Finding Your Hidden Talents

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    What sorts of things do you like to read about, watch or do? What are your favorite shows on television? Which column of the newspaper and magazines do you like to read? To know what you are interested in is the first step towards finding your hidden talents.

 ● Try out different things.

    If y ou want to find out your dexterity (灵巧) in each of the things that interest you, then try them out.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Locate a safe environment, where you can try out different things without anybody's interference (干扰).

 ●Find your passion（激情）

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. However, there will be only a thing or two, which you are passionate about. What is the one thing that you love to do the most, with most enthusiasm (热情)? Get the answer to the question and you will come to know what exactly you are passionate about.

 ●Improve yourself

    After you come to know about the areas of your interest, it is the time to improve yourself. Read lots of books and learn from people. One of the best ways to learn something is to teach.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. This will help increase your depth of knowledge. In this process, you will be able to discover all your hidden talents.

 ●Know your limits

    In the process of finding your strengths or talents, you should not ignore your weaknesses as well. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Know what makes you struggle. You will then come to know about your talents as well as the areas that you need to work on.

A. Find your interests.

B. Know your strengths.

C. Therefore, teach what you have learnt.

D. You may be a person of various interests.

E. Carry out experiments and explore things.

F. It needs observation and analysis （分析）of one's own self.

G. Find out the things which you are not good at.

    Improve your memory

    Do you find yourself forgetting where you left your keys or blanking out information on important tests?{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Before your next big exam, be sure to check out some of these tried and tested ways of improving memory.

    Focus your attention on the materials you are studying. Attention is one of the major components (组成部分) of memory. In order for information to move from short-term memory into long-term memory, you need to actively attend to this information.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Structure and organize the information you are studying. Researchers have found that information is best organized in related groups.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Or you can make an outline of your notes and textbook readings to help group related concepts (概念).

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}When you are studying unfamiliar material, take the time to think about how this information relates to things that you already know. By establishing relationships between new ideas and previously existing memories, you can greatly increase the likelihood of recalling (回想起) the recently learned information.

    Pay extra attention to difficult information. Remembering information at the beginning or end of an article is easy. However, recalling information from its middle can be difficult.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Another way is to try restructuring what you have learned so it will be easier to remember. When you come across an especially difficult concept, devote some extra time to memorizing the information.

A.Use this approach in your own studies.

B. Try grouping similar concepts and terms together.

C. Relate new information to things you already know.

D. Repeat the information you are studying to improve memory.

E. Try to study in a quiet place and concentrate on your learning.

F. Fortunately, there are things that you can do to help improve your memory.

G. You can overcome this problem by spending extra time memorizing this information.

    We were high in the mountains of Xishuangbanna, as far south as you can get in Yunnan, skirting the borders of Myanmar and Laos. The drive was typical, textbook beauty: mountains thick with rubber tree forests, pu'er tea plantations and banana palms and tiny Dai villages. Hidden among the fields of green, I spotted an odd collection of wooden boxes near a tent on the side of the road{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    We had run into the current home of Wei Dajing, a 17-year-old apprentice (学徒) beekeeper who was manning his hives. Wei was fresh to the beekeeping life, and had been on the job for just two months and was here to learn from a master beekeeper. Their tent and hive set-up is always temporary{#blank#}2{#/blank#}This particular spot was stationed at a sunny patch of yellow flowers. Once these flowers die, the rubber trees will be flowering, so we will move toward them,” he told Sam.

    Like thieves in the night, the beekeepers will stealthily pack up their hives in the dark once the bees go to sleep. “They are most active around midday when they are collecting their nectar (花蜜){#blank#}3{#/blank#}Wei explained.

    The hives were humming, and bees were invasively buzzing around Wei as he spoke to us. Pieces of fruit lay drying among the hives, used to feed the bees and give them an extra boost of energy once Wei bottles up their hard-earned honey. Sam, who also has a couple of his own small hives in his backyard, tells us you must always leave a little bit of honey in the hive{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    We waved goodbye to Wei. Back at Sam's house, he gave us a bowlful of local honey{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Lacking the usual sweetness of honey but instead rich with a more savory, spiced flavor, it tasted just like China.

