Here are some tips on listening. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

  Relax yourself

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. You need to relax. This will help you with your listening.

  Listen carefully to the first sentence

  The first sentence tells a lot about the whole passage. For example, if, at the beginning, you hear “Many shops in many parts of China have decided to take away all kinds of Japanese goods off their shelves, but some people say it's not a good idea. Our reporter says……”, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

  Think when you're listening 

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. For example, you can think of the following questions：What happened? When，where and how? What was the result and what did the speaker want to tell us? In this way, you may understand the passage better.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

  It's important for you to remember some important facts. For example, if the passage is a science report, you should try to remember its findings, and how the scient ists got their results. This is also helpful to your listening.

A. Listen to important facts. 

   B. Pay attention to key words.

   C. Maybe they can help you in one way or another.

   D. When you're listening, try to do some thinking.

   E. This is especially helpful to improve your listening skills.

   F. Before you start listening to something, don't get excited or nervous.

   G. you know you will hear a piece of news, not a children's story, or a science report.

Yash Gupta

    Yash Gupta has worn glasses for many years. When they broke one ay and he was not able to wear thenm to school, he had a big problem.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}At the end of the day, he realized that he had learned nothing that day!

    Yash quickly got his glasses fixed, but his experience changed his life. He realized that there were probably many kids around the world that did not have proper glasses to help them learn in school.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}He found out that 13 million children around the world don't have proper glasses to help them see in class. Instead of just shaking his head at this problem, he decided to do something about it.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Its goal is to help find glasses for other kids and teens that need them.

    He created Sight Learning in 2011 and since then he has changed the lives of thousands of young students around the world! The organization has tried to provide eyeglasses to students who need them but cannot afford them. It has collected and given away over $1,000,000 worth of eyeglasses.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    As Dr. Seuss, a famous writer, once said, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”{#blank#}5{#/blank#}He has taken action to not only improve his own life, but those of others.

A. Yash is such a teenager.

B. So, he did some research.

C. Yash started a small organization, Sight Learning.

D. Here is an easy way to help Yash and Sight Learning.

E. He could not see much of what was going on in his classroom.

F. He learned that not having glasses can cause a 20% loss in learning!

G. This has helped over 20,000 young people in 5 countries to see better!

    The jobs of the future have not yet been invented. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} By helping them develop classic skills that will serve them well no matter what the future holds.

    ⒈Curiosity

    Your children need to be deeply curious. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Ask kids, "What ingredients(配料) can we add to make these pancakes even better next time?" And then try them out. Did those ingredients make the pancakes better? What could we try next time?

    ⒉reativity

    True creativity is the ability to take something existing and create something new from it. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} There are a dozen different things you can do with them. Experimenting with materials to create something new can go a long way in helping them develop their creativity.

    ⒊Interpersonal Skills

    Understanding how others feel can be so challenge for kids. We know what's going on inside our own head, but what about others? Being able to read people helps kids from misreading a situation and jumping to false conclusions. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} "Why do you think she's crying?" "Can you tell how that man is feeling by looking at his face?" "If someone were to do that to you, how would you feel?"

    ⒋Self Expression (表达)

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} There are many ways to express thoughts and ideas—music, acting, drawing, building, photography. You may find that your child is attracted by one more than another.

A. Encourage kids to cook with you.

B. And we can't forget science education.

C. We can give kids chances to think about materials (物质，材料) in new ways.

D. So how can we help our kids prepare for jobs that don't yet exist?

E. Gardening is another great activity for helping kids develop this skill.

F. Being able to communicate ideas in a meaningful way is a valuable skill.

G. We can do this in real life or ask questions about characters in stories.

How to Be Happy

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Being happy often means continually finding satisfaction, a feeling of joy, and a sense that your life is meaningful during all kinds of problems—that does not depend upon finding ease or comfort. A sense of happiness is good for your health, so what can we do to have that?

Change your thoughts.

    People have a natural tendency to remember negative experiences but forget positive ones. However, thanks to adaptability, you can actually change the way your brain functions. You can train yourself to be happier by seeking your kind of fun.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Cultivate optimism.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It's a way of interpreting everything that happens to you. For example, a pessimistic person might say, "I'm terrible at math. I'm going to fail that test tomorrow. I might as well just watch TV." However, an optimistic person would say something like "I'm concerned about doing well on that test tomorrow, but I'm going to study as well as I can and do my best." Optimism doesn't deny the reality of challenges, but it interprets how you approach them differently.

    Practice active gratitude.

    A lot of researches confirm that gratitude is good for you. It reduces anxiety and depression, helps you become more positive, strengthens your relationships with others, and encourages compassion.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Determine your core values.

    Your core values determine how you think about yourself, your life, and the world around you. These beliefs guide your decision-making. They may be spiritual, or they may not, but they're the things that are fundamental to how you look at life. Whatever your values are, research suggests that when you aren't living your life and making choices that are not fit for your values, you're likely to feel unhappy and dissatisfied.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Begin by imagining yourself in the future when you have gotten to where you want to be. Pick a few goals and imagine that you have achieved them.

A. For example, occupy your mind with positive thoughts by practicing mindfulness.

B. Happiness is not a simple goal, but is about making progress.

C. Contact a hotline.

D. It also has been shown to increase your feelings of happiness.

E. Visualize your “best possible self.”

F. Optimism is more than just positive expectations.

G. Look for the positive in all your experiences.

    The history of writing instruments, with which humans have recorded and conveyed thoughts and feelings, is the history of civilization itself. This is how we know about our ancestors and their life.

    The handy sharpened-stone was adapted into the first writing instrument. Around 24 000 BC, the cave man started drawing pictures with the stone onto the walls of his cave. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Walls at the Apollo site in Namibia are believed to be the oldest rock paintings to date.

    Before paper came along, people used clay or wax tablets on which they wrote with sharp objects such as metal sticks or bones. Around 6000 years ago, the Egyptians invented the first paperlike material called papyrus. The word "paper" actually comes from the word "papyrus".

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Bones or metal sticks were no longer useful as the papyrus could not be scratched. So the Egyptians created a reed-pen perfect for the papyrus. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} And thus, ancient Egyptians transformed bamboo stems (茎) into an early form of a fountain pen.

    Another writing instrument that remained active in history for a long period was the quill (鹅毛) pen. Introduced around 700 AD, the quill was a pen made from a bird feather. Goose feathers were most common. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} For making fine line drawings, crow feathers were the best.

    When writers had better inks and paper and handwriting had developed into both an art form and an everyday occurrence, man's inventive nature once again turned to improving the writing instrument. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Now something was needed to write upon the papyrus.

B. The papyrus became the most popular material at that time.

C. Swan feathers were of a high quality, being rare and most expensive.

D. Bamboo stems were better and much more expensive than goose feathers.

E. This led to the development of the modem fountain pen in the 19th century.

F. These were mostly the stems of grasses, especially from the bamboo plant.

G. These drawings showed events in daily life like the planting of crops or hunting victories.

Master Your Deadlines

The struggle begins in high school, sometimes earlier. Deadlines, and lots of them, start to pile up. At college, the pressure sometimes leads to last-minute rush and unsatisfactory work. At work, failing to meet deadlines can easily get you fired. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are a few best practices.

▪Assign deadlines to what matters.

If the task isn't of high importance, don't set a specific deadline. In this way, you are able to keep it on your radar for a while without feeling pressured. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} This will provide just enough pressure to ensure you get it done.

▪ {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Set a personal deadline for yourself a day or two before the actual deadline. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you're working with a group of people, add in even more time to account for potential follow-ups and the need for approvals.

▪ Keep communicating.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} This means letting others know when something is taking longer than expected, when a delivery didn't come in, when a client is not providing the necessary information, etc. Although it may feel embarrassing to admit that something is not on schedule, being honest is much better for relieving your stress.

A. Plan for flexible hours.

B. Finish your project as early as possible.

C. But if an activity is urgent, set a deadline immediately.

D. In this way, you'll never have to stay up late and feel stressed.

E. But handled properly, deadlines can actually improve productivity.

F. Whenever you feel challenged to finish work on time, communicate.

G. So if anything takes longer than expected, you can still wrap it up and submit it on time.