Ways to Increase Your Confidence

There are some ways you can use to increase your self-confidence. Some of them you'll need to practice a lot before they start to work. It's like playing the guitar or soccer. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But as you do them, you build a deeper confidence in yourself.
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Exercise will improve your confidence and your way of looking at life. Plus, being healthy and looking better can also help you feel more confident.
Create something
Everyone is a creative(有创造力的) person, Rediscovering your creativity is a good way to improve your confidence in yourself. Creating something is a wonderful but not always easy experience. But when you're done, you not only feel good about yourself. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}
Use your body.
If you start to walk fast you'll soon start to feel nervous. If you start to walk slower you'll soon start to feel more relaxed. To feel more confident, use your body in more confident way. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Learn how confident people around you or on the TV use their bodies.
Compare yourself to yourself.
This will take away a lot of unnecessary pain in your life. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Compare yourself to yourself. Improve yourself and see how you grow and become a more successful, more confident and happier person.

A. Take exercise
B. Take it into the future
C. This makes you more active
D. Walk, sit, stand and move in a more confident way
E. Sometimes you will also discover new parts of yourself
F. Pay attention to yourself, not the other people around you.
G. They might not work too well the first or second time you try them

Healthy Sleep Tips

    Keep a regular bed and wake time schedule. Go to bed at the same time every night. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Try not to break this rule on weekends when it may be easy to stay up late. As with your bedtime, try to keep your regular wake time even on weekends.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} When it's time to sleep, make sure that your environment is dark. Heavy curtains or shades can help block light from windows, or you can try an eye mask to cover your eyes. A bedroom that is too hot or too cold can also influence sleep quality.

    Turn off your TV. Many people use the television to fall asleep or relax at the end of the day. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} However, television actually makes the mind excited, rather than relaxing it.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Exercise helps promote restful sleep if it is done several hours before you go to bed. Exercise can help you fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly. Try to finish exercising at least three hours before bed or work out earlier in the day.

    Ask your doctor for advice. Use a sleep diary and talk to your doctor. Note what type of sleep problem is affecting your sleep. Try these tips and record your sleep and sleep­related activities in a sleep diary. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Exercise at the right time.

B. Change your sleeping position.

C. Keep your room dark and cool.

D. Choose a time when you normally feel tired.

E. You may even have a television in your bedroom.

F. If problems continue, discuss the sleep diary with your doctor.

G. Sleeping well is important for keeping our mind and body healthy.

                                        Wrong Reasons for Going to College

    A college education can be priceless{#blank#}1{#/blank#}If any of these following factors had a big influence on your decision, you're probably right to second-guess yourself.

    Because all your friends are going.

    In only a few weeks' time, the whole friend group will be scattered to a half dozen different colleges in a half dozen different places. Not to go will set yourself apart{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Because someone else expects it from you.

    Perhaps you come from a family where everyone goes to college. Or maybe, you're the kid that everyone is proud to believe will be the first to get there{#blank#}3{#/blank#} It's become so much a part of the air you breathe that you've never stopped to consider whether you want to go or whether you're ready to go.

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    It's been tough to find even a summer job. You don't have an alternative plan. Everyone else is doing it(see above). You think you might as well go to school. That is the lamest(无说服力的) of reasons to spend $20,000 or more in the next year.

    Because you are afraid you'll regret it if you don't go.

    Your uncle tells you that his one regret in life is that he didn't go to college. Others tell you that they could have gone so much farther in their career if only they had a college education{#blank#}5{#/blank#}So this is not a persuasive reason for you to go to college.

A. Because you don't know what else to do.

B. It seems that for years everyone has just assumed that of course you'll go.

C. Because you don't want to work.

D. But maybe in your heart you know that you are going for the wrong reasons.

E. Friends will wonder what's wrong with you

F. Everyone seems more excited than you are.

G. Whatever the story is, there are always people who regret decisions they've made.

The Value of Tears

    Tears can ruin make-up, bring conversation to a stop, and give you a runny nose. Tears leave you embarrassed and without energy. Still, crying is a fact of life, and your tears are very useful. Even when you're not crying, they make a film over the eye's surface. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    When tears fall, they reduce stress. But we tend to fight them for all sorts of reasons. “People worry about showing their emotions（情绪）, afraid that once they lose control they'll never get it back.” {#blank#}2{#/blank#} After we cry, the feelings that caused the tears often disappear.

