As a member of the “global village”, an international leader should master various skills. One of the primary things international leaders need today is the ability to manage cultural differences. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. So in order to get the best out of any multicultural team, leaders should keep the following tips in mind.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Try and communicate with your team face to face as much as you can. Nothing replaces face-to-face communication, as it allows you to read body language, judge levels of understanding, and build relationships.

    Be clear

    Be clear about your own cultural profile（简况）. Only when you are clear about your cultural profile and how it influences your work, your communication style, feelings and actions, can you direct your team. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Build trust

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Make sure you are responsible for your actions and honest in your dealings with others. Do you do what you promise? Breaking your promise will destroy trust and credibility every time.

    State the rules of the game

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. The rules of the game have to be discussed and people need to be comfortable with their own roles. The team leader must act as a safe base, so members know who to turn to.

A. Communicate face to face

B. Try not to make mistakes

C. Trust builds over time and with every action

D. There is no need to communicate with your team

E. Rules and roles have to be set and understood by everyone

F. Today's leaders have to work in both international and cross-cultural environments

G. This approach to your own cultural identity can help improve your team's performance

    You often find somebody who works around you complaining all the time, don't you? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. About 70% of Americans say being around nonstop complainers sometimes has a bad influence on them. Luckily, here are 4 tips to help form positive patterns.

    Self-awareness

    When a negative thought pops into your mind, immediately correct it. Instead of telling yourself “That's a nice shirt, but I can't afford it,” change the message to “That will look great with my black pants when I can afford it.”{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    Of course, everyone complains sometimes. But the less frequently you complain, the better you will feel.

    Distance yourself

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. Excuse yourself and go somewhere quiet, somewhere outdoors in the fresh air. Think of something pleasant before returning. You have to take this seriously because negative people can and will pull you into the quicksand (难以摆脱的困境).

    Don't try to change complainers

    If you find yourself trapped in a group of complainers in a meeting or at a social event, simply choose silence. Let their words bounce off you while you think of something else. Attempting to stop the complaining can make you a target.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. If someone says, “I hate Mondays; weekends are too short,” try to think, “I'm glad I rested over the weekend, so I'm ready to make some improvement on that big project.”

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    When someone is shouting at you angrily, throw the responsibility back at them by asking, “So what do you intend to do about it?” In most cases, complainers don't really want a solution. They just want to speak them out. If you make them aware that they themselves have to find the solutions, they will leave you alone and find someone else to complain to. If so, you will be happy.

A. Find solutions

B. Change the responsibility

C. You have got a lot of company

D. By doing this, it will lead to positive behavior

E. But you can redirect the discussion in your own mind

F. Whenever possible, escape from negative conversations

G. You will never know what they are going to talk about

    Building the thinking habit is important because it helps you live with a purpose. How can we build the thinking habit? Here are some tips.

    Be curious.

    Curiosity is powerful. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It also helps you recognize the ideas when they come. Curiosity is an important attitude to have in building the thinking habit.

    Read widely.

    If you want to come up with good ideas, you need to feed your mind with good ideas.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} This will give you fresh, new ideas. Don't just read from the fields you are familiar with. Read from other fields as well.

    Read actively

    Not only should you read widely, but also you should read actively. Find some ideas and think about how you can use them. My favorite way to do this is by highlighting the book I read. I will then put the actionable ideas in my idea journal.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Keep an idea journal.

    When you find a good idea, don't just keep it in your mind. Instead, write it down to catch the idea.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Keeping an idea journal makes you more alert lo new ideas. You will quickly recognize them because you already have the habit of catching ideas.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Of course, it doesn't do you much good if you just write down ideas. Take time to read these ideas every now and then. In my case, I mark the ideas that I consider important and review them regularly. This often opens the way to new ideas.

