No fight can end, and no friendship can move on, until everyone says these little words: I'm sorry. Sometimes, though, they can be difficult to say.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

     It's not about winning.

    Friendship aren't like the Super Bowl, and there should never be a winner and a loser. When you start fighting with a friend, it may feel important that you “win” the fight by proving（证明）you're right and he is wrong, or by making him be the first to apologize（道歉）.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    You may have heard the expression “His pride（骄傲）stood in the way.” It is usually used to describe a person who is so determined（意志坚定）to be “right” that he lets an opportunity（机会）for happiness pass him by forever.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Remember: as time goes on, we usually forget who was right and who was wrong in a disagreement, and only remember the sadness of losing a friend. Take the first step.

    Are you sick of fighting? Do you think this fight is just not important enough to ruin（毁灭）your friendship?{#blank#}4{#/blank#} You don't have to take full responsibility（责任）for starting the fight, or even say that your feelings were wrong. But you should find something you did or said that's worth apologizing for. Maybe you're sorry that you let the fight go for so long, of that you overreacted（反应过度）to something your friend did. If you say you are sorry, it's like an invitation for your friend to do the same.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A.Stop thinking about your pride.

B.Then try to be the first to apologize.

C.It's about taking some responsibility for the argument.

D.Once you've both said it, you'll both feel a million times better.

E.There are some special cases when you shouldn't be the one to apologize first.

F.Here are some things to keep in mind.

G.Don't let this happen to a friendship you care about.

How to Make Friends

    It can be difficult to make friends living in a big city, especially when you don't know many people. However, over years of experience and studying social skills, I have discovered that it's possible to make friends without even trying. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    ⒈Be seen without trying to get attention.

    You don't have to say anything interesting to get people's attention, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} This can be done anywhere you go, such as the supermarket or your yoga studio.

    ⒉{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    There's an interesting phenomenon that occurs when you listen to other people. They will keep talking. Just keep giving them good eye contact and show with your body language that you care. Listening is an instant way to build trust and likeability.

    ⒊Think about what you can give to the other people.

    We often think about what we can get from others when we try to make friends. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Try offering a piece of helpful advice or invite someone you just met to grab coffee or lunch with you the following week.

    ⒋Always have some good stories to tell other people.

    When you have at least a few stories to share with others, you'll never run out of things to talk about. Try to be honest to share your stories with others. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    ⒌Smile like there's no tomorrow.

    It may not be natural for some of us to smile, but a smile is one of the most attractive things that someone can display when they're meeting new people.

A. However, that thinking needs to be changed.

B. All you have to do is place yourself in environments where people will see you.

C. Don't ever stop thinking about how you can add value to yourself.

D. There are just a few strategies that you have to use on a consistent basis.

E. Try to be involved in conversation.

F. Use the power of listening.

G. For example, you can share a story about a struggle or challenge.

    If you are like most international students, you are probably pretty comfortable reading and writing in English. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Below are some tips to help you to improve your conversational skills.

    Make friends with American students. Many international students end up making friends with a lot of—or only—other international students.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Hanging out with natives not only naturally pushes you to improve your spoken English, but also helps you pick up cultural and social information.

    Learn from American friends. Tell your American friends that you are trying to improve your listening and speaking skills, and would like them to help you. If you pronounce a word incorrectly, or misuse an idiom, you ask them to guide you. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Increase your knowledge. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you have been exposed to topics that are likely to be discussed in conversation, you have a much better chance of understanding people when they talk, and of being able to express yourself well.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} If you have to explain something to someone, you have a strong motivation to pronounce everything as well as you can, and find other ways to explain yourself. Finally, this becomes a good habit. Many people have asked me how I learned to speak English fluently, and I owe most of it to my years of being a math teacher in college for years.

A. It is bad for them to do that.

B. You will make progress this way.

C. If possible, become a teacher at your school.

D. It's a win-win opportunity for international students.

E. Keep up with news and watch popular shows and movies.

F. Explaining everything in a different way counts.

G. You may have trouble in listening and speaking in the language, however.

    I didn't just read a book in print, on an e-reader or even on a mobile phone. Instead, I read a book on dozens of devices. I was not trying to set a Guinness World Record. I wanted to answer a question I often hear: {#blank#}1{#/blank#}? So I set out to try them all, reading a chapter on each: the Amazon Kindle, the first and second generation Apple iPads and mobile phones. To be fair, I also read a chapter in that old-fashioned; form—a print book.

