It's important to prepare for rainy days. Similarly, it's important to save money.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Why? It's because they've got used to spending all the money they make. Sometimes, the hardest thing about saving money is just getting started. Here are some tips to help you save money.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}The first step in saving money is to know how much you're spending. For one month, keep a record of everything you spend money on. Once you have your data, organize these numbers by category(类别) and get the total amount for each.

    You can make a budget(预算). Now that you have a good idea of how much you spend in a month, what can you do now?{#blank#}3{#/blank#}To plan your spending, you can build a budget. In this way, you can limit over-spending and make sure that you put money away for unexpected situations.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Doing so make it much easier to get started. Begin by deciding how long it will take to reach each goal. Some short-term goals include starting a fund to cover 6 months to a year of living costs and saving money for a vacation. Long-term saving goals are often several years or even decades away and can include saving for retirement and putting money away for a child's college education.

    Make saving money easier with automatic transfers (自动转帐). Automatic transfers to your savings account are very helpful.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}By moving money out of your checking account, you'll be less likely to spend money you plan to use for savings.

A. You can set savings goals.

B. You can record your costs.

C. You can plan your spending.

D. You can keep a record of what you do.

E. They can make saving money much easier.

F. However, some people find it hard to save money.

G. You can move money out of your savings account.

4 Study Habits You Should Be Practising

    With exams, essays, projects, and many deadlines for different things, effective（有效的）study habits are necessary. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} If you are in need of a bit of an improvement, keep reading for the top four study habits that you should be practicing.

    ⒈Make and use flashcards.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} By using flashcards with a question on one side and the answer on the other, you will force your brain to recall he necessary information. Even if you struggle a bit with a card, you will still be actively revising the necessary material.

    ⒉Revise（复习）, revise, revise!

    Many students put off studying until just before the exam, with the more hardworking students giving themselves a week or two before a test. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It's best to revise the information a little bit every day, so that you are not upset when a test comes around.

    ⒊{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    One of the most effective—and the most fun—methods of studying is to watch related lectures and videos in order to get more material. Watch documentaries or videos on YouTube and educational websites. You may be surprised at how much you can learn from videos, and just how much information is available online.

    ⒋Re-write your notes.

    Studies have shown that writing information out by hand increases your ability to remember the material. This makes the recall go h and-in-hand with muscle memory. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    These are the four most effective study habits, and something all successful students do. Make sure you are on top of your game by following these study methods!

A. Watch related lectures and videos.

B. One method of revising is to make a mind-map.

C. Use these graded tests to create a new practice test.

D. Having these great study habits can make things easier.

E. However, it's actually an ineffective method of preparing and studying.

F. Flashcards are designed to improve active memory recall of information.

G. You will be able to picture your written notes when you are taking the exam.

    Kids love to go online. There is so much to explore and learn. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}The answer to the question is as difficult as determining at what age a child can be left at home by themselves, since all children are different. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine what is right for your child.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Of course when you are trying to determine if you can let him or her go online, your child has probably already said, "I'm ready; I can handle it." But are they? {#blank#}3{#/blank#} How would they handle the material if they ran across it by accident?

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Does your child question other people's actions? Do they easily believe anything that is presented to them? It is an important question to ask to determine if your child is ready to go online alone.

    Have you taught them what the dangers are?

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Have you explained to them that there are people out there that might want to do them harm? It is a dangerous world out there. If you are going to let them wander around in the online world, they need to be prepared for what they might see or run into.

A. You may be thinking this is a strange question to ask yourself.

B. Is your child easy to cheat?

C. There are a lot of dangers online.

D. Are they ready to go online by themselves?

E. Is your child skilled in using a computer?

F. Unfortunately there is a lot of unpleasant material online.

G. At what age should you allow your child to go online alone?

    What happens when you want to go from one place to another, but there's water in the way？That's the problem people faced for hundreds of years in the area that is now New York City. In the city, there is a natural canal called the Narrows, separating Brooklyn on one side from Staten Island on the other.

    But the Narrows isn't really so narrow. The water is almost a mile wide, and it's more than 100 feet deep. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}When they wanted to talk to each other, they climbed into their boats and sailed across.

