The power of work stress

    Many experts believe that stress can strengthen you or tear you down.  The followings are suggested to perform better under pressure.

Give stress a good name.

    Why hate work stress—it's a sign that our career is advancing. Think of a heavy work load as an exciting opportunity to push yourself. Don't complain about it.  

Alternate(交替) tasks.

    Spending an entire day or week on a single project increases your anxiety without improving your productivity.  You need to create your working patterns to recharge. Every 60 to 90 minutes, take a break from your primary activity and do something different for 15 minutes.

Refuel.

    Tend to skip meals and pull late nights when you feel the heat at work?  Get six to eight hours of sleep, and go to bed at the same hour every night. Avoid big meals but have high-carbon, low-fat snacks every few hours.

Overcome your fears.

    Often, your stress comes from worrying rather than from the work assignment or problems you're dealing with. Write down the fears in detail and methodically address each one.

A. Both could lead to burnout.

B. In fact, you may lose focus.

C. Instead, greet it with optimism.

D. In most cases, you can choose.

E. Or rather, it is the basis of success.

F. Keep work and rest in a proper balance.

G. Pressure doesn't get you down, but fear does.

    Ibby Piracha is one of many regular customers at his local Starbucks in a small town in Virginia, the US.1, Ibby isn't like the other regulars—he's2. Krystal Payne, a new employee, wanted to do something to make Ibby feel more3. So she spoke with other employees about Ibby, learning that they always did what they could to give him excellent 4. But Payne wanted to take it a step further.

    She went home and spent her night learning American Sign Language so she could better5with Ibby. The next day, she wrote him a small6saying: "I've been learning ASL, just so you can have the same7as everyone else."

    Ibby, who was overcome with emotion over this small act of kindness, has8the note at home ever since. Ibby was so9by Payne's gesture that he posted it on Facebook to share with his friends. His 10was then reposted by many other people—a result that he did not11. But he was happy that Payne was getting the12she deserved.

    The next morning, Payne heard about the blog post when her manager13her and mentioned that there were many requests from reporters to14her. A Starbucks spokeswoman heard about her15gesture and said the company was very16of Payne's actions. "My job is to17people have the experience they expect and that's what I gave him," said Payne.

    Ibby sees Payne's act of kindness as a(n)18. "It shows that she respects deaf people," he said. Payne now knows enough ASL to take Ibby's19, which makes Ibby's life much easier. In the past, Ibby would have to order through text messages that he would show to the staff. Ibby still loves to visit the coffee shop, saying it is something that "gave me the genuine 20—even now, I'm still smiling".

    It is natural for species of animals to become extinct over millions of years. But over the past 200 years, humans have caused the process to speed up. In recent years, the total number of threatened animal species has increased from 5205 to 5345. In most cases this is a result of human activity. How are people speeding up the process of animal extinction?

    First of all, people threaten the survival of animal species by destroying their habitats. As the human population grows, people keep building houses and factories in fields and woods. As they spread over the land, they destroy animals' homes. If the animals can't find a place to live, they die out. Sixteen kinds of Hawaiian birds have become extinct for this reason.

    Overhunting is another way that humans are causing some animals to become extinct. In some parts of the world, the parts of rare animals are worth a lot of money. For example, some people will pay more than $3,000 for a single rhino horn. This encourages hunters to kill rhinos even though the animal faces extinction.

    Humans are also polluting the air, water and soil. The effect of pollution on animal species can be complicated. For example, when waste from factories is dumped into rivers, the rivers become polluted. The fish that live in the rivers are poisoned, and the birds cannot lay strong eggs. And some, such as brown pelicans, have become rare and may die out.

    Finally, when humans introduce new species into certain environments, the animals that already live there become threatened and face extinction. For example, when European settlers brought rabbits and foxes to Australia, they killed off many native Australian animals, including the bandicoots. Eventually, the rabbits took over the bandicoot habitats. Now bandicoots are threatened with extinction in their own land.

    In New York City public schools, 176 different languages are spoken among the more than 1 million students. For 160,000 children, English is not their first language. New York's Department of Education makes learning better for these students by providing dual-language(双语) programmes.

    Students are taught in two languages, English and another one, like Russian or Chinese. Maths, social studies, science and all other regular courses are taught in both languages so that they could learn about the culture of the other countries.

    Milady Baez is Deputy Chancellor of English Language Learners and Student Support. She says," The jobs of the future require that our students know more than one language. They are going to be travelling abroad; they are going to be communicating with people from all over the world. This will open doors for them."

    Middle-schoolers might not have jobs on their minds yet. For Kequing Jaing, she likes keeping up her first language, Mandarin. "It makes me feel that I am home because I can speak in Chinese and learn in Chinese, while learning in English. So it makes me feel better and makes me understand more about the task I'm learning.

    Anastasia Hudikova came to the United States when she was 2 years old. She says the Russian-English programme keeps her connected to her heritage and her parents.

    The New York schools also offer dual-language programmes in seven other languages: Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Korean, Polish and Spanish. There are plans to add even more languages in the future. While these dual-language programmes are popular, educators in the US say that teaching English comes first. The US English wants to make English the official language of the United States.

    Most British people prefer to live in a house rather than a flat, and one of the reasons for this is that houses usually have gardens. The garden is a place where people can be outside and yet private.

    If a house has a front and back garden, the front is likely to be formal and decorative, with a lawn (an area of grass) or fancy paving and flower borders. The back garden usually also has a lawn and flower beds, and sometimes a piece of vegetable land or fruit trees. There is often a bird table (a raised platform on which food is put for birds) and a shed in which garden tools are kept.

