【推荐3】How to Love Your Parents

Even if you think that your parents are mean at times, loving your parents is a normal and fulfilling part of life. You love them for the fact that they create you, raise you, and shape you into who you are.     1    

Tell them you love them every morning. A gentle “Good Morning” or “I love you” will warm a coldest heart. Remember that they brought you into this world.

    2     You can use these moments to learn from them, preparing yourself when you’re on your own. It’s OK to get annoyed but angry actions don’t help you or your parents. Cool off, write down your feelings, or talk to a friend. After this, share your feelings with your parents.

Obey their requests and try to understand them. It may feel bad when you don’t get what you want or you are misunderstood. However, you had better remember they keep a roof over your head to protect you and understand that parents are human beings and may make mistakes.     3     Since you can forgive (原谅) your friends, why not forgive your parents?

Keep company with them. Do things with your parents like watching TV, or going somewhere with them.     4     Listen to their old stories and learn from them. You will find they are your teachers in this way or another.

Some people simply may not be able to love their parents. There can be reasons for this, family violence (暴力) for example. Seek help if you are being abused (虐待) in any way.     5    

A．Forgiveness is the key.

B．Parents do not have a right to hurt you.

C．Here are some ways to love your parents.

D．Parents will express their love to you, too.

E．Respect them more and cherish the moments with them.

F．Anyway, spend as much time with them as you can.

G．Please remember parents are as important as friends.

【推荐2】How to Choose Friends Wisely

Making friends is one thing, but choosing who your friends are is incredibly important because your friends help define（定义）who you are.

Choose a friend who is honest. A friend that is honest is one of the best friends you can have. An honest friend will keep you from walking out of the house wearing that awful green shirt. They're supportive in their honesty.     1    

Choose a friend who stands by you in hard times.     2     There are all kinds of laughter and joyful moments, and those times make relationships easy. But who are the people that stand by you when times turn hard? Those are your true friends. Those are the people that get that life doesn't always go the way we plan.

Choose a friend who gives as much as they take. We've all had friends that only want things from us.

    3     When a relationship is one-sided, we just end up feeling angry. It's not healthy. Choose a friend with whom you feel a balance of give and take.'

Choose a friend who likes the things you do. While friendship is full of compromise （妥协），it helps if you choose friends who share a lot of your interests.     4     It makes deciding on things to do easier. You don't have to choose a friend who likes every single little thing you do, but you should have some shared interests.

    5     Friends need to laugh together. We like our good times in life. Choose a friend who can laugh with you rather than at you. Look for someone who will laugh with you at a look or a glance. Those people will be some of your best friends.

A．Your friends are your guides in life.

B．It gives you things to talk about or share.

C．Choose a friend who gets your sense of humor.

D．It's easy for us to be good friends in the fun times.

E．Choosing a friend who can get your faith is important.

F．And you should choose someone you know will not lie.

G．But they never seem willing to give to us when we are in need.

【推荐3】How To Make Friends And Connect With People In Challenging Times

It can be difficult to make friends living in a big city, especially when you don’t know many people. Over years of experience and studying social skills, I discovered that it’s possible to make friends without even trying.    1    

1. Be seen without trying to get attention.

You don’t have to say anything witty(机智的) or interesting to get people’s attention.    2    This can be done anywhere you go, such as the supermarket or your yoga studio.

2. Use the power of listening.

There’s an interesting phenomenon that occurs when you listen to other people, they’ll keep talking. Just keep giving them good eye contact and show with your body language that you care.    3    

3.    4    

So often we think about what we can get out of others when we try to make friends, but that thinking needs to be flipped around. Try offering a piece of helpful advice or invite someone you just met to grab coffee or lunch with you the following week.

4. Always have 3 good stories to tell other people.

When you have at least a few stories to share with others, you’ll never run out of things to talk about.

5. Smile like there’s no tomorrow.

It may not be natural for some of us to smile, but a smile is one of the most attractive things that someone can display when they’re meeting new people.

    5    They’re always available if you want to connect with people instantly and develop true lasting friendships.

A．Think about these strategies as tools.

B．Remember to be as optimistic as possible.

C．If you see someone you know, smile or say Hi‖.

D．Think about what you can give to the other people.

E．Listening is an approach to building trust and likability.

F．There are just a few strategies that you have to use on a consistent basis.

G．All you have to do is place yourself in environments where people will see you.

