Joe came home from work and opened his mailbox. In the mailbox he found a yellow bottle of soap－soap for washing dishes.

    The dish soap was a free sample f a soap company. The company mailed small bottles of soap to millions of people. It was a n soap with a little lemon juice in it. The company wanted people to try it.

    Joe looked at this bottle of soap. There was a p of two lemons on the label (标签). Over the lemons were the words "With Real Lemon Juice".

    "Good!" Joe thought. "A free sample of lemon juice! I'm going to have a salad for dinner. This lemon juice will t good on my salad." Joe put the soap on his salad and ate it. After Joe ate the salad, he felt sick.

    Joe wasn't the only p who got sick. A lot of people thought the soap was lemon juice, so they put it on fish, on salad, and in tea. Later they felt sick, too. Some people had stomachaches but felt better in a few hours. Some people felt really sick and went to hospital. L, no one died from eating the soap.

    What can we learn from Joe's story? Read labels c. And don't eat dish soap for dinner!

    In the United States, headmasters and teachers discipline (惩罚) students in several ways. The teacher often writes to or calls the student's parents. Sometimes students have to stay at school for an extra hour. If a student behaves very badly, the headmaster can stop him from attending class for one, two or three days. However, those students don't feel sad at all. They are happy. "A three-day holiday!" they may think.

    A junior high school headmaster in Ohio has a new way to discipline students. If students don't behave well, their parents have to come to school and go to every class with them. At that time other students look at them for a long time, and this always makes the students very shy. As a result, they are behaving much better now. Why? Simply because they don't want their parents to come to school again.

    The "parents-at-school" project is now used in at least 700 schools in the USA. More and more headmasters think that students behave better when their parents come to school. Here is a good example. When the project was first introduced at a school in Pittsburg, California, 50 students had to bring their respective (各自的) parent to class. Out of the 50 students, 48 never got into trouble again. What an amazing method! How do you like it?

They to live in the old castles.

    People think that a good conversationalist (健谈的人) should be an attentive (专注的) listener. Ask questions that other people will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and what they have done. Diogenes, the Greek philosopher (哲学家) also said, "The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is so that we may listen more and talk less!"

    Try listening! Here are some examples about listening: (A neighbour of mine is talking about her child) "One evening last week I was sitting with Hannah, and she said to me, 'You are a smart Mum!' And I said, 'Why do you say that suddenly?' And she said, 'Although you are always busy, you always stop what you are doing to listen to me.'"

    "You have to force your buyer to talk, to enter the conversation, if you expect successful sale, the only way you can do this is to stop talking yourself and listen." (From How to Talk Your Way to Success in Selling) Airline employees are taught how to listen to complaints. If they are able to show sympathy (同情心) and to listen for long enough, the passengers' problems will begin to seem less important.

    Psychologists (心理学家) and doctors also know that listening is part of their job. If they listen with care and concern, the patient may even solve the problem himself! Here is some advice they give：

    ⒈Show the other person that you are listening.

    ⒉Look at them.

    ⒊Smile and nod quite often.

    ⒋Shake your head or raise your eyebrows if you don't follow what they are saying.

    ⒌Don't tap your foot because this will show impatience.

    ⒍Don't look at your watch unless you really have to know the time.

    A good listener has the ability to make people feel good, and is as valuable at a party as a good talker. But just listening isn't enough. One should listen intelligently by trying to find out what the other person would really like to talk about.