Today, we know that the role of vitamins and minerals goes way beyond the prevention of deficiency diseases (维生素缺乏症) to actually preventing cancer and heart disease, the most fearsome killers of our time. With this knowledge has come the widespread call for nutritional supplementation (营养补充) — and a confusing group of vitamin, mineral, and supplements lining the supermarket shelves.

    Far from contributing to better health, however, nutritional supplements threaten to turn a scientific breakthrough into a nutritional disaster.

    Promoters of vitamins and minerals — especially vitamins A, C, and E— would have consumers believe that the little vitamin pill in the bottle is all they need for good health. Take your vitamins in the morning, and you're covered. It's okay to eat fast foods for the rest of the day or skip meals to achieve today's fashionably skinny look. But vitamins and minerals are only one part of the nutritional puzzle. A diet rich in fiber (纤维) and balanced in carbohydrates and protein is essential for good health. You can't get these things from a nutritional supplement. The focus on vitamin and mineral supplements may actually be robbing us of the full nutrition we seek.

    And no supplement can compare to the quality of nutrition found in natural sources. For example, our bodies turn carotenes (胡萝卜素) from plant foods into vitamin A. Many supplements contain a single carotene, but natural sources are rich in many different carotenes. Many supplements contain a form of vitamin E that is made from chemicals, when natural vitamin E is more readily absorbed and used by the body. And science is still discovering the wealth of nutrients in foods.

    You'd be hard-pressed to find a supplement as nutritionally comprehensive and powerful as a balanced diet. Even if you could, you'd pay much more than if you got the same nutritional value from natural sources.

    But perhaps the greatest danger presented by nutritional supplements comes from the very real risks presented by self-medication. Anyone can walk into the market and buy as many different supplements as desired. The reported benefits of high dosages of certain nutrients have led some people to believe that the more the better. Many take several vitamin and mineral supplements without regard to possible consequences.

    Surprising new research suggests that vitamin C pills may speed up hardening of the arteries, the underlying cause of heart attacks. Researchers said their findings support the recommendations of health organizations, which urge people to avoid high doses of supplements and to get their nutrients from food instead.

    As appealing as they're made to sound, nutritional supplements are danger in disguise. If you're looking for good health, don't look on the supplement shelves of your supermarket. Look in the produce section instead.

    Books are for reading, but man must bring to their reading a desire to learn and a power of absorbing. Reading should be active, not passive.

    When students first go to a library, they may be at a loss as to what to read of all the different subjects. Well, Bacon tells you to “look at weak places in your armor(盔甲)”, and shows you how to fill up the blanks in your knowledge. On the other hand, it is no good just trying to fill your mind with knowledge. Knowledge in itself is often useless. A mind filled with too much knowledge is like a room too full of furniture; a man cannot walk about freely in it, and look out of the windows. It is much better to concentrate on a few subjects which interest you and to deal lightly with the others than to march heavily through the whole range(范围) of learning, like a silly tourist going through a museum and not missing a single object. If you try to master every subject you may become very wise, but you will be very lonely and you will probably lose all your friends. So you must learn to pick and choose, and you must also learn to look here and there in a library like a camel eating grass on the grassland. If you watch it eating, you will see that although he is supposed to be one of the most stupid animals in the world, he has at least one of the qualities of the cultured man, the power to pick and choose. A student looking for mental food in a library should take the camel as his model.

    Hilary Smith belonged to a good family. But by the age of twenty, he had spent all the money the good old family had. He then had some trouble with the bank and was put in prison. He escaped from the prison and ran to Australia without delay.

    Hilary did not like Australia and Australia did not like Hilary. What he could do seemed to be one of two things: die or work. Then he remembered that he was not alone in the world. He had an aunt.

    She was his father's only sister, but his father used to say she brought no glory to the family. Hilary, of course, tried to discover what she had done. It seemed that she had failed to marry a nobleman. Instead, she had chosen a husband who was connected with "trade". Of course as soon as she became "Mrs. Parks", her brother considered her dead. Later on, Mr. Parks died and left her a lot of money; but that did not bring her back to life in her brother's opinion.

    Hilary discovered his aunt's address. Fortunately she remained faithful and honest to him even after she fell ill. So Hilary's star shone again, and soon he moved into her house and lived as comfortably as a sailor who had just reached harbor. He had only about six pence in his pocket.

    One thing was soon clear: his aunt was seriously ill, and nothing could cure her illness. Hilary was very worried. Fate had found a home for him, and was now going to throw him out of it. There was only one thing that could save him: her will.

    "Will?" she said, "yes, I have made one. That was when I was a girl and had not much money. I left all my money to some religious people."

    "Didn't you make another will when you were married?" Hilary asked.

    His aunt shook her head. "No," she said in a low voice, "There was no need. When I finally had a lot of money, I found I had no relations."

