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    Whenever you do things you don't like, you will start to hate yourself a bit more. You will hate yourself for not being consistent. For doing things you know that you don't want to do, another stress is right there.

Do less

    This is one of the hardest things, especially for me. I'm doing too many things at the same time. In itself, doing many different things to figure out what works and what doesn't isn't that hard. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} .But at some point you need to

     let go of the things that don't work and focus on the things that work. And that's the hardest part, at least for me.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} .And if you always try to make everything work, you'll usually end up with nothing working at all.

Get rid of complicated things

    There are many complicated（复杂的）things in life. Complicated relationships, complicated jobs, complicated whatever. what all of these things do is that they steal our focus. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} 

Read books, not blogs

    Blogs consist of too much information for our brains to process. Blogs usually leave out the story our brains need. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Don't believe me? Try it. What parts of this blog post do you remember? Probably none.

A. It's actually quite good.

B. Never hate to be yourself

C. Don't do things you don't like.

D. I always try to make everything work.

E. Our brains can make up a good story.

F. They also add an extra stress to our lives.

G. Our brains need a story to remember things.

    Today, the world's diversity (多样性) of food crops is quickly decreasing. But scientists around the world are taking action. They are building seed banks. At seed banks, scientists store the seeds of many different crops.

    There are now 1,400 seed banks around the world. However, some banks are in warm countries. If the electricity fails, the seeds will get too hot and die. Other seed banks are in countries troubled by war. Sometimes people damage the seed banks. If this happens, valuable seeds can be lost forever!

    The organization Global Crop Diversity Trust decided they wanted to deal with this problem. So, they decided to build a global seed bank. This seed bank would contain a back-up, or extra copy, of all the world's seeds. Smaller seed banks would still collect and keep local seeds. But they would also send copies of their seeds to the global bank.

    Scientists from the Global Crop Diversity Trust chose the cold, snowy mountains of Svalbard, Norway to build the global seed bank — the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (斯瓦尔巴全球种子库). Organizations, farmers, or local seed banks store their extra seeds there. And the people who place their seeds in the vault are the only people who can take them out. They pay to ship their seeds to Norway, but it does not cost them any money to store their seeds. The Global Crop Diversity Trust pays for this.

    Cary Fowler is a scientist who heads the Global Crop Diversity Trust. He said, “If the Seed Vault simply supplies seed banks with copies of seeds that those banks lost by accident, the Seed Vault will be worth more than it cost.”

    Around this time a few years ago, it was common to see videos of friends on social media having a bucket of icy water thrown on them. Known as the “ice bucket challenge”, it was created as a way to raise money for the medical condition ALS. But now, there's a new challenge and this time, no water is involved.

    What is it? Well, think of a fruit that you'd never normally sink your teeth into. Perhaps you've got it: a lemon. While we enjoy using lemons to add flavor to dishes, very few of us would actually eat one as we'd eat an apple or an orange.

    But the horrible taste is the precise reason why the “lemon face challenge” is taking off. Participants bite into a lemon, taking a selfie as they do it before posting the photo online. The fun is all about expression people make as all that citric acid (柠檬酸) hits their taste buds (味蕾). Every expression seems to say, “This is worse than freezing water.”

    The serious side to this trend is the good cause it's all in aid of. The challenge aims to raise awareness of a rare brain cancer that affects young children. It was started by Aubregh Nicholas, an 11-year-old US kid. She was diagnosed with this rare brain cancer herself in September 2017, but has since raised almost $50000 to cover her medical expenses thanks to the challenge.

    If a challenge is going to raise publicity and contributions from people, it has to be something interesting and original. That way the ice bucket challenge took off in 2014 and it explains why so many people are now sharing their lemon faces. There are a lot of stories about the downside of social media these days. The charity challenges, however, show how online culture can unite the world and bring help to the people who most need it.

