Choosing the right job is probably one of the most important decisions we have to make in life, and it is frequently one of the hardest decisions we have to make. One important question that you might ask yourself is: “How do I get a good job?” {#blank#}1{#/blank#} There are people who can answer an insignificant advertisement in the local paper and land the best job in the world; others write to all sorts of places all over the country, and never seem to get a reply at all. Still others believe that the in person, door-to-door approach is by far the best way to get a job; and then there are those who, through no active decision of their own, just seem to be in the right place at the right time. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} He used to spend a lot of his free time down by the sea watching the tall ships, but never thinking that he might one day sail one of them. His father was a farmer, and being a sailor could never be anything for the boy but an idle dream. One day, on his usual wandering, he heard the captain of the ship complaining that he could not sail because one member of his crew was sick. Without stopping to think, the lad(少年) offered to take his place. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If the lad had gone home to ponder（考虑）his decision for a week, he may have missed his chance. It is one thing to be offered an opportunity; it is another to take it and use it well. Sometimes we hear stories about people who break all the rules and still seem to land plum jobs（美差）. When you go for a job interview or fill out an application, you are expected to say nice things about the company to which you are applying. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} And within a year this person had become general manger of the company.

A．This story also illustrates the importance of seizing an opportunity when it presents itself.

B．People find jobs in an infinite number of ways.

C．It's almost impossible to find a good job by answering advertisement in newspapers.

D．Take for example the young man who wanted to be a sailor.

E．But there was one person who landed an excellent job by telling the interviewer all the company's faults.

F．He spent the rest of his life happily sailing the ships he had always loved.

G．It is very important to seize an opportunity when it presents itself.

How to Think Positively

    Quite often when we're going through a challenging time, we may get the advice to just “think positively！”  {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Does it mean to deny our pain or discomfort? Should we pretend everything is alright? Here is some advice about how to think positively.

    Accept that you are here to grow. Life doesn't always go smoothly. Life's lessons can be difficult, but they are even more so if you approach them with avoidance(逃避). {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Learn to turn lemons into lemonade(柠檬水). Look for the lessons to be learned in every situation. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself when things don't go your way, do what you can to make the best of the situation. Learn, instead, how to avoid falling into the same traps and making the same mistakes. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Believe in yourself. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Your dreams and goals are an indication of where your talents lie and where your true potential is. Needless to say, you must develop your inherent (固有的) gifts.

    Look for inspiration and support. Read about and study the successful stories of others. Many successful people have gone through challenging circumstances to get where they are. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} To help you stay positive and focused, get support from family and friends.

    Finally, thinking positively doesn't mean being unrealistic, It means dealing with life and life's challenges as they are. It means being willing to do the work necessary to get on with the business of living fully.

A. If you see them as opportunities to become stronger, you are thinking positively and productively.

B. So next time a well-meaning person tells you to think positively, just smile back confidently.

C. Learning about their experiences can motivate and inspire you to achieve what you want to achieve.

D. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out exactly what that means.

E. Know that you have what it takes to succeed.

F. It just means that you won't let them stop you!

G. By doing so, you will undoubtedly benefit from it.

    Things You Didn't Know About Stephen Hawking

    Even if you don't keep a close eye on new developments in physics, you've probably heard of the famous physicist Stephen Hawking.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    These days, we know Hawking as a brilliant mind whose theories are difficult for a nonscientific mind to grasp. This is why it may come as a shock to learn that Hawking was a slacker when it came to his school studies.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}With a little more effort, he brought those grades up to about average, but not much better. However, from an early age he was interested in how things worked. He has talked about how he was known to take apart clocks and radios. However, he admits he wasn't very good at putting them back together so they could work again.

    Stephen Hawking took a liking to mathematics from an early age, and he would have liked to have majored in it.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}He hoped Stephen would instead study medicine.

