There are so many things we do in our daily lives that have become a “habit”, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} How you answer the phone is a habit. The way you sit in the car when you drive is a habit. Have you ever tried to change the way you do something, after you've done it in a certain way for so long? It's easy to do as long as you think about it. The minute your mind drifts to something else, you go right back to the old way of doing things. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It's a way of doing things that has become routine or commonplace. To change an existing habit or form a new one can be a tedious(单调乏味的) task.

    Let's pick something fairly easy to start with, like spending 15 minutes in the morning reading the  Bible. If you want to turn something into a habit that you do every day, you have to WANT to do it. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Make a firm decision to do this on a daily basis.

    Imprint(铭刻) it in your mind. Write several notes to yourself and put them in places where you will see them. By the alarm clock, on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator door, in your briefcase, and under your car keys are good places to start.

    After the newness wears off, then you will have to remind yourself, “Hey, I forgot to. . . ”. Keep using the notes if you have to. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Some people say it will take over a month to solidify(变得稳固) it and make it something you will do without having to think about it. I tend to agree with the last statement. Two to three weeks will help you to remember, but thirty days or more will make it a part of your everyday routine. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. What is a “habit” anyway?

B. Is doing things in an old way good?

C. Brushing your teeth is a habit.

D. Forming a bad habit is easy.

E. It takes 16 to 21 times of repeating a task to make it a habit.

F. If you don't, you will find a way to do everything but that.

G. That's something you won't necessarily have to think about before you do it — habit.

    For those concerned about wrinkly old skin, It might be a creative solution: an elastic(有弹性的) “second skin” that can be smoothed on to make aged tissue look more youthful.

    The wearable film, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has shown promise in a series of small experiments where it was applied to wrinkles, under-eye bags and areas of dry skin. When applied to the face or body, the thin, transparent layer sticks to the skin and supports the tissue, making it look and behave like younger skin, its producers claim.

    “What we've been able to do is create a cream that you can put on the skin, and then when it's on the skin it can actually form, essentially, an elastic second skin,” said Bob Langer, who led the research. Tests in the lab found that the polymer film (高分子膜), which is only 70 thousandths of a millimetre thick, reduced the appearance of wrinkles and under-eye bags, and helped keep moisture in areas of dry skin.

    The layer is designed to be applied in the morning, then peeled off at night. In previous studies, the second skin withstood normal daily wear, and the stresses and strains of exercise and swimming, without falling off or causing irritation. It also survived exposure to rain.

    “It's something you can wear for a whole day or longer, depending on the physical forces thatget applied to the area where it is worn, "said Daniel Anderson, who helped develop the product at MIT. “You can't tell you're wearing it.”

    While normal cosmetics can mask imperfections on the skin, the new coating changes the way skin behaves by giving it the elasticity of young skin. It was developed with help from two companies.

    If you want to get the most out of the study of a language, you must also read for pleasure: novels, plays, travel books, and so on. And in reading books of this kind the important thing is to get on with reading; to try to grasp what the writer is going to tell you in the book as a whole. This is impossible if you stop and think over the meaning of every single word which happens to be unfamiliar. You can not enjoy a story if you stop half a dozen times on every page in order to look up words in the dictionary. You may even prevent yourself from understanding the story as a whole by doing this.

    When you are reading books of this kind, therefore, you will usually have to rely mainly on the context to help you. If you meet an unfamiliar word, do not let it take too much of your attention from the main thread(主线) of the story. In all probability you will meet the same word again a few pages later on in a slightly different context, and each time you see it that your understanding of it will become more exact.

    "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is one of the most common sayings in the English languages. This is because apples were one of the first foods that medical professionals recognized as healthy­their benefits became obvious when  quite simply, doctors found that people who ate apples were sick less often than those who did not. Today we have a more specific understanding of why apples are so beneficial to overall health.

    Apples can help keep your levels of bad cholesterol (胆固醇) down. The pectin (果胶) in apples helps you to maintain cardiovascular health and reduce LDL cholesterol(which is the "bad" kind). Apples themselves do not add cholesterol to your diet and are full of water and fiber to help prevent the cholesterol in other foods you might digest. According to Health Diaries, people who eat two apples per day may lower their cholesterol by as much as 16 percent.