【推荐1】Thomas Cheatham had planned to study Latin during his time at Hebron High School in Texas. But when he learned that the school district was going to offer a Mandarin(普通话) class, he quickly changed his mind.

“I thought Mandarin would be more beneficial than Latin,” said Cheatham, who is now in his second year of studying the language.

He speaks Mandarin to order food at Chinese restaurants and can read social media posts from his Chinese-speaking friends. While it’s a difficult language to master, the high school junior, who plans to study computer engineering, thinks it will be important for his career. “Chinese is a good language to know, especially with China becoming a growing power,” he said.

Many experts agree that proficiency(熟练) in a language spoken by a billion people worldwide will give American students an edge in the global economy.

“People are looking at China as our next economic competitor, and interest in Mandarin is growing fast,” said Marty Abbott, director of the American Council(议会) on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. “We’re seeing it in all parts of the country.”

Abbott predicts that as many as 100,000 students are now studying Mandarin in public and private schools throughout the US. She said the US government has designated (指定) Mandarin as an “important needs” language and provides professional development programs for teachers. “Our government wants to increase our language ability for national security and economic competitiveness,” Abbott added.

At the same time, the Chinese government is spreading knowledge of the Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes set up in many US states. For example, the Confucius Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas has been the home of a Confucius Institute for 10 years. It sponsors Confucius Classrooms at 21 local public and private schools, where tens of thousands of students are learning Mandarin.

1. Why did Thomas Cheatham decide to study Mandarin instead of Latin?

A．Mandarin was easier to learn than Latin.

B．Mandarin could be helpful to his future career.

C．Mandarin might help him learn more about China.

D．Mandarin could enable him to study computer engineering.

2. The underlined word “edge” in Paragraph 4 probably means “________”.

A．a slight advantage	B．the outside limit
C．a sharp tone of voice	D．an exciting quality

3. Which of the following statements might Marty Abbott agree with?

A．Mandarin should be taught in classrooms throughout the US.

B．Those skilled at Chinese will be the most competitive in the future.

C．The US government’s policy has helped popularize Mandarin in the US.

D．Americans learn Mandarin because they worry about their national security.

4. What does the author mainly talk about in this passage?

A．The rising popularity of Mandarin among American students.

B．The great benefits of learning Mandarin for American students.

C．The influence of China’s growing power on American education.

D．The effect of Confucius Institutes in promoting Mandarin in the US.

【推荐1】Ever since Grumpy Cat first appeared online, the Internet can't get enough of her.But attention is not the only thing that this cat is getting. Her fortune is estimated at $100 million, more than many famous actors and musicians earn.

So how did it all start?

Grumpy Cat's owner Tabatha Bundesen was working as a waitress when her brother Bryan decided to take a photo of her funny­looking cat and post it on Reddit, a social news site. In a matter of hours, she became a sensation (轰动)．

It got 1 million views on Imgur in 48 hours.

Grumpy Cat's real name is Tardar Sauce and she actually has a condition called dwarfism, which makes her constantly frowning. But that unique frown turned out to be worth millions of dollars.

Tabatha, who lives in Arizona in the U．S., isn't complaining. She still remembers that September 22, 2012, when her life turned upside down.

Since her cat became a worldwide phenomenon, she was able to quit her job and devote her life to managing her cat's modeling career. Sounds unbelievable, but it's true. She says that her only job now is to book Tardar's photo shoots, commercials (商业广告), and other appearances.

What are the other benefits of owning a million­dollar cat?

Apart from not having to work, Tabatha can travel all the time. She has time and money to visit her family more often and enjoy her life. She never could have imagined just how huge her cat would become, but she always knew Tardar was very special. And she is glad to see her cat bringing joy to so many people around the world.

As for the millions of dollars Tardar has earned, they come from all the products, commercials and a best­selling book. She even has her own movie Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.

1. What does the underlined part “the Internet can't get enough of her” mean?

A．The Internet can't stand her any more.

B．The Internet can't pay more attention to her.

C．People don't focus on her any longer on the Internet.

D．The Internet can't find enough information about her.

2. What made Grumpy Cat become famous?

A．Her unusual appearance.

B．Her bad temper.

C．Her short and fat body.

D．Her unique fur.

3. About Tabatha Bundesen, we know that ________.

A．she now works as a waitress

B．she feels very tired of her famous cat

C．she only manages her cat's modeling career

D．she is too busy to go home to visit her parents

4. The general idea of the last paragraph is ________.

A．how the cat can become so famous

B．how the cat can make so much money

C．what the film about the cat is named

D．how the cat's owner spends so much money

【推荐2】Body language is a broad term for several forms of communication using body movements or gestures, instead of, or as a complement to, sounds, verbal language, or other forms of communication. In turn, it is one category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not language.

