Tips for taking care of friendships

    Some people are meant to come and go from your lives quickly. Other friends may grow with you as your life changes. One way to keep friendships of any level strong is to take good care of them.

    Send handwritten notes

    Just find a note card, write something by hand, and then mail it. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Since electronic communication is becoming popular these days, a handwritten note can really make an impression.

    Be active in contacting friends

    Many people call up friends only when they need something. The problem with this is it makes it look as if you don't really care about your friend. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Regularly check in with your friends so they know you are sincere.

    Call up friends

    Electronic communication is great, but there is nothing like hearing your friend's voice to give you a lift. Make a point to call up friends and check in with them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Just a few minutes every month can make a difference in your friendship.

    Give meaningful gifts

    Put some thought into the gifts you give a friend. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} In fact, often the smallest but most thoughtful ones are the biggest hit.

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    People who argue from time to time actually have healthier friendships than those who never discuss their points of conflict（冲突）. Learn how to argue in a healthy way and work through the issues in your friendship.

A. Talk things out

B. Get together with friends

C. The phone calls don't have to be long

D. The presents don't have to be large or expensive

E. This will really stand out in your friend's mailbox

F. Discuss your issues with the goal of making your relationship healthier

G. Remember to call up friends or send an email to see how they are doing

    Theme park getaways are popular with families, but they sure aren't cheap. Happily, there are some golden rules of ticket-buying that apply to pretty much every theme park, and they can help you chip away at the cost of tickets. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Buy tickets online.

    Never ever pay the walk-up ticket price at a theme park. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You're guaranteed to save a significant sum-sometimes as much as $ 20 per ticket-even for same-day tickets.

    Buy in advance.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} For instance, Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, slices off $25 per ticket when you make your purchase at least three days ahead.

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    This one is a universal no-brainer. Single-day ticket prices at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, are about 30 percent less than admission on Saturdays and Sundays. But the big bonus is that lines will be much shorter, allowing you to spend less time waiting in lines and more time having fun.

    Go in the afternoon.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} For example, Hersheypark's sunset tickets allow entry after 4 pm or 5 pm, depending on the day. You'll still get between four to six hours of fun before the park closes, and you'll pay up to 50 percent less than the full-day ticket price.

A. Avoid weekends.

B. Buy more tickets than you need.

C. Here are some ways to lower your theme park spending.

D. At larger parks, you'll save money when you buy a package.

E. Instead, visit the theme park website and print out your tickets before you go.

F. Some parks offer deeply discounted tickets for visitors arriving later in the day.

G. Most theme parks offer a price cut if you buy tickets at least a few days before you arrive.

    If you stayed up or had a bad night of sleep last night, you know it's difficult to stay awake in class today. Your teacher's voice might begin to sound like a lullaby（催眠曲）.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}To keep yourself awake, some tips are worth trying in class.

    Sit in the front of the room. Why? {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Besides, it'll be easier to pay attention and participate when you're in the front. You'll also be near the people who are more likely to participate, and the sound of their voices might keep you awake.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Ask and answer questions and pay attention to the lecture. This will help if you're tired or discouraged by the content of the lecture, because you can ask your teacher questions to get to the bottom of the problems. Talking will also keep you engaged and alert. It might be helpful to make a goal for yourself to answer or ask at least 3 questions per class. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} For example, you might say “I didn't understand the last part of the proof. Could you explain it again in more detail?”

    Listen actively to the lesson. Active listening is a great way to force yourself to stay awake because it requires engagement of your mind as well as your body. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} To effectively listen to your teacher, you should try to maintain eye contact, face the speaker, pay close attention to what the speaker is saying and ask questions during a pause in the lecture.

A. Participate in class activities.

B. Develop interest in the subject.

C. If so, classrooms can be boring because you're tired.

D. Keep silent all the time and try to catch as much information as possible.

E. To avoid annoying your teacher you should try to keep your questions on topic.

F. You'll be more motivated to stay awake if you know that the teacher can see you easily.

G. Practicing active listening can help you keep your eyes open for the length of the lesson.

    Spring is coming, and it is time for those about to graduate to look for jobs. Competition is tough, so job seekers must carefully consider their personal choices. Whatever we are wearing, our family and friends may accept us, but the workplace may not.

    A high school newspaper editor said it is unfair for companies to discourage visible tattoos (纹身), nose rings, or certain dress styles. It is true you can't judge a book by its cover, yet people do "cover" themselves in order to convey certain messages. What we wear, including tattoos and nose rings, is an expression of who we are. Just as people convey messages about themselves with their appearances, so do companies. Dress standards exist in the business world for a number of reasons, but the main concern is often about what customers accept.

    Others may say how to dress is a matter of personal freedom, but for businesses it is more about whether to make or lose money. Most employers do care about the personal appearances of their employees, because those people represent the companies to their customers.

    As a hiring manager I am paid to choose the people who would make the best impression on our customers. There are plenty of well-qualified candidates, so it is not wrong to reject someone who might disappoint my customers. Even though I am open-minded, I can't expect all our customers are.

    There is nobody to blame but yourself if your set of choices does not match that of your preferred employer. No company should have to change to satisfy a candidate simply because he or she is unwilling to respect its standards, as long as its standards are legal.

    Some years ago, Michel-Andre found himself staring at the body of a dead whale on a beach in the Canary Islands. It was obvious that the animal had been struck violently by a ship——but why? Only later, after surveying the whales which lived in the area and measuring the increase of sound pollution from ships did it become clear that there was a link.

    The whales had become desensitised to the noise of approaching boats and were being struck by them, often seriously. "We never thought that this could be something that could kill," recalls (回忆) Andre, who is the director of the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics at the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona.

    Andre has spent 20 years developing an advanced system to better understand why incidents like this happen. His underwater microphones have exposed a world of deafening sound and animal communication never observed with such clarity(清晰) before.

    It was not an easy task. Sound waves don't travel through water in the uniform, predictable way they do through the air. Instead, the temperature, salinity (盐度) and, flow of water have great effects on their path.

    What can be done? One solution is to change shipping routes to courses where ships are statistically less likely to meet animals. It's also possible to slow ships down to 18km/h or less, which is less likely to seriously injure a whale.

    As for dealing with the root cause of the problem, the UN's International Maritime Organisation has already published guidelines on how to quieten ships, but it will be a while before the effects of such changes might be observed.

    "The ocean is not our world," comments Andre. But it is ours to look after. And thanks to his work, we can better understand the effects of subsea sound pollution.

    When it comes to learning a foreign language, many people wonder if they will be able to memorize enough vocabulary. But this question never happens about their mother tongue, and yet, it was a foreign language once. However, among all the questions that new parents ask, no doctor has ever heard: "Will my baby be able to learn my language?" Be honest, do you know all the words of your mother tongue? The answer is: "no".

    New words, and new ways of using old words, appear every day. Twenty years ago, who could have been able to understand a sentence like this: "Click here to download your digital book."? Nobody. You never stop learning new vocabulary and you never know how long you will need it.

    Sometimes, you have the word on the tip of your tongue...and it sticks there! But you do know this phenomenon(现象) and don't think that it is because of a bad memory. You should not give this phenomenon more importance in the language you are learning than in your mother tongue.

    You need to learn only 2000 or so basic words to be able to create any phrase you need. You can't avoid some work in order to learn these necessary words and all the more if you want to learn quickly. And before you consider buying into any method, be sure it is right for you. It is not wise to depend on any method based upon mnemonics(记忆群). The first few words seem very easy to learn, so you buy the course, but then you discover quickly, though too late, that a dozen words later, it is all the more difficult to learn a new word when you have also to learn the trick to memorize it.