【推荐1】Friends should always be honest with you, right? So when they lie, it can   be really hard to take. You want to trust your friends and that means knowing that they'll tell it to you straight no matter what it is. But a friend who lies isn't always trying to hurt you. Why does this happen?

Protect your feelings

One of the biggest reasons friends lie is simply to avoid hurting your feelings.

Some people don't understand the difference between being gently honest with a friend and being so straightforward（直截了当的）that they leave a verbal wound. They choose to avoid these two extremes in the form of a lie.

What you can do: Encourage your friends to be straight with you. No matter what their answer is, let them know you are grateful for it.

They feel embarrassed

Sometimes friends will lie about things in their life because they are too embarrassed to admit the truth. Maybe they are going through a rough time and they just don't want you to know about it.

What you can do: Avoid trying to badger（纠缠）your friend into telling you what's wrong. Instead, make it clear that you are there for them when and if they are ready to talk.

Avoid an argument with you

Perhaps your friend knows that if they tell you the truth, you'll get angry with them. Avoiding conflict is not always healthy for a friendship because it allows problems to grow over time. If you have a bad temper（脾气）, your friend might try and avoid getting into an argument with you and instead just tell you what you want to hear.

What you can do: Make sure that if a friend tells you something unpleasant, you don't overreact. Consider what's being said and why your friend is telling you this. If you do end up arguing, do it in a respectable way.

Exclude you

Lying isn't always a sign that friends are trying to protect you, however. Sometimes they lie because they want to exclude you from their plans.

What you can do：When you find out with certainty that your friend is lying to you, try and face it. Be forewarned, however, that if a friend lies to begin with, he or she may lie when asked a direct question about his or her dishonesty. Go with your guts on this. If you feel your friend is lying because he or she doesn't want to be around you, that's your wake-up call to move on.

1. According to the passage, friends sometimes lie _____________.

A．out of respect

B．in a straight way

C．under social influences

D．because the truth hurts

2. When you find a friend lying, you are advised to _____________ .

A．let it go

B．take it personally

C．handle it respectably

D．break up with him or her .

3. What is the implied meaning of the underlined part?

A．Have the courage to handle the situation.

B．Accept the truth that you are being lied to.

C．Go to have a fight with whoever lies to you.

D．Base your judgment on your understanding.

4. What's the passage mainly about?

A．Ways to avoid telling lies.

B．Ways to promote friendship.

C．Reasons for making friends.

D．Reasons for lies and solutions.

【推荐2】How to Build Patience Abilities

What’s the purpose of building patience abilities? In a word, happiness. Better relationships, more success. But indeed it takes efforts to build them successfully.     1     Thus, when the big ones come, we will have developed the patience we need for hard times.

    2     We, human beings, are still constructed with our old reptilian (爬行动物的) brain that protects our physical and emotional survival. The urge to protect ourselves and what we consider valuable is absolutely habit-forming. So the first step in growing patience is to get in touch with the addictive quality of the opposite of patience—anger, impatience, blame and shame. We all have them, and we can grow beyond them.

Upgrade our attitude towards discomfort and pain.     3     We try to change the other person, situation or thing that we think is causing our discomfort. But the problem is that it is not the outside thing that’s the source of our pain, but how our mind is set. So the solution to pain is an inside job.

Pay attention when the impatience or pain starts. Most of us don’t really realize it when we are feeling even the smallest—but very present—painful feelings. We ignore the fact that we’re in pain and focus completely on fixing the problem.     4     Focusing on what’s actually happening, you can notice the worry of not wanting what’s happening, the resistance.

Practise positive self-talk. When you find yourself impatient, or angry with yourself, you can remind yourself that you are growing. You can say to yourself, “It’s true. I don’t like this.     5    ”

A．This is uncomfortable, but I can tolerate it.

B．Patience is good for you in every aspect.

C．Don’t blame yourself for being angry sometimes.

D．Pain has its purposes and pushes us to find solutions.

E．Understand the addictive nature of anger and impatience.

F．Effective ways are recommended to train ourselves to work with little pain and annoyance.

G．But to care for ourselves, get curious’ about what’s happening in the moment inside you.

【推荐3】Each year, about 7 million tons of trash (垃圾) is found in the ocean. This trash consists of cigarette ends, medical waste, plastic, mile-long nets, etc... Those items of trash choke (窒息) many species of ocean life so quickly that they eventually become extinct. Ocean pollution harms the earth and animals, and we should stop the problem.

