People who are confident really seem to be naturally outstanding and just seem to do everything with more styles than others. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It is a habit that everyone can develop in life. Try these simple tips to drill and build up your confidence:

1). Admit your shortcomings calmly.

    Do not try to flee from them or cover them. Face them bravely. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Fight against them every day until the day when you could break away and conquer them.

2). Dress for self-confidence.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} And therefore pay attention to your dress, display your unique physical advantages and exhibit your best image. In addition, on formal occasions such as a business conference or a wedding ceremony, elegant dressing contributes to building your confidence.

3). {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    You should break your routine that deals with the work passively. Concentrate your efforts immediately on overcoming it, because it will make your restless mind at ease and build your self-confidence.

4). Be positive.

    Feel pity neither on yourself nor on others. If you are used to hating and accusing yourself, others would tend to do that and believe it. Instead, you should speak positively about yourself, your progress, and your bright future. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    A white elephant gift exchange is a popular holiday party game in, the United States. Generally, the party needs at least six participants, and' the larger the group: is, the more entertaining the game will be{#blank#}1{#/blank#}But it can result in heated competitions between players trying to get the gifts.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Sometimes, the rule is that the item must be previously owned, which means that you can exchange an unwanted item or trinket(小装饰品) with your friends. But sometimes you can buy a new but inexpensive item just for the party.

    Every participant is expected to bring one wrapped(包装好的) gift. A white elephant gift is usually something useless or inconvenient{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Guests are asked to wrap them nicely and leave no identifying markings on the presents.

    To start the game, a participant must act as the first player to choose a gift; this can be decided randomly or by picking numbers out of a hat{#blank#}4{#/blank#}As for the next player? This person can either “steal” the first person's gift or choose an unwrapped item from the pile. Each gift can be stolen only three times before it is considered "dead".

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Any person that has to give up a gift can also pick a new gift or steal one from another person. Each turn is only allowed three swaps between the current player and the previous players. The game won't finish until all the presents are opened.

A. It all depends on how the game is organized.

B. This process is repeated until the game is over.

C. Don't forget that the game's purpose is to have fun.

D. The first player then opens the gift in front of everyone.

E. White elephant gift exchange can be run in different ways.

F. The goal of the party is usually entertainment rather than gain.

G. Trinkets, unidentifiable kitchen items and toys are typical “white elephants” .

注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。

When a thought has found words

    Poetry is the forgotten child of literature. Few people read it for pleasure and modern poets are looked upon as odd creatures from a strange universe. In Western high schools, poetry is seldom taught because it is considered old-fashioned and not relevant to the needs of today's students.

    In China, however, poetry is still an important part of the curriculum and, with recent changes announced by the Ministry of Education, the number of poems students will have to memorize and recite is being increased from fourteen to seventy-two. Now, before you gasp in horror, let's think about the reasons why studying so many poems, especially ancient poems, is important.

    First of all, poetry is an essential part of traditional Chinese culture. It is a pathway to understanding your history and your society. It is also the key to understanding the thoughts and emotions that are common to everyone but which we may be unable to express—the joy of Li Bai dancing with the moon, for example. Everyone has feelings of joy, love, loneliness, sadness and even anger, and a good poem can put those emotions into words and bring us self-understanding.

    Poems can also express beauty. In a few short lines, even something commonplace can become beautiful. Here is a poem called "Fog" by Carl Sandberg: The fog comes / on silent haunches (弓腰蹲着) / and then moves on. Yes, fog does move smoothly, silently and mysteriously like a cat, and Sandberg captures that feeling and image, and makes it beautiful.

    Of course, to really appreciate poetry, it has to be really aloud. After all, a poem is really just a song without music. Most ancient poetry, especially Western poetry, was actually spoken before it was written. Take Homer's Iliad (伊利亚德), the story of the Trojan War (特洛伊战争), for example. That epic saga (史诗般的故事) of Helen's kidnapping and the war that followed was apparently told for hundreds of years in palaces, taverns (客栈) and on street corners before Homer wrote it down and was given credit for it.

    The American poet Robert Frost said, "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." And poems are very concise—there is not a wasted word. You are lucky that you now have seventy-two poems to learn!

    Traffic Regulation and Accident Prevention

    We live in a remarkable time, and many of the once fatal diseases can now be cured with modern medicine and surgery. It is almost certain that one day a cure will be found for the rest of the diseases. Expectations of life have greatly increased. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible killing of men, women and children on the roads. Man fights against the motor-car. It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Nothing can seriously increase your risk of potentially fatal car accidents other than speeding and failing to pay due attention to weather conditions. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man's very worst qualities. Usually quiet and pleasant people, when they are behind the steering wheel, will become unrecognizable. They are impolite, aggressive, self-willed like two-year-old, completely selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments, and jealousy seem to be caused by driving.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It's all for his own convenience. Due to a serious tragedy, the city is almost uninhabitable and the huge parking lot makes the town ugly. The destruction of rural areas and the annual mass killings are just a statistic, easily forgotten. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are not strict and even the strictest are not strict enough.

