【推荐2】“Always” and “never”, two words opposite in meaning, tend to characterize the vocabulary of black and white thinkers. Black and white thinking means seeing the world in terms of ________. If things aren’t _____, then black and white thinkers feel terrible. What a _____ way to live! In real life, situations are almost always shades of _____, not absolute black or white. Black and white thinking ________ to exacerbate（加剧）depression, conflicts in marriage, anxiety and many other everyday _____. Give yourself and the ones you love a break and ____ the beauty of shades of gray.

When small children are learning to use words and organize their thoughts, it is _______ for them to see and ________ their world in very black and white terms. When young children feel they are not ______, they think they _______ be hated. When a child feels his/her parents don’t pay ______ attention to him/her, that child will say, “You never pay attention to me.” Developmental psychologists _______ this “primitive thinking”.

_______, adults often regress（倒退） to primitive thinking. Adults tend to regress to primitive thinking _____ they have a hard _______ and feel frustrated by their own emotions. A regression is a slipping back from mature thinking to immature thinking.

If you learn to ________ the gray thinking in the difficult experiences you encounter in your life, you will be _____equipped to come out on top. Regression is not the only conclusion when you feel stressed, angry and confused. You can start to recognize when you are ______ to black and white thinking, and then make the choice to get rid of those extreme thoughts in favor of ____ living.

【推荐3】There is more to saying “sorry”. ___________ a study led by researchers at Ohio State University found that effective apologies--ones that were accepted by the ___________ and allowed both parties to move on with no hostility (敌意)--have six elements. They are expressing regret, explaining what went wrong, acknowledging responsibility, declaring repentance (悔悟) , offering to ___________ the situation, and requesting forgiveness. The more of those components, the more likely the apology is seen as ___________. Of course, not all errors are created equal. Therefore, you might need to adjust your apology ___________ the circumstances. Here are a few tips:

A little cool-off time could help. Sometimes an immediate apology is _________ .But it the other party is angry at your wrongdoing. If may be more effective to wait because their anger may prevent them from being ___________ to an apology. ___________ , waiting can benefit you, too, The best time to apologize is when one feels ready to sincerely apologize..

Admitting being wrong is ___________ and can make people worried that they’re bad people. They often water down their apology with excuses which ____________ the responsibility part of the apology to save face.

Excuses may include examples like“I’m very sorry, but in my defense, you started it.” This is a non-apology. It uses the form of an apology but follows it up by ____________ responsibility to the offended person, implying he or she is too sensitive.

Experts agree that ____________ apologies beat phoned-in, e-mailed and handwritten ones. Facial expressions, posture and the tone of voice are all important ____________ that convey sincerity when you express repentance. Anyone can type “feel ashamed” , but if you say it   ____________ , it’s obvious whether or not you mean it.

A phone call is second best. You’ll convey emotions with your voice and get instant feedback. E-mailed apologies aren’t ideal. They lack emotional signals. A victim can exploit written apologies and do harm to the apologizer. Being a victim does not ____________ transform one into a good person.

【推荐1】If we redouble our efforts, our dreams will come true. Chen Zuobin had _________ for 13 years already. Finally, he decided to become a _________ again. Born in a mountain village in Anhui province, Chen Zuobin walked out of the _________ for study when he was 19. Thought he had a _________ life as a creative director of an international agency in Shanghai, he couldn’t _________ the anxiety reflected in his dreams.

“I dreamed about _________ branch roads several times a year. I didn’t know which one leads to _________ . It made me feel terrible.” One day, Chen Zuobin said to his wife, “I want to go home.” _________ being surprised, his wife said, “_________ your heart. Don’t worry about me.”

The young couple returned to their hometown and __________ the Real Food Farm just to lead a real and simple life. Chen Zuobin shook off the __________ and tiredness from too much __________ in the city. Only in the mountains can they enjoy the __________ air. There isn’t the smell of tail gas, but the smell of __________ when it shines over the woods. They live a life of “eating healthily and __________ well.

In a time when eating __________ becomes a luxury（奢侈）in the __________ life, it’s truly a right way to return to the __________ . “Life is a journey of __________ the proper way.” Said Chen Zuobin.

