When thinking about quitting(停止) smoking…

    List all the reasons why you want to quit. Every night before going to bed, repeat one of the reasons 10 times.

Decide positively that you want to quit. Try to avoid negative thoughts about how difficult it might be. Develop strong personal reasons as well as your health and responsibility to others. For example, think of all the time you waste taking cigarette breaks, rushing out to buy a pack, hunting a light, etc. Set a date for quitting — perhaps a special day like your birthday, a holiday. If you smoke heavily at work, quit during your vacation. Make the date holy seriously, and don't let anything change it. Begin to condition yourself physically; start a modest (适当的) exercise; drink more water; get plenty of rest.

    Immediately after quitting...

    The first few days after you quit, spend as much free time as possible in places where smoking is prohibited, e.g. libraries, museums, theatres, department stores, etc.

    Drink large quantities of water and fruit juice. Try to avoid wine, coffee, and other drinks which remind you of cigarette smoking.

    Strike up a conversation with someone instead of a match for a cigarette.

    If you miss the feeling of having a cigarette in your hand, play with something else - a pencil, a pen, a ruler. If you miss having something in your mouth, try a fake (仿制的) cigarette.

    It is sad to learn that fewer of us now own pets. According to Mintel, just 56% of UK households（家庭）today include a pet, compared with 63% in 2012. It is down to our smaller homes. The housing crisis（危机）is taking away one of our life's joys: pets.

    Pets can help us get over serious illness. Pets lessen our anxiety. Pets can be a godsend for people experiencing various forms of mental disorders. As if all that were not enough, pets also help their owners get a date because of complex psychological reasons.

    There do, of course, remain oppositions to the very idea of pets. The charity PET A puts it thus: “This selfish desire to own animals and receive love from them causes immeasurable suffering, which results from selling or giving them away casually, and taking away their opportunity to enjoy their natural behavior.” This is undoubtedly true in some situations. But seen from a different point of view, there's something quite lovely about the story of people and their companion animals.

    What was once a relationship based only on the animal's functional effects—its ability to kill pests（害虫）, guard houses, and the like—has developed into something much more about care and love.

    We share 84% of our DNA with dogs. We share 90% of our DNA with mice, for good ness sake. I have no idea how that works. But still pets remind（提醒）us we're part something bigger. Pets break down the barriers between us and the animal kingdom. We may teach pets to roll over, stand up, order takeaways and so on. But they teach us much more: that life is actually really quite short and so should be filled as much as possible with life-giving experiences.

    Are you preparing for a big test? If so, you may want to go to play some basketball in between hitting the books. Doctors are starting to find more and more information that suggests a connection between exercise and brain development. Judy Cameron, a scientist at Oregon Health and Science University, studies brain development. According to her research, it seems that exercise can make blood vessels, including those in the brain, stronger and more fully developed. Dr. Cameron is sure that this allows people who exercise to think better. As she says, "While we already know that exercise is good for the heart, exercise can actually cause physical changes in the brain."

    The effects of exercise on brain development can even be seen in babies. Babies who do activities that require a lot of movement show greater brain development than babies who are less physically active. Even a little movement can show big results. Margaret Barnes, a scientist, also believes in the importance of exercise. She thinks that many learning disabilities that children have in primary school or high school can result from a lack of movement as babies. Babies need movement that encourages and excites their five senses. They need to set up a connection between motion and memory. In this way, as they get older, children will begin to connect physical activity with higher learning," says Margaret.

    Older people can develop their brains as well. Cornell University studied a group of seniors who have a short-term memory increase of up to 40 percent after exercising just three hours a week. The exercise does not have to be very difficult, but it does have to increase the heart rate. Also, just like the motion for babies, exercise for older people should not be too simple. Learning some new skills or actions, such as with yoga or tai-chi helps to open up memory paths in the brain that may not have been used for a long time. For most people, any type of physical activity that increases the heart rate is helpful. The main aim is to increase the brain's flow of blood. And your brain can benefit from as little as two to three hours of exercise a week.

