1 . I came across some excellent tips on how to communicate better with others.
Pause(停顿)before replying to others.
Be honest.
Ask for feedback（反馈）from others. When it’s all said and done, one of the best ways you can learn to communicate more effectively is to ask for feedback. Take some time to speak to those who you communicate with frequently to find out how you can improve on your communication with them.
| A．Be patient and open-minded. |
| B．Trust and hard work are valuable. |
| C．When you’re honest, communication becomes a lot easier. |
| D．I believe communication is key to living a good life. |
| E．It’s not always easy to ask for feedback, but it’s worth it! |
| F．You’ll be on the road to creating a better understanding with others. |
| G．Pause works wonders when it comes to communicating effectively with others. |
2 . When you set a foot outside of your door to drop trash, go to a social event or go for a walk, thoughts like “I hope I don’t see anyone I know” or “please don’t talk to me” may run through your mind. I’ve also said such things to myself. Sometimes the last thing you want to do is to talk with someone, especially someone new.
Why do we go out of our ways to avoid people? Do we think meeting new people is a waste of time? Or are we just lazy, thinking that meeting someone new really is a trouble?
Communication is the key to life. We have been told that many times. Take the past generations, like our parents, for example. They seem to take full advantage of that whole “communication” idea because they grew up talking face to face while Generation-Y grew up staring at screens. We spend hours of our days sitting on Facebook. We send messages to our friends and think about all of the things we want to say to certain people that we don’t have the courage to do in reality.
Nowadays, we are so caught up in our little circle of friends—our comfort zone. We love it that they laugh at our jokes, understand our feelings and can read our minds. Most importantly, they know when we want to be alone. They just get us.
Holding a conversation with someone new means agreeing with things that you don’t really believe and being someone you think they want you to be—it is, as I said before, a trouble. It takes up so much energy, and at some point or another, it is too tiring.
But meeting new people is important. Life is too short, so meet all the people you can meet, make the effort to go out and laugh. Remember, every “hello” leads to a smile—and a smile is worth a lot.
1. What do we learn about the author?| A．He likes to meet someone new. | B．He feels stressed out lately. |
| C．He’s active in attending social events. | D．He used to be afraid of talking to others. |
| A．They rely on the Internet to socialize. | B．They are less confident in themselves. |
| C．They have difficulty in communicating. | D．They are unwilling to make new friends. |
| A．They think it troublesome. | B．They are busy with their study. |
| C．They fear to disappoint their friends. | D．They want to do meaningful work. |
| A．To stress the importance of friends. |
| B．To give tips on how to meet new people. |
| C．To encourage people to meet new people. |
| D．To display the disadvantages of Generation-Y. |
3 . Good relationship are definitely good sources of happiness in life. We all want happy relationships but if we do not keep that relationship alive, it can also be one of the most distraught things in life. There may be no hard and fast rules in making good relationships, as each of us has different preferences and points of view as to what is a great relationship. The following are some major key players in making relationships work.
It is often said that building good relationship is all about communication. Good communication indeed governs a good relationship—knowing the right thing to say, when to say it, how to say it, and accepting some things that are better left unsaid. I personally think communication must be broadened because relationships involve more decisions to make. From study to work, from money to entertainment and even in things about yourself or about your friends that you do not know, communication is necessary in these aspects of the relationships.
Of course, being with someone is not saying that you totally agree with him or her all the time. You and your friends come from different family backgrounds, raised in different environment so there may be disagreement here and there. However, it is important in making relationship work to express disagreements without pushing the relationship to end. Again, good communication and learning to compromise(妥协) at times are necessary.
As relationships last longer, you may also discover things about you and your friends that you may not have known before. Therefore supporting each other on both your “hidden selves” can also make a good relationship.
Love is an important aspect of building relationships and for me, I always believe that love needs open communication, respect, support and understanding each other in making relationships work.
1. The underlined word “distraught” in Paragraph 1 probably means _________.| A．interesting | B．surprising | C．funny | D．upset |
| A．supporting each other in anything helps build a good relationship |
| B．a white lie is necessary sometimes |
| C．compromises are necessary at any time |
| D．your friends need to have the same backgrounds with you |
| A．Communication. | B．Support. |
| C．Hidden selves. | D．Love. |
| A．Forbidden Rules in Building Good Relationships. |
| B．Keys to Making Relationships Work. |
| C．Different Opinions on Good Relationships. |
| D．The Importance to Express Disagreements. |
4 . Years ago, I lived next door to an old man named Steve, who told me he hadn’t had any friends since quitting his factory job 20 years earlier. Steve sat on his porch (门廊) all day. Across the street was another neighbor, Werner, who usually sat on an armchair on his lawn. The two men, both around the same age, stared at each other but rarely talked. When Steve fell down on the floor, Werner watched as the ambulance crew tried to save him.
Steve and Werner are a handy example for the kind of separation that COVID-19 has visited upon many of us. Although the pandemic has gone now, a separation still exists. The percentage of men with at least six close friends fell by half between 1990 and 2021, according to the Survey Center on American Life.
In short, man is in friendship recession (衰退). It is the result of social conditioning and 10, 000 years of developmental forces, where cooperation has been changed into competition. The invention of the big-screen TV hasn’t helped.
A 2020 Oxford University study confirms what many people will readily admit: People prefer to socialize in groups rather than on-on-one. Groups are looser, less private. And shared activities often center on something—a sport, a bar, or a football match. But when the activity goes away, the group often goes with it.
