I'm a 34-year-old man, married, lived in a nice house, and have a successful career as an educational consultant. But my life was not always so great. I had a learning disability from an early age. I went to a special school where I got plenty of extra help. Still, I suffered the rest of my school days in public schools.

       My life improved remarkably when I discovered art. The art world gave me a chance to express myself without words. I went to a workshop and gradually got good at making things with clay(黏土). Here I learned my first important lesson: disabled as I was in language. I could still be smart and well express myself with clay. And my confidence came along.

I got my next lesson from rock climbing. It was a fun thing but I was scared from the start. I soon noticed it wasn't a talent thing; it was practice. So I did it more. After about five years of climbing, I found myself in Yosemite Valley on a big wall. I learned that if you fall in love with something and do it all the time, you will get better at it.

       Later I decided to apply my previous experience to learning how to read and write. Every day I practiced reading and writing, which I used to avoid as much as possible. After two hard years, I was literate.

       Having gone through the long process with art, rock climbing, and reading and writing, now I've got to a point in my life where I know I am smart enough to dive into an area that is totally unknown, hard, but interesting.

    Study Links Video Game Use to Problems in School

    A new study warns that too much time spent playing computer games could affect a child's performance at school.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} They show that too many hours spent playing games can reduce students changes of success in school.

    More than 600 teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 took part in research project.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It is said to be the first ever long-term study of information technology on school test results in Northern Ireland.

    The study found that teenagers who played computer games less than once a week were more successful in school than those who played them twice a day or more. 41% of the students who used gaming devices two or more times a day received passing grades on school exams{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    The study found that social media use did not affect school performance. Celine McStravick is the director of the National Children's Bureau Northern Ireland (NCBNI). She says “{#blank#}4{#/blank#}— I think that's more because social media is part of every child's life. It's the way they communicate. It's the way they keep in touch with their friends.”

    Many parents say their children are becoming increasingly dependent on computer games. Some have compared gaming to a drug addiction.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} It suggested that computer games can cause children to stay awake late at night. Less sleep makes children tired and unable to pay attention in school the next day.

A. However, the study did not explore addiction.

B. The new games are much different from older ones.

C. The study showed no connection between social media and test results.

D. It took place over a period of three years from 2013 to 2015.

E. Thai compared with 77% of those who rarely played the games.

F. Drug addiction does great harm to their health and performance at school.

G. Britain's National Children's Bureau Northern Ireland reported the results of the study.

Parents Model Healthy Eating

    It should come as no surprise that the more stressed parents are at work, the greater the burden on their family is{#blank#}1{#/blank#} After all, the more time parents spend working, the less time and energy they have to plan and prepare healthful meals.

    For years, most studies have focused on the role of working mothers while fathers were ignored. They didn't look at the family as a whole{#blank#}2{#/blank#} adds a new wrinkle（褶皱）to the relationship between work stress and family nutrition.

    Mom's work related stress is still a central factor in low well families eat because they typically do most of the food shopping and cooking{#blank#}3{#/blank#} The study found that when mom or dad experience high levels of work related stress, their families are eating one-and-a-half fewer family meals per week, and the parents themselves report eating fewer fruits and vegetables, more fast food, and are less likely to eat breakfast regularly.

    It's worth nothing that the study looked mainly at low income families who belonged to ethnic（民族的）or minority groups{#blank#}4{#/blank#} But the implications are wide ranging.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Teaching kids, especially teenagers, to help with grocery shopping and to cook actual meals, instead of just putting a frozen pizza in the microwave, could be an important piece of the puzzle in helping families improves their eating habits.

A. And the role of fathers in particular

B. But dad's work related stress has a large impact, too.

C. Yet, the kids' stress may influence the families' nutrition, too.

D. So the findings don't necessarily apply directly to other types of families.

E. When it comes to family nutrition, the entire family plays a role even kids.

F. It's also probably not a surprise that this can negatively affect a family's nutrition.

G. It is parents who give their kids a good model to develop a good eating habit.

How to Improve Eyesight Naturally

    Eyes are important for everybody. You must take care and try everything in your hand to keep them in good condition. Here are some of the tips to improve your eyesight naturally.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Strain is known to be a factor in many health conditions and eyestrain is no exception. Try meditation, yoga or other methods of stress relief to improve your vision and overall health.

    Try palming.

    Sit upright in a comfortable chair.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Cup your hands so that there is no pressure on your eyes. Let your fingers rest across your forehead. There should be no light entering your eyes. Palming should be done for a period of 5 to 10 minutes to start. Palming should be relaxing. It may help to do palming in a darkened room.

