High school can be quite the stressful time for any student. There are numerous stresses to deal with and the pressure can be more intense as you enter your senior year.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}The answer is as follows.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Adjust your approach to your specific situation. For instance, if you're active in your community and your school and have a large family, you may feel depressed by having all these people involved in your life on a daily basis.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}You just may need a moment to be alone and collect your thoughts before moving on to the challenges that face you.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#} If your stress persists and you can't figure out a way to handle it, you may want to try speaking to your school counselor(顾问). If you don't feel comfortable speaking to your counselor, try getting some other types of counseling.

       Realize your limits, and plan around them. Don't take on more than you can handle. If you take on too many things, you will be spread too thin and won't be able to perform at your best in anything. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You will definitely feel more at ease!

A. Seek professional counseling.

B. Why does the stress come into being?

C. Try thinking of alternative ways to deal withstress.

D. When you feel relieved, you can have a happier life.

E. Taking some time out to be alone may be the best way to handle such stress.

F. But how on earth can you reduce some of the stress?

G. Evaluate what tasks and activities are most important and leave others behind.

    Some students get so nervous before a test, they do poorly even if they know the material. Sian Beilock has studied these highly anxious test-takers.

    Sian Beilock: “They start worrying about the consequences. They might even start worrying about whether this exam is going to prevent them from getting into the college they want. And when we worry, it actually uses up attention and memory resources. I talk about it as your cognitive horsepower that you could otherwise be using to focus on the exam.”

    Professor Beilock and another researcher, Gerardo Ramirez, have developed a possible solution. Just before an exam, highly anxious test-takers spend ten minutes writing about their worries about the test.

    Sain Beilock: “What we think happens is when students put it down on paper, they think about the worst that could happen and they reappraise the situation. They might realize it's not as bad as they might think it was before and, in truth, it prevents these thoughts from appearing suddenly when they're actually taking a test.”

    The researchers tested the idea on a group of twenty anxious college students. They gave them two short math tests. After the first one, they asked the students to either sit quietly or write about their feelings about the upcoming second test.

    The researchers added to the pressure. They told the students that those who did well on the second test would get money. They also told them that their performance would affect other students as part of a team effort.

    Professor Beilock says those who sat quietly scored an average of twelve percent worse on the second test. But the students who had written about their fears improved their performance by an average of five percent.

    Next, the researchers used younger students in a biology class. They told them before final exams either to write about their feelings or to think about things unrelated to the test.

    Professor Beilock says highly anxious students who did the writing got an average grade of B+, compared to a B- for those who did not.

    Sain Beilock: “What we showed is that for students who are highly test-anxious, who'd done our writing intervention, all of a sudden there was no relationship between test anxiety and performance. Those students most prone to worry were performing just as well as their classmates who don't normally get nervous in these testing situations.”

    But what if students do not have a chance to write about their fears immediately before an exam or presentation? Professor Beilock says students can try it themselves at home or in the library and still improve their performance.

    Having a shy style isn't necessarily a problem. It's OK to take time to warm up to new people and situations.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Some people want to feel less shy so they can enjoy socializing and being themselves around others. Here are some tips on overcoming shy feelings.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Practice social behaviors like eye contact, confident body language, introductions, small talk, asking questions, and invitations with people you feel most comfortable around. Smile and build your confidence.

    Think of some conversation starters. Often the hardest part of talking to someone new is getting started. Think of conversation openers, like introducing yourself, giving a compliment (赞美), or asking a question.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} 

    Rehearse (排练) what to say. When you are ready to try something you've been avoiding because of shyness — like a phone call or a conversation, write down what you want to say. Read it out loud in front of a mirror. Then just do your social activities.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Few of the things that more confident people do are perfect, either.

    Give yourself a chance.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Practice socializing with these new people and get to know them slowly. People who are shy often worry about failing or how others will judge them. Don't let these worries and feelings keep you from trying.