    Sometimes people become much stressed and can't cry. Whatever emotion they are feeling – shock, anger, fear, or sadness—is being held back.

    But everyone has the need to cry. Psychologist Vera Diamond explains that her treatment often consist of giving people permission to cry. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Patients practice crying just to become used to expressing emotions. She suggests safe, private places to cry, like under the bedcovers or in the car. Crying is a way of ease tension, but people don't like it when others cry because it makes them tense. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}And they'll do just about anything to make you stop.

    In certain situations, such as at work, tears are not appropriate. It's good not to cry during a tense business discussion.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} You should also act out the whole situation again and be as noisy and angry as you like. It will help you feel better. “And,” she adds, “Once your tears have taken away the stress, you can begin to think calmly of ways to deal with the problem.”

    Tears are a sign of our ability to feel. If you find yourself near someone crying, deal with it. And never be afraid to cry yourself.

A. They too may be holding back a need to cry.

B. They cry for different reasons.

C. She gives crying exercises.

D. It contains a chemical against infection.

E. The fact is no emotion lasts forever.

F. It forms in response to the stress on the surface of the eye.

G. But once you're safely behind closed doors, don't just cry.

    If you are like most international students, you are probably comfortable reading and writing in English. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Below are some tips to help you to improve your conversational skills.

    Make friends with American students. Many international students end up making friends with a lot of—or only—other international students. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Hanging out with natives not only naturally pushes you to improve your spoken English, but also helps you pick up cultural and social information.

    Learn from American friends. Tell your American friends that you are trying to improve your listening and speaking skills, and would like them to help you. If you pronounce a word incorrectly, or misuse an idiom, you ask them to guide you. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Increase your knowledge. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you are familiar with the topics that are likely to be discussed in conversation, you have a much better chance of understanding people when they talk, and of being able to express yourself well.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} If you have to explain something to someone, you have a strong motivation to pronounce everything as well as you can, and find other ways to explain yourself. Finally, this becomes a good habit. Many people have asked me how I learned to speak English fluently, and I owe most of it to my years of being a math teacher in college for years.

A. It is bad for them to do that.

B. You will make progress this way.

C. Become a teacher at your school, if possible.

D. It's a win－win opportunity for international students.

E. Keep up with news and watch popular shows and movies.

F. Explaining everything in a different way matters.

G. However, you may have trouble in listening and speaking in the language.

Live Every Day Like It's A Holiday

    We feel great on holiday because we let go of everyday stresses and strains. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} So whether or not you're going away this summer, there's plenty you can do to make sure you benefit from that holiday feeling.

    Sleep like a holidaymaker

    Sleep like a baby when you're on your holidays but stay awake when you're in your usual routine? {#blank#}2{#/blank#}  To reset your sleep pattern, avoid bringing problems to bed. That includes your phone, TV or laptop. Make sure the room is dark and cool. Aim for at least seven hours' ZZZs—just as you would on holiday.

    Get moving

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Given that exercise is cheap, healthy and reduces stress, it makes absolute sense to build it into your day. A walk will release happy hormones, and eases anxiety and mild depression. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} 

    Part of the joy of going away is lingering over delicious food with families. Take up the holiday habit of sitting down as a family for at least one meal a day. Families who eat together experience less anxiety, less depression and less obesity, research has found.

    Be a tourist in your own city

    Part of toe thrill of a holiday is the novelty of discovering a new place and doing new things. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} At weekends, check out a new music venue, visit a different museum or have a drink in that interesting-looking pub you're always walking past. It will get you out of routine and make you feel alive. A bit like a holiday, really.

A. Make your meals a celebration.

B. Carve out some dedicated quiet time.

C. If so, you might need to examine your sleep habits.

D. Just make sure you schedule it into your day or week.

E. But it's also easy to be a holidaymaker in the place you live.

F. Research has even shown that vacations help health and wellbeing.

G. When you're travelling, you walk around new cities without a second thought.