With modern technology, much written communication tends to focus on the keyboard, but handwriting is still a necessary and important skill.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Here are some tips for you to improve your handwriting.

    Examine Your Handwriting

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Look through your writing to decide what makes it difficult to read or what makes it unattractive. Perhaps you write your letters too small. Check on spacing of letters and words, and proper formation of letters. If your letters are small, put more effort into writing larger letters. If certain letters trip you up, practice those letters separately and within words.

    Write Correctly

    Positioning and technique play a role in how your handwriting looks. Hold the pen between your thumb and first two fingers so that it rests against your fingers. Hold it firmly enough to control the tip but not so hard that it hurts your fingers. Lighter pressure on the paper helps you create smooth lines and focus on your letter formation.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

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    Letters are formed from several basic strokes(笔划). Practice those strokes separately to get your hand used to forming them. Strokes found in letters include vertical lines, horizontal lines, and circles. Build on those to practice specific letters.

    Write for a Purpose

    Teach young children handwriting in meaningful contexts. Use that same idea by picking up a pen to write lists and notes by hand instead of typing. Keep a journal daily with slow, correct strokes.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}These true and sincere writing opportunities make the practice meaningful.

A. Build on Basics.

B. Practice makes perfect

C. Focus on improving your correctness instead of speed

D. Writing at a slower speed also helps you focus on letter formation

E. Put a handwritten letter in the mail to surprise a friend or a relative

F. Handwriting requires your brain, eyes and hands to work together to form letters.

G. Before you can improve your handwriting, you need to know where you're falling apart.

    Confidence is a skill that many folks want to master, but have a hard time acquiring. Have you ever wondered why? Possibly you were born confident. You were talked to negatively as a child or maybe you were rejected many times. Whatever the case is, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    But how to boost your confidence?

    Act as if .Begin to act as if you are confident. Act as the person you would want to be like. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Surround yourself with people who you think are confident and have high value. You will learn so much from observing other confident folks.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. One of the most areas that you need to pay attention to is your self-talk. Your thoughts about your capabilities and self-worth need to be positive and encouraging. Whenever you notice you think negatively, pause and take a moment, and shift your focus to something that can help you feel better about yourself.

    Go after your goals. If you are really serious about building self-confidence, you need to identify your goals and go after then. The more you add to your accomplishments, the more confident you will feel about your abilities and skills. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    By using these steps to boost your confidence, {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

How to keep a Relationship Healthy and Strong

    Are you new to experiencing relationships? Well，let me give you advice on how to have a healthy relationship with your partners.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Don't hide things from them，and don't lie. Don't be afraid to say things that aren't very flattering about yourself. Getting them to trust you is the most important element in any relationship. If there's no trust，there's nothing there. So please be honest and they will learn to open up to you.

    Make sure you give them respect. Now，respect isn't just simply treating them nicely. There is a lot more to it. You have to learn to adjust to their liking. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Don't just think about yourself，but think about what your partners need out of it as well.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Always be willing to help them and give them honesty and positive at the time. Make them feel you are someone they can really count on and build a future with. This is an important step in a relationship. Your partner needs out of it as well.

Make sure you' have a good sense of humor with them. Laughter is the key to happiness. Laugh a lot with them，and joke with them. Laughter may seem silly，but it's the secret to a lot in life. It will keep the sparks alive. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Make sure the communication is good. This goes along with trust，but always communicate how you feel even if it's something that upsets you. Instead of screaming, talk to them.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} It's important to communicate this to them，not to keep it bottled up.

A. Show them your personality.

B. Be an honest person with them.

C. Make sure you are reliable to your partners.

D. Laughter keeps the relationship strong and lasting.

E. Don't start to neglect them and make them feel unwanted.

F. Bascially, learn to study your partners' moods, wants and needs.

G. If they did something that made you happy, tell them about it in a respectful manner.

    Most people will tell you that without a cup of coffee in the morning, they cannot function. Coffee is a good drink when consumed in right amount. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Legend says that Kaldi, an Ethiopian, discovered his goats enjoy eating coffee plants. Curious, he tasted the leaves and began to dance around. A passing monk (僧侣) witnessed the scene and took some back to his fellow monks. Later that night, the monks experienced extreme inspiration. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Soon Arabia was roasting coffee beans. By 1000 A.D. Muslims were drinking coffee to stay awake. A merchant from Venice introduced coffee to Europe in 1615. By 1696, the Dutch started growing the coffee bush in Java. By 1723, coffee plants were introduced to the Americas. Today, coffee is the most popular drink in the world.

    Caffeine (咖啡因) is the major chemical in coffee. Caffeine poisoning can occur if more than 400 milligrams of caffeine is drunk in a short period, which is about four to five cups of coffee. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} So it should be avoided before bed.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Studies have shown that it helps cognitive (感知) skills in elderly women. Women who drank three cups of coffee daily scored higher on memory tests than women who drank one cup of coffee.

    Large amounts of coffee can cause nervousness, worries and heartburn. However, if mixed with milk, it is fine. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} The more you drink, the more you depend on it. For some people, just one cup of coffee a day is OK.

A. Coffee has many benefits.

B. Coffee can be addictive like any drug.

C. Caffeine will also cause sleep difficulty.

D. The caffeine in coffee can actually help fight disease.

E. However, it is considered harmful if taken in large amount.

F. Drinking coffee while you have this kind of disease will make it worse.

G. Whether the legend is true or not, the discovery of coffee dates back to 800 A.D.

    We are surrounded by messages trying to get our attention. Advertisers, politicians and other groups all try to get us to agree with them.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Propaganda is not always a bad thing, but it often hides the truth about a topic. It's very similar to advertising, whose goal is to get people to buy something, while propaganda is to change what people believe.

    Propaganda Techniques

    To create propaganda, a common technique is name－calling. A politician might call someone a traitor or liar, which makes the other person look bad. Another is the trend technique. People want to be on the side in the favor.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Some propaganda is based on fear. It scares people into choosing a certain side or taking action, which might not be bad. Anti－smoking campaigns are one example. They may scare people into thinking that if they smoke, they will get cancer.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Propaganda is used by many groups, such as businesses, politicians and the government. It is spread through posters, television and radio. The Internet makes it easy to send messages to the whole world.

    Types of Propaganda

    Political propaganda has been around as long as there have been politicians.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. People have used it for many years. War propaganda began during World War I, more than 100 years ago.

    To see if propaganda is saying the truth, people need to do extra work. For example, ads might always sound like they're true. But before you believe them, try to think about who created and paid for them. Find out why they did it.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

A. Propaganda Targets

B. Propaganda Mediums

C. Another word for this is propaganda

D. So most people will agree with those politicians

E. Then, you can decide if they're being honest or not

F. However, religious propaganda was actually the first official one

G. People might join someone who claims to be popular or winning

    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.