1 . Have you ever argued with a friend, and said or done something you regretted? Sometimes it can be hard to put things right, especially when feelings have been hurt. Knowing how to apologise can help you become friends again and to understand why you fell out in the first place.
We argue for all kinds of reasons. You might think your football team is fantastic but your friend disagrees; or maybe your sister is being really annoying. Sometimes, especially if you’re angry, things can spiral out of control and you’ll say or do something you regret. Arguing and disagreeing with others occasionally is normal — we all do it — but it’s important to resolve your differences afterwards so bad feelings don’t get worse. This is where an apology can help.
We all make mistakes, and apologising is a way of admitting we’ve got something wrong and will try not to do it again. Dr. Jennifer Thomas, a psychologist and author, believes an apology needs to show the other person that we’re genuinely (真诚地) sorry, we accept responsibility for our actions and we want their forgiveness.
Sometimes another person may pressure you into taking the blame when it’s not your fault. If you feel this is happening, try talking about why you argued in the first place and explain how it made you feel. If you still can’t agree, you could ask a parent or teacher to help you resolve the problem.
Sorry on its own might not always be enough, so try to ask the other person how they felt while you were arguing. Explain your side too, and make it clear you’ll try not to repeat the same mistake again. A genuine apology isn’t a magic wand (魔杖); it may take some time for someone to understand and forgive. Even after you’ve said sorry, you could still feel bad but you can feel good about trying to fix things and promising yourself to do better next time.
1. Why is it important to resolve differences after an argument?A.To ensure that bad feelings worsen over time. | B.To maintain relationship and prevent damage. |
C.To avoid taking responsibility for one’s action. | D.To establish leading power over one’s friends. |
A.Stop. | B.Decrease. | C.Increase. | D.Win. |
A.Both parties will forget the argument. | B.Forgiveness could take quite a while. |
C.The person apologizing can calm down. | D.Relationships will improve immediately. |
A.The Power of Apologies | B.The Causes of Arguments |
C.The Significance of Forgiveness | D.The Benefits of Communication |
2 . We often think about relationships on a scale from positive to negative. We are drawn to loving family members, caring classmates and supportive mentors. We do our best to avoid the cruel uncle, the playground bully and the jerk boss.
But the most toxic relationships aren’t the purely negative ones. They’re the ones that are a mix of positive and negative. We often call them frenemies, supposed friends who sometimes help you and sometimes hurt you. But ifs not just friends. It’s the in-laws who volunteer to watch your kids but belittle your parenting. The manager who praises your work but denies you a promotion.
Everyone knows how relationships like that can tie your stomach into a knot. But groundbreaking research led by the psychologists Bert Uchino and Julianne Holt-Lunstad shows that ambivalent (矛盾情绪的) relationships can be damaging to your health — even more than purely negative relationships.
I had assumed that with a neighbor or a colleague, having some positive interactions was better than all negative interactions. But being cheered on by the same person who cuts you down doesn’t reduce the bad feelings; it increases them. And it’s not just in your head: It leaves a trace in your heart and your blood.
Even a single ambivalent interaction can cause harm. In one experiment, people gave impromptu speeches on controversial topics in front of a friend who offered feedback. The researchers had randomly assigned the friend to give ambivalent or negative comments. Receiving mixed feedback caused higher blood pressure than pure criticism. “I would have gone about the topic differently, but you’re doing fine” proved to be more distressing than “I totally disagree with everything you’ve said.”
The evidence that ambivalent relationships can be bad for us is strong, but the reasons can be harder to read — just like the relationships themselves.
The most intuitive reason is that ambivalent relationships are unpredictable. With a clear enemy, you put up a shield when you cross paths. With a frenemy, you never know whether Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde is going to show up. Feeling unsure can disrupt the body’s calming system and activate a fight-or-flight response. It’s unsettling to hope for a hug while also preparing for a likely quarrel.
Another factor is that unpleasant interactions are more painful in an ambivalent relationship. It’s more upsetting to be let down by people you like sometimes than by people you dislike all the time. When someone stabs you in the back, it stings more if he’s been friendly to your face.
