A few things to do during weekends to improve your life

    Weekend at last! Something you're so looking forward to after a tiring week at work. Here are several tips on how to make the most of your weekends.

    Spend time with loved ones. Reconnect with family members or friends you neglected(疏忽) lately. Don't do it out of guilt or because you have to. Do it because you want to. Reach out to them to see how they are doing. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Return their calls if you were busy when they last tried to reach you. Talk to them. Listen to them. Be there for them.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Stay away from TV, iPad, iPhone and any other electronic devices. Unplug! Your brain needs to clear up from all the stress you've put on yourself during the week. Why not read a book instead? A paper one. Seriously, when was the last time you did that?

    Laugh, laugh and laugh again. You can never have enough of it. Laugh is the best medicine ever. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} For example, it helps you manage stress, strengthen your immune system and you are 40 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack.

    Express appreciation. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Be grateful for your family, friends, health, the food you put on the table, the clothes you wear and the air that you breathe.

    There you are. Doing a few things during weekends will have a positive long-term effect on your life. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

A. Apply the “no technology” rule.

B. Pause and pay attention to your thoughts.

C. Friendship is the best source of happiness.

D. Don't call them only when you need them.

E. Put them into practice and you'll beat the Monday Blues.

F. It benefits your mental and physical health in so many ways.

G. This is something you should be doing every day, not only on weekends.

    Six volunteers are about to find out what it would be like to live on Mars without ever leaving the Earth. Three men and three women will spend eight months living in a special place on the side of a volcano in Hawaii. They are part of an experiment that is designed to mimic（模仿）life on Mars. Their mission began on October 15, 2014. NASA says it could send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. The mission would take more than two years, so NASA needs to know how people would react to living in a small group, isolated from the rest of the world, for such a long time. Some people may become depressed or bored living under those conditions. By studying people living in similar conditions here on Eares NASA hopes to learn how to choose the most suitable people for a space mission, and how to help them get along.

    They will live in a two-story building. The ground floor is about 86 square meters, roughly the size of a small two-bedroom apartment. It includes shared areas like kitchen, dining room, bathroom, laboratory and an exercise room. The upstairs is less than half the size of the downstairs. It contains another bathroom and six small bedrooms. The building is located in an abandoned quarry（采石场）about 2,400 meters up the side of Mauna Loa, the second biggest volcano in the world. It is constantly monitored for signs of volcanic activity. NASA chose the location because the appearance looks very similar to Mars.

    To make it more like being on Mars in the future, they are only able to communicate by email during the experiment. Meanwhile, there will be a 20-minute delay between the time when a message is sent and that when it is received. When they go outside, they will have to suit up in full spacesuits, just as if they were on Mars.

    The commander is Martha Lenio, a 34-year-old Canadian. During the mission, she will run experiments on growing food. The other members have backgrounds in physics and so on. None of them are astronauts.

    A rising population is one of the main reasons that there is global warming. Between 1650 and 1850 the population increased by 0.75 billion people going from 0.25 billion to one billion. From 1930 to the end of the century the population rose from two billion to over six billion. In just a third of the time the population rose by more than five times what it did before. It is expected that this trend in the changing population will continue and could even heighten. The growing population requires increasing amounts of energy. These energy demands and other supplies require production, which almost always involves the emission of greenhouse gases. The more the population increases the more greenhouse gases that are produced and the greater the increase in temperature.

    The burning of fossil fuels is one of the best-known causes for global warming. The major reason for fossil fuels contributing so much to global warming is the release of carbon that occurs during the burning of fossil fuels. When people burn fossil fuels, they release large amounts of carbon by way of the release of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide in the air then leads to global warming.

    Another source of carbon dioxide comes from deforestation. In forests there is a large amount of carbon that is stored in the trees and other plants. This carbon is out of the atmosphere because the trees consume the carbon from carbon dioxide. When people cut down trees, they are frequently burned. This burning releases the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that was stored in organic matter. Even when new trees are planted, it can take up to one hundred years to make up for the carbon that was released. It is commonly thought that because trees absorb more carbon dioxide, the atmosphere experiences positive effects.

