1 . Loneliness is a bigger health threat than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to a new research. Our ancestors likely did not suffer from a lack of companions. Why has loneliness become such a threat? How might it be addressed?
In the distant past, there were few complaints about loneliness. Indeed, every person in a community including children was up to speed on every detail of the lives of everyone else. Instead of suffering from loneliness, our distant ancestors were oppressed (被压迫) by a lack of privacy.
Typically, people move away from family and friends for work opportunities. Yet, cities often function as gatherings of relative strangers rather than functional communities. The many people wandering around in a city are irrelevant if we have no social connection with them. Migrants to cities may establish various meaningful social links.
Virtually, not everyone needs constant companionship. This is not merely a question of how extroverted a person is.
| A．Their habits contributed to loneliness. |
| B．They require openness, initiative and effort. |
| C．Rather, it reflects how someone leads their life. |
| D．Outgoing people will live a busy life with social media. |
| E．Today, social media bring back the invasions of privacy. |
| F．Many turn to social media for companionship with mixed results. |
| G．However, associations are often formed through accidental networks. |
2 . While socializing comes naturally for some, it can be a struggle for others. Shyness is a normal, common personality trait (特征).
Get Excited About A New Adventure
You may have been shy most of your life.
Pay Attention To Your Words
Practice Mindfulness (正念)
Mindfulness involves drawing your attention to the present and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.
Take Small Steps
Getting started can be the hardest part of learning how to be more social for those who are shy.
| A．If so, that’s a part of you that you’re used to |
| B．Sometimes the best path toward addressing a fear is exposure |
| C．Mindfulness can help reduce symptoms of social anxiety disorder |
| D．Taking time to tend to your appearance can make a big difference |
| E．How we communicate and characterize ourselves can be powerful |
| F．However, shyness can make it hard for people to connect with others and achieve their goals |
| G．But engaging with people doesn’t have to be practiced as an important work presentation |
3 . How to Feel at Peace
Is feeling truly peaceful a pipe dream? Nope! With a little work, you can feel calm, cool, and collected (just like you deserve to).
Release what you cannot control.
This is the most important part of feeling at peace and the first place you should always start. 90% of the time, when we’re worried about something or stressed out, the source of our anxiety is really something that we have no control over.
Get an inspiration from nature.
Go sit out in an area nearby. Listen to the trees. Watch the animals. Do they seem worried about what their brother did last Christmas? Do the trees seem to notice when it starts to rain?
Create goals.
Having a goal that you can work for can really help when you’re feeling lost and aimless in life.
When other people make us angry, it is usually because we cannot understand why they’re doing something that’s making us angry. Instead of blowing up at someone or stressing yourself out, try to see things from their side of the table. Think about why they did what they did... and remember that we’re all people with our own problems and our own dreams.
| A．Forgive yourself. |
| B．Find the humanity in all people. |
| C．All you can do in life is to try your best and let fate take its course. |
| D．Happiness is on the horizon, and we’re here to show you what to do. |
| E．No. Nature adapts and embraces every twist and turn in life and you should too. |
| F．Really, what’s the point in life if you don’t have something to work towards, right? |
| G．A huge source of worry in our lives comes from when we beat ourselves up from inside. |
4 . Many would consider emotions to be a barrier to decision-making and, therefore, think that they would be better off without them. However, the latest research has proved that our emotions will drive the conclusions we make, and that our well-being may depend upon our ability to understand and interpret them.
Start by understanding your emotions.
Emotions can act as a compass (指南针), pointing you toward what matters most to you. However, strong emotions can affect our judgment and make it challenging to think objectively and critically.
It’s beneficial to expand your viewpoint. When you see the big picture and are focused on your highest purpose, you are not distracted by smaller issues. Figuring out your deepest long-term goals and pursuing them will channel your emotions toward peace and harmony.
