Will it matter if you don't take your breakfast? Recently a test was given in the United States. Those tested included people of different ages, from 12 to 83. During the experiment, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts, and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Special tests were set up to see how well their bodies worked when they had eaten a certain kind of breakfast. The results show that if a person eats a proper breakfast, he or she will work with better effect than if he or she has no breakfast. This fact appears to be especially true if a person works with his brains. If a student eats fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he will learn more quickly and listen with more attention to class.

    Opposite to what many people believe, if you don't eat breakfast, you will not lose weight. This is because people become so hungry at noon that they eat too much for lunch, and end up gaining weight instead of losing. You will probably lose more weight if you reduce your other meals.

    Shyness is the cause of much unhappiness for a great many people. Shy people are anxious and self-conscious; that is, they are excessively concerned with their own appearance and actions.

    Worrisome thoughts are constantly occurring in their minds: what kind of impression am I making? Do they like me? Do I sound stupid? Am I wearing unattractive clothes? It is obvious that such uncomfortable feelings must negatively affect people. A person's conception of himself or herself is reflected in the way he or she behaves, and the way a person behaves affects other people's reactions. In general, the way people think about themselves has a profound effect on all areas of their lives.

    Shy people, having low self-esteem, are likely to be passive and easily influenced by others. They need reassurance that they are doing "the right thing." Shy people are very sensitive to criticism; they feel it confirms their feelings of inferiority. They also find it difficult to be pleased by compliment with a statement like this one, "You're just saying that to make me feel good. I know it's not true." It is clear that while self-awareness is a healthy quality, overdoing it is harmful.

    Can shyness be completely eliminated, or at least reduced? Fortunately, people can overcome shyness with determined and patient efforts in building self-confidence. Since shyness goes hand in hand with a lack of self-esteem, it is important for people to accept their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Each one of us is a unique, worthwhile individual, interested in our own personal ways. The better we understand ourselves, the easier it becomes to live up to our full potential. Let's not allow shyness to block our chances for a rich and fulfilling life.

    Moments before I could lift my case to put it in the plane's overhead locker ahead of our recent holiday to Europe, my father gently urged me to stop. He held the thick handles of the case and lifted it with his thin arms, pushing it into place with a sigh. “You should relax and be the lady, and let me do the heavy tasks,” he said seriously. “In the future, someone special will come into your life and take over such tasks from me, but that will never happen if you do everything yourself.”

    I was stunned into silence. This was not the father I remembered from childhood, who trained me to study hard at school, asked me to earn my own pocket money as a teenager at a local coffee shop, and even taught me household chores so that my life alone in London wouldn't turn into a mess. But then, eight years after I left home and started a new life in the UK, I realized for the first time that my dad still has expectations for me to be like a princess and to stay dependent and delicate, which were considered necessary qualities of women in traditional China.

    Well, that came a little late. Little did Dad know that over the three years of my university life, I moved flats five times all by myself, dragging suitcases of books and clothes, and waiting for the taxi in the rain while holding tight onto cardboard boxes. Meanwhile, living in the UK – a country currently led by a female prime minister – I have never thought there is anything girls cannot do. Most of my female friends are professionals working in the City of London, and after work, we frequently go down to the pub for a drink, just like the guys do – something my mother never did.

    I wondered how I might make Dad understand the new world his little girl has entered. Perhaps one day, he will realize the “someone special” in my life will appreciate my confidence and independence above dependence, and admit that times have changed.

    Of all the things that will make life entirely happy, the greatest is the possession of friendship. One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.

    On the first Sunday in August, it's time to recognize your friends and their contribution to your life. The first Sunday in August was fixed as National Friendship Day by the U.S. Congress in 1935, and remains a tradition observed in many countries and cultures. In 1997, the United Nations named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship.

    Apparently, there are several friendship holidays, all of which fall on fixed dates.

    National Friendship Day is on the first Sunday in August

    Women's Friendship Day is on the third Sunday in September

    International Friendship Month is February

    Old Friends, New Friends Week is the third week of May

    People show their appreciation for friendship in various ways. Some expressions may be practical ones, such as flowers, particularly the pink friendship roses, cookies, chocolates, souvenirs from their vacations, a tape of favorite songs, farewell dinners, and welcome balloons.

    Recipe for Friendship  2 cups of patience, 1 heart full of love, 2 handfuls of generosity, 2 cups of loyalty, 1 cup of understanding, A dash of laughter. Mix them all well. Spray generously over a lifetime and serve everyone you meet.

    Friendship helps to bring peace and positivity to the globe, another great reason to celebrate! Although our friends certainly deserve thanks on more than just one day of the year, what better day to honor them than Friendship Day!

    Yesterday I cleared up my house and I mean really cleared up my house. The room that gave the most results was my husband's "office". There I found: one right-footed shoe, size 10 (he lost the other one somewhere), a set of Star Wars videos and two small china cats someone gave me last birthday. I collected these "finds" and took them downstairs and logged (登录）on to eBay: the answer to all our rubbish.

    What is eBay? It aims to provide a global trading platform where almost anyone can trade almost anything. The idea came from Pierre Omidyar. Born in Paris, Omidyar moved to Washington when he was still a child. At High School he became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tufts University in 1988, he worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started eBay as a kind of hobby, originally offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the site that he had to upgrade and he began collecting fees. Joined by a friend, Peter Skoll and in 1998 by his dynamic CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. Even in the great dot-com crashes of the late 1990s eBay went from strength to strength. It is now one of the ten most visited online shopping sites on the Internet.

    If you think about it, it's a perfect Internet idea. All you have to do is take an e-photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you're in business; the world is your market place.

    Some of the more bizarre goods up for offer have been a piece of French bread, partially eaten by Justin Timberlake, advertising space on a man's head, and a pair of used false teeth.

    One week later I am proud of having a clean and tidy home and € 110 in cash. Someone even bought the shoe.

    I was given the book Running on Faith written by Jason Lester as a birthday gift last month. After I started reading, I really couldn't keep my eyes off it. It is always inspiring to read a story of someone who has gone through obstacles to reach his goals.

    Jason Lester is a disabled (残疾的) extreme athlete. When he was twelve years old, a fast car ran a red light and hit him. Then he was sent into the hospital with twenty broken bones and. a famous baseball player, but at that a seriously injured arm. Jason had always wanted to become a time that dream was gone.

    However, Jason loved sports and he still wanted to be a good athlete. He began running and taking part in duathlons(铁人两项) in high school. Years later in 2004, he decided to start training for the Ironman, and has competed in many extreme races since then. In 2008, Jason became the first disabled athlete to complete the Ultraman (320 miles of biking, swimming and running) ,and it led him to an ESPY award (奖项) for Best Male Athlete with a Disability in 2009.

    If you are in a bad situation and don't know what to do now, Running on Faith is a good book for you. If you love running and want to reach some race goals, this book is good for you, too. Anyway, this book is worth reading for everyone who loves reading and wants to turn dreams into reality.