Paralanguage including body language has been extensively studied in social psychology. In everyday speech and popular psychology, the term is most often applied to body language that is thought to be involuntary, but in fact the distinction between voluntary and involuntary body language is often blurred: a smile or a wave may be given either voluntarily or involuntarily, for example.

Voluntary Body Language is less commonly discussed because it seems unproblematic. It refers to movement, gestures and poses intentionally made by the person: smiling, hands, imitating actions, and generally making movements with full or partial intention of making them and a realization of what they communicate.

The relation of body language to animal communication has often been discussed. Human paralanguage may represent a continuation of forms of communication that our non-linguistic ancestors already used, or it may be that it has been changed by co-existing language. Some species of animals are especially skilled at detecting human body language, both voluntary and involuntary: this was the reason for trying to teach the chimpanzee Washoe American Sign Language rather than speech and perhaps the reason why the Washoe project was more successful than some previous efforts to teach apes how to dance.

Body language is a product of both genetic and environmental influences. Blind children will smile and   laugh even though they have never seen a smile. The ethnologist (文化人类学者) Iraneus Eibl-Eibesfeldt claimed that a number of basic elements of body language were universal across cultures and must therefore be fixed action patterns under instinctive (本能的) control. Some forms of human body language show continuities with communicative gestures of other apes, though often with changes in meaning. More refined gestures, which vary between cultures (for example the gestures to indicate “yes” and “no”), must obviously be learned or modified through learning, usually by unconscious observation of the environment.

1. Which of the following diagrams shows the right relationship __________?
① = language       ② = paralanguage       ③ = body language       ④ = verbal language

A．	B．
C．	D．

2. According to the passage, the reason why the Washoe project was a success may be that _____.

A．the chimpanzee Washoe can be taught speech

B．apes can be taught how to dance

C．Washoe can understand body language well

D．numbers of basic elements of body language are same in different cultures

3. Why does the author take the gestures to indicate “yes” and “no” for an example?

A．to give us the meaning of the two gestures

B．to tell us continuities of some fixed action patterns

C．to show environmental influences of the sign language

D．to indicate genetic effects of the body language

4. The last two paragraphs mainly talk about __________.

A．origins of the body language

B．cultural influences

C．what the body language is

D．relationships between body languages and animal communications

【推荐3】Most parents fear getting letters home from their children’s school. They are usually informing them that their child is in big trouble. But ahead of the SATs exams next week, one school decided to send a letter of a different type.

Bosses at Buckton Vale Primary School in Stalybridge sent letter to all pupils in the sixth grade to tell them how special and unique they are. The letter highlights all the natural skills and abilities the pupils have and everything that makes them “smart’’ individuals.

They are told how their laughter can brighten the darkest day and that the examiners do not know the pupils are kind, trustworthy and thoughtful.

The letter, signed by the headmaster and two other teachers, has been put on the school’s Facebook page and shared more than 9.000 times with more than 7,000 likes.

The letter reads, “Next week you will sit your SATs tests for maths, reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation. We know how hard you have worked, but there is something very important you must know. The SATs test does not assess all that makes each of you special and unique. The people who create these tests and score them do not know each of you in the way that we do and certainly not in the way your families do.”

The letter goes on to say that the tests are not the most important thing in life, adding, “The scores you will get from this test will tell you something, but they will not tell you everything. There are many ways of being smart. You are smart!”

The letter has been welcomed by many parents on Facebook. Lynn McPherson wrote, “That’s great instilling (逐步灌输) hope, faith and belief.” And Mary Tilling said, “Every child school receive one of these. Brilliant.”

1. What does the underlined word “They” in Paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Parent.	B．Children.
C．Teachers.	D．Letters.

2. What’s the purpose of the letter sent before the SATs exams?

A．To stress the importance of the exams.

B．To help the students pass the exams.

C．To help the students to build confidence.

3. What message does the letter want to convey?

A．Everyone can realize his dream.

B．Everyone has his unique value.

C．Exams are meaningless in our life.

D．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

4. The author gives two examples in the last paragraph to show       .

A．the letter was well received

B．the letter was a total failure

C．the parents are easy to please

D．the parents support their children