Abby Subark is a mother of two kids from Boston. “For my kids, I’m nervous. I don’t know if they’ll be able to achieve their American dream.” She may be right. More than hard work or education, the best way to get rich in America is to be born rich.

It is the case that somebody who is in the upper third of income, with poor scores, at the bottom on tests when they are in eighth grade, is more likely to go to college and finish college than a poor kid with the top scores. That’s what the working persons’ children are up against.

The Economic Policy Institute finds it would take a poor couple with 2 children 9 or 10 generations to achieve middle class status. That’s about 200 years. The typical feature of American opportunity has always been the ability to do better than your parents. But compared with similar developed countries, the United States ranks fifth out of six for so-called intergenerational mobility (变动).

If you look at the mechanisms (机制) for upward mobility that were so readily available 50 years ago, they are becoming out of reach, like plentiful factory jobs with good wages and affordable education and health care.

White families are twice as likely as blacks to be upwardly mobile. For most people in America today, where you end up depends on where you start.

If you started in the middle – income class, about 40 to 45 percent of what you are making right now is due to the fact that your parents were in the middle – income class. The rest is up to you.

But for the millions of people who find themselves below the poverty line and the millions more who are the working poor, their starting point for the American dream leaves them painfully far away from the middle class.

1．The main idea of the passage is              .

       A．how the middle class comes about in the U.S.

       B．it’s hard for poor Americans to realize their American dream

       C．social status totally depends on family background

       D．upward mobility in America has always been easy.

2．Which of the statements is NOT true according to the passage?

       A．People used to have more opportunities for upward mobility.

       B．A great many poor people can hardly realize their American dream.

       C．You can make all your dreams come true in America if born rich.

       D．Rich kids are more likely to go to college than poor kids.

3．The underlined sentence “where you end up depends on where you start” most probably means              .

       A．your starting point cannot determine your destination.

       B．only a high goal can ensure success.

       C．your birth had nothing to do with your fate

       D．your family lays solid foundation for your future achievement

4．Why is Abby Subark nervous?

       A．Her kids don’t like to compare with rich children.

       B．Her kids don’t want to achieve success at all.

       C．Her kids can succeed through hard work and education.

       D．Her kids cannot easily reach their goals.

5．What can we infer from the passage?　

       A．Poverty causes people much pain.

       B．People below the poverty line can never be in the middle class.

       C．Lower starting point makes it hard for people to realize their dream.

       D．Poor people’s starting point is too low.

The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?
Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing (引证) older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is slow to learn that he has the potential of an Einstein, you're just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students' self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."
Those with low self-esteem didn't feel better after the forced self-affirmation (自我肯定). In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren't urged to think positive thoughts.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic viewpoint. Call it the power of negative thinking. 
【小题1】The first paragraph is written ___________.

A．to raise an argument about positive thinking

B．to introduce the power of positive thinking

C．to encourage people to have positive thoughts

D．to introduce the $11 billion self-help industry

【小题2】 According to the study of the Canadian researchers, ___________.

A．positive thinking is not as powerful as negative thinking

B．encouraging positive thinking may actually discourage people

C．happy people can think positively while unhappy people can’t

D．getting people to think positively can strengthen their confidence

【小题3】What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．You are pointing out the mistakes he has made.

B．You are reminding him that he is not intelligent.

C．You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough.

D．You are showing he has great potential in spite of faults.

【小题4】We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.

A．negative feelings must be got rid of

B．there’s no point in thinking positively

C．it doesn’t make sense to think negatively

D．negative thinking is not always negative

The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?

Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.

The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing (引证) older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is slow to learn that he has the potential of an Einstein, you're just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.

In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students' self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."

Those with low self-esteem didn't feel better after the forced self-affirmation (自我肯定). In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren't urged to think positive thoughts.

The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic viewpoint. Call it the power of negative thinking. 

1.The first paragraph is written ___________.

A．to raise an argument about positive thinking

B．to introduce the power of positive thinking

C．to encourage people to have positive thoughts

D．to introduce the $11 billion self-help industry

2. According to the study of the Canadian researchers, ___________.

A．positive thinking is not as powerful as negative thinking

B．encouraging positive thinking may actually discourage people

C．happy people can think positively while unhappy people can’t

D．getting people to think positively can strengthen their confidence

3.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．You are pointing out the mistakes he has made.

B．You are reminding him that he is not intelligent.

C．You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough.

D．You are showing he has great potential in spite of faults.

4.We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.

A．negative feelings must be got rid of

B．there’s no point in thinking positively

C．it doesn’t make sense to think negatively

D．negative thinking is not always negative