Best Companies

Shine United (Madison, Wisconsin)

    In the past five years, this Wisconsin-based advertising agency has shared more than $500,000 in profits with its employees through the company's ShineShares program. The agency partnered with the University of Wisconsin's oncology department to develop the Ride, a biking event that benefits cancer research. Employees also get snacks every day, "Beer Thirty" on Thursdays, and Summer Fridays, a program that lets employees leave at noon.

GroundFloor Media (Denver, Colorado)

    The key for workers at this midsize public relations firm in Denver is that employees work anytime, anywhere. Headquarters are in a former warehouse downtown, near Coors Field. The offices are spread around the central space that doubles as a wet bar every Thursday when the company's "bear club" brings in a new brew.

Ergodyne (St.Paul, Minnesota)

    The St.Paul-based company has grown to operating out of a retired storehouse with plenty of natural light. Rules about dressing? "Wear something." Its purpose? To create cool, comfortable, and tough safety workwear for those who need it to get the job done. Ergodyne has around 50 employees, who enjoy hot dish cook-offs, tickets to sporting events, and at least one happy hour every quarter.

Southwest Michigan First (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

    It's family first at this Michigan economic development advising agency. CEO Ron Kitchens says that in the past year, the company has made a push to go green, initially started by the millennial employees who make up half the agency's workforce. A new staff position was created for the purpose of making sure every employee is able to balance working and cheering at their kids' sporting events or going fishing.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    I was in a terrible mood. Two of my friends had gone to the movies the night before and hadn't invited me. I was in my room thinking of ways to make them sorry when my father came in.

    "Want to go for a ride, today, Beck? It's a beautiful day."

    "No! Leave me alone!" Those were the last words I said to him that morning. My friends called and invited me to go to the mall with them a few hours later. I forgot to be mad at them and when I came home to find a note on the table. My mother put it where I would be sure to see it.

    "Dad has had an accident. Please meet us at Highland Park Hospital".

    When I reached the hospital, my mother came out and told me my father's injuries were extensive. "Your father told the driver to leave him alone and just call 911, thank God! If he had moved Daddy, there's no telling what might have happened. A broken rib（肋骨）might have pierced（穿透）a lung..."

    My mother may have said more, but I didn't hear. I didn't hear anything except those terrible words: Leave me alone. My dad said them to save himself from being hurt more. How much had I hurt him when I hurled those words at him earlier in the day?

    It was several days later that he was finally able to have a conversation. I held his hand gently, afraid of hurting him.

    "Daddy… I am so sorry…"

    "It's okay, sweetheart. I'll be okay. "

    "No," I said, "I mean about what I said to you that day. You know, that morning?"

My father could no more tell a lie than he could fly. He looked at me and said. "Sweetheart, I don't remember anything about that day, not before, during or after the accident. But I remember kissing you goodnight the night before. "He managed a weak smile.

    My English teacher once told me that words have immeasurable power. They can hurt or they can heal. And we all have the power to choose our words. I intend to do that very carefully from now on.

    We have a strange obsession with the concept of perfection. “If I have the perfect parents and perfect grades, then I would be happy.” Under cultural influence, we seek what we can't have without remembering that we don't actually need to be perfect. Imperfection allows us to be human.

    Parents, teachers and other high-achieving peers will have us believe that we must be perfect if we wish to remain competitive. However, what job or school requires you to have a 2400 SAT, 4.0 GPA and develop a cure for some form of cancer by the age of 18? Although these would be great achievements, are they worth the cost of sleep? We feel like we need the perfect grades to get into the perfect college that will provide us with the perfect education necessary to obtain the perfect job. With this misconception, when writing our resumes(简历), we then seek out experiences that we think may help build a good name for ourselves. Feeding on our thirst for perfection, some college and career industries have been set up claiming to help us reach our goals.

    The truth is, you only need to be good enough. Don't worry about anything secondary to your passions. You won't become an expert at anything if you spend your time trying to succeed in everything you do. You only become an expert when you devote your time to the one or two projects that truly bring you joy.

    As members of this society, we have a responsibility to be excellent in what we do, not perfect. Although perfection can be a goal, it should not be the only goal. We only have 24 hours in a day. Thus, we need to prioritize(优先选择)what we want to do and cut out the activities we cannot do. If you enjoy debating, take a law class and see how it suits you. If you enjoy cooking, experiment in the kitchen and see what you can make!

