How to plan for a perfect holiday

    People often dream of a perfect holiday with white sands, blue beaches and so on. But sometimes planning a trip can be difficult. Here are some tips to make your holiday a memorable one.

    Set a budget. Before making a plan for the holiday, the most important thing is to plan how money will be spent. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Plan ahead. The first thing you need to do is to be sure of what you need from this trip. Do you want to experience the local culture or just have fun on those sandy beaches?{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Read up before you go. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Buy a good guidebook and read up on the culture, history, local attractions of the place. You can also surf the internet for more information. The more you know, the better you can enjoy the place and its traditions.

    Pack light and right.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Avoid carrying unnecessary things around. A heavy luggage may sometimes influence your holiday spirit. Carry clothes that are comfortable and right for the season. Try to put everything you need in a single carry-on bag.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Unreasonable expectations can lead to a lot of stress. So enjoy each moment, whether good or bad.

A. You had better look for information before visiting an unknown holiday place.

B. All you need is to get away from busy people and the world.

C. Always book your stay.

D. Have realistic expectations.

E. It helps you to plan and enjoy the trip within your limits of money.

F. Pack only the important things.

G. You can plan your trip according to your needs and likes.

Simple Ways to Build Trust

    The most valuable thing you can have is trust. When there is no trust, it becomes hard to get anything done. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Then think of another one with very little trust.

    Which one do you prefer?

    We can all be better off with more trust in our lives. And I'm going to show you a few things you can do to build trust.

    Be honest. Honesty is the basis of any relationship. Be true to your word and keep your promises. Share honest information, even if it's to your disadvantage.

    Ask open-ended questions.  {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Open-ended questions give your friends chances to tell you about themselves. Ask more questions based on the answers that you get.

    Don't be perfect. There's always something fishy(可疑的) about someone who seem to have everything going for them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} This sends a message that you're not hiding anything and that you want to build trust.

    Say what you mean. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} When you build up a reputation of saying what you mean, people don't have to second-guess what you are trying to say. This helps you win trust.

    Don't blame others. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Be brave to take responsibility and then decide what you are going to do next. Don't waste the present thinking about the past which can't be changed. A person that doesn't blame gets the trust of others quickly.

A. If you think it's a bad idea, say so.

B. When things go wrong, don't point the finger at them.

C. Value long-term relationships more than short-term success.

D. Don't waste your energy hiding your mistakes or weaknesses.

E. Think of one of your relationships where there is a lot of trust.

F. Learn more about your friends and be interested in their answers.

G. Trust may be the most important part in successful relationships.

    As scientists in the Netherlands tried to figure out how to build a super flying robot, they learned from one of nature s flyers: the humble fruit fly(果蝇).And by building this robot, they've gained new insights into how the fly carries out one of its dangerous tasks.

    The robot is called the DelFly Nimble Its wingspan(冀展)is about a foot wide. It has four wings that can beat at 17 times per second, which appear very delicate because they're made of the same material as space blankets.

    In the previous designs, they always had a tail, like a traditional airplane tail, said the robots main designer Matej Karasek. He's based at the Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and he and his colleagues published their findings on Thursday in Science

    “In the previous generations", he said, "flapping wings drove the robot forward while the tail helped to guide and stabilize it. But now the DelFly Nimble is completely controlled by the wings. The challenge then was actually combine the control into the wing movement, and that's what we achieved, Karasek said

    In the latest generation. the wings can each move individually or rotate(旋转)around the body of the robot in order to maximize the machine s agility(灵活 ) The robot can remain in one place in the air for about five minutes on a full battery or fly for more than a kilometer"， Karasek said, "And because the scientists are controlling all the movements, they can use the robot to learn more about how fruit flies actually carry out their dangerous tasks, which has caught the attention of biologists.”