A. Go over your ideas

B. Design your own ideas

C. One way to do that is to read.

D. It makes you like finding new ideas.

E. Otherwise, the idea might be gone forever.

F. This helps me get the most out of the book.

G. In this way, others ran also benefit from your ideas.

Being a superhero to others

    Ewan Drum has always liked superheroes. He likes how they help people. At age seven, he told his parents, “I want to dress up like a superhero and help the homeless.” {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Wearing his red superhero cape (斗篷), Ewan helped pass out  bag lunches to hungry people in a park in Detroit, Michigan. That's how Super Ewan was born.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}People donated(捐赠) money and supplies (供给物), and Ewan took them to those in need.

    When someone donated jugs(大罐) of water, Ewan and his family drove their car to get even more. They took the water to Flint, Michigan, a city that had unsafe drinking water. Another time, a businessman donated six turkeys(火鸡) for Thanksgiving.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}“In the end”, he says, “we gave turkey dinners to families all around Detroit.”

    Ewan has a motto: Everyone can be a superhero to someone. At an event called the Hero Round Table, Ewan told the audience, “It's not hard to help people. You can keep some socks and food in your car to help people in need. You can help a neighbor with doing the garden. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} ”

It's been several years since Super Ewan started his task. Every month, he still visits the same park to hand out clothes, food, and supplies to people who are hungry or homeless —his Super Friends. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    “No matter what,” Ewan says, “I will always keep helping people.”

A. News spread about Ewan's act of kindness.

B. This superhero says he'll never take off his cape.

C. Ewan says he wants more adults to act like superheroes.

D. Every little thing helps and can make someone feel happy.

E. A few months later, Ewan's family planned a day of giving.

F. Several days later, his parents drove to Flint and helped him raise a lot of money.

G. With his parents help, Ewan asked for more turkeys through the Internet, plus side dishes.

    Culture means any human behavior that is learned in human society. All of the meaningful parts of a culture are passed on to different generations through tradition or social learning.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Culture exists in agricultural as well as industrialized societies.

    Culture is necessary for the survival and existence of human beings as human beings. Practically everything humans know, think, value, feel, and do is learned through taking part in a sociocultural system.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Here is one of the cases of children growing up apart from human society. In the province of Midnapore in India, the director of a children's home was told by local villagers that there were “ghosts” in the forest. Upon looking into the case, the director found that two children, one about eight years old and the other about six years old, appeared to have been living with a group of wolves in the forest.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}In his diary, the director describes his first view of Kamala (as the older child was named) and Amala (the name given to the younger child):

    Kamala was a terrible-looking being, the head, a big ball of something covering the shoulders.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Their eyes were bright and sharp, unlike human eyes. They were very fond of raw meat and raw milk. Gradually, as they got stronger, they began going on all fours, and afterwards began to run on all fours, just like squirrels.

    Children learn human language in the same way they learn other kinds of human behavior--by taking part in a cultural community.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. From this viewpoint, all human groups have a culture.

B. These children were the ghosts described by the local people.

C. This statement is well supported by some well-written cases.

D. Human beings can only develop human abilities by the local people.

E. Culture refers only to the high art and classical music of a particular society.

F. Close at its heels there came another terrible creature exactly like the first, but smaller in size.

G. They learn a certain human languages as well as certain kinds of human behavior through their membership in a certain cultural community.

    You have probably heard the saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Lemons are considered not tasty while lemonade is considered sweet. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    But when something bad happens, it's common for most people to complain about life, " Why me?" That's like getting a bag of lemons and thinking, "Lemons taste bad! I just want chocolate!" {#blank#}2{#/blank#} But what if you did something with them? What if you made lemonade? Isn't it possible to do something similar in a bad situation?

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Let's say you're about to go to the movies, but you discover you have a flat tire(瘪了的轮胎). You consider this a terrible thing. After all, you're really looking forward to spending some time with your favorite film stars. Now you're very worried, hating the tire, the car, and your life. But what if you called AAA(美国汽车协会) to get your tire fixed or caught up on things that you' d been meaning to do? {#blank#}4{#/blank#} A bad experience can be turned into something good. Almost everything can work itself out into something better. You can't change what has happened, right? So make the best of it. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} The easy thing to do is to be disappointed about what has happened and not consider what it could be turned into.

    Next time when some bad things happen, stop and think, "How can I turn this around? How can I make it a positive experience?"