    Apples are naturally low in calories and high in water content. Eating an apple can satisfy your hunger and keep you from reaching for high-sugar, high-calories snacks. By eating apples, you will be more able to maintain a healthy weight because they fill you up, potentially stopping you from eating food that encourages a waistline increase.

    Apples contain respectable levels of boron (硼) which helps build healthy bones, and can also prevent diseases like arthritis. Apples are rich in vitamin C, which is known to help build immunity.

    Studies have shown that apples can decrease the risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, and liver cancer. One theory is that the apple skins are responsible for this, so be sure not to peel your apple before you eat them, as you could remove some of the health benefits.

Humans' overconsumption of resources is a leading contributor to global climate change, says University of Arizona researcher Sabrina Helm. Therefore, it's increasingly important to understand the choices consumers make and how those decisions affect the health of a planet with limited resources. In a new study, published in the journal Young Consumers, Helm and her colleagues explore how materialistic values influence pro-environmental behaviors in millennials, who are now the nation's most influential group of consumers.

The researchers focused on two main categories of pro-environmental behaviors: reduced consumption, which includes actions like repairing instead of replacing older items; and "green buying," or purchasing products designed to limit environmental impacts. The researchers also looked at how engaging in pro-environmental behaviors affects consumer well-being.

More materialistic participants, the researchers found, were unlikely to engage in reduced consumption. However, materialism did not seem to have an effect on their likelihood of practicing "green buying." That's probably because "green buying," unlike reduced consumption, still offers a way for materialists to fulfill their desire to get new items, Helm said.

Study participants who reported having fewer materialistic values were much more likely to engage in reduced consumption. Consuming less was, in turn, linked to higher personal well-being and lower psychological suffering. Green buying—which may have some positive environmental effects, although to a smaller degree than reduced consumption—was not found to improve consumer well-being, Helm said.

The take-home message for consumers: "The key is to reduce consumption and not just buy green stuff. Having less and buying less can actually make us more satisfied and happier," Helm said. "If you have a lot of stuff, you have a lot on your mind," she said. "For example, it requires maintenance and there's a lot of burdens of ownership, and if you relieve yourself of that burden of ownership, most people report feeling a lot better and freer."

Helm and her colleagues additionally looked at how materialism affects millennial consumers' proactive financial behaviors, such as budgeting and saving. Examining financial behaviors alongside pro-environmental behaviors provides a picture of how young adults proactively deal with resource limitations in two contexts: environmental and financial, Helm said.

As expected, Helm and her colleagues found that those who reported having more materialistic values engaged in fewer proactive financial behaviors than their less materialistic counterparts (对应的人). The researchers also found that, consistent with previous studies, proactive financial behaviors were associated with better personal well-being, life satisfaction and financial satisfaction, as well as lower psychological suffering.

Understanding how materialistic values impact consumer behaviors, and how those behaviors in turn affect personal and environmental well-being, is important, Helm said. However, she acknowledges that for many consumers, shifting behaviors to be more financially proactive and consume less will be challenging.

This summer has brought ex treme heat and droughts to places around the world. The droughts are leading to serious problems and the effects of the droughts are likely to be felt for years. Droughts aren't new, but Earth's rising temperatures because of global warming are making them much harder to avoid. The drought in the Horn of Africa may be the most serious situation. For several years, the area has had very little rain during the rainy seasons. The dry conditions have killed millions of farm animals and destroyed the crops of farmers.

The drought is causing energy problems in Europe, too. The low water levels have cut the amount of hydroelectric power that can be produced. Some rivers are so low that the heavy boats that carry coal can't travel on them.

Farmers in California and Arizona have been hit particularly hard. California has put limits on water use across the state. Now water is being limited in other places. When there are water limits, farmers aren't able to grow as many crops. That can drive up food prices, and that affects everyone.

China is facing similar problems. The drought has dried up much of the water in the Yangtze River. That has cut the amount of energy produced by the world's largest da m by 40%. China hasn't been able to produce enough energy, since millions of people are using electricity to keep cool. The government is calling on the public to turn off the air conditioner when it is not too hot. The country is trying to make it rain by shooting chemicals into clouds. But this is an uncertain and temporary response.

There are no easy solutions to any of these droughts. It took years to create the climate crisis, and it will take a long time to get it under control. For now, governments and people will need to care fully manage water supplies and other resources to limit the damage as much as possible.