    It seems that no one can live a happy life without friendship. While a great number of people expect others to be their friends, they don't give friendship back. That is why some friendships don't last long. To have a friend, you must learn to be one. You must learn to treat your friend the way you want your friend to treat you. Learning to be a good friend means learning three rules: be honest; be generous; be understanding.

    Honesty is where a good friendship starts. Friends must be able to trust one another. If you do not tell the truth, people usually find out. If a friend finds out that you haven't been honest, you may lose your friend's trust. Good friends always depend on one another to speak and act honestly.

    Generosity means sharing and sharing makes a friendship grow. You do not have to give your lunch money or your clothes. Naturally you will want to share your ideas and feelings. These can be very valuable to a friend. They tell your friend what is important to you. By sharing them, you help your friend know better.

    Sooner or later everyone needs understanding and help with each other. Something may go wrong at school. Talking about the problem can make it easier to solve. Turning to a friend can be a first step in solving the problem. So to be a friend you must listen and understand. You must try to put yourself in your friend's place so that you can understand the problem better.

    No two friendships are exactly alike. But all true friendships have three things in common. If you plan to keep your friends, you must practice honesty, generosity and understanding.

Ways to Save Money While Traveling

    Who doesn't like to save money when possible? Traveling can be expensive, but with the right strategy you can bring down the cost. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Look for free activities. If you do a little research, you'll see there are often lots of free activities in the area. Look at community calendars to see what is going on in town while you are there. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Museums often have a "pay what you can" day once a week and sometimes have discounted admission after a certain time of the day.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Although some people might not like to cook while on vacation. I don't mind making breakfast in my room. I love having a cup of coffee, but room service can be very expensive. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}A microwave and fridge will also be helpful for reheating leftovers.

    Shop at farmers' markets and local stores. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Also, shopping at local stores allows you to taste the local cuisine without having to pay the price of a restaurant.

    Buy some local fish and cook it up at your condo(公寓).

    What are your tips for saving money while traveling？

A. Rent an apartment instead of having to get two rooms.

B. Book a room with a refrigerator, microwave or kitchen area.

C. Try these tips on your next vacation and your wallet will thank you.

D. I try to never eat at attractions because they tend to raise the price.

E. Do a self-guided walking tour to make yourself familiar with your destination.

F. I'd rather eat in the room for breakfast and lunch and then splurge (挥霍) on a delicious dinner.

G. Farmers' markets often lower the price of their food towards the end of the day.

    It is widely accepted that nightmares (噩梦) are a reaction to negative experiences that happen during waking hours. However, some scientists believe that nightmares do have some real benefits. One 2017 study, for example, found that frequent nightmare sufferers rated themselves as more empathetic (有同理心的). They also displayed more of a tendency to unconsciously mirror other people through things like yawning People who have constant nightmares also tend to think further outside the box on psychoanalysis tasks. Some other researchers have found support for the idea that nightmares might be linked to creativity.

    People seeking cure for nightmares were not necessarily more fearful or anxious, but rather had a general sensitivity to all emotional experience. Sensitivity is the driving force behind intense dreams. Heightened sensitivity to threats or fear during the day results in nightmares, whereas heightened passion or excitement may result in positive dreams. And both these forms of dreams may feed back into waking life, perhaps increasing suffering after nightmares, or promoting social bonds and empathy after positive dreams.

    The effects go further still. This sensitivity overflows into awareness and thoughts －people who have a lot of nightmares experience a dreamlike quality to their waking thoughts. And this kind of thinking seems to give them a creative edge. For instance, studies show that such people tend to have greater creative talent and artistic express and people who often have nightmares also tend to have more positive dreams than the average person.

    The evidence points towards the idea that, rather than disturbing normal activity, people who are unfortunate in having a lot of nightmares also have a dreaming life that is at least as creative, positive and vivid as it can be distressing and terrifying. What's more, this imaginative richness is unlikely to be limited to sleep, but also is filled with waking thoughts and daydreams. Even after people wake up and shake off the nightmare, in other words, a mark of it stays behind, possessing them throughout the day.