It can be challenging to find time to work out(锻炼)when your schedule is full, but unless you want to deal with a waistline(腰围) that keeps increasing in size, staying active is important. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

Workday

    You might not have time to escape the office and visit the gym during your lunch break, but that doesn't mean you can't burn calories throughout your workday. Instead of driving to work or riding the bus, walk or cycle, depending on how far you live from the office. A 30-minute bike ride at just 12 to 13.9 mph will help a 155-pound person burn 298 calories. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Instead of phoning a colleague across the office, walk over to speak in person.

At home

    You probably want to sit or sleep on the couch, but by keeping active around the house, you can burn a significant number of calories throughout the day. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Playing with your kids for 30 minutes will help you burn 186 calories if you weigh 155 pounds, while you'll burn 167 calories in a half-hour house-cleaning session.

Outdoors

     {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you weigh 155 pounds, expect to burn 172 calories for every half hour you spend weeding the garden. You'll burn 205 calories in 30 minutes of pushing your lawnmower(割草机) around the yard. When winter arrives, cleaning snow is worth 223 calories per 30 minutes.

Other

    Everyday errands(差事) can help you burn extra calories when you can't find time to work out. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Washing your car by hand will burn 167 calories in 30 minutes. By parking your car at the far end of the parking lot, you'll burn more calories getting to and from your vehicle.

A. You can make adjustments to your lifestyle to include a variety of calorie-burning activities into everyday life.

B. Pushing a shopping cart around the supermarket causes 130 calories burned in a

half hour.

C. Instead of paying to clean up the yard, do it yourself.

D. At work, take the stairs instead of the lift.

E. Don't visit a car wash to shine up your ride.

F. If you have a family, play with your kids.

G. You have to find the time to work out.

    Our room was on the second floor but you could still hear the roar of the ocean and see the stars at night. I used to take long walks along the water. The food in town was wonderful and the people were very friendly. The area was very quiet and peaceful, and fairly deserted.

    The last evening of our vacation, however, we all heard strange footsteps following closely behind us as we were walking up to our room in the holiday centre. We turned around and noticed a fairly young man moving very rapidly across the beach and getting closer to us. He was tall and wore a baseball cap. We didn't have any cell phones on us. I never saw Dad as worried as he was then and knew that something was terribly wrong. The sense of fear started to overwhelm Mom and me. We had had such a good time in town. Now, the night was rapidly turning into a dangerous situation.

    We could hear the man's footsteps getting closer. Dad's face was almost pale. The so-called intruder (侵入者) had moved nearer and nearer when all of a sudden, the nearby vending (自动贩卖) machine started going crazy and spitting out cans of soda! The noise actually scared the intruder and he ran out of sight. My parents were shaking, but we all turned around to see who had put money into the vending machine downstairs, and actually saved us, but no one was around at all.Not a soul.

    It's one vacation I will never forget.

Seal(海豹) seizes raft

    This seal really rocked the boat when he found himself an unusual place to hang out. After the seal came across a boat in the harbor where he lives, he fell inside and wouldn't budge for four days.

“One morning the seal just pulled himself aboard,” says Ed Stubbings, who owns the boat-turned-bed. Probably thinking the boat was a rock, the seal made himself at home. The seal didn't move an inch—--not even to eat or drink.

    Stubbings was a little worried that the 500-pound animal might sink it. Luckily on the fifth day, the seal fell back into the water and swam off.

Alligator(短吻鳄)gets new tail

When Mr. Stubbs the alligator swims through his pool at the Phoenix Herpetological Society, he looks like any other gator—--except that his tail is made of rubber. Mr. Stubbs is the first alligator known to wear an artificial tail.

    Mr. Stubbs was brought to the society nine years ago. “His tail was missing when he arrived,” says President Russ Johnson. Mr. Stubbs couldn't walk or swim properly. “We showed him how to swim in the water,” Johnson says. “But that hurt his back.” Later, the scientists used rubber to build an artificial tail attached to Mr. Stubbs's back legs. “Once we put the tail on him, he walked with ease,” Johnson says.

Dog delivers papers

    Morgan started her “paper route” when she was young. One day as Morgan and her owner Bill set out on a walk, she spotted a rolled-up paper. To Bill's surprise, Morgan grabbed the object in her mouth, walked back to the house, and dropped it on the doorstep. Morgan enjoyed the activity so much that she wanted to deliver every paper she saw on her walks.

Now three-year-old Morgan brings the paper to her owner and neighbors, even in bad weather. “Morgan has a natural instinct(本能) to carry things with her mouth,” dog behaviorist Pat Miller says. “And she feels rewarded by the activity, so she keeps it up.”

