My father used to be an amateur wrestler (业余摔跤者) and national champion. He was forced by his father to give up the sport in order to obtain gainful employment, which meant he wouldn't be able to win a medal for our country. Therefore, he made a vow that his unborn son would.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    He was about to give up hope when one day, my younger sister Babita and I beat up two boys accidentally in response to critical comments. My dad found our potential to become wrestlers and began coaching us.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} We were required to do physical training early in the morning and have a short haircuts to avoid lice.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}． We would complain about him all the time. Gradually, I realized that he wanted us to have a good future and not grow up to be ordinary housewives. Motivated, we willingly participated in his coaching.

    With great efforts, he made us competitive wrestlers and I won the junior and senior championships, providing me with a chance to gain training in a National Sports Academy, where pride and pain fulfilled my mind.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} As a result, I found myself losing every match at the international level. After that, I tearfully made peace with papa and turned to him for help. Then he coached me patiently.

    Despite difficulty, I finally became the first Indian female wrestler to qualify for the Olympics, inspiring dozens of Indian women to take to wrestling. Even now, papa's words are still in my mind “Geeta, think about all the girls who are thought to be inferior to boys, girls who are forced to do chores, girls who are married and have children. Not only will you compete with other countries, but also with those who look down upon women!”. I will never forget our father's instruction.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

A. But his methods were cruel.

B. I almost gave up what papa had taught me.

C. Disappointingly, my mother gave birth to all girls.

D. My sister and I tried to escape.

E. I will always owe all success to him.

F. At first, my sister and I did not understand our father.

G. However, my mother didn't agree with him.

    There are three things that will get you ahead in life: good looks, smarts, and being considered as being smart.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} And unluckily most of us are not good-looking. Let's explore some different ways to become smarter.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}College doesn't necessarily mean you'll be smarter, just educated. It means you'll be exposed to many different ideas and hopefully you'll learn how to think. Being able to think outside the box and for yourself are features smart people possess.

    Read books and educational magazines.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Educational magazines are a wealth of knowledge you can share with others, thus making you sound very smart. If you do watch television, try watching something that you can learn.

    Expand your vocabulary. Try to learn one new word a week. It doesn't seem like much, but adding 52 new words to your vocabulary will really make you appear much smarter. Subscribing (订阅) to vocabulary.com is a good start.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} This way you're actually getting 365 words a year, but that is usually more than most people can absorb.

    Don't repeat everything people tell you until you know that it's true.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}They hear a strange claim and they repeat it to the nearest ear. You can do much harm to your seek for being smart if you are known for giving bad information.

A. Go to college and get an education.

B. The first is God-given.

C. Get educated inside or outside college.

D. You will have a new word sent to your email address daily.

E. The programs actually provide you with information you can use.

F. Uneducated people and people not considered as being smart tend to do this.

G. Reading books works the brain out more than viewing television.

Things You Can for the Ocean

    The ocean supports a global underwater circulation system of currents, which affects temperature and nutrient distribution{#blank#}1{#/blank#} It's time for you to do something for the ocean. Be the best citizen of the ocean you can be by taking these simple today.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    The Monterey Bay Aquarium has made it easy to choose ocean-friendly seafood wherever you live or travel. You can visit their site to determine the pocket guide. And try to carry a reusable cup when travelling. More than 200 billion pounds of plastic is produced in the world every year and about 10% of it ends up in the ocean!{#blank#}3{#/blank#}You can also make your efforts to reduce the plastic waste by travelling with your own cup.

    Leave it better than you found it and reduce water pollution.

Leave natural areas and beaches better than you found them{#blank#}4{#/blank#} or get together with like-minded members of your community by participating in a local beach clean-up. Reducing water pollution is also beneficial protecting the ocean. There are simple things you can do to reduce water pollution locally and impact water quality globally.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.You should correctly deal with dangerous materials. Moreover, you should use native plants and natural fertilizers, and be mindful when washing your vehicle.

A. And this in turn affects ultimately human life

B. The ocean pollution has been a serious problem

C. Eat sustainable seafood and carry a reusable cup

D. Bring a small bag and pick the rubbish along the way

E. You should not eat at the restaurants selling wild animals

F. You should use poisonless household products whenever possible

G. Refusing bottled water is an effective way to reduce the waste stream of plastic

    I chose to take psychology because one is able to better understand himself, understand others, and learn how people think, so I can use that to my advantage in the business world.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}By learning psychology I will learn how and why I think the way I think. This is important to me because I want to know whether my up-bringing or the genes I possess from my parents influence me.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}I hope to find an answer this year through my studies.

