Summer is the season to dive into new activities and relax. And right now is the time to make sure that you're ready for the great outdoors, the holiday planning and travel, and the bathing suit beach days.

    If you want to lose weight before summer, concentrate on dropping no more than a pound or two a week.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} And when you trouble yourself, sooner or later you，re going to gain it back. Operate on a 500-calorie-a-day deficit (亏损).{#blank#}2{#/blank#} So if you cut 500 calories a day for seven days straight, you'll lose a pound a week right there.

    Operating at a decrease of 500 calories a day should involve both eating less and moving more. For example, you could consume 300 fewer calories and bum 200 extra per day.

    Include both healthy eating and exercise in your weight-loss plan, and break the 500-calorie goal into small groups to make it more reachable.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    To cut 100 calories:{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Have vegetable pizza instead of pepperoni (意大利辣香肠). Use our Nutritional Needs Calculator to determine how many daily calories you should consume in order to lose, gain, or maintain your healthy goal weight. Once you've reached your goal, recalculate your nutritional needs for keeping extra weight off all summer long.

    To burn 100 calories: spend 15 minutes biking. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Spend 20 minutes gardening. Keep on exercising at least 30 minutes daily a week. Reading food labels and counting calories or writing down what and when you eat can give you more control as well.

A. Here are some simple ways to get there.

B. Walk or run one mile.

C. A pound is 3,500 calories.

D. It is okay to have some snacks between your meals.

E. You should always make sure you get a lot of sleep.

F. Anything more than that usually means you're troubling yourself.

G. Eat a chicken breast without the skin.

    I was on my school campus the other day, and there was an ice cream truck parked right in front of the main common areas of the school. I had never thought an ice cream truck would circle our campus and come for us, overgrown kids. I was intrigued and wanted to investigate（调查）further.

    I was quite surprised when the man in the truck called out,“ Free ice cream!”

    I questioned him just to make sure of his words, saying," I' m sorry, what did you say?"

    “Free ice cream. You have your choice of these four frozen treats: the rocket pop, the chocolate Eclair, the strawberry shortcake, or the drumstick.”

    After I was certain that the man was just giving away free ice cream, I talked with him for a while. He told me that his dream had always been to travel around giving away ice cream, and that's exactly what he did. And his passion was expressed through using up all his credit cards, sleeping in his truck, and living with his mother in a small flat, so he could continue to follow his dream during hard times .Now, he has sponsorships（赞助）from large companies such as Levi's to do what he loves, and he's gifted 125,000 of his truckload of ice cream treats!

    The man said he wanted to encourage people to do exactly what their hearts tell them to do with their lives. I kept asking him with respect," So your dream was just to drive around and give away ice cream? It seems like a very unusual goal."

    "Yes ,just meeting people and making them smile," he replied.

    The new study shows that we spend more time using the mobile Internet reading newspapers or magazines or doing some other things. According to the European Interactive Advertising Association(EIAA), the average European spends 4.8 hours reading newspapers and magazines but 1.6 hours more using the mobile Internet a week.

    The EIAA questioned 15,000 people in 15 European countries, looking at how people are using the Internet and its influence on their everyday lives. It found that the mobile Internet is increasingly finding its way into the public awareness. Over 71 million Europeans now have Internet access on their mobile phones. In the UK, 10 million people now access the Internet through their mobile phones and spend 6.3 hours doing so in a week.

    Unsurprisingly, younger generations in the UK are leading the way, with nearly half of the country's 16-to 24-year-olds and a quarter of 25- to 34-year-olds using the Internet, spending 6.5 and 6.2 hours online each week.

     Entertainment plays a main role in our mobile Internet lives, with one in five British people using their phones for online games, a third listening to the online radio and 39 percent watching films, TV or other videos at least once a week. One third of those using an Internet phone said they received videos, images or other multimedia on their mobile, and 61 percent said they passed on contents they received.

    From a communication point of view, 80 percent of those questioned agreed that the Internet had made it easier for them to stay in touch with friends and family.

    Alison Fennah, director of the EIAA, said the mobile Internet use had come to the point that marketers should be looking to develop strategies (策略) that connect with consumers more effectively. “Better devices as well as improved consumer motivation that start coming together in 2011 can make a great difference to extending the online experience.” Fennah said.

    Books at Amazon: Best sellers of the month—Feb, 2018

    Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi—February 6, 2018

    Hardcover: $15.91Audio CD: $29.99

    An extraordinary novel. Freshwater explores the amazing experience of having another self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born “with one foot on the other side.” Freshwater is a sharp call of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that shows how we all construct our identities.

    Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur—February 16, 2018

    Hardcover: $ 18. 00 Paperback: $ 8.99 Audio CD: $8.99

    A collection of poetry and prose (散文)about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse(虐待), love, loss, and femininity (女性). It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere; if you are just willing to look.

    Educated by Tara Westover—February 13, 2018

    Hardcover: $ 16.80 Paperback: $ 28.00 Audio book: $6.00 Audio CD: $8.99

    An unforgettable biography about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the sadness that comes from severing one's closest ties.

    Force of Nature by Jane Harper—February 20, 2018

    Hardcover: $17.10 Paperback: $ 23.41 Audio book: Free Audio CD: $ 34. 15

    An attractive novel from the author of the Sunday Times top 10 best seller. Five women go on a hike. Only four return. When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path. But one of the women doesn't come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.

    In China, Major Cold (大寒) is the last solar term in winter and also the last solar term in the annual lunar(阴历的) calendar. In this period, snow, rain and icy cold weather have a big influence on people's lives.

    Here are several things you should know about Major Cold.

    Eating "dispelling cold cake" (吃"消寒糕")

    During Major Cold, people in Beijing have a habit of eating "dispelling cold cake", a kind of rice cake. Sticky rice, the cake's main ingredient, contains more sugar than rice, which can make people feel warm all over their bodies. In Chinese the word "rice cake" has the same pronunciation with the word "higher in a new year", which symbolizes good luck and continual promotion.

    Eating fried spring roll（吃春卷）

    In Anqing of Anhui province, people traditionally eat fried spring rolls during Major

    Cold. They use a round, cooked, thin pancake to wrap stuffing（馅料）in a thin roll. Then it is fried in a pan with oil until it turns yellow and floats to the top. The stuffing inside the spring roll contains meat or vegetables and the flavor can be salty or sweet.

    Drinking stewed soup

    People in Nanjing of Jiangsu province like to drink stewed soup during Major Cold, which can make people feel warm from head to foot. They always stew the aged hen soup with ginseng(人参), matrimony vine(枸杞) and black fungus(黑木耳).

    Doing winter sports

    There is a saying that goes, "Dripping water freezes during Minor and Major Cold." In various regions of China, Major Cold is the perfect time for winter sports such as skiing, ice skating and sledding.

When I was about twelve, I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter, and on that night the wind was really blowing hard. 

As my mum and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change(零钱). My mum right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car. 

My mum said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings(兄弟姐妹). But she didn't come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family. I wasn't there when that happened, but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people. A few days later, when I actually found out about what she had done, I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remembered the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different. 

Here I stood, dressed in almost new clothes, headed to eat in a restaurant and then went back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remembered thinking the other girl didn't have any food to eat and that she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people. 

After painting this picture in my mind, I understood why my mum had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I have ever learned.