    It's hard when a best friend isn't around—maybe because he or she moved to a different school or a different class. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} You want to have new friends, but how do you make? Maybe it seems that everybody else already has his or her friends.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Start by looking around your classroom—think about which kids you'd like to play with at break. Look for chances to say hi to them, smile, and be friendly.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Invite someone to play with you or say "Do you want to sit here?" in the lunchroom. When you're at break, walk over to kids you want to play with, act friendly, and say "Hi, can I play, too?" or just join in.

    If you have trouble doing this or if you're feeling shy, ask your teacher to help you make new friends. Teachers are usually pretty good at matching up friends.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Be kind, be friendly, share, say nice things, offer to help—and pretty soon, you'll have one, or two, or even more new friends.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} But when you see each other, you can share something you didn't have before he or she left: You can introduce him or her to your new friends!

A.The best way to make friends is to be a friend.

B.What's right for me?

C.But remember, there's always room for more friends.

D.You might still miss that special best friends.

E.Offer to share something or offer greetings.

F.You may feel lonely at break or lunchtime.

G.Make a choice in your life.

    It's the water that makes our daily lives possible. That's why protecting source water is one of the primary missions at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. We provide safe, clean drinking water to 1.8 million residents in Prince George's and Montgomery counties.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    One way we protect the water is through the watershed. The watershed reduces the pollutants reaching the reservoirs. They hold the source water that provides 30 percent of our customers with drinking water. That's over 600,000 people. For many years, we have issued permits to allow limited recreational use of the watershed. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It's a quiet, beautiful area away from urban stress and traffic. And we use it ourselves and other activities to promote water and environmental awareness.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Last year, the WSSC issued new regulations with new restrictions impacting all users, including, closing the watershed a month earlier in the fall and opening it a month later in the spring. We also limited horseback riding to the access roads. Our goal was and is to protect the watershed.

    A very small but vocal group felt we should have consulted them first. Perhaps afterward we should have. But I do want to make one thing very clear. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} But we cannot allow the interests of a tiny group to override (不理会) the well­being of the WSSC customers who drink the water from those reservoirs. There must be a balance.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} So we hired a consultant to gather data, gather input from watershed users, and assess the condition of the watershed. We also asked them to look at our operations and management practices and provide the WSSC with findings and recommendations on how to make improvements.

    It's time to work together to protect the water and provide appropriate access to the rare jewel we call the watershed.

A. We certainly understand the attraction.

B. At no time did we consider closing the watershed entirely.

C. However, only a few people like saving water.

D. But most importantly it's about protecting the water.

E. The government has taken some strong measures.

F. We take that responsibility very seriously.

G. A review of our watershed policies and regulations was overdue.

Would you drink water that had once been flushed down a toilet? After it's been cleaned, that is. The climate is warming, and the population of drought-prone states California continues to grow. So recycling wastewater into drinking water may become a necessity.

But, it can be really hard for people to get over their disgust at the thought of drinking recycled water. People are grossed out by cycled water, because it was once wastewater—you know, the stuff that goes down your kitchen drains, your showers, your toilets. And even though it's cleaned up to a standard that is identical, if not better, than commercially bottled water, the key barrier to recycled water acceptance is people's disgust regarding it, " said Daniel Harmon, a psychologist in University of California.

In one experiment, the researchers had some participants watch a short video promoting water conservation. And in another experiment, they added a video explaining why recycled water might trigger disgust even though all pollutants have been removed. And neither video had a strong effect on people's willingness to drink recycled water or to support the practice.

The messages were not enough to get them to actually use recycled water more. "Disgust is such a powerful reaction that simply giving more information is not going to really be effective. " The study appears in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Researchers say it's probably going to take a lot more to get people to embrace recycled water. For example, it might help to see members of their community drinking water that's gone, as it's called, from "toilet to tap, " with no ill effects.

It is clear that these kinds of more direct campaigns for acceptance are necessary to get people to get over that psychological barrier—to take that first sip, so to speak. Cheers!