【推荐1】Signs of a True Friendship

True friends are rare.     1    . How can you tell a true friend? Here are several obvious signs of a friendship.

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A true friend is a reliable person, and you can have confidence in him. You know that he will hot betray (背 叛)you or say something bad about you behind your back. You know that the information you share with one another will not be shared with others

Keeping in touch with each other frequently

    3    . True friends often keep in touch with each other, whether by phone, social networking sites ,email or in-person meetings.

Giving without paying back

True friends give with no expectations of receiving anything in return. Real friends give their time, love and care without expecting to receive anything back.

Supporting each other

True friendships involve (涉及)two people who support each other no matter what happens. It can   be difficult to know how to help a friend who's facing a difficult situation, though ・ Call him, even if you don't think he will answer the phone, and leave an encouraging message he can listen to later.     4       Or send him an email letting him know that you' re there for him if he needs anything.

Accepting each other

Real friends accept each other. A real friend accepts you for who you are, whether you are tall or short, gentle or rude. A real friend may inspire you to be a better person.    5    

A．Believing in each other

B．Sharing with each other

C．You can express your feelings freely

D．And you may have only a few true friends in your life

E．Send an encouragement card to your friend when he is in trouble

F．However, he will not try to change you into the person he thinks you should be

G．It’s difficult to maintain a true friendship if you hardly communicate with each other

【推荐2】The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?

Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.

The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing (引证) older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is slow to learn that he has the potential of an Einstein, you are just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.

In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students' self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."

Those with low self-esteem didn't feel better after the forced self-affirmation (自我肯定). In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren't urged to think positive thoughts.

The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic viewpoint. Call it the power of negative thinking.

1. The first paragraph is written ___________.

A．to raise an argument about positive thinking

B．to introduce the power of positive thinking

C．to encourage people to have positive thoughts

D．to introduce the $11 billion self-help industry

2. According to the study of the Canadian researchers, ___________.

A．positive thinking is not as powerful as negative thinking

B．encouraging positive thinking may actually discourage people

C．happy people can think positively while unhappy people can’t

D．getting people to think positively can strengthen their confidence

3. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．You are pointing out the mistakes he has made.

B．You are reminding him that he is not intelligent.

C．You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough.

D．You are showing he has great potential in spite of faults.

4. We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.

A．negative feelings must be got rid of

B．there’s no point in thinking positively

C．it doesn’t make sense to think negatively

D．negative thinking is not always negative

【推荐3】Self-management refers to self-control, which is a sign of inner power. There is no one easy or simple way to learn it, as everyone’s mind works differently from another.     1     Here’s a list of ways to develop self-management skills.

Have goals

If something is important enough for you, it should be written down somewhere as your goal. Whether it is losing some weight or finishing a course with a certain grade, having a goal to reach is important for your motivation. You can certainly have more than one goal.     2    

Set a schedule

Daily or weekly schedules give you more of a feeling that things are being accomplished (完成). Students who set schedules for themselves tend to be a bit more organized and aware of everything that is happening around them.     3     For example, they usually like studying for a few hours now and then they can hang out with their friends later.

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If you fail to hit your goals, adjust your goals to make up for your past mistakes. Take a step back and assess (评估) what you are doing and change it. It’s okay not to reach goals, as long as you can acknowledge it honestly and make positive changes towards meeting your goals.     5    But sometimes you just fall short. Knowing that it’s okay and move on, you can pick yourself back up quickly.

The above self-management skills are essential for your development, which can truly change your future. So take it seriously and find ways to improve yourself!

A．Be honest to yourself

B．Assess yourself honestly

C．But there are certain things that work for most.

D．You can break it down to yearly, monthly, weekly, and even daily ones.

E．As long as you have a clear schedule, it’s possible for you to achieve them all.

F．They’re able to think in advance about what they need to accomplish now or later.

G．This step is especially hard because you want to feel good about yourself and achieve your goals.