How strong are you?

    That is a hard question to answer, whether you are a man or a woman. But, really , I want to ask how do you define(给...下定义)your strength? How do you know your limits?{#blank#}1{#/blank#} When push comes, we often discover that we are much stronger than we think.

    What is Strength?

    Strength is not always about pure physical strength.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It is about the ability to get things done. I know some people who are intellectually strong, but they get very little done in their jobs. And I know others who find work challenging, but they make it by strong drive and hard work. They possess inner strength.

    Self-Imposed Limits

    What I have observed is that most people set their own limits. They limit their output based on self-framed limits (自我设定的限制) of their abilities and strengths. Sometimes these boundaries are based on past experiences. Sometimes they are based on self-imagined abilities.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}So, how do we break through these limits? How do we get stronger?

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    If you want to be stronger, you have to push your boundaries. Pushing it is what it takes to increase your limits. In the gym, bodybuilders discovered this long ago. The same principle is true when it comes to inner strength.

    Want to test your limits? Push yourself. Test your self-framed limits to see how accurate they are. Make sure your goals are slightly beyond what you think can be achieved.

    You Are Stronger Than You Think

    Most people underestimate(低估) their strength.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Test your limits. Push yourself to find your true boundaries and define your strength.

    When you discover how much you've really got, you may surprise even yourself.

A. Certainly, it is about willpower.

B. Sometimes these limits are based on nothing.

C. How do you know just how much you've got?

D. Pushing It

E. As you go through your day, challenge your ability.

F. How can we train our mind and make it stronger?

G. Strength is a combination of physical and mental ability.

    City Life in Thailand is much like city life in the United States. People live in tall buildings or in houses close together. But outside the cities, life is different. People usually live on farms far apart from one another. They grow their own food or buy fresh food almost every day at the market. But the market is not in a building. It is a floating market located on a river.

    Lamai and her family live on a farm. They grow fruits and vegetables and sell them at the market each day. Long before the sun comes up, Lamai and her brother help their parents. They pick out fruits and vegetables and clean them. Then they load everything into a long boat.

    Their boat is ready by about 6:00 a.m. Lamai and her mother row to the closest floating market. On the way the water is still and peaceful. Lamai sees the bright sun beginning to shine.

    Soon Lamai hears laughing and yelling in the distance. Her mother rows the boat around a corner. Suddenly they are at the floating market. Hundreds of boats are gathered at a wide place in the river. Lamai's mother is selling bananas and ripe tomatoes today. For Lamai a trip to the market is more than just a chance to sell or buy something. It is a chance for her to talk to her friends.

    Today Lamai sees her friend Suki. He is helping his mother prepare meals in their boat. Lamai loves the smell of the fried bananas Suki's mother is making. Lamai's mother rows over to buy a late breakfast. As Lamai eats, she and Suki talk about their summer plans.

    At around 11:00 a.m. people begin to go home. She is sleepy from waking up so early. Her mother has sold most of what they brought to the market. The will leave the market with less food in their boat but with more money for Lamai's family.

    Next time you hear a funny joke you'd better not laugh too hard. According to a paper published by the British Medical Journal, laughter isn't always the best medicine. Sometimes it can even be harmful. Professor Robin Ferner from the University of Birmingham, one of the authors of the study, found that bad things could happen to people who laughed too much. He says, "We found people with heartbeat problems which had stopped their hearts, we found people who had fainted(昏倒), and we found people who'd dislocated their jaws or burst their lungs."

    It seems that laughing can be no laughing matter. But it's not all doom and gloom. Professor Ferner says there are benefits to laughing when you want to lose weight, for example. Yes, that's right: laugh and be slimmer! Professor Ferner explains that: "You use energy when you laugh, you move your diaphragm(横隔膜), you expand your lungs, and both those things can be helpful."

    According to the research, laughing for a quarter of an hour can burn 40 calories, and if you laughed all day you'd use about 2, 000 calories, which is what most people consume in a day. But don't do that or you might end up with a painful jaw. Ouch! Or you might find people looking at you in a funny way.

    But I don't want to finish this article leaving you feeling desperate. Laughter comes naturally for most of us. Babies begin to laugh at around 3-6 months. So give in to your sense of humour and keep smiling. Life is short anyway.

