Five Steps to Better Handwriting

    Some kids love handwriting, but others hate when it's time to put their pen to paper. Maybe they are worried about their handwriting. Are you one of them? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are five steps that really work!

    Get a great grasp

    Try this—hold your pencil at the top and try to write your name. Pretty hard？But when you hold your pencil the correct way, writing is much easier. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Hold it in place with your thumb, and your index(食指) and middle fingers.

    Let the lines be your guide

    Lined paper is your friend！Those lines can help you create letters that are the right size and proportion(均衡). {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Also be sure to fill up the lined space completely. Those capital letters should be from the bottom line to the top one.

    Slow down

    If your writing is hard to read, try slowing down a little. If you rush, it's hard to control where you stop and start your letters.

    Lower the pressure

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} That makes it harder to make the smooth lines. Try easing up and don't hold the pencil too tightly.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Lots of games require you to write or draw pictures. So even though it's not schoolwork, you're still using the skills you need to control your pen better.

A. Play games.

B. Ask for more advice.

C. So "a" should be half the height of a capital "A".

D. You've been writing since you were a little kid.

E. Some kids press down really hard when they write.

F. The good news is that just about everyone can improve their handwriting.

G. The best way to hold a pen or pencil is to let it rest next to the base of your thumb.

    Nearly everyone has spent at least one night lying in bed wishing for sleep. But for many, it's a nightly struggle. The key, or secret, is to experiment. What works for some might not work as well for others.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Set a regular bedtime. Go to bed at the same time every night.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Try not to break this routine on weekends when it may be attractive to stay up late. If you want to change your bedtime, help your body adjust (调整).

   {#blank#}3{#/blank#}If you're getting enough sleep, you should wake up on time naturally without an alarm. As with your bedtime, try to keep your regular wake-up time even on weekends.

    Be smart about napping (打盹). Though taking a nap can be a great way to become energetic again, especially for older adults, it can make insomnia (失眠) worse.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you must nap, do it in the early afternoon, and limit it to thirty minutes.

    Fight after-dinner drowsiness(睡意). What should you do when getting sleepy before your bedtime?    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} For example, washing the dishes, or calling a friend. If you give in to the drowsiness, you may wake up later in the night and have difficulty getting back to sleep.

A. Wake up at the same time every day.

B. Spend more time outside in the daytime.

C. When it's time to sleep, make sure the room is dark.

D. Get off the couch and do something to avoid falling asleep.

E. If insomnia is a problem for you, consider giving up napping.

F. It's important to find the sleep methods that work best for you.

G. Choose a time when you normally feel tired so that you can fall asleep easily.

How to stay in a good mood

    It's typical to feel your mood starting to become bad. If you want to be able to stay in a good mood, then you have to form these habits that will keep you feeling happy.

    ⒈Don't take love for granted.

    If you're lucky enough to have a special someone, then you should make your time together meaningful. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Make time to spend time with your special someone. Being around your loved one has been proven to make people happier.

    ⒉Get regular exercise.

    Regular exercise is one of the most important habits that you need to form {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You can go running three times a week and walk the other four. Just make sure to be as active as you can every day.

    ⒊Spend time with your friends.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Of course, don't always hang out with friends when you have a free moment. Make sure you do make time to see friends at least once or twice a week, if you can.

    ⒋Get enough sleep.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} One of the easiest ways to stay in a good mood is to be well-rested. Waking up feeling full of energy will make you feel much more ready to face the day and much more excited about everything ahead of you.

    ⒌{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    If you want to stay in a good mood, then you have to make sure that you eat three healthy and diverse meals every day. Start off with a healthy breakfast, and don't skip this meal no matter what things happen. Have light snacks throughout the day, like yogurt or fruit, to keep you energetic.

A. Have a healthy eating schedule.

B. Make sure that you sleep for 7-8 hours a day.

C. Do begin with a healthy breakfast in the morning.

D. Hanging out with friends will keep you feeling alive

E. Don't stop doing the things you love with the person you love.

F. However, you don't have to do the same boring old thing every day.

G. Once you start exercising, do the same sports at the regular time every day.

    Each year there is an increasing number of cars on roads and streets as millions of new cars and trucks are produced. One out of every six Americans work at putting together the parts of cars, driving trucks, building roads or filling cars and trucks with gas. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Because most Americans find they are using their cars in almost every aspect of their life. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} The polluted air becomes poisonous and dangerous to health.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} That's what several of the large car factories have been trying to do. But to build a clean car is easier said than done. Progress in this field has been slow.

