t breathe. Working in a bakery(面包房) when you are allergic to (對(duì)…過(guò)敏) flour can be painful.
But Arnold stayed with the National Biscuit Company for ten years. He was a businessman and he helped them improve production. At last his health problems became too serious. He left and formed his own company.
With his wife and mother, he founded Arnold Bakery. They tried new recipes (配方), changing the kind and amount of flour used. This enabled Arnold to work there without too much pain. The bread, made with unbleached flour (標(biāo)準(zhǔn)粉), was baked in a brick oven (烘爐).
They began by baking two dozen loaves. The bread was sold door to door for fifteen cents a loaf. Winning customers to his unusual, old-fashioned bread took time. But Arnold, struggling against his allergy, built his bakery into one of the largest in the United States.
【小題1】A good title for this passage would be ______.

A．suffered from allergy to flour	B．didn’t like the job
C．wanted to make more money	D．wanted to form his own company

After Mom died, I began visiting Dad every morning before I went to work. He was frail（衰弱） and moved slowly, but he always had a glass of freshly squeezed（擠榨的） orange juice on the kitchen table for me, along with an unsigned note reading, “Drink your juice.” Such a gesture（表示）, I knew, was as far as Dad had ever been able to go in expressing his love. In fact, I remember, as a kid I had questioned Mom “Why doesn’t Dad love me?” Mom frowned（皺眉）, “Who said he doesn’t love you?”“Well, he never tells me,” I complained. He never tells me either,” she said, smiling. “But look how hard he works to take care of us, to buy us food and clothes, and to pay for this house. That’s how your father tells us he loves us.”
I nodded slowly. I understood in my head, but not in my heart. I still wanted my father to put his arms around me and tell me he loved me. Dad owned and operated a small scrap（小片） metal business, and after school I often hung around while he worked. Dad handfed scrap steel into a device（裝置） that chopped （切）it as cleanly as a butcher（屠夫） chops a rack of ribs（肋骨）. The machine looked like a giant pair of scissors（剪刀）, with blades（刃） thicker than my father’s body. If he didn’t feed those terrifying blades just right, he risked serious injury. “Why don’t you hire someone to do that for you?” Mom asked Dad one night as she bent over him and rubbed（搓） his aching shoulders with a strong smelling liniment（涂劑）. “Why don’t you hire a cook?” Dad asked , giving her one of his rare smiles.
Many years later, during my first daily visit, after drinking the juice my father had squeezed for me, I walked over, hugged him and said, “I love you, Dad.” From then on I did this every morning. My father never told me how he felt about my hugs, and there was never any expression on his face when I gave them.
【小題1】What would be the best title for the passage?
A I just couldn’t understand my father      B My father never loved me
C Silent fatherly love      D My hard-working father
【小題2】The author’s father always prepared a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice for him because ______.
A that was the author’s favorite      B he was sure the author would be thirsty
C the author was always complaining      D that was a gesture of love
【小題3】The author’s father didn’t hire a helper because ______.
A his job was too dangerous      B his job required high skills
C he wanted to save money      D he was not good at communicating with others
【小題4】We may infer from the passage that ______.
A the author’s father lacked a sense of humor
B the author quite understood his father as time went on
C the author’s father didn’t love him very much
D the author’s father was too strict with him

It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005. While most people were warming up their ears, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.
The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries (食品雜貨) saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.
I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that，several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.
People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity (人性) as a whole. And it has influenced (影響) us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting.
【小題1】Why was the bike so important to the couple?

A newly-published study has shown that loneliness can spread from one person to another, like a disease.
Researchers used information from the Framingham Study, which began in 1948. The Framingham Study gathers information about physical and mental health, personal behavior and diet. At first, the study involved about 5,000 people in the American state of Massachusetts. Now, more than 12,000 individuals are taking part.
Information from the Framingham Study showed earlier that happiness can spread from person to person. So can behaviors like littering and the ability to stop smoking.
University of Chicago psychologist John Cacioppo led the recent study. He and other researchers attempted to show how often people felt lonely. They found that the feeling of loneliness spread through social groups.
Having a social connection with a lonely person increased the chances that another individual would feel lonely. In fact, a friend of a lonely person was 52% more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. A friend of that person was 25% more likely. The researchers say this shows that a person could indirectly be affected by someone’s loneliness.
The effect was strongest among friends. Neighbors were the second most affected group. The effect was weaker on husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. The researchers also found that loneliness spread more easily among women than men.
The New York Times newspaper reports that, on average, people experience feelings of loneliness about 48 days a year. It also found that every additional friend can decrease loneliness by about five percent, or two and a half fewer lonely days.
Loneliness has been linked to health problems like depression and sleeping difficulties. The researchers believe that knowing the causes of loneliness could help in reducing it.
The study suggests that people can take steps to stop the spread of loneliness. They can do this by helping individuals they know who may be experiencing loneliness. The result can be helpful to the whole social group.
【小題1】From the passage, we can learn that            .

A．the habit of littering doesn’t spread

B．a(chǎn) lonely person won’t have friends

C．everyone may be affected by others’ loneliness

D．lonely people don’t know the cause of their loneliness

A．Actions should be taken to help lonely people.	B．People feel lonely for many reasons.
C．Ways to fight against loneliness.	D．Lonely people can affect others.

