A major source of teen stress is school exams, and test anxiety is not uncommon. When you recognize your teen is under stress, how can parents help your teen stay calm before an exam? Be involved. Parents need to be involved in their teen's work. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} What they look for is your presence — to talk, to cry, or simply to sit with them quietly. Communicate openly with your teen. Encourage your teen to express her worries and fears, but don't let them focus on those fears.       

    Help them get organized. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Together, you and your teen can work out a time—table in which she can study for what she knows will be on the test.       

    Provide a calm setting. Help your teen set up a quiet place to study and protect his privacy. Give them a nutritious diet. It is important for your teen to eat a healthy, balanced diet during exam times to focus and do her best. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If this happens, encourage your teen to eat light meals or sandwiches. A healthy diet, rather than junk food, is best for reducing stress.        

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Persuade y our teenager to get some sleep or do something active when she needs a real break from studying. Making time for relaxation, fun, and exercise are all important in reducing stress. Help your teen balance her time so that she will feel comfortable taking time out from studying to spend time with friends or rest.       

    Show a positive attitude. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Your panic, anxiety and blame contribute to your teen's pressure. Make your teen feel accepted and valued for her efforts. Most importantly, reassure your teen that things will be all right, no matter what the results are.       

A. A parent's attitude will dictate their teen's emotions.     

B. Exam stress can make some teens lose their appetite.     

C. They will only make the situation worse.       

D. Encourage your teen to relax.       

E. The best thing is simply to listen.       

F. Help your teen think about what she has to study and plan accordingly.    

G. Your teen may also make negative comments about themselves      

This Way to Dreamland

    Daydreaming means people think about something pleasant, especially when this makes them forget what they should be doing. Daydreamers have a bad reputation for not realizing what's happening around them. They can seem forgetful and clumsy(笨拙的){#blank#}1{#/blank#} They upsets us because they seem to be ignoring us and missing the important things..

    But daydreamers are also responsible for some of the greatest ideas and achievements in human history. Without wandering minds, we wouldn't have relativity(相对论), Coke or Post-it notes.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    So how can you come up with wonderful daydreams and avoid falling over tree roots or otherwise looking like a fool?

First, understand that some opportunities for daydreaming are better than others. Feeling safe and relaxed will help you to slip into daydreams.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} And if you want to improve your chances of having a creative idea while you're daydreaming, try to do it while you are involved(参与) in another task—preferably something simple, like taking a shower or walking, or even making meaningless drawings.

    It's also important to know how to avoid daydreams for those times when you really need to concentrate. “Mindfulness”, being focused, is a tool that some people use to avoid falling asleep{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Finally, you never know what wonderful idea might strike while your mind has moved slowly away{#blank#}5{#/blank#} .Always remember that your best ideas might come when your head is actually in the clouds.

A.It includes slow, steady(平稳的) breathing for self-control that helps people stay calm and attentive.

B. Therefore, it's a good idea to keep a notebook or voice recorder nearby when you're in the daydream zone.

C. At one time, daydreaming was thought to be a cause of some mental illnesses.

D. Can you imagine what kind of world we would have without such ideas and inventions?

E. Daydreams are often very simple and direct, quite unlike sleep dreams, which may be hard to understand.

F. They stare off into space and wander(闲逛) by themselves.

G. Having interesting things to think about also helps.

Home on the Way

    People need homes: Children assume their parents' place as home; boarders call school “home” on weekdays; married couples work together to build new homes; and travelers…have no place to call “home”, at least for a few nights.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Don't they have the right to a home? Of course they do.

    Some regular travelers take their own belongings like bed sheets, pillowcases and family photos to make them feel like home no matter where they are; some stay for long periods in the same hotel and as a result become very familiar with the service and attendants; {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Furthermore, driving a camping car during one's travel and sleeping in the vehicle at night is just like home.

    And how about keeping relationships while in transit？ {#blank#}3{#/blank#}; some send letters and postcards, or even photos；others may just call and say hi, just to let their friends know that they're still alive and well. People find ways to keep in touch. Making friends on the way helps travelers feel more or less at home. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Nowadays, fewer people are working in their local towns, so how do they develop a sense of belonging? Whenever we step out of our local boundaries, there is always another “home” waiting to be found. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} we can make the place we stay “home”.

