Who's in control of your life? Who is pulling your string? For the majority of us, it's other people - society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course.We were brainwashed.We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us.As Oscar Wilde puts it,"Most people are other people.Their thoughts are someone else's opinions,their lives a mimicry ,their passions a quotation." So when people tell us how wonderful we are,it makes us feel good.We long for this good feeling like a drug--we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can.Therefore,we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives,failing to do the things we really want to.Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix ,we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval. But just as with any drug,there is a price to pay.The price of the approval drug is freedom--the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think.People have their own schedule,and they come with their own baggage and,in the end,they're more interested in themselves than in you.Furthermore,if we try to live by the opinions of others,we will build our life on sinking sand.Everyone has a different way of thinking,and people change their opinions all the time.The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probably pleasing no one in the process. So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way--make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think.We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values--not values imposed from the outside by others,but inborn values which come from within.If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others,we will live a more authentic,effective,purposeful and... It can be concluded from the passage that _ . A) it's better to do what we like B) it's important to accept others' opinions C) we shouldn't change our own opinions D) we shouldn't care what others think
D
(Question)
Staying married has its benefits. A new U.S.-wide study shows the wealth of a married person is almost double that of somebody who is single. "If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married. On the other hand, divorce can destroy your wealth," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study. Married people will see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people, ac-cording to the study published in the Journal of Sociology. Those who remained together saw a 93 percent gain in wealth compared to that of a single person, while individuals facing divorce saw their financial situation worsen long before they finally divorced, according to Zagorsky. The study used data from surveys taken over a 15-year period involving 9,055 Americans who were between 21 and 28 years old in 1985. Those who remained single had a steady, but slow growth in wealth, from less than $2,000 at the start of the surveys up to an average of about $11,000 after 15 years. However, those who married and stayed that way showed a sharp increase in wealth after marriage, growing to an average $43,000 by the 10th year of marriage or by about 16 percent a year. For people who married and then divorced, there was a slow build-up of wealth during the early years of marriage and then a steady decrease about four years before divorce. The study also showed doubt about a common idea that divorce was much harder financially on women than on men. In fact, it showed that women suffered financially only slightly more than men. We can know from the passage that _ . A) marriage helps people increase their wealth more easily B) staying single is the best way to increase wealth C) getting divorced does much more harm to men than to women D) people's wealth increases before they finally divorce
(Answer)
A
At Harton College--an English boarding school for boys--there are many rules. 15-year-old Bob Sanders often breaks them. The boys can go into the town in the afternoon after class. But they must return to the school at six o'clock. One afternoon Bob walked to the town. He looked at the shops and then went to the cinema. When the film was over, it was after eight o'clock. He was a little worried. He walked back to prefix = st1 /HartonCollegeas fast as possible. When he arrived, he ran quickly to the main entrance. It was locked. He went round the school . uilding to another door, which was locked, too. He looked up at the window of his dormitory on the third floor. The window was open, but it was quite dark and he could not climb up the wall easily. Then he saw another open window on the ground floor. It was the window of the headmaster's study. He looked into the room--no one was there. Bob quickly climbed onto the window sill and jumped into the room. Just then he heard a noise. Then someone turned on a light in the corridor. Bob looked around and then hid under the sofa. One minute later, Mr. Mannering, the headmaster, came in. He turned on the light on his desk, and sat down on the sofa. Then he opened a book and began to read. Bob lay under the sofa as quietly as possible. He couldn't move. The floor was cold and uncomfortable. He looked at the headmaster's shoes and socks for an hour. "Why doesn't he get up and go to bed?" Bob thought. Mr. Mannering read his book for another hour. Finally, the headmaster closed his book and stood up. He put the book on a shelf and walked towards the door. "Thank heavens he didn't find me under the sofa," thought Bob. Then Mr. Mannering stopped and spoke towards the sofa. "Would you turn off the light when you leave?" He said, and left the study. When the headmaster came in, Bob . A) was sitting on the sofa B) was lying under the sofa C) hid himself behind the bookshelf D) hid himself under the desk
B