Staying positive through the cold season could be your best defense against getting ill,a new American study suggests.

    In an experiment that exposed healthy volunteers to a cold or flu virus,researchers found that people with a generally sunny character were less likely to fail ill.The findings,published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, build on evidence that a “positive emotional style” can help ward off the common cold and other illness.

    Researchers believe the reasons may be both objective―as in happiness improving immune function―and subjective―as in happy people being less troubled by a sore throat or runny nose.“People with a positive emotional style may have different immune responses to the virus,” explained lead study author Dr Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.“And when they do get a cold,they may interpret their illness as being less severe.”

    Cohen and his colleagues has found in a previous study that happier people seemed less likely to catch a cold, but some questions remained as to whether the emotional quality itself had the effect.

    For the new study,the researchers had 193 healthy adults complete standard measures of personality qualities, physicals health,and emotional “style”.Those who tended to be happy,energetic and easy –going were judged as having a positive emotional style,while those who were often unhappy,tense,and hostile had a negative style.

    Afterwards,the researchers gave them nose drops containing either a cold virus or a particular flu virus.Over the next six days,the volunteers reported on any aches,pains,sneezing they had,while the researchers collected objective data.Cohen and his colleagues found that happy people were less likely to develop a cold.

    What's more,when happy folks did develop a cold,their symptoms were less severe than expected based on objective measures.

    On the contrary,people with negative characters were not at increased risk of developing a cold based on objective measures,though they did tend to get down about their symptoms.

    “We find that it's really positive emotions that have the big effect,” Cohen said,“not the negative ones.”

    So can a bad-tempered person fight a cold by deciding to be happy?

    It could happen anywhere at any time.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Most people, at one time or another, have been on the receiving end of a random act of kindness. In a sometimes cold world where people can be so focused on what they're doing, a random act of kindness can make all the difference.

    They can be relatively insignificant. Hannah Bailey from London, for example, told the Metro newspaper about how she was given her fruit and vegetable shopping for free. The seller did her a kindness when it emerged she didn't have any change to pay.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    The city of Naples has long had a tradition called' caffè sospeso'. When buying coffee, a person who has recently been lucky would purchase two cups but only drink one, leaving the second one anonymously(匿名), out of the goodness of their heart, for a poor person to claim for free.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    However, in some cases, these little acts can be a matter of life and death. Take, for example, the unnamed commuter, who in June 2018 fell off a station platform onto an electric railway track in Toronto, Canada. A quick-thinking, hut even now unknown, bystander selflessly leapt down to pull him to safety.

    So, why do it? {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The people never meet again. According to UK charity The Mental Health Foundation, acts like these can “give our lives new purpose, show us other perspectives on our own problems and even make us feel content.”

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Hold open a door for someone, deliver a compliment—even give up your seat on a bus. Help someone who is in need. It takes all kinds. It needn't be anything huge. One day, whether you need it or not, someone might help you in your hour of need.

A. So give it a try.

B. Be brave to face challenges.

C. Often, the acts aren't paid back.

D. She was happy about it all day.

E. She was in low spirits the whole day.

F. This tradition is now more common worldwide.

G. It's often unexpected, but almost never unappreciated.

    Scientists say a huge percentage of bird species are in danger because their habitats, or homelands, are disappearing.

    Traditional migration (迁徙) paths take birds through countries that are not protecting the places for birds to stop, rest and feed. The scientists studied the migration or flight paths of almost 1,500 species. They decided that 91 percent of them passed through dangerous areas.

    The major danger for migratory birds is development. Buildings and pavements have covered the places where birds stop and feed as they move from one part of the world to another. One of the scientists who worked on the study says "Many of these important places have been lost to land reclamation because of urban, industrial and agricultural land expansion".

    The problem, according to scientists, is that many of these small birds die along their migration paths because they don't have a safe place to feed and rest. There is no place to restore (恢复) their energy for the next part of their journey. Countries in North Africa, Central Asia and those along the coasts of East Asia are having the most difficult time in protecting land. The scientists say these countries do not have enough areas that are safe for birds. One species that doesn't exist now is the Eskimo curlew. "Our world gets poorer every time we lose a species," one of the scientists says.

    The researchers say countries need to work together and come up with safe stopping areas for birds that pass through their boundaries. For example, one country might have preserved safe zones for migrating birds. But a neighbor country might not. A bird might die.

    One scientist who is not connected with the report tells Los Angeles Times that while some habitats are changing, more work can be done to make urban areas safe for birds.

    He says small changes, like planting more native plants or keeping cats out of the areas birds would be likely to use, could make a big difference.

    Pretending you're someone else can make you creative

    One great irony(讽刺) about our collective fascination with creativity is that we tend to frame it in uncreative ways. That is to say, most of us marry creativity to our concept of self: We are either "creative" people or we aren't, without much of a middle ground.