    By the late 1800s, circumstances had changed dramatically. Population growth meant there were now many people needing to travel between Staten Island and Brooklyn for work. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Between 1888 and 1920 there were two major efforts to build a train tunnel to connect the areas. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Proposals to build a connecting bridge made during the 1910s also ended in failure due to opposition from the US Navy.

    Finally, after World War II, there were so many people living in New York City that leaders decided Brooklyn and Staten Island needed a direct connection. Since tunnels were too expensive, they decided to build a bridge. The design selected had two separate roadways stacked on top of each other. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Construction, which took five years, was completed in 1964 and cost $320 million. Today about 190,000 cars and trucks cross the bridge every day.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} But in the case of the Narrows, figuring out a good solution took hundreds of years.

A. Sometimes getting from one place to another is easy.

B. Both were quickly abandoned however due to the high costs involved.

C. Neither road was large enough to satisfy the existing transport demands.

D. It was anticipated that the new train system would help the areas grow even faster.

E. Taking a boat every time was very slow, expensive and, in bad weather, unreliable.

F. Both would hang in the air from thick steel cables, supported by two giant steel towers.

G. For a long time that wasn't a problem, because only a few people lived in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

    What I should keep in mind:

    Everybody doesn't have to love me. I don't necessarily like everybody I know, so why should everybody else like me? I enjoy being liked and being loved, but if someone doesn't like me, I will still be okay and still feel like I am an okay person. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} I don't need approval all the time. If someone does not approve of me, I will still be okay.

    I don't have to control things. I will survive if things are different than what I want them to be. I can accept things the way they are, accept people the way they are, and accept myself the way I am. There is no reason to get upset if I can't change things to fit my idea of how they ought to be. There is no reason why I have to like everything. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    I am responsible for my day. I am responsible for how I feel and what I do. Nobody can make me feel anything. If I have a rotten day, I am the one who allowed it to be that way. If I have a great day, I am the one who deserves credit for being positive. It is not the responsibility of other people to change so that I can feel better. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    It is important to try. I can. Even though I may be faced with difficult tasks, it is better to try than to avoid them. Avoiding a task does not give me any opportunities for success or joy, but trying does. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} I might not be able to do everything, but I can do something.

    I can be flexible. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} More than one person has good ideas that will work. Everybody has ideas that are worthwhile. Some may make more sense to me than others, but everyone's ideas are worthwhile, and everyone has something worthwhile to contribute.

A. I can get along well with them.

B. Even if I don't like it, I can live with it.

C. I can deal with it when things go wrong.

D. I am the one who is in charge of my life.

E. Things worth having are worth the effort.

F. There is more than one way to do something.

G. I cannot make somebody like me just like someone cannot get me to like them.

Tips for cooking on a tight schedule

    From my experience, there are three main reasons why people don't cook more often: ability money and time.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Money is a topic I'll save for another day. So today I want to give you some wisdom about how to make the most of the time you spend in the kitchen. Here are three tips for great cooking on a tight schedule:

    ⒈Think ahead. The moments when I think cooking is a pain are when I'm already hungry and here is nothing ready to eat. So think ahead of the coming week. When will you have time to cook? Do

you have the right material(材料) ready?{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    ⒉Make your time worth it. When you do find time to cook a meal, make the most of it and save yourself time later on. Are you making one loaf of bread? {#blank#}3{#/blank#}It takes around the same amount of time to make more of something. So save yourself the effort for a future meal.

    ⒊{#blank#}4{#/blank#} This may surprise you, but one of the best tools for making cooking worth your time is experimentation(实验). It gives you the chance to come up with new ideas and recipes(食谱) that can work well with your appetite and schedule. The more you learn and the more you try, the more ability you have to take control of your food and your schedule.

    Hopefully that gives you a good start. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}And don't let a busy schedule discourage you from making some great changes in the way you eat and live!

A. Try new things.

B. Make three or four instead.

C. Ability is easily improved.

D. Understand your food better.

E. Cooking is a burden for many people.

F. A little time planning ahead can save a lot of work later on.

G. Let cooking and living simply be a joy rather than a burden.