Change is scary. It can go hand in hand with the fear that we might hurt someone else if we think about ourselves. The truth is that you’re so much more courageous than you give yourself credit for and far stronger than you realize. Here are some ways that you can use to help yourself make the process of creating change more manageable.
Make change into small bite size pieces. Remember that as long as you attempt to take regular practice towards your goal, such as eating more healthily every day, or walking twenty minutes a day, you’re heading in the right direction to make changes.
From a habit of keeping a diary every day. Writing a journal every night before going to bed can effectively help you cope with the emotional impact of the change process. Go to grab a pen or pencil and remember a journal is not for being neat and tidy with good spelling.
Rest is essential to success. Have a rest and take timeout to build your energy. if we don’t give ourselves time to rest, we just end up burning out by the constant striving and worry. As we don’t have the energy to keep going, we have to give up!
Just accept it! I’m sorry to say that unless some people are really secure in themselves and truly happy in their own life, they’re never going to like your changes. This has nothing to do with whether they love you or not. They are just for self-preservation! Th
erefore, giving them a little time to adjust and get used to it.
| A．No one else is going to like your changes. |
| B．Don’t try to eat the elephant in one sitting. |
| C．It is a step into the unknown. |
| D．Keep repeating your small steps over and over again. |
E.It’s not being lazy to have timeout.
F.It’s a private place where you can speak out your inner thoughts.
G.Creating change is about building your character.
There is distinction between reading for information and reading for understanding.
The first sense is the one in which we read newspapers, magazines, or anything else. Such materials may increase our store of information, but they cannot improve our understanding. And clearly we don’t have any difficulty in gaining the new information, for our understanding was equal to them before we started. Otherwise, we would have felt the shock of puzzlement.
The second sense is the one in which we read something that at first we do not completely understand. Here the thing to be read is at the first sight better or higher than the reader. The writer is communicating something that can increase the reader’s understanding. Otherwise one person could never learn from another. Here “learning” means understanding more, not remembering more information.
What are the conditions in this kind of reading? First, there is inequality in understanding. Besides, his book must convey something he possesses and his potential readers lack. Second, the reader must be able to overcome this inequality in some degree. And he should always try to reach the same level of understanding with the writer. If the equality is approached, success of communication is achieved.
It is the least demanding and requires the least amount of effort. Everyone who knows how to read can read for entertainment if he wants to. In fact, any book that can be read for understanding or information can probably be read for entertainment as well.
| A．Thus, we can employ the word “reading” in two distinct senses. |
| B．Such communication between unequals must be possible. |
| C．We can get access to the content of those materials easily. |
| D．The writer must be “superior” to the reader in understanding. |
E. The writer should have a better communicating skill.
F. Besides gaining information and understanding, there’s another goal of reading—entertainment.
G. Reading for entertainment is capable of increasing our understanding for information.
Stay on the brighter side of life
One very important component of optimism is gratitude or feeling grateful. In fact, there is a strong connection between a grateful attitude and a heightened sense of well-being. Appreciate all the positives in your life by starting a gratitude journal in order to remember what you’re grateful for. ____
Feeling down? Instead of feeling sorry for yourself waiting for the universe to throw you a bone, try acting like you’re happy—even if you aren’t. A sincere smile and a forced smile will cause the same chemical reactions in your brain, so you can actually fool your mind into feeling better by making it react chemically as if things were going well. ___ Reassure yourself that everything is good— even if you don’t feel it.
“_____ If you’re stuck in traffic, then everything else must be going horribly too,” says Anne Parker, a wellness counselor. By blowing negative events out of proportion, you’re setting yourself up for feeling down all day. Instead, acknowledge that you’re stuck in traffic, but also bring to mind something good, like the beautiful scenery outside the window. That way, you’ll get in the habit of forbidding negative circumstances from blanketing your whole day.
Swearing to lose 20 pounds or to run a marathon seems like goals leading to happiness, but they take time to achieve. ____ You may even end up admitting that you have been defeated. However, if you focus on the small milestones that occur along the way, you will feel positive about your progress, which will give you the strength to keep going.
___ Try making someone else’s day better. A report by United Healthcare and Volunteer Match found that volunteers are 72% more likely to characterize themselves as optimistic compared with non-volunteers. Plus, 89% of volunteers say that volunteering has improved their sense of well-being, and 92% say that it enriches their sense of purpose in life.
| A．Try to help someone in need. |
| B．Want to give your attitude a lift? |
| C．People tend to think in an either-or way. |
| D．Act in an optimistic way—smile, laugh, tell a joke. |
E. You’ll fail to appreciate more important things in your life.
F. By focusing on not having accomplished them yet, you will start to feel down on yourself.
G. By remembering the pleasant things in your life, you can actually turn a negative attitude around.
下面文章中有5个段落需要添加首句，请从以下选项（A、B、C、D、E和F）中选出适合各段落的首句，选项中有一项是多余选项。
A. Be a good listener.B. Care about the details.
C. Strike up a conversation.D. Make time for friendships.
E. Reach out to the newcomers. F. Avoid causing inconveniences
Develop Better Relationships with Neighbors
Good neighbors are a lot like electricity or running water：we don’t know how much we depend on them until we don’t have them. They make our lives more pleasant and give us a sense of who we are, both as an individual and as a member of the community. Here’s how to develop your relationships with these very important people in your life._________ Often neighbors don’t even know each other’s names. But it’s okay to be the one to break the ice , even if you’ve lived next door for years. Most neighbors enjoy making small talk with the folks on the other side of the fence. So as you see them at work in their yards, smile, wave, and say hello. Ask how their kids are (whether they’re babies or in college), whether they could use an extra cucumber from your garden, or what they think of the price at the local supermarket.
