【推荐1】The advantages & disadvantages of being a host family

Hosting an exchange student can be the most rewarding experience in the world. Bringing an exchange student into your home can have its advantages and disadvantages. I am going to start with the disadvantages.

Disadvantages:

The language barrier. You may have a hard time just because of the language barrier.     1     You would even be tearing your hair out. Just take a deep breath and communicate once again.

Extra costs.     2     Although they pay for their medicine and clothes, there are still many other costs. Does your family like to go out to the movies? Well, you now have an extra person to pay for. Food at home is another cost. You have to provide food for breakfast and dinner as well as lunch if the student chooses not to pay for hot lunch at school.

Advantages:

    3     This is an amazing journey. They will have many questions about why you do things. They will want to try new activities and learn about your traditions. This is also an excellent chance for you to learn about their country and culture.

The opportunity to gai a son/daughter. This experience will give you the chance to communicate with a child in a way you never expected! And many will also feel thankful for the opportunity you have given them. You two will share many laughs along the way and make memories to last a lifetime.     4    

Many of the advantages and disadvantages really go hand in hand.     5     Remember, you have the chance to help realize the dream of a teenager and the chance to learn about another culture and to experience new traditions.

A．It will leave a great impression on both of you.

B．It is up to you how you deal with each situation.

C．As with every child you have, there is always an added cost.

D．The opportunity to communicate with your foreign neighbors.

E．They want you and the students to have a wonderful experience.

F．It will make it difficult for you to talk with exchange students.

G．The chance to help a student experience life in another country and culture.

【推荐2】Finding summer jobs for teenagers has not always been easy, but now you no longer have to worry about what your kid can do to earn their own money．Recently I found some different sites online that offer information about what kids can do．Below is some of that information, along with questions to think about to help you come up with your own ideas．
Ideas for summer work
●Parks and Recreation Programs．
●Babysitting （当临时保姆） during the day of school．
●Working part-time at a day care for the summer．
●Car washing．
●Working at local vegetable stands．
The easiest way for you to find ways for your child to make money is to think about others’ inconveniences （不方便）．Think of things you need done, or would like to have done, and what you would consider paying for these things to get done．Once you have some ideas, you can sit down with your child and talk to them about what they would be interested in doing．Then once you have an idea of what they want to do you can help them come up with fair prices．
Preferably you would want to only have your child working with people you know and trust, or in the least bit you could have your child pick a partner．That way with each of them carrying cell phones, even those without service can call 911, they will be much safer．
You can find out more information and many more ideas for kids to use to make money during their summer holidays by visiting http//www.kidswantmoney.com．
1. The author wrote the passage to _____．

A．share his discoveries online

B．introduce jobs for teenagers

C．advertise a website for teenagers

D．talk about his summer work experience

2. The passage is mainly written for _____．

A．teenagers	B．teachers
C．parents	D．website designers

3. What can we learn about http//www.kidswant-money.com?

A．The author set up the website．

B．It gives information about educating children．

C．People need to pay to visit the website．

D．It offers ideas for children to make money．

【推荐3】请认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。 注意:请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填一个单词。

A psychotherapist once taught me a little trick that helped me feel less angry at my partner and less sad about the failings of our relationship.

She said, "Look at him and imagine him as a very little boy; that way, you separate yourself somewhat from the adult, and you are likely to understand and forgive him."

It actually helped. I couldn't be as mad at or disappointed by a child as I could be with a grown man. So, at least on some occasions, we were both spared the heartache of an uncomfortable silence or a not-so-silent argument. And I sometimes still use versions of that trick whenever I feel frustrated or angry in other relationships or personal exchanges.

But what if you could mentally change the form of the emotion itself? According to scientists at the University of Texas, maybe you can.

Focusing specifically on sadness, the researchers asked two groups of study participants to write about a time in their lives when they felt very sad. They then asked one group to imagine sadness as a person, and write down a description of the person they imagined would be sadness. Not surprisingly, the participants described sadness in such ways as an older person with gray hair and sunken eyes or a young girl holding her head down as she slowly walked along.

