1 . 阅读下面短文，根据题目要求回答问题。
Anxiety is not deadly, because being able to feel anxious shows that our fight-or-flight system is operational, which is an indicator of brain and sensory health. Once we accept that being anxious is a normal part of life, we can use it to our benefit.
Anxiety can help build our emotional strength. If we want to build emotional strength, we need to face some degree of mental stress. Of course, unpleasant and abuse tend to cause more harm than good, but the experience of occasional anxiety, stress, and tension substantially increases our emotional courage.
Anxiety can increase your emotional connection. Clinical science has identified that sharing our anxieties with our loved ones is one of the most effective strategies to build connection. When my patients learn to open up and share their anxieties with their partners, they almost always report a greater sense of emotional connection.
Anxiety can help us rebalance. When we feel genuinely anxious because of stress, it’s our body’s way of telling us to rebalance. Nobody is truly limitless. When we pay attention to our internal cues and acknowledge our weaknesses, we emerge more focused and healthier overall and also less stressed and anxious.
Anxiety can be a healthy, helpful emotion that is a constructive aspect of human life. When it comes to occasional experience of anxiety, it can emotionally help boost our courage. It can also build up emotional connect ion when we express our sensitive feelings to others. And in the form of stress, it can serve as an internal indicator to remain balanced and healthy. Now it’s high time we started putting it to good use．
1. Why is anxiety not deadly?When we pay attention to our internal cues and acknowledge our weaknesses, we emerge more focused and healthier overall and also more stressed and anxious．
2 . My House
My mother moved a lot when she was growing up on account of Grandpa being in the army. She hated having to adjust to new schools and make new friends. That’s why I thought she was joking when she put forward the idea of moving. But she was completely serious. “For just the two of us,” my mother said, “an apartment in the city will suit our needs much better.” Personally, I think she’s lost her mind. I guess I can understand why she would want to move, but what about me and what this house means to me?
I suppose if you looked at my house, you might think it was just another country house. But to me it is anything but standard. I moved into this house with my parents ten years ago. I can still remember that first day like it was yesterday. The first thing I noticed was the big front yard. To me it seemed like an ocean of grass — I couldn’t wait to dive in. The backyard was full of gnarled (扭曲的，粗糙的) and scary trees that talk on windy nights. But I grew to like them and the shadows they cast in my room. My father and I even built a small treehouse, where I often go to remember all the wonderful times we had before my father’s death.
This house is special — maybe only to me — but special nevertheless. It’s the little seemingly insignificant things that make this house so special to me: the ice-cold tile floors that make me tremble on midnight; the smell of my father’s pipe that still exists: the towering bookcases of my mother; the view outside my bedroom window.
This house holds too many memories, memories which would be lost if we gave it up.
1. Why did the author’s mother decide to move?| A．Because she hated the countryside. |
| B．Because Grandpa was on constant move. |
| C．Because Dad’s death made her lose her mind. |
| D．Because she thought a city flat more fit for them. |
| A．The treehouse. | B．The green grass. | C．The big trees. | D．The cold floors. |
| A．By arguing whether the house was standard. |
| B．By explaining why the house suited their needs. |
| C．By describing the small things related to her house. |
| D．By comparing the differences between country and city life. |
3 . High school life, especially in the senior year, is a rollercoaster of emotions filled with challenges and pressures. The constant demand for academic excellence, combined with the expections of college applications, and managing extracurricular (课外的) activities can lead even the best students to feel the weight of stress. However, it’s not only possible but essential to find moments of joy and strategies to reduce the pressure efficiently.
Understanding the nature of stress is the primary step. Stress isn’t just a state of mental unrest; it’s a physiological response.
Interestingly, not all stress is harmful. We often overlook the distinction of different stress. Acute (急性的) stress, in contrast to the chronic (长期的), can act as a force.
However, long exposure to stress leads to chronic stress. This kind of stress, if left unchecked, can cause various health issues ranging from mental health problems like anxiety and depression to physical ailments like high blood pressure and even heart diseases.
To reduce the effects of stress, mindfulness and meditation have proven effective. Even on a busy day, sparing just a few moments to focus on one’s breathing or practicing guided meditation can significantly reduce stress levels.
