Translation:       

           Most people would define optimism as being endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. “Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality,” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor. According to Ben-Shahar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.
 　  Ben-Shahar uses three optimistic exercises, When he feels down—say, after giving a bad lecture—he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner, some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction. He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.

参考译文：

           大多数人将乐观定义为永远保持快乐的状态，他们的杯子永远有一半是满的。（而不说杯子有一半是空的，这个典故大家应该知道）然而这恰恰是积极心理学家所不建议的虚假的快乐。 “健康的乐观意味着结合实际情况” 哈佛博士泰·本-沙哈尔说。据本-沙哈尔说，现实的乐观注意者是那些随遇而安的人，而不是那些把所有的事情都看做好事的人。

           本-沙哈尔用了三种乐观的方法，当他觉得沮丧的时候，比如说在一场糟糕的讲座之后，他安慰自己这是人之常情。他提醒自己，不是每一场讲座都能获得诺贝尔讲，一定会有一些不尽人意。第二种方法是“重塑”，他分析自己不满意的讲座，吸取经验教训，以便确定将来的讲座里什么方式有效什么方式效果不佳。最后一种方法，要承认这种观点，在人伟大的一生中，一场讲座真的无关紧要。

　英语二小作文

　　Suppose you are going to study abroad and share an apartment with John, a local student, write him an email to

　　1) tell him about your living habits, and

　　2) ask for advice about living there.

　　英语二大作文

　　Directions:

　　Write an essay based on the following chart.In your essay, you should

　　1) interpret the chart, and

　　2) give your comments.

　　You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. (15points)

http://www.exam8.com/xueli/UploadFiles/201401/2014010417111741.jpg

参考范文

Dear John，

I am so happy hearing that I will share an apartment with you for the next several months. I am writing this letter to tell you some details about my living habits.

I get up at half past six in the morning and go to bed at ten p.m. I hope this won’t cause you any inconvenience. I won’t take friends home if you mind, so you need not to worry about this. besides，I wish you could give some advice about living in your country. What should I pay attention to? Is there any costume special there?

I would be very grateful if you could offer me some relative information I mentioned above. Looking forward to your reply. Best regards！

                                                                              Yours sincerely，

                                                                                      Li Ming

     The following chart shows the change of urban population and rural population in the past two decades. As is illustrated in the chart, we can see that rural population has decreased from more than 800 million in 1990 to less than 700 million in 2010. By contrast, urban population has increased steadily from 300 million in 1990 to about 680 million in 2010, which is almost equal to the statistic of rural population

     Reasons contributed to this phenomenon must be complicated. To mention some most obvious ones, for example, the development of technology must have played an important role in this population migration. There are more job opportunities in cities, which attracts more and more people. What’s more, because of the construction of roads, transportation has become quite convenience, which in turn encourages more people leave their hometown for cities. Last but not least, as education has become a commonplace both in villages and cities, more people choose to contribute themselves into the process of modernization after graduate rather than agriculture. 

     Based on what has been discussed above, it is not difficult to figure out that this change in population is a result of complex factors; what’s predictable is that this trend won’t change in the rest of this decade.