Everyone wants to be self-confident, but maybe we just don't know how to be. Here are some tips on how you can feel more confident about yourself.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Everyone has shortcomings. When you have found your shortcomings, work to overcome them. If you are a shy person, take part in social activities, such as parties, and speak to at least one or two people there.

Second, try to spend more time with positive people. Successful and confident people have their own ways of settling problems. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Third, set goals for yourself. With each goal you achieve, you self-confidence will increase.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}We are afraid that we might lose. Stop thinking like that and give yourself a chance.

    Fourth, start each day with a sense of opportunity. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Think positively about yourself.

    Actually everyone has his or her own way of becoming confident. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Friends might have useful suggestions, too.

    In short, as long as you try new things, you are sure to become more confident.

A. You should talk with your friends.

B. Pay attention and learn from them.

C. First, don't think about your weak points.

D. It's not always right to ask friends for help.

E. sometimes we might be afraid of trying new things.

F. First, you should know what your weak points are.

G. Start your day by reading something encouraging.

    My mother is a kind woman. She is very busy from morning till night. As a teacher, she works hard. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Both my brother and I love her dearly as she loves us. My mother has been teaching math at a middle school in my hometown. She goes to work early in the morning and does not return home until late in the afternoon. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} She treats them with patience and teaches them well.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Every day, when she comes back home from work, she sets about doing housework, sweeping the living room and bedrooms. As she has been very busy working every day, she looks older than her age. But she looks as cheerful and happy as ever. Mother never buys expensive dresses for herself. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Often she says to us, “Work while you work, and play while you play. That is the way to be a happy person. If you do not work, you will become lazy and be of no use to society". What a piece of good advice this is! {#blank#}5{#/blank#} This advice of hers will always serve as a guide to my behavior. My mother is great indeed, and I always feel proud of her.

A. She enjoys listening to classic music.

B. As a mother, she takes good care of us and gives us every comfort.

C. She loves her students and cares for them.

D. She often buys expensive and high quality clothes for us.

E. My mother is hard-working and never wastes money.

F. I never forget it and always bear it in my mind.

G. Can you tell us something about your mother？

    Mondays are kind of annoying.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} A recent survey says that most people get the pre-work “Sunday blues”. Starting your Monday feeling sad, anxious and unorganized is hardly the way to kick off a healthy week.

    The solution? Set aside a little time on Sunday to purposefully prepare yourself for the five days ahead, suggests women's health expert Marsha Hudnall.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Do some meal preparations.

    Figuring out what to have for dinner on weeknights can be surprisingly stressful. Stretching out a menu plan on Sunday and swinging by the grocery store for ingredients will help you eat well. Go a step further by chopping and cooking vegetables and a protein (like a roast chicken or scrambled eggs).{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Or finally attempt a different diet you've been meaning to try. For easy dinner planning, just order, and you'll have a week's worth of raw materials for delicious and healthy meals.

    Start a Sunday stress-relief habit.

    “To be healthy, we have to take care of body and mind,” says Hudnall. Stress has a major impact on health and our ability to concentrate.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Four ideas to try: a guided meditation with the help of an app; forest bathing－a practice known as shinrin-yoku in Japan, which basically means taking a long walk or hike in a wooded area; gentle exercise like yoga; or time cuddling and playing with your pet.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Why not prepare your favorite clothes for Monday? Studies show that what you wear can have a significant effect on your mood. So make Monday the day you wear your favorite clothes or show the latest addition to your wardrobe (衣橱). It's also a good idea to get some nice coffee or music ready, which will give you something to look forward to on your Monday commute.

A. Give yourself something to look forward on Monday.

B. Even Sunday afternoons turn sour as we think of the workweek ahead.

C. Then all you have to do is heat and plate when you come home from work.

D. Therefore, starting a Sunday stress-relieving habit can begin a week feeling strong and focused.

E. Try creating a relaxing and winding down Sunday night so that you can recharge and get ready for Monday.

F. Taking on just a few of these simple lips every Sunday will help you launch a productive, less stressful week.

G. Wailing until the last moment to do weekend chores like paying bills or doing laundry can leave you anxious and stressed on Sunday.