Pursuing hobbies or activities that one is passionate about can also be a good way. Whether it’s painting, reading, playing a musical instrument, or engaging in sports, these activities not only divert the mind but also release endorphins, the body’s natural mood lifters.
Another aspect is communication.
So, with the weight of expectations, deadlines, and too many responsibilities, remember to prioritize mental well-being.
| A．When channeled correctly, stress can be our friend. |
| B．This response is a swift, automatic sequence designed for survival. |
| C．Prioritizing self-care isn’t a luxury (奢侈品); it’s a necessity. |
| D．Every challenge, it approached with a positive mindset, can be an opportunity for growth. |
| E．Seeding external help or just talking to a friend can be incredibly therapeutic. |
| F．They attach us to the present, clearing the mental disorder and lifting the spirit. |
| G．These parts often provide processes adjusted to individual needs. |
When advising children and adolescents who are learning to regulate their emotions, experts explain that how they think affects how they feel. After children learn to use some basic techniques to regulate their emotions, a greater sense of internal control arises. Thereafter, people start to notice the power they can feel in their minds by changing their thought patterns.
“I believe that changing our thinking patterns helps engage different parts of the brain,” said Ran D. Anbar, the author of Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center, “For instance, we may find ourselves habitually thinking in a particular way that predictably makes us feel poorly, for example angry, anxious, or sad. People can become angry when they feel that they have been treated poorly or have not gotten their way. The anger occurs because the person focuses on the perceived (察觉到的) injustice. When we shift our thinking, we can more easily create new, healthier thought patterns.”
For instance, 14-year-old “Sarah” became angry with her parents for restricting her use of social media. While discussing why her parents did so, Sarah recognized that they were attempting to protect her from some of the ill effects of overusing social media. Sarah let go of her anger. She switched from thinking about her frustration with her parents’ restrictions and instead focused her thoughts on how to solve the dilemma (困境) regarding her overuse of social media. She was able to recognize that her parents were her valuable friends rather than her opponents.
Frequently, people explain to themselves and others that their poor mood is related to unfortunate circumstances. While holding such a belief, people sometimes take comfort in the idea that since they cannot change their circumstances, there should be no expectation that they take charge of improving their feelings.
However, as demonstrated in this post, our emotional response to unfortunate circumstances can be brought under our control and improved through a change in our thinking patterns. Sometimes, that change can even help us figure out new ways to act that also will improve our situation.
1. What happens after children regulate their emotion?2. Why does the author mention the example of Sarah in the 3rd paragraph?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
People always believe their poor mood is due to unfortunate circumstances, so they will try to change their situation in order to have a good mood.
4. Besides changing thinking patterns, do you have other way(s) to control your emotions? (In about 40 words)
5 . For some it is the sound of a bouncing basketball. For others the clearing of a throat. For Dr. Jane Gregory the list includes pigeons, ticking clocks and the sound of popcorn being eaten. “I cried on the plane the other day because I couldn’t figure out the volume on my new headphones and so I couldn’t block out the sound of a guy sniffing,” she says. Gregory is among those who experience misophonia, a phenomenon in which particular sounds can prove unbearable, triggering(引起)emotions from anxiety and panic to shame and anger. Now in her book, Sounds Like Misophonia, the academic is on a mission to explore what’s behind it, and to help those affected cope.
Gregory, a clinical psychologist at the University of Oxford, suggests misophonia is far from being a simple sensitivity to sound. It can be fed by a complex interplay of factors, including a lower ability to filter out certain noises, the association of negative meanings with particular sounds, and the burden of feelings associated with an emotional response to them.
Yet, the phenomenon was largely unknown until the 2010s. In one study, researchers asked people with high and low traits of misophonia to listen out for a “trigger” sound in the presence of a masking sound. Both groups detected the trigger just as easily. “The person with misophonia had a more intense reaction, but only after they identified what the sound was,” adds Gregory. Those results, she says, suggest that people with misophonia are not inherently better at detecting particular sounds, such as a sniff or a rustle—rather they might be listening out for them more, or not be as good as others at tuning them out. This is a trait, Gregory speculates, that might have offered our ancestors an evolutionary advantage, such as helping them to detect hiding predators. Another implication of the research, Gregory says, is that it is not just the auditory features of the sounds that cause negative reactions but the meaning attached to them. An example would be a reaction to the jingling of a dog’s collar after being frightened by an aggressive dog.
