People around us, especially our friends, have a strong influence on our lives. We all want to

believe that they are the best but sometimes it is not so. As you change over the years, people and your friends change, too. If you are following a path of growth, then you must be prepared to grow new friendships too.

Be open to meeting new people. No matter whether your life has changed or not, always be open to letting new people into your life. They are like a fresh wind on a hot day. They can inspire you. They can give you new ideas. They can become your new best friends. Don’t limit yourself to the circle of people you already know, or you will limit your own ways to grow.

Make sure that you are a friend that you would like to have. Are you always there for your friends? Do you help them? Do you actually listen to them? Can you accept and understand the changes that happened or are happening in their lives? Do you enjoy giving as much as receiving? Answer these questions for yourself first and see if you are the one who needs to grow to the level of your friends.

Explore new ways to make friends. New people won’t just suddenly appear in your life. If you want to meet somebody then you need to start exploring the world. You can make friends online. You can start a new hobby. You can just start talking to a stranger who seems interesting to you. Be the one who starts the relationship, not the one who is waiting for something to happen.

Ashley Power’s mother bought a computer for her when she was eight. When she was thirteen, she was surfing the Internet regularly, but she couldn’t find anywhere for teenagers to meet and talk. And one day she thought, “If I had my own website, I’d make it a really interesting site for teenagers.”

  So, when Ashley was sixteen, shelaunchedher own website, called GooseHead. Young people got excited when they searched on this website and step by step they introduced the site to others and made more friends. She had no idea how big a success it would be, but three years later, the site was the most successful teen site in the USA! It was getting 100,000 hits every day, and Ashley had about 30 employees.

  After a few years, the website closed down. Then Ashley, who lives in Los Angeles, was asked to write a book called GooseHead Guide to Life. It's safe to say that this is a book for teens that they'll enjoy. The book is about how to design a website and start a business. It begins with a section called “All about Ashley,” where Ashley tells readers what it is like to be the boss of a company when you are only sixteen. “I was so happy. But it was crazy in a lot of ways. I was stressed. I mean, I was only sixteen — I didn’t even have a car! If you were sixteen and you had your own company, you’d be stressed, too!”

In an interview Ashley gave advice to teenagers who wanted to start their own business, “Just be strong and have your dreams and work hard at them. And don’t listen when people tell you that you can’t do it, because I heard ‘no’ a lot. Just keep going until you hear ‘yes’!”

Many experts say that if one holds his anger in, it can even lead to severe mental and physical health problems. So what can we do to understand and calm this natural emotion that we call anger?

Experts offer many solutions to harmful anger. Some of these solutions include expressing your feelings and talking about what has caused the anger with someone you trust avoiding a situation that causes anger, beating a pillow, exercising more and many other methods. Whatever solution one chooses, it is good to know that by trying to find the solution to the problem of anger, the first step in the right direction to solving the anger problem has been taken.

　　More than half of all Chinese have a smartphone. They reach for it the moment they wake up， keeping it in hand all day. At    ​61        (party)， more people are on their smartphones than on their drinks. In addition， too many people are using smartphones while        62        (drive). And as a result， many car accidents happen everyday on the road. Drivers confirm that text messaging is their number one driving interruption. Smartphones are unbelievably becoming more important than the lives of        63        (them) and others. As many people take risks just        64       ​ (send) a text or check their messages， smartphones are        65        many ways very dangerous to people.

　　The smartphone        66        (affect) our desire　to communicate face to face with others. Besides， it is lowering people’s competence to communicate. In many cases， some people check or send text messages in the presence of a friend，        67        means that the person they are texting is more important. Most        68        (serious)， relying on smartphones to make friends does not give us        69        same advantage as making new friends in the real world. Face－to－face conversations will give us much        70        (strong) communication skills in the long run.