【推荐1】A sense of humor can be a person’s greatest advantage. This skill can help you communicate easily with others,improve your health. And even help deal with difficult situations.    1    

Identify the benefits of humor.

A sense of humor allows you to find humor in both positive and negative situations.    2    Besides, it can increase your coping abilities and self-esteem.

    3    

Being funny means being able to express humor. However, having a sense of humor means having the ability to let go and not take everything so seriously, and being able to laugh at life's difficulty.

Watch and learn.

You don't have to be funny to have a sense of humor, or be the one telling all the jokes. If you're not sure how to laugh or have a sense of humor about things, watch other people.    4    True humor is genuine and reflects your personality.

Accept yourself.

If you want to have a sense of humor, you should accept yourself.     5    Learn to laugh at yourself. Everyone needs to take himself seriously sometimes, but learning to laugh at yourself is a way to self-acceptance. No one is perfect, and we all make mistakes. Keep good humor about your life.

A．Have a sense of humor

B．However, don't just copy their humor.

C．Remember to keep focused on having fun

D．It can help reduce stress as well as anxiety.

E．Recognize the difference between being funny and having a sense of humor.

F．Therefore, it's necessary for you to have a sense of humor.

G．Having a light-hearted attitude to yourself is a good way to keep a sense of humor.

【推荐2】The new radio programme from Self-help expert Glennon Doyle unexpectedly disturbed me. In a session of We Can Do Hard Things, she focuses on boundaries and their importance to our mental happiness. I heartily agree with her, because saying a polite but firm “no” is one of the basics for a happy life. I was, however, particularly interested when she raised the idea that perhaps, as well as learning when to confirm our boundaries, we also need to stretch them. When does a boundary become a cage that locks us away?

Isn’t it always the case that just as you think you’ve got an area of life nailed, somebody comes along to show you that that’s not the case? As I listened, I started to see boundaries that might cause more problems than they were solving.

There was the work boundary saying that unless a project fell exactly into my topics, I wouldn’t take it — which meant I turned down work that was otherwise interesting and rewarding.

There was the boundary saying that I wasn’t to buy anything until I’d reached my savings goal — which resulted in me having to restart my laptop 20 times a day.

And then there was a boundary around relationships setting out exactly how I should be treated and what I wanted in others. Helpful to some extent, it blocked me from allowing someone to express their love for me, even if it wasn’t quite what I had predicted.

Had I been doing boundaries wrong all the time? Did I need to figure them all out again? I’ve spent the past few weeks looking at the boundaries I’ve secretly put in place, and I’ve let myself lower some that have been my protection over the years. Then I’ve come to the conclusion that, when it comes to boundaries, I’m a beginner again, and that’s fine. In fact, being back at the beginning is a blessing because it means there are still lessons to be learned and adventures to be taken and that is something for which I can only be grateful.

1. What has really interested the author in Glennon Doyle’s programme?

A．The importance of boundaries to our life.

B．The benefits of boundaries to our happiness.

C．The urgency of confirming our boundaries.

D．The necessity of expanding our boundaries.

2. Which statement on boundaries will the author agree with?

A．We should favor savings goals over boundaries.

B．Boundaries tend to keep us from potential friends.

C．Boundaries are very likely to relieve boredom at work.

D．We should stick to boundaries whatever the case.

3. How did the author feel after drawing the conclusion about boundaries?

A．Relaxed and thankful.	B．Astonished and regretful.
C．Pressured and anxious.	D．Amused and delighted.

4. What is probably the best title for the text?

A．Boundaries: New Way Out

B．Boundaries: Mental Happiness

C．Boundaries: Cage Allowing No Escape

D．Boundaries: Limit We Should Break

【推荐3】The Things That Keep Us From Succeeding

We have always been told not to fear failure because it is essential to success. So we should embrace failure or at least the possibility of failure.    1    .If you’re not reaching the kind of success you imagine，one or more of the following things might well be true of you，too.

NO.1: You don’t have a goal. A lot of time we find ourselves struggling through a day-to-day routine that isn’t getting us anywhere because we don’t know where we want to go. Sometimes we had goals when we set ourselves on a particular path，but we’ve changed along the way and those goal s are no longer that important.    2    ，figuring out what your goals are is important.

