You fall down on the road and a kid you barely know rushes over to help. You come home after a long day to find your dad has prepared your favorite meal. Just before lunch in social studies class, you learn about places where people don't have clean water or enough food.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}They're likely to make you feel grateful.

    Gratitude (感恩) is one of many positive emotions. It's about focusing on what's good in our lives and being thankful for the things we have.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It's taking a moment to reflect on how fortunate we are when something good happens — whether it's a small thing or a big thing.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Making a habit of gratitude can also be good for us. Like other positive emotions, feeling grateful on a regular basis can have a big effect on our lives. Brain research shows that positive emotions are good for our bodies, minds, and brains.

    Positive emotions open us up to see more possibilities and take in more information. They improve our ability to develop skills, learn, and make good decisions.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} When we feel grateful for someone's kindness toward us, we may be more likely to do a kindness in return. Thanking people can make it more likely they'll do a kindness again.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} When we feel and express heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to people in our lives, it creates loving bonds, builds trust, and helps you feel closer.

A. Gratitude doesn't just feel good.

B. What do these have in common?

C. Gratitude can lead to positive actions.

D. Gratitude helps us build better relationships.

E. Such kind of people are more likely to succeed.

F. We can use lots of words to describe feelings of gratitude.

G. Gratitude is stopping to notice and appreciate the things that we often take for granted.

    "No man is an island" is a well-known line from John Donne's Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, written more than three hundred years ago. Even now people still agree with him.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} So we all need to have friends. For some of us, though making friends is not difficult, we may not want to make the first move. It is also difficult at times to keep the friends we already have.

    There are many books about friendship, but Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, written in 1936, is the most famous.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It was later put into 28 languages.

    Here is the list of advice from his book:

    Be friendly and polite.

    Always greet with a smile. Begin with "excuse me" or "would you please", when you want to ask somebody.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Go out of your way to be nice.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Making some soup for a sick neighbor may seem like a little thing to you, but it will make your neighbor feel a lot better.

    Remember names.

    They say that the sweetest music to a person' ears is the sound of his or her own name.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Try to understand other people's ways and ideas and learn something from them.

A. Be open-minded.

B. Try to help your friends get out of trouble.

C. Without other people, life became empty and sad.

D. Find some time to do some things for other people.

E. It's also important to keep close friends in our daily life.

F. Remember to say "thank you" and try to be as helpful as you can.

G. This "How to" book about getting along with other people became a best seller.

    Lots of people find it hard to get up in the morning, and put the blame on the alarm clock. In fact, the key to easy morning wake-up lies in resting your body clock. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here's how to make one.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} In order to make a change, you need to decide why it's important. Do you want to get up in time to have breakfast with your family, get in some exercise, or just be better prepared for your day? Once you are clear about your reasons, tell your family or roommates about the change you want to make.

    Rethink mornings. Now that you know why you want to wake up, consider re-arranging your morning activities. If you want time to have breakfast with your family, save some time the night before by setting out clothes, shoes, and bags. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}That's a quarter-hour more you could be sleeping if you bought a coffee maker with a timer.

    Keep your sleep/wake schedule on weekends. If you're tired out by Friday night, sleeping in on Saturday could sound wonderful. But compensating on the weekends actually feeds into your sleepiness the following week, a recent study found.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Keep a record and evaluate it weekly. Keep track of your efforts and write down how you feel. After you've tried a new method for a week, take a look at your record. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}If not, take another look at other methods you could try.

A. Get a sleep specialist.

B. Find the right motivation.

C. A better plan for sleep can help.

D. And consider setting a second alarm.

E. If the steps you take are working, keep it up.

F. Stick to your set bedtime and wake-up time, no matter the day.

G. Reconsider the 15 minutes you spend in line at the cafe to get coffee.

    People have always wanted to know what the future will look like. Then, how can we? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The world has changed a lot in the last 150 years, but we humans are driven by the same basic needs as we were 150 years ago, such as food, sleep, the feeling of being appreciated and loved. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} No. In addition, generally speaking, the inventions for the last 150 years have been a human effort for freedom and communication, to be able to get in control of the time and world. Since there is still much to do in this area, this will be the focus at least for the next150 years.

    But why do we need to predict the future? Predicting the future is important for two reasons: First, we need to start to think about what kind of future we would like for ourselves and to pass on to the next generation. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    How about the virtual worlds? It might be in the future to experience the sand between your toes, and hear the waves, just lying in your bed at home. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} So, even if a great invention is there for an affordable price, it'll never take the place of the common experience if it is not real.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} What we'll see in the next 50 years is the transition (过渡) from an oil-dependent society to a new society. Here there'll be new medicine, continued exploration of space, challenges in the climate change, and new inventions that make life a little easier.

A. Will this change in the next 150 years?

B. So what will the future look like then?

D. Well, to understand the future, you must know the past.

E. However, you'll never get the feeling of being there.

F. However, no matter how real the experience will feel, it doesn't happen for real.

G. Then we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give the best result in the future.

    Time is something that we all are taking for granted these days. We spend hours watching TV or playing mobile games, thinking that this is just normal. I find this a waste of time. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Every second is valuable and we should rethink of ways of spending our time.

    Firstly, spend time in doing things that really matter. Spend time with your family and friends. Enjoy a nice hot meal and eat it slowly. Give yourself time to play and spend enough time in sleeping. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}But the truth is the little things matter most in life.

    Secondly, you have to know what is done cannot be undone. Do not allow your mind to stay in the past. Every day is a new adventure. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}It may not be an opportunity like an immediate get-rich chance, but it may be an opportunity for new experiences.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}If you have only one chance to do something for someone, why not do it to the best of your ability? It should not matter whether you are being rewarded or not. You will take pride in your work because you've done your best. Trust me, quality efforts will be rewarded in time.

    Lastly, every moment you spend in doing things is the time taken from your life. Don't waste your time away working day and night just for money. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}The value of your time is measured by how you spend it and whom you choose to spend it with.

A. You will get whatever you want from working.

B. Spend more time on the important tasks instead of time-wasters.

C. Do your best in every task as if the world will end tomorrow

D. That is not your life's worth.

E. It is hours of our lives that we can never get back.

F. Little things like this may seem meaningless.

G. You have to keep your eyes and ears open to the new opportunity.

    The world is a colorful landscape of different languages, skin colors, and different cultures. It's important to have a good understanding of different cultures in order to become a well-rounded person {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    One way is to read hooks written by authors from a particular culture. Reading works by authors who have a close relationship with a particular culture allows people to gain an authentic glimpse into the food, music, language, religion, and way of a life of a particular group of people.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Another way to learn about different cultures is to try to learn a foreign language. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}A person can choose a language she has always wanted to learn and locate learning programs to help her master the language. Besides, one can enroll in a foreign language class in order to learn in a more formal setting. One can also try to visit areas of the city to establish social connection with native speakers of the language.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Seek out restaurants that feature authentic food from a variety of countries. Food is an important part of different cultures and allows people to gain deep understanding into a particular cultural group's way of life.

    Communicating with people from other countries through email or snail mail is another useful way to become familiar with different cultures. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Various websites offer pen pal services, offering to connect individuals with pen friends around the world.

A. Stories based on a local culture expose one to a different culture.

B. Trying authentic food from a specific cultural group is also a great idea.

C. There are several ways to become knowledgeable about different cultures.

D. A variety of language-learning books, software, and audio programs is available,

E. The Internet has made it possible to communicate with others from different countries.

F. Making contact with native speakers of the language allows one to gain firsthand knowledge.

G. One way to develop this appreciation is to try to team about other cultures around the world.