    On my first day of high school, I asked an eleventh grader where my class was. And he told me it was "on the fourth floor, next to the pool." I found out five minutes later that we don't even have a fourth floor and there's no pool either! Besides that, I didn't have any trouble with the older kid.

    I think the biggest difference between middle and high school is the homework load (工作量) and size of the school. I went from maybe fifteen minutes of homework a night to several hours, so I had to learn how to make full use of time! Our class size is around 550, but joining in clubs, sports, music, and other activities at school makes it easier to get to know people in every grade.

    The best advice I can give about the years you spend in high school is to learn things for yourself, not just to get a good grade. There have been so many tests that I've prepared for the night before, gotten an A, and not remembered anything later. I've changed that this year, and I enjoy school so much more. Don't take easy classes just to have a simple year. If you have a choice between chemistry and sports, the first will prove to be a lot more useful!

    While drinking and smoking might be present in some middle schools, they're also around in high school. I have a lot of friends who promised they'd never drink or smoke, but are now partying every weekend. If you have "fun" and spend your nights wasted instead of studying, you will regret it when you're applying for (申请) college. The "friends" who say you're a loser for not partying are really not your friends at all. It's hard to see your closest friends grow apart and go in different directions, but don't follow their footsteps. Create your own path in life and make your own decisions.

    Many automobile makers present their newest designs at car shows around the world. Many designers seek to create the car of the future. One device that is popular among car manufacturers(生产商) is an autopilot. Autopilot permits a car to drive itself without human control.

    A recent car show in Geneva, Switzerland also presented other possible designs, including cars manufactured in 3-D printers.

    Rinspeed is a Swiss design company. It showed a vehicle based on the US electric car Tesla Model S, but the Rinspeed car includes a large television and an espresso coffee maker.

    Frank Rinderknecht is the CEO of Rinspeed. He says he does not want to just sit and watch the steering wheel(方向盘) turn as he rides in a car with autopilot.

    "I want to ride; I want to sleep, relax, watch movies, news, anything else. So that's the vision which we have. One day on the boring motorway traffic, you just do anything which makes your life better," said Rinderknecht.

    One of the most interesting ideas presented at the show is a car built on a 3-D printer. The German engineering firm EDAG designed the car. The body of the vehicle called "Genesis" is printed in one piece from a material called thermoplastic(热塑性塑料).

    Christoph Horvath is spokesman for EDAG.

    "To create a car without the use of any tool. This would be a real revolution for the industry," said Horvath.

    EDAG says it based its design on a turtle shell. The company says the design provides the right amount of strength and firmness.

    Other automakers did not look so far into the future. Czech automaker Skoda presented its "Vision C" model vehicle. The car has an environmentally friendly natural gas engine.

    Jo Davidson is a company spokeswoman. She says the car releases very low levels of the pollutant gas CO₂. Ms Davidson says the "Vision C" plans to be launched in two years.

    When "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was first shown to the public last month, a group of excited animal activists gathered on Hollywood Boulevard. But they weren't there to throw red paint on fur-coat-wearing film stars. Instead, one activist, dressed in a full-body monkey suit, had arrived with a sign praising the filmmakers: "Thanks for not using real apes (猿)!"

    The creative team behind "Apes" used motion-capture (动作捕捉) technology to create digitalized animals, spending tens of millions of dollars on technology that I records an actor's performance and later processes it with computer graphics to create a final image (图像). In this case, one of a realistic-looking ape.

    Yet "Apes" is more exception than the rule. In fact, Hollywood has been hot on live animals lately. One nonprofit organization, which monitors the treatment or animals in filmed entertainment, is keeping tabs on more than 2,000 productions this year. Already, a number of films, including "Water for Elephants," "The Hangover Part Ⅱ" and "Zookeeper," have drawn the anger of activists who say the creatures acting in them haven't been treated properly.

    In some cases, it's not so much the treatment of the animals on set in the studio that has activists worried; it's the off-set training and living conditions that are raising concerns. And there are questions about the films made outside the States, which sometimes are not monitored as closely as productions filmed in the Sates.