To sum up, emotions play a significant role in decision-making and, when used properly, they can improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process.
| A．Emotions can provide valuable insights. |
| B．All this information can serve your goal in the long run. |
| C．You’ll recognize that a decision driven by your values is the best. |
| D．Actually, we can effectively use emotions for successful decision-making. |
| E．Take a moment to recognize how you are feeling and why you are feeling so. |
| F．Therefore, it is essential to balance emotional insights with logical reasoning. |
| G．You should try to understand how critical thinking contributes to great decisions. |
What Color Is a Hug?
When my daughter Bernadette was 10 years old, I found myself very worried about her. Her mother had passed away before she turned one, and I, needing to provide for our livelihood, had to work long hours, leaving little time for her. Although she was close to her grandparents, unfortunate circumstances took them away as well. The series of losses implanted unbearable pain on her young soul.
A merciless series of losses like that is hard on anyone, especially a child. But it was particularly hard on Bernadette because of her sensitive and loving nature. Prolonged periods of isolation and silence led her into a deep depression. The sparkle in her eyes faded, and her face lost the once-present smiles. She lost interest in playing, learning, and even declined invitations from friends. She often lost in her own thoughts without uttering a word for a long time.
Witnessing my daughter’s suffering, I felt a deep sense of guilt and helplessness. I knew she needed more than just companionship; she needed a healing of the soul. I began reading more about child psychology, attempting to understand how to guide her out of this situation.
Over the next few months, I adjusted my work schedule to spend more time by her side. I tried to communicate with her, stepping into her inner world. I encouraged her to join some extracurricular classes, developing new friendships. Slowly but surely, Bernadette began to regain her interest in certain things, and smiles started to reappear on her face.
Meanwhile, I started using hugs to comfort her. Each embrace conveyed my love and support, providing her with warmth and a sense of security. Gradually, she became more cheerful and confident. She initiated social interactions, sharing her thoughts with friends. Her mood gradually lifted, and life regained its brilliance.
After years of effort, Bernadette finally stepped out of depression. Our habit of hugging has persisted to this day, becoming the most sincere bond between us. Now, as my daughter is about to enter university, and I am approaching my fiftieth birthday, she has promised me a special gift.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph1:
As her summer vacation began, she seemed even busier than before.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
Before us was a warmly decorated studio, with a sign reading “Heartwarming Embrace Association.”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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 . One of the cores of emotional intelligence is self-regulation, an important skill in the workplace. Like any skill, mastery of emotional self-control requires intentionality and practice.
Pause to Mentally Distance
When you notice your typical physiological experiences associated with strong negative emotion, what should you do? Mentally step out of your immediate experience. Asking yourself any question, or imagining what you might look like to others right now, will do the trick. At that point, although still physiologically keyed up, you will be able to ask yourself, “What is the best course of action right now?” or “What advice would I give someone else who is in my shoes?”
Take Control of Your Self-Talk
We’re frequently unaware of how much self-chatter is going on in the background of our minds. Such self-talk might not be in fully articulated (铰接式的) words or phrases, but instead little flashes of thought. Becoming aware of your self-talk can be difficult. Why is this an important skill to develop?
Seek Support from Partners
Ask others you trust to help you recognize when your emotions seem to be getting the best of you.
Cultivate (培养) Curiosity
Our brains are wired to draw conclusions and form judgments at lightning speed, and those are frequently the cause of our negative emotions.
| A．They are comfortable with all emotions |
| B．Those judgments are not necessarily accurate |
| C．Doing so provides you with choices as to how to act |
| D．Explain your developmental goals and sincerely ask for help |
| E．Stay focused on coming up with an answer and following through on it |
| F．Because it is those background beliefs that fuel our emotional responses |
| G．Here are four ways you can develop greater emotional self-management |
What my father wore embarrassed me! I wanted him to dress like a doctor or lawyer, but he always dressed like my father, getting up before dawn every day to make breakfast for my mother and me.
