Empathy（同情），the Key to Being Kind

In science class，your teacher tells everyone to find a partner for a project. Out of the corner of your eye，you notice one girl sitting alone and not making eye contact with anyone. You think about asking her to be your partner，but you're afraid people will think you're uncool. You don't reach out. 【小题1】

Empathy is being able to understand and actually feel what someone else is feeling. For some people, this comes naturally; for others, it takes a bit more work. 【小题2】When you practice being empathetic, it gets easier to make kindness a part of your everyday life. If you can understand why people are feeling down, you'll want to help them. Here are some ideas that can help you.

【小题3】Someone not being able to find a group in class might not seem like a big deal--but part of being kind is noticing when someone seems sad, hurt or uncomfortable. After all, you have to notice how people feel in order to feel empathy and want to help them!

When you're trying to make kindness second nature, really getting other people's feelings is important. Whenever you find someone might be feeling lonely or sad, put yourself in his shoes. 【小题4】 Didn't you wish someone would reach out to you? If someone had offered you a few words of comfort, wouldn't it have made you feel so much happier?

So, when you find people around you who are feeling down next time, do not hesitate to put yourself in their shoes and reach out to them with a kind gesture. 【小题5】 There is always a time when you expect others to relate to you and feel what you feel.

—George Orwell

   Living with a roommate can be a great experience as many roommates become lifelong friends. However ,roommates living together under the same roof for a long time unavoidably have conflicts（冲突） with each other. 【小题1】To prevent this from happening to you,each conflict should be handled in a productive,healthy way.

Once conflicts occur, you need to set up a time to discuss the conflict. 【小题2】 They may think about any problems they want to discuss. It also allows for a better discussion as both roommates will most likely enter the discussion fairly calm.

Before discussing the actual conflicts, set up some rules to guide the discussion. For example, each roommate is allowed to bring up one problem at a time and the other roommate has a chance to respond to it before another one is brought up. Making rules beforehand can prevent a screaming match from breaking out. 【小题3】

You can use your discussion to point out to your roommates their great advantages and specific things you like about them. While this won't solve the conflict, it can help your roommates be more understanding of your point of view and more willing to compromise（妥协）.

Once dissatisfaction has been said by both parties you should develop a roommate agreement that is written down. This agreement should discuss what the rules are as well as what results exist for breaking them. For example,roommates having a conflict about overnight guests may compromise to allow overnight guests only on weekends or guests on weekdays leaving by 11 p. m. 【小题5】 .

   Here’s everything you need to know about writing cover letters (说明信) to stand out from the competition and catch employers’ attention.

Writing a great letter can feel like a daunting task to a lot of job seekers. In fact, usually, when I start to talk with clients about this topic, the first thing people ask is, “Do I really have to write a cover letter?” When I say yes, the next question people normally ask is, “Why?”

If you’re going to spend your time working on a challenging task, it’s wise to know exactly why you’re doing it. It is true that some employers never read cover letters. Instead, they look directly at a candidate’s resume (简历). However, plenty of employers find a lot of value in a cover letter. They see it as a way of getting to know more about you, your personality and your ability to communicate outside of the structural limitations of a resume. Some employers will only read your resume if they are impressed with your cover letter.

Other employers will not read a resume if it is not accompanied by a cover letter. They feel that it is a part of a complete job application package. If you have only sent a resume, these employers believe that you have only done half of the job in the application process. They view that as a negative reflection on the way you would do the job at their company. You don’t know the employer’s preference each time you submit (提交) a resume, so you must submit a cover letter with your resume every time you apply for a job.

People sometimes ask whether writing cover letters is necessary when they respond to job ads that say “Submit your resume to…”. The answer is yes, absolutely. Even if the letter is not specifically requested in the ad, it is assumed that you will submit one along with your resume.

   Everyone struggles writing. 【小题1】 Writing is hard. All writers struggle at some point. And even if writing has come easily for you, at some point in your work as a student ,eventually you're going to hit a roadblock（路障）. 【小题2】 When the writing was going well, what was happening? When the writing wasn't going well, what was happening?

 【小题3】 Most people's negative writing experiences happened because of some specific requirements like an exact length. They focus on and worry about what the final product has to look like, like how many pages for a research essay, or if it is in the second or third language, or grammar, like whether it gets communicated in the right language.

Another problem can arise when the need to do well on a paper is extremely important, like a timed essay exam, or a college application essay, or a research paper at the end of the term, and it's tied to the entire grade for the class. So worrying about what will happen if they don't do well- get bad grades, or don’t get into college - creates anxiety.  【小题4】

Try to move to more positive projects. Usually when writing comes easily, the writers feel they have something important to say. 【小题5】 What personal understanding of the subject can you bring to your paper? Why is this subject important? For whom is it meaningful? Who will be reading it? What is it that you really want to say to readers? Those thoughts can cause writing's change for all writers.