Are you unsure of the future? Do you feel as if you have put in a lot of effort, yet you still haven't gotten anywhere? Are your relationships getting sour? If the answer to all these questions is yes, then you're in for some serious reflection.ks5u A negative perspective on life will definitely not do you any good.It will only stop you from achieving your goals, and will make you feel more and more unhappy.When you lack self-confidence, you tend to play safe and do just what is needed instead of exploring your full potentials .Your fears and self doubt are in fact the main _ that stop you from achieving success and keep you from living the life that you truly want.Understand this: the barrier to your happiness is your own insecurity and cowardly manner. How do you escape your self-bondage ? With the help of individuals who have gone through life's tragedies without being affected, such as Rebecca Richmond, a widely admired life coach, you can take hold of your life and transform yourself from being afraid into a person with a positive outlook who is ready to get hold of the bright future that awaits you.The most important thing that you need to realize is that you have the power to change your life.You can reach unimaginable heights if you only believe in your ability to do so.See the unlimited opportunities that are set before you.Take challenges as lessons that make you strong and mature. Do not let your painful past dictate the person that you would become.Open your eyes and see the beautiful person that you are.You deserve to live a better life -- one that is full of love, peace of mind, and prosperity. The author wrote this article mainly to _ . A) let us know more about the world B) describe what a success person is like C) prove it is not easy to have a bright future D) tell us how to get rid of our self-bondage
D
(Question)
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896. He was an American writer of novels and short stories, whose works are the typical writings of the Jazz Age, a term he created himself. Born into an upper middle-class Irish Catholic family, Fitzgerald was named after his famous second cousin, Francis Scott Key. He was also named after his deceased sister Louise Scott, one of two sisters who died shortly before his birth. He spent 1898-1901 in Syracuse and 1903-1908 in Buffalo, New York, where he attended Nardin Academy. When his father was fired from his company, the family returned to Minnesota, where Fitzgerald attended St. Paul Academy from 1908 to1911. He is widely regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered to be a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night and his most famous classic novel, The Great Gatsby. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon was published after his death. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that dealt with themes of youth. His first literary work, a detective story, was published in a school newspaper when he was 12. When he was 16, he was forced to leave St. Paul Academy for neglecting his studies. He attended Newman School, a prep school in Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1911-1912, and entered Princeton University in 1913 as a member of the Class of 1917. There he became friends with future critics and writers Edmund Wilson (Class of 1916) and John Peale Bishop (Class of 1917), and wrote for the Princeton Triangle Club. He was also a member of the University Cottage Club, which still displays Fitzgerald's desk and writing materials in its library. A poor student, Fitzgerald left Princeton to enlist in the US Army during World War I; however, the war ended shortly after Fitzgerald's enlistment. Fitzgerald had been an alcoholic since his college days, leaving him in poor health by the late 1930s. Fitzgerald suffered a... What does the passage mainly talk about? A) The "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. B) How Fitzgerald got his name. C) The life and works of Fitzgerald. D) Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age.
(Answer)
C
Ques: When you practice reading with passages shorter than book length, do not try to take in each word separately, one after the other. It is much more difficult to grasp the broad theme of the passage this way, and you will also get the stuck on individual words which may not be absolutely essential to a general understanding of the passage. It is a good idea to skim through the passage very quickly first to get the general idea of each paragraph. Titles, paragraph headings and emphasized word can be a great help in getting this skeleton outline of the passage. It is surprising how many people do not read titles, introductions or paragraph headings. Can you, without looking back, remember the title of this passage and the heading of this paragraph? Most paragraphs of a passage or chapter have a 'topic sentence' which expresses the central idea. The remaining sentence expand or support that idea. It has been estimated that between 60% and 90% of all expositive paragraphs in English have the topic sentence first. Always pay special attention to the first sentence of a paragraph; it is most likely to give you the main idea. Sometimes , though , the first sentence in the paragraph does not have the feel of 'main idea' sentence. It does not seem to give us enough new information to justify a paragraph. The next most likely place to look for the topic sentence is the last sentence of the paragraph. Remember that the opening and closing paragraphs of a passage or chapter are particularly important . The opening paragraph suggests the general direction and content of the piece, while the closing paragraph often summarizes the very essence . Some times we know the first sentence is not the topic sentence because _ . A) it does not seem to give us enough new information B) it is not long enough C) it does not come at the beginning D) it does not make complete sentence
Ans: A
Zoo elephants don't live as long as those in the wild, according to a study sure to cause debate about keeping the giant animals on display. Researchers compared the life spans of elephants in European zoos with those living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others working on a timber enterprise in Buma. Animals in the wild or in natural working conditions had life expectancies twice than or more of their relatives in zoos. Animal care activists have urged in recent years to discourage keeping elephants in zoos, largely because of the lack of space and small numbers of animals that can be kept in a group. The researchers found that the _ life span for African elephants in European zoos was 16.9 years, compared with 56 years for elephants who died of natural causes in Kenya's Amboseli Park. Adding in those elephants killed by people in Africa lowered the median life expectancy there to 35.9 years. For the more endangered Asian elephants, the median life span in European zoos was 18.9 years, compared with 41.7 years for those working in the Burma Timber Enterprise. Median means half died younger than that age and half lived longer. There is some good news, though. The life expectancies of zoo elephants have improved in recent years, suggesting an improvement in their care and raising, but "Protecting elephants in Africa and Asia is far more successful than protecting them in Western zoos." There are about 1,200 elephants in zoos, half in Europe, researchers concentrated on female elephants, which make up 80 percent of the zoo population. One amazing thing was that Asian elephants born in zoos had shorter life spans that those brought to the zoos from the wild. Zoos usually lack large areas that elephants are used to in the wild, and that zoo animals often are alone or with one or two other unrelated animals, while in the wild they tend to live in related groups of 8 to 12 animals. In Asian elephants, baby death rates are two to three times higher in zoos than in the Burmese logging camps, and then, in... Who are expected to pay more attention to the issue addressed? A) Zoologists. B) Animal care activists. C) Zoo visitors. D) The public.
D