Thumbs Down to Texting （屈指发短信）

       Do you have a mobile phone? Do you send text messages to your friends and family?

       Text messaging or “texting” is becoming very popular. But, scientists have discovered that texting can give us problems with our hands. Be careful! Too much texting can cause swelling in our thumbs. Our thumbs were not made for pushing small buttons, over and over. Scientists call this problem RSI. We spoke to a doctor called Harriet Wilson, who treats many sick people with RSI. She says we need to see how much time we are spending in typing text messages. If we are spending more than 10–15 minutes at once, we could have problems in the future.

       As mobile phones develop, they are getting smaller with buttons closer together. Texting with a smaller phone is worse than using a larger phone with bigger buttons. Using a computer keyboard and playing video games can cause the same problem. So more and more people could find themselves with RSI. Among them, most are university students and teenagers, as they do not know the risks of spending so much time using computer, video games and mobile phones. If we don't do something about this, too many young people could grow up in terrible pain.

Is there anything worse than that? You bravely raise your hand to answer a question, but your teacher just point out that you're wrong. What a shame! What could the teacher make you suffer (忍受) this?

    Relax. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Your teacher isn't calling you out to humiliate (使丢脸) you, but rather out of concern for you and your education.

    Having all your classmates come to know your weak points can be pretty hard, so how can you get past the shame and recognize class participation as a learning opportunity?

    Get out of your comfort zone. Terrill Schumaker, a teacher, explains that “the more you speak out, the more you learn how to grow and build confidence. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}”

Realize it's not a big deal. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. People aren't going to care all that much. “If I'm wrong or make a stupid point, then people laugh at me, but life moves on” says Grade 12 Kristen Wesenberg. Besides, everybody makes mistakes, and you can't be perfect all the time.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Of course it takes courage (勇气), but as Wesenberg says, ―What's the point of living in fear?‖ You won't learn anything if you are not brave enough.

    Use the experience as a learning tool. Wesenberg advises asking teachers why you're wrong so they can explain and you can learn.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. If you're wrong now, at least you won't be wrong in your next test!

A. Be brave in class

B. Trust your teacher instead

C. Use class time as a mini—test

D. And it's not the end of the world

E. Then you can live an exciting life

    Have you ever counted the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number? Your number has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. That's because China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world. Why is that?

    The 11 digits can be divided into three parts. Each part has a different meaning. The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service provider (提供者) you are using For example, 135 is for China Mobile Communications Corporation and 188 is for China Unicom. The fourth to the seventh digits tell you where the number is registered (注册). And the last four digits are random (随机的).

    The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the largest population in the world. We once had 10 numbers. But as our population grew, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999. Eleven digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers. That's enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China.

    And mobile phone numbers can be recycled. Usually, the service provider will reuse a canceled number after three to six months. If you call a number that you haven't contacted (联系) for a long time, you may find that its owner has changed.

    Besides China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they cannot create as many numbers as we can. Countries like the United States, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada's mobile phone numbers are perhaps the shortest in the world: they use seven digits.

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    Friends are important in our life, because no one wants to be lonely. However, some people have difficulty in making friends and they often feel lonely. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} According to a new study from Chicago University, the reason is that this kind of people have brains（脑）different from common people. And they often feel unsafe when facing strangers.

Does that mean they have no way to become happy again?  {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Scientists of this study have thought up ways to help these people deal with their loneliness. They provided four steps for getting out of loneliness.

    The first step is to accept social invitations even if you don't want to go." It's not enough for people just to get in touch with others online. That's because most people don't show their true selves there," said Dr. Cacioppo, one of this study's scientists. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} As" actions speak louder than words", people need to be active to communicate with others. They also need to meet people with the same interests. Also, they should try to expect the best from each activity.  {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Who knows what good things are waiting for us?

    This graph shows the amount of electricity used in a small city. It is clear that the city uses more electricity in{#blank#}1{#/blank#}than in{#blank#}2{#/blank#}， In summer, people use the most electricity at 12:00. This is probably{#blank#}3{#/blank#}the high temperature at noon. In winter, people use the most electricity at{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. The graph also shows the amount of electricity used{#blank#}5{#/blank#}from 6:00 to 12:00. The amount of electricity used decreases(减少) from 18:00 to 24:00.

    Mary likes to run. Ever since she was in the third grade, she has been training to run long distances. Now that she was in her eighth grade, her parents agreed to let her run in the Banana Classic. The Banana Classic is a ten-kilometre race. It takes place every year in Mattydale. The winners get a lifetime supply (提供) of peanuts and fruit juice.

    Mary practised by running ten kilometres, twice every day. On the average (平时的) run, she would finish in thirty minutes. Last year's winner finished the race in twenty-six minutes and ten seconds!

    On the day of the race, Mary ran faster than she ever had in the past. As she came across the last kilometre, she was in the fourth place. She picked up the pace (步伐) and quickly reached the second place, just as she could see the finishing line. She ran as fast as she could in a mad dash (冲刺) to the finish line, but she just wasn't fast enough to get ahead of the leader.