Those dreams about branch roads have __________ because he has found his own path.

【推荐2】Nowadays, I acknowledge that a revolution has occurred. That much has been ___ by having hand-held iPads or smart phones that allow us not only to communicate while on the _____ but also to reserve parking spaces, get weather reports, and _____ tell us where, at any given moment, we are standing on the planet Earth.

But I must acknowledge a _____. Conversation used to be surprisingly _____ to start. When I took a seat next to someone on a train, bus, or plane, the first thing I would do was _____ the person. Once the ice had been broken, the following chat _____ erupt naturally.

Time has changed, and the change has been _____. Recently, while I was _____ a long distance bus, I couldn't help but notice everyone was staring at their ______, clicking. I found an empty seat next to a middle-aged man and said "Morning" to him. He threw me a ______ and said "Morning". Then he returned to his ______. So I left him in his world.

I miss the ______ conversations with fellow travelers. One never knows what will be ______, and in fact, sometimes how ______ it will be. I was once on a ______ traveling from Iceland to Denmark. I noticed an old man looking out over the North Sea. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" I said. He turned to me,______, and we were soon chatting away. _____ I told him that I didn't know how I was going to get from the port in Denmark to my destination city. He ______,"Of course you know. I have a car and I'm going to ______ you there. "

【推荐3】Which comes first, happiness or money? Are richer people happier ? And _________, how do people get richer? A recent study could tell you the answer.

The study_________ thousands of teenagers and found that those who felt better about life as young adults_________ to have higher incomes(收入) by the time they _________ 29. Those who were happiest earned an average of $8,000 more than those who were the most_________.

The researchers(研究者), from University College London and the University of Warwick, say that very   depressed(沮丧的) teens, no matter how tall or smart they were, earned 10% less than their peers(同龄人), _________ the happier ones earned _________ 30% more.

Happier teenagers have an easier time _________ school, college and the job interview, _________ because they always feel better about life. It may also be true that happier people find it easier to make friends, who are often the key to homework help or networking.

A report in June suggested that professional(职业的) respect(尊重) was more important than __________ in terms of workplace happiness. In August scientists announced(宣布) that they had found the __________ for happiness in women. Alas! The same gene(基因) doesn’t appear to have __________ effect on men. And in October researchers in the UK and in the US announced that people who eat seven portions(份) of fruit and vegetables a day report being the happiest.

If it is really true that happier kids __________ being wealthier (更富有) kids, is it necessary for parents to get their kids to do the homework? The fact is that no homework will make kids happy but surely hurt their grades(分数). Studies do show, __________, that more education __________ better-paid jobs, which may give us a deep thought.

【推荐1】Friendly Laughter

Most people can share a laugh with a total stranger. But there are subtle - and _______ -- differences in our laughs with friends.

Greg Bryant, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues previously found that adults from 24 societies around the world can distinguish simultaneous "co-laughter" between friends from that between strangers. The findings suggested that his ability may be _______ used to help read social interactions. So the researchers wondered: Can babies distinguish such laughter, too?

Bryant and his fellow researcher Athena Vouloumanos, a developmental psychologist at New York University, played recording of co-laughter between _______ of either friends or strangers to 24 five-month-old infants in New York City. The babies listened _______ to the laughs shared between buddies - suggesting they could tell the two types apart, according to a study published in March in Scientific Reports.

The researchers then showed the babies short videos of two people acting either like friends or strangers and paired those with the _______ recordings. The babies stared for longer at clips paired with a mismatched recording - for example, if they saw friends _______ but heard strangers laughing.

"There's something about co-laughter that is giving _______ to even a five-month-old about the social relationship between the individuals," Bryant says. Exactly what components of laughter the infants are detecting remains to be seen, but prior work by Bryant's team provides _______. Laughs between friends tend to include greater variations in pitch and _______, for example.

Such characteristics also distinguish ________ laughs from fake ones. Many scientists think heartfelt laughter most likely ________ from play vocalizations, which are also produced by nonhuman primates, rodents and other mammals. Fake laughter probably emerged later in humans, ________ that ability to produce a wide range of speech sounds. The researchers suggest that we may be ________ to spontaneous（自发的）laughter during development because of its long evolutionary history.

