“I’m so fat,” one of your friends says. The girl next to her joins in, “Well, I hate my hair today.” Without thinking, you respond, “No, you are not fat! I am fat. And my hair is flat and boring.”【小题1】.

It is easy for people to be involved in self-critical conversations, and once it starts, there is often pressure for you to join in. 【小题2】 Maybe it is because “just talking” feels harmless. But before you know it, those opinions flow out of your conversations and into your life, where they start eating away at your self-respect.

【小题3】 When you start talking about yourself in a negative（消极的）way, you are affecting not only your self-respect, but your friends’! When you criticize yourself, your friends might think you have the same standards for them. If you don’t criticize your friends for the same thing, chances will be that you are being too hard on yourself. So, don’t start it.

But what if someone else starts? For example, your friend feels insecure about how well he played in his soccer game, so he puts himself down, “I suck at soccer.” 【小题4】 Ask him, “Do you really think that? Why?”Talking through the real issue will help him rather than slipping（陷入）into another negative talk.

It is important to talk to your friends about your insecurities, but make sure you are not talking about hem just to put yourself down. 【小题5】 Instead of just focusing on the negative, talk about what makes you and your friends beautiful and unique-including what you love about your body and what you have completed. When you show yourself love, you set yourself as an example, and everyone benefits from you positively.

Negative thinking leads to negative consequences. So how do we deal with that negative junk in our head? The ways may be various, but the all have one idea in common: 【小题1】 External factor influence our lie to some degree, but it is mostly how we interpret external factors that has the greatest impact. Here is what we can do.

【小题2】 Do you want to catch a cold? Stay with people with a cold. I am not sure whether the advice stands, but it is partly true. People are likely to hang around with individuals who are similar to themselves. Poor people like to surround themselves with other poor people, and rich people with other rich people. Negative people are not optimistic. So make friends with positive people. 【小题3】

Accept and move on. Expecting everything to be perfect can be disturbing and it robs you of true happiness, so accept everything is not so perfect. Actually a meaningless thought is full of junk. 【小题4】 Then, go about your normal day and occupy your mind with an activity you love.

Mind your attitude. It starts the moment you wake up in the morning. Ask yourself: Do I want to be happy or miserable? 【小题5】 If you intend to hold on to a negative frame of mind, you are inevitably choosing to be unhappy. If you want to achieve your own inner happiness you are likely to cultivate it through good and uplifting thoughts.

Swimming and English Learning

Can you swim? Do you like swimming? Yes? Well, how can you learn to swim? I think the best way is to go into the water and learn. I’m afraid you’ll never learn to swim just by reading books about swimming or looking at others swimming. It’s the same with the English study. We must practice,practice and practice.

Listening and speaking are very important for beginners. The children in English-speaking countries first listen to others. Then they try to imitate and speak. We can listen to English programs on the radio. You may just understand a few words. It doesn’t matter. Just be relaxed, and try to catch every word.

Somebody may be a good listener. But he dare not speak. He’s afraid of making mistakes. You know we sometimes make mistakes when we speak Chinese. Don’t be afraid. We must be brave. If you really want to learn English well, you must try to speak with everyone so long as he knows English. Whether you know him or not is not important. When there’s nobody to talk with, you can talk to yourself in English It’s interesting and also a good way to practice your spoken English. Remember, the more you speak, the fewer mistakes you’ll make.

Reading and writing are more important for senior school students. First we must choose the books we’re interested in. A lot of reading will improve your language sense. This is the most important.

Keep writing English diaries. We can also write English articles. You may even post them to English magazines. Don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is the mother of success.

Easier said than done. Well, let’s do more practice from now on. I’m sure you’ll learn English well in this way.