Jack threw the papers on my desk. “Next time you want to change anything, ask me first,” he said. I had changed a long sentence and corrected its grammar — something I thought I was paid to do.

    Several days later, he made me angry again. I went to his office, prepared to lose my job if need be, but not before I let the man know how I felt. “What?” he said nervously. Suddenly I knew what I had to do. “Jack, the way you've been treating me is wrong. And it's wrong for me to allow it to continue,” I said. “I want to make you a promise. I will be a friend.” The next day I brought some cakes to Jack's office. Every time I saw Jack in the hall, I smiled at him. After all, that's what friends do.

    One year after our talk, I was told that I had breast cancer (乳腺癌). When I was in hospital, my friends tried to find the right words to say, but no one could. The last day of my hospital stay, the door opened and Jack walked over to my bed. “Tulips (郁金香),” he placed some bulbs (球茎) beside me and said, “If you plant them when you get home, you'll be there to see them when they come up.” Tears filled my eyes. In a moment when I prayed for just the right words, a man with few words said the right thing. After all, that's what friends do. Now, I have seen those tulips push through the soil every spring for over ten years.

    What is a fair wage? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} These are some of the questions the United Nations International Labour Organisation(ILO) has recently investigated.

    With a global population of over seven billion, is it actually possible to measure an average amount? {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Using the total wage bill from over seventy countries, they have multiplied the amounts by the number of earners in each country. The economists then tallied up the results and divided them by the total number across the world The result was a world average wage equivalent to $1,490 a month. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} 

    This figure might seem very high because they calculated the amount using purchasing power parity dollars, which takes into account the fact that it is cheaper to live in some countries than others. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} 

    Calculating an average sum like this might not be a completely fair representation, but these figures do help us to understand how the world is developing, both economically, in the quality of life people are experiencing and their standard of living.

    But the result shows that the average wage is still relatively low and there remains a huge difference in levels of affluence around the world. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Is this fair? For many, pay equality still seems very far out of reach.

A. The ILO has now tried to work out the sums.

B. The ILO used statistics from over 70 different countries

C. Why aren't more people in the world offered pay equality?

D. That is approximately $75 a day for a 20-day working month.

E. Some people live on just two dollars a day, while others are earning more than a million dollars a year.

F. When someone works for themselves, what are they called?

G. The data also did not include the huge number of people who appear in poverty statistics or who are self-employed.

    Are you truly happy? Do you ever know what it means to be happy and what it takes to achieve happiness? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The following are a few tips that I follow to create happiness in my life.

※ Make a plan for attaining goals that you believe will make you happy. Your moods will very likely increase if you are going after something you value.

※ Surround yourself with happy people. It is easy to begin to think negatively when you are surrounded by people who think that way. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} .

※When something goes wrong, try to figure out a solution instead of being absorbed in self pity. Truly happy people don't allow setbacks (挫折) to affect their mood because they know that with a little thought they can turn the circumstances back to their favor.

※ {#blank#}3{#/blank#} These few minutes will give you the opportunity to focus on the positive things in your life and will lead you to continuous happiness.

※ {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Whether you treat yourself to lunch, take a long, relaxing bath or simply spend a few extra minutes on your appearance, you will be subconsciously (下意识地) putting yourself in a better mood.

※Finding the humor in situations can also lead to happiness. Find a way to make light of a situation that would otherwise make you happy.

※Keeping healthy is another way to achieve happiness. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

A．It's also important to take some time each day to do something nice for yourself.

B．What makes one person happy may be very different from what makes someone else happy.

C．On the contrary, if you are around people who are happy, their emotional state will be infectious.

D．Being overweight or not eating nutritious foods can have a negative effect on your mood．

E．These are important questions for anyone who is seeking happiness to ask themselves.

F．Spend a few minutes each day thinking about the things that make you happy.

G．There are some tips in life that lead to happiness.

    Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is one of life's essentials. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have all been told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip.

    But for many people the thought of food as first thing in the morning is by no means a pleasure. So despite all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures are available, the number of people who didn't have breakfast increased by 33 percent-from 8.8 million to 11.7 million-according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America.

    For those who feel pain or guilt about not earing breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years indicate that, for adults especially, there may be nothing wrong with not taking breakfast. “Going without breakfast does not affect performance,” said Arnold E. Bender, former professor of nutrition（营养）at Queen Elizabeth College in London, “nor doegiving people breakfast improve performance.”

    Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better performance is surprisingly inadequate, and most of the recent work involves children, not adults. “The literature,” says one researcher, Dr. Ernesto Pollitt at the University of Texas, “is poor.”

    If you want to get something done, you might want to put your mobile phone back in your pocket. Researchers have found that the mere presence of a phone is distracting (分心) — even if it is not your own. And the devices (设备) are likely to distract you, even if they are not ringing or “pinging” with text messages. People asked to carry out electronic tests of their attention spans were found to perform worse when a mobile phone was present than other people performing in the presence of a paper notepad.

    Scientists from Hokkaido University in Japan said that their findings show that it is harder to concentrate when one of the electronic devices is present. The effect was most marked on people who are not regular users of phones. In tests on 40 undergraduates. Associate Professor Junichiro Kawahara and a colleague divided the subjects into two groups — one asked to carry out tests in the presence of an Apple iPhone next to a computer monitor, and the other in the presence of a notebook.

    The test involved asking the participant to search for a particular character among a mess of other characters on the screen. Researchers measured the time it took to find the target. The results of the experiment found that those with the mobile phone took longer to find the character, indicating that participants were automatically distracted by the presence of the phone. The researchers suggest that people are drawn to the presence of a mobile phone, although there are individual differences in how one attempts to ignore it. In conclusion. Professor Kawahara said. “The mere presence of a mobile phone was a distraction among infrequent internet users.”

    Another finding is that listening to one half of a mobile phone conversation also distracts people, and other studies have found that placing a mobile phone in view has a negative impact on the quality of face-to-face communications. Holding a mobile phone makes you less likely to get a fair hearing from others.

    Every person plans to run off to some tropical isle, but few do. Real life, family, work, and monetary limitations get in the way. Ian Fleming let none of these considerations stop him.

    After the war, Fleming set down his schedule. The first week of January saw him leave England and travel to Jamaica. The first week of March saw his return. He accepted his job at Kemsley newspapers without compromise—this portion of the year would be set aside for Jamaica or he would look elsewhere for employment.

    For 6 years Fleming traveled each winter to Jamaica, lounging in paradise, romancing women, chasing the sunset, but it was not until he faced the pressure of a married woman who was pregnant with his child did Fleming start the writer's journey which would change his life and popular culture forever. As Fleming waited in Jamaica for Anne's divorce to become final, he wrote the first draft of a novel, Casino Royale.

    Fleming's career as a writer deserves more examination than can be offered here, but suffice it to say, over the next 12 years, Ian Fleming transformed his elite existence, his arrogance, his style, and his acid wit into some of the greatest thrillers ever written. Fleming incurred the respect of authors as diverse as Raymond Chandler, Kingsley Amis, and Edith Sitwell. His fans included John, Jackie, and Bobby Kennedy, and his social circle included Prime Minister Anthony Eden, Evelyn Waugh, and Somerset Maugham.

    Fleming filled out the 12 years of Bond with great adventure journalism. Even in stories which had little action or pay off, such as his short non-fiction book, The Diamond Smugglers, the "Fleming-flair" ensured exciting reading. He wrote the "Atticus" column for the Sunday Times, proving a wonderful conduit for inside intelligence information, and clever rebukes (指责).

    Regardless of book sales or family obligations, Fleming managed to live the life he wanted. As the years passed, his passion for golfing increased so he took more time with it. Fleming's long-term fascination with America grew, so he traveled there more often.

    Ian Fleming's full life caught up with him through his heart. It may be that years of drinking and smoking took their toll, or that the butter-rich cooking Fleming loved was the culprit. Or maybe it was just genetics. Whatever the cause, Fleming's health declined in the late 1950s. This plus anxieties in the marriage increased Fleming's depression. With the success of Bond, the world came knocking at Fleming's door, and he had a harder time shutting those out that he did not want in his life.

    Nonetheless, Fleming fought the loosing battle of his weakening heart by throwing more fuel on the fire. He continued to drink and smoke, making some excuses but not many. He wrote books he wanted to read, and traveled the world with style and authority. By this time, Fleming had already earned his own fortune, created his own identity, and ruled his own literary empire.