When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings（缺点）, Week by week her list grew：I was very thin; I wasn't a（n）1 student; I talked too much; I was too 2, and so on. I tried to bear all this as long as I could. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with3 in my eyes.

He listened to me 4and then he asked. "Are the things she said true or not? Janet, didn't you ever wonder what you're really like? Well, you now have that girl's 5. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are 6. Pay no attention to the other things she said. "

I did as he told me. To my great 7, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn't change（like being very thin）, but a good number I could-and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I went to fairly clear picture of myself. I brought the list back to Daddy. He 8 to take it. "That's just for you." he said "You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to 9, not just close your ears in anger, feeling hurt. When something said about you is true, you'll find it will be helpful to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your affairs（事情）. Don't 10 your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do. "

Daddy's advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I've never had a better piece of advice.

What time of day can you think most quickly? Are you a morning person? Or does it take you a few hours to get your brain（脑）going? A lot of recent research suggests that we should Day attention to our body clock. It can tell us what time of day we can perform best at.

Many people work best later in the morning. This is because the body's temperature takes time to rise through the day. Taking a warm shower when you wake up can help your body's temperature rise quickly.

But everyone's body clock is different and some are special. Morning people will get up early and work better early in the day. Evening people will work later, but work better towards the end of the day.

Research shows that we're better at some activities at certain times of the day. Physical performance（体能）is at its best between 3 p, m. and 6 p. m, so it's better to exercise later in the day.

Between noon and 4 p. m, people begin to pay less attention. This is because we think less quickly after a big meal. Research also shows we become sleepy around 2 p. m. This is why people in Spain take a short sleep in early afternoon.

Finally, it is best to eat when we're active. This allows our body to burn calories（卡路里）better and stops our blood sugar levels（血糖）from getting too high.

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提示词语：Dragon Boat Festival，lunar（农历的），traditional，celebrate，race

提示问题：

l  When is Dragon Boat Festival?

l  What are some customs（习俗）of this festival?

l  What do you and your family usually do during this holiday?

Dear Peter,

How's everything going? I heard that you're interested in learning about Dragon Boat Festival.

Yours,

Li Hua

We are often told to pay attention to what our mothers tell us. Most of us enjoy listening to our mothers speak. Scientists have found that compared with other people's voices, our brains greatly prefer the voices of our own mothers.

Scientists at Stanford University, US, recently studied this. "They scanned（扫描） children's brains while they were listening to different sounds, including their mothers voices. They found that 97 percent of the time, children could recognize（辨别）their mothers' voices at once.

Hearing their mothers' voices makes children's brains more active. We usually just use one part of our brain to deal with sounds when we hear something. But when we hear our mothers voices, many parts of the brain, including those in charge of（负责）reward（奖励）and feeling, start to work as well.

Why do we react so strongly to our mothers' voices? It starts even before we're born When children are still in the womb（子宫）or have just been born, they hear their mothers：talking, which makes babies feel comfortable and excited. Mothers' talking also teaches them language and social skills, though they are still very young. The babies learn to recognize their mothers' voices as a rewarding sound. Later, when this sound is heard again, more attention is paid to it.

Some sounds are necessary and can bring us happiness. These sounds are recognized by our brains as rewarding sounds. Most of the voices are not recognized in this way, but mothers' voices are different. They are more wonderful than any other voice around us.

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Sam was a fifteen-year-old boy living with his little sister, Julie. Their parents had passed away long ago. Sam had taken care of Julie by himself.

One day, Sam woke up at three in the morning as usual. When Julie was sleeping alone, Sam left their little house to send newspapers. When he found an old man sitting in front of their house, Sam was so surprised that he stopped to look at him closely. It was an icy morning and he looked very cold.

The poor old man didn't have anything to cover himself with. Sam went into his house to get the old man a blanket（毯子）, However, there were no extra（额外的）blankets, so Sam thought hard and took his father's coat. It was the only thing of his father's that he had left Sam wrote a short note, "Sir, I found you sleeping in front of my house. This is my father's coat. I hope it fits you well. "He put the note in a pocket of the coat, and covered the old man with the coat. Then he went to work. When he came back three hours later, both the man and the coat were gone. Sam thought that it was the best thing he could have done with his father's coat.

That afternoon. Sam hurried home after school because Julie was at home alone. However, Julie and the old man were standing in front of the house, and Julie shouted to Sam, "Brother! He's our grandfather!"

The grandfather smiled and said, "Sam, thank you for giving me the coat and letting me know how good my grandson is. This coat was the one that I gave my son a long time ago!"

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