Society tells us that we should count our blessings, focus on all that we have and feel grateful for what we’ve been given. But there is nothing wrong with “healthy discontent”. In fact, healthy discontent is what motivates us to improve ourselves and our circumstances. Without this feeling, life’s easier to stand still.

I always have a certain level of discomfort. That discomfort drives me to work hard at my job. I don’t just want to remain where I am. Professionally, I want to keep getting better. Likewise, I always have a certain amount of discontent with my home. That drives me to always try to improve it by making it look better.

My feelings of discontent with my job and my home don’t mean that I don’t appreciate them. It’s an incredible blessing to be able to work and be paid for one’s efforts. Similarly, if you live in a safe place, with running water, heating, and air conditioning, you are incredibly fortunate. These are not the things to be taken for granted. However, we should be striving (力争) to improve.

If you happen to be good at playing the piano, you should work to continually improve your skills. The same holds true for our personal development. If you have areas in your personality that need improvement, you should work on them, too.

For instance, I can be very impatient. As a result, I work hard to try to conquer that flaw (缺点) by keeping my impatience to myself. When we feel discontent with ourselves, we have to be honest with ourselves.

It’s easy to make excuses for our bad behavior, but we need to face our discontent and say to ourselves, “I need to work on this.” This week, consider whether you have healthy discontent in your life. Have you become so settled in your life that you don’t see regular improvement?

Do you have a character flaw that you wish you didn’t have? Don’t ignore these things. Instead, take steps to address your areas of discontent and keep improving your life every day. No matter how great we think things are going, there’s always room for improvement.

【小题1】What is stressed in Paragraph 1?

A．The gratitude for what we have.

B．The importance of healthy discontent.

C．The lessons from society.

D．The easiness of standing still in life.

【小题2】Why does the author have feelings of discontent with his job and home?

A．He doesn’t treasure them.

B．He is particular about them.

C．He desires to improve them.

D．He is difficult to satisfy.

【小题3】What does the author advise you to do if you have personal flaws?

A．Leave them as they are.

B．Make efforts to overcome them.

C．Make excuses for them.

D．Be patient with ourselves.

【小题4】How does the author support his view mostly?

A．By listing some questions.

B．By telling his own experiences.

C．By analyzing various causes of healthy discontent.

D．By showing consequences of healthy discontent.

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均限一词;
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
It was very cold on last Monday morning. I was walking on my way to school when I notice two street cleaners cleaning the street in the cold wind. Saw them working so hard on such a cold morning, I was deeply touching and made up my mind to do something for them.
After arriving at school, our classmates gathered together to discuss when we could do help the street cleaners. Some classmate suggested helping with the cleaning. Some suggested bringing any warm clothes to them while others advised getting some hot food to keep us warm. Finally we both agreed on helping with the cleaning and bringing some hot food to them.

Earlier this year, my family experienced an unexpected tragedy. The kind of tragedy which knocks you out of yourself and turns your whole world upside down. A tragedy which also caused me to be out of work for three months. It was completely unforeseen and I had no time to put together an out-of-office plan.
I’ve worked at previous companies where this kind of tragedy would have been handled professionally; I would have been given the legally—required money and asked to leave. But at SAS Institute (an American developer of analytics software), my team stepped in and filled in with no questions or hesitations. My work was not left undone. My clients (客户) were patient when those picking up the pieces of projects unrelated to them needed some time to get familiar with the work. My management and colleagues checked on my family regularly. At last, my manager, my entire team and Human Resources Department helped me back to work at my own pace. They even changed my workspace over a weekend to better suit my personal needs before I even came back to work.
You see, SAS—creates—a—family. The special attention to employee happiness and work/life balance makes that family possible. The flexible work environment enables most employees to create a schedule that best suits their personal needs—whether it’s attending a school play or taking an aging parent to the doctor. The Work/Life Office has a wealth of resources for college planning, anger management, sorrow, etc. But, as you can see, it doesn’t stop there. Most employees believe that SAS is their family. We rely on each other. We help each other succeed. We celebrate team successes. We hang out after work. Our kids play together. We laugh together and cry together.
Sure, we have a lot of convenience benefits at SAS. But, what really makes a difference to me is the SAS culture that the outside world doesn’t always see: The balance. The companionship. The management support. The family it allows me to have.
I’m so eager for others to see the side of SAS that I see every day.
【小题1】After the tragedy, the author .

A．changed his job	B．felt very hopeless
C．was sick for three months	D．turned to his colleagues for help

【小题2】What did the author’s colleagues do for him during his absence?

A．They raised money to help him.

B．They visited his family every weekend.

C．They asked his clients to wait for him to return.

D．They moved his office desk to a convenient place.

【小题3】By saying the underlined words “SAS creates a family” in Paragraph 3, the author means .

A．the employees feel at home at SAS

B．SAS often organizes family get-togethers

C．many SAS employees have become couples

D．the offices at SAS are decorated like families

【小题4】The author writes the text mainly to .

A．tell his life experience	B．introduce SAS culture
C．encourage people to join SAS	D．explain the importance of family

短文改错

Joe bought his first white car with dark red leather seat. Before that, Joe studied for six weeks to get a driving license. Lucky, he passed the written test or the test of driving skills. With a permit in hand, Joe still felt drive himself was scary. So he asked his uncle help him to practice driving skillfully. His uncle promised to do that. However, Joe was requiring to commit 100 percent as his uncle had taught. After a month full with struggle and hard work, Joe made a great progress. He finally learned how to drive his car on their own. Although it is scary at first, driving eventually became easy for Joe.

   Next week, strangers with a truck will take away everything we own, except the clothes on our backs, the car we will drive, and as much stuff as we can pack into it. It's called moving. Some people do it often. For others, like me, it's a rare experience. In all my adult years, I've moved only three times.

My first husband and I moved into our first house with a bed, our clothes and a few gifts. That was a lifetime ago. Over the years, I filled that house with three children, a few dogs and enough stuff to reach the ceiling.

When the kids grew up, I lost my husband to cancer, and I began to learn about letting go. First, I let go of the idea of being in control. Life isn’t about being in charge of what happens; it's about being in charge of what we do with it. Next, I let go of putting off the things I care most about, like keeping in touch with the people that mean the most to me. I let go of the people whose lives are about anger or hatred, and tried instead to surround myself with those who shine with kindness. Finally, I let go of being alone---I remarried. I eventually moved to a new city with my new husband, and after that move, I promised I'd stop collecting meaningless things. But 12 years later, here I am, still learning about letting go.

Yesterday, while cleaning out a dresser, I found a box filled with old keepsakes. Nothing in that box may mean much to anyone, except me. They are treasures for me because of the memories they preserve. We finally decided to keep them, hold them close and never let them go. We’ll all move someday from this world to the next, but we won't need a truck to do it. We'll take nothing with us and leave behind a memory of the life we lived, the mistakes we made, and all the love and kindness we tried to show. That memory might not be a treasure, but if we're lucky, someone will keep it and hold it close and never let it go.

【小题1】According to paragraph 3, which of the following might the author advise?

A．Never let all the memories go as they are.

B．Put off the things that mean the most to you.

C．Wherever you go, you should be kind to others.

D．Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it.

【小题2】The underlined word ''keepsakes'' in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to_________.

A．something memorable	B．something expensive
C．something unpleasant	D．something beautiful

【小题3】What is the author's main purpose in writing the article?

A．To stress the importance of letting the past go.

B．To give advice on how to make choices before moving.

C．To share how she learned to make important choices in life.

D．To explain how our memories can pass on to later generations.