The researchers asked the other group of participants to write down a description of sadness with respect to its impact on their moods. When asked to rate their levels of sadness after completing their descriptions, the participants who wrote about the emotion itself and how it affects them reported higher levels of sadness than the group that anthropomorphized (人格化)sadness into a specific type of person with familiar human characteristics. The researchers suggest that by giving life to the emotion, participants can view sadness as something (or someone) separate and somewhat distant from themselves, helping them relieve their negative feelings.

While it's okay to feel sad, many people behave in unconscious and sometimes self-destructive ways to distract or "save" themselves when they are consumed by negative emotions. So in the study authors wanted to know whether or not the group that reported feeling less sad would make smarter shopping decisions.

They tested this by asking participants in both groups to first choose between a salad or a cheesecake dessert to go with the main dish they were having for lunch. The researchers also asked participants to choose between a computer loaded with features for productivity or a computer loaded with features for entertainment. Those study participants who had anthropomorphized their emotions were more likely to choose the salad and the productive computer than those who had simply written about their feelings.

For obvious reasons, then, they say this technique is best for reduce negative emotions.

A Little Trick to Help You Feel     1    Sad
Passage outlines	Supporting details
The writer's experience	When he was angry with his partner, the writer was able to improve his mood by     2     his partner as a little boy, which is sometimes     3    to both sides.
This trick can mentally change the form of people's emotion	It is no    4    that the study participants tend to picture sadness as an older person or an unhappy girl. The participants who describe their emotion as a person have a     5    level of sadness than those who merely describe their emotion itself.
This trick can     6    people's consumption decisions	When lost in negative emotions, people may lose     7    of themselves and behave in self-destructive ways. Participants who give     8    to the emotion prefer salad while those who don't choose food     9    in sugar and caloric.
10	This little trick can help people reduce negative feelings.

【推荐1】My mom takes pride in the fact that I was talking in three and four word sentences before I was ten months old. Some say it’s a gift while others simply think I talk too much. As my thirties came to a close, I found myself reflecting on my life. I’m very happy and have no significant regrets. However, when I looked back on those times of difficulty, I saw a clear common denominator(特征); I didn’t seem to know when to stop talking. Whether it was hurting someone’s feelings, or having carelessly told a secret, the incident could have been avoided had I closed my mouth sooner. So I decided to practice the power of quiet.
To take this step, I needed to understand how people could sit comfortably in a group and not talk. Why does my husband feel completely content to say nothing in a conversation? He’s highly intelligent and has wonderful opinions but he’ll sit quietly and just listen. Even when he’s asked a pointed question, he’ll answer with few words while still communicating effectively. What a talent!
Can you imagine being happy just listening? In surveying those I know who talk less than I do, I got two answers—they either didn’t feel confident enough to speak up, or they just didn’t feel the need to participate in the conversation. Of course there were other reasons for not talking, but these were the two most popular answers.
The first one didn’t work for me. I’m just fine letting people know what I think about them, and hopefully it will make the conversation much more interesting. The second one didn’t work either. I do feel the need to participate. I feel it physically like an electrical pulse through my body; sometimes it’s so strong that it causes me to behave badly in the form of interrupting or speaking in an unusually loud voice. I had to look further.
An interesting thing happened on this journey to the power of quiet. During my weekly yoga class, it came to me like an answer so clear that the words rang in my head like soft, heavenly bells.
I talked too much so people would know I cared about them. It was my way of taking care of those I love. I decided before my fortieth birthday, that from that day forward, those around me would know I loved them, and cared what they thought and felt, but I was going to practice the power of quiet.
As my forty-second birthday approaches, I can say that deciding to talk less has been more about focusing on quality rather than quantity. I’ve found that listening more shows those who I care about that I really do care how they feel. Now when I break in, it means more to them. Oh, sure, I still have my short periods of talking too much, but for the most part this has been one resolution that I can call a success.
1. In Paragraph 3 the writer mentions her husband mainly ______.