Ways to Save Money While Traveling

    Who doesn't like to save money when possible? Traveling can be expensive, but with the right strategy you can bring down the cost. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Look for free activities. If you do a little research, you'll see there are often lots of free activities in the area. Look at community calendars to see what is going on in town while you are there. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Museums often have a "pay what you can" day once a week and sometimes have discounted admission after a certain time of the day.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Although some people might not like to cook while on vacation. I don't mind making breakfast in my room. I love having a cup of coffee, but room service can be very expensive. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}A microwave and fridge will also be helpful for reheating leftovers.

    Shop at farmers' markets and local stores. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Also, shopping at local stores allows you to taste the local cuisine without having to pay the price of a restaurant.

    Buy some local fish and cook it up at your condo(公寓).

    What are your tips for saving money while traveling？

A. Rent an apartment instead of having to get two rooms.

B. Book a room with a refrigerator, microwave or kitchen area.

C. Try these tips on your next vacation and your wallet will thank you.

D. I try to never eat at attractions because they tend to raise the price.

E. Do a self-guided walking tour to make yourself familiar with your destination.

F. I'd rather eat in the room for breakfast and lunch and then splurge (挥霍) on a delicious dinner.

G. Farmers' markets often lower the price of their food towards the end of the day.

    Castles(城堡)and temples wear away after hundreds of years, but the symbols and E-books came from the development of words on the stone often survive.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} science and technology, and can be read online. Many people believe that regular books will be one day replaced by e-books.

    Books and e-books share lots of similarities. They are both items created by great minds, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} .You can draw lines or highlight some details on books or e-books as notes. The notes can be kept for a long time.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. Firstly, books don't have to be charged, while e-books need electricity if we want to read them. Meanwhile, spending too much time reading e-books may do harm to our eyes. Moreover, e-books don't share the same weight when held in the hand as regular books, nor do they give that sense of fulfillment that comes from finishing a thick book. However，e-book devices(设备)are easy to carry.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    A disadvantage of e-book devices is that people tend to get distracted(分心)when they're using one, as many devices often have apps or games on them.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

    Whichever you prefer, both books and e-books are just a way to help us gain knowledge and get to know other people's experiences. They are both necessary, so it's too early to say one will disappear.

A. But they have differences as well

B. They take less space than books

C. Indeed our lives are formed by what books we read

D. This is similar to how the words in books manage to live on

E. They all have an index to introduce the main topic of each book

F. But with a regular book, your mind is always absorbed in the words

G. Each individual can decide which reading method is best for them based on their own needs

The urge to share our lives on social media

    People have long used media to see reflections of themselves. Long before mobile phones or even photography, diaries were kept as a way to understand oneself and the world in which one lives. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as diaries became more popular, middle-class New Englanders, particularly white women, wrote about their everyday lives and the world around them.

    These diaries were not a place into which they poured their innermost thoughts and desires, but rather a place to chronicle (记录) the social world around them. The diaries captured the everyday routines of mid-19th-century life, and women diarists in particular focused not on themselves but on their families and their communities.

Diaries today are, for the most part, private. But things were different for these New England diaries. Young women who were married would send their diaries home to their parents as a way of maintaining kin (血缘) relations. When family or friends came to visit, it was not uncommon to sit down and go through one's journal together.

    Diaries are not the only media that people have used to document lives and share them with others. We have long used media like photo albums, baby books and even slide shows as a means of creating traces (痕迹) of our lives. We do this to understand ourselves and to see trends in our behaviour. We create traces as part of our identity and part of our memory.

    Sharing everyday life events can strengthen social connection and intimacy (亲密感). For example, you take a picture of your child's first birthday. It is not only a developmental milestone: the photo also strengthen the identity of the family unit itself. The act of taking the photo and proudly sharing it further reaffirms (再次证实) one as a good and attentive parent. In other words, the media traces of others figure in our own identities.

    Today's social media platforms are, by and large, free to use, unlike historical diaries, which people had to buy. Today, advertising subsidises (补贴) our use of networked platforms. Therefore these platforms encourage use of their networks to build larger audiences and to better target them. Our pictures, our posts, and our likes are commodified—that is, they are used to create value through increasingly targeted advertising.

    Instead of social media merely connecting us, it has become a craze (狂热) for information, continually trying to draw us in with the promise of social connectivity—it's someone's birthday, someone liked your picture, etc. There's a multibillion-dollar industry pulling us into our smartphones, relying on a longstanding human need for communication.

    The urge to be present on social media is much more complex than simply narcissism (自恋).

    Social media of all kinds not only enable people to see their reflections, but to feel their connection as well.