Gregory hopes her book will support those too often told to ignore sounds. She says: “The emotional reaction is much more complex than just being annoyed... They feel trapped and helpless when they encounter these sounds. If you think it’s nothing, then you’re not experiencing what this person is experiencing.”
1. Misophonia is a phenomenon where ________.| A．people fail to recognize particular sounds | B．specific sounds cause negative emotions |
| C．different feelings are mixed up together | D．people lose control of their emotions |
| A．Trigger sounds of similar origins. | B．Disability to ignore certain sounds. |
| C．Understanding of particular sounds. | D．Inborn ability to tell certain sounds. |
| A．To detect certain sounds is a solution to misophonia. |
| B．People with misophonia are well understood by others. |
| C．People can benefit from misophonia in some situations. |
| D．Objects related to sounds may trigger negative reactions. |
6 . How We Talk about Fear Matters
Lately, there seems to be plenty to fear in the world. How we talk about what we fear might offer clues to how we perceive that emotion socially and culturally.
Get the root of fear.
Figure out the emotional meaning of fear.
Whether emotions are viewed positively or negatively varies from culture to culture.
Find out a fearful pattern.
In looking at such patterns across the major language families, researchers found that the word “fear” was often associated with anxiety, envy and grief in Indo-European languages. But in Austronesian languages, “fear” more often was associated with surprise.
How we talk about fear changes how we react to it. When we talk about what frightens us, it may be useful to disrupt associated meanings. In addition, how our language categorizes an emotion seems to impact whether we perceive those emotions negatively or positively.
In conclusion, fear is something that can be changed by cultural and linguistic experience.
| A．Talk more about fears |
| B．Change our perception of fear |
| C．The word fear has a long history in English |
| D．There seemed a fearful pattern across the major language families |
| E．This is based on what people have learned to associate with emotion words |
| F．It opens the door to potential ways to change how we talk about and react to it |
| G．This makes speakers of the latter languages associate this emotion with a less negative sense |
7 . All the feels
You can make your picture book memorable by concentrating on emotional connection. This works across every principle of writing, regardless of age range or genre (文体), because it is universally recognized.
The reason why emotional connection works is that emotion is a fundamental human experience.
For example, if it’s a funny picture book, your reader is clearly expecting to laugh. Make sure they laugh. If it’s an adventure story, your reader will be expecting to feel excitement, anticipation and probably a little mild fear. If it’s a heartwarming story, your reader expects to feel warm, comforted and overflowing with love.
Another reason for including emotion in your picture book is to really get your reader inside your character’s head. Firstly, it helps build on the young reader’s emotional development and understanding of self and others.
If you want your story to stand out amongst other stories, give your reader something to remember — a strong emotional connection.
| A．Secondly, it creates interest in the character. |
| B．It helps us make sense of the world around us. |
| C．An emotional ending in a picture book works well. |
| D．When we feel something, we will have sharp minds. |
| E．This is obviously not a complete list, but it is a starting point. |
| F．Here is why it works and how you can use it in your picture book writing. |
| G．Picture books have many different genres and your job is to know which genre your story sits in. |
If you feel like you may be a people-pleaser, you’re not alone. In today’s highly-connected world, we have a growing obsession (痴迷) with being liked and needing to please others. People seek to please others for various reasons, including avoiding conflicts, securing feelings of being needed, and reducing fears of abandonment. And they are forced to use agreeableness as self-defense.
People-pleasing behavior can lead to mental and physical health problems such as fear of rejection, frustration, anger, addictions, headaches, stomach problems, and high blood pressure. It can also result in weak boundaries, problems with decision-making and dependency. Therefore, it’s important to recognize and overcome your own people-pleasing behaviors. Here are some simple exercises that you can start working on today.
