With the summer holiday just around the corner, it seems like everybody is busy planning their vacations. Here are some tips that can helpyou enjoy your holiday without emptying your pocket:

Travel off-season

Go to your desired destination while the demand is low and takeadvantage of huge discounts. During the peak season, the hotel and flightprices increase quickly, and you'll likely spend more of your vacation timestanding in line due to the rush of tourists.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

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      Websites can help you find discount hotel rooms. Look for placesthat do not charge extra for children if they use the existing bedding. Staywith the locals. If you and your family are going to stay for a longer period,renting a small apartment is a good choice.

Eat like a local

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During your family trip, try new food where the locals eat. Thiswill not just save money, but also provide you with a new and differentexperience. For smaller meals and snacks, avoid restaurants and try street foodor other takeout.

Don't hesitate to bargain

      Tourist- heavy places are known for overcharging for just abouteverything. Clothes, travel goodies, souvenirs, etc. are very expensive atthese places. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Bargain hard to get the best price.

Choose local transportation

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      Instead, take buses, railways or subways, which are alwayscheaper. If you are planning to stay for a while, you can consider renting acar. Hiring a car is much easier than carrying your bags everywhere if you aremoving around a lot.

A. Save on hotels.

B. Surf the Internet while traveling.

C. Therefore, avoid buying anything there.

D. So it's best to find out when the off-season starts.

E. Planning your meals is another way to reduce your travelcosts.

F. For this reason, you shouldn't feel ashamed to ask forbargains.

G .As a tourist, avoid taking taxis whenever possible, sincethey are expensive.

    My husband Jeff and I moved into our new home in Scottsbluff last year just before Christmas. I did not have the time or energy to carry out my traditional Christmas decorating and baking activities. What was the point, anyway? It was going to be a lonely Christmas after all.

    However, the neighborly nature of west Nebraska residents started to trickle (陆续来临) in.

    There was a knock on the door one evening. It was Jeff's new colleague, John Smith, and his wife, Phyllis. The Smiths had stopped by to welcome us to town with a loaf of homemade bread. They pointed out a package on the porch (门廊). Apparently the doorbell wasn't working in the cold snowy weather and we had missed a visit from the Browns, our across-the-street neighbors, who brought us a Christmas card and more Christmas cookies.

    Then, we received an invitation to share a Christmas Eve meal with our neighbors, Ernie and Nancy Sommer, and their guest—a 90-year-old lady, who also had no family in the immediate area with whom to spend the holiday.

    I was so grateful for these gestures of welcome, especially during the holidays.

    This year, we were again unable to be with our families for Christmas. The distance and work schedules just made things too difficult. Knowing that sense of Christmas isolation all too well, we decided to try to round up some other folks who were alone in the holidays.

    Lonely people are all around us, but most of us seldom notice them. Just take a look around you. Sometimes, the smallest kind gesture can make a world of difference.

     If you want to visit only the sights that you think are most interesting, you should definitely book one of the many private tours in NYC.

Landmark Private New York Tours

     The best way to make the most of your visit to the top NYC landmarks is to use one of the private tours in NYC.

     NY See It All: From traveling through Manhattan to getting onto a boat to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, this private NYC tour delivers superiors service. Customize（定制） your stops and see why this tour is one of the best private tours in NYC.

     NY Limo Tour: After choosing what you want to see, this private tour in NYC lets you write the route of your day. Whether you want to see historical NYC sights, movie sights, or cultural sights, it will help make your visit memorable.

     Aerial Landmark Tour: This is a fun and exciting way to explore New York City. On this 20-minute helicopter tour, you'll see the very best landmarks in Manhattan and the Bronx. Family-Friendly Private New York Tours

     NYC isn't just a playground of adults; these family-friendly private New York City tours are ideal for people traveling with kids.

Revolutionary Era Walking Tour: When you book this informative NYC walking tour, you and your kids will wander around Manhattan's Financial District and hear all about the American Revolution. With knowledgeable guides, your kids will love the tour too.

