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.     1     They facilitate distance. How did loneliness take over contemporary life?

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.     2     These might be the people we work among, those who frequent a coffee shop, or members of a gym or sports club. Such associations are not made automatically.     3     In some cases, those who eagerly need social connection can fare poorly in cities.

    4     According to the U. S. Surgeon General’s Report on Loneliness, people who spend more time online are lonelier. People who claim thousands of online “friends” are often chronically anxious, disconnected and depressed. Perhaps, they would gain better social bonus by being kind to people in real life.

Virtually, not everyone needs constant companionship. This is not merely a question of how extroverted a person is.     5     People with a strong sense of external purpose barely suffer from loneliness, whether they perfect their dance moves, get involved in political activism or train service dogs. In this vein, anyone who cultivates a love of nature may become a part of the natural world. That is an endless source of peace, happiness, and connection.

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 . Psychologists have defined nostalgia (怀旧) as self-conscious, socially emotional, bittersweet but mainly positive. It develops out of happy memories mixed with a longing for the past and the close relationships we had back then. Often, nostalgia involves five senses. For example, the smell of autumn leaves might spark an intense longing for your childhood home.

Almost everyone experiences nostalgia, although its object tends to vary throughout life. One survey conducted by the psychologist Krystine Irene Batcho found that younger people felt more nostalgia for pets, toys, and holidays than did older people, who felt it more strongly for music. I came of age in the 1980s, and even songs I found hopelessly annoying back then can fill me with nostalgic emotions.

As my colleague Julie Beck has written, nostalgia was originally viewed as an emotional disorder when it was first defined in the late 17th century. And, crucially, it often occurs when people are experiencing negative moods or having bad experiences. Loneliness can be a trigger, as researchers found in 2008. Another is bad weather.

However, despite its association with negative emotions, nostalgia does not cause or increase unhappiness. Rather, nostalgia is a defense response to unhappiness, one that brings relief from a negative mood. Psychologists writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2006 found that stirring nostalgia in experiments strengthened people’s social bonds, boosted their positive feelings about themselves, and improved their mood. Similar research has shown that when people feel nostalgia, it can fire their sense of life’s meaning, lower an existential (存在主义的) reaction to the idea of death, increase spirituality, and raise optimism.

Scholars aren’t sure exactly why nostalgia works; some have inferred that recalling happy memories strengthens “valued aspects of the self” in situations when we might otherwise feel lonely or unworthy. Either way, its emotional intensity allows the joy of the past to overpower the unpleasantness of the present, a little escapism that helps get us through the bad times.

1. What do the psychologists think of nostalgia?

A．Always painful.	B．Primarily positive.
C．Seldom intense.	D．Usually unconscious.

2. Why is the author’s experience mentioned in paragraph 2?

A．To show the objects of nostalgia change with age.

B．To illustrate annoying music often leads to nostalgia.

C．To highlight the young are more likely to be nostalgic.

D．To demonstrate nostalgia has an impact on emotions.

3. In which situation may people easily feel nostalgia?

A．Attending a lively class.	B．Engaging in a family reunion.
C．Staying alone in an empty room.	D．Joining in a joyful birthday party.

4. What may be a benefit of nostalgia?

A．Maintaining self-respect.	B．Shaping personal insights.
C．Escaping from daily chaos.	D．Enhancing one’s self-worth.

3 . If you are feeling that life just cannot be any worse for you, it can be challenging to think positive thoughts.     1     Here are a few examples for you to practice. Say them out loud and with feeling!

★Begin and end each day with a “Thank you for this wonderful day!”

★When you see the gas prices hiking, say “    2    ”

★When you are late for work, say “I am so happy and grateful for my job as I know that many don’t have one.”

★    3     “I really do appreciate my eyes that see, my ears that hear, my mouth that tastes, my legs that walk, my arms that lift, my hands that write, my mind that thinks, my knees that bend and my tongue that talks.” The possibilities here are endless: be thankful for what does work for you and feel good about it!

★Write down what you’re grateful for each day. In moments when you’re feeling really down, read what you wrote before.     4     If you keep doing this regularly, you will find that your list will get longer and longer.