Some other causes of ocean pollution are waste, poisonous chemicals, and the biggest cause is littering (乱丢垃圾). How do these items end up in the ocean? Waste flows through rivers and drains (下水道) directly to the ocean, so ocean pollution continues to step up. The estimated amount of ocean pollution that floated in the sea in 2012 was 288 million tons. This huge number continues to increase by 4% each year. That means 11, 520, 000 tons of trash increase each year. Imagine the future of our ocean. Will there be any room to swim? Also 80% of the ocean is composed of plastic: plastic bottles, plastic bags, and some plastic toys.

How can ocean pollution be solved? Use fabric bags instead of plastic bags. This would reduce the plastic pollution in the ocean. Also for the waste water problem, we could use waste water treatment system. Lastly using renewable energy sources such as wind power or solar power would limit offshore drilling.

If we don’t stop the causes of ocean pollution, water temperatures will continue to rise and ocean life will become endangered. Please be mindful that what we do affects the people around us, the animals around us, and the habitats around us. So will you pay attention to this problem or wait for the next generation to?

1. What leads to the ocean pollution worst?

A．Cigarette ends.	B．Littering.
C．Medical waste.	D．Plastic.

2. How many ways are mentioned to solve the problem in Paragraph 3?

A．3	B．4
C．5	D．6

3. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To introduce what’s ocean pollution.

B．To make a survey about ocean pollution.

C．To make us know more about ocean pollution.

D．To call on everyone to fight against ocean pollution.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Seriousness of Ocean Pollution

B．The Solutions to Ocean Pollution

C．The Causes of Ocean Pollution

D．The Sorts of Ocean Pollution

【推荐1】It doesn’t matter when and how much a person sleeps, but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That’s what all doctors thought, until they heard about Herpin. Herpin, it was said, never slept. Could this be true? The doctors decided to see this strange man themselves.

Herpin was 90 years old when the doctors came to his home in New Jersey. They thought for sure that he got some sleep of some kind. So they stayed with him and watched every movement he made. But they were surprised. Though they watched him hour after hour and day after day, they never saw him sleeping. In fact, he did not even own a bed. He never needed one.

The only rest that Herpin sometimes got was sitting in a comfortable chair and reading newspapers. The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. They asked him many questions, hoping to find an answer. They found only one answer that might explain his condition. Herpin remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born. But that was all. Was this the real reason? No one could be sure. Herpin died at the age of 94.

1. What is TRUE about Herpin?

A．He never rested.	B．He was injured when he was young.
C．He never slept.	D．He was puzzled by his sleeplessness.

2. The doctors came to visit Herpin, expecting to ________.

A．find that his sleeplessness was not really true

B．cure him of his sleeplessness

C．help him to have a rest in some day

D．find out why some old people didn’t need any sleep

3. One reason that might explain Herpin’s sleeplessness was ________.

A．that he had gradually got rid of the sleeping habit

B．his magnificent physical condition

C．that he hadn’t got a bed

D．his mother’s injury before he was born

4. The main idea of this passage is that ________.

A．large numbers of people do not need sleep

B．a person was found who actually didn’t need any sleep

C．everyone needs some sleep to stay alive

D．people can live longer by trying not to sleep

【推荐3】Money Matters

Parents should help their children understand money. The best time to teach a child anything about money is when he shows an interest.So you may start talking about money when your child shows an interest in buying things, candy or toys, for example.

1.The basic function of money

Begin explaining the basic function of money by showing how people trade money for goods or services. It is important to show your child how money is traded for the things he wants to have. If he wants to have a toy, give him the money and let him hand the money to the cashier.    1     When your child grows a bit older and understands the basic function of money, you can start explaining more complex ways of using money.

2. Money lessons

Approach money lessons with openness and honesty.     2     If you must say no to a child’s request to spend money, explain, “You have enough toy trucks for now.” Or, if the request is for many different things, say, “You have to make a choice between this toy and that toy.”

3.    3    

Begin at the grocery store. Pick out two similar brands of a product — a name-brand butter and a generic, for example. You can show your child how to make choices between different brands of a product so that you can save money.    4    If he chooses the cheaper brand, allow him to make another purchase with the money saved. Later, you may explain how the more expensive choice leaves less money for other purchases.

A．Wise decisions.

B．The value of money.

C．Permit the child to choose between them.

D．Tell your child why he can—or cannot—have certain things.

E．Ask yourself what things that cost money are most important to you.

F．Talk about how the money bought the thing after you leave the toy store.