Nail-biting(咬指甲) is one of the most common annoying habits in children. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But you needn't worry too much and as soon as you realize what's causing nail-biting, you can help your child overcome and stop it. So, here's what you can do about it.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}In some cases, children won't even realize they are biting their nails, let alone know why they are doing it. So make sure you have a conversation with your child (if he/she is old enough) and make him/her realize he/she is doing it and try to figure out why it's happening.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} It's important to agree on the level of your involvement. If he/she wants help, create a secret reminder that will make him/her stop without embarrassing him/her.

    Give alternatives (替代物).{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Depending on the age of the child, there are several things that you can offer such as a small ball, Play-Doh games, or any kind of other small toys.

    Use bitter solutions(溶液). Forcing a child to keep this solution on his/her fingers may feel like a punishment.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Everything else will only lead to embarrassment and discouragement. Furthermore, some of these solutions contain pepper which burns if it enters a child's mouth or eyes. But if you have an adolescent child who wants to quit biting his/her nails, you may suggest and try out this solution.

A.It's also likely to continue as the child grows up.

B.Help the child become aware of the habit.

C.You should also consider asking for professional help.

D.Make an agreement on how you're going to stop it together.

E.The best thing children can do is communicate with their parents.

F.The child needs to go through the process painlessly and in agreement with you.

G.That will keep his/her hands occupied when he/she is likely to bite his/her nails.

注意：每个空格只填一个单词。

    Traveling to all corners of the world gets easier and easier. We live in a global village, but this doesn't mean that we all behave in the same way.

    How should we behave when you meet someone for the first time? An American shakes your hand firmly while looking you straight in the eye. In many part of Asia, there is no physical contact (接触)at all. In Japan, you should bow, and the more respect you want to show, the deeper you should bow. In Thailand, people greet each other by pressing both hands together at the chest. In both countries, eye contact is avoided as a sign of respect.

    Many countries have rules about what you should and shouldn't wear. In Muslim countries, you shouldn't reveal (显露)the body, especially women, who Should wear long blouses and skirts .In Korea, you should take off your shoes when entering a house. Remember to place them neatly together where you came in.

    In Spain, lunch is often the biggest meal of the day, and can last two or three hours. For this reason many people eat a light breakfast and a late dinner. In Mexico, lunch is the time to relax, and many people prefer not to discuss business as they eat .In Britain, it's not unusual to have a business meeting over breakfast.

    In most countries, an exchange of business cards is necessary for all introductions. You should include your company name and your position. If you are going to a country where your language is not widely spoken, you can get the back side of your card printed in the local language. In China, you may present your card with the writing facing the person you are giving it to.

What Teenagers Can Do To Earn More Respect

    As teenagers continue to grow and develop into young adults, the transition(过渡) into adulthood has begun. With so many physical and emotional changes going on, certain manners are often forgotten and other adult traits(特点) are not yet accepted as a way of life. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}By doing the following things, you will earn more respect.

    Contribute to the household(家庭)

    At the very least, clean up after yourself. As a teenager, you are old enough to clean up after yourself. When you make a mess, clean it up. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} All chores(家务) that you do help to reduce the load of the person who did them before. Now that you're old enough and capable, why shouldn't you contribute to the household? {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Be responsible

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Whether they are basic things, like brushing your teeth or doing your homework, or more involved chores that contribute to the household, simply fulfill (履行) your responsibilities on time. When adults know that they can rely on you, their trust and respect for you will increase.

    Solve more of your own problem without asking for help

    Instead of taking the easy approach and asking for help, make an effort to solve your problems on your own first. The "easy way" is only easy for you, but it is an extra task for the person from whom you are seeking help. Seek help only after you have make an honest effort to solve your own problems. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} When you become a good problem solver, you increase your valve to the community.

A. Everyone has certain responsibilities.

B. By being aware of these manners and traits, you can manage them sooner.

C. The people doing the chores before will greatly appreciate the help.

D. This includes, but is not limited to, your dishes and your room.

E. It will make your life more pleasant.

F. Depending on the problem, 15 minutes of effort is usually a good guideline.

G. When speaking to a group, speak loud enough.

    Why Is Recycling Important?

    When you throw things away, you might be very glad to do it. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. The things we throw away have to go somewhere－usually they go off to be buried underground in a landfill (垃圾填埋) or burnt in an incinerator (焚化炉). Landfills can be terribly polluting. They look awful, they smell terrible, they take up space that could be used for better things, and they sometimes create harmful soil and water pollution that can kill fish in our rivers and seas.

    One of the worst things about landfills is that they're wasting a huge amount of useful material. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of resources to make things, and when we throw those things in a landfill, at the end of their lives, we're also saying goodbye to all the energy and resources instead of burying it in landfills. That certainly has advantages: it reduces the amount of waste that has to be buried and we can get useful energy from it. But it can also produce harmful air pollution, and burning almost anything adds to the problem of global warming and climate change.

