Homesickness at college

    The thought of college life is quite exciting for students as they taste independence for the first time at college. Their hard work and effort paid off after all. Though college life brings lots of dreams and expectations for students, most of them soon start feeling homesick.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}But change is a part of life and dealing with change helps us to grow. In the same way, homesickness at college is a brief experience which goes away once students start adjusting in their new environment.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Some students may turn to alcohol and drugs. So it is important that students who experience homesickness at college know about how to deal with it. Students should understand that rather than constantly thinking of their hometown, it is better to see it as a challenge and try to defeat it . Though it is not a difficult task, the time that will take each person to deal with home-

sickness at college will be different according to their attitude and personality.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Youcan do that, too.

    Remember overcoming homesickness is accepting what you are experiencing. Many students think that being homesick is childish and undeveloped feeling and try to cover it up by acting cool or showing that they are very busy.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Besides, even their classmates will be going through the same emotions and feelings. Instead of trying to make them understand that they are totally fine after shifting to the new school, going through their emotions and thoughts about life at home for a day or two will be a better choice.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Homesickness helps students build up a better understanding of life.

B. Homesickness leads to dangerous results if not solved properly.

C. But they don't realize that homesickness is common to people of all ages.

D. You may miss your parents as you leave home for the first time.

E. This is an important part in the process of beating homesickness.

F. The main reason for the development of such a feeling is change.

G. Believe this is a possible achievement that everyone can achieve.

How To Cultivate Your Confidence

    Self-confidence, the combination of self-efficacy and self-esteem, is an essential part of humanity. A person with self confidence generally is willing to take risks to achieve his personal goals, Someone who lacks self confidence, however, is less likely to feel that he can achieve his goals, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Identify your negative thoughts,

    Your negative thoughts might sound like this: "I can't do that," "I will surely fail". This inner voice is pessimistic and unhelpful and will hold you back from achieving high self-esteem and greater self confidence.

    Turn your negative thoughts to positive thoughts.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}This may take the form of positive affirmations, such as "I am going to try it," "I can be successful if I work at it, "or "people will listen to me." Start with just a few positive thoughts a day.

    Refuse to allow negative thoughts to occur more often than positive thoughts.

Eventually, your positive thoughts should be given more "brain space" than your negative thoughts, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Avoid spending time around things that can make you feel bad about yourself again. These might be reminders from the past, clothing that no longer fits, or places that don't fit with your new goals of gaining confidence. Though you may not be able to get rid of every negative source in your life, you can certainly think about how to cut your losses. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Get away from your past.

B. Rid reminders of your negativity.

C. This will go a long way in building up your self-confidence.

D. This means that you can have an abundance of self-confidence.

E. The more your positive thoughts get ，the less your negative thoughts get.

F. As you pay attention to your negative thoughts, turn them around to positive thoughts

G. The good news is that self-confidence is something that you can build on your own.

The coffee story

    Kaldi was tired but he couldn't sleep. His goats were awake and very noisy. "Why can't they sleep?" Kaldi thought. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}They were eating some green plants with little red fruits on them. Kaldi decided to taste the fruits. He ate the soft part of each fruit and the hard things in the centre. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}He was not tired. He felt more awake and did not want to sleep.

    Those hard things were coffee beans, and Kaldi discovered them in Ethiopia more than 1,000 years ago. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Perhaps it is true, perhaps not. Nobody knows. But we know that coffee grew first in Ethiopia, and we know that somebody discovered it there more than 1,000 years ago.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Arab farmers began to grow coffee plants. People learnt to make a drink from the beans, and they called it qahwa.

For 400 years, only the Arabs knew about qahwa. Then people in Turkey learnt about it. Soon after that, western Europeans began to drink it, and in 1652 the first coffee shop in London opened.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Some famous coffee-growing countries are Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and, of course, Ethiopia Coffee is one of the world's favourite drinks thanks to Kaldi and his goats.

A. At least that's the traditional story.

B. After a minute he began to feel different.

C. Many Arab farmers grew coffee to make money.

D. Now farmers grow coffee in many parts of the world.

E. Coffee was such an important drink during that time period.

F. He couldn't understand the problem so he watched the animals carefully.

G. After that, Arab travelers took coffee plants to Egypt and other Arab countries.

    Did you once make you friends angry or unhappy because of your words? Are you having trouble getting people to reply to your requests? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Learn how to say things the right way with this great guide!

    Could you give me five minutes? vs Go away.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} When you're busy and can't do anything else, just saying "Go away" is certainly not right. You can keep everyone happy by saying "Could you give me five minutes?"

    Excuse me. vs Move.

    Telling someone to "Move out of the way" is very impolite. The next time someone is in your way, saying "Excuse me" is a good idea. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    I'm afraid I can't. vs No.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} People will think it impolite to simply say "No". The next time you have to refuse an invitation, you'd better say, "I'm afraid I can't."

    Would you mind...? vs Stop it!

    Someone doing something you don't like, and perhaps being impolite. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} To get the result you want, it's not a good idea to shout "Stop talking on your phone in the cinema!" and it's a good choice to ask them politely with the sentence, "Would you mind not using your phone in the cinema, please?"

    Do you remember those times when your mother told you to avoid talking to strangers? But now you're not a child anymore. In fact, there are advantages of talking to strangers.

    You can meet a really great person.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} You can meet a person who'll become your best friend in future. You can also meet someone who'll give you a chance to get your dream job or somehow help you in life.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    You have some opinion about different subjects and you know your friends' and relatives' points of view about them too. But there are millions of other people who think differently and can give you unpredictable yet smart ideas that'll broaden your horizons.

    You improve your social skills.

    Whatever social skills you have, you can make them better when talking to strangers. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} You can better these skills when talking to a stranger.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    If you belong to that shy type of people, talking to a stranger may seem to be a real challenge for you. I'm also extremely shy but I realize it's not an issue at all. You can overcome your fear of being judged by others by talking to strangers and become more confident.

    You can cheer someone up.

    The thing you'll definitely like about talking to strangers is that you can make someone's day better. Smile and people will smile in return. Compliment people and they'll think something pleasant about you. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Test-taking tips

    Passing tests is a huge part of succeeding at school. Clearly, if you want to do well on a test, you need to prepare by learning the material(资料) {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Just breathe.

    Even the best prepared student sometimes gets nervous before a test. Nervous feelings can cause people to forget facts that they know. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Breathing deeply is helpful for this. So is moving your body slightly, such as by rolling your shoulders around. Try to arrive for a test a few minutes early, so you can relax before it starts.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    When you are handed a test, look over all the questions before you begin. Read them carefully, noticing details. Also pay attention to how many points each question is worth. Divide your time based on the percentage of your grade each question is worth.

    First answer questions you know and then go back to the difficult ones. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}But try to write an answer for every question on the test, even if you're not sure of the answer. The only exception(例外) is if you will lose points for wrong answers

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. If you're not sure whether you should change an answer, it's best not to. More often than not, your first instinct(本能) will be correct.

    Try your best.

    Above all, study well and try your best. If you do that, you can be proud of whatever score you get.

A. Pay attention to the time.

B. Read the test through first.

C. So one important test-taking tip is to try to relax.

D. But other actions can help make test-taking easier.

E. That way you don't spend too long on one question.

F. Check to make sure you have completed the whole test.

G. Try to finish early so you have time to review your answers and correct mistakes.