Do you want to improve the way you study? Do you feel nervous before a test? Many students say that a lack of concentration is their biggest problem. It seriously affects their ability to study, so do their test results.

    If so, use these tips to help you.

    Study Techniques

    You should always study in the same place. You shouldn't sit in a position that you use for another purpose. For example, when you sit on a sofa to study, your brain will think it is time to relax. Don't watch TV while you are studying. Experts warn that your concentration may be reduced by 50 percent if you attempt to study in this way. Always try to have a white wall in front of you, so there is nothing to distract (make less concentrated) you. Before sitting down to study, gather together all the equipment you need. Apart from your textbooks, pens, pencils and knives, make sure you have a dictionary. If your study desk or table is needed when you are not studying, store all your equipment in a box beside it.

    Your eyes will become tired if you try to read a text which is on a flat surface. Position your book at an angle of 30 degrees.

    Be realistic and don't try to complete too much in one study period. Finish one thing before beginning another. If you need a break, get up and walk around for a few minutes, but try not to telephone a friend or have something to eat.

    Test-taking Skills

    All your hard work will be for nothing if you are too nervous to take your test. Getting plenty of rest is very important. This means do not study all night before your test! It is a better idea to have a long-term study plan. Try to make a timetable for your study which lasts for a few months.

    Exercise is a great way to reduce pressure. Doing some form of exercise every day will also improve your concentration. Eat healthy food too.

    When you arrive in the examination room, find your seat and sit down. Breathe slowly and deeply. Check the time on the clock during the test, but not too often. Above all, take no notice of everyone else and give the test paper your undivided attention.

    Believe it or not, optical illusion(错觉) can cut highway crashes.

    Japan is a case in point. It has reduced automobile crashes on some roads by nearly 75 percent using a simple optical illusion. Bent stripes, called chevrons(人字形), painted on the roads make drivers think that they are driving faster than they really are, and thus drivers slow down.

    Now the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety in Washington D.C. is planning to repeat Japan's success. Starting next year, the foundation will paint chevrons and other patterns of stripes on selected roads around the country to test how well the patterns reduce highway crashes.

Excessive(超过) speed plays a major role in as much as one fifth of all fatal traffic accidents, according to the foundation. To help reduce those accidents, the foundation will conduct its tests in areas where speed-related hazards (danger) are the greatest — curves, exit slopes, traffic circles, and bridges.

    Some studies suggest that straight, horizontal(水平) bars painted across roads can initially cut the average speed of drivers in half. However, traffic often returns to full speed within months as drivers become used to seeing the painted bars.

    Chevrons, scientists say, not only give drivers the impression that they are driving faster than they really are but also make a lane appear to be narrower. The result is a longer lasting reduction in highway speed and the number of traffic accidents.

    Compared with the past, children today have much more freedom.

    First of all, we should think about the fact that society itself has changed. People have started little by little to give up prejudices and have a modern way of seeing the reality around then. Therefore, children have begun to be more independent both in the middle of the family as well as when it comes to speak about their group of friends.

    Then, let's consider the fact that children have started to speak more freely to their parents about their lives. If their parents give them advice, they prefer not to take it into consideration because they say they know what to do and what is best for them. They buy expensive clothes, have cool hairstyles, like to go downtown until late hours and are naughty in attitude no matter who they approach.

    On the other hand, parents give them money to buy whatever their children wish to buy, allow them to meet friends and go into discos or bars from an early age.

    That's why they accept and contribute somehow to their children's behaviour. When children make mistakes and their parents punish them for a week at the most, the latter are the ones who finally decide to "make peace". And what is the most interesting of all is the fact that the offspring(子女) doesn't consider himself guilty of anything and blames his parents for not understanding his point of view.

    Children adopt these attitudes as a result of the environment they live in and in accordance with the education they have been given. Of parents who don't know how to manage in their education, they will have the surprise to have a rebellious child, who will always do whatever he thinks is the best for him. Parents will have nothing to say in different matters concerning the lives of their children and their decisions.

    After giving a talk at a high school, I was asked to pay a visit to a spe­cial student. An illness had kept the boy home, but he had expressed an interest in meeting me. I was told it would mean a great deal to him, so I agreed.

