Television is everywhere around us. Yet it is great for learning English. The pictures make it easier to understand than radio and because you can see who's talking, and get a better idea of what people mean. Just watch their ＂body language＂! Watch programs that you find enjoyable and entertaining. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Here's the English-at-home.com guide to learning as much as possible while watching English television:

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Learning English should be fun — not something that you have to force yourself to do. If you have a passion for football, watch matches or the sports news.

    Keep a notebook near to your television. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} This is especially useful. You can look for programs with subtitles in your own language.

    Try to watch English television regularly. Even if you can only watch 15 minutes a day, you'll be amazed how much you learn.

    Don't worry if you don't understand everything. English television is normally aimed at native English speakers. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If the programs that you're watching are full of unknown words, just concentrate on understanding the general meaning.

    Keep a note of television programs and presenters that you find easy to understand and try to watch them regularly. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Soon you will impress your friends with your English skills.

A. Don't watch the programs too easy for you.

B. Programs often include many difficult words.

C. Better watch programs that you find interesting.

D. English learning has little to do with watching TV.

E. Whatever you watch will help you improve your English.

F. Doing this will increase your confidence in learning English.

G. You can take down any new words or expressions that you hear.

    There is a woman named Tao Porchon-Lynch. She was born in India in 1918. So, if you do the math, she's 99. And at the age of 99, she has been recognized as the oldest yoga teacher in the world. She has been teaching yoga in a gym in her hometown, full-time, since 1967.

    But that's not all she's done. She has also been a model, actress and dancer. She became a model after she graduated from high school. She acted in more than ten fields. She won a lot of medals as a dancer in many competitions. She once said, “If you try your best and never give up, nothing is impossible.” And she is a firm believer in positive thinking. She dreams the impossible dreams, and she is also well known as a thinker.

    Tao Porchon-Lynch is not the person who talks the talk; she is the person who walks the walk. When she makes up her mind to do something, she takes action to do it without delay. At the age of 85, she learned how to dance and even won several dance competitions. She offers this piece of advice to others, “Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Don't delay. Tomorrow never comes.”

    So, what about retirement? At 98, she is well past the age when many people make retirement plans. Retiring, it turns out, is not Tao's style. “A little girl, who is only 6 years old and is now learning yoga with me, once asked me, ‘Dear granny, what are you going to do when you retire?'” Tao Porchon-Lynch told the little girl that she had no plans to retire but instead would continue to teach yoga and dance her way to next planet.

Evaluating Sources of Health Information

    Making good choices about your own health requires reasonable evaluation. A key first step in bettering your evaluation ability is to look carefully at your sources of health information. Reasonable evaluation includes knowing where and how to find relevant information, how to separate fact from opinion, how to recognize poor reasoning, and how to analyze information and the reliability of sources. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

    Go to the original source. Media reports often simplify the results of medical research. Find out for yourself what a study really reported,and determine whether it was based on good science. Think about the type of study. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Watch for misleading language. Some studies will find that a behavior " contributes to " or is "associated with" an outcome; this does not mean that a certain course must lead to a certain result. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Carefully read or listen to information in order to fully understand it.

    Use your common sense. If a report seems too good to be true, probably it is. Be especially careful of information contained in advertisements. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Evaluate "scientific" statements carefully, and be aware of quackery (江湖骗术).

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Friends and family members can be a great source of ideas and inspiration, but each of us needs to find a healthy lifestyle that works for us.

    Developing the ability to evaluate reasonably and independently about health problems will serve you well throughout your life.

A. Make choices that are right for you.

B. The goal of an ad is to sell you something.

C. Be sure to work through the critical questions.

D. And examine the findings of the original research.

E. Distinguish between research reports and public health advice.

F. Be aware that information may also be incorrectly explained by an author's point of view.

G. The following suggestions can help you sort through the health information you receive from common sources.

每个空格只填一个单词。

    Do pretty school uniforms lead to early romance?

    A technical secondary school in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, planned to order Korean-style school uniforms for students, but parents opposed the move, believing that the new uniforms looked too good and would encourage early romances among the students, the Jinling Evening Paper reported Monday.

    Parents

    "My daughter was so excited about the Korean-style uniform, saying it's her dream to wear mini-skirt to school every day," a mom surnamed Cheng complained. "My daughter also called her classmates to talk about how handsome the boys looked in the uniform!"

    Cheng looked on the Internet and found that most Korean schoolboy uniforms are similar to western suits. "They are so handsome! My daughter is a fan of Korean fashion, that's why she is crazy about the uniform!" Cheng said. "If the students wear such beautiful uniforms, how can they study well? I prefer the sports wear which makes me think of health and positive thinking."

