Posturing for success (P4)
I. Pre-reading
Discuss the following questions with your partner.
 Do you think the way you stand or sit can affect your success? Why or why not?
 Can our body language affect how we perceive ourselves?

II. Reading
Read the article and choose the best answer for each of the following questions.
1. According to the article, Professor Amy Cuddy wanted her study on body language to ____.
A. help people to become more confident
B. make people fitter and stronger
C. teach people how to make a better speech
D. help distinguish between people of different social classes
2. Which of the following is probably a high-power pose, according to the article?
A. Folding your arms.
B. Looking down while in the presence of others.
C. Sitting with your arm spread out around the chair next to you.
D. Resting your chin on your hands as if wondering about something.
3. The main purpose of this article is to ____.
A. explain what has made Amy Cuddy’s TED talk so popular
B. give practical tips on how to communicate with others
C. help the reader to tell the difference between a high-power pose and a low-power one
D. explain why Amy Cuddy considers body language important  

Key:
1. A。根据“I wanted to equip people with tools that would help them feel stronger, less fearful, and better able to bring their full, spirited selves to stressful situations like speaking in class”可以得此答案。
2. C。根据“Typical high-power poses are about opening up. You stretch and expand your body to take up as much space as possible.”以及后面举的例子可知，high-power poses一般是那些往外延伸的动作，所以C为正确答案。
3. D。该文主要是解释Amy Cuddy的关于身体语言的这个研究。

III. After reading
Answer the following questions:
1. What are the differences between “high-power” and “low-power” poses?
“High-power” refers to the act of taking a posture of confidence, even when you don’t feel very confident. Typical high-power poses are about opening up. You stretch and expand your body to take up as much space as possible. Meanwhile, people take low-power positions when they’re feeling helpless or defeated. They close up, wrapping their arms around themselves and tucking their limbs in.

2. Why does Cuddy consider body language important? Find out sentences from the article that reflect Cuddy’s views.
It actually has an impact on not just the way others look at us, but also how we actually perform.
Their research showed that standing or sitting in a certain way, even for just two minutes, changes one’s body chemistry and self-perception.
This isn’t about what your body language is communicating to others, it’s about what your body language is communicating to you. Your body language is changing your mind, which changes your behavior, which changes your outcomes.

Supply rocket explodes (P5)
I. Pre-reading
Discuss the following questions with your partner.
 What are the lives of astronauts who are working at the International Space Station like?
 How do they get regular resupplies from Earth?

II. Skimming
Read the article and find out the answers to the following questions.
1. What happened to NASA’s unmanned rocket bound for the International Space Station on Oct 28?
It exploded six seconds after its launch in Virginia, US.

2. What were the consequences of the rocket explosion?
Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargo was destroyed in the explosion. The cargo ship was loaded with 2,200 kilograms of supplies such as food, tools, parts, and experiments.

3. What are the lives of astronauts who are working at the International Space Station like?
Most of the food they eat is frozen and ready to eat, and often tastes bad, somewhat like trying to eat when you have a heavy cold. To make space life better, however, scientists have made breakthroughs. Earlier this year, Russian astronauts managed to grow a variety of crops aboard the station. Next year they are going to try to grow rice and other plants. And, as transporting water to space is expensive, astronauts are looking for ways to recycle water. Astronauts on board the ISS already drink water distilled from sweat and urine.

4. How does the station get regular resupplies from Earth?
The station gets regular resupplies from Earth using unmanned spacecrafts.

III. Scanning
Read the article again and choose the best answer for each of the following questions.
1. What is the author’s main purpose in writing the article?
A. To explain what caused the explosion of NASA’s unmanned rocket.
B. To inform us of the explosion of NASA’s unmanned rocket and its effects.
C. To tell us about astronauts’ lives at the International Space Station.
D. To tell us how the world reacted to the explosion of NASA’s unmanned rocket.
2. How did teacher Greg Adragna feel about the explosion of the rocket?
A. Angry.     B. Anxious.
C. Frustrated.     D. Unconcerned.
3. We can conclude from the article that the situation seemed ____ for astronauts on board the ISS when the rocket exploded.
A. hopeless    B. interesting
C. depressing   D. dangerous
4. Which of the following statements is TRUE about the ISS, according to the article?
A. Half of the astronauts at the ISS are from the US.
B. The ISS was set up by four countries.
C. Most of the food astronauts eat at the ISS is frozen and tastes bad.
D. The water that astronauts at the ISS drink is mainly made by recycling.