NO.2: You don’t have a vision. Setting goals is important but isn’t enough to drive you to the finish line；it’s important，too，to be able to imagine yourself as the achiever of your goals. If goal s are the end result of a journey，your vision is the fuel to get you there.

NO.3: You don’t have a plan. If goals are your destination and a vision is your fuel，your plan is the map to get you there.    3    .The world is full of people with goals they have never accomplished because they didn’t have a plan—don’t be one of them.

NO.4: You’re too certain or not certain enough. Too much certainty creates inflexibility. If you’re sure that your plan is correct，and refuse to accept the possibility of error，you may well find yourself stuck when an unexpected change comes about. However strong your plan and however sure you are of your goals，make room for periodic reassessment.

    4    .If you refuse to take a step because you aren’t positive that it will move you towards success，you won’t make any better progress than if you had no goals at a11.Keep your eyes open and be willing to change，but have faith in yourself，too.

NO.5:    5    .Often we close ourselves off from other people not because we’re afraid that they will influence us but that we will influence them. We are afraid that our brilliant ideas will be taken up by someone else and no longer be solely ours. So we avoid sharing our passions，and spend our energy jealously guarding our “secret” rather than simply moving forward. In the end，we turn our passions into burdens that are difficult to carry instead of a joy.

A．Whatever the case

B．Whatever the cause

C．You worry about being copied

D．You don’t learn from your mistakes

E．At the same time，too little certainty will fail you

F．However，fear isn’t the only thing that keeps us from succeeding

G．Without it，you have no idea what immediate steps to take to achieve your goals

【推荐1】Our love of music and appreciation of musical harmony is learned and not based on natural ability, a new study by University of Melbourne researchers has found. The researchers said previous theories about how we appreciate music were based on the physical functions of sound, the ear itself and a born ability to hear harmony.

The study shows that musical harmony can be learned, and it is a matter of training the brain to hear the sounds. So if you thought that the music of some foreign culture (or Jazz) sounded like the crying of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learned to listen by their rules.

The researchers used 66 volunteers with a range of musical training and tested their ability to hear combinations of notes (音符) to determine if they found the combinations familiar or pleasing. They found that people needed to be familiar with combinations of notes. If they found the notes unfamiliar they also found the sound unpleasant. This finding put an end to centuries of theories claiming that physical functions of the ear determine what we find attractive.

The study found that trained musicians were much more sensitive to unpleasant notes than non-musicians. When they couldn’t find the note, the musicians reported that the sounds were unpleasant, while non-musicians were much less sensitive. This shows the importance of training or nurturing (培养) the brain to like particular sound of combinations of notes, like those found in jazz or rock.

Depending on their training, a strange chord (和弦) sound was pleasant to some musicians, but very unpleasant to others. This showed us that even the ability to hear a musical note is learned.

To confirm this finding, they trained 19 non-musicians to find the notes of a random selection of western chords. Not only did the participants’ ability to hear notes improve rapidly, afterward they reported that the chords they had learned sounded more pleasant — regardless of how the chords were played.

The question of why some combinations of musical notes are heard as pleasant or unpleasant has long been debated.

We have shown in this study that for music, beauty is in the brain of the beholder (观看者)”, a researcher said.

1. According to the study, people find foreign music quite unpleasant because            .

A．they hear the music much too often	B．they don’t like the person playing it
C．they have no idea about how to listen	D．they have no born musical ability at all

2. Although no-musicians were less sensitive to music, they can still            .

A．be trained to like particular music	B．make friends with real musicians
C．find the beauty of chords without training	D．enjoy the beauty of music when played by musicians

3. The 19 non-musicians were trained in order to show            .

A．the brain likes particular combinations of notes

B．not a strange note was pleasant to all musicians

C．how the chords were played was very important

D．people’s ability to hear a musical note can be learned.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Love of musical harmony can’t be taught.	B．Love of music is not natural but nurtured.
C．Listening to music can improve your brain.	D．You can be a musician without being trained.

【推荐2】Do you know what Fear and Faith have in common? Fear believes in a negative future. Faith believes in a positive future. Both believe in something that has not yet happened. So I ask you, if neither the positive nor negative future has happened yet then why not choose to believe in the positive future?

I believe during these challenging times we have a choice between two roads: the positive road and the negative road. And our bus can’t be on two roads at the same time. So we have to make a choice and this choice determines our belief about the future and the attitude and actions we bring to the present.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have any fear. There are times when fear is a gift. A healthy dose(剂量) of fear causes us to examine our situation and plan for the future. It moves us to smell the cheese and expect change. When used wisely it allows us to manage risk and make better decisions. Some fear is good.

