You want to be happy, who doesn't? However, whether you procrastinate(拖延), feed negative self-talk, or don't rest your mind, you lower your potential to create happiness.

Procrastination

    You aren't in deadly danger if you procrastinate, but your system doesn't always take this information on board. You still react as though you are anxious and produce stress chemicals.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Your ability to see the big picture of life is reduced when you procrastinate. Therefore, you don't see as much joy.

Negative self-talk

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Taking notice of what goes on in your head and putting positive change in action makes negative self-talk useful. Nevertheless, most people don't recognize negative self-talk as a pointer; they feed it until it grows out of control.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Your mind contains an incredible amount of information and is more powerful than any computer many times over. However, if you give it too many tasks, you shut out peace of mind.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Thought-overload results in physical symptoms, like a racing heart and shortness of breath. Additionally, you might have sleeplessness, digestive problems and other symptoms of stress that reduce your happiness.

    If you want to increase the odds of being happy, don't procrastinate. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Similarly, don't overload your mind, give it a rest and you will soon notice you are happier.

    Winter is a really fun time of the year—it's great to have snowball fights and build snowmen.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}When it's cold outside and you're not prepared, you can feel uncomfortable. Lucky for you, learning how to stay safe is not difficult.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Wearing thick clothes is the best way to stay warm in the cold. Depending on where you live and how cold it is, some kids may need more clothes, some less.

    Take that hat. You maybe wear a large overcoat and ready to go, but are you forgetting something?{#blank#}3{#/blank#}You'll stay much warmer with a hat than without one—tons of body heat escapes right from your head.

    Drink up. Sounds like advice for hot weather, not cold weather, right?{#blank#}4{#/blank#}When you're outside in the cold and breathing hard, your body loses a lot of water through your breath. And the best way to get that water back is to drink up!

    Take it easy. Sometimes if you're out having fun, it's easy to forget to pay attention to your body. But if your body temperature drops even 4 or 5 degrees while you're outside, it can make you feel terrible.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}And if you ever feel weak, those are signs that you have to take it easy indoors for a while.

A. Love those clothes.

B. Have a snowball fight.

C. Pull a hat onto your head.

D. That's why you need to be careful with your body's signals.

E. Well, the truth is that it's good advice for both kinds of weather.

F. But you have to know how to be safe while you're out having fun.

G. You can stay outside as long as possible to fully enjoy your snow days.

How to Make Friends

    Friendship is a very important human relationship and everyone needs good friends.  Good friendship has many benefits.  It offers companionship, improves self-worth and promotes good health.  There are times in our lives such as when we have recently moved into a new town, or changed our jobs or schools.  Such changes often leaves us without a friend. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But for many of us the process is difficult and requires courage.  Below are some helpful suggestions on how to make and keep friends.

    ⒈Associate with others.

    The first step to make friends is associating with other people.  You can go to public places to meet new people.  Besides, you will need to make yourself known by becoming an active member of such places.

    ⒉Start a conversation

    Starting a conversation is the second most important step in making new friends. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}You can always start the conversation.  Being able to make small talk is a very useful skill in relating with other people. 

    ⒊{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Choosing friends with common interests is important in building friendship as these interests would always bring you and your friend together. Hanging out will always be a pleasant experience.

   ⒋Let it grow.

    It is a good thing to stay in touch.  However, try not to press your new friend with calls, messages or visits as this would likely wear him or her out and finally you may lose your friend. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.  The best friendships are the ones that grow naturally.

    ⒌Enjoy your friendship

    The best way to enjoy your friendship is to allow your friends to be themselves. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Try not to change them from who they are to what you want them to be.  Become the kind of friend you will want your friend to be to you.

A. Be cheerful.

B. Do things together.

C. Do not wait to be spoken to.

D. Try not to find fault with your friends.

E. Making new friends comes easily to some people.

F. For a friendship to develop you need to stay in touch.

G. So you will need to give your friend time to react to you.

Test-taking tips

    Do you sweat, check your pencil, and feel butterflies in your stomach as your teacher hands out the test paper? A lot of people feel anxious when it is time to take a test. Here are some tips for taking tests:

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Your memory recall will be much better if you have had enough rest. In a scientific study, people who got enough sleep before taking a math test did better than those who stayed up all night studying.

