Do you remember those times when your mother told you to avoid talking to strangers? But now you're not a child anymore. In fact, there are many advantages of talking to strangers.

    You can meet a really great person.

    Talking to a stranger is a good habit because you never know whom you may meet.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} You can also meet someone who will give you a chance to get your dream job.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    You have some opinion about different subjects and you know your friends' and relatives' points of view about them, too. But there are millions of other people who think differently and can give you unpredictable yet smart ideas that will broaden your horizons.

    You can improve your social skills.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Asking appropriate questions and attentive listening are two skills that many of us don't have. You can better these skills when talking to a stranger.

    You can offer someone comfort.

    The thing you'll definitely like about talking to strangers is that you can make someone's day better.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Praise people and they will think something pleasant about you. Having a sweet short dialogue is one of those perfect chances to make people cheerful.

    You can find the solutions you didn't know about.

    Talking to someone you don't know is all about finding out something you didn't know. You may have some problems that you can't solve for a long time. However, someone you suddenly meet can figure out the right solution you didn't even think about before.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. It may be a help you needed to get a long time ago.

B. You can expand your world view.

C. You can meet a person who will become your best friend in future.

D. Smile and people will smile in return.

E. Whatever social skills you have, you can make them better when talking to strangers.

F. You shouldn't miss these unexpected chances of meeting people.

G. Why not speak to someone until your turn comes?

    Aside from the health benefits of laughter (which are numerous and significant), having a sense of humor about life's difficulties can provide a way to bond with others, look at things in a different way, normalize your experience, and keep things from appearing too overwhelming or scary. Properly developed, a good sense of humor can keep people and relationships strong.

    Studies show that having a smile on your face can make you feel better, and can lead you to actually feeling happier (rather than just looking happier). Even if the smile is fake, the benefits you will experience are real! Also, a fake smile leads readily to a genuine one. If you are able to put a smile on your face, the laughter will come more easily, and the stress will melt more easily.

    If your situation seems ridiculously frustrating, recognize what can develop into humor in just how ridiculously frustrating and annoying it is. In your imagination, take the situation to an extreme that becomes even more ridiculous until you find yourself amused. For example, when you're waiting in a long line at the store, you can imagine that hours pass, then days, visualizing yourself accepting visits from loved ones from your new home in this ultra-long line, holding your children's birthday parties in aisle seven so you can be there to enjoy them...you get the picture.

    Besides, find a friend with whom you can laugh also works! You can each share your frustrations, and laugh about them in the process. Even when your friend isn't there, you can feel less stressed by thinking about the retelling that will come later.

    You can have a “most annoying boss” game with your friends, or try to count how many times the same potentially frustrating event happens in a day.(“I was cut off in traffic 7 times today—I'm almost up to 10!”) This works well for predictable or repetitive annoying situations that you can't control; you can begin to value them in their own special way instead of letting them upset you.

    One of the factors that drive the popularity of shows like Modern Family or movies like the classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off, is that they take somewhat universal situations that many people find frustrating and push them a little further, pointing out the silliness of it all.

What's more, you can try joining Funny Clubs.Years ago, when Oprah had a show rather than a network, she did a part on Laughter Yoga that interested me, and I researched a club on my own, finding it to be a terrific place to enjoy a good laugh. Whether you mean business or laugh at the silliness of it all, taking part in the exercises of laughter yoga with other humor-participants can be a very effective way to get back in the practice of getting some more laughter into your day.

    Goals are the guides all through our life. We all have goals that we are moving towards and making a great effort to achieve. This is a good thing. Or can it be bad? How many of us never reach our goals and yet we have tried so hard and really thought about nothing else? I believe the mistake most of us make is that we do not focus on our present situation.

    Let me explain. Most of us see our present situation as a stepping stone that we use simply as a means of reaching our final destination. We don't take time to truly appreciate where we are today and all the great things we already have in our lives. We should focus our attention on the journey and not on the destination, or we will miss the beautiful scenery along the way.

    Let's use our job as an example. Now most of us want a promotion. We have plans to become the manager or general manager in our companies. Unfortunately, most of us will never reach the goal, but will watch others achieve our goal instead.

    What we should be doing is focusing on the job we are currently in now. Forget where we want to get to and just focus on the present. You see, what we can control is our performance in our current job. We can decide to be the best we possibly can in our current job. Now this may mean further education to have the skills we currently do not have. It may mean working harder to produce better results than our colleagues. It could simply be a change of attitude, such as stopping complaining and becoming a more devoted and supportive employee. By doing our current job to the best of our abilities, we in fact give ourselves the best chance of promotion.