A. It was smooth, thin and runny.

B. Wei skillfully collected honey from the hives.

C. Otherwise the bees get fed up and abandon you.

D. Maybe it is the flowers that give such unique taste to the honey.

E. By 10 pm they are asleep in their hives, which is when we move.

F. I asked our excellent guide and new best friend, Sam, to pull over.

G. Wei and his master move their camp as the flowers bloom and die.

    Empathy Last year, researchers from the University of Michigan reported that empathy, the ability to understand other people, among college students had dropped sharply over the past 10 years. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Today, people spend more time alone and are less likely to join groups and clubs. Jennifer Freed, a co-director of a teen program, has another explanation. Turn on the TV, and you're showered with news and reality shows full of people fighting, competing, and generally treating one another with no respect. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}There are good reasons not to follow those bad examples. Humans are socially related by nature. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Researchers have also found that empathetic teenagers are more likely to have high self-respect. Besides, empathy can be a cure for loneliness, sadness, anxiety, and fear. Empathy is also an indication of a good leader. In fact, Freed says, many top companies report that empathy is one of the most important things they look for in new managers. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}"Academics are important. But if you don't have emotional (情感的) intelligence, you won't be as successful in work or in your love life," she says. What's the best way to up your EQ (情商）? For starters, let down your guard and really listen to others. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}To really develop empathy, you'd better volunteer at a nursing home or a hospital, join a club or a team that has a diverse membership, have a "sharing circle" with your family, or spend time caring for pets at an animal shelter.

A. Everyone is different, and levels of empathy differ from person to person.

B. That could be because so many people have replaced face time with screen time, the researchers said.

C. "One doesn't develop empathy by having a lot of opinions and doing a lot of talking," Freed says.

D. Humans learn by example—and most of the examples on it are anything but empathetic.

E. Empathy is a matter of learning how to understand someone else—both what they think and how they feel.

F. Good social skills—including empathy—are a kind of "emotional intelligence" that will help you succeed in many areas of life.

G. Having relationships with other people is an important part of being human—and having empathy is decisive to those relationships.

    Daily to-do lists can help you get focused and organized. Follow these tips to create a good to-do list.

    Notice the order.

    It may help you to develop some sort of system for your to-do list. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, you can even use a number system and mark them from 1 to 5. Items that are marked 1 might be done later, while the 5s are tasks you should deal with first.

    Reduce the list.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. If you have 15 minutes to spare, find something on the list that you can complete in that time period. You may think that 15 minutes is not enough to do something, but several 15 minutes add up to something huge.

    Add in something fun.

    Your to do list is no doubt full of things you may not like. That's why adding in fun activities and tasks should also be important. A fun item doesn't feel like work. It may even feel like a break. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Don't list too much.

    It's important not to overwhelm yourself. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. If there's too much on your plate or you have to work too fast, you can't possibly enjoy yourself and you'll only end up being frustrated and overwhelmed.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

    Your list needs to be organized in a way that makes you feel comfortable. There are many choices nowadays. However, the old-fashioned pen and paper method may work best for you. You can also use the Internet or even your cell phone to keep your list organized.

A. Keep it organized

B. Avoid too much stress

C. Write it the night before

D. Certainly every item on the list can't be equally important

E. You need to complete talks or part of tasks one step at a time

F. When you return to the less interesting items, you'll be more active to get them done

G. Everything that goes on your to-do list should be something important that you need to do

Bathed in two cultures from childhood, moving around the world and experiencing different cultures has always been my thing. When I was in high school, I heard about students in my class wanting to take the SAT test and study abroad in the USA. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Actually, what I wanted to experience most was the European lifestyle and cultural mix.

 I used to travel a lot around Europe with my parents as a little kid, and also not forgetting that the French Language is one of my mother tongues, France seemed therefore like a top choice for me. French universities have a good reputation and the French capital is internationally well known for its cultural history. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. My university was one of those small cities and I also got the chance to obtain a scholarship which made it easier for me to start my studies.

 {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. Opportunities are offered to develop our network and explore the business world. The university participated as a partner in international networking courses leading to a European Master's degree, a double degree, or training abroad.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. So, if you are an international student who came to France for studies, you can take the chance to explore another country for a term and study in English. I remember wanting to take this opportunity in my first year of my college life and try the program which back then offered students the chance to go on an exchange with Linnaeus University in Sweden. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

A.I applied and was lucky to get accepted

B.But I was not that attracted to studying there

C.You can find a lot of student-friendly cities as well

D.Besides, all these universities have their own unique advantages

E.The university I chose was small but used to invite business chiefs and directors

F.Because there are many universities with good reputation which attracts students

G.Plus, all French universities work with several countries to offer an exchange program