Please Don't Be Afraid To Travel On Your Own

    You want to travel. You make an unclear plan. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But either way, you're leaving in six months time. You start doing research every single night.

    Of course, as this will be your first ‘real' travel experience, you naturally prefer to travel with other people. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} But the first friend you ask, perhaps your closest friend, turns you down and so you move on to the next friend. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The third friend, the fourth friend and even that guy that you don't really like say no as well.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}You hope that one of your friends will change their mind and decide to join you. Maybe you decide to forget about your trip altogether, fully believing that you can only travel so far away from home with a friend or travel companion (同伴) by your side.

    Don't give up just yet. Here's my advice to you. You may be on your own when you board that flight to Bangkok or Mexico City, but believe me, once you arrive, you'll never actually be alone. That's how travel works. Unless you stare at the ground and never talk to anyone, you're going to meet people when you travel, lots and lots of people from all over the world. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Don't give it up.

B. Maybe you'll fly to Thailand or to Mexico.

C. Meeting new people is one of the worst things to do.

D. But they too, tell you they have no interest to join you at all.

E. They will be interested in meeting and hanging out with you.

F. So you start asking your friends to join you in your journey.

G. Maybe you decide to put off your trip for another six months.

    Experts say that, among young Internet users, it's not boys who create most web content. The pioneers of the Internet at the moment are the girls.

    According to Jenny Baker, whose hobbies are designing icons（图示）, most boys just aren't patient enough for blogging, uploading photographs, and creating their own websites. Jenny posts her pictures on her own website, and believes that most boys don't often have their own sites. She thinks it's mainly girls.

    And Jenny is right. A study shows that, among Internet users aged 12 to 17, a lot more girls blog than boys (35 percent of girls compared with 20 percent of boys). A lot more girls also work on their web pages (32 percent of girls compared with 22 percent of boys). Girls are also ahead of boys in working on websites for other people.

    Some girls have their own teenage podcasts（播客）which have become very successful and sometimes the creators have their own TV shows too. When asked what they think about the study that shows girls are more active on the web, they say that they're not surprised because girls are very creative, and sometimes more creative than boys.

    Other girl have started interactive（交流的）e-zines with articles written for girls by girls. “Girls from everywhere read our articles, and they ask lots of questions,” they say. “I think girls like to help other people more.” One expert said: “If boys were more interested in helping other people, the numbers would be different.”

    But if girls are more interested in computers, why do women only have 27 percent of computer-related jobs? Maybe this will change in the future—after all, girls like these will be in the job market before too long.

    Researchers continue to show the power behind our sense of smell. Recent studies have found, among other things, that the smell of foods like pizza can cause uncontrollable anger in drivers on roads.

    The review explains that smell is unique in its effects on the brain. According to Conrad King, the researcher who carried out the review, “more than any other senses, the sense of smell goes through the logical part of the brain and acts on the systems concerned with feelings. This is why the smell of baking bread can destroy the best intentions of a dieter.”

    Smell, which dictates(决定) the unbelievable complexity of food tastes, has always been the least understood of our senses. Our noses are able to detect up to 10,000 distinct smells. Our ability to smell and taste this extremely large range of smells is controlled by something like 1,000 genes (基因), which make up an amazing 3% of the human genome. Researchers Richard Axel and Linda Buck were together awarded a Nobel Prize in 2004 for their ground-breaking research on the nature of this extraordinary sense. These two scientists were the first to describe the family of 1,000 olfactory (嗅觉) genes and to explain how our olfactory system works.

    According to one study in the research review, smelling fresh pizza or even the packaging of fast foods can be enough to make drivers feel impatient with other road users. They are then more likely to speed and experience uncontrollable anger on roads. The most reasonable explanation is that these can all make drivers feel hungry, and therefore desperate to satisfy their appetites.

    In contrast, the smells of peppermint and cinnamon were shown to improve concentration levels as well as reduce drivers' impatience. Similarly, the smells of lemon and coffee appeared to promote clear thinking and mental focus.

    However, the way genes regulate smell differs from person to person. A study by researchers in Israel has identified at least 50 olfactory genes which are switched on in some people and not in others. They believe this may explain why some of us love some smells and tastes while others hate them. The Israel researchers say their study shows that nearly every human being shows a different pattern of active and inactive smell-detecting receptors.

