Being outspoken is a quality that, when used with skill and wisdom, can set you apart from the crowd. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The quality of being outspoken is a positive and active skill. Here are some tips.

    Gain self-knowledge(自找认识)through journaling. Knowing who you are, what you believe, and how you feel is the beginning of knowing yourself, and journaling is a great way to gain that knowledge. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Not only can you know yourself better, journaling is an excellent tool to improve self-confidence. Self-confidence is the foundation of being outspoken.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} In order to be outspoken, you have to believe that your voice has worth. You have to believe that your input will make any conversation better. And it probably will! It's different opinions that make conversations or debates interesting.

    Overcome shyness. The fact that you're confident doesn't mean you like hearing your own voice. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Overcoming a natural tendency towards shyness can seem horrible, but doing the opposite of your natural instinct can open up a whole new set of choices: brave choices.

    Back up your opinion with facts. Some people feel uncomfortable having or expressing an opinion because they don't know much about a topic. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

A. Be confident

B. Open your mind and speak it out.

C. The next step is overcoming your shyness.

D. Practice journaling for 15 minutes each night before bed.

E. Being outspoken is to speak your mind—to be honest and frank.

F. Allowing the other parties to make their points fully can help you seem more reasonable.

G. You can combat this feeling and have more confidence about your opinion if you learn facts that can support your opinion.

    Humans have launched themselves into the outer space. They've landed on the moon. They've built habitable space stations that orbit the Earth. The next giant leap for mankind is to reach another planet – specifically, Mars.

    The problem is that it's no easy task. The planet is 586 times further away from the Earth than the moon, and it'll take around 180 to 220 days to reach Mars, depending on where each planet is in its orbit. Such long periods in space have suggested many potential health problems, including hormonal changes, skin conditions, and muscle and bone deterioration (损耗).

    Here's where some furry friends come in. A wide range of animals have been in space, from fruit flies and spiders to cats, and dogs. Such experiments began as far back as the late 1940s in first tests to see if living things could withstand the extreme g-force (重力) of a rocket launch.

    Mice continue to play a very important part in space experiments, mainly because the animals make excellent test subjects. They're small, which makes them inexpensive and easy to care for. In addition, their size and short life span make it possible to do the equivalent of several human years of tests in a much shorter time. Finally, because mice are mammals, they share many common characteristics with humans in terms of genetics, biology and behavior.

    Astromice have hit the headlines recently, as a team of scientists led by Betty Nusgens, professor of biology at the University of Liege in Belgium, found that the mice suffered a 15 percent thinning of their skin after 91 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

    This experiment was part of a wider NASA mission (任务) called the Mice Drawer System (MDS). The Italian Space Agency developed the facility, which allows six mice to be housed, monitored, and automatically fed and watered aboard the ISS, among which three survived during the mission.

    The mice have participated in 20 separate experiments, to study such effects as osteoporosis (骨质疏松症), anemia (贫血) and heart health.

    Results for the 20 experiments are coming in gradually. But it's clear that mice continue to play an important role in the ongoing quest to conquer the final frontier.

    Do you often feel lonely? What do you do when you feel that way? Hide yourself away and spend your time reading, watching TV or walking around?

    You might think that feeling lonely is just like feeling happy, sad or scared — that it's just one of your various moods. That is true. However, if you let yourself be lonely for too long without dealing with it, you could be making a serious mistake.

    Doctors have known for some time that feeling lonely is bad for the mind. It can lead to mental health problems such as depression, stress and reduce confidence. "Being lonely means not feeling connected or cared for, but it's not about being mentally alone," Lisa Jaremka, scientist from Ohio State University, US, told Live Science in January. And there's growing evidence that not having friends is connected with physical illness as well.

    In 2006, for example, scientists studied 2,800 women who had cancer. They found that those who had few friends or family were five times more likely to die of their disease than women with many social contacts. Also, even healthy people had a better chance of falling ill if they felt left out by others, according to the BBC.

