阅读下列短文，从每小题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

A

Cell Phones Are the New Cigarettes

When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you’re at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.

Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it’s the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their desire to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.

With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, its air of complexity, the cell phone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away. In just the past  couple of years, the cell phone has challenged individuals, employers, phone makers and  counselors(顾问) in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined.

The costs are becoming even more evident, and I don’t mean just the monthly bill. Dr. Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of  cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality.

Sounds extreme, but we’ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him.

Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?

Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation. He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don’t have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says.

If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it’s because it has become very widespread. Consider that in 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use. Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them. They far outnumber wired phones in the United States.

51. Which of the following best explains the title of the passage?

A. Cell phone users smoke less than they used to.

B. More people use cell phones than smoke cigarettes.

C. Cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes.

D. Using cell phone is just as cool as smoking cigarettes.

52. The underlined word “curb” in Paragraph  2 means __________.

A. control    B. ignore        C. develop           D. rescue

53. The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that           .

A. women use cell phones more often than men

B. talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

C. cell phones make one-on-one personal contact easy

D. cell phones do not necessarily bring people together

B

Each Indian tribe(部落) had a different language. Many Indians never learned any language except their own. Do you know how Indians from different trib es talked to each other? They had two ways to talk without sound. One way was by sign language;the other way by signals.

Sign language is a way of talking by using signs. Indians used sign language when they met strangers. In this way, they could find out whether the stranger was a friend or an enemy. In the Indian sign language, signs were made with the hands. One sign meant “man”. Another meant “horse”. To tell the time of day when something happened, an Indian pointed to the sky. He showed where the sun had been at the time.

Indians usually used signals when they wanted to send messages to someone far away. To make signals, an Indian might use a pony. He might use a blanket. Or he might use smoke, a mirror or fire arrows.

To signal that he had seen many animals, an Indian rode his pony in a large circle. Sometimes the Indian gave a signal like this and then went away to hide. This meant that there was danger.

The blanket signal was visible from far away. An Indian held the corners of a blanket in his hands. Then he began to swing the blanket from side to side in front of him. An Indian could send many different signals with his blanket.

He could also send many signals with a mirror. He usually used the mirror to warn someone of danger. Or he attempted to get the attention of a person far away. But he also used it to send messages in code. Of course, mirrors could be used only when the sun was shining. At night, Indians used fire arrows for signaling.

An Indian also sent signals with smoke. He made a small fir e. Then he put grass or green branches on it. He held a blanket over the fire for a minute. When he removed the blanket from the fire, there was a cloud of smoke. The number of clouds of smoke told his message in code.

Now you can see that Indians didn’t need to learn each other's language. They could talk to one another by using signals or sign language.

54. From the passage we can infer that _________.

A. Indian language was difficult to learn, so many Indians never learned it

B. among the Indian tribes there was no common spoken language

C. many Indians couldn’t communicate with each other

D. Indians talked with each other only in two ways---sign and signal language

55. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. One or two clouds of smoke sent different message.

B. In Indian sign language, “man’’ meant friend and “horse” meant enemy.

C. If an Indian rode his pony in a large circle, it meant there was danger.

D. Signals with smoke could be used to send messages at night.

56. What is the best title of this passage?

A. Indians’ way of life         B. Each Indian tribe had its own language

C. How to use signals and sign language     D. Talking without sound

C

When we think of leadership, we often think of strength and power. But what are these really, and how do they operate?

Leadership today is not about forcing others to do things. If this is even possible, it is short-term. If you order someone to do something against their will, they may do it because they feel they must, but the anger they feel will d o more harm in the long-term. They will also experience fear.

Fear causes the thinking brain to shut down, making the person unable to function at his or her best. If they associate you with this emotion of fear, they will become less functional around you, and you will have succeeded in not only shooting yourself in the foot, but possibly making a very good employee or partner unable to perform effectively. Fear has no place in leadership.

The way we influence people in a lasting way is by our own character, and our understanding and use of emotion .We can order someone to do something, which may be part of t he work day; or we can employ them at the emotional level, so they became fully devoted to the projects and provide some of their own motivation(积极性). Today’s work place is all about relationships.

Anyone works harder in a positive environment in which they are recognized and valued as a human being as well as a worker. Everyone produces just a bit more for someone they like. Leaders understand the way things work. They know money is not the single most motivating factor (因素) in the work life of most people.

The true strength of leadership is an inner strength that comes from the confidence of emotional intelligence---knowing your own emotions, and how to handle them, and those of others. Developing your emotional intelligence is the single best thing you can do if you want to develop your relationships with people around you, which is the key to the leadership skills.