Ways to Host an Eco-Friendly Cookout

    Eating in the open air may feel eco-friendly, but outdoor dining can result in unnecessary waste if you aren't careful.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}If you keep that in mind throughout your preparations, you'll be off to a good start.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

    Skip the paper invitations and use online services like Email, or Facebook events{#blank#}2{#/blank#}This way you'll avoid ending up with five different potato salads that go uneaten. Make it easy for guests to sort garbage by positioning different trashcans in a central location: one for kitchen garbage, one for recyclables, and one for non-recyclables.

Stop Using Plastic

    Plastic is a leading cause of litter and isn't easy to recycle. To make sure your cookout eco-friendly, consider some other options for making your cookout stand out. Use recycled jars as glasses. They're also far less breakable than regular glasses{#blank#}3{#/blank#} If guests know which glass is theirs, they don't need to reach for another one, which cuts down on the cleanup you'll be doing.

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    Wherever possible, shop for local produce and goods to serve your guests. This will reduce your carbon footprint and help support your local economy. Buy produce and meats at your local farmers' market. Look for organic, but favor local over organic if you have to make a choice.

Use Renewable Light Sources

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} As the sun goes down, illuminate your party space with LED lighting and solar- powered decorations. Invest in some citronella (香茅精油) candles and torches to help drive away insects naturally.

A. Support Global Economy

B. Think Globally, Shop Locally

C. Ask guests to bring glasses of their own

D. Keep track of what everyone is bringing ahead of time

E. Save on energy by hosting your party during the daylight hours

F. One of the keys to being green is to reduce waste wherever possible

G. Put up some labels to the jars so people can write their names on them

    Imagine that you're the creator and show runner of the newest comedy show on television. Only it isn't so popular yet, and your live Studio audience isn't giving you the big laughs the show deserves. Do you film the show all over again, hoping that this time the audience will laugh? Or is there another option for making a joke sound funnier than it was received?

    Sweeten(改善) the sound by adding a laugh track! “Sweetening,” or the addition of sound effects such as laughs, screams, and other audience-produced noises to the audio track of a TV show, has been used since the 1940s to produce the appearance, or rather the sound, of an engaged and entertained response to a show's comedy. Laugh tracks came into existence as not only a solution, and sometimes replacement, for an unengaged live audience but also as a way to engage an at-home audience into a more-traditional, public, and theaterlike experience. Adding a laugh track to a television show makes the viewers at home feel much less like they're sitting on a couch staring at the television screen and much more like they're in a room full of laughing happy people to varying degrees of success.

    Though the art of sweetening has risen and fallen in popularity over the past 60 years, credit for its creation and continued use is owed to laugh-track pioneer and sound engineer Charles Douglass. Douglass was the first to develop, in 1953, a machine for producing “canned laughter”, accessible at the push of a button or pull of a lever (操纵杆). Despite being artificial, sensibly edited laugh tracks are found by television studios to bring about a positive audience response, as their use is usually accompanied by higher ratings and increased audience memory. Though some television audiences may disagree with the value of the laugh track, the cheerful and repetitive sound holds a permanent place in the history and future of television comedy.

    Four benefits of writing by hand

    Today is National Handwriting Day! Although we don't write like we used to, here are four ways handwriting is still helpful.

    It's better for learning.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}That's because putting ink to paper stimulates (刺激) the brain.  One study from 2010 found that the brain areas related to learning “lit up” much more when kids were asked to write words like “spaceship” by hand versus just studying the word closely.

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    Many famous authors prefer writing by hand to the use of a typewriter or computer. Writer Susan Sontag once said that she penned her first drafts (草稿) before typing them up for editing later. She said, “{#blank#}3{#/blank#}” A 2009 study seems to support Sontag's preference for writing by hand: Elementary school students who wrote essays with a pen not only wrote more than their keyboard-tapping friends, but they also wrote faster and in more complete sentences.

    It will prevent you from being distracted (分心).

    The computer in front of you is really a distraction.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}In 2012, scientists even suggested that taking five-minute breaks to browse Tumblr or BuzzFeed could make you a more productive worker. However, when it's time to work on that essay, have only a pen and paper in front of you.

    It keeps your brain sharp as you get older.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}According to The Wall Street Journal, some physicians say that the act of writing is good exercise for those who want to keep their minds sharp as they age.

A. It makes you a better writer.

B. Writing is good for your brain.

C. Of course, the Internet isn't all bad.

D. I like the slowness of writing by hand.

E. Try writing by hand at least 20 minutes each day.

F. Many writers have a preference for writing by hand.

G. One of the most effective ways to study is to rewrite your notes by hand.

    The Healthy Habits Survey shows that only about one third of American seniors have correct habits. Here are some findings and expert advice.

    ⒈How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday?

    Finding: A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day.

    Step: Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery-operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day.

    ⒉How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday?

Finding: Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30% wash their hands only 4 times a day—half of the number which doctors recommend.

    Step: We touch our faces around 3,000 times a day-often inviting germs（病菌）to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds.

    ⒊How often do you think about fighting germs?

    Finding: Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should.

    Step: Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge（海绵）that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds.

    Hip-hop dancing(街舞) is popular with many young people today. They like it because they can invent their own moves. They use this dance to show their love for life. It also shows that they are not afraid of problems.

    Hip-hop dancing has a history of more than 20 years. It first began in the 1980s in the US. In early times, it was seen in New York and Los Angeles. At that time, many young black people often danced to the music in the streets. They used their legs, arms, heads and even shoulders to dance. Many young people still use most of these moves today.

    Hip-hop dancing became popular all over the world because of the 1983 movie Flash dance. Some people performed Hip-hop dancing in the movie. People enjoyed their performance. They began to dance like them. Then it became popular. There are two kinds of Hip-hop dancing: new school and old school. More and more young people are learning Hip-hop dancing. People believe that it is a good way to exercise their bodies, and that it is good for their health.

Growing evidence shows that dancing can boost brain health and help manage neurocognitive (神经认知的) disorders. So what is it about dance that's different from other regular exercises? 

Helena Blumen, a cognitive (认知的) scientist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, says the complex (复杂的) mental multitasking that dance requires involves various parts of the brain at the same time. Basically, dancing requires more brain power than simpler repetitive (重复的) exercises. 

While scientists are still learning how the mechanisms of dancing work in the brain, a clearer picture is beginning to appear. Researchers at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, did MRI scans of older adults who had participated in one of two programs over a six -month period. One group practiced dance and the other did a traditional exercise program with cycling and strength training. While both groups improved their level of physical fitness, the dancers grew more white and gray matter in the parts of the brain responsible for cognitive processes. Both white and gray matter typically decline as we get older, making communication in the brain slow. 

Imagine your brain is a city with loads of roads. The researchers assume the changes brought by dancing contribute to brain plasticity, which is like the city's ability to build new roads, repair old ones or even change the direction of traffic based on how often the routes are used and what the city needs. 

In addition to the physical and neurological (神经学的) benefits, dance can also help people accept what their bodies can and can't do. Dawnia Baynes, 44, developed multiple sclerosis (MS) after her body lose all feeling from the chest down. She recently joined an online dance program for people with MS. Not only has it improved her range of motion, it has also helped her overcome her fear of being judged for how she moves. 

"To see other people moving is like I'm moving," she says, "and knowing that I don't have to be professional and super technical in my dancing makes me comfortable with where I am right now."