In today's busy and competitive world, we all lead incredibly stressful lives. When stress becomes overwhelming, it can affect our mood and productivity. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The good news is that it is manageable and can be reduced, or even relieved completely.

    Enter the world of books. Feeling stressed out? Pick up your favorite book and leave the reality and worries behind. It is the most effective way to relax and overcome stress. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Getting lost in a book before bedtime can calm your mind and prepare your body for a good night's sleep.

    Connect with people. Another way to successfully beat stress is meeting with friends. Friends and loved ones are important to any healthy lifestyle. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed and just can't seem to shake it off, call your best friend or a member of your family and talk to them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Walk it off. You can also effectively relieve yourself of stress by simply taking a walk around your neighborhood. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} There's a whole new world up there that you never seem to notice while rushing to work or talking to someone. Take a moment to admire a new building or a balcony somewhere high up that reminds you of a castle from your favorite movie. Enjoy your time alone and seize every moment of it.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Nothing brings you back on track like a good laughter. It is the most powerful antidote(良方) to stress and it brings joy into your life. Laughing brings people together and drives away all stress-related problems as if they never existed. It is absolutely the best medicine there is, and it will keep you both physically and emotionally healthy.

    The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modem traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Pollution means making things dirty. It comes in many ways. We see it，smell it, drink it and even hear it Man has been polluting the earth.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Many years ago, the problem was not serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, Man moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Manis now slowly polluting the whole world. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}It's bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city and from putting dirty smoke into the air. The earth is our home. We must take care of it {#blank#}5{#/blank#}And we must take care of the rise in population at the same time.

A. The more people, the more pollution.

B One of the biggest is pollution.

C. Air pollution is still the most serious.

D. Many countries are making rules to fight pollution.

E That means keeping the land, water and air clean.

F I hope scientists can find ways to solve the serious problem.

G Strange diseases have appeared in some places because of pollution.

    With self-service facilities – supermarkets, to name one – beginning to appear all the time, we're now relying on integrity more than ever.

    Integrity – the quality of doing the right thing no matter if anyone is watching or not – has been highly valued in China since ancient times. And the phrase“立木取信”probably best explains how integrity works in the relationship between people and the ruling of a nation.

    This phrase comes from the Warring States period (475-221 BC), during which China wasn't yet a unified country and was constantly at war. States carried out reforms to make themselves stronger, with the most thorough and influential one being the reform of the State of Qin, introduced by statesman Shang Yang (395-338 BC).

    Shang's reform focused on farming and giving rewards to soldiers who fought hard during wars. But at first, people had little trust and confidence in Shang.

    So he decided to prove himself by putting a wooden pole at the south gate of the capital of Qin, offering those who took the pole to the north gate a reward of 10 gold pieces, before long raising it to 50. When a man did as he said, Shang paid him 50 gold pieces as promised. Word soon spread, and people began to realize that Shang was a man of his word. The reforms were finally pushed forward.

    Today, integrity still plays an important role in Chinese society, which is why it's included as one of the 12 core socialist values in China.

    China is also planning to build a social credit system by the year 2020, which will keep citizens' misbehaviors –- even minor traffic violations – on record, so that trust can be established among people.

    “Without a system, a conman can commit a crime in one place and then do the same thing again in another place. But a credit system puts people's past history on the record. It'll build a better and fairer society,” explained Wen Quan, a blogger who writes about technology and finance, to BBC News.

    Food feeds the soul. To the extent that we all eat food, and we all have souls, food is the single great united across cultures. With food, there are more opportunities to connect to memory and family and place.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Food as identity. French, Mexican, Chinese, and Italian cuisines each involve dozens of distinct regional foods. Every single culture and religion uses food as part of their celebrations.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Every season, every harvest, and every holiday has its own food, and this is true in America as well.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Sometimes food means living on. While the Chinese cooks who exported “Chinese” food around the world ate authentic cooking at home, the dishes they served, thus creating new cuisines entirely, were based on economic necessity.

    Food as pleasure. Things have changed dramatically in the past 20 years when it comes to food in France. Some of the ideas of French food life may be a performance. France is this pastoral nation where people are spending five hours a day going to 12 different markets to get their food.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Food as status. The introduction of global foods and brands has compounded food as a status symbol for some Chinese.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}In China, people eat food not necessarily for taste, but for texture. You can find food from all of the provinces of China in Shanghai, as well as every kind of global food style imaginable.

A. Food as survival.

B. Food as community.

C. It's the hardest to give up.

D. The celebratory nature of food is universal.

E. It is an accumulation, a function of your experiences

F. How and why you eat your food, is, of course, also very cultural.

G. But food in Italy is love, then nutrition, then history, then pleasure.

    I've always been interested in why we do the things we do, so last year I decided I'd like to study psychology. Most courses I found, however, were either too expensive, too long or were impossible to combine with work. I was about to give up {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    At first, I had no idea what they were talking about, but they explained that a MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course—a new type of course offered completely online to thousands of people, which is designed so that anyone can follow it, regardless of age, location or education—{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. You can search for hundreds of different subjects, and can usually watch a short introduction video to get an idea of what the course is about.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. At first, I didn't know what to expect or how much time I might spend studying. Each week there were video lectures to watch and readings to do as well as some short assignments. The lectures were really interesting and easy to follow, and it was great to be able to watch them again or pause them to go and do something else. Most MOOCs have online forums (论坛), too, where students can discuss what they are learning. These are often really fascinating because there are so many different opinions, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. If you read everything on the forums, you won't have time to finish the lectures!

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. There is a huge range of courses on offer in hundreds of subjects, and you have the chance to learn new things and be in contact with many different types of people, all from the comfort of your own home. Why not check out a MOOC and start learning something new today?

How to choose a college major?

For you to be able to choose a college major that makes sense for you, you first need to figure out what you want out of a college major. For some people, knowing they will almost always be able to find a job throughout their lives is most important. For others, being able to pursue a particular intellectual interest is the critical factor. Most people are motivated by some combination of factors that they weigh in balance. These factors will guide you towards the answer to the question," What college major is right for me?" {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Your Interests

Your interests are an important part of picking a major. If you really dislike what you are studying, you will be miserable. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. So it is essential that you are actually interested in what you are studying.

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

You should also consider what you're good at when you think about how to choose your major.

This doesn't mean that you should definitely major in whatever you are best at in high school. For one thing, you will probably discover new talents in college as you take courses in areas that weren't available to you in high school. For another thing, the thing that you're "best" at is not necessarily what matches best with all your other priorities and goals.

Your Future Career

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. For some majors, it's fairly clear what sort of job the degree will lead to. A degree in teaching will lead to teaching, a degree in nursing to nursing, and so on. For others, it's less clear.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Thus, in terms of a future career, don't just think of what job title you will be qualified for, because those things shift all the time. Think about the skills you will learn in your major, and how much those skills are in demand.

To sum up, we need to take various factors into consideration when choosing a major.

A. Your Abilities

B. Your Efforts

C. Here are some factors you will probably want to consider

D. However, it's important to remember that it's finally your major

E. It makes sense to consider what kind of job prospects you will have

F. A degree in communications or sociology could lead to a variety of jobs

G. Additionally, you won't be particularly motivated to complete your coursework