    So the best thing for all of us to do to achieve our goals is to just focus on what we have and where we are now. Do the best and be the best we possibly can in our current situations, and we will give ourselves the very best chance of reaching our goals in the future. We have heard the old sayings and they are true: “Rome wasn't built in a day.”, “Patience is a virtue”, and so on.

Have patience, have appreciation of what we already have, and take time to help ourselves be the very best we can. Do these things and we will all reach our goals, but more importantly, we will enjoy our life every day.

How to make a successful apology

    Have you done something that you feel bad about? Is there a person who you have treated badly? Do you need to say "I am sorry" to someone? Here are five things you can do to have a successful apology.

    Make your apology real. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}People can tell if you take responsibility for what you did or if you are lying.

    Do not make excuses.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}It is saying that you were wrong to do it.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}An apology should show that you have learned from what you did. Show that you mean what you say.

    Make it clear that you are apologizing. Just saying "I am sorry" is not enough. Talk about what you did and then say that you feel bad about doing it. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Be prepared for the unexpected. Be prepared for it to take some time for your apology to be accepted. This may be a long moment, a few minutes, or even days or weeks. The person may stay angry with you. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

A. Be patient and hopeful.

B. Make a promise to change.

C. Choose the right time to apologize.

D. An apology will be better accepted if it is sincere.

E. An apology is not explaining why you did something.

F. You can give your apology to the other person as a letter.

G. It is important that the person knows you are apologizing.

Everybody gets angry sometimes. Being angry doesn't really solve much—but what people do when they feel angry is important. The goal is to calm yourself down and try to solve whatever problem is bothering you. This is hard for some kids (and adults too). Instead of calming down, some kids might keep getting more and more upset until they explode like a volcano!

Some kids get angry more often or more easily than some other kids. Their anger might be so strong that the feelings gets out of control and causes them to act in ways that are unacceptable and hurtful. People might say kids like this have a temper, which is a term for acting out of control. Some kids might get so angry that they scream at their mom or dad, hit the wall, close doors violently, break something, or even hit a brother or sister. Kids are allowed to express their feelings, even angry ones, but it's not OK for a kid to do any of those things. Kids don't want to (or mean to) act this way—but sometimes angry feelings can be hard to manage.

【写作内容】

1）以约30个词概括上文的主要内容；2）结合上述信息，简要分析导致孩子发脾气的主要原因；3）提出建议如何控制发脾气（不少于两点）。

【写作要求】

1）写作过程中不得直接引用原文中的句子；

2）作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；

3）不必写标题。

【评分标准】概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，语篇连贯。

They Just Can't Help It

    My theory is that the female brain is mainly built for empathy — the ability to understand other people — and that the male brain is mainly built for building systems. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} For example, women are more likely to read magazines on fashion and parenting, while men will choose magazines that feature computers and sport.

    You may think that these preferences are influenced by the way people are taught to behave when they are growing up. However, this is not the case. A new study carried out at Cambridge University shows that newborn girls look longer at a face, and newborn boys look longer at a mobile. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It has also been observed that girls are better at noticing signs of changes in other people's feelings. Boys, however, seem to enjoy building toy towers and playing with toys which have clear functions. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} People whose jobs are in the construction industries are almost male. Math and engineering, which require high levels of systems-thinking, are also male-chosen disciplines. Why do men and women have the difference? Actually women have four times as many brain neurons (神经) that connect the right and left part of their brains. Because of it, women have a better ability to multitask than men. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Men tend to focus on a limited number of problems at a time. They will separate themselves from problems and view tasks as independent from one another.

    Some people may worry that I am suggesting one gender (性别) is better than the other, but this is not the case. My theory says that males and females differ in the kinds of things that they find easy, but that both genders have their strengths and weaknesses. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It is not true. The study simply looks at males and females as two groups, and asks what differences exist, and why they are there.

A. Generally speaking, there are clear differences.

B. Their preference for building systems may change over time.

C. You can see the same kind of pattern in the adult workplace.

D. They will consider many sources of information at the same time.

E. It is important to stress that the female brain may be built more for empathy.

F. That suggests certain differences between male and female brains are biological.

G. Others may think the theory creates a belief of what a particular type of person is like.