1 . Speaking of self-improvement, perhaps you want to become more productive, read more books, take regular exercise or learn something new.     1     Here we’ve put together this guide to help you.

Observe your emotional reactions.

Our emotions can often overwhelm (击败) us and make us behave in ways we’d rather not. The first step in dealing with your emotions is to recognize your current feelings.     2     You can sit for a few minutes each day and just observe how you feel.     3     However, learning to be with yourself without distractions is an essential part of meaningful self-development. You could be surprised by what you discover.

Develop a way to express your emotions.

Chris Martin, the singer-songwriter and frontman of the band Coldplay, once said, “You've got to express yourself in life, and it's better out than in. What you reveal, you heal.”

    4     You can try art, music and sports. Or you can get a piece of paper and a pen and start a healthy outlet. A talk with your close friend, relative, or partner can also help you get peace of mind.

    5    

Sometimes emotions can be overwhelming even if you undertake all other steps to manage them. In this case, the only left option is to find a therapist (治疗师). Many successful, respected people like J. K. Rowling, Emma Stone, and Michael Phelps all promote therapy’s benefits. Turning to these professionals is one of the best ways to improve yourself. These trained professionals can provide guidance and support when it comes to coping with your emotions.

A．Work with a licensed therapist.

B．Receive professional training as therapists.

C．This can feel incredibly uncomfortable at first.

D．There are so many ways to let out your emotions.

E．Remember you can’t manage what you don't know.

F．It will help you improve your concentration.

G．Have you thought of learning to control your emotions?

2 . 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.     1     This kind of work is much more suitable and agreeable for introverts.

    2     When I help elders or people with disabilities who are more isolated and lonelier than I am, I feel my nervousness and self-consciousness disappear. My social awkwardness loses its grip on me when I’m focused on helping someone else rather than myself or my social performance. Unlike showing up at a job interview, business meeting, or speaking engagement, working as a volunteer with people in need takes the spotlight away from being measured or judged.     3    

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.     4     Yet when we are in situations where we are offering casual acts of kindness or nurturing others we tend to feel less threatened or judged by others. Helping others and sharing simple acts of kindness does not pose such a social-evaluative threat, but instead, calms and soothes us. Neuroscientists have studied the warm glow of doing good that makes us feel good.

“Kindness may help socially anxious people,” says Dr. Lynn Alden, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia.     5     She found that acts of kindness may help to counter the socially anxious person’s fear of negative evaluation by promoting more positive perceptions and expectations of how other people will respond.

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.

3 . One of the primary goals of cognitive behavioral therapy (疗法) is finding effective ways to channel your anxiety into productive action. The best possible one is under the care of an experienced mental health care provider. Still, if you are hoping to stop being paralyzed (麻痹) by anxiety and use this energy to fuel and improve your life, you can.     1    

Set a goal. Goal-setting is one way to use your anxiety as fuel. Take notice of your anxious thoughts and worries. What are you most concerned about?     2     Instead of shaking in your boots, get to work developing a plan that allows you to overcome these fears.

Challenge yourself regularly to build resilience. Think of your resilience to anxiety as a muscle.     3     Rather than avoiding those situations that cause anxiety, gradually expose yourself to them more often. When you do this, you will find that, over time, they lose their power. For instance, if you hate public speaking, you might benefit from signing up for a local Toastmasters club. Doing so will allow you to practice speaking in front of a group more often, which will reduce your anxiety.

    4     Anxiety can feel like a live wire in your body. You can’t sit still or focus. Exercise is a great activity to make use of this spare energy. Exercise offers a host of benefits like fighting off illness and helping you manage weight. One of the benefits most helpful to you, however, is its ability to neutralize anxiety and improve your mood.

Perform reality testing. You don’t have to become a slave to your anxious thoughts, giving them permission to get you all worked up.     5     Reality testing involves assessing a situation for errors in thinking. To assess the reality of this situation, you want to ask what evidence is there that says this is true. Did your friends actually call you lame? Are they avoiding you?

A．Put them to the test instead.

B．What are your biggest fears?

C．Burn off nervous energy with physical activity.

D．When you find yourself becoming anxious, check your thought patterns

E．Just transform anxiety into action by using positive strategies.