    The book I chose was The Alienist. For the first chapter, I turned to an Amazon Kindle. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. The kinder is light. Its six-inch screen is the perfect size for reading, and reading on its black-and-white-E-Ink display doesn't harm your eyes. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, and on average you charge the device only once a month. My only complaint with the Kindle design was the placement of the keyboard at the bottom of the device.

    Despite the small screen on a mobile phone, I found reading on one to be simple and satisfactory. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, but all of the phones on which I read chapters felt somewhat similar.

    If I had wanted to, I could have bought my book through dozens of e-book apps in the Apple App Store. Most are free and offer access to thousands of free e-books or paid versions. Both iPads 1&2 offer an immersive(身临其境的)reading experience. I found myself jumping back and forth between my book and the web, looking up old facts and pictures of New York City. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

    For the last chapters of the book, I read the print one, which is still my favourite choice.

    Since we are comparing devices. So I guess I need to choose one. In the end it might come down to Kindle. But if money is tight, go for print. My used print book cost only $4 from Amazon.

A. Battery life is outstanding

B. Which e-reader is the best for reading books

C. Shopping on Amazon for the Kindle is simple

D. Should students make use of the devices to read

E. No wonder a lot of readers also speak highly of it

F. Reading on the Amazon Kindle is a joy in many aspects

G. The brightness and size of the mobile phone's screen did vary

    Rivers play an important role on the earth, and we can't imagine what the earth would be like without rivers. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    With a length of 6, 650 kilometers, the Nile is the longest river in the world. The Nile River has been the source of human civilization since ancient times. The Nile has two main branches—the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts from the Great Lakes region of East and Central Africa through Lake Victoria.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} The Blue Nile carries with it a lot of fertile soil which turns out to be very important to farming in Egypt.

    The Amazon River is the world's largest river with a width of about 40 kilometers during the rainy seasons but about 10 kilometers wide when it is not flooded. The Amazon River has such a big water volume that it accounts for(占.....比例) more than 20% of all the world's fresh water—far more than any other river. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}The main Amazon River flows mostly through Brazil and Peru but its tributaries can also be found in many other countries.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}It has a depth of about 250 meters. Its length is 4, 700 kilometers. The sources of the Congo River are in the highlands and mountains in the Eastern Africa Rift Valley. It's the second largest river in terms of water volume. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}The Congo River basin(盆地) is the catchments(流域，集水区) area of the Congo River. It lies in both north and south of the Equator, making its flow very stable as there are always some tributaries experiencing a rainy season at any time.

A. Some of them are worth mentioning.

B. The Congo River is the world's deepest river.

C. Do you know which is the deepest river in the world?

D. The Blue Nile originates from(发源于)Lake Tana in Ethiopia.

E. Without rivers, there would be no living life in and along them.

F. And it flows through the second largest rain-forests in the world.

G. Streams that begin in the Andes Mountains are its sources.

    Entering a university is an important part of a person's life. Today, many people go to a university to study and train for a future job in subjects like law, medicine or education. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} An important one started in Egypt over one thousand years ago.

    The world's oldest surviving university, AL-Azhar, is in Cario, Egypt. It was first built as a mosque for religion (宗教寺院) in A.D.972. A few years later, learners and teachers began meeting in the mosque. They read and talked about the subject of religion and law. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Leaders in the city of Cario decided to create a school for higher learning and soon after that, and AL-Azhar University was founded.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} For these teachers at AL-Azhar, they needed to think about what courses to teach and how to teach them. The earliest courses were in law and religion. In a course, students read and studied with the teachers, but there was also free discussion. Often, students and teachers had interesting discussions, and there was no ‘right' answer. In the years that followed, the new university interested scholars from around the world. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} At AL-Azhar, people studied the past, but it was also a place for sharing new ideas.

    Over a thousand years later, AL-Azhar is still an important university in the world. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Today, many of the world's most important universities such as Oxford and Harvard still follow the same traditions as they do at AL-Azhar.

A. However, the university is not a modern invention.

B.There are many reasons to study in Egypt.

C.They came here to teach and do research.

D.Around the year 988, a new decision was made.

E. Its library contains many of the world's oldest and most valuable books.

F. The cost of university education is increasing year by year.

G. A university was a new idea at that time.