【推荐2】How to Listen Actively

In the course of the last 20 years, I was a taker. Everything was all about me. But that has changed for me. I consistently look for ways to help others — personally and professionally.

I now focus on what the other person needs before my own needs as a way to build stronger relationships.     1    

What is active listening? Active listening is an analytical exercise.     2     To make active listening more effective, you can also add complementary (互补的) skill sets. Mirroring what people have just said in your own words helps them feel heard and helps ensure your understanding is accurate. That is why active listening, not listening while doing, is essential for building better relationships with your team.

    3     Learning to become an active listener requires you to slow down, have patience, and learn to ignore distractions (especially emails and texts). Techniques like reflective listening can help. If you are regularly repeating what has been said, you won’t miss any part of the conversation.     4     This helps build trust, making the speakers like you more and therefore more likely work on what you both agree on.

What will active listening do for you and your career? Active listening isn’t just about managing a team member or a conflict. Do leaders respond to the concerns and issues they hear from the staff? Do you have the skill set to actively listen and address them?     5     If you do it, you might just find your team or your organization is more adaptive than most ones.

A．I am able to do that when I stop talking and start listening.

B．You also show that the speaker has your full attention.

C．These are the questions employees are asking.

D．What should you do to benefit your speaker?

E．How do you become a better active listener?

F．It requires concentration on what is said.

G．Why do you want to be a listener?

【推荐3】根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

How do you work smarter and keep work-related pressures from getting to you? A number of possibilities exist.

1.Take a real vacation. Completely being away from work is one of the best ways to recharge your batteries. Any kind of change of scene will help. Taking a class, helping an elderly relative — anything that lets you get off the boring work will help you feel like yourself again.     1    .

2.Work out, no matter what. Giving yourself a pass from working out just because you have a busy day is a terrible idea.     2    . Exercise is a great help for stress. Burnouts become less common when you put yourself first for at least a little while each day.

3.    3    . Managers tend to reward their workers for their efforts, even if they are far from perfect. You should do the same for yourself and reward yourself from time to time, too. A movie, a gift for yourself — both add up to helping you feel good about yourself.

4.Create. Learning how to create in business or anything else can be a tremendous contributor to feeling in control. Identify a creative attempt to apply yourself to and commit yourself to it.     4    .

5.Learn to not be hard on yourself. Guilt is one of the most unproductive emotions that one can experience. If you have not been working as well as you would like, being severely self-critical will not help you improve.     5    . Determining to never be addicted to guilt or self-criticism can immediately help you feel better about life and work.

A．Value the rewards of managers

B．You will quickly begin to feel better

C．If you were the boss, you would reward yourself

D．Then, you can go back to working as hard as ever

E．Therefore, getting rid of such an idea proves important

F．Rather, it will only make you feel as if you will never do better

G．You will simply find yourself giving up your workouts all the time

【推荐1】On a hot July day in Fairfax, Virginia, the couple team Christopher Pei and Zhang Guifeng are training their students while observing their emotions before their USA Wushu Kungfu Federation National Team Trials (选拔赛).

“They are so nervous because they are experiencing competition anxiety, ” says Peigy, co - founder of US Wushu Academy. “The anxiety allows me only an hour of sleep every night during the competition.”

Wushu is a sport that combines elements of performance and martial arts. The USAWKF National Team Trials happen every two years. Coaches and students get up at 7 am each day to practice for the trials. For 30 years Pei and Zhang have been working in Wushu education.

Pci, who is in his 60s, moved to the United States from China with his family in 1972. “When we moved to Vestal, New York, I did not know any English and started learning English from alphabets,” Pci says. “So I figured it might be a better idea to start learning Wushu in case I got into a fight and could protect myself.” He later realized Wushu is composed of two Chinese characters, “zhi” (止) and “ge” (戈) which means to stop fighting.

The couple opened their first academy in Virginia in 1988. Students start as kindergartners and many continue all the way to college.

Chinese culture emphasizes mastering both literacy and martial arts in order to become a complete person. Zhang believes Wushu helps youth develop concentration because its two main principles include focus and respect. “Many parents who grew up in the U. S. as second - or third-generation Chinese need their children to not only learn traditional Chinese culture but also the correct way to become a better person,” Peigy says.

