【推荐1】We all know that honesty is an important value, and that lying is wrong.    1    Researchers find that we tell on average four lies every day or almost 1,500 every year.

    2    If people tell lies to make others feel better and won’t bring any negative effect, we call them white lies. On contrary to white lies, which refers to well-intentioned lies, black lies are told to deceive someone else for their own advantage. No doubt that black lies are harmful, but not white lies.

Lies are often tied in with self-protection.    3    If they feel that they might be hurt, they immediately begin to lie. Also, we all have our own privacy. Maybe parts of the privacy are embarrassing and shameful and we would not like to give them all out. So we tell lies to protect ourselves.

On some occasions, it is necessary to tell lies to avoid hurting others’ feelings, particularly when the truth is too miserable to accept. If we tell the truth, people will get hurt.    4    Of course, it’s Ok to tell lies to make them feel better.

Anyhow, we should always keep in mind that honesty is the best policy. As a rule, we should try our best to tell the truth and do all times. If there were no lies, could the world be better? I don’t think so.    5    

【推荐2】Being perfect is something many of us want and try to achieve. It makes us feel we’re correct and that our hard work has paid off. However, as much as perfection and being perfect is not all a perfect thing.

Perfection is all about being without mistakes and criticism. Wanting or trying to be perfect can make it hard to admit a mistake. Nevertheless, it is important to own up to mistakes and work to fix them. Not being able to take criticism and fix mistakes is arrogance, not perfection.

Perfection is a double-edged sword. In our lives, we want perfection. Perfection holds us accountable; it’s the mistakes and imperfection that keeps pushing us harder and further at what we do. It’s the perfect motivator. But it’s also the perfect killer. For example, the movie “Black Swan” showcased how perfection can kill us. Working and training and stress hurt our body, mind, and so much more that we can’t do it any more.

But perfection can also have the opposite effect. The movie “High Strung” showed that perfection doesn’t exist, but practicing and pushing ourselves can bring us great rewards. In “Black Swan,” the main character tried to be perfect but he also compared himself to someone else who he thought was better than him. This added more pressure and self-doubt, which can cause unhealthy ways of achieving perfection. The main character of “Black Swan” didn’t know when to stop, whereas the main character of “High Strung” did, or at least didn’t focus so much on the comparison, and instead focused on the competition and the ones she cared about.

Perfection is something we can’t live without and can’t live with. The only way to keep the sword from cutting us is if we know when to stop. Some days are going to be good days and others will be bad. We have to take whatever day it is — perfect or imperfect — and hope that’s enough.

A．	B．
C．	D．

【推荐3】I was terribly shy as a child. I couldn’t bear to be noticed and if I spoke people would notice me, so I spoke as little as possible. About four years ago, I was hanging out with my friends on a playground. I noticed two little girls, who came to play near where we were. The elder sister pulled the younger girl away from us but couldn’t go far, as her sister threw herself on to the ground crying and refusing to get up. I was longing to comfort her but felt unable to do so.

Then I thought: Why am I waiting for someone to give me permission to do what I feel is right? I went over to the little girl and held out my hand. I had merely intended to help her up first but instead she pulled me down into a tight hug. I instantly felt the surge of her emotions flood through me. We knelt on the ground hugging tightly for what felt like a longtime; at one point I tried to move away but she wouldn’t let me go. The elder girl had run off, and reappeared with a man I took to be their father. She pointed at me accusingly (谴责地). It occurred to me that he would probably be angry at a stranger hugging his child and might shout at me or even hit me. I then decided that it didn’t matter if he did hit me. At that moment, the only thing that mattered in the world was comforting the little girl in my arms.

To my surprise, the man wasn’t angry. He just nodded and held his arms out to his child. She calmed down and went to him willingly. He carried her away and the sister followed them. I watched them disappear into the crowd.

That day, I learned that I can speak, and if-I can’t speak, I can take action, which is often easier. I still find speaking difficult. But now I know that if I need to, I can.

【推荐3】At the age of 17 years 64 days, Mack Rutherford has become the youngest person to fly around the world alone! Mack’s journey around the world lasted five months and he flew across 52 countries in total. His record-breaking flight began in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, on 23 March, 2022. He was 16 years old when he took off and celebrated his 17th birthday by himself in his plane.