We lived in South Texas, where my father worked as a repairman. He often wore a pair of jeans and a shirt, keeping his pencils, glasses and wrenches (扳手) in his breast pocket. His boots were those with steel toes that made them difficult to pull off his feet, which I sometimes helped him with when he returned from repairing cars — his job that also shamed me.
I blamed the way he dressed. I felt that my classmates laughed at me because they’d seen him mowing lawns (修剪草坪) in cut-off jeans and black boots. My classmates’ families paid men to beautify their lawns, while their fathers travelled in the bay wearing lemon-yellow sweaters and expensive shoes.
He preferred clothes that allowed him the freedom to move under cars. So even when taking part in a school trip with me, he was dressed in his repairman’s suit. On the school bus to the campsite, all students on the bus happily chatted with their parents except me, who lowered the head, avoiding spotting my classmates’ mocking glance (讥笑的眼光) or hearing their jokes, which I thought was about nothing else but what my father wore.
I regretted telling my parents the school trip, and I was very angry why my mother had no spare time while my father happened to have a vacation. But my father failed to read my mind. He was very happy, whistling a tune along the way.
Though my father didn’t sense my bad mood, the school bus seemed as sad as I was. It drove more and more slowly and finally it stopped on the roadside. The driver got out to check the bus but found nothing wrong. Students and parents on the bus began to whisper about what was happening, worried that the delay might spoil the journey.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150 左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卷的相应位置作答。
When others were complaining, my father stood up.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The school bus restarted and everyone cheered.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
9 . Ways to Embrace Solitude (独处)
For many, being alone is something they shy away from because it’s like loneliness. But loneliness and solitude are not the same.
Psychologists even consider solitude as important as relationships and view the ability to be alone as a sign of healthy emotional development.
Enjoy solitary activities
People who enjoy solitude find satisfaction and meaning when getting absorbed in a hobby, reading for pleasure, or getting out in nature. They rarely experience boredom when they’re alone and genuinely enjoy themselves while doing something interesting.
In solitude, buried feelings, memories, or problems can surface. Rather than avoid being discouraged by them, you can learn to engage in the regulation with curiosity, using the private time to explore your feelings without judgment. Accepting and expressing them safely helps you self-regulate and release stress.
Be self-reflective
People who enjoy solitude are willing to self-reflect.
Know when to exit solitude
| A．Protect your privacy |
| B．Feel and regulate your emotions |
| C．They prefer listening to solitude signals |
| D．Break your solitude and turn for support |
| E．The former is marked by negative feelings |
| F．There are skills associated with its capacity |
| G．They spend time considering behavior patterns |
The telephone rang. Jack answered the call from his mother, “Mr. Richard died last night. The funeral is Wednesday.” Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel (新闻影片) as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days. It had been some time since Jack had seen the old man. College, career, and life itself got in the way. In fact, Jack moved across the country in pursuit of his dreams. There, in the rush of his busy life, Jack had little time to think about the past and often no time to spend with his wife and son.
“Jack, did you hear me?”
“Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It’s been so long since I thought of him.” Jack said.
“Well, he didn’t forget you. Every time I saw him he’d ask how you were doing. He’d reminisced (追忆) about the many days you spent over ‘his side of the fence’ as he put it,” Mom told him.
After Jack’s father died, Mr. Richard stepped in to make sure Jack had a man’s influence in his life and it was Mr. Richard who taught Jack many things. Jack wouldn’t have been in this business if it hadn’t been for Mr. Richard.
Busy as he was, he returned home and attended the funeral, which was small and uneventful. Mr. Richard had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away.
The night before Jack had to return home, he and his mother stopped by to see the old house next door one more time. Standing in the middle of the room, Jack paused for a moment. It was like crossing over into another dimension, a leap through space and time. The house was exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture... Jack stopped suddenly.
“What’s wrong, Jack?” Mom asked.
“Where is the watch, the thing he valued most?” he seemed to ask himself.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
“It was a gold pocket watch that he used to wear every day,” he told his mom.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One day Jack received a package on his desk.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