     Kids Greenwich Village Tour: This fun NYC walking tour is specifically created for children. You and your kids will visit some famous Greenwich Village sights, while the children, led by friendly guides, play games that relate to math, science, foreign language, and the arts.

    You may hear about some people who have walked on the moon. Of the outstanding astronauts listed below, who do you think was the most influential in human's history?

Pete Conrad (Apollo 12)

    Because of his dyslexia（阅读障碍）, Pete always failed in his study and had to leave school. Then his father sent him to Darrow School, where he performed so well that he won a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship. He took the NASA's test, but his dyslexia ruined the opportunity.

    It was because of Alan Shepard's persuasion that Pete decided to apply again for NASA. He was chosen as the commander of Apollo 12. He landed on the moon on Nov 19, 1969 and spent 31 hours there.

Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11)

    Armstrong's biggest moment came in 1969, when he was chosen for NASA's first manned lunar mission (登月任务), along with Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. On July 21, 1969, he set foot on the surface of the moon. which made him the first human to do so. He stayed on the moon for 21 hours. After returning, Armstrong became an international star and was honored worldwide.

John Young (Apollo 16)

    Young was made the commander of Apollo 16, which landed on the moon on April 16, 1972. He spent two days and 23 hours on the moon. Young retired from NASA after serving for around 42 years, which made him the man ever to work for NASA for the longest time.

Edgar Mitchell(Apollo 14)

    Edgar was selected by NASA in 1966, and was later made the lunar pilot of Apollo 14. He followed his commander Alan Shepard onto the moon, staying there for 1 day and 9 hours. Edgar has expressed his firm belief that UFOS belong to other planets. He also firmly believes that American government is in possession of some “recovered alien bodies.”

    All over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy and happy, and to live longer.

    Many people like to watch others play games. They buy tickets or turn on their TVs to watch the games. Often they get very excited when "their" player or team wins.

    Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for(参加) them. Football, for example, has spread(展开)around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers. What fun it is to jump into a pool or lake, whether in China, Egypt or Italy! And think of people in cold countries. Think how many love to skate or ski (滑雪) in Japan, Norway or Canada.

    Some sports or games go back thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese wushu, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet. People are inventing new sports or games all the time. Water-skiing is one of the newest in the family of sports.

    People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game together they often become good friends. Sports help to train(培养,训练) a person's character(性格,品格). One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace(胜不骄，败不馁).

    Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high-tech devices, while driving, walking, shopping, even sitting in toilets. When connected electronically, they are away from physical reality.

    People have been influenced to become technology addicted. One survey reported that “addicted” was the word most commonly used by people to describe their relationship to iPad and similar devices. One study found that people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did for sleep, cigarettes and alcohol.

    The main goal of technology companies is to get people to spend more money and time on their products, not to actually improve our quality of life. They have successfully created a cultural disease. Consumers willingly give up their freedom, money and time to catch up on the latest information, to keep pace with their peers or to appear modern.

    I see people trapped in a pathological(病态的) relationship with time-sucking technology, where they serve technology more than technology serves them. I call this technology servitude. I am referring to a loss of personal freedom and independence because of uncontrolled consumption of many kinds of devices that eat up time and money.

    What is a healthy use of technology devices? That is the vital question. Who is really in charge of my life? That is what people need to ask themselves if we are to have any chance of breaking up false beliefs about their use of technology. When we can live happily without using so much technology for a day or a week, then we can regain control and personal freedom, become the master of technology and discover what there is to enjoy in life free of technology. Mae West is famous for proclaiming the wisdom that “too much of a good thing is wonderful.” But it's time to discover that it does not work for technology.

    Richard Fernandez, an executive coach at Google acknowledged that “we can be swept away by our technologies.” To break the grand digital connection people must consider how life long ago could be fantastic without today's overused technology.