1 . Emotional intelligence is highly important in a teen’s development. There is considerable evidence pointing to its positive role in helping students deal with stress, develop relationships, and handle the transitions (过渡) facing them.

Emotional intelligence helps us manage negative emotions and our behaviors in response to them. So, does it impact on how teens and students perform academically? Some research does, in fact, suggest a relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement. In one study of education students at university, self-emotion appraisal (评价) and understanding of emotion were revealed to have positive significant linkages with their academic performance on assessments. Later studies support this finding, with Sanchez-Ruiz and colleagues finding that emotional intelligence predicted academic performance better than established personality and cognitive (认知的) ability for Cyprus university students.

But what about teens specifically? Interestingly, there is also cogent evidence to suggest that teens with EI are better able to make the transition from high school to higher education. Results of a study of 1,426 first-year students found significantly higher interpersonal, stress management, and adaptability skills among students who were academically successful in entering university. The authors’ conclusion was that emotional intelligence has a large impact on students’ ability to deal with challenges such as developing new relationships and learning to live more independently, amongst other factors.

It is worth noting that while the studies above do provide evidence for some benefits of emotional intelligence skills for students, they don’t necessarily indicate an academic consensus (共识). As with most areas in the field, much room for future research remains. So interpersonal and emotional management skills may play a key part in helping students better handle the challenging aspects of academic life.

3 . People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in telling different facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.

Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than looking at the whole face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes only.

“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, while Easterners prefer the eyes and ignore the mouth.”

According to Jack and her workmates, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more confusing than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably express emotion in cross-cultural situations.

The researchers studied cultural differences in facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and sort them into different groups: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, or angry. They compared how correctly people read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement plans.

It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more mistakes than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our study suggests that Westerners use the whole face to express emotion while Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”

In short, facial expressions are not universal to show human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have made a difference to these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. When it comes to talking about emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in communication.

9 . 假定你是李华, 你的英国朋友Jerry写信邀请你寒假期间去伦敦游玩，你因故无法前往，请你回信表达歉意，内容包括：

1. 谢绝的理由；

2. 提议暑假去拜访他。

注意：

1. 写作词数应为80左右；

2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Dear Jerry,

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua

10 . For people suffering from depression, there’s an all-natural treatment they should use — getting more exercise. It could help fight depression, even if people have a genetic risk, new research shows.

For the study, researchers collected information from nearly 8,000 people and found those with related genes were more likely to have depression over the next two years after examining them. But that was less likely for people who were more active at the study’s start, even if they had a family history of depression. Higher levels of physical activity helped protect even those with the highest genetic risk of depression.

Both high-intensity (高强度) exercise and low-intensity activities were associated with a reduced risk of depression. Adding four hours of exercise a week could lower the risk of a new episode (一段经历) of depression by 17%, according to the study. “Our findings strongly suggest that, when it comes to depression, being physically active has the potential to remove the added risk of future episodes in individuals who are genetically risky,” said lead author Karmel Choi. “On average, about 35 additional minutes of physical activity each day may help people to reduce their risk and protect against future depression episodes.”

Depression is a common mental illness globally, with more than 264 million people affected. “Depression is so ubiquitous, and that underlines the need for effective approaches that can impact as many people as possible,” Choi said. And mental health and primary care providers can use the findings to advise patients that there’s something meaningful they can do to lower their risk of depression.