Question

My students often tell me that they don’t have “enough time” to do all their schoolwork.

My reply is often a brief “You have as much time as the president.” I usually carry on a bit about there being twenty-four hours in the day for everyone, and suggest that “not enough time” is not an acceptable explanation of not getting something done.

Once in graduate school(研究院), I tried to prove to one of my professors by saying that I was working hard. His answer to me was, “That’s irrelevant. What’s important is the quality of your work，Since then I have had time to think carefully about the “hard worker” dodge (訣竅), and I have come to some conclusions — all relevant to the problem of how much time we have.

If you analyze(分析) the matter, you can identify two parts of the problem: There is, of course, the matter of “time”, which we can think of as fixed. Then there is the problem of “work” during that time. But, as my professor suggested, it’s not how hard one works but the quality of the product that’s important.

That led me to a new idea: the quality of the work. That concept is perhaps best explained by a sign I once saw on the wall in someone’s office: “Don’t work harder. Work smarter.” There is a lot of sense in that idea.

If you can’t get more time, and few of us can, the only solution is to improve the quality of the work. That means thinking of ways to get more out of the same time than we might otherwise get. That should lead us to an analysis of our work habits. Since “work” for students usually means “homework”, the expression “work habits” should be read as “study habits”.

Then, as a smart student, you will seek to improve those skills that you use in study, chiefly reading and writing. If you learn to read better and write better, there are big benefits that pay off in all your studies.

1.From the passage, we know that the author is probably _______ .

A. an educator B. a poet

C. a novelist D. an engineer

2.We can infer from the second paragraph that we students still _______ .

A. can meet the president

B. have enough time

C. can get everything done well

D. should accept the explanation

3.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word in paragraph 2?

A. unnecessary B. different

C. irrelated D. funny

4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. The author’s students make good use of their time to do all their homework.

B. The author tried to tell the professor that he/she (author) had done a good job.

C. You’ll try to improve your skills in reading and writing if you’re a clever student.

D. You can’t improve the quality of the work if you can’t get more time.

5.What’s the passage mainly about?

A. Don’t work harder; work smarter.

B. Students don’t have enough time.

C. No one can get more time.

D. Read better and write better.

Answer 1

1.A

2.B

3.C

4.C

5.A

【解析】

試題分析：本文主要介紹了作者通過學(xué)生的反饋沒有足夠時間做家庭作業(yè)的問題，引起了作者對沒把工作做好是否是因?yàn)闀r間不夠的問題的思考，最后作者發(fā)現(xiàn)：想要做好工作并不是努力就可以而是要提高工作質(zhì)量，不是努力工作而是更聰明的工作，這一說法也同樣適用于學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)。

1. students often tell me that they don’t have “enough time” to do all their schoolwork.可知“我”的學(xué)生經(jīng)常告訴我他們沒有足夠的時間去完成家庭作業(yè)。故選A.

2. I have come to some conclusions — all relevant to the problem of how much time we have.可知作者得出一些結(jié)論：所有相關(guān)的問題是我們到底有多少時間。因此我們可以推出學(xué)生其實(shí)仍然有足夠的時間的。故選B.

3. important is the quality of your work，最重要的是你的工作質(zhì)量，其它的都是沒有關(guān)系的。以及all relevant to the problem of how much time we have.可知所有有關(guān)的問題其實(shí)是我們的時間。也可以的出這個單詞的意思的。故選C.

4. as a smart student, you will seek to improve those skills that you use in study, chiefly reading and writing.可知聰明的學(xué)生將會尋找提高這些技能的方法用在學(xué)習(xí)中，主要是閱讀和寫作上。選項(xiàng)C是這句話的同義置換。故選C,

5. work harder. Work smarter.”不要努力工作，而是要聰明的工作。這句是文章的主旨句，故選A.

考點(diǎn)：考查議論文閱讀。