F．How can you deal with getting fired if it does happen?

G．The more you use the muscle, the stronger it becomes.

4 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

When I was ten years old, I was a grade four primary school student in a small town. I had a happy time at school because I had a few good friends there. We usually spent our spare time together, doing our homework, going to the amusement park, playing with our pets, and sharing our happiness and sorrows together. But everything changed when my parents decided to change their jobs and moved to a bigger city. I even had no time to say good-bye to my old friends and teachers.

As I moved to the new city, I began my school life in a totally new school with new surroundings, new teachers and new classmates. During the first week, I felt lonely when I was at school. My classmates knew each other, but they didn’t know me, which added to my loneliness and sadness. That week day after day, I was sitting on my seat, pretending to be reading. How I secretly wished that someone would come to me and introduce himself to me or even play a trick on me, but disappointingly, nobody came.

Then one day, when my parents sent me to the bus station and said good bye to me, I didn’t get on the bus to school as usual. Instead, I walked and walked on the street, looking at the beautiful window displays and forgetting everything, with no worry about the new school, new teachers and new classmates. Then my empty stomach stopped me and I used my pocket money to have a bowl of noodles in a small restaurant. It was noon at the time, but still I didn’t want to go to school or go home. So I went to a park and sat on the bench, staring at the sky. And then I had a nap. When I woke up, I decided to go back to my hometown, where my former teachers and friends lived. So I went to the railway station. There I was stopped by a policeman, who asked for my ID card, which I didn’t have at the time. Then the policeman called someone and I was asked to stay with him.

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。

An hour later, I found my parents running towards me .

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The next day, when I was sent to school by my parents, I was afraid I would be punished.

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5 . Do you always get angry about something? Do you always take things too personally? Do you find yourself thinking people are laughing at you in public places?     1     If you are sensitive about something, you are easily worried and angry when people talk about it.

    2     Actually, sensitive people can appreciate food, the sound of music, the different colors of nature, or even traffic. They can also notice small differences in meaning, making them more emotionally(感情上地) intelligent and more creative.

However, it can also be a terrible burden(负担) if left uncared for.     3     So you should do something to stop being too sensitive. For example, recognize those people who often leave you feeling tired in life and avoid them. Instead, surround yourself with people who will make you feel bright and happy. If you constantly feel negative about yourself, you’ll struggle with being sensitive.     4    

Another important thing to do is forgive those who have wronged you. Often sensitive people aren’t good at letting things go.     5     This is unhealthy as it’ll keep you from enjoying both the present and the future. Take the lesson; leave the pain.

In a word, though being sensitive is certainly a challenge, you can deal with it correctly by taking proper efforts.

A．Why are some people sensitive?

B．Being a bit sensitive isn’t a bad thing.

C．You are sensitive and you can’t change that.

D．If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you are sensitive.

E．As a result, they find it difficult to move on from painful experiences.

F．So when a negative thought comes, correct it with something positive.

G．Sensitive people always put too much pressure on themselves and tend not to take care of themselves properly.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

As a child, I clearly remembered watching the PBS cartoon character Arthur get glasses. The poor guy felt ashamed and was laughed at by other kids due to his glasses. So I was thankful that I had good eyesight.

However, when I entered the eighth grade, I could no longer see very clearly the writing on the blackboard. Luckily, I was usually seated in the front of the classroom, and my study was not affected. So I didn't turn to glasses.

During my first year in high school, my eyesight became poorer. My eyes were examined, and the doctor determined that my eyesight was quite bad. I would either have to wear glasses full time, or try contact lenses (隐形眼镜). Since I had watched the cartoon character Arthur before, I was afraid to be judged by others due to my glasses — it made me believe the glasses would affect a person’s beauty. And being a teenage girl, I cared much about my self-image. Besides, at that time, there were few students around me wearing glasses. So I chose to wear contact lenses. I felt they would not affect my appearance. On the contrary, they would make me more attractive. And after wearing contact lenses, my entire world was transformed. Trees actually had leaves. People around me showed clear expressions. I was overjoyed at my new-found sight and appearance, and I had more self-confidence.

