Emotional Debt

Many people today live under the weight of debt from loans or credit cards. As harmful as__31___ debt is, there is another form of debt that is even more damaging--emotional debt.

Dr. James Richards states that emotional debt occurs “when we experience emotional pain that remains__32___.” If the pain is not dealt with, it will affect us our entire lives. Throughout the years, we have chances for happiness, love and success. But unresolved pain can emerge, causing us to respond in ways that aren’t reasonable, resulting in destroyed relationships and lost opportunities. Another__33___ result of emotional debt is that our friends and loved ones are affected by it and pay a high price.

When we have a tendency to respond__34___, we often hurt those around us. Unfortunately our unsettled problems sometimes become too much for them to__35___, causing them to abandon the relationship.

People with destructive patterns should check their lives for signs of unresolved pain, for your emotional debt can come from various forms of past unfair, cruel or violent treatment or__36___. Yomay be holding onto painful memories of controlling parents or very__37___ teachers, also yomay not have dealt with the pain of a broken relationship or the death of a loved one. Any negative emotion that yohave controlled over the years can come back to cause harm when yoleast expect it.

Recognize your feelings, but don't focus on them all the time, because __38___and challenging your pain is difficult, but recognizing it is the first step toward dealing with it. Admit yoare angry about the past, and discuss it with someone yotrust. or write it down because this will ease some of the anger and hatred you've kept__39___ up for years. Refuse to be a victim and accept responsibility for dealing with your painful past because this puts yoin charge and limits the power your emotions have over you.

Take specific steps to resolve your emotional debt now rather than deal with the__40___ later.

III. Reading Comprehension

Section A

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

Ask Siri if she’s a woman. Go ahead: try it. She'll tell yoshe’s____41____. “Like cacti, a certain species of fish,” she might say. So is Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Samsung’s S Voice, and Google Now. But, man, do they ever sound a lot like women? ____42____, we think of them as ladies too. In Old Norse(古挪威语), Siri translates to “a beautiful woman who leads yoto victory”. We assign female pronouns to them, and, in turn, they fold female turns of phrase into their robotic and occasionally silly answers to our requests.

If we prize gender diversity(多样性) in other areas of daily life, why does our tech sound so____43____? The biggest reason for the female phone fixation rests in social science. “Research indicates there’s likely to be greater acceptance of female____44____,” says Karl MacDorman, a professor at Indiana University who specializes in human computer interaction. MacDorman and his team played clips of male and female voices to people of both genders, then asked them to identify which they____45____. The researchers also measured the way participants responded to the voices. In a 2011 paper, they reported that both women and men said female voices came across as warmer. ____46____, women even showed a subconscious preference for responding to females; men remained subconsciously neutral.

Why the____47____? Stanford University communications professor Clifford Nass wrote that people tend to see female voices as helping them solve their problems by themselves, while they view male voices as authority figures who tell them the answers to their problems. We want____48____ to help us, but we also want to be the boss of it, so we are more likely to choose a female interface(接口程序).

This tendency suggests that companies will make a better impression on a ____49____ group of customers with a woman's voice. But not just any voice. It has to ____50____ a brand’s personality. For help with that, companies often turn to Greg Pal, vice president of marketing, strategy, and business development at Nuance Communications, which licenses its ____51____of more than 100 voices. Pal insists that some brands choose male speakers. He turned on his iPhone and pulled up the Domino's Pizza app, which has an assistant, Dom. He sounded like a high school English teacher--educated and helpful but not ____52____. That's about right for a brand attempting to ____53____ guys ordering pies before the big game.

As voice technology improves, though, designers say diversity will too. Many devices already let

yo____54____ a voice interface. For example. Homer Simpson, a famous cartoon character can tell yowhere to take a left on our GPS device. And Siri can become a sir, if yotake the time to____55____. Want to know how to do it? Ask her. She'll tell yoin her uniquely warm, helpful--and female--tone.

41. A. robotic B. high-tech C. genderless D. creative

42.A. Culturally B. Obviously C. Grammatically D. Undoubtedly

43.A. female B. ridiculous C. professional D. reasonable

44. A. charm B. professors C. speech D. participants

45.A. accepted B. misunderstood C. studied D. preferred

46. A. In practice B. On the contrary C. By this means D. At first

47. A. neutrality B. prejudice C. authority D. conscience

48. A. interaction B. technology C. personality D. society

49. A. more sociable B. more talented C. broader D. wealthier

50. A. improve B. develop C. admire D. suit

51. A. market B. business C. research D. library

52.A. strange B. bossy C. reliable D. unique

53. A. appeal to B. look into C. meet with D. run after

54. A. educate B. customize C. leave D. answer

55. A. repeat B. assist C. reprogram D. communicate

Section B

Directions:

Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A. B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage yohave just read.

(A)

This is the opening of a short story in a town in the United States by Alison Randall …

When Frank and I stepped through the post office doors. there was a crowd gathered, looking at the new device on the wall with amazement like a crowd of wide-mouthed frogs. I had to get closer. and that was where being a girl that’s skinnier than a wire fence came in handy. Fortunately, Frank, my twin of eleven years, was just the same.

“Come on.” I said, grabbing his hand, and we slid through the cracks between people until we spilled out in front.

Finally I got a good look. It was fixed to the plaster(石灰板) next to the postmaster's window, the place of honour usually reserved for the Wanted posters. Beady-eyed Zedekiah Smith, the bank robber, still hung there, but even he had been pushed aside for something more important.

A telephone. The first one in town.