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Are you truly happy? Do you ever know what it means to be happy and what it takes to achieve happiness?
27 The following are a few tips that I follow to create happiness in my life.
※Make a plan for attaining goals that you believe will make you happy. Your moods will very likely increase if you are going after something you value.
※Surround yourself with happy people. It is easy to begin to think negatively when you are surrounded by people who think that way. 28
※When something goes wrong,try to figure out a solution instead of being absorbed in selfpity. Truly hap?py people don't allow setbacks to affect their moods be?cause they know that with a little thought they can turn the circumstances back to their favour.
※29 These few minutes will give you the op?portunity to focus on the positive things in your life and will lead you to continuous happiness.
※30 Whether you treat yourself to lunch,take a long,relaxing bath or simply spend a few extra minutes on your appearance,you will be subconsciously (下意识地) putting yourself in a better mood.
※ Finding the humour in situations can also lead to happiness. Find a way to make light of a situation that would otherwise make you happy.
Keeping healthy is another way to achieve happi ness. 31
A. What makes one person happy may be very different from what makes someone else happy.
B. On the contrary,if you are around people who are happy,their emotional state will be infectious.
C. Being overweight or not eating nutritious food can have a negative effect on your mood.
D. These are important questions for anyone who is see?king happiness to ask himself.
E. Spend a few minutes each day thinking about the things that make you happy.
F. There are some tips in life that lead to happiness.
G. It's also important to take some time each day to do something nice for yourself.
Today's American high school students are far likelier than those in the 1970s to believe they're much more likely to claim they are " straight A” students with high IQs— even though other research shows that today's students do less homework than those in the 1970s. The findings sup?port the idea that the " selfesteem" movement popular among today's parents and teachers may have gone too far.
"What this shows is that confidence has crossed over into overconfidence”，said Jean Twenge,a professor. Twenge stressed that youthful confidence isn't necessarily bad. " Young people have always had some degree of dreamy optimism,and that's probably a good thing. And setting goals for yourself is a good thing. It's just when those goals are wildly unrealistic,then that can cause trouble for everyone."
For example,young people entering the workforce may score well in job interviews if they show selfconfi?dence,but that can quickly sour if a new employer doesn't provide them with the promotions they feel they deserve. "They don't set the right goals for themselves,because they are overconfident―and that's when it blows up in their faces”，Twenge said.
The blame for all this may lie with wellintentioned adults. " These kids didn't raise themselves;they got these ideas from somewhere," Twenge said. With parents handing out endless praise,kids today readily believe they are somehow superior,she said. And teachers aren't blameless,either: high school teachers now give out an "A" grade more easily than those in the 1970s,even though today's high school students report doing less homework than students from that period.
Not everyone interpreted the new findings in the same way,however. Jennifer Crocker is a professor of psychol?ogy. Based on available academic data,today's young Americans might be right to be more selfconfident. "The fact is that we are all getting smarter―IQ is going up quite dramatically over this same period of time," Crocker noted. "Students may believe that they are getting trained better than they used to,and that they are learning skills that they didn't use to have."
23. Why does Twenge worry about overconfident teenag?ers?
A. Because they don't do homework any more.
B. Because the real world doesn't always meet their expectations.
C. Because their parents don't support the " selfesteem" movement.
D. Because their teachers expect the best performance from them.
24. What causes teenagers to have too much confidence in themselves?
A. They were born confident in themselves.
B. The students got the confidence from somewhere in the media.
C. Their parents are constant to praise them for their performance.
D. School teachers are reluctant to prize students with an "A" grade.
25. The underlined part "when it blows up in their faces" in Paragraph 3 may mean " ”，
A. when their goals seem more important
B. when they encourage themselves at once
C. when they give up their goals immediately
D. when it suddenly goes wrong
26. Jennifer Crocker seems to think that .
A. it is reasonable for students to be selfconfident
B. students are full of dreams about something unre?alistic
C. the American students have higher TQs than those in other countries
D. teenagers are too ready to believe they are some?how superior
Y. E. S. ―a small group of high school students is not just learning about the envi?ronment around them,but they're actually doing something to improve it.
"This group has done a series of projects,from recy?cling about 600 pounds of tennis shoes,to over 50 cellpho?nes ,"said Patrick Merrick,a school teacher and Y. E. S. adviser.
The idea for environmental projects came about two years ago and it gradually became a part of an environmen?tal science class. In class,students would learn about a topic? design a project,carry it out and then take it to the community（社区) .
"Before every topic,we spent several weeks learning about the how,what and why of the idea," said Maddie Frank and Shawn Hanson,students in Y. E. S.
One of the goals,Frank and Hanson said,was to find out how much energy their school used throughout a school day.
"We decided to carry out a school energy audit (审计) ”，they said. " We divided up the classrooms among the students in our class. Each student recorded how much energy was being used in each classroom."
"We have been able to save money with the help of our school energy audit,make money with both the shoe and the cellphone recycling,keep a large amount of garbage out of the landfills (废物填埋地) with those recycling projects and make it possible for community members to use energysaving things”，Frank and Hanson said.
While the group is working towards making a differ?ence in the environment around them,they express their thankfulness for people's support.
"Without the help of our community and school,we would not have been able to make these recycling projects possible," Frank and Hanson said.
20. What can we learn from the first four paragraphs?
A. Y. E. S. is an afterschool activity right now.
B. Y. E. S. was set up by Maddie Frank and Shawn Hanson.
C. Students carry out the projects designed by their teachers.
D. Students do a lot of research about the topic learned in class.
21. According to the text,the small group has ,
A. given environmental science classes to the community
B. reduced the amount of garbage that has to be thrown
C. invented some energysaving things
D. repaired over 50 cellphones
22. What's the best title for the text?
A. Protect the environment
B. Thank those people who support you
C. Many students join in Y. E. S.
D. Environmental projects make a difference
15. The Voice of China has set up a big stage for young people with a gift music,where some of them have stood out among others.
14. He didn't make clear when and where the meeting would be held.
13. Even though she had read the report carefully over and over,she glanced it before handing it in.
12. —This pair of shoes doesn't (fit) me. Do you have a larger size?
―Yes,but the colour is different. Does it (suitable) you?
11. ―How much will I pay for a night?
―Prices (various) from room to room.
10. The famous actress is said to (marry) to an official for 20 years.
9. (live) there for some time,Mr Johnson knew the place quite well.