做人与做事

阅读理解

Passage 1

When I found an advertisement for a conference by chance， I couldn’t wait to tell my coworkers. It looked like a great day of presentations highly relevant to our research， and I expected they would be eager to attend with me. However， no one was interested.

A year earlier， I left India for the United Kingdom to pursue my research career. At work， I shied away from engaging in discussions or putting forward my opinions. Some mornings just stepping out of my room and going into the lab seemed a tough task. Socializing didn’t help， as I constantly feared committing social mistakes. I longed for new experiences， but my insecurities prevented me. I started to keep more and more to myself. That began to change after a quiet breakdown in the lab prompted （促使） me to contact the university’s mental health services.

The consultant suggested I attend a nearby concert by a famous singer from my home country. I couldn’t miss it. So， there I was in the packed concert hall， surrounded by strangers—all of us clapping and singing the choruses of the familiar songs. It was a beautiful night， and it proved to be a turning point.

My growing self-confidence carried over into my work， where I started to speak up and put forward my opinions. I offered to help my coworkers design and troubleshoot experiments. I began to ask questions during departmental meetings. I finally felt like an active member of the group. So， when that conference came around， I felt comfortable registering to attend on my own and I’m so glad I did. Not only did I meet the speakers， but I also introduced myself to other attendees. The encounters inspired me to critically evaluate my own professional interests.

1. How did the author probably feel at first about his coworkers’ response？

A. Disappointed. B. Worried. C. Confident. D. Angry.

2. Why did the author contact the mental health services？

A. He wanted to solve a conflict. B. He lacked confidence in a new environment.

C. He struggled to conduct research. D. He often made mistakes in socializing.

3. What can we learn about the author during the concert？

A. He came across a consultant. B. He connected a song with his research.

C. He met with a previous coworker. D. He sang along with the audience.

4. What did the author do at last？

A. He turned to experts for advice. B. He went to the conference alone.

C. He took full charge of the lab. D. He changed his professional interests.

Passage 2

Most boyhood dreams are never realized. But that is not the case for young Fred Bercovitch. His dream of swinging from jungle vines （藤蔓） and communicating with chimps and elephants began when he read Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books. These books attracted him to the jungles of Africa and eventually brought him before a United Nations conference where he advocated helping save giraffes.

Bercovitch answered the call of the wild in 1978. He flew to Kenya to live close to a group of olive baboons （狒狒）， which he hoped would result in a doctoral paper about their reproduction. Denise， his classmate， accompanied him. Their two-year adventure in the wild resulted in a PhD in biological anthropology （人类学） from UC， Los Angeles for Bercovitch and some astonishing stories.

It was his time at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance that brought him worldwide recognition when a study he conducted was featured as one of the Top 100 Science Stories of 2002 by the magazine Discover. As head of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Behavioral Biology Division， he documented the social habits of giraffes. “We found giraffes behaved pretty much like people who attend parties. Some talked to a few friends， some enjoyed communicating with strangers， and others were looking for pleasure together，” said Bercovitch.

To confirm that giraffes behave in the same way in the wild， Bercovitch flew to Zambia and consulted with a researcher with 30 years of data on giraffes. He ran the researcher’s data through a complex computer program and confirmed giraffes’ social preferences are the same in the wild as they are kept in a limited space.

As a professor at Kyoto University since 2010， Bercovitch has published more than 150 scientific papers in an effort to advance the understanding of animals. He wishes for a better world for humans and animals to live in， which is far less violent.

1. What was young Bercovitch’s dream？

A. Saving giraffes. B. Working for the UN.

C. Exploring the wildlife in the jungle. D. Writing books about animals.

2. How did Bercovitch complete his doctoral paper？

A. By conducting a field study. B. By performing lab experiments.

C. By referring to previous documents. D. By turning to biological anthropology professors.

3. What can we learn about giraffes from Bercovitch’s research？

A. They are socially active. B. They show a gift for self-defense.

C. They prefer to live in a limited space. D. They are strict followers of social rules.