Questions you should ask yourself when you fail

    The more new things we try the more failure we are likely to have.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Experiencing failure can be a learning experience and an opportunity for a fresh start. A good way to begin this process is by asking yourself some tough questions.

⑴What can I learn from this?

    Take responsibility for what went wrong. OK, so it was not all your fault—but some of it was. Successful people don't make excuses or blame others. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} So you should look at the experience objectively(客观地).

⑵Do I need to acquire or improve some skills?

    Did the problem reveal some lack of skill on your part? How could you learn or improve those skills? Perhaps there are books or courses or people you could turn to. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

⑶Who can I learn from?

    Is there someone to whom you can turn for advice? Did a boss, colleague or friend see what happened? {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Most people do not ask for help because they believe it to be a sign of weakness rather than strength. It's not. It shows that you are ready to learn and change.

⑷What will I do next?

    Now draw up an action plan. Will you try something similar or something different? Revisit your goals. Failure doesn't mean you have to give up; maybe you just need to change it in another way. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    With the summer holiday just around the corner, it seems like everybody is busy planning their vacations. Here are some tips that can help you enjoy your holiday without empting your pocket:

    Travel off-season

    Go to your desired destination while the demand is low and take advantage of huge discounts. During the peak season, the hotel and flight prices increase quickly, and you'll likely spend more of your vacation time standing in line due to the rush of tourists. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Websites can help you find discount hotel rooms. Look for places that do not charge extra for children if they use the existing bedding. Stay with the locals. If you and your family are going to stay for a longer period, renting a small apartment is a good choice.

    Eat like a local

    Why eat at big chain restaurants when you can experience something new? {#blank#}3{#/blank#} During your family trip, try new food where the locals eat. This will not just save money, but also provide you with a new and different experience. For smaller meals and snacks, avoid restaurants and try street food or other takeout. 

    Don't hesitate to bargain

    Tourist- heavy places are known for overcharging for just about everything. Clothes, travel goodies, souvenirs, etc. are very expensive at these places. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Bargain hard to get the best price.

    Choose local transportation

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Instead, take buses, railways or subways, which are always cheaper. If you are planning to stay for a while, you can consider renting a car. Hiring a car is much easier than carrying your bags everywhere if you are moving around a lot.

A. Save on hotels.

B. Surf the Internet while traveling.

C. Therefore, avoid buying anything there.

D. So it's best to find out when the off-season starts.

E. Planning your meals is another way to reduce your travel costs.

F. For this reason, you shouldn't feel ashamed to ask for bargains.

G .As a tourist, avoid taking taxis whenever possible, since they are expensive.

    English can be a difficult language to learn, but there are certain things you can do to learn the language a lot faster. People can master English as long as they take the time to practice speaking, reading and writing in English. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Start by taking a class that teaches beginning English. These classes are often named as “ESL” classes, or “English as a Second Language.” {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Buy an English audio(音频的) course. You can go over these classes in your spare time and learn quite a bit. Buy an audio course and listen to it in the car or while working, if possible. The higher the quality of the course, the quicker you'll learn.

    Practice speaking English with other people, especially with native English speakers. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}And make sure they are willing to help you learn English by having simple conversations with you. You will probably be surprised at how quickly you can start having a conversation in English.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Pay attention to the dialogue and try to figure out what the actors are saying. Congratulate yourself when you are able to pick out certain words and phrases that you understand.

    Read newspapers, books and magazines that are printed in English. At first they maybe very difficult, but as your knowledge grows so will your understanding of written English. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It will help you a lot in learning to speak the language much faster.

A. Try to understand written English.

B. Watch television shows or movies that are in English.

C. Read and remember as many English words as possible.

D. Here we will show you how to learn to speak English quickly.

E. Every morning you should get up very early and read English.

F. Make friends with people speaking English as their native language.

G. The teachers of these classes have the experience to teach the students.

    Do you know that there's a new frontier in 3D printing that's beginning to come into focus: food. Recent development has made possible machines that print, cook, and serve foods on a mass scale. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Food production

    With a 3D printer, a cook can print complicated chocolate sculptures and beautiful pieces for decoration on a wedding cake. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} —it takes years of experience, but a printer makes it easy. A restaurant in Spain uses a Foodini to "re-create forms and pieces" of food that are "exactly the same," freeing cooks to complete other tasks. In another restaurant, all of the dishes and desserts it serves are 3D-printed, rather than farm to table.

    Sustainability

    According to a new study, the global population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion by 2050, and some analysts estimate that food production will need to be raised by 50 percent to maintain current levels. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} 3D food printing could probably contribute to the solution. 3D printing can reduce fuel use and emissions. Grocery stores of the future might stock "food" that lasts years on end, freeing up shelf space and reducing transportation and storage requirements.

Nutrition

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Hod Lipson, a professor at Columbia University, said, "Food printing could allow consumers to print food with customized nutritional content, like vitamins. So instead of eating a piece of yesterday's bread from the supermarket, you'd eat something baked just for you on demand."

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Despite recent advancements in 3D food printing, the industry has many difficulties to overcome. Currently, most ingredients must be changed to a paste(糊状物) before a printer can use them, and the printing process is quite time-consuming, because ingredients interact with each other in very complex ways. On top of that, most of the 3D food printers now are restricted to dry ingredients, because meat and milk products may easily go bad.

A. Challenges

B. Opportunities

C. And the industry isn't stopping there.

D. Sustainability is becoming a necessity.

E. Future 3D food printers could make processed food healthier.

F. Here are some new ways to produce 3D printing.

G. Not everybody can do that.

    Every animal sleeps, but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} We know that, while awake, fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强) connections between brain cells, but the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.

    Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons(神经元) in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep, showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.

    If Tononi's theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night's, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information — our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.

    Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapses become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} "You keep what matters," Tononi says.

A. We should also try to sleep well the night before.

B. It's as if the brain is preserving its most important memories.

C. Similarly, when people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick.

D. The processes take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories.

E. That's why students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning.

F. "Sleep is the price we pay for learning," says Giulio Tononi, who developed the idea.

G. Tononi's team measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice.

Children's Games in Ancient China

    Unlike the children nowadays, the children during ancient times didn't have smart phone, iPad or computer to entertain(娱乐) themselves. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Let's take a look.

    Flying kites

    Kites have quite a long history. The earliest kites were made of wood, instead of paper. Nowadays, the three most famous kites are the Beijing kite, Tianjin kite and Weifang kite. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} For example, the swallow-shaped kite is a well-known Beijing style.

    Playing hide-and-seek

    Hide-and-seek is a traditional game for children, popular around the nation. Even nowadays, many children like playing it. There are two ways to play. One way is covering a child's eyes while other kids run around to tease(戏弄) him. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    The closest thing to watching a film or television for entertainment during ancient times was going to see a shadow play. Folk artists manipulate puppets behind the screen, narrating stories and accompanied by music.

    Setting off firecrackers(鞭炮)

    Firecrackers have a history of more than 2,000 years. It is said that there was a beast (野兽)named Nian in ancient China. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} After gunpowder was invented, it gradually replaced the bamboo joint cracker. Crackers are still set off during Spring Festival to symbolize auspiciousness(吉利).

A. Watching shadow plays

B. Each of them has special features.

C. Different materials are used to make the kite.

D. Shadow plays were the popular entertaining form in ancient times.

E. And to scare off the beast, people burnt bamboo joints to make it blast.

F. More commonly, participants hide and one child must try to find them.

G. Instead, they came up with(想出) interesting games to play in their childhood.