【推荐2】The phone is ringing at the other end of the line and it clicks as it is being answered．A voice says quickly, “Hello, will you hold, please?” Then there is another click, followed by silence．It seems like hours before someone comes back on the line ---- that is, if you don't hang up first．
Office calls are, perhaps, the most difficult and the most important part of a secretary's work．The first impression that a man receives about a business is often through a telephone contact．A caller who is left hanging on “hold” will get the feeling that he or she has been forgotten or ignored．If a call is answered rudely, the caller may become angry．And if the call is not routed directly to the right person, the caller may feel that he or she is getting the “run-around”.
Laura Needham is a secretary in the executive offices of a large manufacturing company．As a good office secretary, Laura knows that all phone calls must be answered without delay and handled efficiently. She knows that a secretary must be pleasant and helpful, no matter how busy she is or what kind of feeding she may be in．She knows she must keep calm if a caller gets impatient or becomes angry; also, of course, she knows she can never allow herself to lose her temper (脾气)．If she does not have the information the caller asks for, she must know who does have the information．Finally, she knows that one of her most important responsibilities(责任)is to “screen telephone calls” and to know which calls to refer to her boss, which calls to refer to other people, and which calls to handle herself．
A well-handled telephone call will give the caller a good impression of the company he or she is dealing with．For this reason, an office secretary who can handle telephone calls cheerfully, tactfully (老练的), and efficiently is a valuable asset   to any organization
1. Good secretaries find it            to handle office calls well.

A．very. boring	B．very important
C．quite necessary	D．extremely difficult

2. The underlined word "nmaround" here means            .

A．a flat refusal

B．a not-so-warm welcome C . an unpleasant refusal

C．an unhelpful response

3. In Laura's opinion a secretary can never be a good one until        .

A．she often asks her boss how to answer a telephone call

B．she knows how to please all the people

C．she has the information that others need

D．she can keep calm and never loses her temper

4. This passage is mainly about        .

A．well-handled telephone calls                                    ,~

B．an efficient office secretary called Laura Needham

C．the importance of how office calls are dealt with

D．a secretary being a valuable asset to her company

【推荐3】Humor: An Essential Life Skill

Mark Twain said, “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.” He’s certainly not wrong. Humor may very well be the great thing.    1    

Having a good sense of humor is possibly one of the best things you can do for your physical fitness.    2    Besides, it can improve your cardiovascular (心血管的) health.

    3    Study has shown that individuals who score highly in humor have higher self-respect, greater self-competence, and perform better in social interaction. They tend to get along well with others and are more often associated with better overall health.

Albert Einstein owed his brilliant mind to having a child-like sense of humor.    4    Researchers in Austria discovered that those who have a sense of humor have higher verbal (言语的) and nonverbal intelligence than their less humorous peers, because it takes both cognitive (认知的) and emotional abilities to process and produce humor.

The benefits of humor are so great that universities like Stanford are offering business courses on humor in the workplace.    5    Students will be taught how to “better achieve business goals and develop stronger bonds”. It doesn’t stop there, though. Researchers believe humor has the power to actually “make change in the world”.

A．Students will be strictly evaluated.

B．These courses have specific goals.

C．And your mental health benefits as well.

D．It touches upon nearly every aspect of life.

E．Apart from that, humor also improves your overall quality of life.

F．Research has shown that laughter can relieve the tension in your muscles.

G．Indeed, studies have found an association between humor and intelligence.