Dear SJ,

    Losing a best friend is never easy.

    Your problem, is not just that you miss your best friend, it is that you feel empty and lost without her friendship.

    It takes time to get over a lost, and during that time, your mind is getting used to a new way of being. This is usually a good thing, even if it feels like a bad thing.

    Now that you are on your own, you are being forced to learn to be by yourself and to rely upon your own inner voice for guidance. I am sure that this feels strange for you, but if you can hang on for a bit longer, it may work to your advantage.

    Best friends are cool, but it is important to know the difference between missing someone and being too independent upon them.

    At your age, girls do tend to stick together and having a good boyfriend may not yet be the better choice. Your friend is leaving you, her best friend, for a boyfriend. Boyfriends are completely different from best friends. The distinction is that boyfriends come and go, while girl friends often stay in your life throughout high school, and even afterwards. It is a completely different sort of bond.

    I suggest that you take advantage of this period in your life to expand your horizons. Enjoy the freedom of having no best friend for a while, and hang with the group. By the time your former best friend breaks up with her boyfriend, you will be in a completely different place, a far better place.

    And, by the way, next time you feel empty and lost, try to write about it in a diary. In several months, you will look back and read it with curiosity about yourself. “Who was I then, and what could I have been thinking?”

How to Study Better

    If you want to study better, you should pay attention to learning methods, study skills and study habits. Developing them can help you learn better.

    Keep your study area tidy and organized. Papers, books, magazines, or pictures all over your work area may distract you from the work you have to do. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} If there are too many icons on your desktop, it is difficult for you to find what you need immediately.

    Maintain a quiet work area for yourself. Make sure your work area is free of distractions. There are too many distractions at home, such as a phone, music, TV, friends, or family members. Proper study space can usually be found in the public library, school library, or your bedroom. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} While learning, you need write, calculate and look up something. So it is very important and necessary to have all the necessary materials and tools that you need with you. In this way, you needn't be busy borrowing them.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} In addition to reading your textbook, it is helpful to read or view materials from other sources, such as newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and television programs. You can understand what you will learn in class better.

    Never forget to take notes carefully in class. Taking notes carefully can help to grasp the key parts. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} We can say that it is really a successful way to study.

    Have you ever wanted to travel back in time? What about traveling into the future? There's an easy way to do it. One way you can make a time travel journey is by writing a letter to your future self to be opened in the future. To your future self, the letter will be a visit from the past. 

    What can be gained by writing a letter to yourself? Depends on how good your letter is. You have the chance to say something to your future self. What would you want to say? You'll be able to talk to yourself 5,10,15 years down the road. There may be instructions for your future self, or you may have goals that you will want to reach.

    There are a lot of things you could include in your letter or letters to yourself. The more you include, the better the letter will be to you. Be creative with what you put in your letter. Include a picture of yourself or family to show the period from which the letter came.

    You can store your letter in many different ways. You can give your letter to a friend or family member to keep and mail to you. If you can get others to take part, have them write letters to themselves as well and ask someone to be the letter holder until it's time to send the letters. You can also use a service online to store your letter and e-mail it to you. Ready to write to yourself two and a half years down the road?

    Healthy eating doesn't just mean what you eat, but how you eat. Here is some advice on healthy eating.

    Eat with others. It can help you to see others' healthy eating habits. If you usually eat with your parents, you will find that the food you eat is more delicious.

    Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry. Have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty—sometimes you are just thirsty, you need no food. Stop eating before you feel full.

    Eat breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After you don't eat for the past ten hours, your body needs food to get you going. You will be smarter after eating breakfast.

    Eat healthy snacks like fruits, yogurt or cheese. We all need snacks sometimes. In fact, it's a good idea to eat two healthy snacks between your three meals. This doesn't mean that you can eat a bag of chips instead of a meal.

    Don't eat dinner late. With our busy life, we always put off eating dinner until the last minute. Try to eat dinner at least 3 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body a chance to digest most of the food before you rest for the next 8—10 hours.

    If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunity, you really have to see it.

    Men and women wearing old-fashioned, tattered(褴褛的)clothing dance in the street of towns and villages across the country during  the holiday periods. Women wear long，frilly (有 褶皱边的）skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.

    Some groups carry heavy black sticks which they bash (击打）against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air whilst they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when it's over, the dancers and spectators (观众）can sing some traditional folk songs over a pint of beer. The festivities (欢庆）will often continue long into the night, by which point most people are too drunk to think about performing again.

    Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis (危机).As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually, if nothing is done to change this trend, the tradition will die out within the next few decades.

    If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Putting it bluntly (直截了当地)，it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to be doing. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going clubbing (逛夜店)？ Or playing sport? Or doing anything else?

    However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and vibrant (有活力的)part of England's history and culture. It's important to look after some traditions and customs especially when it's something as harmless and happy as morris dancing. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.

    Desiree was only four when she lost her Dad. Instead of gradually adjusting to his death, Desiree refused to accept it and even wanted to die so as to be with her father. Concerned about her daughter, Rhonda turned to her mother, Trish Moore, for help.

    November 8 of 1993 would have been Ken's 29th birthday. So Trish advised Desiree to send her father a card. Desiree's eyes lit up as she dictated a letter, "Happy birthday, Daddy. I love you and miss you. I hope you get this and can write to me on my birthday." Trish wrote the message and their address on a small piece of paper and tied it to the end of the string on a balloon with a drawing of the Little Mermaid (美人鱼). Finally, Desiree released the balloon.

    On November 12 in eastern Canada, Wade MacKinnon was duck-hunting. Suddenly something in the bushes caught his eye. Curious, he approached to find a silver balloon. The letter finished with a mailing address in Live Oak, California. The balloon traveled 3,000 miles. What a coincidence! A Little Mermaid balloon landed at Mermaid Lake. To help Desiree, the MacKinnons wrote her a letter with a birthday card and an adaptation of The Little mermaid.

    The MacKinnons' package arrived later on Desiree's birthday. The letter read, "Happy birthday from your daddy. You must be wondering who we are. Well, it all started... There are no stores in heaven, so your daddy picked us to do the shopping. We know your daddy loves you very much and wants you to be happy and not sad. Lots of love, the MacKinnons."

    Tears in eyes, Desiree said, "I knew Daddy would find a way not to forget me." Next, Trish began to read the Little Mermaid to her, in which the mermaid was finally carried away by angels. "The mermaid goes to heaven just like Daddy!" Desiree said with delight. She understood then her father was with her always.