Do you want to be happy? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} They will help you become a happy person．

   ★Be thankful. There are so many things to be thankful for. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Thank your parents for preparing meals for you ; thank the school bus driver for driving you home safely and thank the mailman for bringing you your letters every day. By doing this you will feel happy．

   ★ {#blank#}3{#/blank#} For example, read a good book , listen to your favorite music or spend time with your close friends. Don't spend too much time worrying about the future, such as going to college or getting a good job．

   ★ {#blank#}4{#/blank#} You may forget about your trouble by joining in some activities like singing, dancing or swimming．★Help others. Many people feel happy after helping others {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You can help a friend with his or her studies. You can read books for the children in your neighborhood. You can also be a volunteer to help the old or the disabled．

    Perhaps you've already watched or heard about Readers 《朗读者》，a TV show that has recently become popular. It invites different people to read aloud on the stage, as well as tell the touching stories behind them. They can read everything, like poems, books and letters.

    Many people are fans of the show and begin to enjoy reading aloud at home. Now the show gives people a special place to read across China. Reading pavilions(朗读亭)are now in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi'an.

    The pavilion is quite small. Only one person can come into it each time. There is a microphone in it and it records people's voices. Everyone can read anything they like for three minutes in the pavilion. The show will later pick some of the readers and invite them to read on TV.

    People of all ages have come and read in the pavilion, according to People's Daily. "Reading should be just like singing and talking," said Dong Qing, the host of the show. "We can actually express our deep feelings through reading aloud."

    Both the TV show and the pavilion are promoting(推进)reading among the public. In fact, our country is also trying to do that now.

    The Internet is shaping our lives. We already have online shopping services and mobile payment. However, this is just a start. The world's leading tech companies are planning to build smarter online communities. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It was held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang last year. The development of artificial intelligence(AI,人工智能) was a hot topic at the conference(会议). If a machine can learn and solve problems as humans do, it can be called AI.

    The company Alibaba uses AI technology in its unmanned supermarket in Wuzhen. There is no salesperson in the supermarket, just an iPad on a desk that says "please smile". {#blank#}2{#/blank#} The bigger you smile, the more discounts(折扣) you get. Payment is done automatically through your Alipay account. When you first enter the supermarket, the supermarket's AI recognizes(辨认) your face and your account.

    There is also AI that can read lips. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It recognizes your mouth's movements and turns them into voice or text messages. This could be very useful when you are trying to talk to someone on your phone in a noisy place. Police could also use the technology to help them find criminals by lip-reading recordings from video cameras.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Microsoft's chatting robot XiaoIce can not only provide useful information, but also talk with people like a real friend. XiaoIce has a WeChat account(账户). After following the account, users can start talking with her. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} She keeps improving herself by talking with users.

    These technologies are being put into wider use. We may see a smarter world and better lives in the near future.

A.     B.     C.      D.     E.

    Ways to Increase Your Confidence

    There are some ways you can use to increase your self-confidence. Some of them you'll need to practice a lot before they start to work. It's like playing the guitar or soccer. They might not work too well the first or second time you try them. But as you do them, you build a deeper confidence in yourself.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Exercise will improve your confidence and your way of looking at life. Plus, being healthy and looking better can also help you feel more confident.

    Create something.

    Everyone is a creative(有创造力的) person. Rediscovering your creativity is a good way to improve your confidence in yourself. Creating something is a wonderful but not always easy experience. But when you're done, you not only feel good about yourself. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Use your body.

    If you start to walk fast you'll soon start to feel nervous. If you start to walk slower you'll soon start to feel more relaxed. To feel more confident, use your body in a more confident way. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Learn how confident people around you or on the TV use their bodies.

Compare yourself to yourself.

This will take away a lot of unnecessary pain in your life. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Compare yourself to yourself. Improve yourself and see how you grow and become a more successful, more confident and happier person.

    Ms LaRosa is a great teacher. She can answer almost any question that you have about any history topic and if she cannot, she will try her best to help you find the answer. Although she has a hearing aid(助听器)，she does not let that prevent her from being a great teacher. She told the class about it on the first day and told us not to let it get in the way of our learning and not to treat her differently.

    We all like her class, especially an activity which is called the station. Stations are when our tables of four or five become our groups and we go through four various activities, such as Ancient China, in which we need to put together a sentence and write it using ancient symbols. Each station needs about 40 minutes to complete.

    Ms LaRosa has a policy that not many teachers give a second thought to. That is writing in cursive( 草书的) letters. She will provide you with various resources so that your cursive handwriting is the best that it can be. Ms LaRosa always says that she has a reason for everything that she does. Recently we just understood her reason for supporting cursive handwriting. Cursive writing can force you to think in words but not in letters. Also it has been proven that people who write in cursive letters do better on tests.

    Ms LaRosa's class gets to do various fun and exciting things. She also uses real examples from her own life, such as things that her daughter has done. Ms LaRosa also has absolute trust in her students. She always leaves her purse on her desk.

    Ms LaRosa is a great person and a great teacher who is always there for you, and I feel like I can tell her anything.