For the rest of March,a disease will sweep across the US.It will keep kids home from school. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Employees will suddenly lose their ability to concentrate.

    The disease, known as “March Madness”, refers to the yearly 65－team US men's college basketball tournament (锦标赛). {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Teams compete against each other in a single－elimination (单局淘汰) tournament that eventually crowns a national champion.

    Nearly 20 million Americans will find themselves prisoners of basketball festival madness. The fun comes partly from guessing the winners for every game. Friends compete against friends. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}  Colleagues against bosses.

    Big－name schools are usually favored to advance into the tournament.But each year there are dark horses from little－known universities.

    This adds to the madness.Watching a team from a school with 3,000 students beat a team from a school with 30,000,for many Americans,is an exciting experience.Two years ago,the little－known George Mason University was one of the final four teams. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    College basketball players are not paid, so the game is more about making a name for their university and themselves. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} About $4 billion will be spent gambling (赌) on the event.According to Media Life magazine,the event will bring in $ 500 million in advertising income this year,topping the post －season income of every US professional league,including that of the NBA.

A. Husbands against wives.

B.The players will go all out for the games.

C.But that doesn't mean money isn't involved.

D.College students will ignore piles of homework.

E.People are willing to spend more money on watching it.

F.It begins on March 15 and lasts through the beginning of April.

G.Many people had never even heard of the university before the tournament.

    A student's life is never easy.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}A lot of preparations are needed so you can be sure to go back home with a diploma and a bright future waiting for you. The following are some basic things you need to do before seizing your passport and boarding the plane.

    Knowing the country.

    You shouldn't bother researching the country's hottest tourist spots or historical places. You won't go there as a tourist, but as a student. I'll be helpful to read the most important points in their history and to read up on their culture.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}You surely don't want to face legal problems, especially if you're away from home.

    Studying their language.

    Don't expect that you can graduate abroad without knowing even the basics of the language. Before leaving your home country, take online lessons to at least master some of their words and sentences.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Doing this will also prepare you in communicating with those who can't speak English.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Check the conversion(兑换) of your money to their local currency, set up your bank account so you can use it there, get an insurance, and find an apartment. The Internet or your intended school will be very helpful in finding an apartment and helping you understand local currency.

    Remember, you're not only carrying your own reputation but your country's reputation as well. If you act foolishly, people there might think that all of your country men are foolish as well.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Packing your clothes.

B. And it is even more difficult if you have to complete your study in a foreign land.

C. That would surely be a very bad start for your study abroad program.

D. This will be useful in living and studying there.

E. Most importantly, read about their laws.

F. Going with their trends will keep it from being too obvious that you're a foreigner.

G. Preparing for other needs.

    You'd think the human race would have understood sleeping very well by now, but many of us are still sleeping poorly. Part of the problem is that we have wrong information and beliefs about this important health need. Let's set the facts straight. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    ⒈More sleep is better for you.

    There could be such a thing as too much sleep. The amount of sleep we need varies by person and also changes as we age. Harvard researchers found that a lot of sleep (9 hours or more) is linked with poor sleep quality. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Aim for better sleep.

    ⒉{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Alcohol can help most people fall asleep. However, it also can cause you to wake up more during the night, decreasing your sleep quality. Consider drinking non-alcoholic drink before bed instead.

    ⒊If you wake up in the middle of the night, lie in bed until you eventually fall back asleep.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}We all hope to quickly fall back asleep. So we tend to stay in bed hoping it'll happen at any minute now. If that doesn't happen, though, within 15 minutes, most experts recommend getting out of bed to do something that occupies our bodies and brains without overstimulating us. Try not to check the clock either.

    ⒋You can catch up on sleep on weekends.

    When we lose sleep during the week, we accumulate a kind of sleep ＂debt＂. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Not so fast. This might actually make you sleepier the next week. Instead of waking up later on the weekends, you'd better go to sleep earlier or perhaps take a nap in the afternoon.

A. Alcohol helps you sleep.

B. Here are some things you might have been told about sleeping but aren't completely true.

C. Everyone should get 7—8 hours of sleep per night.

D. So don't aim for more sleep — even on the weekends.

E. Waking up in the middle of the night is the pits (烦心事), but it happens to all of us.

F. You'll have a better day and perhaps sleep better at night.

G. Can you pay that debt back by sleeping on Saturday or Sunday?

Eight Things That Lead to Success

    "What leads to success?" This may be a question asked by those who want to make something of their life. For seven years, Richard. John made 500 interviews. Here he wants to tell you what really leads to success.

    And the first thing is passion.

    Freeman Thomas says, "I'm driven by my passion." TED-sters do it for love; they don't do it for money. Carol Coletta says, "I would pay someone to do what I do." {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Work

    Rupert Murdoch said to me, "It's all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun." Did he say fun? Rupert? Yes! {#blank#}2{#/blank#} I figure, they're not workaholics. They're workafrolics（醉心工作者）.