    Sophie Armstrong, the writer of Earth Care put it, “There's no doubt that the earth is becoming warmer because of human activity rather than a random but natural phenomenon.

    With my hands and knees on the floor of the airplane, I was searching for an old lady's missing hearing aid during the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. It occurred to me that this may not be the most dignified posture for a Buddhist nun(尼姑).

    I had seen the old lady from the seat in front of me as she walked up and down the passage with a flashlight. I asked a few times what was wrong, but she didn't answer at first —– she couldn't hear me. She was wearing a woolen coat. Judging from her accent, she came from Eastern Europe.

    Do you know how much hearing aids cost? Thousands, especially for the new tiny hidden-in-the-ear type she described. It takes a long time for an appointment to make a new one, and many doctor visits to get the thing adjusted right. Therefore, my dignity seemed less important than finding that hearing aid. But how does one find a tiny black object in a shadowy jet cabin（机舱）

    The lady wasn't even sure where or when she had lost it. At one point, a couple of flight attendants did a random search around the lady's seat; I wasn't impressed. They left suggesting that she search the seat of her previous flight! My flashlight turned up all kinds of small objects, bits of plastic, broken pieces of headphones.

    The old lady said that she gave up. Yet I couldn't. After we landed, as passengers streamed past us, I insisted that the lady move aside while awaiting her wheelchair. Then I got into a real down and dirty search among the dust under her seat and on the floor.

    Look! A little peanut-sized shiny black object caught the light of my flashlight in a floor crack near her seat.

    What a rush. “I found it!”

    With great astonishment and gratitude, the old lady responded, “I haven't the words to express my thanks!”

    Good morning. The program today is about music. The word “music” comes from the Greek word “muse”. The Muses are the goddesses of the arts. Music is only one of the arts. It is like the spoken language, but is uses sounds. Today's program brings together music from different corners of the world. Who invented music? Who sang the first song? No one knows exactly the answers to these questions. But we know that music plays an important part in almost everyone's life. Babies and young children love to hear people singing to them. When they are a little older, they like to sing the songs they have heard. When children go to school, their world of music grows. In the middle grades students take music lessons. When they reach high school, they become interested in listening to pop music.

    The records we have chosen for you today are form American country music, Indian music, pop music and so on. Music has meaning for everyone. It can make people happy or it can make them sad. In this program we shall study the language of music. We shall be trying to find out more about how music works. We shall try to find out how music says what people feel.

    Now, here comes the music today, I shall explain why they are all good music…

    A “Gap Year” is a period of time when a student takes a break before going to university. It is often spent travelling or working. It can give young people useful learning experiences and new skills.

    Gap years are popular with European and Australian students, but remain less popular in America. However, in recent years, more and more American students are preparing for college by taking a gap year. The advantages of taking a gap year are as follows：

Learn about the World and Yourself

    Although you don't have to go abroad to experience gap years, most gap year students catch the chance to travel abroad. You are able to work out who you are and what you are for. The experiences of different cultures offer you interesting lessons. You can learn more about the world and get to know yourself better.

 Face Challenges and Have Fun

    A gap year is not only a time to take a vacation, but also a time to face challenges. Gap year students usually work, volunteer or take service projects. You have to learn how to get along in the real world. This process isn't always easy, but it is an important part of growing up. Only in this way can you enjoy life and have fun.

Save Money and Improve Your College Admission Chances

    There's a common thought that gap years are only for rich students, but it's not true. Actually, taking a gap year can save your money. Gap year students often take a part-time job. Besides, at the end of a gap year, students are much more likely to know what to study in college. Clear learning goals ran keep the students working hard instead of wasting time and money playing.

    Imagine an admission officer trying to admit (录取) only one between two students. Both of them are excellent and have high grades. However, one student has much practical experience or has volunteered in his vacation. Who do you think the admission officer will choose?