Talking good notes is a time-saving skill that will help you to become a better student in several ways.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Second, your notes are excellent materials to refer to when you are studying for a test. Third, note-taking offers variety to your study time and helps you to hold your interest.

    You will want to take notes during classroom discussions and while reading a textbook or doing research for a report{#blank#}2{#/blank#}whenever or however you take notes, keep in mind that note-taking is a selective process.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    The following methods may work best for you.

    Read the text quickly to find the main facts and ideas in it.

    Carefully read the text and watch for words that can show main points and supporting facts.

    Write your notes in your own words.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Note any questions or ideas you may have about what was said or written.

    As you take notes, you may want to use your own shorthand (速记). When you do, be sure that youunderstand your symbols and that you use them all the time.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Use words, not complete sentences.

B. There are three practical note-taking methods.

C. You must write your notes on separate paper.

D. Otherwise（否则）, you may not be able to read your notes later.

E. You will also want to develop your own method for taking notes.

F. That means you must first decide what is important enough to include in your notes.

G. First, the simple act of writing something down makes it easier for you to understand and remember it.

    If anyone had told me three years ago that I would be spending most of my weekends camping. I would have laughed heartily. Campers, in my eyes, were people who enjoyed insects bites, ill-cooked meals, and uncomfortable sleeping bags. They had nothing in common with me.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

The friends who introduced me to camping thought that it meant to be a pioneer.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}We sleep in a tent, cooked over an open fire, and walked a long distance to take the shower and use the bathroom. This brief visit with Mother Nature cost me two days off from work, recovering from a bad case of sunburn and the doctor's bill for my son's food poisoning.

    I was, nevertheless, talked into going on another fun-filled holiday in the wilderness.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Instead, we had a pop-up camper with comfortable beds and an air conditioner. My nature-loving friends had remembered to bring all the necessities of life.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}We have done a lot of it since. Recently, we bought a twenty-eight-foot travel trailer complete with a bathroom and a built-in TV set. There is a separate bedroom, a modern kitchen with a refrigerator. The trailer even has matching carpet and curtains.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}It must be true that sooner or later, everyone finds his or her way back to nature. I recommend that you find your way in style.

A. This time there was no tent.

B. Things are going to be improved.

C. The trip they took me on was a rough one.

D. I was to learn a lot about camping since then, however.

E. I must say that I have certainly come to enjoy camping.

F. After the trip, my family became quite interested in camping.

G. There was no shade as the trees were no more than 3 feet tall.

Think Positive and Feel Positive

    When you're in a stressful situation, are you confident or unsafe? Do you react positively or negatively?

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}A study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame found that negative thinking, and depression coming from it, can be catching in certain circumstances.

    For example, the researchers studied 103 freshman college roommates who'd been paired casually.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Specifically, the researchers measured the subject's likelihood to see negative events as a reflection of their abilities and disadvantages.

    After only six months, it became clear that thinking patterns and styles can be catching.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}And students paired with more positive thinking roommates were more likely to become more positive in their thinking and report less depression.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}So they might be particularly accessible to adopting the thought and behavior patterns of people around them — perhaps more so than people in less intense situations at other stages of life.

    But maybe not. Other research has shown that, in general, people are affected by how those around them think.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. The answer may depend in part on whom you're around.

B. Now college freshman are in a unique, life changing environment.

C. However, think positive and feel positive is quite important for college students.

D. Students paired with a negative-thinking roommate “caught” that style and became more depressed themselves.

E. They measured each roommate's cognitive weakness, or tendency to give in to negative thinking and depression.

F. So surrounding a negative, depressed person with people who think positively could be a powerful form of treatment.

G. But what was to the researchers' embarrassment was that the subjects never talked with each and stayed apart from each other for most of the time.

    When it comes to the benefit of volunteering, a lot of people think it s all about the warm feeling after helping someone{#blank#}1{#/blank#} As is known, charity work requires a wide variety of people to do a wide variety of things for everything to work. It means that there are some surprising benefits for volunteers. For example, volunteering:

    Teaches you new skills.

    From helping making websites to teaching immigrant kids your native language, or to arranging events for charity, volunteering can really be almost anything. It means that when you get involved in charity work, a lot of the time you will face challenges{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Can teach you what truly matters.

