A Devoted Dog As the Camp Fire continued...

Stay on the brighter side of life

One very important component of optimism is gratitude or feeling grateful. In fact, there is a strong connection between a grateful attitude and a heightened sense of well-being. Appreciate all the positives in your life by starting a gratitude journal in order to remember what you’re grateful for. 1.

Feeling down? Instead of feeling sorry for yourself waiting for the universe to throw you a bone, try acting like you’re happy—even if you aren’t. A sincere smile and a forced smile will cause the same chemical reactions in your brain, so you can actually fool your mind into feeling better by making it react chemically as if things were going well. 2. Reassure yourself that everything is good—even if you don’t feel it.

“3. If you’re stuck in traffic, then everything else must be going horribly too,” says Anne Parker, a wellness counselor. By blowing negative events out of proportion, you’re setting yourself up for feeling down all day. Instead, acknowledge that you’re stuck in traffic, but also bring to mind something good, like the beautiful scenery outside the window. That way, you’ll get in the habit of forbidding negative circumstances from blanketing your whole day.

Swearing to lose 20 pounds or to run a marathon seems like goals leading to happiness, but they take time to achieve. 4.You may even end up admitting that you have been defeated. However, if you focus on the small milestones that occur along the way, you will feel positive about your progress, which will give you the strength to keep going.

5. Try making someone else’s day better. A report by United Healthcare and Volunteer Match found that volunteers are 72% more likely to characterize themselves as optimistic compared with non-volunteers. Plus, 89% of volunteers say that volunteering has improved their sense of well-being, and 92% say that it enriches their sense of purpose in life.

A. Try to help someone in need.

B. Want to give your attitude a lift?

C. People tend to think in an either-or way.

D. Act in an optimistic way—smile, laugh, tell a joke.

E. You’ll fail to appreciate more important things in your life.

F. By focusing on not having accomplished them yet, you will start to feel down on yourself.

G. By remembering the pleasant things in your life, you can actually turn a negative attitude around.

    When Randy Heiss went hiking behind his Patagonia, Ariz. farm, the last thing he expected to find was a Christmas list from a little girl across the US-Mexico border. “I found this balloon on my morning walk near Patagonia on Sunday. Attached to it was a piece of paper with the Christmas wishes from a little girl,” Heiss wrote on his Facebook page.

When he brought the list home to his wife, who speaks fluent Spanish, they determined that the little girl had asked for Enchantimals toys, clothes, art supplies and various other gifts. That's when Heiss set out to make the little girl's Christmas dreams come true. Heiss said he had attempted to send Christmas letters to Santa Claus via balloon when he was a kid but never received a response.

Heiss sent a Facebook message on Wednesday to XENY, a radio station in Nogales, to see if it could help him track down the girl or her family. He later received a response from the station, which had determined the author of the letter was an 8-year-old girl named Dayami, and the station wanted to set up a meeting between the two on Thursday. “It just changed my entire day,” Heiss told the Washington Post. “Instead of going back to my office in Bisbee, I went with my wife to Walmart. “

The couple bought almost everything on Dayami's list. They also brought a few gifts for Dayami's little sister, Ximena. They told the children they were “ ayudantes de Santa,” or Santa's helpers.

Heiss,60, said the experience was very healing for him and his wife. Nine years ago,the couple's only son died. “ Being around children at Christmas time has been absent in our lives,” Heiss said. We now have friends for life. For a day, that border fence with its concertina wire melted away.

1.How did Dayami send out her Christmas wishes?

A.By calling Heiss. B.By attaching them to a balloon.

C.By writing to a radio station. D.By sending a Facebook message.

2.When did Heiss know what the girl exactly wanted?

A.After the help of his wife.

B.When he found the balloon.

C.After their meeting in America.

D.When he got a response from the radio station.

3.What might make Heiss decide to fulfill the little girl's Christmas wishes?

A.His son's will.

B.The girls request for help.

C.His similar unsuccessful experience.

D.His desire to make friends with the girl.

4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.The couple got out of the pain completely.

B.The experience was a great relief to the couple.

C.The couple would help more children from Mexico.

D.There will be no border between countries one day.

    At school, I was in the top set for maths. My teachers recommended that I study economics and statistics as my A-level subjects, but I had my mind set on a life fulfilled by the arts.

In fact, I was a victim of a gender stereotype made stronger since birth, that men do science and maths and women do arts or languages. Computer science, technology and physics just did not figure in my teenage world view. Nobody popular in my school chose to study those subjects.

Reality struck hard when I began attending job interviews and interviewers would say: “It’s great that you speak foreign languages, but what else do you do?” Nobody asked my friends who had studied science or technology those questions.

A survey recently showed that three of the best-paid jobs for women are in the technology sector. It’s a sector that really can change the world. We must show girls that technology has an effect on every industry out there, from fashion to architecture to journalism. Anybody can learn to code and these days it’s as important as reading and writing. I’ve realized that at university I’d achieved the wrong kind of literacy. Not being able to code limit your impact on the world far more than an ignorance of great literature.

Now I have a five-year-old daughter. I don’t want her to blindly follow gender roles the way I did. I want her to know the fact that a science or technical degree will not limit her creativity but expand it and broaden her horizons far more than my arts background could. I’m exposing her to Minecraft and apps, which help improve analytical thinking and problem solving skills. I’m hoping that my daughter will discover and accept her potentials in science and want to change the world.

