1 . 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. |
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. |
3 . Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve’s new wife Betty, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn’t hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there’s no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I’m finished or fail to take your turn when I’m finished. That’s what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping. And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in—and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That’s why slight differences in conversational style—tiny little things like microseconds of pause-can have a great effect on one’s life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems—even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.
1. What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?| A．Betty was talkative. | B．Betty was an interrupter. |
| C．Betty did not take her turn. | D．Betty paid no attention to Sara. |
| A．Americans. | B．Israelis. | C．The British. | D．The Finns. |
| A．communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing |
| B．women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US |
| C．one’s inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes |
| D．one should receive training to build up one’s confidence |
| A．People in a conversation are expected to take turns in speaking. |
| B．Conversational techniques such as pacing and pausing may cause people to jump to conclusions about one’s character and capabilities. |
| C．People from Finland tend to pause shorter than those from Britain. |
| D．Different conversational habits may lead to a breakdown in communication. |
| A．being willing to speak one’s mind | B．being able to increase one’s power |
| C．being ready to make one’s own judgment | D． being quick to express one’s ideas confidently |
4 . Criticism is harmful to healthy relationships.
Changing Your Behavior
●Think before you speak.
●Separate the individual from their actions. If you work on separating the person from the action, you may naturally want to criticize less. As you realize you cannot judge a person’s character based on a single choice or decision, you will be unable to call someone out for being rude or disrespectful.
●Focus on positives. Oftentimes, being critical results from how you’re choosing to see a situation. Everyone has shortcomings. However, the vast majority of people have good qualities that outweigh bad ones.
Communicating More Effectively
●
●Ask for what you want directly. Inefficient communication often results in heavy criticism.
●Consider the other party’s perspective. If you criticize others too often, you may be shutting out the other person’s point of view. Try to step in another person’s shoes before criticizing and you may get some new and special ideas.
| A．Give feedback rather than criticism. |
| B．However, there are ways to avoid criticism. |
| C．Try to focus on a person’s positive qualities over their negative ones. |
| D．If you find yourself making assumptions about a person’s character, stop yourself. |
| E．If you’re not telling someone what you want, that person cannot be expected to know. |
| F．Criticism should, ideally, be working towards an effective solution to a negative situation. |
| G．When you want to dish out criticism, pause and consider whether you really need to say anything. |
5 . Teens who have good, supportive relationships with their teachers enjoy better health as adults, according to research published by an American research center.
“This research suggests that improving students’ relationships with teachers could have positive and long-lasting effects beyond just academic success,” said Jinho Kim, a professor at Korea University and author of the study. “It could also bring about health implications in the long run.” Previous research has suggested that teens’ social relationships might be linked to health outcomes in adulthood. However, it is not clear whether the link between teen relationships and lifetime health is causal (因果的) — it could be that other factors, such as different family backgrounds, might contribute to both relationship problems in adolescence and to poor health in adulthood. Also, most research has focused on teens’ relationships with their peers (同龄人), rather than on their relationships with teachers.
To explore those questions further, Kim analyzed data on nearly 20, 000 participants from the Add Health study, a national study in the U. S. that followed participants from seventh grade into early adulthood. The participant pool included more than 3, 400 pairs of siblings (兄弟姐妹). As teens, participants answered questions, like “How often have you had trouble getting along with other students and your teachers?” As adults, participants were asked about their physical and mental health.
Kim found that participants who had reported better relationships with both their peers and teachers in middle and high school also reported better physical and mental health in their mid-20s. However, when he controlled for family background by looking at pairs of siblings together, only the link between good teacher relationships and adult health remained significant.
The results suggest teacher relationships are more important than previously realized and that schools should invest in training teachers on how to build warm and supportive relationships with their students. “This is not something that most teachers receive much training in,” Kim said, “but it should be.”
1. What does the underlined word “implications” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Recipes. | B．Habits. | C．Risks. | D．Benefits. |
| A．Poor health in adolescence. | B．Teens’ relationships with their peers. |
| C．Limitations of the previous research. | D．Factors affecting health in adulthood. |
| A．Positive student-teacher relationship helps students’ adult health. |
| B．Good family background promises long-term adult health. |
| C．Healthy peer relationships leads to students’ academic success. |
| D．Good adult health depends on teens’ good teachers. |
| A．A medical report. | B．A health magazine. | C．A term paper. | D．A family survey. |
6 . Are you patient? Do you have attention to detail, free time and access to a computer? Well, then a scientist might welcome your help. Researchers in the UK say it’s becoming important to count on common people to help them with their projects. They need people to examine data and submit their observations online.