It's really cool to see how early infants are distinguishing between different forms of laughter," says Adrienne Wood, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, who was not involved in the study. "Almost every ________ moment is a social interaction for babies. Therefore it ________ that they are becoming very much accustomed to their social worlds."

【推荐2】Laugh-lab, an experiment set up more than a year ago, established that the British, Irish, New Zealanders and Australians prefer a play on words and that the French, Danes and Belgians have a taste for the surreal（超现实主义的）. Americans and Canadians, _______, laugh at jokes showing one group’s superiority over another. The Germans apparently have the _______ sense of humor -- if only because they have no national preference, and therefore find almost anything funny.

The winning joke was the product of international selection. It was posted by Gurpal Gosall, a 31-year-old psychologist from Manchester. This joke, according to Richard Wiseman, founder of Laugh-lab, _______ all. It also contained the three _______ that were found central to humor: a sense of superiority, an unexpected response, and a sad feeling. The joke was that:

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seems to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his mobile phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: ‘My friend is dead! What can I do?’ The operator, in a clam, soothing voice says: ‘Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s _______.’ There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: ‘OK, now that?’

Dr Gosall has _______ the joke for years. He said: ‘It makes people feel better ... reminds you that there’s always someone out there doing something more _______ than you.’ It was one of a series of jokes read to a volunteer who was being given a brain scan. With each joke, a specific area at the front of the volunteer’s brain lit up. There was also a reaction in an area linked to _______, showing recognition of an old joke. ‘It _______ other research, because if people have damage to that part of the brain, then they lose their sense of humor,’ Dr Wiseman said.

There were other ____________. The Laugh-lab computers counted the number of words in every joke that people submitted（提交）. According to the data, jokes containing 103 are the funniest. Interestingly, the winning joke is 102 words long-almost the ____________ length for a joke!

Many of the jokes submitted contained references to ____________. The researchers found that jokes mentioning ducks were seen as funnier than other jokes. Perhaps it’s because of their webbed feet or their odd shapes. ____________, the implication is clear -- if you are going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck.

The Laugh-lab computer also recorded the date and time that each person from the UK ____________ the jokes in Laugh-lab. Careful analysis of the data revealed that people found the jokes funniest on the 7th October at 6:03 in the evening. Perhaps they have ____________ discovered the funniest moment of the year!

【推荐3】Security guard, truck driver, salesperson—year after year, these jobs appear on lists of the unhappiest careers. Although many factors can make a job _________ —unusual hours, low pay, no chance for advancement—these three jobs _________ for another reason: a lack of small talk.

Psychologists have long said that connecting with others is central to our well-being, but just how much conversation we require is under _________ . In one study, researchers overheard undergraduates for four days and then _________ each conversations either “small talk” (“What do you have there? Pop corn? Yummy!”) or “serious” (“Did they break up soon after?”). They found that the second type is connected with happiness—the happiest students had roughly twice as many “serious” talks as the unhappiest ones. Small talk, meanwhile, _________ only ten percent of their conversation, versus almost 30 percent of conversation among the unhappiest students.

However, don’t just consider small talk _________ yet. Scientists believe that small talk could promote bonding. Chatting with strangers could _________ our morning. In a series of experiments, psychologists found that those who chatted with other train passengers reported a more pleasant journey than those who didn’t.

Small talk can also help us feel connected to our _________ . People who smiled at, made eye contact with and _________ spoke with their Starbucks baristas (咖啡师) reported a greater sense of __________ than those who rushed through the transaction (交易). __________ , when volunteers broke the silence of the art gallery to chat with gallery-goers, the visitors felt happier and more connected to the exhibit than those who were not __________.

Of course, some of us are better than others at turning small talk into something bigger. In one study, people who were rated “less curious” by researchers had trouble getting a conversation __________ on their own. People who were considered “curious”, meanwhile, needed no help   __________ conversations about ordinary things like favorite holidays into friendly exchanges. A “curious mindset,” the researchers concluded, can lead to “positive social __________.”

Therefore, go ahead—small talk needn’t be idle, and nosiness isn’t all bad.