Key:
1. B。作者在这篇文章开头说到了美国这次卫星的爆炸，然后在下文中说到了这一消息对地球上的人和国际太空站上的宇航员的影响。
2. C。根据“I know that failure is a part of science, but I really feel for my students”可得此答案。
3. C。文中提到，这次卫星装载的物资中，有大约三分之一都是食物，而且在储备水不够的情况下，国际太空站上的宇航员就得饮用从汗液和尿液中提取的水了，可推知太空供给飞船爆炸的消息应该会让他们有点沮丧。
4. C。根据“Most of the food is frozen and ready to eat, and often tastes bad”可以得此答案。在国际太空站的六位宇航员中，有三位是俄罗斯人，两位美国人，一位德国人，所以A有误。参与国际太空站除了有美、俄、日、加四国以外，还有欧洲的一些国家，所以B不对。D的“mainly made by recycling”文中没有提到。

IV. Language study
Work out the meanings of the following phrases and then fill in the blanks with proper one.
due to  bound for   feel for   rely on   by any chance

1. Though I have no younger sister, I still _____ her.
2. Many said that his successes were largely _____ luck.
3. Do you _____ have change for 5 pounds?
4. Don't always _____ others to understand and sympathize with you.
5. Right now they might be riding quickly through the night,  _____ New York.

Key:
1. feel for  2. due to   3. by any chance  4. rely on  5. bound for

No fear in France (P6)
I. Pre-reading
Discuss the following questions with your partner.
 Do you prefer traveling alone, with one or two companions, or in a large group?
 Have you ever traveled alone?
 If so, how did you feel during your trip?

II. Reading
Read the article and choose the best answer for each of the following questions.
1. What happened to the author when she arrived in Paris?
A. Her purse was stolen on her first Metro ride.
B. Her suitcase fell down the steep stairs in the station.
C. She had great trouble finding the hotel she had booked.
D. The two Parisians she turned to refused to help her.
2. When the author arrived at her hotel, ____.
A. she admired the view out of the window
B. she was not happy with the condition it was in
C. she started to miss her kids and called them up straight away
D. she felt frightened because nobody lived there
3. We can learn from the third paragraph that the author ____.
A. had a walk outside after having dinner at the hotel
B. didn’t enjoy herself on her first night in Paris
C. dare not travel alone again after her visit to Paris
D. might have felt abandoned before she decided to explore alone
4. What did the author learn from her trip?
A. You can only rely on yourself to build your own confidence.
B. Solitary travel teaches people how to solve problems on their own.
C. Life is full of obstacles and people should learn to live with them.
D. Paris is the most challenging place to visit alone.

Key:
1. C。从第1段“Somewhere in this confusing city my hotel was hidden, but suddenly I couldn't read my own directions.”可知，作者迷路了，不知道她的旅店在哪里。
2. B。从第2段作者对旅店的描写“The wallpaper looked like it had been through a fire. The bathroom was down the hall, and the window looked out onto the brick wall of another building.”可知，她对旅店非常不满意。
3. D。从第3段最后一句“Overcoming my fear made me feel free, not abandoned.”可知，作者此时感到free，而不是abandoned，可推断出此前作者一直有一种“被抛弃”的感觉，这也是下一段提到旅行具有healing power的原因。
4. B。从最后一段作者的总结中，尤其是“Traveling alone makes up for its problems by building self-reliance and confidence. Certainly Paris became my metaphor for addressing life's challenges on my own.”这两个句子，可以看出作者从独自旅行中获得了如何独自解决问题的能力。

III. Language study
1. The wallpaper looked like it had been through a fire.
释义：墙纸看起来就像经历过火灾一样。
分析：look like是比喻的修辞用法，即直接把一物体同另一个具有同一性质或特点的物体相比较，类似比喻词如as，like，seem，as though等。

2. I returned home a believer in the healing power of solitary (孤独的) travel.
释义：旅游归来，我对独自出游所带来的治愈力量深信不疑。
分析：本句是一个省略结构，a believer不是return的宾语，相当于I returned home as a believer…或者When I returned home, I was a believer…。Believer 指对某种信仰有坚定不移的信念的人，常用于a believer in (doing) sth结构。