Mack faced many challenges during his adventure. Because of his small-sized aircraft, he had to land whenever the weather got too rough. However, at some points he literally (确实地) couldn’t land, such as when flying non-stop for 10 hours over an ocean. At other points, he faced extremely hot weather, such as in Dubai. In Sudan, a country in Africa, Mack also faced sandstorms which made it hard for him to see where he was going. Mack battled strong winds and pouring rain during his flight, but he never stopped smiling, joking and updating his flowers on his social media account along the way, and managed to expertly pilot his plane to safety.

And if Mack’s surname “Rutherford” sounds familiar, it’s because his elder sister Zara also flew around the world earlier this year, and still holds the female version of the record! The Rutherford siblings (兄弟姐妹) were inspired by their parents to become pilots. “I have known for certain I wanted to fly since I was eleven,” Mack said, “My dad Sam is a professional ferry pilot, my mum Beatrice is a recreational private pilot.”

Mack hopes to inspire young people to begin working towards their own goals, “No matter what background you have, I believe it is never too early to work towards your dreams and you shouldn’t limit yourself by others’ expectations.” With both feet firmly back on the ground now, it’s time for Mack to turn his attention towards catching up on his schoolwork!

【推荐1】A teacher touched my shoulder and told me to follow her down the hall to a small room. She asked me questions about my life and took notes of everything I said. The next day we met in the same room and I began taking tests that would become a weekly routine throughout that year. A few other kids joined me in that small room also. We didn’t know it at the time, but the school system had labelled us as LD, or learning disabled.

As a learning disabled student, teachers treated me accordingly—disabled. They gave me answers to math problems, helped me finish my homework assignments, and allowed me to take untimed tests. They didn’t expect much and so that was what they got back. By high school, for the first time I had found myself using my disability as a crutch that would let me ease my way out of assignments. I sold myself short.

During my senior year, I was placed in a class with several other learning disabled teenagers. The class was taught by a new teacher, Mr. Weisberg. Mr. Weisberg had given up his profession as a lawyer in order to help teenagers like me realize their true value. He accomplished exactly what he set out to do. He didn’t accept any of my excuses. For the first time in my life, I had to take accountability for my education, learning not to make excuses.

Gradually, Mr. Weisberg made me believe in myself as a human being with limitless potential. At first I hated him for not letting me be lazy, but together we broke down the label’s invisible barriers.

I graduated from high school, and I am now receiving straight A’s as I prepare to earn a bachelor’s degree in English. The truth is that we pretty much live up to what others think of us and what “we” think of ourselves.

【推荐3】As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his body, waved helplessly before his eyes.

What has happened to me? he thought. It was no dream. His room, a regular human bedroom, only rather too small, lay quiet between the four familiar white walls. Above the table on which a collection of cloth samples was unpacked and spread out- Samsa was a commercial traveler-hung the picture which he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and put into a pretty golden frame. It showed a lady. Gregor’s eyes turned next to the window, and the overcast sky-one could hear rain drops beating on the window-made him quite melancholy(忧郁的). What about sleeping a little longer and forgetting all this nonsense, he thought, but it could not be done, for he was accustomed to sleep on his right side and in his present condition he could not turn himself over. However violently he forced himself towards his right side he always rolled on to his back again. He tried it at least a hundred times, shutting his eyes to keep from seeing his struggling legs, and only stopped when he began to feel in him a faint ache he had never experienced before.

He thought: ”what an exhausting job I’ve picked on!“ Traveling about day in, day out. It’s much more boring work than doing the actual business in the office, and on top of that there’s the trouble of constant traveling, of worrying about train connections, the bed and irregular meals, casual acquaintances that are always new and never become intimate friends. The devil take it all! He felt a slight itching up on his belly; slowly pushed himself on his back nearer to the top of the bed so that he could lift his head more easily; identified the itching place which was surrounded by many small white spots the nature of which he could not understand and made to touch it with a leg, but drew the leg back immediately, for the contact made a cold shiver run through him.