You may use banknotes every day. But did you know that there is a lot of science behind the money? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Australia was the first country to use polymer(聚合物）banknotes in 1988. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

They can stop water from making them wet. They are also cleaner because bacteria don't grow easily on them.

Now, the Australians have improved their banknotes again by creating a new 5-dollar note. The new one has a clear window in the middle in which there are pictures of an Australian bird and a building. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Tilt (倾斜）the note a little and you will see the bird flapping its wings as if trying to fly away. Turn the note from side to side and you will notice the building come to life and spin. While these features are impressive and entertaining, that was not the reason why the Australian Government spent ten years perfecting them. Their primary purpose was to make it impossible to fake a banknote.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The new $ 5 bill now has a raised bump alongside the two long edges, enabling the blind or those with limited vision, to quickly determine its value.

The Australian government will give the new 10-dollar note the same features in a year's time. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Note makers still have a long way to go.

B. Other notes will have them in the future.

C. The magic of the new features lies in them.

D. They have many advantages over paper notes.

E. The new Australian 5-dollar note is a good example.

F. The new note is also the first touchable Australian banknote.

G. Their material and pattern set them apart from ordinary banknotes.

    School is more than a place where students learn subjects such as math, science and reading.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} While the focus of school is not to make a student socially popular, learning these skills is an important part of education. You may have personal issues when it comes to making friends in class, but with coaching you will be well on your way to climbing the social ladder. Here are some instructions.

    Partner with classmates. Use projects as a reason to partner with people you would like to become friends with in your class.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Be reliable when partnering on a project so that you carry your own weight and put your best foot forward.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}There are many lulls (间歇) during class that will afford you an opportunity to engage a classmate. Giving a compliment to a person without overdoing it will help you come off friendly without looking desperate. Icebreakers can be as simple as saying hello or talking about the weather or class work.

    Get involved in activities. Offer to join a study group or get involved in other school activities to meet up with potential friends.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Share your knowledge with others. Helping others you wan! to befriend to understand a concept is a great way to avoid disrupting the class and to make contact.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Send others positive signals such as smiling or waving so that you seem friendly.

A. Break the ice without disturbing the class.

B. Take an active approach to making friends.

C. Ask for help from students you want to befriend.

D. Join available school programs that you are interested in.

E. Assignments will give you an excuse to communicate if you are shy.

F. It is also an environment that teaches and tests social communication.

G. This can be pleasing as well as a great way to interact with parents.

    Americans spend a lot of money in their daily lives. Working people spend money on transportation to and from work and on various expenses throughout the day, Americans enjoy shopping and buy many things that they need and want, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}They buy sports equipment, go to movies and do many things that cost money.

    However, many Americans don't pay cash or write checks for these things. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Credit cards are small, rectangular plastic cards. It is very convenient to carry them about. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}When the customer buys something at a store, he shows his card at the store. This permits the store to charge the bank for the customer's purchase. The bank collects all the charges for each customer, Then once a month the bank requires the customer to pay the charges for that month. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}It allows the customer to pay for the charges in several payments over a period of time.

    However, the bank requires the customer to pay interest(利息)on the unpaid part of the charges. In this way the bank allows customers to buy things they cannot afford at one time. People can use the card to buy what they want and pay for it over a period of time, {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. It brings great benefits to the rich.

B. Banks give these cards to their customers.

C. They spend a lot of money on entertainment.

D. They also do not need to carry a lot of money.

E. People may spend less money in this way.

F. More and more Americans pay for things with credit cards.

G. The bank does not force the customer to pay the full amount.

    Earth is home to around 7,000 languages, around half of which are expected to disappear by 2100.

    Languages disappear for many reasons. Sometimes younger generations stop learning a language because parents want children to fit in. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Native American children of the late-19th century were required to attend boarding schools where educators forbade them from speaking their native languages.

    The United Nations ranks endangered languages according to their risk level. For example, a "critically endangered" language is one that even grandparents don't speak often. New York's Onondaga language is an example with only 50 speakers left. An "extinct" language has no speakers. It is gone forever. Alaska's Eyak language is one example. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}In the same way, different languages contribute to cultural diversity. Saving these languages benefits our understanding of other cultures. Languages can show how a society looks at the world and what it values. A language may describe something in a way that is funny, too. In Welsh, it rains not cats and dogs, but old wives and walking sticks.

    The Endangered Language Alliance wants to save languages from disappearing. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} However, its efforts are limited. If an endangered language is going to make a real comeback, it'll probably get its start in schools. For nearly 100 years, public schools in Hawaii did not teach the Hawaiian language. Now students can keep learning in Hawaiian from elementary schools to college and beyond.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} At least one did. In 1881, a Jewish linguist named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda brought the 3,000-year-old language Hebrew back to life. Today it is one of the official languages of the country of Israel, with more than 4 million speakers.

A. The last person who spoke it died in 2008.

B. Why should we save endangered languages?

C. Various animals and plants benefit our environment.

D. With just 5 speakers left, it is absolutely endangered.

E. Can a language with zero native speakers come back to life?

F. Sometimes societies force minorities to give up their language.

G. The nonprofit group finds native speakers and records their stories.

    In a study recently published in the journal Neuron, researchers found that super memorizers don't have unusually large brain regions that allow them to remember a lot of information. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are a few of their favorite tricks that can help you to remember things in your everyday life.

    To Remember: New words

    Technique: Change routine

    In a study, a group of students studied a list of words in two separate sessions. Some studied in a messy room ant some in a neat space. One group of students spent both sessions in the same room, while the other split the sessions between the two environments. During a test, the students who studied in multiple places remembered much more. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} That includes the time of day, the music in the background, whether you sit or stand, etc.

    To Remember: Your PIN

    Technique: Count it out

    You could use your birthday, or your phone number, but identity thieves have a way of figuring those numbers out. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Write a four- wort sentence. Then count the number of letters in each word. For instance, "This is my PIN" =4223.

    To Remember: Faces

    Technique: Focus on noses

    White some super memorizes specialize in associating names with faces, the memory-palace technique doesn't work as well if the image of the face is changed in any way. Rather than focusing on eyes, as most people do, focus on the centre or to the left of a person's nose. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    To Remember: Facts & figures

    Technique: {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

    To learn and remember statistics, reviewing the material repeatedly over a longer time is far more effective than repeating it in a shorter one. If your exam is in a week, study today and then again in a day or two. If it's a month away, study today and then wait a week before your second session.

A. Value exams

B. Give yourself time

C. This allows you to take in their whole face.

D. Their brain structures are in fact the same as the rest of ours.

E. Instead, try this tip from Dominic, an eight-time World Memory Champion.

F. The theory is that your brain links the words to the environment around you.

G. Studies showed that varying other aspects of your environment can also help.

    While it is important to maintain good habits, it is equally important to learn how to break bad habits if you want to achieve success in life. Here are some tips to get you started.

    The first step in breaking bad habits is to identify them. Only after identifying them can you decide to do something about them. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} For example, you may ask yourself: Is the habit holding me back from achieving my goal? Does the habit make me feel good or bad?

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Then you may listen to the things that people say about you. Are people saying the same negative things about you? It's easy to become defensive when someone says something about us we don't like, and let's face it. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Once you have identified your bad habits, it's time to break them. First, you should introduce something new and meaningful in your life to replace the bad habit. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you hung around at the bars after work, replace it by going to the gym instead. Or if you sat and watched TV for hours, you may work on a task that needs to be done.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Write down the efforts you make to change them, and also the results of your actions. And write down how you feel when you successfully change one of your bad habits. If you can read and reflect on how you feel about the progress you've made, it may motivate you to continue to work on changing other things.