    Many British people spend quite a lot of money on their gardens and even the smallest may contain many kinds of flowers and plants. For many British people gardening is a hobby and they take great pride in their gardens. Some towns and villages have competitions for the best-kept small garden. People with a small garden, or no garden at all can rent a piece of land, on which most people grow vegetables.

    There are garden centres near most towns, selling everything a gardener might need, from flowerpots to fish ponds as well as different plants.

    The British's interest in gardening affects the appearance of whole towns. Public parks and traffic roundabouts often have bright displays of flowers in summer and public buildings have window boxes(窗口花坛) and hanging baskets. Towns and villages enter for the yearly Britain in Bloom competition.

    At weekends many British people like to visit famous gardens, such as that at Stowe near Banbury, built in the 18th century. Every summer the National Garden Scheme publishes a thin book listing private gardens belonging to enthusiastic gardeners which are open to the public on a particular day. Visitors like to look around and get ideas for their own gardens.

    I left home to support my sister in her efforts to present a music festival. She lives on the other side of the world, and I went to visit her, not wanting to leave and feeling like I was leaving home against my will. However, I wanted to show her my support because she is my only sister.

    So I boarded the plane in mid-August, and hated the long flight. I arrived, tired and hungry. I had left my husband of 2 years, alone, in our old house in New Orleans.

    I was all set and ready to perform for my sister for the music festival on Sunday morning when I received a call from Chicago. The hurricane was predicted to hit our city, and many people had already evacuated, but my husband chose to stay behind. He could not get a call to me on the other side of the world, but he could call his cousin in Chicago. He gave his cousin a message for me, that he would be just fine.

    As the day wore on, I finally took the stage in front of hundreds of Europeans, and I realized, thanks to CNN, that New Orleans was under water.

    I performed, hoping that my husband would survive. And I performed perfectly. The audience stood and applauded. I left the stage and went straight to the TV. I saw the street sign near my home, of Humanity Street, but nothing below it, except water.

    In the days that followed, I found out that my house, my car, my clothes, my furniture, everything that I'd left behind was gone…but not my husband. He survived by riding on the rear bumper(后保险杠)of a VW bus, holding on to the overhead luggage rack, in the pouring rain, down the highway from New Orleans, half-way to Baton Rouge. The rest of the journey was a long walk, but he survived.

    By the first week of September, I flew back to the Baton Rouge airport, and hugged my husband. Since then, our relationship has grown deeper; we have completely rebuilt our house, bought a new car, bought new furniture and new clothes and joined an inspirational, spirit-filled community.

    After a long journey, we arrived in Jiuzhaigou late at night. The tour guide  (tell) us its name was from the nine Tibetan villages distributed along the valleys,  had the reputation of "fairyland on earth". The guide collected us at 8 am  next morning. Then we set off. 

    Jiuzhaigou was famous  the 118 beautiful lakes and the many astonishing waterfalls (瀑布). Clear streams in the valleys collected in beautiful blue lakes, while in some places they collected into waterfalls. The lakes were pure enough  (see) to the bottom, and they provided fantastic reflections of the facing trees and mountains. This  (real) was a place to lose a day in.

    After the  (amaze) visit to the valley, we were treated to a well made singing and dancing show about Tibetan life. The  (performer) had beautiful traditional clothes, provided by  (they) families.

    When the sun set, I found that time slipped away, and the tour was over. Although I hadn't explored all the sights, I felt able to enjoy the heavenly  (beautiful). It's absolutely different from the UK. Oh, beautiful Jiuzhaigou, goodbye!

内容要点：

1）英国的首都，也是最大的城市;横跨在泰晤士河(River Thames)上；

2）人口：约912万；

3）英国政治中心：英国王宫——白金汉宫(Buckingham Palace)的所在地；

4）旅游胜地：每年接待游客800多万；

5）旅游景点：大英博物馆，伦敦塔(the Tower of London)，马克思雕像(Karl Marx's Statue)

等。

写作要求：

1）词数80左右；

2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

    The new mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan, is a man of the people, ready to listen to their problems, but only until 6 pm. Then he has to do his homework. Michael Sessions, 18, beat former mayor Doug Ingles, 51, by just two votes and became the new mayor of Hillsdale. He is America's youngest mayor.

    As Sessions was too young to enter the election in the spring of 2005, he registered to vote on Sept. 22, one day after his 18-year-old birthday. The day after that he started his write-in campaign, which meant he should persuade voters to remember his name and write it by hand on the voting ballots(选票).

    To help get his name known, Sessions earned$700 by selling apples over the summer. He spent the money on posters and put them on the Hillsdale's lawns.

    Sessions' month-long campaign included going door to door, explaining his ideas of the town's future in the kitchens of his neighbours. "They'd look at me, and say 'How old are you again? How much experience do you have?' And I say 'I'm still in high school'," he said. Sessions promised Hillsdale's voters he would renew the local economy. "I was hopeful the whole time," he explained. One day he spent so long out on the streets knocking on the doors that he ended up in a hospital emergency room.

    Sessions said that his schoolwork will not get in the way of his job as a mayor. "From 7:50 am to 2:30 pm, I'll be a student. From 3 to 6, I'll be the mayor of Hillsdale," he said.

    "He did a very brave thing that couldn't have been easy for him to do," said Jack Vettel, a councilman in Hillsdale, a city of 8,200 about 75 miles south-west of Detroit. "He does care about this town. He's been here all his life."

    Sessions will receive$3,600 a year during this four-year term, and will work out of his bedroom since the town does not provide the mayor with an office.