Friendship—Seven Tips on How to Make Friends
Friendship is a very important human relationship and everyone needs good friends. Friendship offers companionship, improves an individual self-worth and promotes good health. However making new friends comes easy for some people but for many of us the process is difficult and requires courage. Below are some helpful tips on how to make and keep friends.
Associate with others. The first step to making friends is associating with other people. Health clubs, places of worship and charities are some places where you can meet new people and build friendship. But attending these places is not enough. You will need to make yourself known by becoming an active member.
Be cheerful. A smile on the face is a sure way to attract new friends as people are always drawn to a cheerful disposition. No one wants to keep company with someone who constantly looks upset.
Start a conversation. Starting a conversation is the second most important step in making new friends. Do not wait to be spoken to；you can always start the conversation. Being able to make small talk is a very useful skill in relating with other people regardless of the environment or circumstance.
Stay in touch. For a friendship to grow you need to stay in touch. There are several ways of staying in touch with your friends and these include SMS, phone calls and online social networking sites.
Do things together. Choosing friends with common interest is important in establishing friendship as these interests would always bring you and your friend together and hanging out will always be a pleasant experience. The less you have in common with your friend the more likely the friendship will not grow.
Let it grow. It is a good thing to stay in touch but try not to choke your new friend with calls, messages or visits as this would likely wear him or her out and eventually they may not want to be your friend anymore. The best friendships are the ones that grow naturally.
Enjoy your friendship. The best way to enjoy your new friends is to allow them to be themselves. Try not to be critical of them and try not to change them from who they are to what you want them to be.

Rarely have I experienced a reaction like that which came about following the idea of banning private education. One of those who contacted me to disagree with the idea was 17 year old Anirudh Mandagere. He got 10 A*s at GCSE and is currently studying English, French, Math and History at a private school in Manchester. Here is his response:

For me, the idea that all private schools should be banned is not only ridiculous and unrealistic, but goes against the idea of liberty. We must have the freedom to choose between state-funded and privately educated schools. If parents pay taxes, surely they should be able to choose whether they send their children to a state-funded or a privately-funded school.

The economic impacts of abolishing private education are vast. Banning private schools would obviously contribute to a great transfer to state schools. Many state schools are already overburdened; do they really need more pupils? Abolishing private education would lead to higher taxes for taxpayers since more money would be needed to educate the 7% who were previously private educated. In the times of economic crisis, should the taxpayer need to fork out more money to pay for their education? There would also be a great rise in unemployment of the staff who works at private schools.

It is noted that, in general, private schools have better grades at GCSE and A level than state schools. Yet, why do people view this as a bad thing? The higher private school grades eventually force the government to endlessly improve state education so that the middle-classes do not totally abandon state education for private education. This competition creates reform and progress within state schools and eventually promote them! If the private schools did not exist, where would be the impetus for state school improvement?

Government should not simply ban a system which produces results. It should learn from it and use the private education model as a basis for the state education model. Abolishing a successful system will not help anybody, learning from a successful system will.

1.In the eye of Anirudh Mandagere, parents have the right to ______.

A. criticize state-funded schools

B. pay taxes for the promotion of private schools

C. choose the way their children receive education

D. advocate the competition between state schools and private ones

2.According to the passage, banning private education will ______.

A. obviously contribute to lower taxes

B. not cause the state schools to be overburdened

C. force the government to boost state education

D. lead to many people losing their jobs 

3.The underlined word “impetus” in the fourth paragraph probably means ______.

A. motivation         B. prevention         C. participation       D. assessment

4.Compared with state schools, private ones ______.

A. educate a little fewer students                B. conduct better than all state ones

C. are better received by the public             D. are more competitive on the whole

5.Which of the following statements will Anirudh Mandagere agree with?

A. His wonderful performance results from the education his private school offers.

B. Without the existence of private schools, state ones wouldn’t get improved much.

C. Private education is a good system to make students successful in life.

D. Private schools are supposed to be sponsored more than state ones.

The law says women should have the chance of doing the same jobs as men and earn the same as them. The reality is very different. Women lose because, 25 years after the Equal Pay Act, many of them still get paid less than men. They lose because they do lower－paid jobs which men just won’t consider. And they lose because they are the ones who interrupt a career to have children. All this is reported in an independent study ordered by the Government’s women’s unit. The biggest problem isn’t equal pay in workplaces such as factories. It is the sort of work women do.

Make a list of low－paid－jobs,  then consider who does them. Try nurses, secretaries, cleaners, clerks, teachers in primary schools, dinner ladies and child－care helpers. Not a lot of men among that group, are there? Yet some of those jobs are really important. Surely no one would deny that about nurses and teachers, for a start. So why do we reward the people who do them so poorly? There can be only one answer—because they are women. This is not going to be put right overnight. But the government, which employs a lot of them, and other bosses have to make a start.

It is disgraceful（可耻的） that we have gone into the 21st century still treating women like second－class citizens. 

