As we all know, friendship is of great importance in our daily life. A friend can give us help and share our difficulties and happiness. But how to make friends is still difficult to some of us. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    1). Be friendly to others. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You should try to make a stranger feel at home wherever he happens to be. Think more of others than of yourself and never judge a person by his appearance and clothes.

    2). Be reliable. If you and your friend agree to meet somewhere, don't be late. If you're not going to make it on time or make it at all, call them as soon as you realize it. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Be someone that people know they can depend on.

    3). {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Listen carefully to what people say, remember important details about them （their names, their likes and dislikes）, ask questions about their interests, and just take the time to learn more about them.

4). Encourage your friends: A true friend always gives courage to his friends. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Never make fun of or laugh at your friends in front of others. You should come to support them.

    Last December, Doris Low turned 90. Once a week she still drives to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) in Toronto, where she helps transform literature into Braille(盲文) to bring the power of story and knowledge to the hears and minds of blind readers. She has been volunteering her time and talents to such enterprises foe more than 40 years.

    After working in the business world for a while, Low got fed up. So she turned to teaching at a technical school and later moved into the library.

    Low's mother liked reading. As her eyes began to fail, low read to her. Then “ hearing an advertisement encouraging people to learn Braille, I decided to give it a try.” In 1973, she was certified as a braille transcriber (转译者) and began transcribing books as a volunteer for the CNIB library.

The job was strenuous —she could get to the end of a page, make a mistake on the last line, and have to do the whole thing again. For a number of years, low also worked in the CNIB sound studio reading books onto tape. Three years ago, she took up proofreading (校对) at the CNIB's word factory.

    In April, during Volunteer Week, the CNIB recognized Low for her great contributions. Thanks to volunteers like Low, the CNIB library has got more than 80,000 accessible materials for people unable to read traditional print. “ I can't imagine how many readers of all ages have benefited from

Doris's contribution as a skilled volunteer through her rich voice and her high degree of accuracy in the hundreds of books she has brailled and proofread over the years— and she is still doing so,” said a CNIB official.

     “For me,” said Low, “the CNIB is more than just a place to volunteer. Three thins matter most in my life: a little play, a little work, a little love. I've found them all here.”

    “Urgent action required”, “Do you still want to hear from us?”, “We've updated our privacy policy”, “Should we stop sending you updates? If not, act now!”

    Many of us will have received emails like this during the past few weeks. Triggering this flood of emails is something called GDPR that comes into effect in just under two weeks' time. Often the emails warn that if you don't respond, you will be removed from the company's database, which raises a lot of questions. What action, if any, do you need to take? Could it affect you financially?

    GDPR, which stands for General Data Protection Regulation, has been described as the biggest overhaul（彻底检查）of online privacy since the birth of the internet. It is designed to give all EU citizens the right to know what data is stored on them and to have it deleted, plus protect them from privacy breaches（破坏）. It comes into effect on 25 May.

    The new rules encourage the requirement for explicit and informed consent before data is processed. As a result, companies and organizations around the world are contacting users to check they are happy to carry on receiving their emails.

    However, many of us seem to be going down with “GDPR fatigue（厌倦）”: one article last week claimed that the “reconfirmation rate” - the proportion of people saying they want to continue receiving a company's emails - at UK micro-businesses was averaging just 10%, which meant “they could lose 90% of their subscribers - the life-blood for their business”. So it's no wonder some firms have adopted policies such as offering to enter people into a prize draw in return for them going in and updating their communication preferences.

    The average adult is said to have about 100 “data relationships” — companies and organizations that hold our personal data. Meanwhile, the reason why the company that occasionally emails you newsletters is now asking for your consent is perhaps because you never explicitly gave it permission to send you stuff. Maybe you only get its emails because you went to an event it organized ages ago or you once downloaded something from its website. Under the new regime, that almost certainly wouldn't count as explicit and informed consent, hence it's getting in touch now.