Another way is to take the place of the car engine by something else.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Many makers believe that it will take years to develop a practical model that pleases man.

To prevent the world from being polluted by cars, we'll have to make some changes in the way many of us live. Americans, for example, have to cut down on the number of their total cars. They are encouraged to travel and go to work by bicycle. Bicycling is thought to help keep the air clean. But this change does not come easily. A large number of workers may find themselves without jobs if a car factory closes down.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Although cars have led us to a better life, they have also brought us new problems.

A. Americans know cars very well.

B. Americans won't live without cars!

C. Inventors are now working on steam cars as well as electric cars.

D. However, the number of vehicles has continued to increase in recent years.

E. One way to get rid of the polluted air is to build a car that does not pollute.

F. Thus the problem of air pollution would become less important than that of unemployment.

G. However, some have realized the serious problems of the air pollution that is caused by cars.

    Parents usually teach their children how to cross the street safely, by looking both ways for cars.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}The city of Honolulu, Hawaii wants everyone to learn that lesson.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Beginning on October 24, you will be fined from $15 to $99 if you step into a Honolulu street while looking at your phone. Honolulu is the first major U.S. city to ban what is called "distracted walking". It recently passed a law in a seven to two vote. The law says, "No pedestrian shall cross a street or highway while viewing a mobile electronic device."{#blank#}3{#/blank#} 

    The law includes all electronic devices with screens: cellphone, tablets, gaming devices, digital cameras and laptop computers.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Pedestrians may use such devices in the street to call emergency services and rescue workers, such as firefighters and police officers.

    Pedestrian deaths have been increasing as the use of cellphones rises. The Governors Highway Safety Association, or GHSA, says pedestrian deaths in the United States increased 25 percent between 2010 and 2015. That trend continued in 2016 with the number of pedestrian deaths rising to almost 6000, 11% higher than in 2015.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}The state of Washington was the first to outlaw distracted driving back in 2007. Now, 46 other states as well as D. C. Puerto Rico, Guam and the U. S. Virgin Islands, have laws against texting while driving.

    If you still want to text while walking, you could avoid being fined in Honolulu by using a voice-controlled digital assistant such as Siri or Google Assistant. Or you could just wait until you are again, safely, off the street.

A. The law does permit an exception.

B. Other U. S. cities may follow Honolulu.

C. But do they also teach them to put away their cellphones?

D. Texting while crossing the street will soon be banned in the city.

E. Do you like Honolulu's new law that bans texting while walking?

F. In other words, do not look at a screen when you cross the street or you could be fined.

G. The law's creator hope it will lower the number of people hit and killed by cars in the city.

    Parents often say that they don't mind what their children do in life just as long as they are happy. Happiness and pleasure are almost universally seen as among the most precious human goods.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Philosopher Jeremy Bentham believed that all sources of pleasure are of equal quality, but John Stuart Mill disagreed. Mill argued for a difference between higher and lower pleasure.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Lower pleasure, in contrast, requires mere (仅仅的；纯粹的) senses.

    The entire debate assumes a clear divide between the physical and the mental.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}What will it mean for our ideas about pleasure?

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Food is usually considered to be the lower pleasure. All animals eat, using the senses of smell and taste. It doesn't require any complex cognition (认知) to conclude that something is delicious. However, these people failed to appreciate something that the French food writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin captured. That is, "Animals feed; man eats; only the man of intellect(才智) knows how to eat."

    Eating shows that the difference between higher pleasure and lower pleasure is not what you enjoy but how you enjoy it.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Preparing it using the powers of reflection and attention turns it into a higher pleasure.

A. The dining table is a good place to start.

B. Wolfing down your food is a lower kind of pleasure.

C. What's the real difference between high and low pleasure?

D. What happens if the physical and the mental cannot be separated?

E. All philosophers believed that cookery could never be a form of art.

F. Higher pleasure depends on human abilities such as self-awareness or language use.

G. However, disagreements will be caused about whether some forms of pleasure are better than others.