1. Which of the following can be counted as a frenemy?A.Your neighbour’s kid who advises you to study hard but idles away his own time. |
B.Your classmate who admires your diligence at first, but doubts your intelligence later. |
C.Your mother’s friend who encourages you to spend more time on homework but less on smart phones. |
D.Your father’s colleague who proposes you to do a moderate amount of homework while ensuring adequate sleep. |
A.Ambivalent relationships have a permanent effect on your well-being. |
B.The common cause for high blood pressure is ambivalent relationship. |
C.Ambivalent interactions will be more painful if it is done consciously. |
D.The negative impact of ambivalent interactions is direct and strong. |
A.devalue | B.appreciate | C.respect | D.abuse |
A.Some Negative Relationships Are Bad for Your Health |
B.Your Most Ambivalent Relationships Are the Most Toxic |
C.The Reasons for Ambivalent Relationships Are Unpredictable |
D.Some Positive Relationships Are Better than All Negative Ones |
3 . As a professional life and relationship coach, Allison Cowan has over 21 years of experience in teaching and supporting others to achieve their goals. She has dedicated her career to helping her clients gain power and awareness in their lives.
As a coach, Allison inspires her clients to overcome obstacles and achieve goals. However, her practice has come with its own share of challenges. Expanding her knowledge to meet diverse client needs has involved lots of trial-and-error searching.
Initially, Allison spent a hard time building strong and trustworthy relationships with her clients. She knew trust was critical to finding and retaining clients but was frustrated at how long the trust-building process takes.
Allison soon learned that there was no single right way to coach. To meet her clients’ different needs, she needed to become more efficient at supporting their diverse learning styles. To overcome her challenges as a coach and offer better service, she began looking for ways to customize her coaching solutions.
During her search, Allison realized Positive Psychology is a field with many different goals. “It covers so many areas, including whatever a client may go through,” she recalled. Later, she began using self-reflection tools to help her clients develop self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. She even discovered a way to help clients without a coaching goal find their purposes. She said, “There’s a lot of blame. The more they stay in blame mode, the more angry they are, and they are not able to move forward with acceptance and forgiveness. But we can find solutions in Positive Psychology.”
Whether Allison was helping clients build self-confidence, understand their attachment styles, or reframe their challenges, she quickly found that she was also learning all the time. By completing the homework Allison assigned to them, her clients were also changing. They were more engaged with their coaching and making more significant progress between their sessions. That made Allison proud. She said, “They grow and move forward at a quicker pace. That’s what coaching is about.”
1. Why is Allison’s initial trouble mentioned in the text?A.To show her special efforts. | B.To stress her defeated career. |
C.To prove the difficulty in coaching. | D.To give the reason for setting goals. |
A.She used the same coaching ways to teach them. |
B.She coached them according to their own needs. |
C.She tried her best to change their learning styles. |
D.She helped them overcome their challenges in life. |
A.Doubtful. | B.Unclear. |
C.Supportive. | D.Dismissive. |
A.Allison’s clients misunderstood what coaching is about. |
B.Allison learned to build self-confidence all the time. |
C.Allison’s clients helped her complete homework. |
D.Allison and her clients benefited each other. |
4 . “Shyness can stop you from doing all the things in life that you’d like to,” the Smiths once sang. However, research suggests that may not be the case when working as a team.
Researchers have found that when animals temper their personalities because of social rules, the efficiency of a group to undertake risky missions—such as foraging (觅食) for food—is boosted. “We see this phenomenon happening when we mix together a school of fish with wildly different personalities: the very fearless individuals and the very shy individuals tend to control what they would normally be doing when they stick with the rest of the group,” said Dr. Sean Rands, the lead author of the research at the University of Bristol.
Writing in the journal PLoS Computational Biology, the researchers reported how they built a computer model to investigate the impact of social conventions and animals’ personalities on the movement of individuals within a group. The model was based on an assumption in which a group of animals in a safe “home” set out to travel to a food foraging site some distance away.
The results revealed that when no social conventions were in place, their movements were governed by their personalities alone—in other words how fearless or shy they were determined how quickly they left home and arrived at the foraging site. However, when social conventions were introduced, so that the individuals had to keep an eye on each other and adjust their movements accordingly, the impact of personality reduced with less variation in how quickly they reached the destination. The team found where social conventions were present, the group foraged more efficiently than when individuals behaved independently. “We find that if individuals pay attention to the other members of the group, the group will tend to remain at the safe site for longer, but then travel faster towards the foraging site,” the team wrote.
Rands added that for many social animals, being part of a group can bring huge benefits, and these can outweigh the influence of personality.