    The trouble is, we're all in the habit of throwing things away. In the early part of 20^th century, people used materials much more wisely－especially in World War Ⅱ, but in recent decades we've become a throwaway society. We tend to buy new things instead of getting old ones repaired. A lot of men use single-use razors (剃须刀), for example, instead of buying reusable ones, while a lot of women wear single-use stockings. Partly this is to do with the great convenience of throwaway items. It's also because they're cheap. But wasteful period in our history is coming to an end.

    We're finally starting to realize that our lifestyle is creating problems for future generations. Earth is soon going to be running on empty if we carry on as we are. Americans have a much richer life than almost anyone else on Earth. What happens when people in developing countries such as India and China decide they want to live the same way as us? According to the environmentalists, we'd need two Earths to satisfy all their needs.

    Most people have a list of wishes—things that they think will bring them happiness. Happiness lists are easy to come up with. However, the mechanism behind them is somewhat complicated, since it involves what psychologist Daniel Gilbert calls the greatest achievement of the human brain—the ability to imagine. To imagine what will bring joy to our future selves requires mental time travel, which is a unique human skill resulting from two million years of evolution. We use this skill every day, predicting our future emotions and then making decisions, whether big or small, according to our forecasts of how they'll make our future selves feel.

    Yet, our imagination often fails us. When we're lucky enough to get what we wished for, we discover that it doesn't come with everlasting happiness. And when the things we feared come to pass, we realize that they don't crush us after all. In dozens of studies, Gilbert has shown that we can mispredict emotional consequences of positive events, such as receiving gifts or winning football games, as much as negative events, like breaking up or losing an election. This impact bias(影响偏差) —overestimation of the intensity and duration of our emotional reactions to future events—is significant, because the prediction of the duration of our future emotions is what often shapes our decisions, including those concerning our happiness.

    Just as our immune systems work tirelessly to keep our bodies in good health, our psychological immune systems routinely employ an entire set of cognitive(认知) mechanisms in order to deal with life's habitual attack of less-than-pleasant circumstances. Actually, our psychological immune system has an impressive feature of its own: the ability to produce happiness. Thus, when life disappoints us, we "ignore, transform, and rearrange" information through a variety of creative strategies until the rough edges of negative effects have been dutifully dulled. When we fail to recognize this ability of our psychological immune systems to produce happiness, we're likely to make errors in our affective forecasting.

    Happiness, Gilbert points out, is a fast moving target. As passionate as we're about finding it, we routinely misforecast what will make us happy, and how long our joy will last. In reality, he adds that the best way to make an affective forecast is not to use your imagination, but your eyes. Namely, instead of trying to predict how happy you 'll be in a particular future, look closely at those who are already in the future that you're merely contemplating(冥想)and ask how happy they are. If something makes others happy, it'll likely make you happy as well.

    Looking back at my younger years, I am sometimes amazed at how life has turned out. Nothing is exactly what I had originally planned for. The only thing that stays the same is who I am, my values, and my interests. If I could go back in time and hang out with my younger self for a day, here's what I would tell her.

    ⒈Everything happens for a reason.

    Without mistakes and failure, you would never have learned. Without pain, you would never have grown. So don't stress or think that life is unfair, because everything happens for a reason. And only time will tell what it will teach us.

    ⒉Focus on one thing at a time. You can have it all but not all at once.

    It is not surprising that many of us are doing too many things at once. We need to make ends meet. But if you are working three jobs at a time, it is not likely that you will succeed at any of them. You have to keep your eyes on the big picture. You have to ask yourself what exactly do you want to achieve for the next 10 years? Focus on one thing at a time. Achieve your goals one by one.

    ⒊You can plan ahead, but your plan will definitely change when the time comes.

    You can plan ahead because sometimes planning ahead can give you a clearer direction of where you want to go. However, plans will almost always change, so be prepared！

    ⒋Trust your instincts.(直觉)

    Don't worry too much about a decision you have to make. Just do what feels right. You know what you want. You might consult other people. But deep down, you know what you want. Do what makes you happy. Because at the end of the day, even if you follow logic, you will want to quit and follow your heart.

    ⒌It's okay to be unsure about your purpose in life.

    You might be graduating or have hit a turning point with your career. You might feel a bit lost and unsure of where to go. It's okay. Go out there and try as many different things as you can. Don't ever feel like you're wasting your time. Enjoy the journey. Don't rush. Every little path will lead you somewhere. And looking back, you will be able to connect the dots. It will all make sense.

    ⒍Don't try too hard with people.

    Don't worry if you feel like it's hard to make new friends. Just be yourself and be as open as you can. It might take a while until you find new best friends and a mate for life, but when you do, you will know it. It's not hard work. So, just do your thing and be yourself.

A letter to my younger self