    Read the test through first. Once you have the test paper in front of you, read over the entire test, checking out how long it is and all the parts that you are expected to complete.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.If something seems unclear before you start, do not worry: ask the teacher.

    Focus on addressing each question individually. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. Instead, answer the best way you can or skip over the question and come back to it after you have answered other questions.

    Relax. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Of course you cannot get up and move around in the middle of a test, but you can wiggle your fingers and toes, take four or five deep breaths. As we all know, it can be easy to forget things we know well. During a test, if you forget something and start to get nervous, it suddenly becomes much more difficult to remember.

    Finished already? Although most teachers will let you hand your test paper in early, it is usually a good idea to spend any extra time checking over your work. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. On the other hand, if you have 5 minutes until the bell rings and you are still writing, end up whatever you are working on without panic.

A. This will allow you to decide how much time you have for each section

B. Be sure you have studied properly

C. Get enough sleep the night before the test

D. As the teacher hands out the test paper, be sure you know what is expected of you

E. As you take the test, if you do not know an answer, do not worry about it

F. You can also add details that you may not have thought you'd have time for

G. If you are so nervous that you blank out, you might need a mini-break

I have met many westerners who do not feel anything to put their feet on the table while sitting on the chair.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}They don't feel like it is a strange or rude thing to do it. And I-know that they don't mean to be ill-behaved. However, in the eyes of a Myanmarese, it is really a very rude thing.

For Myanmarese, the head is the most sacred (神圣的) part of the human body while the feet are the most inferior part.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}They touch ground, dirt, mud and garbage. Just think of all the dirty things lying on the ground. So the Myanmarese regard feet as the most dirty and smelly part of one's body.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}When you put that dirty part of your body onto other people's clean table, it is like an insult (侮辱) to that person if that person is a Myanmarese. There is nothing more insulting to a Myanmarese than to point your feet towards him.

So, if you want to win the heart of your Myanmarese friends, next time when you drop in on him or he visits you, try not to put your feet on the living room table or point your feet towards him. Indeed, your feet should never be pointing to the direction of a person or a sacred place.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Possibly, your Myanmarese friend will not say anything even if you do it. But it does not mean that he is OK with your behavior or approves of your behavior.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Even if that person is your employee or your house maid, you should never do it to him or her.

A. This seems a normal habit to them.

B. In his heart he will consider you as a rude person.

C. Whatever you do, don't touch the head of a Myanmarese.

D. This is the rule that you must strictly follow in Myanmar.

E. Being the lowest part, they are also considered the dirtiest part.

F. For Myunurese，the dirty part should only be in the lowest place.

G. Myannmarese people do not express themselves as directly as Westerners.

As the world struggles to deal with the climate crisis, some companies are working to remove polluting carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, but two US companies have recently made important progress.

Scientists say large amounts of CO₂ must be removed from the atmosphere and stored. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. But there's so much CO₂ in the atmosphere that just planting trees and protecting forests won't solve the problem. In addition, when plants and trees die, the carbon they've stored gets released again.

That means humans need to come up with ways of removing carbon from the air and storing it. This is called Direct Air Capture (DAC). The science of removing carbon from the air is challenging, and it's still pretty new. Most DAC processes require a large amount of energy, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

A company called Heirloom has just opened the first DAC plant in the United States. The company heats up the limestone (石灰岩)to separate out the CO₂, which is then locked away in concrete (混凝土). The process is extremely expensive. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. That's a tiny amount compared to how much carbon needs to be removed from the atmosphere, but the company says it hopes to remove a billion tons per year by 2035.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Some people worry that it will take too long for DAC technology to become powerful enough to make a difference. Others worry that focusing on removing carbon could take attention away from more important climate actions, like switching from fossil fuel s to renewable energy. But experts say the decision isn't to do one or the other. The world needs to end fossil fuel use and pull carbon out of the air.

A. It's a huge and challenging goal

B. Plants and trees can do this naturally

C. Everyone is not excited about carbon removal

D. The new plant can remove 1,000 tons of CO₂ year

E. Graphyte is another US company working on DAC

F. and CO₂ is just a small part of the gasses that make up air

G. so one puzzle for these companies is how to remove carbon without creating more pollution