    As years went by, I realized that one of the biggest problems of these adults are worry. A large majority of students were businessmen, executives, salesmen, engineers, accountants: a cross section of all the trades and professions—and most of them had problems! There were women in the classes — businesswomen and housewives. They, too, had problems! Clearly, what I needed was a textbook on how to conquer worry—so again I tried to find one.

    I went to New York's great public library at Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street and discovered to my astonishment that this library had only twenty-two books listed under the title WORRY. I also noticed, to my amusement, that it had one hundred and eighty-nine books listed under WORMS. Almost nine times as many books about worms as about worry! Surprising, isn't it? Since worry is one of the biggest problems facing mankind, you would think, wouldn't you, that every high school and college would give a course on "How to Stop Worrying"?

    Yet, if there is even one course on that subject in any college in the land, I have never heard of it. No wonder David Seabury said in his book How to Worry Successfully: " We grow up with as little preparation for the pressures of experience as a bookworm asked to do a ballet (芭蕾舞)."

    The result? More than half of our hospital beds are occupied by people with nervous and emotional troubles.

    I looked over those twenty-two books on worry, reposing (靠) on the shelves of the New York Public Library. In addition, I purchased all the books on worry I could find; yet I couldn't discover even one that I could use as a textbook in my course for adults. So I decided to write one by myself.

    When she moved the covering cloth to look upon his tiny face, she was shocked. The doctor turned quickly and looked out the tall hospital window. The baby had been born without ears.

    Time proved that the baby's hearing was perfect. When he rushed home from school one day and threw himself into his mother's arms, she sighed, knowing that his life was to be full of heart- breaks for his imperfect appearance.

    He grew up, handsome for his misfortune and popular with his fellow students. He might have been class monitor, but for that. He developed a gift, a talent for literature and music.

    Two years went by. One day, his father said to the son, "You're going to the hospital, son. Mother and I have someone who will donate the ears you need. But it's a secret." The operation was a brilliant success, and a new person turned up. His talents blossomed into genius, and his school and college became a series of success. Later he married and entered the diplomatic service.

    One day ,he urged his father, "Who gave so much for me？I must know! I could never do enough for him." "I do not believe you could, " said the father, "but the agreement was that you are not to know... not yet."

The years kept their secret, but the day did come— one of the darkest days that a son must endure. He stood with his father over his mother's casket (棺材). Slowly, tenderly, the father reached out a hand and raised the thick, reddish-brown hair to show that the mother had no outer ears.

    "Mother said she was glad she never let her hair be cut, " he whispered gently, "and nobody ever thought Mother less beautiful, did they？"

    Real beauty lies not in the physical appearance, but in the heart. Real treasure lies not in what can be seen, but in what cannot be seen. Real love lies not in what is done and known, but in what is done and not known.

    As smog forced students to stay home, the online learning industry saw a sharp increase in consumers.

    During the air pollution red alert from Dec. 8 to 10 last winter, the Beijing Commission of Education ordered all kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools to suspend classes (停课). But the commission urged that, "Teachers should guide students to make full use of digital materials and conduct online learning at home".

    According to the China Education and Research Network, the number of new users of 17zuoye. com, an online homework platform, tripled (增至三倍) on Dec. 8 compared to the previous day.

    Online courses companies also adopted special measures to meet students' demand for Internet learning during the red alert period. For example, New Oriental offered free online English classes for three days for school students as well as online question answering services.

    Recent years have seen the popularity of online courses increase sharply in China. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC), for example, originated in the United States but have become widespread in China since 2013. Some Chinese universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University, have started their own MOOC platforms. "MOOCs have enlarged the time and space of teaching, fired up learners' interest, helped more people benefit from high quality educational resources and accelerated reform in many aspects of teaching," an official at the Ministry of Education told China Daily.