Maybe you are an average student. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} This is not necessarily so, however. Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to. Here's how.

    Plan your time carefully. When planning your work, you should make a list of things that you have to do. After making this list, you should make a schedule of your time. First your time for eating, sleeping, dressing, etc. Then decide a good, regular time for studying. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} A weekly schedule may not solve all your problems, but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.

    Make good use of your time in class. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Listening carefully in class means less work later. Taking notes will help you remember what the teacher says.

    Study regularly. When you get home from school, go over your notes; look at the important points that your teacher is going to discuss the next day, read that material. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you do these things regularly, the material will become more meaningful, and you'll remember it longer.

    Develop a good attitude towards tests. The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you remember your new knowledge. The world won't end if you don't pass a test, so don't be over worried.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You will probably discover them after you have tried these.

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.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    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.

    It is now mandatory(强制) for drivers or passengers to wear seatbelts while in a car in all states. In addition, it is also mandatory for kids of be in some kind of specialized car seat. Given the strict requirements in other vehicles, why don't buses have seatbelts?

    The main answer, at least for school buses, is that seatbelts do not make school buses safer. Overall, traveling on school buses is the safest way to travel—40 times safer than riding in a car—with only a handful of deaths occurring to passengers on school buses every year. The seats on the school bus are placed very close to each other and have high backs that are thickly padded. As a result, in an accident the students would be propelled forward a very short distance into a padded seatback that in a way is like an airbag. In addition, the fact that people sit high off the ground on school buses also makes it safer to travel on them.

    While school buses feature high backed seats and elevated seating locations, the same cannot be said of city buses. However, from a practical angle, there's little need to require seatbelts on city buses. Although the design of the modern low—floor city bus is less safe than the design of school buses, the fact that city buses rarely travel at speeds greater than 35 miles per hour means that any collision is likely to be small, Also, given that most trips on city buses are short and that many trips have standing passengers, the presence of seatbelts will make even less of a difference.

    Another answer why buses do not have seatbelts is cost. It is estimated that adding seatbelts to buses would add between $8,000 and $15,000 to the cost of each bus. In addition, seatbelts would take up room currently used as seats, meaning that each bus would have fewer seating places. The additional room in the bus taken up by seatbelts would mean that bus fleets would have to increase by as much as 15% just to carry the same number of people. Such an increase would be especially difficult in cities that experience overcrowding on their vehicles.

    Regardless of whether their passengers have seatbelts, all buses provide seatbelts for drivers and most bus companies make their drivers wear seatbelts in order not to be influenced by a collision.

                         Improve your memory

    Some people often complain about their poor memory. Actually there are several ways to keep your memory sharp. This article will show you some simple tips.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. When you say these things, you begin to plant the thought in your mind and it may become true. Tell yourself you can remember anything as long as you put your mind to the task. You will see an improvement in your memory.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. If you have trouble remembering phone numbers or other blocks of numbers, it can be really helpful to try this method. If you remember them in smaller groups, like two or three digits(数字), it will also be much easier to remember the number.

    Be sure to see a doctor if you really are losing your memory. A poor memory can be a sign that you are in low spirits.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Playing games also helps improve your memory. Any type of games that involves(涉及) remembering things is wonderful.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Try and remember it when you have nothing better to do. A useful tip for anyone interested in games is to often work on solving word puzzles and similar types of games. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Not only will your memory probably improve, you will also have a great deal of fun.

A. Take a right attitude.

B. Remember numbers in small groups.

C. Stop telling yourself you have a weak memory.

D. If you don't know your condition, you cannot treat it!

E. If you don't like games, you can go over a list of “to do things”.

F. If so, treating it could be the key to getting your memory back.

G. Such games use the same skills needed to remember facts and help keep the mind sharp.

    The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare's time is estimated(估计) to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms.

    In fact, it is impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate(足够的) working knowledge of English in addition to their own languages. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to explain and still more difficult to judge what forms an adequate working knowledge for each situation.

    The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present day importance as a world language. Besides serving the indefinite needs of its native speakers. English is a language in which some of important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communications, international conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West.

Fighting the curse of presenteeism

    "It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?" Beyond a certain level, extra effort seems to be self­defeating. Studies suggest that, after 10 hours a week, employee productivity falls sharply.

    But that doesn't stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, recently applauded the "996" model, where employees work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, as a huge blessing". However, to modern office workers presenteeism is a curse.

    There will be days when you do not have much to do, just waiting for someone else to respond to a request. As the clock ticks past 5pm, there may be no purpose in staying at your desk. But you can see your boss hard at work and, more important, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.

    If bosses do not like to go home before their underlings (下属)and underlings fear leaving before their bosses, everyone is trapped. Staff may feel that they will not get a pay rise, or a promotion, if they are not seen to be putting in maximum effort. This is easily confused with long hours. Managers, who are often no good at judging employees5 performance, use time in the office as a measurement.

    But presenteeism has more serious consequences. As well as reducing productivity, this can increase medical expenses for the employer. According to a study, these costs can be six time: higher for employers than the costs of absenteeism among workers. To take one example, research found that Japanese employees with lower­back pain were three times more likely to turn up for work than in Britain. As a result, those workers were more likely to experience greater pain and to suffer from depression. What could be more discouraging than being in pain while feeling trapped at work?

    "None of this is to say that employers are not entitled to expect workers to be in the office for a small amount of time. Unavoidably there will be a need for some (preferably short)meetings. Dealing with colleagues face-­to­-face develops friendships, allows for a useful exchange of ideas and enables workers to have a better sense of their common needs.

    With portable smart phones and laptops, we can work at home as easily as in the office. Turning an office into a prison does nothing for the creativity that is increasingly demanded of office workers as routine tasks are automatic. To be productive you need presence of mind, not being present in the flesh.