    Pillay, a tech businessman and Harvard professor has spent a good part of his career destroying these ideas. Pillay believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to dismiss the conventional advice that urges you to "believe in yourself". In fact, you should do the exact opposite: believe you are someone else.

    In a recent column for Harvard Business Review, Pillay pointed to a 2016 study showing the impact of stereotypes(刻板印象)on one's behavior. The authors, education psychologists Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar, divided their college student subjects into three categories, instructing the members of one group to think of themselves as "eccentric(古怪的) poets" and the members of another to imagine they were "rigid librarians" (people in the third category, the control group, were left alone for this part). The researchers then presented participants with 10 ordinary objects, including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one. Those who were asked to imagine themselves as "eccentric poets" came up with the widest range of ideas for the objects, while those in the "rigid librarian" group had the fewest. Meanwhile, the researchers found only small differences in students' creativity levels across academic majors—in fact, the physics majors inhabiting(寄生) the personas(伪装的外表) of "eccentric poets" came up with more ideas than the art majors did.

    These results, write Dumas and Dunbar, suggest that creativity is not an individual quality, but a "malleable(可塑的) product of context and perspective." Everyone can be creative, as long as they feel like creative people.

    Pillay's work takes this a step further: He argues that identifying yourself with creativity is less powerful than the creative act of imagining you're somebody else. This exercise, which he calls "psychological halloweenism", refers to the conscious action of inhabiting another persona—an inner costuming of the self. It works because it is an act of "conscious unfocus", a way of positively stimulating the default mode(默认模式) network, a collection of brain regions that spring into action when you're not focused on a specific task or thought.

    Most of us spend too much time worrying about two things: How successful/unsuccessful we are, and how little we're focusing on the task at hand. The former feeds the latter—an unfocused person is an unsuccessful one, we believe. Thus, we force ourselves into quiet areas, buy noise canceling headphones, and hate ourselves for taking breaks.

    What makes Pillay's argument stand out is its healthy, forgiving realism: According to him, most people spend nearly half of their days in a state of "unfocus". This doesn't make us lazy people—it makes us human. The idea behind psychological halloweenism is: What if we stopped judging ourselves for our mental down time, and instead started using it? Putting this new idea on daydreaming means addressing two problems at once: You're making yourself more creative, and you're giving yourself permission to do something you'd otherwise feel guilty about. Imagining yourself in a new situation, or an entirely new identity, never felt so productive.

Title: Pretending you're someone else can make you creative

A person that's enthusiastic, determined and prepared to hug life's trials is a person we all want to be. If you want to be like that person then your first step is to always stay inspired. Taking the first step towards an inspired life is the most difficult part of the process, but after you take it you will never look back. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} He/She is a person who1wakes up every day more inspired than the next. Inspiration will lead you anywhere you want to go. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    ●Inspiration breeds(培育) more inspiration. After you get a taste of the inspired life you'll never want to turn back. Wake up tomorrow morning inspired and watch your life change. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} I'll give you some names of people who have changed the path of history and I'll let you determine if they were inspired. Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Mother Theresa.

    ●Inspiration leads to hard work. Hard work leads to success. Success will be much more difficult to attain if you care little about what you want to be successful in.

    ●{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Mark Zuckerberg was inspired by the potential of a great social network. Four English musicians were inspired to create great music thereby creating the Beatles. Socrates was inspired by his own curiosity and ended up creating Western Philosophy as we know it today.

    ●Inspiration and genius(天才)—one and the same. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} In fact, many who we consider geniuses today were nothing more than extremely inspired individuals.

A. The uninspired seldom change the world.

B.A genius is someone who was born intelligent.

C. Fear of failure will stop you from staying inspired. 

D. Nothing great was ever created without inspiration.

E. You don't have to have an IQ of 150 to be considered a genius.

F. Here are four additional reasons why you should always stay inspired.

G. An inspired individual is someone who never backs away from a challenge.

You may find lots of amazing people in your school who you admire. As a matter of fact, amazing students are unique individuals who have discovered and chosen to follow a few universal truths. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Here are some hints that can help you. 

Remain organized. Amazing students know that their time and resources(资源)are valuable. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}They always keep test dates in mind. So they set aside time for studying and time for social lives. Similarly, you should also do all of this. 

Amazing students recognize the limits of their knowledge. They aren't shy of asking questions. When they need additional help, they quickly turn to their professors for help. They also find out additional resources, such as instructional videos, on topics that confuse them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Accept and look for feedback(反馈) Negative(负面的)comments are hard to hear and easy to ignore. Amazing students, however, aren't defeated by negative comments. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They use negative comment to improve their academic performance. So you should also read through your teachers comments on papers, tests and exams, and carry out the suggested changes in your future learning. 

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Amazing students are curious about the world around them. They often pay much attention to world cultures and social events. In an effort to increase your knowledge, allow your natural curiosity to lead you to increase new knowledge and equip you with new skills.