    If you are given only 1 yuan, could you live in a city for one day? It seems this may be a little difficult. But students from Xi'an did it.

    On April 10, more than 60 students from the Middle School Attached to Northwestern Polytechnic University took part in the One Yuan Metropolis Survival. The charitable organization for teenagers called Imperceptible Education held this activity. Students not only have to live, but they also have to deal with a lot of hard tasks. It has happened in eight cities and is going to four others, including Beijing, in June.

    To make money, many students looked for part-time jobs and saw how hard life was. Zhang Queue, 14, asked more than 10 restaurants for a job and finally got one chance. “We were sad when they said no. But gradually (逐渐地), we got used to it,” he said. After being a waiter for an hour, he got 25 yuan.

    Some made use of their talents by singing and dancing in parks or shopping malls. Many people who walked by took notice and helped them. Zhao Jincheng, 14, drew pictures and made paper crafts(手工). “This showed it's important to learn a special skill,” he said.

    Living was hard, but finishing the tasks wasn't any easier. They went to different places to finish tasks in a short time. The most amazing one was when they had to exchange things worth thousands yuan with only a piece of paper in half an hour. “We learned how to persuade others. From a balloon to a cake to a bottle of yogurt (酸乳) … after almost 20 tries, we got an expensive necklace,” he said. They will give all of the money they made to poor schools in Tibet.

    Fix it on your own

    Did you know that a bowl of rice could save your iPod if you drop it in a swimming pool by accident? Or that the camera on your phone could tell you what's wrong with your TV remote control(遥控器)? The experts at Geek Squad have made a gadget (小机件) rescue guide. So, let's take a look at some of their useful advice.

    How to get more juice out of your phone battery (电池)

    If your battery goes dead but you need to get a number or send one last text, try warming it up. That may give you a tiny bit of power. Take the battery from the phone and rub it between your hands. Or warm it under your arm for a few minutes. Then try to start the phone-but use it quickly.

    What to do if your gadget gets wet

    First, try drying it out with a vacuum cleaner(真空吸尘器). If a vacuum cleaner isn't at hand, fill a pot or bowl with uncooked rice and put your wet gadget inside. The dry, uncooked rice will absorb all the water and, after a few hours, you should be able to use the gadget. Don't forget to remove the battery and SIM card before you dry it.

    What to do if your TV remote control stops working

    If replacing the batteries doesn't work, get the camera function up on your phone and point the remote at the lens (镜头). When you press a button on the remote, if it is working, the glass bobble (小球) at the front of the remote will light up when you look at it on the screen of your phone. This is because the screen on a phone or digital camera picks up infrared rays (红外线), even though your eyes don't. If the glass bobble doesn't light up, the remote is broken. If it does, the receiving device is broken.

    Reading books and looking at pictures is great, but nothing facilitates (促进) learning like travel, especially for teenagers. Not only do they get to see a world beyond their neighborhood, they also get to experience it, feel it, taste it, hear it and better understand the world around them.

    After nearly four decades in the classroom and traveling the world, Phyllis Duvall Bailey knew this perhaps better than anyone else.

    Becoming involved in the work in AKA Sorority Inc in US, she worked to educate children about the United Nations. There was no doubt in Bailey's mind that the lessons would mean so much more if the students could see things for themselves.

    Starting in 2015, Bailey, 82, set out to take her students to the UN Headquarters in New York City to give them a "Window Seat to the World", and thus transformed them into global citizens.

    Indeed, it is a great opportunity to give students national and international exposure. Since Bailey saw the students as future leaders, she was desperate to expose them to the UN, its mission, its agendas (议程) and its supporting organizations.

    She decided to give $10, 000 of her own money to pay for the late June trip, enough to take 10 students aged 14-17 on a four-night stay in New York. There, they had guided tours of the UN Headquarters and the New York City Harbor (海港).

    It was Quenyaun Payne's first trip to the city and Taylor Sappington's second. Payne, 17, is a senior at Mceachem High School in the state of Georgia, US. Sappington, 15, is a junior at Therrell High School in Atlanta, Georgia, US. Both said their visit to the UN was inspiring.

    "I like not only how countries are working together but they're focused on common goals like global warming and keeping peace," Sappington said.

Payne commented, "The trip was amazing. I'm so thankful Mrs. Bailey made it possible."

    Actually, there are a lot of people grateful for the retired teacher's effort. The United Nations Association of Atlanta recently gave Bailey its Humanitarian Award, and the United Nations Association of the US-awarded her with the National Education Award.

    But Bailey wasn't looking for recognition or even gratitude. Over those four days in New York, she'd already felt it and seen it in the eyes of those 10 teenagers, Payne and Sappington included, who made the trip.

    "It has been a real joy to get to see and watch their reaction to new experiences," she said.