    School

    "The plan to change the current school uniform from sports wear has been cancelled," an employee of the school told the Jinling Evening Paper.

    "The students dislike the present uniform, so the school took advice from the students last November, knowing that most of students prefer Korean-or Japanese-style school uniforms. We know cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou have changed their sports wear school uniforms to more fashionable uniforms," an employee surnamed Lin said.

    "However, we had to stop the plan because many parents are strongly against it. Some parents think it's just a way for the school to make money, and others think the new uniforms will take students' attention away from their studies," Lin said.

    When asked about the possibility of problems with early romance between students because of the more fashionable uniforms, Lin said he hadn't considered it. He, however, agreed that the Korean-style uniform makes the students more charming.

    Students

    The students are very disappointed about the school's final decision. They think the sports wear uniforms make them look androgynous (难分性别).

    They said the Korean-style uniform has many advantages such as raising interest in class and lifting confidence. It is also considered to be a good way to develop their sense of pride for the school and help then create good temperaments(气质).

    As for concerns about romance, the students believe that love is love and bears no relationship to the uniform.

    Education department

    "We don't have a unified (统一的) standard for school uniforms. The schools can choose their own styles. Either sports wear or uniforms are ok," an official from the Nanjing Bureau of Education said.

Dear James,

    It is a beautiful day here and I am sitting under the big tree at the end of the garden. I have just returned from a long bike ride to an old castle. It seems amazing that at my age I am still fit enough to cycle 20 kilometres in an afternoon. It's my birthday in two weeks' time and I'll be 82 years old! I think my long and active life must be due to the healthy life I live.

    This brings me to the real reason for my letter, my dear grandson. Your mother tells me that you started smoking some time ago and now your are finding it difficult to give it up. Believe me, I know how easy it is to begin smoking and how tough it is to stop. You see, during adolescence I also smoked and became addicted to cigarettes.

    By the way, did you know that this is because you become addicted in three different ways? First, you can become physically addicted to nicotine（尼古丁）, which is one of the hundreds of chemical in cigarettes. This means that after a while your body becomes accustomed to having nicotine in it. So when the drug leaves your body, you get withdrawal symptoms. Secondly, you become addicted through habit. As you know, if you do the same thing over and over again, you begin to do it automatically. Lastly, you can become mentally addicted. I believed I was happier and more relaxed after having a cigarette, so I began to think that I could only feel good when I smoked. Quitting smoking was really difficult because I was addicted in all three ways. But I did finally manage.

    When I was young, I didn't know much about the harmful effects of smoking. I didn't know, for example, that it could do terrible damage to your heart and lungs or that it was more difficult for smoking couples to become pregnant. Neither did I know that my cigarette smoke could affect the health of non-smokers. However, what I did know was that my girlfriend thought I smelt terrible. She told me that she wouldn't go out with me again unless I stopped! I also noticed that I became breathless quickly, and that I wasn't enjoying sport as much. When I was taken off the school football team because I was unfit, I knew it was time to quit smoking.

    I am sending you some advice I found on the internet. It might help you to stop and strengthen your resolve. I do hope so because I want you to live as long and healthy a life as I have.

Love from

Grandpa

    In the 19th century, millions of European went to the USA because they wanted to find a better life. Many of them couldn't find work in cities like New York. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The people, called settlers, travelled west through the mountains on the Oregon Trail.

    Some of these people hoped to find gold in California. The journey sometimes took more than one year. There are a lot of films, called Westerns, about the settlers on the trail. In most of the film, we see the Native Americans (American Indians) attacking the settlers, and the "Indians" killing many white people.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} In fact, most of them were very helpful to the settlers.

    It is true that the settlers' journey was extremely difficult. Many of them walked 3, 200 kilometers, the whole length of the trail. They had wagons(马车), but the wagons were often too full, so people could not travel in them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The people were very poor and many did not even have shoes-they walked the whole trail barefoot in extremely cold temperature.

    More than 50, 000 people, including many women and children, died on the trail. A lot of people died from illnesses like cholera, because the drinking water wasn't clean. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Many people died under the wheels of wagons, for example, and from accidental gunshots.

A. They hoped they could make more money.

B. So they left and went to find farmland in the west.

C. Many parents also had to carry their small children.

D. But the truth is that the native Americans were not the biggest problem for the settlers.

E. Many of them lost their home.

F. There were also a lot of accidents.