单选题   The quality of patience goes a long way toward your goal of creating a more peaceful and loving self. The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what life is, rather than insisting that life be exactly as you would like it to be. Without patience, life is extremely frustrating. You are easily annoyed, bothered, and irritated. Patience adds a dimension of ease and acceptance to your life. It's essential for inner peace. Becoming more patient involves opening your heart to the present moment, even if you don't like it. If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, being patient would mean keeping yourself from building a mental snowball before your thinking get out of hand and gently reminding yourself to relax. It might also be a good time to breathe as well as an opportunity to remind yourself that, in the bigger scheme of things, being late is 'small stuff'.
    Patience is a quality of heart that can be greatly enhanced with deliberate practice. An effective way that I have found to deepen my own patience is to create actual practice periods—periods of time that I set up in my mind to practice the art of patience. Life itself becomes a classroom, and the curriculum is patience. You can start with as little as five minutes and build up your capacity for patience over time. What you'll discover is truly amazing. Your intention to be patient, especially if you know it's only for a short while, immediately strengthens your capacity for patience. Patience is one of those special qualities where success feeds on itself. Once you reach little milestone (里程碑)—five minutes of successful patience—you'll begin to see that you do indeed have the capacity to be patient, even for longer periods of time. Over time, you may even become a patient person.
    Being patient will help you to keep your perspective. You'll see even a difficult situation, say your present challenge, isn't 'life or death' but simply a minor obstacle that must be dealt with. Without patience, the same scenario can become a major emergency complete with yelling, frustration, hurt feelings, and high blood pressure.
单选题     In the first paragraph, the expression 'building a mental snowball' can be best replaced by ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】句中短语keep...from有助于理解考点的意义，building a mental snowball是一种暗喻，作者想表达人的情绪像滚雪球似的积聚直至失控之意，根据上下文可判断出该表达法在此处的意义为选项D。本文的主题是patience，而选项A、B、C都与主题无关。
单选题     The main idea of the first paragraph is that ______.
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】本段的第1句为主题句，理解go a long way toward是解题的关键，该短语意为“对……大有帮助”，并不是“花长时间”的意思，因此，选项B为正确选项，而选项A对go a long way toward理解错误。选项C和D都只是该段中心思想的片断，概括不够全面。
单选题     It's implied in the second paragraph that ______.
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】从第2段最后两句可以推断出正确答案应为选项C。选项A与本段第1句意思相反。本段第3句虽有提到classroom和curriculum等与学习有关的词语，但它们是一种暗喻，不能因此推断选项B。选项D最具干扰性，因为倒数第2句有success一词，但只要对该句理解正确，就能排除此选项了。
单选题     People without patience will treat the challenge as ______.
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】本题考查对比处。第3段开头将有耐心和没耐心的两种人在面对困境时的态度进行对比，可以推断选项B为正确选项。根据同一段可发现其他三个选项都是有耐心的人面对困境时的态度。
单选题     The purpose of this passage is to ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】作者通过阐明耐心的重要性，如何培养耐心和拥有耐心的好处来劝说读者要更加耐心，由此可见选项A正确。选项B、C和D分别只是文章三个段落的大意，而并非对全文主题的概括。