I reconnected with an old friend who had played professional football and I asked him if he was in touch with any of his former teammates. “No,” he said. When football ended, those connections did too. Without that central activity to keep the relationship, they all disappeared from one another’s lives.
There was a time when card games or watching the football games was a sort of guilty pleasure, a senseless activity. Now we’re learning that these things, or at least the connection they represent, are basic to mental health.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the neighbors. | B．To tell the neighbors’ stories. |
| C．To give an example of separation. | D．To tell the effect of the pandemic. |
| A．Men prefer one-on-one relationship. |
| B．Relationships in groups are more private. |
| C．Shared activities do not center on anything- |
| D．The group’s connection ends after activities go away. |
| A．Friendship recession. | B．Peer competition. |
| C．Team cooperation. | D．Social development. |
| A．A sort of guilty pleasure. | B．Basic to mental health. |
| C．A kind of senseless activities. | D．Ways to amuse themselves. |
5 . Eyes can speak
Much meaning can be conveyed, clearly, with our eyes, so it is often said that eyes can speak.
The same is true in our daily life. If you are stared at for more than necessary, you will look at yourself up and down to see if there is anything wrong with you.
Looking too long at someone may seem to be rude and aggressive.
However, when two people are engaged in a conversation, the speaker will only look into the listener’s eyes from time to time to make sure that the listener does pay attention to what the former is speaking.
Actually, eye contact should be made based on specific relationships and situations.
| A．That’s what normal eye contact is all about. |
| B．But things are different when it comes to staring at the opposite sex |
| C．Therefore, continuous eye contact is limited to lovers only. |
| D．On the contrary, it will give him away. |
| E．After all, nobody likes to be stared at for quite a long time. |
| F．Do you have such kind of experience? |
| G．If nothing goes wrong, you will feel annoyed at being stared at that way. |
Introduce Yourself
It’s not necessary to be clever when you introduce yourself. Simply focus on being genuine and sincere. When you approach the other person to start the conversation, give him a warm smile and clearly state your name.
Begin the Conversation
Continue the Conversation
If you are building a rapport(关系), feel free to move on to a bit more personal topics to continue the conversation.
When you have run out of things to say or need to move on to do something else, prepare your exit strategy. You may say that you need to use the bathroom or catch up with someone else. Let the other person know how much you enjoyed talking to her.
| A．End the Conversation. |
| B．Bring up a general topic to begin the conversation. |
| C．This will help keep the conversation flowing freely. |
| D．If appropriate, make plans to talk again at a later date. |
| E．Your conversational partner will feel valued and appreciated. |
| F．Explain who you are and why you want to have the conversation. |
| G．You may want to ask about his favourite hobby, his career, his classes or upcoming events. |
7 . People are taught how to speak, but good sentence structure and a wide range of vocabulary words won’t always lead to being understood or understanding others.
The good news is that it’s never too late to learn how to communicate more effectively. The first step is to realize you’ re having communication issues.
You have the same fights over and over.
Your fights are about the same topic again and again. If this is happening, it means you don’t yet have the skills to resolve conflicts.
You don’t want to fight so you try not to bring up subjects that lead only to pain and disconnection. The problem is that avoiding them leads to pain and disconnection anyway. Unless you learn how to have hard conversations productively, you will get more and more disconnected until your relationship is in danger of ending.
You regularly feel misunderstood or unheard.
No matter how hard you try, you don’t feel understood. Perhaps your partner has expressed the same feeling.Over time the disconnected feeling does damage to your relationship. It’s important to learn how to communicate in a better way, so that both you and the other person feel heard and understood.
| A．You avoid discussing certain topics. |
| B．You argue with your partners about some issues. |
| C．If you can’t resolve issues, they will continue to show up. |
| D．This requires more than just speaking to your partner or vice versa. |
| E．Then, you can learn how to communicate in a more productive way. |
| F．If you leave conflicts unsettled, you will feel disconnected and lonely. |
| G．Effective communication requires much more than being able to speak. |
8 . 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. |
9 . Teenagers are especially likely to suffer loneliness. Here are some suggestions for speeding a recovery from loneliness.
Reach out to others, but start small. A smile and a friendly greeting for the student behind you in line at the cafeteria won’t make you best friends.
Find a safe place to make connections. If going to the school dance makes you feel like you just don’t belong, try joining a specialinterest group. Maybe it’s the drama club or the marching band.
Find other ways of making connections. Lonely people hunger for acceptance and friendship. Sometimes feeling accepted and liked comes more easily when you do something for others.
You get what you expect, so expect the best. If you expect others to be friendly, you will behave in similar ways.
| A．But it will make you both feel pretty good. |
| B．So consider becoming a volunteer. |
| C．Some teens aren’t so adaptable, however. |
| D．Encourage people to be friendlier to you. |
| E．Choose the right people. |
| F．For most young people, loneliness is only temporary. |
| G．Look for a group that allows you to join in gradually and cheerfully. |
10 . 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 longterm relationship.
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, joke with them. Laughter may seem silly, but it’s the secret to a lot in life. It will keep the sparks alive.
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．Be an honest person with them. |
| C．Make sure you are encouraging to your partners. |
| D．Laughter keeps the relationship strong and lasting. |
| E．Don’t start to neglect them and make them feel unwanted. |
| F．Basically, learn to study your partners’ moods, wants and needs. |
| G．If they did something that made you unhappy, tell them about it in a respectful manner. |
