How to Improve Speed Reading Skills

    Speed reading is one of many skills that can improve your reading comprehension and shorten your study time. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    Look at groups of words, not single words.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. However, if you can get into the habit of reading groups or chunks of words at one time, then you can read much faster. Start by trying to look at a group of three or four words at once, then work up to looking at an entire line of words. Focus on words that give the sentence meaning, such as the nouns and verbs and pay less attention to the filler words, such as “A, the, and, etc.”

    Scan for keywords.

    Scanning is a highly effective way of extracting answers from a text without really reading it. If you know exactly what you are looking for—a name, a date, a statistic, or a specific word—you can find it quickly by skipping over large chunks of the text. To scan, first visualize the word, number, or phrase you would like to find. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. The information you are looking for should pop out at you.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    You can train yourself to read faster by timing yourself as you go. Start by getting your base time. Set a timer for fifteen minutes, and speed read as you normally do. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Do not count the words, just the pages or paragraphs. Record your figures: for instance, you might write “15min/6.5 pages.”

A. Then, run your eyes rapidly over the text

B. Race the clock

C. Check your comprehension

D. If you read a text one word at a time, then this will slow your reading speed way down

E. Here are some Speed Reading Techniques

F. One of the reasons you read slowly is that you have to pause sometimes to understand what a passage is saying

G. When the timer goes off, check to see how far you have got

    Having bad feeling about world? “Cheer up.” says science writer Matt Ridley. “The world has never been a better place to live in, and it will keep on getting better both for humans and for nature.”{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

1 ) {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    It is reported that there are more than ten billion different products for sale in London alone. Even allowing for the many people who still live in poverty, our own generation has access to more nutritious food, more convenient transport, bigger houses, and better cars. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} This will continue as long as we use these things to make other things. The more we specialize and exchange, the better off we'll be.

2)Brilliant advances

    One reason we are richer, healthier, taller, cleverer, longer lived and freer than ever before is that the four most basic human needs—food, clothing, fuel and shelter—have grown a lot cheaper. Take one example. In 1800 a candle providing one hour's light cost six hours' work. In the 1880s the same light from an oil lamp took 15 minutes' work to pay for. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Today it's half second.

3 )Let's not kill ourselves for climate change

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} A child that dies from indoor smoke in a village, where the use of fossil-fuel (化石燃料) electricity is forbidden by well-meaning members of green political movements trying to save the world, is just as great a tragedy as a child that dies in a flood caused by climate change. If climate change proves to be mild, but cutting carbon causes real pain, we may well find that we have stopped a nose-bleed by putting a tourniquet (止血带) around our necks.

A. Ridley calls himself a rational optimist—rational, because he's carefully weighed the evidence.

B. Overreaction to climate change could prove just as damaging to human welfare as climate change itself.

C. Shopping fuels invention.

D. And, of course, we earn more pounds and dollars than any who lived before us.

E. In 1950 it was eight seconds.

F. It's high time that we took immediate action to fight climate change.

G. Here's how he explains his views.

    The UN has recognized the contributions of volunteers on Dec. 5, International Volunteer Day. Here, the four things are offered to consider before taking the leap into overseas volunteering.

    Choose your organization carefully

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} volunteering may be a fundraising mechanism（筹资机制）for a development project. For others, volunteering is fundamental to their programs, and those serving take on professional roles in longer-term development.

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    Volunteers want to help and make a difference, but most know this isn't a purely selfless act. You will learn new skills, broaden your horizons and come to better understand yourself and the world.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Reflect on your motivations. You want to help reduce global poverty or protect the natural world, but what else? Have you always wanted to travel, but not as a tourist? Work with kids? When you understand your motivations, you'll be in a better position to choose the option that is right for you.

    Work alongside the local community

    Often times, travelers volunteer in isolation（隔离）from the local community in which they are working in.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} This enables you to ensure you are committing to a project that promotes long term and sustainable change.

    A volunteer trip is just the beginning

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Further ignite（点燃）the global change maker in you by taking your experience one step further when you return home. Spread the message of your transformative experience to others, helping to spark the change within them.

How to Be Grateful

    Has your mother or best friend told you that you're an ungrateful person? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Do you keep thinking about the things you don't have, instead of being thankful for what you do have? If so, then you need to work on being a more grateful person.

    ⒈{#blank#}2{#/blank#}This isn't a religious(宗教的) thing. You don't have to hold off on noting everything you're thankful for until Thanksgiving. Every Sunday, get a notebook and sit outside for fifteen minutes while making a list of all of the things you're thankful for.

    ⒉Be grateful for your friendships. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}You may come to think that your friends are kind and they're just there, like the couch in your living room. If you take your friends for granted for too long, then they will slowly make their way out of your life.

    ⒊Be grateful to your family. Your family is another thing you should be grateful to.  Your parents might have even been the people who tell you that you should be more grateful. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Don't let a day go by without telling your family how much you love them.

    ⒋{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Throughout history, imagine how many people have contributed to where you are now. Realizing that you couldn't be what you are now if it weren't for all of these people is an important step in being a grateful person.

A. Make a gratitude list every Sunday.

B. Friendships are very important in our life.

C. Be grateful for all of the good deeds done for your benefit.

D. Many people are guilty of taking their friends for granted.

E. Keep everything that you are grateful for in mind every day.

F. So, take the time to tell your family how much they mean to you.

G. Do you feel unable to appreciate the beauty, nature, and love that are all around you?

    According to a sales report from askci.com on 2018's Double Eleven, the national shopping day, women's down garments were among the top 10 hit products.

    Statistics show that down garments have been popular for many years in both northern and southern China. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Especially during a fiercely cold winter, {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, cares about being stylish?

    All you need is warmth — the very light from heaven, which down garments can provide you with. However, as living standards rise, more expensive garments filled with goose down, instead of duck down, have appeared in the market.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. What's the difference between the down from these two creatures? First, the down from mature geese is larger and thicker, which makes garments filled with goose down much warmer. Second, goose down is more flexible and fluffier than that of ducks. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, goose down has no strange odor. Geese are often "vegetarians" and eat clean, while ducks are omnivorous, which could give their feathers and down a strong scent. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

    However, duck down is still a good choice if you live in place where winter is windy, yet not that cold.

    If you still want be stylish…

    Although most down garments can make people look big and sloppy, you could choose longer ones for a slimming look. For colors, metallic hues are more fashionable and pair more easily with other street-style outfits in your wardrobe.

A. Goose or duck

B. It seems the strong warmth provided by down garments has been nationally approved

C. These are the advantages that account for the higher prices of garments made with goose down

D. When you shudder in the wind

E. How to choose your down garment

F. The last difference is key for people sensitive to smells

G. You may like goose garment better

Tricks to become a patient person

Here's a riddle: What do traffic jams, long lines and waiting for a vacation to start all have in common?{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. They're all situations where we could use a little extra patience.

In the digital age, we're used to having what we need immediately and right at our fingertips. However, research suggests that if we practiced patience, we'd be a whole lot better off. Here are several tricks.

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Thankfulness has a lot of benefits. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. It can also help us practice more patience. "Showing thankfulness can foster self-control," said Ye Li, researcher at the University of California.

Make yourself wait

Instant gratification (满足) may seem like the most "feel-good" option at the time, but psychology research suggests waiting for things actually makes us happier in the long run. And the only way for us to get into the habit of waiting is to practice. Start with small tasks. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} or wait 10 extra minutes before going for that cake. You'll soon find that the more patience you practice, the more you start to apply it to other, more annoying situations.

Accept the uncomfortable

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. When we experience something outside of our comfort zone, we get impatient about the circumstances. You should learn to say to yourself, "This is merely uncomfortable, not intolerable (无法忍受的)." You'll then gradually become more patient.

A. There is one answer

B. Keep a balanced state of mind

C. Practice showing or expressing gratitude

D. Attach importance to process and method

E. Put off watching your favorite show until the weekend

F So many of us believe being comfortable is the only state we will enjoy

G. Research shows it makes us happier, less stressed and even more optimistic