The key is to move yourself into a positive thought and keep it there long enough to make it a moment of peace.     5    

A．This will help uplift your spirits.

B．The more you practice, the happier you’ll be.

C．If you are having health problems, be grateful for what does work.

D．I am so glad that I am blessed to have a car in which to get around.

E．No matter what you have experienced, just enjoy your life every day.

F．But we can choose to think differently by beginning with the smallest of steps.

G．Life seems so unfair sometimes.

4 . It’s normal to feel anxious during stressful times in life, but if you’re experiencing continuous anxiety that disturbs your daily life, you may have an anxiety disorder.     1     However, anxiety is typically manageable or treatable with a little effort. This article will provide several ways to cope with and treat anxiety.

    2     Keeping track of things that bring on or worsen anxiety symptoms will allow you to recognize when they are happening and what causes them. Is something in your environment the primary source? Is a pressing activity, meeting, or event the cause? You can handle a fear much easier when you are clear about what it is.

Breathe deeply. When you get anxious, your breathing quickens, which reduces the amount of oxygen your brain gets.     3     Take a moment to focus on taking deep belly breaths. Inhale for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 4 seconds, and then release it for 4 seconds. Doing this for 1 — 2 minutes should help to calm your nerves quickly. If you are confused about where you should be breathing from, put your hands on your stomach. Feel it rise and fall as you breathe.

Socialize. Anxiety can make it tempting to isolate, especially when symptoms are at their worst. Staying in touch with friends and loved ones serves as a protective factor against anxiety. Try planning at least one social event per week and following through even as your anxiety increases.     4     It can be found online or by asking a mental health provider for recommendations.

Try not to jump to conclusions. If you lack facts and have yet to experience your worry or fear, then jumping to conclusions about what might happen will do you no good. If an uncertainty lays before you, you can reduce your anxiety by realizing (and admitting) that you don’t know what may happen.     5    

A．Identify the source of your anxiety.

B．Track the relief strategies you tried.

C．Attending an anxiety support group can also be helpful.

D．It can have a negative influence on your health and well-being.

E．This makes it unable to think clearly and form logical reasoning

F．Consider all possible outcomes, rather than come up with the most unlikely.

G．Having the ability to cope with anxious thoughts is the key to overcoming it.

5 . The easiest way to love yourself is to treat yourself like your own BFF. It might seem like it’s easier to love others than to love yourself, but it’s tough to build healthy relationships if you don’t love yourself first.     1    

Let go of negative thoughts about yourself. Drill down to the core of those thoughts and tell yourself a different story. Think about what you would say to a friend who said those things about themselves. For example, if you forgot to buy trash bags, instead of blaming yourself, you might as well think, “I’ll just pick some up next time I go out — no big deal.” Don’t try to fight negative thoughts, though — they’re a part of who you are.     2     It might feel weird at first, but after a while, it becomes habitual to think that way.

Accept your flaws as part of who you are. Everything you’ve done and everywhere you’ve been is a part of who you are — you! Self-love isn’t about fixing all the “bad” things about yourself. Instead, accept that they’re all parts of the same whole.     3     For example, maybe you have a hard time trusting people. You wish you could be more trusting and open up more, but instead of trying to change, focus on how not immediately trusting people helps keep you safe.

    4     If you expect yourself to be perfect all the time, you’ll never be pleased with anything you produce. So make it a point to appreciate the work you put into completing a task, rather than looking for flaws in what you produced. Avoid stereotypical ideas and images of perfection, such as models in beauty magazines. Remind yourself that the actual person probably doesn’t look like that in real life!

Practice gratitude for good things rather than focusing on the negative. It’s human nature to see negative things as bigger and more important than positive things, but this also does tremendous damage to your self-esteem.     5     Look for the positive side even when bad things happen to you. For example, if you lose your job, it can be easy to spiral into thinking that you were terrible at your job and no one will ever hire you again. Instead, you might think that now you have the opportunity to find something that’s a better fit for you.

A．Focus on your effort rather than the result to control perfectionism.

B．Challenge those thoughts with logical observations to reframe your conclusion.

C．Instead, you can simply drown them out with more positive, affirmative thoughts.

D．When you love yourself, you love all of you because you wouldn’t have the good without the bad.