    Avoid sugar as much as possible.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It will unpleasantly affect your eyesight, which affects the eyes by producing a larger amount of insulin (胰岛素) in the blood. Therefore you shouldn't be having much fruit juice or something that contains a lot of sugar.

    Exercise your eyes.

    The only exercise most eyes get is that daily rubbing we give them when we're tired or suffering from eyestrain. But eye exercises are actually good for your eyes and can improve your vision.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Blink as fast as you can for a few seconds then close your eyes tightly, open and repeat. Do this exercise 3 to 4 times daily.

    Eat healthy.

    You probably hear that statement all the time but eating the right foods are necessary to good health.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Foods that are high in fiber, vitamin C, D and beta carotene as well as other vitamins and minerals can help improve your vision. Here are a few foods that can be beneficial to good vision: carrots, eggs, blueberries, spinach, kale, grapes, and fresh garlic.

A. Reduce eyestrain.

B. Keep your eyes moist.

C. Sugar is your eyes's worst enemy.

D. Give your eyes a workout with the following exercise.

E. You may not be aware that your diet affects your vision but it does.

F. Close eyes and cover them with the palms of your hands.

G. Be sure to get plenty of sleep so your eyes don't strain to stay open during the day.

注意：每个空格只填1个单词。

    The 17^th-century French tragedian Pierre Corneille wrote: The manner of giving is worth more than the gift”. He had a point, according to Charles Spence, head of Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford.

    The professor's work focuses on how our brains sense the world around us. His research has shown that high-frequency sounds and curved shapes seem to increase the sweetness wine tastes better if it is accompanied by the popping sound of a cork and drunk from all these created multisensory experiences.

    So, what's his advice if you want to impress this holiday season?

Bulk it up hide

    “We've just published research on eating a box of chocolates，” Mr Spence said. “If you are 30-gram weight in a box of chocolates, that weight translates to a significant increase perceived(感知)quality of the chocolate.”

    There are exceptions, but the association between weight and the perception of luxury(奢侈)applies to many items including tableware， perfume(香水)and wine， Mr. Spence said. “That's why in a restaurant， a waiter might artfully give you the bottle to weigh in your hand,” he added.

    Black is basic

    Black is the color most associated with luxury because, Mr. Spence said ，“it seems to be the color that we perceive to be the heaviest.”

    Such luxury indications are learned, rather than inborn, so they can change over time. I'm doing a lot of work on transparency(透明) at the moment; high-quality packaged goods should have a transparent window because it suggests freshness or quality,” he said.

    But the trend is recent， the professor added, because “traditionally luxury goods used to have nontransparent packaging. I think it has to do with the current desire for originality.”

    Layer it on

    Unnecessary wrapping(包裹)can be an ecological concern but, when it comes to luxury goods like wine in a presentation case, it does make an impression.

    “Tissue layers are really good,” Mr. Spence said， “because the crinkle adds an extra sense to the experience.”

    Consider a little perfume in the box or wrapping, and, if you want to involve other senses, work out some way for classical music to be playing when the gift is opened because we associate it with quality.

    Engaging several senses at once is beneficial.“ The brain combines the inputs from each sense, both to determine what something is, but also to determine a reward value,”Mr. Spence said. Also, the more stimuli(刺激)to the senses， the more activity is produced in the orbitofrontal cortex, a small part of brain situated just beside the eyes. And the more activity there, the more rewarding something is perceived to be.

    You can go too far

    “Engaging an extra sense is more effective, but you can potentially have a disagreement if that extra sense doesn't match the others.” the professor said.

    In the 19th century, millions of European went to the USA because they wanted to find a better life. Many of them couldn't find work in cities like New York. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The people, called settlers, travelled west through the mountains on the Oregon Trail.

    Some of these people hoped to find gold in California. The journey sometimes took more than one year. There are a lot of films, called Westerns, about the settlers on the trail. In most of the film, we see the Native Americans (American Indians) attacking the settlers, and the "Indians" killing many white people.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} In fact, most of them were very helpful to the settlers.

    It is true that the settlers' journey was extremely difficult. Many of them walked 3, 200 kilometers, the whole length of the trail. They had wagons(马车), but the wagons were often too full, so people could not travel in them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The people were very poor and many did not even have shoes-they walked the whole trail barefoot in extremely cold temperature.

    More than 50, 000 people, including many women and children, died on the trail. A lot of people died from illnesses like cholera, because the drinking water wasn't clean. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Many people died under the wheels of wagons, for example, and from accidental gunshots.

A. They hoped they could make more money.

B. So they left and went to find farmland in the west.

C. Many parents also had to carry their small children.

D. But the truth is that the native Americans were not the biggest problem for the settlers.

E. Many of them lost their home.

F. There were also a lot of accidents.