They devote six days of the week to Wushu education. Sunday is the only day when their attention is not on their students. “Learning Wushu is difficult, Peigy says. But the students don't easily give up. ”

1. How does Peigy feel during the USA WKF National Team Trials?

A．Excited	B．Stressed
C．Relaxed	D．Inspired

2. What is the true meaning of Wushu?

A．Winning fights	B．Defending ourselves
C．Loving peace	D．Showing power

3. What is the main idea of para 6?

A．Many young people lack literacy skill

B．Wushu is a way to cherish Chinese culture

C．It is important to become a better person

D．More and more people are interested in Wushu

4. Where are you likely to read the passage?

A．On a newspaper	B．On a travel brochure
C．On a training handout	D．On a guidebook

【推荐2】Many teens in high school want to try out for sports. A lot of them try out because they think it will make them popular or get them more dates. While this may seem like a silly reason, there are lots of other benefits to sports that your children may fail to notice.

With TV, movies, computers and video games becoming more and more popular, it has become so much easier for teens to be by themselves rather than going out with friends. Kids used to go hang out at the mall or drive around town; now they just sit at home. Getting your teens into a sport gives them a chance to go out and spend time with other people socially. While they may not find a new best friend, they will learn how to communicate with one another and work as a team and they’ll find something useful later in life.

More and more kids are becoming overweight. Joining a team sport will help teens get out and get some exercise without feeling pressured to lose weight or get in shape. What’s more, if your teens see that their physical condition is causing them to under-perform, they may be encouraged to do other activities to get healthy. By the time your children reach their teenager year, part of good parenting will be providing them with direction and encouragement and continuing to help them develop a healthy style of living.

These days, it’s becoming harder to show your teenagers that you love and support them. A great way to do this is by showing up to their game, helping them practice, and helping with team fundraisers. These are also great ways to spend time with your kids and talk to them.

You may think “but my teen isn’t good enough to make their school team”. There are plenty of other places besides school to play team sports. You can always check out “for-fun” teams. You could look into more unknown sports that you may not have thought of, did you know that bowling is a NCAA team sports If you do a little research, you’re sure to find something your teen will enjoy.

Team sports are a great way for teens to get out of the house, get moving, make friends, and even get a scholarship to college. So why not talk to them about getting into sports today

1. After joining a sport, children may___________.

A．lose weight without any pressure

B．find little pressure in learning

C．be forced to do some exercise

D．be provided with good parenting

2. What does the under lined word “this” refer to?

A．To help teens develop a healthy lifestyle.

B．To show love to your teens.

C．To enable teens to know more about new places.

D．To motivate teens to get healthy.

3. Why did the author write this passage?

A．To explain some non-competitive sports.

B．To encourage parents to join their children in sports.

C．To introduce the advantages of sports for teens.

D．To stress the importance of teamwork in sports.

【推荐3】Walking has been considered as one of the best possible exercises. For many people,daily walking offers massive and long-term physical and mental benefits.     1    A Stanford University study found that participants were more creative when walking as opposed to sitting.

    2    You’ve probably heard the phrase“exercise your creativity”,which referee to the brain as muscle.Our creative mindset is triggered by physical movement,which is exactly why walking-with your dog, a friend, or alone-feeds creative thinking.

But the scenery is almost as important as the sweat. Just by going outside, you are stepping out of your habitual surroundings and your comfort zone,which is necessary if you want to open your mind to new possibilities. You can walk through a tree-filled neighborhood.     3    Even when you walk down a busy street, you can’t help but get distracted by the sweet smells from a food cart or the child pointing to a building you hadn’t even noticed before.

Our brains work harder to process indifferent environments. Therefore, walking outside cultivates our ability to collect new ideas and take in new sights,sounds,smells, and flavors. Shinrin-yoku, a common form of relaxation in Japan, suggests that being in the forest and walking among the trees can lower your stress levels.     4    Research has shown that immersion in nature and the disconnection from multimedia increased performance on a creative problem-solving task in a group of hikers.

So instead of setting a fitness goal, why rot set a creativity goal that just starts with walking outdoors?    5    For example,you can turn off your phone and give yourself the chance to be present in the world,to hear conversations and natural sounds, and to notice the way people move and the way the sun reflects in a lake. Walk not just for exercise.Walk for wonder.

A．In fact,you often fail to do it by yourself.

B．Engage more closely with your surroundings.

C．Without enough energy, you cannot wonder or create.

D．The physical movement during walking is obviously key.

E．You can walk through a park and observe people relaxing or birds singing.

F．But you don’t have to live near a forest to receive the psychological benefits.

G．However, this habit isn’t just a healthy habit but a necessary element of creativity.