How to protect your ears

    You and your friends are leaving a concert on a Friday night. When you get outside, your ears are ringing. You have to shout to be heard. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} So no harm done…right?

Not quite. Temporary buzzing may be easy to ignore, but repeated exposure to loud noise will eventually cause serious— and irreversible(无法治愈的)— hearing loss. A new study conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston shows that one in five people between the ages of 12 and 19 are experiencing slight hearing loss, and one in 20 have mild hearing loss. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}But the good news is that there plenty of ways you can protect your ears from further damage — and still listen to the music you love:

    Ask around. Put your earbuds in or your headphones on, and then ask a friend next to you whether or not he or she can hear what you're listening to. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Turn it down.

    Buy noise-canceling headphones. A pair of earbuds or headphones that fits comfortably will limit outside noise so that you can hear your music better at lower volumes.

    Take breaks.  {#blank#}4{#/blank#} So when listening to music, take your headphones off for 15 or 20 minutes and let your ears enjoy the quiet.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}You can buy a cheap pair at any drugstore as an easy way to lower volume at concerts — or while playing or practicing your own music — without changing the quality of the sound.

A. Use earplugs.

B. Keep the volume below 70 percent.

C. If the answer is yes, your music is too loud.

D. But by morning, your hearing is totally back to normal.

E. Like every other part of your body, your ears need rest.

F. Unfortunately, there's no way to get back hearing you've already lost.

G. The exposure to noise is louder and longer than in any previous generation.

    Empathy is the ability to imagine what it must be like in someone else's situation. It is an essential part of what it means to be human, to the extent that we are suspicious of anyone who does not show empathy in their behavior.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}We read novels, watch television and go to the theatre, and part of our enjoyment comes from understanding the dilemma faced by the characters because we know how we would feel if we were in the same situation.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}One study has shown animals displaying empathy towards other animals and towards humans. Creatures from across the animal kingdom such as bees and whales, as well as domestic pets, display behavior that suggests they cooperate with and protect each other.

    In another study, psychiatrist Jules Masserman and his team conducted an experiment with monkeys in which the monkeys pulled one of two chains that released food. One chain simply released the food, while another gave an electric shock to a second monkey. The first monkey stopped pulling the chain that delivered the shock.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}This empathetic behavior was observed in a number of monkeys.

    The origin of empathy is probably the need for the young of all animal species to be cared for. They communicate this requirement by crying for attention and to show pain. Both human and non-human young were more likely to survive if their parents reacted positively to their needs. People and animals alike are social beings and are more likely to work together.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}If we help others, we are also helping ourselves and so empathy is sensible and realistic.

    We don't always display empathy, however. Just as animals react aggressively to unknown creatures from their own or other species, humans tend to regard people they don't know with suspicion.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Our unwillingness to trust anyone unfamiliar is as natural to us as our empathy towards those we know and love.

A. To feel empathy is not restricted to real life.

B. You can empathize with someone without feeling sympathy for them.

C. This fear of strangers will, we believe, protect us from personal danger.

D. It seemed to be willing to go hungry rather than see a fellow animal suffer.

E. However, it seems that in fact empathy may not be a quality unique to humans.

F. Empathy plays a role in that as it allows us to understand our fellow humans better.

G. It's certainly difficult to understand an animal's intention behind an emphatic response.

    For the rest of March, a disease will sweep across the US. It will keep kids home from school. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Employees will suddenly lose their ability to concentrate.

    The disease, known as "March Madness", refers to the yearly 65-team US men's college basketball tournament (锦标赛). {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Teams compete against each other in a single-elimination (单局淘汰) tournament that eventually crowns a national champion.

    Nearly 20 million Americans will find themselves prisoners of basketball festival madness. The fun comes partly from guessing the winners for every game. Friends compete against friends. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Colleagues against bosses.

    Big-name schools are usually favored to advance into the tournament. But each year there are dark horses from little-known universities.

    This adds to the madness. Watching a team from a school with 3, 000 students beat a team from a school with 30, 000, for many Americans, is an exciting experience. Two years ago, the little-known George Mason University was one of the final four teams. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    College basketball players are not paid, so the game is more about making a name for their university and themselves. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} About 4 billion will be spent gambling (赌) on the event. According to Media Life magazine, the event will bring in 500 million in advertising income this year, topping the postseason income of every US professional league, including that of the NBA.