    Traffic rules are for everyone to follow under any circumstances, and no one can make an exception unless you make a joke of your own life. Universally accepted standards can only have a significant beneficial on the incidence of accidents. Governments should develop safety codes for manufacturers. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} These measures may sound cruel. However, if these measures result in a reduction in the loss of life every year, they should certainly not be considered serious. After all, the world belongs to humans, not cars.

A. There are five reason for the accident and you are guilty.

B. Every year thousands of people are horribly killed, and we sit still and let it happen.

C. Surprisingly, society should smile at the driver and forgive him.

D. Someone has rightly said that when a person is sitting behind the steering wheel, his car becomes an extension of his personality.

E. All advertisements that emphasize power and performance should be banned.

F. It is time to develop a universal norm to reduce this senseless waste of human life.

Who's Really Addicting You To Technology?

    “Nearly everyone I know is addicted in some measure to the Internet”, wrote Tony Schwartz in The New York Times. It's a common complaint these days. A steady stream of similar headlines accuses the Net and its offspring apps, social media sites and online games of addicting us to distraction.

    There's little doubt that nearly everyone who comes in contact with the Net has difficulty disconnecting. Then who's at fault for its overuse? To find solutions, it's important to understand what we're dealing with. There are four parties cooperating to keep you connected: the tech, your boss, your friends and you.

    The technologies themselves and their makers are the easiest suspects to blame for our distraction. Online services like Facebook, Google, twitter and the like rely on advertising revenue, so the more frequently you use them, the more money they make. No wonder these companies employ teams of people focused on improving their services to be as attractive as possible.

    Good as these services are, there are simple steps we can take to keep them from coming too close. However, less than 15 percent of smartphone users are willing to adjust their notification settings  meaning the remaining 85 percent of us default to (默认)the app makers' every preset devices.

    While companies like Facebook harvest attention to generate revenue from advertisers, other technologies have no such agenda. Take email, for example. We check email at all hours of the day we're obsessed, because that's what the boss wants. For almost all white-collar jobs, email is the primary tool of corporate communication. A slow response to a message could hurt not only your reputation but also your livelihood.

    Your friends are also responsible for the addiction. Think about this familiar scene. People gathered around a table, enjoying food and each others' company. Then, during an interval in the conversation, someone takes out their phone to check who knows what. Barely anyone notices and no one says a thing.

    The reality is taking one's phone out at the wrong time is more than an impolite behavior because, unlike other minor offense, checking tech is contagious (传染). Once one person looks at their phone, other people tend to do the same, starting a chain reaction.

    Hie technology, your boss, and your friends, all influence how often you find yourself using (or overusing) these gadgets. But there's still someone who deserves careful examination the person holding the phone.

    When people are doing something difficult they'd rather not do, the phone is used to transport them elsewhere. They can easily escape discomfort temporarily, by answering email or browsing the web under the excuse of so-called “research”. The truth is that we are working unproductively out of our bad habits.

    Personal technology is indeed more attractive than ever, which doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to control our use of technology, instead, we should come to terms with the fact that it's more than the technology that's responsible for our habits. Our workplace culture, social norms and individual behaviors all play a part.

    Every person has a history of pain and tragedy that includes regret from the situation. At times, it's often hard to explain that pain to someone else. The challenge with a tragedy is the lack of support from someone.

    This has often been my challenge when I try to explain what occurred to me. When I was younger, I was a victim of a tragic accident that changed my life both academically and emotionally. At sixteen months old, due to the neglect of my babysitter I fell off the bed. The injury was so severe that I was rushed to the emergency room and the doctors explained to my mom that I suffered from a blood clot (血块) located on the left side of the brain.

    I was later diagnosed with what is known as a traumatic brain injury (外伤性脑损伤)．This accident affects my long term memory and testing ability. I often struggle with understanding information related to school and feel frustrated that I will not pass my tests. The pressure of school is so much, since I must always work harder than most students.

    I become easily disappointed that I study a lot but often flunk or re-take tests. It is hard to imagine, because in my mind I feel prepared for the work; however, the test results do not connect with the information in my brain. Although I always don't pass my tests, I feel like this injury encourages me to work and shows me that I can be confident when it comes to the future. For example, I have been able to maintain my grades, been employed for over a year at a local restaurant, and obtained my driver's license. I look forward to attending college, getting married, raising a family, and being a success. I will continue to live my life to the fullest and prove that an injury does not limit my life journey.