Confidence (自信心) is very important in daily life. It can help you to develop a healthy life style. A study shows that the people who are more confident are much happier. They can have more chances to make themselves successful. 【小题1】

Speak loud. When you are not confident, you can’t do well what you want to do. You speak in a voice so low that other people can hardly hear you. Try to speak loud enough so that people can hear you clearly. 【小题2】

【小题3】 Physical exercise makes you tired but completely relaxed. A strong body helps you be full of confidence.

Encourage (鼓励) yourself. To see how many good things you have done, you can write down a list of good things you did during the day. Did you help others? Did you tell a joke that made everybody laugh? 【小题4】

Pick up a hobby. If you like singing, sing as much as you can. In some ways, a hobby can make you outstanding. 【小题5】

Get rid of (消除) fear. Fear comes along with failure (失败). But it’s easy to overcome (克服) if you know that failure is part of your life. Don’t hide your head just because you said something stupid last time. Try to start again and believe you can do better.

All of us may have experienced embarrassing moments. It could have been the time when you pronounced a simple word wrong in class, wore your T-shirt backwards, talked about someone else without realizing that they were right behind you, or secretly tried to take a picture of someone while the flash was on.

Though these embarrassing moments don’t harm us a lot, they come back from time to time and make us feel upset. Even if these moments may have faded after some time, we would always remember the feeling of strong embarrassment. In fact, these feelings may last for years. When these kinds of feelings return, they are known as a “cringe attack(羞愧综合症)”.

I personally get a quite uncomfortable feeling when I think back on a party my parents took me to when I was younger. I ate a bowl of strawberries by myself. My parents shouted at me—in front of everyone—for being so selfish. From then on, every time I put a strawberry into my mouth, my brain just throws that embarrassing scene back.

Why do these “cringe attacks” still pop up in our daily lives even though the actual events happened weeks, months, or even years ago? According to researchers, our brains give special attention to feelings that can be easily noticed. The stronger the feeling is, the stronger the memory will be. If you have a highly embarrassing or highly emotional(情绪激动的) moment, no matter what it is, your brain will try to catch it.

So how can we deal with this? Well, we can start by trying to be more objective(客观的) about our past selves. Consider that you are not alone in your embarrassment—everyone fails or makes silly, embarrassing mistakes. Instead of just trying to forget what we did, we should try to accept who we were at that moment and think about how we can change for the better.

We know animals have feelings. We think they can feel fear and love. So are animal feelings all similar to our own? And do animals have a sense of humor (幽默感)?

A Parrot Named Marie

Blanchard’s parrot Marie didn’t get along with her other parrot, Paco. In fact, Marie clearly didn’t like Paco at all! One day, Blanchard cooked a chicken for dinner. She started to cut the chicken with a knife. “Oh, no! Paco!” Marie said cheerfully and laughed. Blanchard laughed, too, and said, “That’s not Paco” “Oh…no,” said Marie. This time, she sounded upset. Then Blanchard laughed at the joke.

Yoga Dog

Jean enjoys doing yoga (瑜伽)—and so does her dog Buffy. While Jean does yoga, Buffy carefully places a toy on Jean’s body. If the toy falls, Buffy runs to put it back. Does what the dog does have any real purpose (目的)? “She thinks it’s very funny!” says Jean.

Dog’s Laughter

Can dos “laugh”? A recent study shows that dogs can talk to each other when they want to play. They make a special sound kind of “laugh”. Scientist Patricia Simonet recorded the sound. Then she played it back to dogs to see what might happen. “All the dogs seemed to like the sound,” says Simonet. So do animals have a sense of humor? Perhaps the answer is “Yes”!