    Two weeks before the examinations start, you should make a revision timetable. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Closer to the exam week, you should revise one subject for one hour each evening.

    During the examination week you will probably have some time available to revise. Makea special revision timetable for this period. This time is not an extra holiday or a chance for you to stay in bed!

    Never try to revise one subject for too long at a time. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    When you learn anything by heart, you must make sure that you understand it. Always go back after three days and make sure that you still know it. If you have forgotten it, it means that it only centered your short-term memory. Learn it again and go back to it after a couple of days. Once you can repeat it accurately after three days, the information has entered your long-term memory. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    It is useful to make revision notes from your textbook or file but you must not assume that making these notes means that you know them. Learning them takes much more time and effort and you must always check your memory after a few days.

    Some definitions（定义）, such as those you are given in mathematics, must be remembered accurately. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Repeat it over and over to yourself when you get the chance. Check that you still know it after a few days.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Revision is not something that can be achieved by just reading a chapter in a book and vaguely（模糊地）remembering a few sentences immediately afterwards. This is true for class tests as well as for examinations.

A. Write the definition out three times.

B. Make sure that you can do well in your exams.

C. One and a half hours per subject are long enough.

D. Keep checking every couple of days to make sure that it has.

E. Try to revise one subject for at least half an hour each evening.

F. You should turn to others for help if you meet with difficulties.

G. To revise or to learn your lessons you need to spend time and effort.

    If you're planning to organize a summer camp, you need to have a good plan of action. First of all, you should have a theme. For example, if you're planning a lot of games, you could call it "the adventure land" or something like that. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    If the summer camp is going to be an overnight program, then you have to keep the kids busy with different activities. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Games act as one of the best ways for kids to relax. They also help kids get along well with each other and develop the ability to work in a team.

    Kids at the summer camp need to be on their own for some time. Make sure your plan has some free time for them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} You could even encourage them to write down their thoughts about the summer camp. Be careful not to force them to do some things; let them be on their own.

    Your summer camp program can have a special day. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} During this day, children can show their culture as well as learn about others. Also you can have a gift day, which means every child has to show their gifts, like dancing, singing or painting.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Let children do certain experiments or go around the campsite and ask them to find the scientific names of trees. Make sure you make this activity fun and interesting, so that the kids don't complain about it being a study activity.

A. You'll have a wonderful summer camp.

B. For example, you can have a culture day.

C. This time may be used to make new friends.

D. And an art camp can have a theme like "paint the world".

E. This may develop confidence in them to enjoy these sports.

F. You can devote a day or two to science and nature activities.

G. So plan interesting games like English corners, races and so on.

    Technology offers conveniences such as opening the garage door from your car or changing the television station without touching the TV.

    Now one American company is offering its employees a new convenience: a microchip implanted (植入) in their hands. Employees who have these chips can do all kinds of things just by waving their hands. Three Square Market is offering to implant microchips in all of their employees for free. Each chip costs $300 and Three Square Market will pay for the chip. Employees can volunteer to have the chips implanted in their hands. About 50 out of 80 employees have chosen to do so. The president of the company, his wife and their children are also getting chips implanted in their hands.

    The chip is about the size of a grain of rice. Implanting the chip only takes about a second and is said to hurt only very briefly. The chips go under the skin between the thumb and forefinger. With a chip in the hand, a person can enter the office building, buy food, sign into computers and more, simply by waving that hand near a scanner. The chips will be also used to identify employees. Employees who want convenience, but do not want to have a microchip implanted under their skin, can wear a wristband (腕带) or a ring with a chip instead. They can perform the same tasks with a wave of their hands as if they had an implanted chip.

    Three Square Market is the first company in the United States to offer to implant chips in its employees. Epicenter, a company in Sweden, has been implanting chips in its employees for a while.

    Three Square Market says the chip cannot track the employees. The company says scanners can read the chips only when they are within a few inches of them. "The chips protect against identity theft, similar to credit cards." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the chips back in 2004, so they should be safe for humans, according to the company.

    In the future, people with the chips may be able to do more with them, even outside the office. Todd Westby is Chief Executive Officer of Three Square Market. He says, "Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc."