The Winner's Guide to Success

    Do you know what makes people successful? To find out the answers, an American scholar recently visited some of the most successful people around the world. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Be responsible for yourself       

    Sometimes you may want to blame others for your failure to get ahead. In fact, when you say someone or something outside of yourself is stopping you from making success, you're giving away your own power. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Write a plan

    It is very difficult to try to get what you want without a good plan. It is just like trying to drive through strange roads to a city far away. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Without this “map”, you may waste your time, money and also your energy; while with the “map” you'll enjoy the “trip” and get what you want in the shortest possible time.

    Be willing to pay the price

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} So you must be ready to work hard — even harder than you have ever done. If you are not willing to pay the price, you won't get anything valuable.

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    It seems to us that everyone knows this. But it is easier said than done.When you are doing something, you must tell yourself again and again: Giving up is worse than failure because failure can be the mother of success, but giving up means the death of hope.

A. Never give up.

B. Nothing is easy to get.

C. A good plan is like a map to you.

D. Here are some keys to success that they give.

E. Some people achieve success much later in life.

F. You're saying, “You have more control over my life than I do.”

G. Someone else's opinion of you doesn't have to become your reality.

    Weight loss is a hard topic. Lots of people aren't satisfied with their present weight, but most people aren't sure how to change it. You may want to look like the models or actors in magazines or on TV, but those goals might not be healthy or realistic for you.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    So what should you do about your weight control?

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}The best way to find out if you are at a healthy weight or if you need to lose or gain weight is to talk to a doctor or dietitian（营养学家){#blank#}3{#/blank#} If it turns out that you can benefit from weight loss then you can follow a few of the simple suggestions listed below to get started.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}People who lose weight quickly by crash（速成的）dieting or other extreme measures usually gain back all of the pounds they lost, because they haven't permanently changed their habits. Therefore, the best weight management ways are those that you can maintain for a lifetime.

    Small changes are a lot easier to stick with than large ones. Try reducing the size of what you eat.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Once you have that down, start gradually introducing healthier foods and exercise into your life.

    It's a good idea to maintain a healthy weight because it's just that: healthy.

A. Try giving up regular soda for a week

B. Try to pay attention as you eat and stop when you're full.

C. Weight management is about long-term success.

D. Besides, no magical diet will make you look like someone else.

E. Being healthy is really about being at a weight that is right for you.

F. Changing from whole to nonfat or low-fat milk is also a good idea.

G. They will compare your weight with healthy standards and help you set goals.

    Living a more simple life can improve how we think, feel and move around in the world. Here are ways to simplify your life while creating space for happiness.

    Give up your negative thoughts. As humans, we spend a lot of our time being caught up in negative thoughts that brings nothing good into our lives. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}They can grow rapidly and cause unhappiness and do nothing to improve our quality of life.

    Reduce the amount of screen time.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}While watching TV and endless YouTube videos or playing computer games can be a nice way to relax, too much can have a negative influence on your lives.

    Cut down on social media.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}They say they feel less confident after comparing their lives against those of their online friends. So simplify your life by cutting down on social media-not only for your own health of mind but to stop the endless checking every several minutes.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} in the effort to make yourselves better people and improve yourselves, you often set goals but having too many goals can prevent you from achieving them.

    Eat Fewer Unhealthy Foods.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Cutting down on bad foods will not only help you feel much better and give you more energy.

A. Reduce the number of your goals.

B. Negative thoughts are much dangerous.

C. Many people feel their lives are worsened by it.

D. You can make your own healthy food and tasty meals.

E. Learn to choose to think and see the positives in life.

F. Make an effort to remove some unhealthy foods from your diet.

G. We spend so much time either staring at a computer or the TV.

Crossroads International

    How does crossroads work?

    Crosswords is a resource network. We take goods Hong Kong doesn't want and give them to people who badly need them. We collect those goods and give them out in the welfare agencies in Hong Kong, Mainland China, elsewhere in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Who do we help?

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} They are grass-root groups who have seen a need and tried to meet it. They can't get the job done without backup, though, so our task is to help them do their task. Our warehouse (仓库) is full of goods, from computers to high chairs, clothing to books, cupboards to dining sets. They send us a list of their needs and we try to match it with the resource we have in stock.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Crossroads itself also operates on a low budget. We do not buy the goods we send. They are donated. Similarly, rather than raising funds for freight (货运), we ask transport companies to donate their services{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Even our full-time staff work on a voluntary basis.

    What can you do?

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} While we receive large quantities of goods and there is never a short supply of requests for them, we are always in need of hands to help sort and prepare them for shipping. If you are volunteering regularly, we can offer work in some of the categories, some of the time.

A. What do we need?

B. How do we operate?

C. So Crossroads is just that: a Crossroads between need and resource.

D. Nobody in our organization receives a salary.

E. One resource that we are always in need of is people.

F. welfare agencies we help do not run on large budgets.

G. All volunteer work is done at our warehouse.

    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.

Mystery of Mosquito Flight

    The mosquito is a troublesome and dangerous insect. Their bites itch and can carry dangerous diseases, like malaria, Zika virus and yellow fever. Recently, researchers from Britain and Japan discovered how mosquitoes fly. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Mosquito wings are small and have an uncommon shape.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} So, how is their flight possible? The team of scientists from Britain and Japan solved the mystery. They used high-speed cameras and computer images to understand the mechanics of how the insect moves its wings to stay in the air.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They set up eight super-high speed cameras that take 10,000 images each second. Simon Walker, a researcher at the University of Oxford, explains that normally at least two cameras are needed to record an insect, so they've got enough views of an insect. With two camera views they can then take any point on an insect and calculate its 3-D coordinates (三维坐标).

    Mosquitoes can spread diseases. The insect has two antennae, or tall, thin organs on its head that it uses to feel things. But its antennae and six legs make it difficult to take clear images of the wing movements. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The extra cameras let the researchers see that the mosquito's wings move eight hundred times each second. That is four times faster than many insects of a similar size.

    Mosquitoes fly by moving their wings in several different directions. The thin top edges of their wings move forward first and then they change direction and move down. The movement looks as if the wings are drawing the number eight. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Walker says that existing unmanned flying devices do not work very well outside because wind can affect their flight.

    "Insects, on the other hand, deal really well with even quite windy conditions. So understanding how they can do this is going to be advantageous to us." These researchers say that understanding how mosquitoes fly might help find ways to stop them from spreading diseases.

A. Because of this, it is hard to believe that they are able to fly.

B. Mosquitoes evolved from other insects about 226 million years ago.

C. So, the team needed to use eight cameras to view the wings from many directions.

D. Researchers at the University of Oxford took images of mosquito wing movements.

E. Many measures have been tried for mosquito control, for example, getting rid of breeding places.

F. This knowledge, they say, help find ways to stop mosquitoes from spreading diseases in the future.

G. The research team believes the mosquitoes' wing movements could help inventors design new flying devices.