With new faces everywhere, the time in Grade 1 was really tough for me. Since I was an Indian girl, nobody wanted to talk to me. Every spare minute was spent alone, and no classmates would group with me for projects.

Feeling lonely and sad, I was in desperate need of close friends. A girl named Fatin, who was cute, clever and talented, appealed to me deeply. However, she seemed to be avoiding me as well. Being only six years old, I didn’t understand why people treated me like that, I opened up to my mother about all this, almost crying my eyes out.

Mom smiled, comforting me until I calmed down. She looked into my eyes and encouraged me, “Honey, don’t worry. They’re just not familiar with you. Try to bring out the best in you. They’ll befriend (做朋友) you as long as they see your advantages.” At that time, I didn’t believe her, but Mom was right.

One day, my teacher, Miss Barbara, announced that there was to be a speech competition. I really enjoyed joining in speech competitions. Actually, I was quite good at them. The only problem was that the whole school would be watching me and I knew none of my audience.

However, I was determined to do it. I gathered all my courage, went up to the teacher and said, “Miss Barbara, I want to join in the speech competition.” She stared at me, but then I saw a gentle smile on her face. She handed me an application form.

The next day, I arrived at school early to submit (提交)my form to the teacher. Miss Barbara said encouragingly to me, “For a new student, you have lots of courage. Do your best, Diya!” Rarely did Miss Barbara praise anyone. Her words lifted up my spirits that day. Until the competition day, I practised my speech whenever possible. I even designed the necessary hand gestures and did repeated practice in front of a mirror.

Then came the big day. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As I went off the stage with my award, I heard Fatin call my name. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . Friendship needs care and attention to keep it in good health. Here are five ways to sustain (保持) long-distance friendships.

Long-lasting friendships share the characteristic that both sides equally contact (联系) and share with one another. With busy schedules, squeezing in phone calls can be a challenge.     1    .

Make sure you have communicated with your friend about how frequently each of you wants to be contacted and what method works best for you both.     2    . There are alternatives to constant written communication, such as leaving voice messages or having a group chat.

    3    . The friend who is remaining needs to be sensitive to all the additional time demands placed on the friend who has moved. The one in the new environment should be sympathetic to the fact that your friend may feel abandoned.

Anniversaries and birthdays carry even more weight in long-distance friendships. Although technology might make day-to-day communication possible, extra effort goes a long way on special days. Simply keeping a diary that keeps track of friends’ birthdays and other important dates will make sure nothing slips by you.

    5    , but long-distance friendships — even close ones — may require more conscious effort to sustain. Try to seek out chances to renew friendships. How to do it? Just spend face-to-face time together whenever possible.

Would you like    1    （get）in touch with your friends? Do you send a text    2    make a phone call? A new study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests that you    3    （call）instead of    4    （send）a text. Calling makes you feel more connected to your friends.

Scientists asked 200 people to reconnect with an old friend by email or by phone. Many people    5    （think）that a phone call would be more awkward. But    6    （actual）, hearing someone's voice made the experience    7    （good）.

According to the study, people like to text because they can have more control. They can think about their message before they send it, and they won't be cut off or interrupted while messaging.

But    8    the other hand, texting can make    9    hard to understand the true meaning of a conversation. Making a phone call is more natural. You don't need to overthink the possible meanings behind the words and punctuation    10    can be useful in a text.

7 . We may think that communication is as simple as our words. This is not the case. The fact is that we receive far more information than what we say.    1    Part of what completes the message is our body language. How can you use your body language to communicate more effectively?

    2    Our emotions and thoughts are expressed through our body language. If you want to communicate better with others, consider imitating their body language. This is not a baby imitating someone else but expressing empathy through your body language. This can help your messages be received more easily by others.

Let people see your hands.    3    When people can’t see our hands, they wonder if we are hiding something. Your hands are part of your communication repertoire (全部本领), so use them and avoid any negatives that might come from hiding them from others.

Slow down.    4    Slow down your speech, and slow down your gestures and movement. Although speed can transfer energy, our body language can show anxiety, tension and even dishonesty. Take a deep breath and slow down just a bit.

We all can work on these things above. But the receiver of our message is the judge. Their perception (感知)of our body language rules the day. When we apply the ideas above, we will increase the chances that their perception is positive.    5    

8 . Mark, a professor at Stanford University, published a paper named The Strength of Weak Ties. Until then scholars had agreed that a person’s happiness depended mainly on the quality of relationships with close friends and family.     1    . You should know those about the “weak ties”.

One way to think about any person’s social world is that you have an inner circle of people whom you often talk to and feel close, and an outer circle of people whom you see infrequently or just for a short time. Mark named these “strong ties” and “weak ties”.     2    .

Mark studied 282 Boston-based workers and found that most of them got their jobs through someone they knew.     3    . 84% got their job through those weak-tie relationships.

    4    .

Sandstrom, a senior lecturer in psychology, found that people with larger networks of weak ties tended to be happier in general, and that on days when a participant had a greater number of casual interactions(互动) with weak ties — a neighbour, a member of yoga class — they experienced more happiness.

    5    , particularly when we’re taking part in an activity of some kind, like singing or cycling. A study showed that regardless of nationality or age, people who were members of groups such as sports teams or church communities enjoyed an increased sense of meaning and safety.

10 . The world is designed for right-handed people, but why does a tenth of the population prefer the left?     1    

The answer to it remains a bit of a mystery. Since scientists have noticed that left-handedness tends to run in families, it’s assumed that left-handedness has a genetic(基因的) component to it.

    2     In fact, identical twins, who share the same genes, can sometimes prefer to use different hands. There are also plenty of theories on what else might determine which hand you write with, but many experts believe that it’s kind of random.

Historically, the left side and left-handedness have been considered a negative thing by many cultures.     3     In some areas, the left hand became known as the “unclean” hand. In many religions, the right hand of God is the favored hand. For example, Jesus sits at God’s right side. God’s left hand, however, is the hand of judgment. Various activities and experiences become rude or even signs of bad luck when the left hand becomes involved. In some parts of Scotland, it is considered bad luck to meet a left-handed person at the start of a journey.     4    A person giving directions will put their left hand behind them and even physically try to point with their right hand if necessary. In some Asian countries, eating with the left hand is considered impolite.

    5    People come to realize that left-handedness is natural. Some researchers find out that lefties are more creative and can deal with abstract thinking better. The left-handedness is more easily adaptable to the right-handed world as well. Being left-handed is no longer a sad story now; instead, it is a wonderful gift or maybe it is something you should take pride in.