1. Why are the Smiths’ words mentioned in paragraph 1?A.To give an example. |
B.To make a comparison. |
C.To lead in the topic. |
D.To introduce the background. |
A.Adjust their behavior. |
B.Take on risky missions. |
C.Ignore social rules. |
D.Travel to a distant foraging site. |
A.Personalities alone determine movements. |
B.Individuals prefer to behave independently. |
C.Group work increases exposure to potential risks. |
D.Social conventions contribute to working efficiency. |
A.Be Part of a Group |
B.Stay True to Yourself |
C.Get Rid of Your Shyness |
D.Control Your Personalities |
5 . You might have ever noticed how some people can effortlessly talk to anyone they meet, no matter how different their backgrounds are. Or you may have seen that one person always offends someone, no matter what the topic of conversation is. These two situations describe how we can differ in our abilities to interact, get along with, and relate to others around us. In the same way that we vary in traditional academic competencies, we can vary in how socially competent we are. After years of academic research and development, this social ability is now commonly referred to as “social intelligence.”
Social intelligence is the ability to understand other people, how they work, what motivates them, and how to work cooperatively with them. It is a relationshipbased construct that centers on the way we understand others, interact with others, and present ourselves to others. As an example, you would not speak in the same way toward your 70-year-old mother as you would to your 16-yearold daughter. In our working lives, we come across different social groups including those from different countries, varying age groups and cultural identities. Being able to acknowledge and understand people’s different backgrounds is a key way to connect with them.
Our ability to navigate successfully through our lives relies heavily on our levels of social intelligence. It can affect the relationships we form with our partners and children, the friendship circles that we build, and our ability to progress in our careers and ambitions. Given the importance of social intelligence in multiple aspects of life, it is therefore in our best interest to better understand the concept of social intelligence and take the following ways to improve it.
1. What is the first paragraph intended to show?A.Academic research varies from person to person. |
B.Social competencies are crucial to academic research. |
C.Social competencies are of difference person to person. |
D.Academic research shows people’s social competencies. |
A.To present a fact. | B.To justify an idea. |
C.To introduce a topic. | D.To draw a conclusion. |
A.It is difficult to develop social intelligence. |
B.Our relationship circles should be enlarged. |
C.Better understanding a concept is important. |
D.Social intelligence has great effects on our lives. |
A.How to define social intelligence. | B.How to classify social intelligence. |
C.How to improve social intelligence. | D.How to deal with social intelligence. |
6 . Criticism from others can be difficult to take, especially if the person delivering the criticism isn’t exactly subtle(含蓄的)about it. So how should we deal with it?
Try to separate the criticism from the environment in which it was given.
Turn those useful opinions into goals.
Adjust your attitude. You can do all of this and still get depressed when someone tells you how you can improve. Attitude is the key here.
A.Focus on the meaningful part of the criticism. |
B.Look at criticism as a chance to grow and get better. |
C.Here are some ways you can get benefits from criticism. |
D.Vaw your reaction to criticism depending on its intention. |
E.It’s important to never let the opportunity for criticism pass you by. |
F.It’s normal to be defensive when criticized and to react accordingly. |
G.Once you have specific, practical tips, turn them into measurable to-dos. |
7 . A year after Benjamin Canlas died at 17,his love of helping others lives on. Through a foundation
In the Philippines,many jobs have been lost
At first,their
Among the
There are people still in need and much more
A.given up | B.set up | C.held up | D.brought up |
A.still | B.already | C.ever | D.yet |
A.at the cost of | B.in spite of | C.as a result of | D.in case of |
A.extra | B.temporary | C.dangerous | D.suitable |
A.completely | B.regularly | C.aimlessly | D.severely |
A.sell | B.rent | C.give away | D.pay for |
A.plan | B.dream | C.program | D.duty |
A.models | B.designs | C.girls | D.applications |
A.invented | B.intended | C.required | D.arranged |
A.assistants | B.travelers | C.visitors | D.winners |
A.challenging | B.measuring | C.covering | D.finishing |
A.valuable | B.convenient | C.enjoyable | D.spare |
A.money | B.joy | C.help | D.freedom |
A.projects | B.actions | C.jobs | D.courses |
A.ordering | B.persuading | C.forcing | D.urging |
8 . Emoji(表情符号) and Workplace Communication
In Asia, messaging platforms are growing rapidly, with users in the hundreds of millions, both at work and play.
Written communications can often read as cold and dull. Using emojis can add humor and feeling, keeping intention clear.
In any given office, employees can range from age 22 to 70 and beyond, and finding common ground in communication style can be a challenge.
There is also the matter of tone(语气). Who hasn’t received an email so annoying that it ruined an entire day?
A.Message with emojis feel more conversational |
B.Even a formal email can seem cold and unfriendly |
C.Sending smiling faces to colleagues may seem strange |
D.The popularity of these platforms is spreading globally |
E.Giving employees the tools enables them to communicate honestly |
F.Studies show that friendlier communication leads to a happier workplace |
G.An easy way to bring all work generations together is with a chat platform |