    On the next day he went to the public library and examined a book of law. It told him what he already believed. When a woman is married, an earlier will loses its value. A new will must be made. If no new will is made, the money goes to the nearest relation. Hilary knew that he was his aunt's only relation. His future was safe.

    After a few months had passed, Hilary's problems became serious. He badly needed money. He had expensive tastes, and owed a lot of money to shopkeepers. They trusted him because his aunt was rich, but the debt was terrible.

    Unfortunately his aunt did not want to discuss money matters at all. In the end they had a quarrel about the small amount of ten pounds. Hilary was not very angry. He began to wonder about a new problem. Was it kind to want his aunt to live any longer? Was it not better for her to die now? While he was considering what to do, his aunt told him that she was going to send for her lawyer. So she was going to make a new will, Hilary thought. She might leave all her money to someone else. Soon he reached a clear decision. He must do a great kindness to the poor old woman.

    One night when the old servant who had been nursing his aunt went off, he doubled the amount of some medicine. The total amount was too great and it could just put her to sleep forever.

    "Thank you," his aunt took the glass from his hand with a grateful look." I want, more than anything, to sleep, and never to wake up again. Is that what you wish, Hilary? Don't blame me if I have some doubts about what you intended to do. Sick people get these ideas, you know. One thing I ought to explain to you. Mr. Parks never married me. He already had a wife and couldn't marry again. That made your foolish father very angry with me...Well, if I am alive tomorrow, I shall make another will in your favor. If I die tonight, you'll get nothing...No, Hilary, don't try to take the glass away. If you do that, I shall know and I don't want to know. Good night, Hilary."

    Then, very carefully, she raised the glass to her mouth and drank.

    Nowadays more and more people like to travel, especially when vacations come. A great number of people rush out of their homes or companies to travelling spots. They either drive or take a bus, a train, a ship and so on. Some even ride bikes.

    However, there is another way of travelling—poorism. People have a tour in the poorest areas of the world. Some people may take one-day poorest tour, and some even pay to stay in very poor neighborhoods to experience the lowest living standards in the world. Poorism tours take place around the world, and not just in the third world countries. You can, for instance, tour New York neighborhoods in the Bronx, in the Bund of Shanghai. Such tours can take people into the heart of poor areas within large and in some rich cities. These tours may awaken people to pay more attention to long-standing poverty, or the effects of war.

    Some suggest that tours in the poor areas can raise social care. And the money from the tour can be donated to help the people there.

When we learn to drive, we need to learn basic skills such as how to switch on the engine, turn on the wipers, operate the brakes, etc. before we actually take to the road. Once the lower order operations and skills listed above have been automatized or at least routinized to the extent that we do not have to pay attention to them (by­pass Working Memory's attentional systems), we can actually be safe in the assumption that we can wholly focus on the higher order skills which will allow us to take the split seconds decisions that will prevent us from getting lost, clash with other cars, break the traffic laws while dealing with our children messing about in the back seats.

This is what the brain does, too, when learning languages. Because Working Memory has a very limited space available when performing any task, the brain has learnt to automatize lower order skills so that, by being performed "subconsciously" they free up cognitive(认知)space. So, for instance, if I am an advanced speaker who has routinized accurate pronunciation, grammar and syntax to a fairly high degree, I will be able to devote more conscious attention (Working Memory space) to the message I want to put across. On the other hand, if I still struggle with pronunciation, word order, irregular verb forms and tenses most of my attention will be taken up by the mechanics of what I want to say, rather than the meaning; this will slow me down and limit my ability to think through what I want to say due to cognitive overload.

In language teaching this important principle translates as follows: in order to enable our students to focus on the higher order skills involved in comprehension and production we need to ensure that the lower­order ones have been acquired or performance will be reduced.

Spreading kindness not only helps others feel better about themselves but also boosts the giver's health and happiness, according to a study. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Giving seems to lower our blood pressure.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. One study asked a group of hypertensive (高血压的) people to spend $40 on themselves, while another group of people with high blood pressure were told to spend the money on others. They found that spending money on others had reduced their blood pressure at the end of the six-week study

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

A recent study found that people who said they would donate money to help orphans were less sensitive to an electric shock than those who declined to give. According to the study, regions of the brain that react to painful stimulation appear to be instantly out of operation by the experience of giving.

Being kind seems to boost happiness.

Another study assigned people to three groups: the first group had to do an act of kindness each day; the second group tried a new activity each day; and the third group did nothing. The first two groups saw a significant boost in happiness. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, if you're creative with your acts of kindness, than those who performed the same activity over and over again.

"When doing an act of kindness, you're making the world a better place," said the Random Acts of Kindness foundation, which promotes kindness all year. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

A. It's a win-win for all

B. Giving seems to lessen our pain

C. You'll experience even greater joy

D. But consider being kind to yourself

E. Being kind seems to contribute to our sense of community

F. Giving donations to others has been shown to have that effect

G. However, any kindness you give to others is also a gift to yourself