America's holiday shopping season started on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Shoppers make the most money this time of year, about 20 percent to 30 percent of all revenue all year. About 136 million people shopped during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}In an era of instant information, shoppers can use their mobile phones to find deals. Nearly 80 percent of this year's holiday shoppers, or about 183.8 million people, shopped on Cyber Monday.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Online spending on Black Friday rose 15 percent to hit $2.7 billion this year. Cyber Monday spending increased 12 percent to $3 billion. NBC News reported that for many, shopping online was a more comfortable alternative than crowded malls.

      The shift to online shopping has had a big impact on solid shopping malls. Since 2010, more than 24 shopping malls have closed and anadditional 60 are struggling. Fortune says the weakest of the malls have closed. However, the business in malls is thriving again, it adds.  According to a survey, 94.2percent of malls were full with shops by the end of 2014.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

      The average American consumer will spend about $805 on gifts. That's about $630.5 billion between November and December – an increase of 3.7percent from last year.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}That goes toChina's Singles' Day, celebrated on November 11, which posted record sales of$14.3 billion in 2015.

A．More and morepeople shop online nowadays.

B．That is thehighest level in 27 years.

C．It is thebusiest shopping day of the year.

D．One-in-fiveAmericans used a tablet or smart-phone.

E．Thetraditional mall industry can hardly survive.

F．Cyber Mondayfalls on the Monday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

G．Nonetheless,Cyber Monday is not the biggest online shopping day in the world.

To be successful people

    Here are some opinions about successful and unsuccessful people.

    Make life plans and set goals

    You can't be successful without knowing where you are going. A life vision board, 10 years' plan and daily goals are useful tools of the successful people. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Keep a "To-be" list for the future

    A "To-be" list is a great way to plan for the future. I want to be an elected official in the future. I want to be the CEO of a public company. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Unsuccessful people have no idea what they want to be. How can you achieve success if you don't know what you want to be?

    Study every day

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Whether you are reading a magazine or a good book. You can learn and become knowledgeable as you read. While watching television may be good entertainment, you will hardly get anything out of TV to help you become more successful.

    Want others to succeed

    When you are in an organization with a group of people, in order to be successful, you all have to be successful. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you wish for their failures, why even work with them at all?

    Accept responsibly for your failures

    Where there are ups, there are most always downs. Being successful persons means always having to accept responsibly for your failures. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It just puts other people down and no good comes from it.

A garden that's just right for you

    Have you ever visited a garden that seemed just right for you, where the atmosphere of the garden appeared to total more than the sum(总和) of its parts? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. But it doesn't happen by accident. It starts with looking inside yourself and understanding who you are with respect to the natural world and how you approach the gardening process.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Some people may think that a garden is no more than plants, flowers, patterns and masses of color. Others are concerned about using gardening methods that require less water and fewer fertilizers (肥料). {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.However, there are a number of other reasons that might explain why you want to garden. One of them comes from our earliest years.

    Recall(回忆)your childhood memories

    Our model of what a garden should be often goes back to childhood. Grandma's rose garden and Dad's vegetable garden might be good or bad, but that's not what's important. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} — how being in those gardens made us feel. If you'd like to build a powerful bond with your garden, start by taking some time to recall the gardens of your youth. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Then go outside and work out a plan to translate your childhood memories into your grown-up garden. Have fun.

A. Know why you garden

B. Find a good place for your own garden

C. It's our experience of the garden that matters

D. It's delightful to see so many beautiful flowers

E. Still others may simply enjoy being outdoors and close to plants

F. You can produce that kind of magical quality in your own garden, too

G. For each of those gardens, write down the strongest memory you have

    We automatically assume that as adults, we're wiser than when we were children. However, actually we can learn a lot from our childhood self. For example, we can learn to develop optimism about the future. Do you remember how excited you used to be just before Christmas? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Reintroduce that childlike wonder into our daily experiences.