    During the nine-mile drive to his home, I found out something about Matthew. He had muscular dystrophy (肌肉萎缩症). When he was born, the doctor told his parents that he would not live to five, and then they were told he would not make it to ten. Now he was thirteen. He wanted to meet me because I was a gold-medal power lifter, and I knew about overcoming obstacles and going for my dreams.

    I spent over an hour talking to Matthew. Never once did he complain or ask, "Why me?" He spoke about winning and succeeding and going for his dreams. Obviously, he knew what he was talking about. He didn't mention that his classmates had made fun of him because he was different. He just talked about his hopes for the future, and how one day he wanted to lift weights with me. When we had finished talking, I went to my briefcase and pulled out the first gold medal I had won and put it around his neck. I told him he was more of a winner and knew more about success and overcoming obstacles than I ever would. He looked at it for a moment, then took it off and handed it back to me. He said, "You are a champion. You earned that medal. Someday when I get to the Olympics and win my own medal, I will show it to you."

    Last summer I received a letter from Matthew's parents telling me that Matthew had passed away. They wanted me to have a letter he had written to me a few days before:

Dear Dick,

    My mum said I should send you a thank-you letter for the picture you sent me. I also want to let you know that the doctors tell me that I don't have long to live any more, but I still smile as much as I can.

    I told you someday that I would go to the Olympics and win a gold medal, but

I know now I will never get to do that. However, I know I'm a champion, and God knows that too. When I get to Heaven, God will give me my medal and when you get there, I will show it to you. Thank you for loving me.

Your friend,

Matthew

    I consider myself something of an expert on apologies. A quick temper(脾气) has1 me with plenty of opportunities to make them. In one of my earliest 2, my mother is telling me, "Don't watch the 3 when you say 'I'm sorry'. Hold your head up and look the person in the 4, so he'll know you 5it."

My mother thus made the key point of a(n) 6 apology: it must be direct. You must never 7 to be doing something else. You do not 8 a pile of letters while apologizing to a person 9 in position after blaming him or her for a mistake that turned out to be your10. You do not apologize to a hostess, whose guest of honor you treat 11, by sending flowers the next day without mentioning your bad 12.

    One of the important things you should do for an 13 apology is readiness to 14 the responsibility for our careless mistakes. We are used to making excuses, which leaves no 15 for the other person to 16 us. Since most people are open-hearted, the no-excuse apology leaves both parties feeling 17 about themselves. That, after all, is the18 of every apology. It 19 little whether the apologizer is wholly or only partly at fault: answering for one's 20 encourages others to take their share of the blame.

    Friendship is one of the most important things in everyone's life. is very difficult to find a better definition(定义) of friendship. A true friend is the person can share all our sadness and double all our happiness. In time of trial(尝试), he or she is always at our side to give us his or her help and comfort.

    Knowing how (value) friendship is, we should be very careful with our choice of a friend. We should choose those people with a good character our friends, but we must try to avoid (make) friends with a bad man. Besides, we should forgive their mistakes and try to help them as much as possile.

    A true friend can always (trust), loved and respected. If you tell a friend your secrets, he or she won't tell . Friends share their joys and sorrows. They help each other when they are trouble, and cheer each other up when they are sad. most important thing is that a friend always understands you. In conclusion, you have made a good friend, don't forget him or her.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写上该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。

注意：

1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11除起）不计分。

    June 12, Sunday, Fine

    Today is Sunday. I didn't get up early as usually. In the morning after I finished my home-work, I do some washing. Then I telephoned one of my classmate and invited him to see a film. And unfortunately, when we got to the cinema at 3:00 p.m. we found all the tickets had sold out. So we went to our school and played the football. After that, when we were about to go home, we saw our English teacher, Mr. Wang, came into the school gate. He told us we had made many progress in English this term. He also suggested that we should read more and wrote more. We promised that we would take his advices.

要求：

1）如实反映这些情况。

2）表明由此引发的问题。

3）提出你的建议。

注意：信的抬头、落款及信的第一句已给出（不计词数）。

参考词汇：零食 snacks

Dear Headmaster,

    I'm writing to tell you about some problems happening on campus……

Yours,

Li Hua