    I also think it is important to be accepting and tolerant of others and their certain beliefs about different matters. Some people like activities and subjects that I may not entirely agree with. It is important to learn why they believe what they do. People are different throughout the world. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} I would like to learn what customs, traditions, and ways of thinking are witnessed worldwide and why some are apparent one place but not another.

    My final reason for taking psychology is that I can better understand people from a business standpoint. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Knowing how they think will help in making major marketing and promotional decisions. I hope to learn how people react to certain situations or ads to see what will get them interested.

    I know the effort I put into this course will benefit me later in life. Of course, learning the course may be challenging at times. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. If I had to predict, I would say a mix of both.

B. But there are similarities between them.

C. Psychology is beneficial to my future.

D. Positive psychology has developed rapidly via the Internet.

E. It is vital to know what consumers want and need.

F. I often wonder why I like the items, subjects, and activities that I do.

G. However, what I learn will influence my future decisions and goals.

    Every minute, every single day, about a truckload of plastic enters our oceans. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} And to date, only 9％of that has been recycled.

    We buy a bottle of water, drink it for a few minutes, and toss its permanent packaging "away". We eat potato chips, finish them, then throw their permanent packaging "away". We buy produce, take it out of the unnecessary plastic wrap, then throw its permanent packaging "away".

    The cycle is endless, and it happens countless times every single day. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} As far as we try to toss a piece of plastic—whether it's into a recycling bin or not——it does not disappear. Chances are, it ends up polluting our communities, oceans or waterways in some form.

    For years, we've been told the problem of plastic packaging can be solved through batter individual action. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} But the truth is that we cannot recycle our way out of this mess.

    Recycling alone will never stop the flow of plastics into our oceans；we have to get to the source of the problem and slow down the production of all this plastic waste. Think about it: if your home was flooding because you had left the tap on, your first step wouldn't be to start mopping. You'd first cut the flooding off at its source—the tap. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    We need corporations—those like Coca-Cola, Unilever, Starbucks and Neatlé that continue to produce throwaway plastic bottles—to step up and take their responsibility for the mess they've created. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} We will continue to do our part, but it's time for the world's largest corporations to do theirs.

A. This is their problem to deal with.

B. Plastic pollution is becoming very serious.

C. But here is the problem—there is no "away".

D. In many ways, our plastic problem is no different.

E. We think that if we simply recycle we're doing our part.

F. It's impossible for us to get rid of plastic pollution completely.

G. Since the 1950s, some 8. 3bn tons of plastic have been produced worldwide.

    In the most basic sense, self-regulation (自我调节) involves controlling one's behaviour and thoughts in pursuit (追求) of long-term goals. Generally, people who are good at self-regulating tend to see the good in others and view challenges as opportunities. They exactly know what they want to achieve, act in accordance with their views, and devote their best effort. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} A bad-tempered child who hits others won't be popular at school. An adult with poor self-regulation skills may lack self-confidence. He may have difficulty handling stress, and often, this might be expressed in terms of anger and anxiety.

    How do problems with self-regulation develop? It could start early when a baby isn't treated with enough care. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Later, an adult may struggle with self-regulation, either because this ability wasn't developed during childhood, or because of a lack of skills in managing difficult feelings. When left unchecked, over time this could lead to risky behaviour such as taking drugs.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} One of the most frequently used methods is to change your thought patterns, which means that you think about a situation in a positive way, rather than one that's likely to increase negative emotions. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Rather than thinking that this reflects something about yourself such as "My friend hates me", you might instead think, "My friend must be really busy."

A. Try to cheer yourself up after disappointment.

B. Do the usual series of things at a particular time.

C. A child who doesn't feel safe may have trouble self-regulating.

D. A lack of self-regulation will cause problems in life.

E. Anyhow, self-regulation is so important that we should learn to use this skill.

F. For example, imagine a friend who doesn't return your calls or texts for several days.

G. Also they can calm themselves when feeling upset and cheer themselves when feeling down.