    It's a great way to find new perspectives(角度) on life. When you've been at it for a while, you just might find yourself re-evaluating your advantages{#blank#}3{#/blank#} One of my friends went from wanting to be a lawyer to discovering a true passion for teaching

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Maybe it is not surprising, but what might surprise you is how genuine these friends are. Some of my long-term friends are people I've met through volunteering. I'm not that kind of guy that makes friends purely for connections, but sometimes it's very convenient to have a broad network.

    Summed up in one line: volunteering helps you grow{#blank#}5{#/blank#} You meet a wide variety of people who don't have a lot in common with. You learn to get along with people involved in many different walks in life. You learn to know what you are to do. So if you've ever considered volunteering, what are you waiting for?

A. You might even decide on a completely new path to take in life.

B. Helps you make new friends

C. As it turns out, that's far from the only benefit.

D. Volunteering helps you look outside yourself and your problems.

E. Through overcoming the challenges, you learn completely new skills.

F. Not only as a person, but it helps you develop your skill as well.

G. Can help improve social skills

    I think the majority of people would agree that it's unhealthy to live in the past. After all, we're all familiar with the new age philosophy, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Living in the past holds us back from being able to enjoy the present moment. But are there any benefits of revisiting a previous time? Actually, yes. The past has several advantages:

     Learning from our mistakes: We all know that poor choices can be some of life's greatest teachers{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}By revisiting an unfavorable event from our past, we can often view it from a different perspective as time has passed. Being older and wiser, we are now able to reevaluate the experience and gain deeper insights and understandings of what happened and why, and how it has impacted us since. What once scarred us can now be healed through a newly-found awareness and no longer be a negative force in our lives.

    Motivated by earlier successes{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Other times life has been difficult. Remembering the past when we were at our best can help motivate us out of our current slump(低谷) and put us back on track for success. Use your past successes to propel(推动) you on to newer and greater things.

    While it's evident that revisiting the past has several advantages, there is a warning. Just like an amusement park, it's fine to visit but you cannot stay there forever. At some point, the park closes and all visitors are asked to leave. Enjoy the past when necessary but don't always stay there. Use it for living in the present and planning for the future{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Moving beyond

B. That's why it's called the present

C. In that way, it will serve you well

D. See the mistakes as a step on the road to a solution

E. There are times when we have all enjoyed success on a variety of levels

F. Recalling times when we made mistakes can help us make better future decisions

G. So, failure is the mother of success

Voluntourism

    Volunteering to help people in need combined with travelling to faraway places is a new trend in the travel industry. It is called voluntourism. People travel to other countries, learn languages and gain new experiences. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Recent statistics show that in the past few years voluntourism has been one of the fastest-growing areas of tourism. More than 1.6 million people around the world are volunteers in other countries. They help build schools, assist in hospitals and do farming work in developing countries. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} They keep in touch with their host families after they return home, and many return to visit.

    There are many reasons why people want to engage in voluntourism. When people choose to join a voluntourism program, they are joining a global network of volunteers who are living and working with diverse cultures on projects that have a positive effect. The volunteers come from all over the world, and they will share the passion for giving back and the desire to broaden horizons. Some students also see it as a gap year after school, while others simply want to take time out from a job and do something else. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} However, many voluntourists do not see volunteering as what it is. They think it is a cheap way of travelling and don't really want to get involved in hard work.

    While voluntourism has been around for over a century, modern volunteering started with the Peace Corps, a program that the US government started in the 1960s. From then on, voluntourism has become more and more popular. Many organizations start similar projects. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} And they have hundreds of different types of programs for people to choose from in more than 30 developing countries. The programs run year round and each volunteer chooses when they want to start and the duration they would like to stay for.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They say that if people really want to help those in need, there are many opportunities in their own community to do this. On the other side, volunteers are often not skilled enough for the tasks that they do. Travel experts point out that in some cases voluntourists are often taken advantage of by the organization that sets up the trips.

A. Not everyone sees voluntourism in a positive way.

B. Some of them establish lasting bonds with people there.

C. And there are those who are bored and merely seek adventure.

D. Most voluntourism organizations employ people from similar fields.

E. They find it is the best way to get the best of the world.

F. By participating in voluntourism, they are contributing to local economy.

G. They offer voluntourism trips to suit people's interest, experience level or age.