At times, our worries and anxieties can defeat us.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here is a brief list of techniques that you can use to help gain a better viewpoint on things during the anxious moments.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} A person should take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get their mind off the problem. A person could get some fresh air, listen to some music, or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things.

    Remember that our fearful thoughts are made to seem worse and can make the problem worse.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} When unexpectedly having thoughts that make you fearful or anxious, challenge these thoughts by asking yourself positive questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense.

    Be smart in how you deal with fears and anxieties. Do not try to deal with everything all at once. When facing a current or upcoming task that makes you anxious, break the task into small ones.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Remember that all the worrying in the world will not change anything. Most of what you worry about never comes true. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Then you should leave everything else in the hands of God.

    It is not easy to deal with all the fears and worries. When your fears and anxieties have the best of you, try to calm down and then get the facts of the situation. The key is to take it slow. All you can do is doing your best each day, hope for the best, and when something does happen, take it easy. Take it one step at a time and things will work out well at last.

A. When feeling anxious, stop what you are doing and try to do something relaxing.

B. This will give you the confidence to manage your anxiety.

C. Instead of worrying about something that probably won't happen, concentrate on what you are able to do.

D. The next time you fell depressed, review your list and think about the good things that you have in your life.

E. A good way to manage your worry is to challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking.

F. In addition, our worries can change our understanding of what is reality and what is not.

G. Completing these smaller tasks once at a time will make the stress more manageable and increase your chances of success.

Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in the numbered blanks by using the information from the passage.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

    Since the earliest civilizations, people have controlled rivers to meet society's demands. Today, rivers are controlled for many reasons, primarily to maintain reliable water supplies for daily, agricultural and industrial needs, for power generation, for navigation (航行), and to prevent flooding.

    River control is achieved by channelization, a term that covers a range of river engineering works, including widening, deepening, straightening and stabilization of banks, and by the construction of dams.

    An important period of channelization took place in Europe during the l9'th century, when many large rivers were straightened and their beds deepened. One of the most dramatically changed was the Tisza River, a branch of the Danube that flows through Hungary. The controlling of the Tisza, designed to reduce flooding and make land for agriculture, included cutting off more than 100 meanders (河曲), shortening the river's length by nearly 400 kilometers.

    One of the most common ways in which people control rivers is by damming them. The past 50 years or so has seen an increase in dam construction worldwide, and at the beginning of the 21^st century, there were about 800,000 dams globally, some towering more than 200 meters in height.

Despite their successes, many dams also cause significant environmental changes that prove harmful. Some particularly deep reservoirs (水库) can bring about earthquakes due to the stress on their bottom rocks caused by huge volumes of water. Downstream of a reservoir, the river is certainly influenced in many ways: water volume, speed and quality are all affected, leading to changes in the landscape and among plants and animals.

⑴{#blank#}1{#/blank#} ⑵{#blank#}2{#/blank#} ⑶{#blank#}3{#/blank#} ⑷{#blank#}4{#/blank#} ⑸{#blank#}5{#/blank#} ⑹{#blank#}6{#/blank#} ⑺{#blank#}7{#/blank#} ⑻{#blank#}8{#/blank#} ⑼{#blank#}9{#/blank#} ⑽{#blank#}10{#/blank#} 

    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 write a business apology letter?

    Drafting a good business apology letter is one of the basic tasks a businessman has to complete{#blank#}1{#/blank#} It can also retain(保留) the customer, and even strengthen your relationship with the customer.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Then a business apology letter can be drafted and sent to the customer without delay. However, if you doubt that there are legal issues, it's better to delay sending a formal reply until you receive legal advice.

    Before drafting a letter of apology, you should first consider the reason for the apology{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Then thoroughly investigate the issue to determine exactly what went wrong. Decide who you need to apologize to, how you should apologize, and when would be the best time to send the apology letter.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} 1) Get comprehensive(综合的) details about how the situation unfolded; 2) Stick to the facts of the immediate situation; 3) Acknowledge any pain or damage suffered by the customer; 4) Outline the company's role in the incident; 5) State that the company regrets the situation; 6) Apologize to the customer sincerely, etc.

    Include all of the above elements to produce a concise and appropriate business apology letter. Keep the letter as brief as possible and be mindful of the tone of the letter{#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

A. Find out if the problem has affected anyone else.

B. A well drafted apology can limit the damage done.

C. Tell the customer that the situation will not occur again.

D. A letter of complaint should be investigated as soon as possible.

E. A good sample letter would take account of the following issues.

F. A respectful and considerate tone will go a long way towards rebuilding a damaged customer relationship.

G. It is better to make an apology, even though the company is not at fault, than to risk losing a valuable customer.

Dealing with Difficult Relationships

    Everyone has at least one awkward or tense relationship. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It may be with somebody who will use up your energy whenever you are with them. Or worse, it could be someone who always cuts you down. By persuading you it's your obligation or duty, you forget about your own needs. Sadly, by remaining loyal to these people, you forget who you are. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} No matter who they are, it's necessary that you learn to set boundaries (界限) for yourself. It is you who allow them to take advantage of you or even belittle you.

    If you find a relationship unhealthy and it's time for you to set boundaries, the following advice may be helpful.

    Setting boundaries for difficult relationships starts by admitting how you are affected by the relationships. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} For example, it's time to study for tomorrow's test. But your friend wants to take you to a party. Here, setting boundaries will help protect your academic goals. Someone who pressures you to something you're not comfortable doing will stress you out. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Next, decide how much time you should spend with these people. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} But it's difficult to help others if you forget to protect your own priority (优先次序).

    Settling boundaries requires taking a long, honest look at yourself. By saying no to harmful patterns in relationships, you say “yes” to a healthier you.

A. Does this kind of relationship lower your self-respect?

B. These people may be your family members or even friends.

C. It's easy to spend too much time and energy offering them help.

D. People may try to keep you in an unhealthy relationship.

E. But a friend who considers how you feel will respect your willingness to try something new.

F. It's not easy to set boundaries because you may be afraid of losing them.

G. Do they bring you closer to your goals or pull you farther away?

    Life is not easy when you are looking for something worthwhile and ready to learn from the best experiences. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are some life lessons which people will learn the hard way in majority of cases.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}However people usually get discouraged when it takes more time than they thought it would. At this time, people refer only to people who have already achieved what they want to do. Look at any successful person and you'll notice one thing common in all of them: they took time to learn and mastered their skill like no one else. There is no elevator to success and you have to take the stairs.

    Be brave to take the road less traveled. In our whole life, we always want to follow the same path that everyone suggests, do the same thing everyone does, take the same career path everyone takes, wear the same clothes everyone wears, and hang out with the same people we work with. Why? Because we are scared to fail. But when you get bored of life, you realize that you are not meant to do what everyone does and that your destiny is different from anyone else's out there in the world. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    You don't have to live your life in a way society wants you to. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Parents sometimes force their children to select a career they don't want because other children have selected that career. Worst of all, people follow them without even asking. There is no harm in believing in old beliefs but when you pursue them before your interest, sooner or later you'll realize that you should first do what you think is right.

A. It takes continuous time and effort to be successful in any area.

B. The general rule goes that the harder you try, the greater results you get.

C. Many old beliefs are being performed these days and are followed blindly.

D. It always takes tests and then fails us to learn anything worthwhile.

E. However, in most circumstances your effort and attempt go well alongside with your desired achievement.

F. But the price we pay to realize this is high because it takes a great amount of courage to follow your own path.