However, what I have observed lately is a supersized, huge dose of fear that is spreading the hearts and minds of far too many people. This oversized fear is causing leaders and their organizations to either act unreasonably or to not act at all. They are either hurrying in a million different directions because of fear. In both cases, fear is leading them to take the negative road to failure.

The answer is the positive road paved (铺满) with faith and a belief that your best days are not behind you but ahead of you. With this belief you make the right choices and actions today that will create your positive future tomorrow. You stay calm, focused and committed to your purpose. You look for ways to save money and cut costs without making unreasonable fear-based decisions that sacrifice(牺牲) your future success. You identify opportunities in the midst of the challenges and you focus on solutions instead of problems.

Your faith and belief in a positive future leads to powerful actions today. The future has not happened yet and you have a say in what it looks like by the way you think and act. Fear or Faith. The choice is yours.

1. According to the passage, we can know that ________.

A．both Fear and Faith trust something in the future

B．Fear and Faith have nothing in common

C．neither negative nor positive future will happen

D．people usually choose to believe in the positive future

2. What does the writer mean by saying “our bus can’t be on two roads”?

A．We must choose either a positive or negative road

B．We should choose the positive road

C．We usually choose the negative road

D．Our belief about the future depends on our choice

3. If we have faith in future, we will ________.

A．have the best days ahead of us	B．be committed to saving money
C．stay away from any challenges	D．take powerful actions today

4. What does the writer intend to tell us in the passage?

A．Fear is closely related to faith.

B．We should have faith in a positive future.

C．Life is full of fear and faith.

D．Wrong decisions sacrifice our future success.

【推荐3】“Did you hear what happened to Adam last Friday？” Lindsey whispers to Tori.

With her eyes shining，Tori brags，“You bet I did，Sean told me two days ago. ”

Who are Lindsey and Tori talking about？It just happened to be yours truly，Adam Freedman. I can tell you that what they are saying is（a）not nice and（b）not even true. Still，Lindsey and Tori aren't very different from most students here at Linton High School，including me. Many of our conversations are gossip（闲话）. I have noticed three effects of gossip：it can hurt people，it can give gossipers a strange kind of satisfaction，and it can cause social pressures in a group.

An important negative effect of gossip is that it can hurt the person being talked about. Usually，gossip spreads information about a topic—breakups，trouble at home，even dropping out–that a person would rather keep secret. The more embarrassing or shameful the secret is，the juicier the gossip it makes. Probably the worst type of gossip is the absolute lie. People often think of gossipers as harmless，but cruel lies can cause pain.

If we know that gossip can be harmful，then why do so many of us do it？The answer lies in another effect of gossip：the satisfaction it gives us. Sharing the latest rumor（传言）can make a person feel important because he or she knows something that others don't. Similarly，hearing the latest rumor can make a person feel like part of the “in group”. In other words，gossip is satisfying because it gives people a sense of belonging or even superiority（优越感 ）.

Gossip also can have a third effect：it strengthens unwritten，unspoken rules about how people should act. Professor David Wilson explains that gossip is important in policing behaviors in a group. Translated into high school terms，this means that if everybody you hang around with is laughing at what John wore or what Jane said，then you can bet that wearing or saying something similar will get you the same kind of negative attention. The dos and don'ts conveyed through gossip will never show up in any student handbook.

The effects of gossip vary depending on the situation. The next time you feel the urge to spread the latest news，think about why you want to gossip and what effects your “juicy story” might have.

1. Why is a conversation given at the beginning of the passage？

A．To introduce a topic.	B．To present an argument.
C．To tell a story.	D．To clarify the writing purpose.

2. What important negative effect does gossip have？

A．Breaking up relationships.	B．Embarrassing the listener.
C．Spreading information around.	D．Causing unpleasant experiences.

3. Why do many people like to gossip？

A．It gives them a feeling of pleasure.	B．It helps them make more friends.
C．It makes them better at telling stories.	D．It enables them to meet important people

4. Professor David Wilson thinks that gossip can

A．provide students with written rules

B．make people watch their own behaviors

C．force school to improve student handbooks

D．attract the police's attention to group behaviors