    Good!

    Alex Garden says, "To be successful put your nose down in something and get damn good at it"

    There's no magic; it's practice, practice, practice.

    And it's focus.

    Norman Jewison said to me, "I think it all has to do with focusing yourself on one thing."

    And push!

    David Gallo says, "Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you've got to push, push, push. You gotta push through shyness and self-doubt." Goldie Hawn says, "I always had self-doubts. I wasn't good enough; I wasn't smart enough. I didn't think

    I'd make it." {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (Laughter) Frank Gehry said to me," My mother pushed me."

    Serve!

    Sherwin Nuland says, "It was a privilege to serve as a doctor."{#blank#}4{#/blank#} And the first thing I say to them is: "OK, well you can't serve yourself; you gotta serve others something of value. Because that's the way people really get rich."

    Ideas!

    TE D-ster Bill Gates says, "I had an idea: founding the first microcomputer software company." I'd say it was a pretty good idea. And there's no magic to creativity in coming up with ideas- it's just doing some very simple things. And I give lots of evidence.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Joe Kraus says, "Persistence is the number one reason for our success." You got to persist through failure. You got to persist through CRAP! Which of course means "Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure." (Laughter)

A. So why don't I ask them what helped them succeed, and pass it on to kids?

B. And the interesting thing is: If you do it for love, the money comes anyway.

C. Now a lot of kids tell they want to be millionaires.

D. LED-sters do have fun working. And they work hard.

E. Persist!

F. Investing their money in pursuing a future lifestyle rather than in an academic conquest.

G. Now it's not always easy to push yourself, and that's why they invented mothers.

Tips to fight summer weight gain

    When we think of summer, most of us think of outdoor fun. So it seems like we should naturally lose weight over the summer — not gain it. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Lots of summer activities can work against our efforts to stay at a healthy weight. The good news is that it's easy to avoid problems if we know what to look out for.

    Get going with goals. When we don't have a plan, it's easy to spend summer moving from couch to computer, with regular stops at the fridge. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Just be sure to plan for some downtime so you can relax a little!

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} With school out, we lose our daily routines. If you don't have a specific job or activity to get up for, it's easy to sleep late, watch too much TV, and snack more than usual. Make sure your summer days have some structure — like getting up at the same time each day and eating meals at set times. Plan activities for specific times, like exercising before breakfast, for example. If you have time on your hands, offer to make dinner a couple of nights a week so your family can enjoy a sit-down meal together.

    Think about what and how you eat. Summer means picnics and barbecues — activities that revolve around an unlimited spread of food. Pace yourself. Don't overload your plate. Avoid going back for seconds and thirds. Choose seasonal, healthy foods like fresh fruit instead of high-sugar, high-fat desserts. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Stay busy. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} In addition to helping you avoid the cookie jar, filling your days with stuff to do can give you a sense of accomplishment. That's especially true if a dream summer job or planned activity fell through. Limit your screen time — including TV, computer, and video games — to no more than 2 hours a day.

A. Stick to a schedule.

B. Plan more activities.

C. Appropriate summer eating sets you up on the right track!

D. Most of us, however, don't take summer weight gain seriously.

E. In reality, though, summer isn't all about beach volleyball and water sports.

F. When we're bored, it's easy to fall into a trap of doing nothing and then feeling low on energy.

G. Avoid this by setting a specific aim, like volunteering, mastering a new skill, or working at a job.

    Friends should always be honest with you, right? So when they lie, it can be really hard to take. You want to trust your friends and that means knowing that they'll tell it to you straight no matter what it is. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Why does this happen?

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    One of the biggest reasons friends lie is simply to avoid hurting your feelings. Some people don't understand the difference between being gently honest with a friend and being so straightforward that they leave a verbal wound. They choose to avoid these two extremes in the form of a lie.

    They feel embarrassed.

    Sometimes friends will lie about things in their life because they are too embarrassed to admit the truth. Maybe they are going through a rough time and they just don't want you to know about it. Avoid trying to badger (纠缠) your friends into telling you what's wrong. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Avoid an argument with you.

    Perhaps your friends know that if they tell you the truth, you'll get angry with them. Make sure that if a friend tells you something unpleasant, you don't overact. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you do end up arguing, do it in a respectable way.

    Exclude you.

    Lying isn't always a sign that friends are trying to protect you, however. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} When you find out with certainty that your friend is lying to you, try and face it. If you feel your friend is lying because he or she doesn't want to be around you, that's your wake-up to move on.

A. Protect your feelings.

B. They want to be your closer friends.

C. But a friend who lies isn't always trying to hurt you.

D. Consider what's being said and why your friend is telling you this.

E. Being honest and making a sincere effort can keep the friendship strong.

F. Sometimes they lie because they don't want you to be included in their plans.

G. Instead, make it clear that you are there for them when and if they are ready to talk.