British teenagers Sasha and Matthew are taking part in a study of penguins (企鹅) from the comfort of their homes. The pair look at pictures and tag (加标签于) photos identifying adults, chicks and eggs. Every click of their mouse is helping to build up a detailed picture of penguin colonies (群). They, and thousands of others, are helping scientists to understand why some colonies are growing and others are decreasing. Within the first four hours of Penguin Watch going live, “citizen scientists” marked more images than the research team did in five years.
Dr. Tom Hart, Penguin Watch Coordinator at Oxford University, says, “When you go beyond what a scientist can analyse to what a mass audience can do, then it increases beyond what any other project could do.”
The British Science Association says families are helping out with careful research. It made a difference to the Planet Hunters Project, which ran for five years. Volunteers looked at dots which showed how the brightness of a star changed at different points in its solar system.
According to Dr. Robert Simpson from Oxford University, who took part in the project, the volunteers discovered planets and these are now in published papers. He says with pride, “We can go and look at these planets with other telescopes and we know they exist because of those helpers.”
But how do scientists guard their research against accidental or deliberate mistakes in observation? Dr. Simpson isn’t worried. “We get lots of people looking at the same things, ”he says. The researcher warns that people who are mistakenly clicking on the site are very obvious and can be identified very quickly. So, there’s no fooling the scientists.
And to make sure things go well, the Penguin Watch paper will go through a peer review before being published. After that, every “citizen scientist” will be credited.
1. According to the passage, who will be suitable to help the scientists?| A．An engineer who works in a company. |
| B．A university student who likes science. |
| C．A businessman who invests in a new project. |
| D．A careful teenager who uses the computer smoothly. |
| A．Publish his observation data by himself. |
| B．Observe pictures and record his observation. |
| C．Discuss his observation with other volunteers. |
| D．Take his report to the scientist and correct mistakes. |
| A．By working with volunteers. | B．By using their own data. |
| C．By identifying pictures and photos. | D．By going through a peer review. |
| A．Objective | B．Supportive. | C．Negative. | D．Doubtful. |
7 . Social events can be frightening for a woman because they usually involve huge crowds. Some manage to become the life of the party like a natural.
Being the life of the party means you have to turn heads as soon as you enter the room.
Keep yourself active at the party. Don’t sit in a corner and wait for people to talk to you.
There will be friendly strangers looking to start a conversation with you during the party. If someone approaches you with kind intentions, you may act in return for their effort. Getting to know other people in social events will help improve your confidence.
Some people turn out to be the centre of attention, even if they don’t follow the steps above. The important thing is that you’re having fun, which is better than becoming the life of the party.
| A．Pick the perfect dress for a party |
| B．When you recognise someone inside the party |
| C．When you are within steps away from the front door |
| D．Before you go to a party, take your time in preparation |
| E．When you decide to do something fun and eye-catching |
| F．However, be cautious of strangers who are too aggressive |
| G．A lot of people end up making a fool of themselves, though |
The key to success in both personal and professional relationships lies in your ability to communicate well. It’s not the words that you use but your body language that speaks the
Whether you’re aware of it or not, when you interact with others, you
In some
9 . How to Feel Connected
It's easy to feel disconnected from what is going on around you in today's fast-paced world.
Consider why you feel disconnected. Knowing what is making you feel disconnected can help you choose the best ways to address it.
Interact with people in person. Technology is a great way to stay in touch, but sometimes you need to spend time with other people in person.
Show appreciation.
| A．Ask others what they need from you. |
| B．A simple “thank you” goes a very long way. |
| C．Feeling connected gives people great confidence. |
| D．A gift should be delivered to friends on special occasions. |
| E．Sometimes you can feel isolated and distant from the ones you love. |
| F．Attending family events can help strengthen your relationship and keep it strong. |
| G．Targeting your efforts toward those issues allows you to close that distance more effectively. |
Have you ever been too shy to express thanks towards someone? Well, a new study says you should not worry about that so much.
Recently, researchers have published a study on how people gave and
In the experiments, the researchers asked
The writers often underestimated ( 低估 ) the positive effect that the emails would have
So next time you feel hesitant about expressing your appreciation for others, remember that it will most
