Tips on how to save money

    It's important for you teenagers to know how to save money. You know that the money you save can be for rainy days and be used to pay through your college education. If you think it's a difficult task and don't know how to do it, please do as the following.

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    My dad always tells me that if one doesn't respect money, it will never respect you. Hence, it's important that you keep a record of your daily expenses. Make it a habit to write down all that you have spent. And when you find out the total expenses at the end of the month, you will realize what you have spent more money in doing.  {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Open a savings account.

    Opening a savings account is a better way to save money. You can set a goal; say (for example), the money is for a new notebook or for college, and then save, until you have enough money to buy a notebook or until you go to college. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Do not carry much cash.

    Do you have the habit of not leaving a store without buying anything? The only way to stop that is carrying less money around with you. Go to the store with the minimum amount of money, which will not even help you buy a drink. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Save the changes.

    Save the changes that you get back. If you have gone to a shop to buy something and get back some changes, then do not spend them.  {#blank#}5{#/blank#}And you'll be surprised at the huge amount of money after days.

    Follow these tips above, and thus you can save a lot of money. And surely, they'll help you to be more responsible in your life.

Ways to protect cell phones from damage

    While people use cell phones frequently, very few take the necessary measures to prevent damage. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are some simple ways for you to protect your cell phone from damage.

Keep cell phones out of the rain

    If you must talk on the phone while it's raining, try to move indoors.  {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Otherwise, you may have trouble with the numbers or the cell phone speaker. Imagine dialing (拨打) one number and getting different results.

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    Many people like to put their cell phones in the pants or jeans pocket. However, storing a cell phone there will put it at risk of damage. You may forget that it is still in your pocket and just sit on the cell phone. As a result, your cell phone screen will get damaged.

Do not handle cell phones while eating

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} This is especially true for those times when you are eating messy things and get the ingredients on your hands. One accident can cause lots of damage for your cell phone.

Get a protective cell phone case

    There are many kinds of cases available on the market. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It will provide a protective cushion (垫子) that may save you from paying money to fix or buy a new phone.

    Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of Deniliquin, a country town in New South Wales, misses the constant whir（嗡嗡声）of the rice mill whose giant fans dried the rice. The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere (南半球), once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people globally. But six years of drought have had a destructive effect, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.

    Drought affects every agriculture industry based in Australia, not just rice – from sheep farming, the country's other backbone, to the cultivation of grapes for wine, the fastest-growing crop there, with that expansion often coming at the expense of rice. The drought's effect on rice has produced the greatest impact on the rest of the world, so far. It is one factor contributing to skyrocketing prices, and many scientists believe it is among the earliest signs that a warming planet is starting to affect food production.

    Researchers are looking for solutions to global rice shortages – for example, rice that blooms earlier in the day, when it is cooler, to fight against global warming. Rice plants that happen to bloom on hot days are less likely to produce grains of rice, a difficulty that is already starting to emerge in inland areas of China and other Asian countries as temperatures begin to climb. 'there will be problems very soon unless we have new varieties of rice in place,” said Reiner Wassmann, climate change director at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The recent reports on climate change carried a warning that could make the news even worse: that existing models for the effects of climate change on agriculture did not yet include newer findings that global warming could reduce rainfall and make it more variable.

    Yet the effects of climate change are not uniformly bad for rice. Rising concentrations (浓度) of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, can actually help rice – although the effect reduces or disappears if the plants face unnecessary heat, inadequate water, severe pollution or other stresses. Still, the flexibility of farmers here has persuaded some climate experts that, particularly in developed countries, the effects of climate change may be relieved, if not completely avoided. “I'm not as negative as most people,” said Will Steffen, director of the Fenner School of Environment and Society at Australian National University. “Farmers are learning how to do things differently.”

    Meanwhile, changes like the use of water to grow wine grapes instead of rice carry their own costs, as the developing world is discovering. “Rice is an essential food,” said Graeme Haley, the general manager of the town of Deniliquin. “Wine is not.”

    Injuries and deaths caused by driving after drinking are preventable. Sadly, actions by the police can only catch a small number of drunk drivers on the roads. It is up to each person to make the decisions.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}So we should help guide our friends and persuade them to avoid driving after drinking. Here are some tips.Start talking to the person early. With every drink, judgment becomes increasingly uncontrolled.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}So as soon as your friend starts drinking, you should try to persuade him to make a plan to get home safely. Remember, after he gets drunk, he may not listen to you.Help the person realize he is drunk. Talk to him and show him that he is increasingly clumsy.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}For example, ask who you can call to pick him up, or what public transport he would like to use. If he knows he is drunk, he may follow your advice.Make last efforts. If all else fails and a drunk person wants to drive home, threaten to call the police or take his keys.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}When he is not concentrated, take his keys. This may make it easier to convince him to take a cab home. Remember, don't give him the keys even if he's angry.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}If you once drove home after you got drunk, your friend may not listen to you. So in order to succeed in persuading your friend to avoid driving after drinking, you should behave yourself first.

A. Ask him where his keys are.

B. Set a good role model.

C. Give him an alternative way to get home.

D. But it isn't easy to make the right decisions.

E. Make him realize drinking makes him look like a fool.

F. The police will come to help you out once you call them.

G. It means the more one drinks, the less likely that he will listen to you.

注意：每个空格只填一个单词。

    Every January for the past 20 years, I have taken a few moments to consider the answer to the big question, “What is the meaning of life?” The reason I ask this question year after year is that my answer changes over time, which I find interesting and insightful. There is no objectively correct answer, I believe—only answers that are right for you at any given time. This question is so important—philosophically and practically in terms of how we live our lives— yet we are unable to really think about the answer.

    Doing this simple exercise might even help you live longer. According to two separate studies —one with 9,000 participants around age 65 and another with 6,000 people between 20 and 75—those who could explain the meaning and purpose of their lives died later than those who saw their lives as aimless. It didn't seem to matter what meaning participants ascribed to their lives, whether it was personal (such as happiness), or creative (such as making art). It was having an answer to the question that mattered. The connection to longevity（长寿）could be causal—having purpose may help one manage daily stress, as other research has shown. But it could also be that those who think about life's meaning are more likely to do other activities that promote good health.

    Great thinkers have given the question thought. Leo Tolstoy wrote, “The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.” Albert Einstein said: “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” My favorite answer, though, is “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”

    Some have concluded that life's meaning is subjective. “There is not one standard meaning for all,” author Anaïs Nin once said. “There is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.” I agree, which is why I recommend formulating（构想）your own answer. Taking a few moments to record your response to the question “What is the meaning of life?” is the kind of simple exercise that effectively adds meaning to your life.

    And then I suggest answering it every year. Looking back at how your thinking has evolved and been influenced by experience tells you something more about yourself. Then, it gets you closer to a deeper self-understanding.

    If you do the annual “meaning” exercise, I suggest not looking at past answers before answering anew. I write them down on the same now-yellowing piece of paper and keep it someplace safe.

    The last suggestion is to turn your answer into action. If you conclude, as Tolstoy and Einstein did, that the meaning of life is helping others, that should help motivate you to do more of it.

    This is not a theoretical exercise. Whatever small step you take toward finding the meaning of life is a step toward a more meaningful, and longer life. Why not do this simple annual “meaning” exercise from now on?