Happiness is a feeling that lights up your eyes, makes your steps light and makes you want to sing for no reason. Everyone wants to be happy. But sometimes, a guest comes in without invitation. It’s unhappiness. Don’t let it get you down. Send it away.
When you are happy, the world feels like a better place. As the saying goes: When you smile, the world smiles with you; when you cry, you cry alone. Wearing a smile makes you more charming(迷人的)and helps you to win lots of friends. A good mood（心情）always gives you hope, which makes trouble and problems easier to handle.
No matter how happy you are, it’s normal to feel angry, sad or gloomy once in a while. Life is full of ups and downs. We can’t change the way life is, but we can do our best to change a bad situation into a good one. To help us do this, it’s good to know some of the factors（因素）that influence happiness.
One of the biggest factors is social relationships. People who are close to family and friends are happier than people who don’t have those relationships. Talking and sharing is a good way to relax and build confidence. Knowing someone is there for you will make you braver and more outgoing.
Another factor is work or school. If you enjoy school, even if you have lots of homework or extra classes, you will feel that your school life is meaningful and happy. But if you hate school, your negative attitude（消极的态度）may cause you to feel bored and upset that you hate to do so much work.
A third factor is your attitude towards life. How do you feel if you fail in an exam? Maybe you think it’s unfair because you always study and should have got a good mark. You can’t stop blaming（责备）yourself. Or, maybe you accept it. You go through the paper carefully, find out why you made stupid mistakes, and tell yourself, “Take it easy! I’ll do better next time!” Your attitude makes a big difference.
Do you smile a lot or wear a long face most of the time?
小题1:Happiness is a feeling, isn’t it?
____________, _______________________________.
小题2:What makes you more charming and gives you hope?
____________________________________________.
小题3: What does the underlined sentence mean according to paragraph 3?
________________________________________________________________.
小题4:What can we do when we can’t change the way life is?
________________________________________________________________.
小题5:How many factors influence happiness? What are they?
________________________________________________________________________.
小题6:How do you make yourself happy in your daily life? Give an example.
________________________________________________________________________.

It is the duty of every man to work. The life of a lazy man is of no use to himself and to others.
The man who is too lazy to work is the man who’s generally most ready to beg or steal. Every boy should learn some useful work when he is young.
But it is not enough that a boy should learn some kind of work. He should put his effect completely into his work, and not waste his free time. “Working while you work and playing while you play is as good rule for young people as for the old.”
There is no better help to diligence (勤奋) than the habit of early rising, and this, just like all other good habits, is most easily formed in youth. There is an English saying “Lost time never returns.” This means that everybody must be diligent and make good use of his time. One must study hard when one is young so that one can make great progress, succeed in life and become useful to one’s country. Therefore, we can say that diligence is the mother of success.
小题1:After reading the passage we know that those who are too lazy to work will become________.

A．beggars

B．thieves

C．beggars or thieves

D．useful men

小题2:In order to learn to be diligent, it’s most important for the young people to _________.

A．form the habit of getting up late

B．learn some good subjects

C．work all the time without play

D．work while they work and play while they play

小题3:One can’t be successful in life unless he ________ when he is young.

A．spends some time learning something

B．is diligent in his study

C．makes up for his lost time

D．loves his school

小题4:Which of the following may be the best title for this passage?

A．Lazy Boy Can Learn to Be Diligent.

B．Young People Should.

C．Lost Time Never Returns.

D．Diligence, the Mother of Success.

What makes us who we are? This question has two different answers. One is the environment that surrounds us when we grow up, and the other is our genes (基因). In English, this is called the “nature vs nurture debate(辩论)”. Nature means genes, and nurture means environment, including the people around you.
There is a famous saying: “Give me a child until the age of 7 and I’ll show you the man.” Now, there is a scientific research to support this famous saying.
They watched small birds in new environments, and wrote down how much they explored(探索). Birds that grew up with very outgoing birds were more outgoing themselves. Scientists at the universities of Exeter, UK and Hamburg, Germany did studies on birds. They found that their personalities（个性） were affected most by the birds around them when they grew up – more so than genes.
Nick Royle from the University of Exeter in the UK said the research was surprising because it shows that “for these birds, personality is mainly determined（决定） by environment.” However, human personalities are a lot more complicated than birds, so there is much we still don’t know. The nature vs nurture debate will continue for a long time, if not forever.
小题1:The famous saying in the passage tells us _________.
A.A 7-year-old boy can do things as well as an adult.
B.An adult can be influenced and changed by a 7-year-old boy.
C.The environment in the early part of our life has the biggest influence on our adult life.
小题2:Nick Royle is a(n) ______ scientist.
A. American   B. British   C. German
小题3:What do the scientists think of the research?
A. Outgoing.    B. Exciting.    C. Surprising.
小题4:What does the underlined word “complicated” mean?
A. 有趣的  B. 类似的  C. 复杂的
小题5:Which is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
A. The environment and genes affect our personality.
B. The scientists are sure that the environment influences the human personality more than the genes do.
C. The nurture means the environment .