英语与生活，阅读短文，完成下列各题。

       Confidence (自信）is very important in daily life. It is helpful to develop a healthy attitude(态度）. If people are more confident, they are much happier. And they can have more chances to be successful. Here are some suggestions to be more confident.

       Speak loud! When you are not confident, you can't do well what you want to do. You speak in a voice so low that other people can hardly hear you. Try to speak loud in order that people can hear you clearly. The high voice can help you become more confident.
       Play sports! Physical exercise makes you tired but completely relaxed. A strong body helps you be full of confidence.

       Encourage yourself! Write down a list of things you did during the day to see how many things you have done well. Give yourself praise(表扬) for the good things you've done.
      Keep a hobby! If you like drawing, draw as much as you can. In some ways, a hobby can make you perfect. And it will make you happy and confident.

Read a Timeline

Every family has a history. A timeline can show events in a family's history. A timeline is an ordered group of words and dates that shows when events happened. 

Learn the skill   

Step1 The title tells what the timeline is about. The timeline has a line divided in equal parts. Each park stands for 10 years.

Step2  Look at the first and last numbers on the timeline. The numbers are years. The events on the timeline happened between these years.

Thumbs Down to Texting （屈指发短信）

       Do you have a mobile phone? Do you send text messages to your friends and family?

       Text messaging or “texting” is becoming very popular. But, scientists have discovered that texting can give us problems with our hands. Be careful! Too much texting can cause swelling in our thumbs. Our thumbs were not made for pushing small buttons, over and over. Scientists call this problem RSI. We spoke to a doctor called Harriet Wilson, who treats many sick people with RSI. She says we need to see how much time we are spending in typing text messages. If we are spending more than 10–15 minutes at once, we could have problems in the future.

       As mobile phones develop, they are getting smaller with buttons closer together. Texting with a smaller phone is worse than using a larger phone with bigger buttons. Using a computer keyboard and playing video games can cause the same problem. So more and more people could find themselves with RSI. Among them, most are university students and teenagers, as they do not know the risks of spending so much time using computer, video games and mobile phones. If we don't do something about this, too many young people could grow up in terrible pain.

    My sister Alli and I have been trying to get people to stop dropping cigarette butts (烟蒂) for seven years.

    One day, we were walking in our hometown and saw hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    They made the town look so ugly that we decided to start a group to make people stop dropping butts. We called it "No Butts About It!"

    At first, we drew pictures with "The Earth Is Not Your Ashtray (烟灰缸) " written on them. We put the pictures around our hometown--in parks, by beaches, and along roads.

    We wanted to make people understand that dropping butts does harm to the environment. Most smokers don't think that dropping butts harms the earth.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Later, we wrote to companies and asked them for money to help us. We used the money to buy ashtrays to give smokers.

    We wanted smokers to carry the ashtrays with them so they didn't have to drop butts.

    At the moment, we are trying to get cigarette companies to put an ashtray in each pack of cigarettes.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Many people have started to join our group since it began.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}And there are even groups in England, Australia and India !

    Many newspapers have written about my sister and I over the last seven years. And we have won many prizes for our good work.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}We just want to make the earth a better and cleaner place for animals, plants and people.

    One day it will be.

A. My sister and I set up a "No Butts About It" group.

B. But we are not interested in prizes.

C. Today there are 45 other "No Butts About It" groups in America.

D. They made the ground dirty.

E. But it does! All rubbish does.

F. Many smokers like to drop butts here and there.

G. Some companies would like to do it.

Dear Xia Yu,

    Do you know that there are two special days for parents in America? One is Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May, and the other is Father's Day on the third Sunday of June. On these two days, American children often give gifts to their parents or take them out for lunch or dinner. Common gifts are flowers and cards for mothers and shirts or ties for fathers. I heard that it is becoming more and more popular to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day in China. I wonder if children over there also give similar gifts to their parents. I believe that there, are many ways to show our love. Actually, we don't have to spend a lot of money. It is also a good idea to help parents to do something instead.

—June

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