    We can learn to dream big and imagine the impossible. How often have you heard a child say something like “One day, I'm going to be an astronaut”? Our adult minds immediately laugh at this idea and think about all the logical reasons as to why this might never happen. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}We minimize our chances of attaining what we dream about. It is okay to dream big just as our childhood self did.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Our childhood self looked at possibilities and believed we could achieve them successfully. If we wanted to build a tree house, we'd go about thinking about how to make it happen instead of focusing on all the reasons it might not happen. In this way we can fill our life with possibilities rather than regrets.

    We can learn to be playful and silly sometimes, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Children spend a large amount of time escaping from reality to mess about and have fun. Make time for your childhood self to come out and play. Run around the garden, wear a silly hat or spend time laughing. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Don't imagine things could go wrong.

B. We can learn to hold a “can do” attitude.

C. That feeling of great joy is hard to beat.

D. Most children tend to think in a positive way.

E. All of these activities can make us feel happy and alive.

F. We employ self-limiting beliefs without even realizing it.

G. All work and no play makes a person very dull and upset.

    Do you remember those times when your mother told you to avoid talking to strangers? But now you're not a child any more. In fact, there are advantages of talking to strangers.

    1: You can meet a really great person.

    Talking to a stranger is a good habit because you never know whom you may meet. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} You can also meet someone who'll give you a chance to get your dream job.

    2: {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    You have some opinions about different subjects and you know your friends' and relatives' points of view about them too. But there are millions of other people who think differently and can give you unpredictable yet smart ideas that'll broaden your horizons.

    3: You can improve your social skills.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Asking appropriate questions and attentive listening are two skills that many of us don't have. You can better these skills when talking to a stranger.

    4: You will feel a boost of confidence.

    If you belong to that shy type of people, talking to a stranger may seem to be a real challenge for you. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}You can overcome your fear of being judged by others by talking to strangers and become more confident.

    5: You can cheer someone up.

    The thing you will definitely like about talking to strangers is that you can make someone's day better. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Compliment people and they will think something pleasant about you. Having a sweet short dialogue is one of those perfect chances to make people cheerful.

A. Smile and people will smile in return.

B. It can expand your world view.

C. Why not speak to someone until your turn comes?

D. I'm also extremely shy but I realize it's not an issue at all.

E. You can meet a person who'll become your best friend in future.

F. It may show you the solutions you didn't know about.

G. Whatever social skills you have, you can make them better when talking to strangers.

Some Myths You Strongly Keep Believing Are Untrue

    There are varieties of false myths we spread from day to day.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Otherwise, people will continue to believe such ridiculous myths undoubtedly. You will realize some of the most acceptable facts are completely untrue.

    Men get beer bellies from beer.

    We blame the beer for the belly. It is widely believed that men who constantly drink beer end up with a beer belly. However, it is not the beer that's to blame, but the abundance of unhealthy snacks that often accompany the drink. Alcohol in beer irritates the stomach, therefore causing an increased appetite. Dr. Michael Jensen, an obesity specialist in Minnesota USA says that drinking beer makes liver burn alcohol instead of fat, leaving the latter to accumulate in the waist.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}, while the one of women's accumulates in the hips and  bottoms, as a result of different sexual characteristics.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    We are told that dogs see the world in black and white. But the truth is that they can distinguish colors just not in the same way we do. Jay Needs from the University of Washington in Seattle proves that our furry friends are able to receive a limited range of colors, which means they can distinguish objects of the same shape. In general, a dog's vision is very similar to that of a person with red-green color blindness.

    Carrots improve eyesight.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. This myth came into existence during the Second World War. The British Army claimed that fighter pilots had excellent night vision as a result of their consumption of large quantities of carrots. Actually, they had radars onboard which made it faster and easier to detect the enemies. The myth about the amazing power of carrots was invented and spread by the media so that enemies would not learn about the fact.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

A. Dogs can distinguish colors

B. Men's fat is stored in their bellies

C. Dogs see the world in black and white

D. Men's fat is not mostly accumulated in these parts

E. Eventually, it spread all over the world and people are still convinced of it

F. We agree with the view that eating carrots plays an essential part in good vision

G. It is high time that scientists created a separate department dedicated to exposing the truth