1 . How Helping Others Benefits You
Everyone wants to lead a happy and fulfilling life, so it’s natural to want to put yourself and your health first! However, helping other people can also directly help you at the same time.
Here are a few ways that helping others can benefit you：
·Attract more back to you.
When you give, you’re more likely to receive. You don’t necessarily need to keep the receiving in mind when you decide to give, but nature may just take its course.
·Bring you a good feeling.
If you volunteer your time to help others, you’re sharing your blessings with those less fortunate, which is a wonderful gift to give! You’ll likely return home after volunteering with a smile on your face.
·Heighten self-esteem.
When you help others, you may be helping yourself to a heightened self-esteem. A positive result for your good deeds enables you to feel pride in your accomplishments.
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After you’ve done something nice, you may also find that your confidence increases. The fact that your helpful acts have turned out so positive might lead you to the confidence you need in your own life.
·Be more positive about your own situation.
Sometimes you’ll find that you’re your own worst critic. You might accept the faults of others, but you may be less likely to accept your own. Helping others can help you to accept your own situation and your own faults.
Seek out opportunities, today, to help others. You’ll be glad you did!
| A．Strengthen confidence. |
| B．Make a difference. |
| C．It may help you to start seeing everything in a more positive light. |
| D．Maybe a friend will unexpectedly return a favor. |
| E．It also builds confidence in bigger and better things. |
| F．Just by completing a giving act, you receive positive feelings in your life. |
| G．It makes you feel surprised to know that you’ve made a difference in the world. |
2 . For some people gratitude comes naturally; other people may have to actively think about being grateful for what they have. But it doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you do.
Make you feel better about yourself
Being grateful for what you have could reduce social comparisons about money and success. These comparisons can lower self-esteem (自尊心).
Improve social relationships
May improve your health
A study found that grateful people are more likely to say that they are in good physical health. The researchers found people who express gratitude are more likely to take part in healthy activities and ask for medical help when they need it.
Make you more empathetic (能产生共鸣的)
Gratitude is a good act. It can make you a more empathetic person.
| A．The levels of empathy differ from person to person. |
| B．Showing gratitude can help you make more friends. |
| C．Gratitude is good for health, relationships and happiness. |
| D．Practicing gratitude can also make people mentally healthier. |
| E．Being able to step into another person’s shoes is very important. |
| F．People who learn from their mistakes can make real changes in their lives. |
| G．But grateful people are able to appreciate the achievements of other people. |
1.表示歉意；
2.说明原因；
3.另约时间。
注意：1. 词数80左右；2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
Dear Tom,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
4 . How to Keep a Relationship Healthy and Strong
Are you new to experiencing relationships? Well, let me give you advice on having a healthy and possibly long-term relationship.
Be honest with them.
Make sure you give them respect. Now respect isn't just simply treating her or him nicely. There's a lot more to it. You have to learn to adjust to their liking.
Make sure you have a good sense of humor with them. Laughter is the key to happiness. Laugh a lot with them, and joke with them. Laughter may seem silly, but it's the secret to a lot in life.
Make sure the communication is good. This goes along with trust, but always communicate how you feel, even if it's something that upsets you. Instead of screaming, talk to them.
| A．Show them your personality. |
| B．Don't hide things from them and don't lie. |
| C．Make sure you are helpful to your partners. |
| D．Laughter keeps the relationship strong and long-lasting. |
| E．Don't start to neglect them and make them feel unwanted. |
| F．Basically, learn to understand your partners' moods, wants and needs. |
| G．If they did something that made you unhappy, tell them about it in an acceptable way. |
5 . Why do people take “selfies(自拍)?”
Researchers at Syracuse University in New York tried to answer that question.
Other findings from the study include: There are no major differences on how often men and women post selfies and how often they use editing software.
The Newhouse School’s Associate Professor Makana Chock worked on the study. She said, posting selfies on social media is not all that different from what people have done for many years. On trips, our parents and grandparents used cameras to take photos. Before social media, people would bring back photos to show friends and family. You had no choice but to look at them. If you are a nice person, you commented about how nice everyone in the photos looked, especially children and the person showing the photos.
On social media, it is a different experience. People can decide not to look at photos of their friends and family even if they click “like” or even “love” under the Facebook selfie.
| A．That was the old way of “clicking” like. |
| B．They came up with some surprising answers. |
| C．Different people have different opinions about it. |
| D．Such people think very highly of themselves, especially how they look. |
| E．Both cameras and phones are useful tools to record people’s experiences. |
| F．There are other reasons, besides admiring themselves, why people post selfies. |
| G．But men desire to be seen as popular more than women when posting selfies. |
6 . If you feel at present that you don’t have enough friends in your life, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. Starting and keeping friendship requires effort and commitment.
Many of us let our lives become so busy with work and other responsibilities that we don’t get around to scheduling time for pleasure and renewal（叙旧）with the friends, relatives and acquaintances we already have.
Making the effort to call your friends more regularly and to accept more of their invitations you receive from others can improve your social life in a hurry!
Are there any people you could call right now and be sure to receive a pleasant welcome? Are there people that you could count onto help you in time of difficulty? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?
If you haven’t seen much of them lately, is it because you have become too busy? Have you grown apart? Was there an argument?
If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with the people you already know is that you have got too busy，take a good look at how you spend your time. Compare it with your real values and priorities（优先考虑的事）in life. Is your busy lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?
If you have become too busy for friends, why has this happened? Are you seeking material toys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over spent because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things yourself that could be appointed to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?
Examine whether the way you are now spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.
If you really want to keep friends in your life, make a space in your schedule, and a space in your heart for them.
1. In this passage the author mainly discusses ______ .| A．how to balance friendship and work. |
| B．how to spend our spare time. |
| C．whether we should keep friendship. |
| D．whether we should invite friends to dinner regularly. |
| A．You have someone to count on when you are in trouble. |
| B．You have someone to have close talks with. |
| C．You have fun when you are with someone. |
| D．You feel depressed with others in life. |
| A．you spend too much time seeking material toys in your life |
| B．you feel it difficult to keep friendship |
| C．you stick to doing everything all by yourself |
| D．you never refuse whatever other people ask you to do |
| A．Too busy for Friendship? | B．Too busy with work? |
| C．How to Spend Your Time | D．How to Make New Friends |
