【推荐3】Easy Ways to Make New Friends

Meeting new people and making friends can be challenging, but it’s important to make new friends. Good friends help you to be happier.     1     Here are some tips to help you make new friends at high school.

    2    . People like making friends with those who are confident. Pick up your courage and talk to someone. Smile and ask them their names, if they’ve seen a new movie, or if they like a sport or activity. Sit in the middle of the classroom so that a lot of people will sit around you.

Be yourself when you’re talking with others.     3    .Many people can know it if you aren’t being yourself—don’t try too hard to fit in. There isn’t another person like you, so remember that and accept the fact that you’re special.

Enjoy your new friends. Do something small but nice for them.     4     If you can, try and meet up with your friends outside of school and really get to know them. Enjoy yourself and enjoy being with your friends.

Be a good friend. Being good friends is about trusting each other and caring for each other. It’s about give-and-take.    5     Try to understand your friends’ points of view. Think about their feelings. If you’re a good friend to others, you’ll enjoy friendships that can last long.

In 1987, I was 18 and working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia.

I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I’d hitch a ride (搭便车).

I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn’t give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the extreme heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he he assured me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

Twenty-five years later, in2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the scorching heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I’d been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me,“You haven’t changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.”

I couldn’t remember where I’d met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

【推荐2】Most Americans believe that someone isn’t grown-up until the age of 26 and they should complete their education, have a full-time job, have a family to support and be financially independent. They also believe that becoming a real grown-up is a process which begins at about the age of 20 and takes about five years, according to the report from the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.

The findings are based on a representative sample of 1,398 people over the age of 18 who were surveyed in person. The survey found that people expect the transitions to grown-up status to be completed at the following ages: age 20.9 self-supporting; age 21.1 no longer living with parents; age 21.2 having a full-time job; age 22.3 education completed; age 24.5 being able to support a family financially; age 25.7 getting married; and age 26.2 having a child.

“There is a large degree of agreement across social groups on the relative importance of the seven transitions,” said Tom Smith, director of the survey. The only obvious pattern of differences is on views about supporting a family, having children and getting married. Older adults consider these more important than younger adults do. This probably shows in large part a change in values across generations away from traditional family values. The most valued step toward reaching adulthood, the survey found, is completing education, followed by full-time employment, supporting a family, financial independence, living independently, and marriage.

【推荐3】Looking back on my childhood, I am convinced that naturalists are born and not made.

Although we were all brought up in the same way, my brothers and sisters soon abandoned their pressed flowers and insects. Unlike them, I had no ear for music and languages. I was not an early reader and I could not do mental maths.

I have only the unmemorable memory of the house we lived in, of my room and my toys. Nor do I recall clearly the large family of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who gathered next door. But I do have a crystal clear memory of the dogs, the farm animals, the local birds, and above all the insects.

I am a naturalist, not a scientist. I have a strong love of the natural world, and my enthusiasm has led me into varied investigations. I love discussing my favorite topics and enjoy burning the midnight oil while reading about other people’s observations and discoveries. Then something happens that brings these observations together in my conscious mind. This has resulted in my publishing 300 papers and books, which some might honour with the title of scientific research.

But curiosity, a keen eye, a good memory and enjoyment of the animal and plant world do not make a scientist：One of the outstanding and essential qualities required is self­discipline, a quality I lack. A scientist requires not only self­discipline but all training, determination and a goal. A scientist, up to a point, can be made. A naturalist is born. If you can combine the two, you get the best of both worlds.