    But, for all his interest in science, Stephen didn't care for biology. He has said that he found it to be “too inexact, too descriptive (叙述的)”{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

One problem, however, was that Oxford didn't have mathematics as a major. The result was that Stephen would attend Oxford and major in physics. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}That's why he chose to study universe.

A. His father wanted to send him to Oxford.

B. His father, Frank, however, had different ideas.

C. Actually, he focused on the bigger questions.

D. He would have rather devoted his mind to more precise concepts.

E. In fact, when he was 9, his grades ranked among the worst in his class.

F. However, there're many interesting facts you might not know about him.

G. Both his teachers and peers seemed to understand that they had a future genius.

    Do you know that you have “body amour（防弹衣）”? Yes, you do. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are three protective body parts and how they work.

    Skin

    Your skin might not feel much like the outside of an armoured tank, but it really gives you a lot of protection. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Skin also protects our bones, muscles and insides by covering them up. Our skin may not be that tough when we touch it, but it can be very tough when it counts. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The skin may get scraped（擦伤）and become bruised（青肿的）, but it helps to keep our bones safe so that they don't break easily.

    Eyelashes（眼睫毛）and Eyelids

    The little soft eyelashes attached to our eyelids are constantly working to blink（眨眼）away dust that would hurt our eyes. Our eyelashes and eyelids use reflex actions to close when danger comes near. Actually if we had to tell our eyelids to close, we could not do it fast enough to offer any real protection for our eyes. When our eyes and brain notice something that might be dangerous, they use lightening fast reflexes to close.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    Hair

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} This is a kind of body amour that is very useful, since the sun shines down on our heads all day. Without this covering of hair it would be easy for us to get sunburnt on the top of our heads. We lose about 50 individual hairs from our scalp every day. But most of us have lots of new ones that are replacing them.

A. Think about what happens when we fall.

B. This protection keeps our eyes safe and sound.

C. But you might not know how the armour works.

D. Some of your personal armour might affect you.

E. The hair on our heads protects our soft scalps（头皮）.

F. By closing eyes, your eyelashes block out light closer to you.

G. Our skin is the biggest organ in our entire body and it helps to keep us safe.

    A lack of sleep causes many medical conditions that greatly affect the quality of life. While no one knows why we sleep, it is a universal biological need.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    How much sleep do I actually need?

    A study in Finland found that the amount of sleep that relates to the fewest sick days was 7.63 hours a night for women and 7.76 hours for men.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}When we get sleep fewer than seven hours or our sleep often falls below six hours, we are at an increased risk of health problems.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Today, some people practice “polyphasic (一昼夜活动和休息多次的)sleep”,based on the idea that by dividing your sleep into parts, you can get away with less of it .Professor Dinges concludes it's possible to train oneself to need less sleep in short periods.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}And he notes that even for those who can function well on less sleep, we still don't know how the practice might be affecting chemical processes, mood, and other factors.

    I can't sleep. Is my phone really keeping me up?

    When light enters your eye, it hits your retina to send signals to the hypothalamus (下丘脑),which controls sleep cycles. When your retina takes in less light, your hypothalamus assumes it's time to sleep and it'll signal the pineal gland (松果腺)to make you sleepy. And when the hypothalamus senses light, it tells the pineal gland to stop its work.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Some research suggests that the light from phones and tablets are especially influential in human sleep cycles.

A. Adequate sleep can benefit us a lot.

B. Can I train myself to need less sleep?

C. How can I make myself sleep less?

D. No animal with a brain can survive without it.

E. This is why we're told to minimize screen time before bed.

F. And most adults function best after seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

G. But he adds it doesn't seem possible to train oneself to need less sleep per 24-hour cycle.

    Americans use many expressions with the word "dog". People in the United States love their dogs and treat them well. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} However, dogs without owners to care for them lead a different kind of life. The expression, to lead a dog's life, describes a person who has an unhappy existence.

    Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} People who are unkind or uncaring can be described as meaner than a junkyard dog. Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. Mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad. We say his bark is worse than his bite.

    Dog expressions are also used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}