E．Here are some strategies that can help you embark on a journey of treating yourself with kindness.

F．Negative thoughts often come from outside people whose opinions we value.

G．When you focus on the negative, try to name some things that you can be grateful for.

6 . Everyone can experience loneliness from time to time, which causes concern about our health and well-being.     1    ? There are some possible courses of action, depending on who you are and where you live. Below are some suggestions on how to fight loneliness.

    2    

Some of us are lonely because we don’t have close relationships in our lives. But if that’s not the case for you, by all means let your friends or family know how you’re feeling and ask for support. Calling or texting can be an active way to shift your mood and help relieve loneliness.

Adopt a pet

There are many reasons to have pets.     3    . And these are especially helpful for people who may be isolated from other humans and feel lonely. One study finds that people who walk dogs are considered friendlier — something that's bound to help you connect if you’re looking to meet new people.

Try loving-kindness meditation (冥想)

Not everyone likes to engage in loving-kindness meditation. But it has been found to reduce loneliness, perhaps because it helps you to accept negative emotions more easily.     4    . Even when they are not around, loving-kindness meditation could help fight feelings of loneliness.

Count your blessings

    5    , its also possible to practice gratitude on your own and feel less lonely. In one study, older adults who were assigned a daily gratitude journaling exercise felt less lonely over time — and felt healthier, too.

A．Reach out to friends or family

B．Be kind to the relatives around you

C．What can you do when you feel lonely

D．Even though this practice can help you feel much happier

E．It can also help you increase a sense of connection to others

F．While expressing gratitude toward others can fight loneliness directly

G．One of them is that they can provide companionship and unconditional love

7 . Recognize SAD symptoms (症状)

Season changes affect many people. However, for those with seasonal affective disorder, it deeply influences their mood and energy.     1    , which usually involve a lack of energy, low mood and concentrating difficulty. Kerry McLeod, head of information at the mental health charity Mind, advises speaking to your doctor if you notice a change in feelings, thoughts and behaviour that lasts for over two weeks or keeps returning.

Immerse (沉浸) in the (artificial) light

Richard Navarro, a famous psychotherapist, suggests that a light therapy (治疗) lamp or box could be of great help. She explains that since the 1980s, there’s been quite a bit of research on the effectiveness of light therapy for seasonal depression (沮丧).     2    .       

Take vitamin D

We create vitamin D from UVB rays (through direct sun exposure). While not officially proven, a low concentration of vitamin has been associated with depression.    3    . Chand, who takes a vitamin D supplement, says: “Regardless of whether it’s winter or autumn or not, that has an impact.”

    4    

Don’t abandon your outdoor exercise routine just because of wind or rain (or both). Having the right equipment will definitely make it a better experience. A pair of waterproof trail-running shoes might be a good investment and means you can take on puddles, mud and slippery trails.

Stay connected to others

    5    . But lacking communication socially can be a symptom and a cause of poor mental health, says McLeod. Try to make plans to visit people—and remember that keeping in touch by text or video call is still “a great way to maintain contact and boost your mood”.

A．Take some exercise

B．Connect someone to exercise with

C．Light can be useful in many aspects in life

D．So it’s advisable to take some if you feel low

E．Bad weather can prevent us from seeing people

F．Most has found light can make us happier in bad weather

G．For example, it may cause symptoms that negatively impact daily life

8 . Have you ever started your day feeling unbeatable, only to feel worn down by the time you get into bed?     1     Try the following routines to help you sail through your day.

Practise gratitude. As you wake up, whether naturally or through your alarm, pause for a few seconds.     2     It may be a photograph of someone you love, your stylish new bedside table, or just being alive and being offered a new day. Take in the positivity and bathe in it for a few moments before continuing your day.

Exhale(呼出) your tension. If you feel anxious or stressed as you wake up, take a few minutes to do an exercise to deal with the tension. Stand tall and bring both hands to your chest. Inhale, and then exhale as you open your arms and reach down to touch the floor. This will stretch your body and oxygenate your brain.     3    

Check in with yourself. On your way to work, take a minute to “check in” with yourself. Think through your goals for the day.     4     Allow yourself to feel the positivity associated with those achievements. This visualization exercise is a simple way to build positive intention, create focus, and boost your motivation and confidence for the day.