Learn to love your own company. Trust that people will not abandon you, even if you don’t drop everything for them. Believing you are lovable for who you are, not what you do, means knowing that people will still be there for you even if you do not always search for ways to please them. Practice this by going to a movie or restaurant alone.
Value the plans made with yourself. They are as important as plans you make with other people. Otherwise, you are sending a message to your brain that a plan you make with yourself does not hold as much value. Don’t break long-or short-term plans you make with yourself, whether it’s going to the gym or studying for an exam.
Say “no” when necessary. If you’re a people-pleaser, you may find it hard to say “no” because you feel it comes across as cruel or uncaring. But it absolutely does not have to. Be clear, be direct, and use “I” statements. Try statements like: “I would really love to be able to help you, but unfortunately, I’m already committed at that time.” By consistently integrating these strategies into your life, you’ll break your people-pleasing habits and develop more healthy, interdependent relationships.
1. What is a people-pleaser like?2. Besides mental and physical problems, what other problems may a people-pleaser suffer from?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
If you don’t want to be a people-pleaser, you should love being with others, value the plans made with yourself, and decline others’requests when necessary.
4. What do you think of the behavior of pleasing others? (In about 40 words)
9 . A Way Out of Social Anxiety: Volunteering and Acts of Kindness
As a socially anxious introvert, I can attest(证明)to the benefits of serving others through volunteering in my community.
A volunteer job doesn’t need to require stepping into a busy room full of 100 people at a school or hospital.
Social scientists have an apt name for stressful social situations where we need to perform and would likely be judged or evaluated. The “social-evaluative threat” is particularly threatening for people with social anxiety as stress hormones rapidly increase. Any time we are in evaluative situations where we are judged by others, we face this social-evaluative threat and endure a sudden rush of stress hormones that increase anxiety.
“Kindness may help socially anxious people,” says Dr. Lynn Alden, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia.
| A．Some people are naturally reserved while others are rather outgoing. |
| B．In social anxiety disorder, fear and anxiety lead to avoidance which can disrupt our life. |
| C．Indeed, my own act of kindness has always been a sure bet to bring me out of my shell. |
| D．Instead, my volunteer service consists of quiet one-on-one visits with isolated older adults. |
| E．When I am giving my free time to help others, I feel truly liberated in my mission to serve. |
| F．High-performance events such as public speaking or job interviews can be really unbearable. |
| G．She and her colleagues conducted a study with 115 undergraduate students who had reported high levels of social anxiety. |
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” We all know that healthy habits can help us build a strong body, but how can we live a happy life? Over the past two decades, scientists have identified many techniques to raise our happiness, but these methods cannot work magic. “Things like poverty or injury are obviously going to affect your well-being,” says Laurie Santos, at Yale University. “But for many of us, our happiness is much more under our control than we think.” Her free course, The Science of Well-being, explores evidence-based ways to increase happiness.
For a taste of what the course involves, consider our tendency to compare ourselves negatively with the people around us. By recognizing when those thoughts have started to arise, you can consciously shift the reference point to something more neutral(中立的).With this kind of thinking, you may start to feel more content.
The use of gratitude journals, where you regularly count your blessing, work on a similar basis. We have a tendency for “hedonic adaptation”, essentially getting used to the good things in our life over time, and taking them for granted, so they no longer bring us the same interest—we should delay that process.
Other tips like small acts of kindness may surprise you with rewarding experience. However, those approaches to happier life should be used carefully. There is now some evidence that pursuit of happiness can have the opposite effect if it becomes time-consuming. Keeping a gratitude journal appears to be effective if it is used once a week. It seems that the technique may become a burden if it is practiced too regularly.
There seems little doubt that we can learn to be happier, but we should recognize that the path to a better life is with ups and downs. You cannot remove every negative feeling, but with some science-backed strategies, you can shift the balance so as to experience more positive feeling than negative ones.
1. How can we deal with the tendency to compare ourselves negatively with those around us?2. What does “hedonic adaptation” mean?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
As approaches to happier life small acts of kindness can effectively improve our well-being, we should use them as much as possible.
4. In addition to the methods mentioned in the passage, what other method(s) can you take to increase happiness? (In about 40 words)