    The bottom line is that if it is a company or organization that you want to continue hearing from, you should probably click the button or log in to ensure you keep getting its emails. If it doesn't hear from you, it may decide to take you off its database.

    What kind of house will you buy in the future? Would you like to live in a house where your plants can call your phone to tell you that they need to be watered? Or a house that helps you cut your energy bill by turning off the lights when you leave a room? It may sound like science fiction, but it already exists! Come and visit the Smart Home at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. It will show how you can live a green lifestyle by making use of advanced technology throughout the home that makes your life easier and simpler.

    The Smart Home uses green technology to record the energy it uses, including electricity, water and gas. The house's energy dashboard (仪表盘) lets you know your energy use through your television and computer. The house greets you with the new information when you walk in the door. It is able to record when you enter and leave rooms, and can switch the lights, television and music off                    .

    The Smart Home is made entirely of recyclable and renewable materials. The furniture is made from used light bulbs, plastic bottles and other renewable materials, but you can't tell from just looking at them. The kitchen countertops (工作台面) are made of recycled glass.

    The entire house is designed to control the use of energy. The roof of the Smart Home has a sustainable vegetable garden, which does little harm to nature. Even the personal computer is green: it uses less power than a 60-watt light bulb. The house can raise and lower the window shades by itself.

    Theme park getaways are popular with families, but they sure aren't cheap. Happily, there are some golden rules of ticket-buying that apply to pretty much every theme park, and they can help you chip away at the cost of tickets. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Buy tickets online.

    Never ever pay the walk-up ticket price at a theme park. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You're guaranteed to save a significant sum-sometimes as much as $ 20 per ticket-even for same-day tickets.

    Buy in advance.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} For instance, Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, slices off $25 per ticket when you make your purchase at least three days ahead.

     {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    This one is a universal no-brainer. Single-day ticket prices at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, are about 30 percent less than admission on Saturdays and Sundays. But the big bonus is that lines will be much shorter, allowing you to spend less time waiting in lines and more time having fun.

    Go in the afternoon.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} For example, Hersheypark's sunset tickets allow entry after 4 pm or 5 pm, depending on the day. You'll still get between four to six hours of fun before the park closes, and you'll pay up to 50 percent less than the full-day ticket price.

A. Avoid weekends.

B. Buy more tickets than you need.

C. Here are some ways to lower your theme park spending.

D. At larger parks, you'll save money when you buy a package.

E. Instead, visit the theme park website and print out your tickets before you go.

F. Some parks offer deeply discounted tickets for visitors arriving later in the day.

G. Most theme parks offer a price cut if you buy tickets at least a few days before you arrive.

Climb of a lifetime

British historian Jacob Bronowski once wrote, "Man masters nature not by force, but by understanding. "

This is especially true for extreme climber Alex Honnold, who climbed the California's EI Capitan by himself, without any safety ropes. The New York Times called it "one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, ever".

Now you can watch him do it. The documentary Free Solo, which hit Chinese mainland cinemas on Sept. 6, shows Honnold's brave journey up the 914-meter vertical(垂直的) mountain. The film won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in February. In it, Honnold gives us some useful advice: "You'll always feel fear, but over time you'll realize the only way to truly manage your fear is to broaden your comfort zone."

In fact, free climbing is a testament to perseverance(毅力), control, and concentration. "I'm not thinking about anything when I'm climbing," Honnold said. "I'm focused on executing(执行) what's in front of me. " This strong focus on the present is sort of meditation(冥想) that we can use in our daily routines.

While the documentary seemingly praises extreme athletes for pushing the limits of human potential, some are concerned about Honnold recklessly(不顾一切地) risking his own life. "His continued pursuit of ropeless ascents(攀登) puts significant stress on his loved ones, even when he succeeds," Climbing Magazine noted.

Free Solo seems to say that with enough courage and dedication(全心投入), one can accomplish any goal. However, the movie may also be viewed as the disturbing story of a climber who went against all better judgment and got away with it(未遭遇不测).