1.What does the underlined phrase “gender stereotype” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A.Personal learning style. B.Sex characteristic.

C.Conventional sex concept. D.Profession difference.

2.According to the author, which may be the benefit of learning science?

A.Increasing job possibility. B.Winning popularity.

C.Improving language competence. D.Enriching imagination.

3.How did the author feel for her major choice?

A.Satisfied. B.Active. C.Discouraged. D.Regretful.

4.What may be the best title for the text?

A.Art or Science, Either is OK B.Good Subjects, Good Future

C.Girls, Choose More Wisely D.Catch Chances, Change the World

    One way to prevent anxiety from getting out of control is to recognize its benefits. It is a mistake to think that we'd make better decisions if only we keep our feelings under control. Instead, a mix of feelings like anxiety and logical(合逻辑的) thinking leads to sound decision- making. It's true that there is plenty of research showing that higher levels of anxiety can make us more likely to avoid risks in our decision-making. There is also evidence that anxiety can increase the attention you pay to relevant information.

Recent studies have shown that people who are anxious about their relationship (for example, they fear to be abandoned) tend to be better at recognizing people who tell lies and are more likely to raise the alarm when danger is present.

In the real world though, it's worth realizing that feeling anxious once in a while is extremely common. It communicates to others that you care, and what's more, it's probably a sign that you are intelligent. At least two published studies have identified that people who score higher on measures of anxiety also tend to perform better on intelligence tests. This seems reasonable: if you're a thinker, you are sure to be always thinking about the future and imagine possible plots, including bad ones.

The important thing, if you are a worrywart (杞人忧天者) , is not to let your fear destroy your dreams. And don't bury your head in the sand. Instead, act on your fears — do the research as well as preparation, so rather than walking blindly into that which you fear, you meet the challenge in full readiness.

When anxiety beats you, or casts a shadow over your life, this is a serious problem. No one is denying that. But like everyday anxiety of this kind that you feel before a presentation or interview, you needn't see it as your enemy. Anxiety is an important feeling, developed through evolution. As for people who are fairly anxious by nature, there is reason for cheer, too. Your nerves (神经紧张) are a sign of your watchfulness. Listen to them and act on them. Then you can turn your nervousness into your advantage.

1.What can we infer from the first paragraph about anxiety?

A.It can enable us to be more focused.

B.It can stop us from thinking logically.

C.It can make us more willing to take risks.

D.It can be the only reason for all bad decisions.

2.What can we learn from the passage?

A.Anxious people are less sensitive to danger.

B.Anxious people have difficulty discovering liars.

C.Feeling anxious is more likely to put people at risk.

D.Feeling anxious occasionally is a sign of intelligence.

3.How should we deal with anxiety in the author's opinion?

A.Regard it as our enemy. B.Take action to control it.

C.Avoid being defeated by it. D.Treat it as a minor feeling.

4.What is the theme of the passage?

A.Effective ways to prevent anxiety. B.Unexpected benefits of anxiety.

C.Tips on how to keep a good mood. D.Common misunderstandings about anxiety.

    Fifteen years ago, I took a summer vacation in Lecce in southern Italy. After climbing up a hill for a panoramic(全景的) of the blue sea, white buildings and green olive trees, I paused to catch my breath and then positioned myself to take the best photo of this panorama.

Unfortunately, just as I took out my camera, a woman approached from behind, and planted herself right in front of my view. Like me, this woman was here to stop, sigh and appreciate the view.

Patient as I was, after about 15 minutes, my camera scanning the sun and reviewing the shot I would eventually take, I grew frustrated. Was it too much to ask her to move so I could take just one picture of the landscape? Sure, I could have asked her, but something prevented me from doing so. She seemed so content in her observation. I didn’t want to mess with that.

Another 15 minutes passed and I grew bored. The woman was still there. I decided to take the photo anyway. And now when I look at it, I think her presence in the photo is what makes the image interesting. The landscape, beautiful on its own, somehow comes to life and breathes because this woman is engaging with it.

This photo, with the unique beauty that unfolded before me and that woman who “ruined” it, now hangs on a wall in my bedroom. What would she think if she knew that her figure is captured and frozen on some stranger’s bedroom wall? A bedroom, after all, is a very private space, in which some woman I don’t even know has been immortalized. In some ways, she lives in my house.

Perhaps we all live in each other’s spaces. Perhaps this is what photos are for: to remind us that we all appreciate beauty, that we all share a common desire for pleasure, for connection, for something that is greater than us.

That photo is a reminder, a captured moment, an unspoken conversation between two women, separated only by a thin square of glass.

1.What happened when the author was about to take a photo?

A.Her camera stopped working. B.A woman blocked her view.

C.Someone asked her to leave. D.A friend approached from behind.

2.In the author’s opinion, what makes the photo so alive?

A.The rich color of the landscape. B.The perfect positioning of the camera.

C.The woman’s existence in the photo. D.The soft sunlight that summer day.

3.The passage can be seen as the author’s reflections upon ________.

A.a particular life experience B.the pleasure of traveling

C.the art of photography D.a lost friendship