1.

Women should have the chance of doing the same jobs and getting the same pay as men_________.

A．after 25 years                                            

 B．according to the law

C．as a result of those important jobs               

 D．because women are as strong as men

2.

．We can learn from the text that what really matters in this problem is_________.

A．that women interrupt a career to have children    

B．what sort of work women do

C．because they are women                                  

 D．what unfair pay women get in workplaces

3.

．Which of the following best describe the writer’s idea?

A．Women and men should get equal pay for equal work.

B．Women should strengthen themselves.

C．The government ought to protect women against getting paid less than men.

D．Some of the jobs that women do are of great importance.

4.

Which do you think would be the best title for this passage?

A．Work to give women a fair pay deal     B．The equal pay act

C．The sort of work women do            D．The biggest problem about women

Joy in the journey

If you have ever been discouraged because of failure, please read on. For often, achieving what you set out to do is not the important thing. Let me explain.

Two brothers decided to dig a deep hole behind their house. As they were working, a couple of older boys stopped by to      . “What are you doing?” asked one of the visitors. “We plan to dig a hole all the way through the      !” one of the brothers volunteered      .

    The older boys began to      , telling the younger ones that digging a hole all the way through the earth was      . After a long silence, one of the        picked up a jar full of spiders, worms and many other kinds of insects. He        the lid and showed the wonderful       to the scoffing（嘲笑的）visitors. Then he said quietly and      , “Even if we don’t dig all the way through the earth, look at what we have found        the way!”

    Their goal was far too ambitious, but it did cause them to dig. And that is        a goal is for — to cause us to move in the       we have chosen, in other words, to keep us       ! But not every goal will be fully       . Not every job will end       . Not every hope will come to pass. Not every love will last. Not every dream will be       . But when you fall        of your aim, perhaps you can say, “Yes, but look at what I found along the way! Look at the wonderful things        my life because I tried to do something!” It is in the digging        life is lived. And I believe it is the joy in the journey, in the end, that truly       .

1.A. rest             B. work        C. watch          D. laugh

2.A. house           B. earth        C. wall          D. road

3.A. calmly          B. patiently      C. excitedly              D. impatiently

4.A. laugh           B. think        C. stare                   D. smile

5.A. important       B. difficult       C. impossible        D. interesting

6.A. passers-by       B. watchers    C. visitors                D. diggers

7.A. moved           B. removed  C. broke          D. pushed

8.A. contents         B. scenes     C. pictures                D. jars

9.A. properly         B. confidently     C. carefully        D. happily

10.A. in               B. along         C. to                 D. out

11.A. what            B. how                 C. where         D. which

12.A. way             B. direction    C. life                  D. sight

13.A. thinking         B. moving        C. digging             D. living

14.A. made            B. prepared            C. kicked                D. achieved

15.A. hopelessly        B. pleasantly    C. surprisingly       D. successfully

16.A. come true        B. realized              C. made              D. treasured

17.A. short             B. lost          C. out                D. behind

18.A. breaking into     B. turning to     C. coming into       D. holding to

19.A. when            B. where         C. which                    D. that

20.A. matters          B. happens      C. appears           D. exists

Christopher Thomas, 27, was a writer by night and a teacher by day when he noticed he was always tired and was losing weight fast. Diagnosed with diabetes(糖尿病), Thomas would need to inject himself with insulin(胰岛素) three times a day for the rest of his life or risk nerve damage, blindness, and even death. And if that weren’t bad enough, he had no health insurance.
After a month of feeling upset, Thomas decided he’d better find a way to fight back. He left Canton, Michigan for New York, got a job waiting tables, nicknamed himself the Diabetic Rockstar, and created diabeticrockstar.com, a free online community for diabetics and their loved ones—a place where over 1,100 people share personal stories, information, and resources.
Jason Swencki’s son, Kody, was diagnosed with type diabetes at six. Father and son visit the online children’s forums(论坛) together most evenings. "Kody gets so excited, writing to kids from all over," says Swencki, one of the site’s volunteers. "They know what he’s going through, so he doesn’t feel alone."
Kody is anything but alone: Diabetes is now the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, with 24 million diagnosed cases. And more people are being diagnosed at younger ages.
These days, Thomas’s main focus is his charity（慈善机构）, Fight It, which provides medicines and supplies to people—225 to date—who can’t afford a diabetic’s huge expenses. Fight-it.org has raised about $23,000—in products and in cash. In May, Thomas will hold the first annual Diabetic Rockstar Festival in the Caribbean.
Even with a staff of 22 volunteers, Thomas often devotes up to 50 hours a week to his cause, while still doing his full-time job waiting tables. "Of the diabetes charities out there, most are putting money into finding a cure," says Bentley Gubar, one of Rockstar’s original members. "But Christopher is the only person I know saying people need help now."
【小题1】Which of the following is true of Christopher Thomas?