American author Mark Twain once noted that “l(fā)ife would be surely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” Twain’s words were only one of many complaints about aging. The ancient Greek poet Homer called old age “hateful”, and William Shakespeare termed it “terrible winter”.
Alexander the Great, who conquered most of the known world before he died around 323 B.C., may have been looking for a river that healed the ravages of age. During the 12^th century A.D., a king called Prester John ruled a land that had a river of gold and a fountain of youth.
But the name linked most closely to the search for a fountain of youth is 16^th-century Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. He thought it would be found in Florida. In St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S., there’s a tourist attraction. It is said to be the fountain of youth that Ponce de Leon discovered soon after he arrived in what is now Florida in 1513. However, elderly visitors who drink the spring’s water don’t turn into teenagers.
But the tale of the search for a fountain of youth is so appealing(有吸引力的) that it survives anyway, says Ryan K. Smith, a professor of history. “People are more attracted by the story of looking and not finding than they are by the idea that the fountain might be out there somewhere.”
Still, a few grains of truth have helped to support the story. Kathleen Deagan, a professor of archaeology, says a graveyard and the remains of a Spanish mission dating back to St. Augustine’s founding in 1565 have been discovered near the so-called fountain of youth. Michelle Reyna, a spokesperson for the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in St. Augustine, says the fountain has been a tourist attraction since at least 1901 and may have been attracting visitors since 1860.
【小題1】According to the passage, who searched for a fountain of youth?

The rumors had been spreading for months but it still came as a shock when the hospital would be closing. It had served this poor neighborhood for nearly 100 years but it would close because of the health care crisis.
The day after the announcement co-workers found out that pretzels(椒鹽餅干) had been eliminated. Soft pretzels are the lifeblood of this city. So losing access to soft pretzels is no small matter.
I said, “I only have $6. I’m not sure how many pretzels I need. You see, I work at a hospital and it’s closing and they stopped selling pretzels.” The man’s smile disappeared. “What hospital?” “Oh, Northeastern Hospital.”
The guy looked deeply shocked. “I used to sell medical supplies and that was one of my hospitals.” Then he turned around and grabbed a box of 25 pretzels and slid them across the counter.
I was surprised by his generosity and started to reach for my wallet, “Oh I can pay. Please let me …” The guy smiled, “Just tell them Joe Sullivan said to do something nice for someone else.”
And so that day everyone in medical records was treated to a soft pretzel. Word spread fast as people came asking, “Is it really true?” It was as if I’d carried in a box of gold. It mattered to them that a stranger cared.
【小題1】The underlined word “eliminated” in Paragraph 2 means _____.

【小題1】The actress bought a house in the centre of the city because _______.

One silly question I simply can’t stand is “How do you feel?”  Usually the question is asked of a man in action—a man on the go, walking along the streets, or busily working at his desk. So what do you expect him to say? He’ll probably say, “Fine, I’m all right,” but you have put a bug in his ear —maybe now he’s not sure. If you are a good friend, you may have seen something in his face, or his walk that he overlooked that morning. It starts worrying him a little. First thing you know, he looks in a mirror to see if everything is all right, while you go merrily on your way asking someone else, “How do you feel?”
Every question has its time and place. It’s perfectly acceptable, for instance, to ask “How do you feel?” if you’re visiting a close friend in the hospital. But if the fellow is walking on both legs, hurrying to make a train, or sitting at his desk working, it’s no time to ask him that silly question.
When George Bernard Shaw, the famous writer of plays was in his eighties, someone asked him “How do you feel?” Shaw put him in his place. “When you reach my age,” he said, “either you feel all right or you’re dead.”
【小題1】The question “How do you feel?” seems to be correct and suitable when asked of_________.

A．a(chǎn) friend who is ill	B．a(chǎn) man working at his desk
C．a(chǎn) person having lost a close friend	D．a(chǎn) stranger who looks somewhat worried

I was packed and ready to leave for my two days’ trip. My mind had been filled with work and with so many small things to deal with. As I got into the car to leave, my thoughts turned to my children. I’d been preparing for the trip for the last few days, and now I’d be away for a few days.
How to keep in touch with your kids during busy time is often a father’s problem. Men tend to focus on one thing extremely well for long periods, but this can lead to trouble. Shifting(移開(kāi)) from work to your family life isn't always the easiest thing to do. And if you don’t show your kids that you’re thinking about them, they may think that you are not.
As I started down the road, I suddenly stopped the car and turned around. I drove back to my house, found a couple of cards, and wrote a short message to each of my children. I put each in a “secret” place where I knew they’d find it.
When I called the next night, it was clear that they’d received the cards. “Daddy, I got your card,” they both said excitedly. “When did you do that?”
My heart was warmed when I heard this. It was such a small thing. But it had a big impact(影響) on my kids. It was their “proof” that I was thinking about them. And it was encouragement for me to continue to do the small things that have a big impact.
【小題1】 From the passage we can infer that the author thinks a father should ______.

A．their father had thought highly of them

B．they had found the cards from their father

C．they had done something good at home

D．their father told them he would be back soon