    The results have scientists thinking that loneliness might hurt the immune system（免疫系统）, which protects the body from diseases.

    Hoping to prove this theory, Jaremka and her research team put volunteers（志愿者） through a stress test. During the test, volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech in front of a group of stony-faced people. The researchers found that volunteers who said they were lonely in their daily lives felt more stress during the test. And their blood samples showed that all the stress had managed to cause harmful changes to their immune system.

     "Loneliness has been thought of in many ways as a chronic stressor（慢性增压器） — a socially painful situation that can last for quite a long time," explained Jaremka, who led the study.

    The number of people suffering from loneliness is increasing all over the world. However, solving the problem is easier said than done. It won't work to just "tell anyone to go out and find someone to love you", said Jaremka. "We need to create support networks."

    Although most games have winners and losers, the goal of sports is not to win every game. The real goals include getting exercise, having fun, and learning important social skills, like sportsmanship.

    Good sportsmanship is all about respect. Good sports (具有运动家品格的人) respect the other players on their team. They respect he players on opposing teams. They respect coaches, and they also respect the referees or other officials involved in their games.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}they yell at their teammates and they talk back to coaches or referees.

    Kids usually learn sportsmanship - good and bad - from the adults in their lives.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}If parents and coaches show disrespect to other fans, referees, or each other, kids will likely act the same way on the field.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Some of them are very basic and easy to do, like shaking hands with other players before a game. Other examples may take a little more courage, such as acknowledging a great play made by the opposing team.

Learning good sportsmanship is important because it helps you develop an attitude of graciousness (礼貌) and respect that will carry over into all the other areas of your life.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Being a good sport in the classroom will eventually lead to being a good sport in the workplace.

    So be a good sport in whatever you do!{#blank#}5{#/blank#} When others see you acting in a way that makes it clear that winning isn't the most important thing, you can move on to focusing on the important things, like having fun, getting exercise, and improving your skills!

A. Good sportsmanship can be shown in many ways.

B. On the contrary, bad sportsmanship is all about disrespect.

C. The example you set can be a powerful teaching tool for others.

D. Players ‘parents and coaches set examples that kids tend to follow.

E. We can be good sports by encouraging others but not laughing at them.

F. Starting as a good sport earlier will help you be a good sport as you get old.

G. If you're a good sport on the field, you'll also likely be a good sport in the classroom

    Welcome to the Electronic Village to explore new ways of language teaching and learning.

    We usually don't mind when people call us by positive nicknames. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But when people call us by cruel nicknames, it can be difficult to get them to stop. So what should you do?

    Ask your friends to stop. Maybe you tripped (绊倒) over your feet a few times, and your friends started calling you klutz, thinking that you don't really mind. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Leave a nicknames behind. Sometimes, life gives us a chance to start fresh. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you're moving from elementary school to middle school, let your friends know that: A new year has begun and you don't want to go by your old nickname.

    I ignore those who call you by a nickname. If the kids calling you by a bad nickname aren't your friends, you should do your best to ignore them. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} It may be hard to pretend that it doesn't hurt, but if you get angry or obviously upset, it will just encourage them to use the nickname all the time.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Remember that if you have a bad nickname now  you probably won't be stuck with it. Just look at Elvis Presley! When he first started singing on stage, he wiggled (摆动) his hips so much that cruel critics and the audience nicknamed him Elvis The Pelvis. He never stopped wiggling. People soon found it impossible to ignore his talent and began to call him The King of Rock & Roll.

A. If it does bother you, tell them.

B. Believe that things will change.

C. If the kids refuse to stop, talk to your teacher.

D. It feels good when these nicknames are repeated.

E. Although words can be hurtful, they can't change who you really are.

F. The chance can be a good time to get rid of a nickname that you don't like.

G. If you act like they aren't hurting you, they'll eventually get bored and stop.