    5     Be aware of not automatically reaching for your phone to check emails or social media as it can put you into a reactive mode rather than keeping your mind clear to choose how you want to go about in your day, and how you intend to respond instead of just reacting to events and people. The more you are able to stay centered and connected to yourself, the less likely you will stress out.

A．Brighten your day.

B．Respond, don’t react.

C．Teach the body to sense it is safe.

D．And imagine yourself completing them well.

E．Thus you process your tension feeling more positive.

F．Look around the room for something you are grateful for.

G．The daily ups and downs weaken your resolve and leave you low.

9 . The pain we feel may be nature’s way of telling us it’s time to take notice of our inner selves. Should you be facing painful times, we urge you to reach out to get the help and support you need.     1     Maybe you feel you shouldn’t expose your pain since you’re supposed to be cool and act like you can handle things. Even though you may feel that no one can help you get over your pain, the important thing is to reach out. Here are some positive ways to deal with pain.

●    2     Talking about what hurts is an important first step. Even if you feel that no one can do anything to make the hurt go away, talking to someone you trust can ease the weight of painful feelings.

●Keep a journal. This is a good way to measure your progress in “getting to the other side” of things.     3     That way when you read how you felt about something a week or a month ago, and then read how you feel about it today, you’ll see how you are progressing. Should you feel things aren’t getting better, that is good information, too.     4    

●Be extra good to yourself. Especially when life hurts, it’s time to take extra good care of yourself. Get enough rest, eat properly, get the exercise your body needs to burn off the tension, listen to soft music, and don’t forget those extra hugs for your pet.     5     Be sure to be that for yourself, as well.

●See a professional counselor (咨询师). Seeing a trained professional is an excellent way to work through painful times. Ask your parents or school counselor to help you find one.

A．Try to bear your pain.

B．Don’t keep it all inside.

C．Be sure to date each entry.

D．Maybe you believe that no one will understand you.

E．You know what a source of comfort you are to others.

F．It is also a good way to improve your writing skills gradually.

G．It means you may need more outside support than you’re getting.

10 . Gifts are more than just an economic exchange of goods. They signal things about the giver, receiver and their relationship. It’s a sort of language that lets us communicate without words. Use the following little tricks to make gift-giving perfect.

Aesthetics (美学) of a gift shouldn’t be ignored and neither should presentation be. All the time and energy you spend picking the perfect thing for your receiver will fall short if you do. A gift should delight. It should be unique and easy on the eyes. So receivers often prefer appearance over function. This is why gift stores are filled with such gifts. These items are often low in their usefulness yet they make most gifts.

The price isn’t necessarily a priority. Even costly items can be considered as cheap sometimes. It’s better to pick an item from the top of an inexpensive sort than one at the bottom of an expensive sort. Even if you’re paying the same for both choices, the former will be received well.

A gift that feels heavier tends to be considered as of higher quality. Giving someone a hardcover book is better than giving them a paperback as a gift. You may also package it in a relatively heavy box. Anyway, pick items that aren’t too light.

Don’t present your gift without the wrapping (包装). It shows effort and devotion. Presentation expresses special thought on behalf of the giver. When they receive a gift, receivers process the exchange and analyze the giver in terms of thoughtfulness, which is communicated through gift presentation. If you want your receiver to think of you as thoughtful, make sure you wrap it in a good wrapping paper. Bad presentation can ruin a great gift. So it matters making a present more attractive to your receiver.

1. What kind of gifts are mostly sold in shops?

A．Strange objects.	B．Eye-catching items.
C．Useful things.	D．High-cost pieces.

2. What can be learnt from Paragraph 3?

A．Never choose any expensive gif.

B．The more expensive a gift is, the better.

C．Two gifts at a time are always better than one.

D．The best gift in the cheap kind is a better choice.

3. Which book will make a good gift?

A．A hardcover book.	B．A paperback.
C．One in a light box.	D．One without wrapping.

4. What does a gift with good wrapping reflect?

A．The giver is generous.	B．The receiver is special.
C．The giver is thoughtful.	D．The receiver is attractive.