A. Start small with people you know.  

B. Then you can start smiling and saying “hello” in real life.

C. One of the best ways to get over shyness is to believe in yourself.

D. Find group activities where you can be with people who share your interests.

E. Being ready with a conversation starter makes it easier to approach someone.

F. Don't worry if they're not exactly like you have practiced or they're not perfect.

G. But shyness prevents some people from being as comfortable as they'd like to be.

                                                      Homesickness at college

    The thought of college life is quite exciting for students as they taste independence for the first time at college. Their hard work and effort paid off after all. Though college life brings lots of dreams and expectations for students, most of them soon start feeling homesick.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}But change is a part of life and dealing with change helps us to grow. In the same way, homesickness at college is a brief experience which goes away once students start adjusting in their new environment.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Some students may turn to alcohol and drugs. So it is important that students who experience homesickness at college know about how to deal with it. Students should understand that rather than constantly thinking of their hometown, it is better to see it as a challenge and try to defeat it . Though it is not a difficult task, the time that will take each person to deal with home-

sickness at college will be different according to their attitude and personality.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Youcan do that, too.

    Remember overcoming homesickness is accepting what you are experiencing. Many students think that being homesick is childish and undeveloped feeling and try to cover it up by acting cool or showing that they are very busy.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Besides, even their classmates will be going through the same emotions and feelings. Instead of trying to make them understand that they are totally fine after shifting to the new school, going through their emotions and thoughts about life at home for a day or two will be a better choice.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Homesickness helps students build up a better understanding of life.

B. Homesickness leads to dangerous results if not solved properly.

C. But they don't realize that homesickness is common to people of all ages.

D. You may miss your parents as you leave home for the first time.

E. This is an important part in the process of beating homesickness.

F. The main reason for the development of such a feeling is change.

G. Believe this is a possible achievement that everyone can achieve.

    The rules about how to talk, eat and sit, which are highly limited, are observed in most Western restaurants and homes. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Many Westerners have no idea how to act at the Chinese dinner table. No forks or knives for them to use! The Chinese host makes great, sweeping arm movements that go over large sections of the table, passing over both food and friends alike. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} However, it leaves many foreigners at a loss for what to do.

    In my childhood home, dinner was enjoyed with low voices, and the topics that we could discuss were very limited. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If I had to leave the table to use the toilet, I had to excuse myself without mentioning what it was that I was going to do. “May I be excused, please? I need to wash my hands.” I would say. My mother would say, “Sure.” My father would often play a joke on me by saying, “{#blank#}4{#/blank#}”

    As for eating, we did it quietly. No eating noises were allowed. Everything must be done as quietly as possible. If any sound was created by eating food or drinking, it would be considered as bad manners!

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}He is to sit up straight with the recessive hand (usually the left) in one's lap holding a napkin while the dominant hand (usually the right) holds the fork or spoon. The only time one is allowed to have both hands on the table is when he is using a knife to cut something.

A. The scene is fantastic.

B. Your hands don't look dirty!

C. How one sits at the table is also prescribed.

D. Can't you think up a better excuse than that?

E. In general they were all strictly forbidden topics.

F. They're completely different from what we find here in China.

G. We were not allowed to talk about anything that made listeners uncomfortable.

    You'd think the human race would have understood sleeping very well by now, but many of us are still sleeping poorly. Part of the problem is that we have wrong information and beliefs about this important health need. Let's set the facts straight. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    ⒈More sleep is better for you.

    There could be such a thing as too much sleep. The amount of sleep we need varies by person and also changes as we age. Harvard researchers found that a lot of sleep (9 hours or more) is linked with poor sleep quality. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Aim for better sleep.

    ⒉{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Alcohol can help most people fall asleep. However, it also can cause you to wake up more during the night, decreasing your sleep quality. Consider drinking non-alcoholic drink before bed instead.

    ⒊If you wake up in the middle of the night, lie in bed until you eventually fall back asleep.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}We all hope to quickly fall back asleep. So we tend to stay in bed hoping it'll happen at any minute now. If that doesn't happen, though, within 15 minutes, most experts recommend getting out of bed to do something that occupies our bodies and brains without overstimulating us. Try not to check the clock either.

    ⒋You can catch up on sleep on weekends.

    When we lose sleep during the week, we accumulate a kind of sleep ＂debt＂. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Not so fast. This might actually make you sleepier the next week. Instead of waking up later on the weekends, you'd better go to sleep earlier or perhaps take a nap in the afternoon.

A. Alcohol helps you sleep.

B. Here are some things you might have been told about sleeping but aren't completely true.

C. Everyone should get 7—8 hours of sleep per night.

D. So don't aim for more sleep — even on the weekends.

E. Waking up in the middle of the night is the pits (烦心事), but it happens to all of us.

F. You'll have a better day and perhaps sleep better at night.

G. Can you pay that debt back by sleeping on Saturday or Sunday?