    Try as hard as you can and let your future worry about itself. Worry about your task at hand and you will be successful in achieving your dreams. Above all, remember that you are going to be okay.

    William Butler Yeats, a most famous Irish writer, was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. His childhood lacked the harmony that was typical of a happy family. Later, Yeats shocked his family by saying that he remembered "little of childhood but its pain". In fact, he inherited (继承) excellent taste in art from his family — both his father and his brother were painters. But he finally settled on literature, particularly drama and poetry.

    Yeats had strong faith in the coming of new artistic movements. He set himself the fresh task in founding an Irish national theatre in the late 1890s. His early theatrical experiments, however, were not received favorably at the beginning. He didn't lose heart, and finally enjoyed success in his poetical drama.

    Compared with his dramatic works, Yeats's poems attract much admiring notice. The subject matter includes love, nature, history, time and aging. Though Yeats generally relied on very traditional forms, he brought modern sensibility to them. As his literary life progressed, his poetry grew finer and richer, which led him to worldwide recognition.

    He had not enjoyed a major public life since winning the Nobel Prize in 1923. Yet, he continued writing almost to the end of his life. Had Yeats stopped writing at age 40, he would probably now be valued as a minor poet, for there is no other example in literary history of a poet who produces his greatest works between the ages of 50 and 75. After Yeats's Death in 1939, W. H. Auden wrote, among others, the following lines:

    Earth, receive an honoured guest:

    William Yeats is laid to rest.

    Let the Irish vessel (船) lie

    Emptied of its poetry.

    Hobbies in general are becoming something of the past. Our lives are already filled with classes, homework, working, relationships and sleeping. When we do have a spare moment, it is all too easy to spend it on the endless entertainment and media that are right at our fingertips.

    I do not doubt that there are some people who could become a great writer or musician. I only fear that so many people are busy pursuing their education and their careers, but they never even see the potential (潜能) they have. The next great photographer or singer could be going to college right now. But they might not even know they have a gift for photographing or singing if they've never picked up a camera or a guitar.

    Of course, the final goal of pursuing a new hobby shouldn't be to become rich and famous. For most people, a hobby is just something they enjoy doing for the purpose of the thing itself. Such hobbies are still very useful. Studies have shown that people who have a hobby are less likely to have stress and more likely to have more meaningful lives.

    Most importantly, a hobby is just something you do to make you happy. I hate to break it to you, but we all have a long lifetime of work and stress ahead of us. It will make things much easier if we can practice the piano or make some collections after work.

    Sure, it's not easy to start a new hobby while going to school, but it will likely never get easier than it is right now. So think about the thing that you have always wanted to try but were too embarrassed or busy or whatever. You never know, you might become the world's next great people. If not, you'll at least be a little more well-rounded, more interesting and less stressed.

The Big Ben is located in the tower at the eastern end of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, Greater London. It was designed by Edmund Beckett and Baron Grimthorpe.

The Big Ben is very famous throughout the world, but nobody really knows why it is called Big Ben. There are two hearsays about this. Some people say that it was named after Benjamin Caunt, a boxer, who was called Big Ben. More people believe it was called after Welshman, Sir Benjamin Hall. He was the commissioner(特派员)of the work at the time of its installation in 1859. A story was told that during a debate in the Commons on what to call the bell, Sir Benjamin was about to give his ideas when a MP who sat behind the front bench shouted, "Let's call it Big Ben!" Then this name came into being.

The bell hasn't gone through a smooth road since the beginning of its design. Because there was great disagreement about the design of the clock. It took fifteen years to build. In 1857, the bell was completed and tested on the ground, but a four-foot crack appeared and the bell had to be cast again. Finally, the clock started ticking on 31 May, 1859, and struck its first chime(报时)on 11, July. Then in September, the bell cracked again. It was silent for four years but was eventually turned a quarter of a revolution(旋转). In this way, the crack was not under the striking hammer. Craftsmen made a square above the crack to stop it growing longer and it can still be seen today.

The Big Ben is famous not only for its 13-ton weight, but also for its accuracy(准确性) which is a result of its precise mechanism(机械装置). Even one extra penny's weight on the balance will cause a gain of two fifths of a second in twenty-four hours. Although there have been several problems, the bell is still striking today. Its chimes can be heard all over the world on the B. B. C.