_________ These days, the old Welcome Wagon is a thing of the past. But your new neighbors may be feeling lonely and unsure, especially if they’re far from home, and might appreciate a friendly face bearing fresh-baked chocolate cakes. If they have kids, tell them where the children in the neighborhood live. Recommend the best places to eat and sleep. Invite them over for coffee or tea when they get settled, give them your number, and point to your house as you say good-bye.
__________ Return anything that you borrow from a neighbor, such as tools, in good repair and as soon as you’ve finished with them. Replace anything that belongs to your neighbor that you, your children, or your pets break or soil. Make sure that your car is not blocking their doorway. Such random acts of consideration will have your neighbors talking — and the talk will be good.
__________ If you value a friendship with your neighbors, spend time with them. What better way to meet your neighbors than to invite them to an informal barbecue, pool party, or holiday open house? Better yet, you might even consider throwing a get-together in their honor. Deliver the invitations in person to everyone who lives on your street and chat with each for five minutes before moving on to the next house. This way, you will get an idea of what your neighbors are like so that you can plan for appropriate food and music.
___________ In a good relationship, it’s really the little things that count. Help to bring in the mail for the elderly neighbor when there is a heavy rain. When your neighbor forgets to take in his rubbish cans, roll them back into his yard. If you’re truly concerned, you’ll know when your neighbor needs some cheering up — a bunch of flowers or a helping hand when it’s needed. All it takes to develop your relationship with neighbors is the respect for their feelings.
探险家Ranulph Fiennes在电视节目中回答了主持人的有关野外求生的5个问题（第1-5题）。 请从下列提问（A,B,C,D,E,和F）中选出与他的回答相匹配的问题。选项中有一项是多余选项。
Questions:
Do you think people should be decisive in the wild?
How to make hunting tools?
Do you think people should send an SOS while they are in danger?
How to make a fire in the wild?
How to set a trap to hunt animals?
How to build a shelter in the wild?___________
Answer: If you are in a desert environment, try to build an underground shade shelter to avoid prolonged sun exposure, obviously only for hot climates. So you can be more comfortable in cooler temperatures to avoid sweating. If your environment is damp, use branches laid and criss-crossed on top of one another to create a solid and dry foundation for an open bed pad. Raise the foundation above ground level as much as possible._________
Answer: Yes, I think so. For example, if you think the best survival course of action is to look for help and civilization, don’t wait 4 or 5 days before you come to this conclusion. Take action on the 1st or 2nd day if possible while you still have strength and endurance working for you.__________
Answer: Use dry wood and sticks to start your fire. Fire is started by using three kinds of wood: tinder, kindling, and fuel. Tinder is any kind of flammable wood shavings, usually light and wispy. You can take two pieces of dry wood, sharpen one of them and use it to drill into the other piece. Place any highly flammable objects you can find next to the drill bit. The moment the flammable object catches a spark, use a rock to swiftly tip the object onto a nest of leaves and little branches.__________
Answer: Get an ordinary block of wood and hit it with a rock repeatedly until the wood sharpens. In this case, use the rock as your sharpener. You could also take a rock and break off some of the edges and then use another rock and some water like a wet stone and sharpen. In an ideal situation, obsidian stone would be used for its infamous sharpness.____________
Answer: Use two more sticks to hold up a “teepee”, similar to your shelter. Place an item of your choice you think an animal will come after, if you’re lucky, the animal will be trapped. Dig a hole in the ground about 2m-3m deep and 1m-2m across. Take two thin branches and place them criss-crossed across the hole. Cover it with leaves and put something the animals like to eat. You can also put a few wooden spikes sharpened by your knife at the bottom. Don’t forget to build a ladder or you might not be able to climb out of the hole.
A. New teachers’ opinions of involving parents
B. An argument over an assignment
C. A conflict between assumption and reality
D. Difficulties in sharing goals
E. The best way to score high
F. Proper ways of parental involvement _______ An Iowa high school counselor gets a call from a parent protesting the “C” her child received on an assignment. “The parent argued every point in the essay,” recalls the counselor, who soon realized why the mother was so disappointed about the grade. “It became apparent that she’d written it. ”
_______ In a survey, 90% of new teachers agreed that involving parents in their children’s education is a priority at their school, but only 25% described their experience working with parents as “very satisfying”. When asked to choose the biggest challenge they face, 31％ of them quoted involving parents and communicating with them as their top choice. 73％ of new teachers said too many parents treat schools and teachers as enemies.
_______ At a time when competition is rising and resources are limited, when battles over testing force schools to adjust their priorities, when cell phones and e-mail speed up the information flow and all kinds of private ghosts and public quarrels slip into the parent-teacher conference, it’s harder for both sides to step back and breathe deeply and look at the goals they share.
_______ Everyone says the parent-teacher conference should be pleasant, civilized, a kind of dialogue where parents and teachers build partnership. But what most teachers feel, and certainly what all parents feel, is anxiety and panic.
_______ When a teacher asks parents to be partners, he or she doesn’t necessarily mean Mom or Dad should be camping in the classroom. Research shows that though students benefit modestly from having parents involved at school, what happens at home matters much more. According to research based on the National Education Longitudinal Study, a sample of nearly 25,000 eighth graders, among four main areas of parental involvement (home discussion, home supervision, school communication, and school participation), home discussion was the most strongly related.