But when my junior year came along, I began to have trouble with my eyes. Once in a while, the contact lenses would irritate (刺激) my eyes, almost to the point where the pain was unbearable. It would take me thirty minutes just to get the lenses in comfortably every day, which made me so upset. With time going by, the pain only got worse.

In spite of endless visits to the hospital, my doctor found nothing wrong with my eyes. He tried countless mediations to ease my pain, However, none of them worked, and there was nothing left to try.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:

He suggested that I wear my glasses full-time. __________________________

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Paragraph 2:

Later in my summer camp, I met a very outgoing girl who also wore glasses.

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7 . 阅读下面短文，根据题目要求用英文回答问题。请在答题卡指定区域作答。

Last year, I baked biscuits for complete strangers to say “thank you”. I’d had to call 999 because I found my husband unconscious on the floor. Within minutes, a police car arrived and soon my husband received medical care in hospital.

A week later, when I dropped off still-warm biscuits and presented a thank-you note at the police station, the policemen thanked me for delivering gifts.

I drove away feeling light and happy. Later, I realized that my natural high might have been more than it seemed.Research has shown that sharing gratitude has positive effects on health. People who express gratitude will increase their happiness levels, lower their blood pressure and get better sleep.

What about people who receive gratitude?Research has confirmed that when people receive thanks, they experience positive emotions.“Those are happy surprises,”says Jo-Ann Tsang, a professor of psychology. When someone is thanked,he’s more likely to return the favor or pass kindness on, and his chances of being helpful again doubles, probably because he enjoys feeling socially valued.

The give-and-take of gratitude also deepens relationships. Studies show that when your loved ones regularly express gratitude,making you feel appreciated,you’re more likely to return appreciative feelings, which leads to more satisfactory in your relationships.

Nowadays,however,many people don’t express gratitude. Our modern lifestyle may be to blame. With commercial and social media, everything is speeding the younger generation to feel they’re the center of the world. If it’s all about them, why thank others?

Why not thank others? Just take a look at how many positive effects can saying “thank you”have on personal health—and the well-being of others.

If you aren’t particularly grateful, I strongly suggest you learn to be.People who are instructed to keep gratitude journals,in which they write down positive things that happen to them,cultivate gratitude over time.

1. What health benefits can people gain from expressing gratitude?
_______________________________________________________
2. How do people probably respond when they receive gratitude and feel socially valued?
_______________________________________________________
3. Please decide which part of the following statement is false, then underline it and explain why.
▷ Saying “thank-you”improves relationships,but nowadays some young people don’t want to do it because everything is making them feel blamed by the whole society.
_______________________________________________________
4. If possible, who would you like to express gratitude to most? Why? (In about 40 words)
_______________________________________________________

8 . In the back of my closet, there is a small cardboard chest that has followed me to every one of my new addresses. Until now, the only _________ contents in it are three wrapped _________ marked in my mother’s tidy handwriting: “Engagement”, “Wedding” and “First Baby”.

When I was three, my mother learned that she had advanced breast cancer. When I was seven, she had begun _________ a gift box for me. Inside, she packed presents and letters for the _________ of my life she was going to be missing — driver’s license, graduation, and every birthday until the age of 30.

My mother died ten days before our _________ birthday. That morning, when I turned 12 and she would have turned 49, I woke up early and opened the package _________ “12th Birthday”. A white card curling around the present _________: “I always _________ a birthstone ring when I was a little girl. Your Granny finally bought me one and I loved it more than I can say. I hope you like it, too.” I put on the ring and _________ her writing with my fingertip.

On the morning of my high school graduation, a __________ of pearls appeared as I opened the wrapped present. Her note read: “There seemed to be a __________ in my family that when girls graduated from high school, they received pearls.” I wore the pearls that afternoon as I took the stage to accept my diploma.

Year after year, my mother __________ forward in time to meet me. When I was a child, opening the next package felt like a treasure __________. As I grew older, her message met me like guideposts in a dark forest. If her words couldn’t point the way, at least they offered the __________ of knowing that someone had been there before and that I have been __________, wildly loved.

1.

A．following

B．remaining

C．entire

D．full

2.

A．plastics

B．products

C．pieces

D．presents

3.