A．to show how one communicates effectively

B．to explain the reason for his silence in a conversation

C．to give her high opinion of his communication skills

D．to give an example of those who have the power of quiet

2. By “I had to look further”, the writer means she had to ______.

A．look into the future in order to succeed in practicing the power of quiet

B．try harder to prevent herself from talking too much

C．find out other reasons why she should talk less

D．survey people in other areas who talk little

3. Which of the following best describe the writer’s character?

A．Kind but pessimistic.

B．Selfless but proud.

C．Loving and active.

D．Stubborn and sensitive.

【推荐2】Shaking hands, American stylePeople often shake hands in the United States. American men shake hands with other men. American women often shake hands with men, and sometimes they shake hands with other women. Adults shake hands with children. And some people even teach their dogs to shake hands!    1    How do they shake hands just long enough? Just hard enough? Here are four little rules to remember.1. Use your right hand.2. Use good eye contact(眼神交流). Look at the person in the eye while you are shaking hands.3. Don’t shake too long.    2    Then let go and pull your hand back toward you.4.    3    When a handshake is weak, Americans think the person may not be a hard worker or a good leader. When a handshake is too strong, Americans think the person is too rough(粗鲁) or has bad manners.    4    They shake hands when they meet for the first time. They shake hands to say congratulations. They shake hands when they meet after not seeing each other for a while. And they often shake hands when they say good-bye. In business, shaking hands shows agreement and honesty.Handshakes are good everywhere.    5    So make sure to shake plenty of hands.

A．Offer you hand first.

B．Shake for no more than three seconds.

C．How do people shake hands correctly?

D．Don’t shake too strongly or too weakly.

E．It is not polite to refuse a person’s hand.

F．When do people in the United States shake hands?

G．Make sure your hands aren’t sweaty when you do this.

【推荐3】When a friend comes to you after a stressful day, how do you comfort them? Do you let them complain? Do you pour them a glass of wine? Those could work. But a new study finds that a very effective technique is also simple and easy — hugging.

Michael Murphy is a psychology expert at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He wanted to know if people who received hugs regularly could handle stress and conflict belief. " Individuals who report perceiving the availability of a network of supportive individuals lead to show better adaptation when faced with stress. But your just having a support network does not mean that you definitely feel that support, he said. "So some researchers have argued that many of the behaviors we use to support others who are stressed might actually be counterproductive, because   behaviors might unintentionally communicate to others that they're not able to manage stress."   he added.

Murphy and his team interviewed 404 men and women every evening for two weeks. During these interviews, the participants were asked a simple yes — or — no question — whether somebody had hugged them that day — and a simple yes or no question of whether they had experienced conflict or tension with somebody that day.

They also were asked questions about their social interactions — how many social，interactions they had that day and responded to questions about negative and positive mood states . And the researchers found that individuals who experienced a conflict were not as negatively affected if they received a hug that day as were participants who experienced conflict and didn't get a hug. Murphy and his team also saw that people who received a hug didn't carry the negative effect to the next day, while those who did not receive a hug would. The findings are in the journal PLOS ONE.

Murphy does include this warning: "So our findings should not be taken as evidence that people should just start hugging anyone and everyone who seems distressed. A hug from one boss at work or a stranger on the street could be viewed as neither agreeable nor positive. " The idea is to relieve stress. Not add to it.

1. What does the first paragraph serve as?

A．A lead-in	B．A background
C．An argument	D．A summary.

2. Why did the researchers interview those people?

A．To test the influence of hugging.

B．To find out causes of their conflicts.

C．To ask for advice on relieving stress.

D．To seek ways to comfort troubled people.

3. What do Murphy's words warn in the end?

A．The interview results prove their findings.

B．A boss should comfort workers by hugging.

C．There are some limitations of their findings.

D．People should hug others regularly and actively.

4. Which can be the best title for the text?

A．Everyone Needs Hugs	B．A Hug Could Do Anything
C．How to Comfort Your Friends	D．Hugs Seem to Reduce Stress