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

      Why eat at big chain restaurants when you can experiencesomething new?{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

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.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} If you are growing tomatoes in your backyard for sale you are producing for the market. You might sell some to your neighbor and some to the local manager of the supermarket. But in either case, you are producing for the market. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} If people stop buying tomatoes, you will stop producing them.

    If you take care of a sick person to earn money, you are producing for the market. If your father is a steel worker or a truck driver or a doctor or a grocer, he is producing goods or service for the market.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} You may spend money in stores, supermarkets, gas stations and restaurants. Still you are buying from the market. When the local grocer hires you to drive the delivery truck, he is buying your labor in the labor market.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} But for each person or business that is making and selling something, it is very concrete(具体的). If nobody buys your tomatoes, it won't be long before you get the message. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It is telling you that you are using energies and resources in doing something the market doesn't want you to do.

The Winner's Guide to Success

    Do you know what makes people successful? To find out the answers, an American scholar recently visited some of the most successful people around the world. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Be responsible for yourself

    Sometimes you may want to blame others for your failure to get ahead. In fact, when you say someone or something outside of yourself is stopping you from making success, you're giving away your own power. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Write a plan

    It is very difficult to try to get what you want without a good plan. It is just like trying to drive through strange roads to a city far away.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Without this "map", you may waste your time, money and also your energy; while with the "map" you'll enjoy the "trip" and get what you want in the shortest possible time.

    Be willing to pay the price

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} So you must be ready to work hard — even harder than you have ever done. If you are not willing to pay the price, you won't get anything valuable.

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    It seems to us that everyone knows this. But it is easier said than done. When you are doing something, you must tell yourself again and again: Giving up is worse than failure because failure can be the mother of success, but giving up means the death of hope.

A. Never give up.

B. Nothing is easy to get.

C. A good plan is like a map to you.

D. Here are some keys to success that they give.

E. Some people achieve success much later in life.

F. You're saying, "You have more control over my life than I do."

G. Someone else's opinion of you doesn't have to become your reality.

    Ways to Host an Eco-Friendly Cookout

    Eating in the open air may feel eco-friendly, but outdoor dining can result in unnecessary waste if you aren't careful.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}If you keep that in mind throughout your preparations, you'll be off to a good start.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

    Skip the paper invitations and use online services like Email, or Facebook events{#blank#}2{#/blank#}This way you'll avoid ending up with five different potato salads that go uneaten. Make it easy for guests to sort garbage by positioning different trashcans in a central location: one for kitchen garbage, one for recyclables, and one for non-recyclables.

Stop Using Plastic

    Plastic is a leading cause of litter and isn't easy to recycle. To make sure your cookout eco-friendly, consider some other options for making your cookout stand out. Use recycled jars as glasses. They're also far less breakable than regular glasses{#blank#}3{#/blank#} If guests know which glass is theirs, they don't need to reach for another one, which cuts down on the cleanup you'll be doing.

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    Wherever possible, shop for local produce and goods to serve your guests. This will reduce your carbon footprint and help support your local economy. Buy produce and meats at your local farmers' market. Look for organic, but favor local over organic if you have to make a choice.

Use Renewable Light Sources

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} As the sun goes down, illuminate your party space with LED lighting and solar- powered decorations. Invest in some citronella (香茅精油) candles and torches to help drive away insects naturally.

A. Support Global Economy

B. Think Globally, Shop Locally

C. Ask guests to bring glasses of their own

D. Keep track of what everyone is bringing ahead of time

E. Save on energy by hosting your party during the daylight hours

F. One of the keys to being green is to reduce waste wherever possible

G. Put up some labels to the jars so people can write their names on them

The Value of Tears

    Tears can ruin make-up, bring conversation to a stop, and give you a runny nose. Tears leave you embarrassed and without energy. Still, crying is a fact of life, and your tears are very useful. Even when you're not crying, they make a film over the eye's surface.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    When tears fall, they reduce stress. But we tend to fight them for all sorts of reasons. “People worry about showing their emotions (情绪), afraid that once they lose control they'll never get it back.”{#blank#}2{#/blank#}After we cry, the feelings that caused the tears often disappear.

    Sometimes people become much stressed and can't cry. Whatever emotion they are feeling — shock, anger, fear, or sadness— is being held back.

    But everyone has the need to cry. Psychologist Vera Diamond explains that her treatment often consists of giving people permission to cry{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Patients practice crying just to become used to expressing emotions. She suggests safe, private places to cry, like under the bedcovers or in the car. Crying is a way of ease tension, but people don't like it when others cry because it makes them tense{#blank#}4{#/blank#} And they'll do just about anything to make you stop.

    In certain situations, such as at work, tears are not appropriate. It's good not to cry during a tense business discussion{#blank#}5{#/blank#} You should also act out the whole situation again and be as noisy and angry as you like. It will help you feel better. “And,” she adds, “Once your tears have taken away the stress, you can begin to think calmly of ways to deal with the problem.”

    Tears are a sign of our ability to feel. If you find yourself near someone crying, deal with it. And never be afraid to cry yourself.

A. They too may be holding back a need to cry.

B. They cry for different reasons.

C. She gives crying exercises.

D. It contains a chemical against infection (炎症).

E. The fact is no emotion lasts forever.

F. It forms in response to the stress on the surface of the eye.

G. But once you're safely behind closed doors, don't just cry.

    The Silk Road was a historical network of trade routes that connected China and the Mediterranean Sea, allowing cultural and economic interaction between the East and the West. Begun in the 2nd Century B C, the Silk Road carried goods, ideas, and even illness for thousands of miles between great civilizations for more than a thousand years. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It was the creation of Germany's Ferdinand von Richthofen, who traveled to China several times in the second half of the 19th Century.

    China's powerful Han Dynasty began expanding its trade routes towards the West in the years around 100 B.C. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Some shipments made it through to Europe and to northern and eastern Africa, through the port of Alexandria.

    As its name suggests, the Silk Road was home to large amount of silk, which made its way from China to the Mediterranean and, to Rome. It wasn't only silk, however, that was carried along the Silk Road  {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Chinese traders brought delicate porcelain plates and thin but durable paper money. Romans brought delicately carved pottery (陶器）and jewelry to China.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Merchants carried shipments from major center, and then others carried the foods farther on the route. Many merchants traveled in groups, called carvans (商队). Many carvans and individual merchants traveled with bodyguards because theft along the routes was not uncommon.

    Several cities along the Silk Road became major trading centers. Some of the more famous of these were Alexandria, Karakorum, Antioch, Constantinople, and Persepolis. Local taxes placed on goods traveling along the route were quite common. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. The name, however, is a modem idea.

B. Diseases also spread along the Silk Road.

C. It sent silk and other goods to other civilizations.

D. Merchants would prepare some supplies in advance.

E. Goods did not travel with the same person all along the route.

F. As a result, many goods traveled only part of the way due to the high cost

G. Many other things made their way from the East to the West, or from the West to the East.