A．working

B．preparing

C．writing

D．receiving

4.

A．milestones

B．majors

C．purposes

D．centers

5.

A．individual

B．usual

C．shared

D．national

6.

A．marked

B．celebrated

C．created

D．made

7.

A．read

B．sounded

C．found

D．signed

8.

A．called for

B．stood for

C．paid for

D．longed for

9.

A．tackled

B．traced

C．revealed

D．confirmed

10.

A．list

B．string

C．matter

D．variety

11.

A．member

B．problem

C．impression

D．tradition

12.

A．put

B．looked

C．traveled

D．stepped

13.

A．house

B．box

C．map

D．hunt

14.

A．property

B．sorrow

C．comfort

D．value

15.

A．deeply

B．temporarily

C．unfortunately

D．simply

9 . Everyone wants to be happy.     1     You must find it in your journey on your own and decide what it is that makes you happy. Therefore, you are the one to light it up and spark it. To give you more happiness, I have provided several habits that you can work on to live an inspiring life that will change you and those around you forever.

See the light in all situations. There’s a bright side to everything.     2     But when it hides from the clouds, remember that you are the one that lights up the sky even brighter than the stars.

Stop comparing yourself with others. Comparing yourself to others is a waste of who you are.     3     There is no one in this world that is exactly like you. You have many special qualities that can’t be compared to others. Be yourself and keep at it.

    4    Who are the people in your life that is important to you? Does the person bring the best out of you? Spend time with these people. It’s worth it.

Be confident. Your confidence can uplift your mood. Whether it’s your posture, smile, eye contact, or voice, work on it and you will not only feel better but be better. Write yourself five things that you love about yourself and put it on your wall or read it every morning you wake up.     5    

You really are the one who can make this world better. As you work on all these steps to become happier, you will see the world a lot better than it used to be.

A．Just be yourself.

B．It can really count.

C．On the darkest of days, the moon still shines.

D．Spend time with people that make you better.

E．What makes you feel like you’re flying in the sky?

F．However, happiness doesn’t come to you naturally.

G．You can create your own happiness and spread it to others.

10 . 阅读下面短文，根据题目要求用英文回答问题。

Compassion involves feeling another person’s pain and wanting to take steps to help relieve their suffering. The word compassion itself derives from Latin and means “to suffer together.” It is related to other emotions such as sympathy and empathy, although the concepts have some key differences. Empathy refers more to the general ability to feel the emotions of others. Compassion, on the other hand, is what happens when those feelings of empathy are accompanied by the desire to help. The difference between sympathy and compassion is that the former responds to suffering with sorrow and concern while the latter responds with warmth and care.

Compassion often comes in one of two forms, which vary depending on where these feelings are directed. Your experience of compassion may be either directed toward other people, or it may be directed inwardly toward yourself. On one hand, compassion is a process of connecting by identifying with another person. When you experience compassion for other people, you feel their pain and want to find a way to relieve their suffering. These feelings motivate you to take action to make the situation better. Self-compassion involves treating yourself with the same kindness that you would show to others. You will treat failures without defensiveness, and no longer beat yourself up you’re your mistakes. You will feel understanding, mindful, and accepting of yourself and your imperfections.

While some people are compassionate by nature, experts also suggest that there are steps you can take to cultivate a greater sense of compassion for both yourself and others.

Bring your attention to the situation. The first component of compassion is to become more aware of what other people are experiencing. Imagine yourself in their shoes. Being able to see things from another person’s perspective can help you gain a sense of compassion for their situation.

Let go of judgment. Focus on accepting people for who they are without criticizing or blaming the victim. Compassionate people tend to accept people as they are and avoid judgement.

Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is a practice of focusing on the present, becoming more aware of your own thoughts, and observing these thoughts. Research suggests that mindfulness-based interventions can be effective for improving self-compassion.

1. According to the passage, what is the difference between compassion and empathy?
_________________________________________________________________
2. Generally, how many forms does compassion have and what are they?
_________________________________________________________________
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
➢ Compassionate people like making judgement of other people, and some of them are compassionate by nature.
_________________________________________________________________
4. Do you think the sense of compassion is important in your life? Why or why not?(In about 40 words)
_________________________________________________________________