Celebrate!

Pinatas(彩饰陶罐)

    In Mexico, children often get pinatas on their birthday．Their parents put chocolates and other sweets inside the pinata and hang it on a tree．Then the children hit the pinata with a stick. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Noodles

    In China，people often celebrate birthdays by eating with family or friends，and the last dish of the meal is always noodles. The noodles are long and thin. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You can't cut them. In Chinese culture，long noodles mean you will have a long life.

Business birthdays

    A business birthday shows that a company is successful．Many businesses in the USA celebrate important birthdays, like 10, 50 or 150 years．{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Sometimes they make TV advertisements．It is a good chance to advertise the business.

Name days

    As well as a birthday, many people in Southern Europe also celebrate their name day. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} People have big parties and open their houses to anybody who wants to come．People bring small gifts，often flowers or a box of sweets．

Islamic New Year

    In Muslim(穆斯林) countries across the world，people celebrate Eid. Eid means festival or celebration．During Eid，people visit family and friends，as well as people who are sick or in hospital．{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Children receive toys，too．Children often wear special traditional clothes during the Eid celebrations.

A．You have to eat them in one piece.

B．They go out for a meal to celebrate.

C．Companies hold parties and send cards.

D．They give presents, such as sweets and food.

E．It breaks and the sweets fall out on to the ground.

F．This is one of the two important festivals in this country.

G．In Greece, name days are more important than birthdays.

    Summer is the season to dive into new activities and relax. And right now is the time to make sure that you're ready for the great outdoors, the holiday planning and travel, and the bathing suit beach days.

    If you want to lose weight before summer, concentrate on dropping no more than a pound or two a week.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}And when you trouble yourself, sooner or later you're going to gain it back. Operate on a 500-calorie-a-day deficit (亏损).{#blank#}2{#/blank#} So if you cut 500 calories a day for seven days straight, you'll lose a pound a week right there.

    Operating at a decrease of 500 calories a day should involve both eating less and moving more. For example, you could consume 300 fewer calories and bum 200 extra per day.

    Include both healthy eating and exercise in your weight-loss plan, and break the 500-calorie goal into small groups to make it more reachable.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    To cut 100 calories:{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Have vegetable pizza instead of pepperoni (意大利辣香肠). Use our Nutritional Needs Calculator to determine how many daily calories you should consume in order to lose, gain, or maintain your healthy goal weight. Once you've reached your goal, recalculate your nutritional needs for keeping extra weight off all summer long.

    To burn 100 calories: spend 15 minutes biking.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Spend 20 minutes gardening. Keep on exercising at least 30 minutes daily a week. Reading food labels and counting calories or writing down what and when you eat can give you more control as well.

A. Here are some simple ways to get there.

B. Walk or run one mile.

C. A pound is 3,500 calories.

D. It is okay to have some snacks between your meals.

E. You should always make sure you get a lot of sleep.

F. Anything more than that usually means you're troubling yourself.

G. Eat a chicken breast without the skin.

    In all our lives we must make choices. You make choices from the time you get out of bed in the morning until you go to sleep at night. What time to get up? What to wear? What to eat? You also make more significant choices when you graduate from high school.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} College? Technical training?

    No matter the size of the decision, the common thread in all of them is that they involve an opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is your next best alternative – your second choice. For example, it's a Saturday night, and you are trying to decide between going to the movies, hanging out at friend's house or going to the football game.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}What is your second choice? If it is the football game, then that is your opportunity cost.

    Opportunity cost is important. When you make a certain choice, it forces you to think more critically about all of the abandoned choices. By recognizing opportunity cost, you can decide whether your decision is worth it.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}As a high school senior, you face several options, including going to college, going to technical school, or going to the work force. If you choose college the opportunity cost is losing what could have been purchased or saved with the money spent on tuition (学费), housing, books, etc. for four years.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}You would also lose four years' worth of income and experience that you could have earned if you had gone straight to work.

    However, it is still the case that college graduates earn more than high school graduates.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}But, like all decisions, it is one that should be arrived at only after looking at the costs — including the opportunity cost — and considering the follow-up question: is it worth it?

A. Will you go straight to work?

B. What causes opportunity cost?

C. But that's not the end of the costs.

D. Suppose you decide to go to the movies.

E. If you give up college, what do you lose?

F. A perfect example is the decision to go to college.

G. For many students, going on to college is a wise decision.

How to Become a Lifelong Learner

    Learning doesn't stop just because school does. Making a commitment to yourself to learn something new every day, you will not only enjoy what you discover, but you will be able to apply your knowledge and become a teacher to future generations. Here are some steps to become a life­long learner. 

    Learn how you learn.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Note what learning techniques are most efficient for you and use them as much as is practical, such as viewing online tutorials on websites like YouTube if you're more of a visual learner. 

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Try many different things so that you don't box yourself into believing you're only good at a few things. It's probable that you're good at many things, but you won't know until you've tried. 

    Look at learning as an exploration and opportunity, not a chore (琐事)．Don't just force yourself to learn things because they are important or necessary. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Follow your heart, as well as your sense of duty. Do you remember the 8th grade history that you hated so much, with all those names and dates that seemed to mean nothing? The point was to bring you to learn details now, which will knit chunks of information together later.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}   

    Read, read, read.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Reading is a gateway into other worlds and into the minds of your fellow human beings. And reading will help you to learn the discoveries and mistakes of others who have gone before you; reading is, in effect, a shortcut so that you don't have to learn things the hard way. 

A．Learn where your talents and interests lie.

B．It was a chore then, but it makes sense, now.

C．Recognize the educational value in whatever you read.

D．Determine your own preferred learning style or styles.

E．Their ways of learning might help you to improve your own.

F．Make friends with your local library and new and used book sellers.

G．Instead, learn things that you need to learn alongside things you love to learn.

Test-taking tips

    Passing tests is a huge part of succeeding at school. Clearly, if you want to do well on a test,

    you need to prepare by learning the material(资料) {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Just breathe.

    Even the best prepared student sometimes gets nervous before a test. Nervous feelings can cause people to forget facts that they know. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Breathing deeply is helpful for this. So is moving your body slightly, such as by rolling your shoulders around. Try to arrive for a test a few minutes early, so you can relax before it starts.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    When you are handed a test, look over all the questions before you begin. Read them carefully, noticing details. Also pay attention to how many points each question is worth. Divide your time based on the percentage of your grade each question is worth.

    First answer questions you know and then go back to the difficult ones. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} But try to write an answer for every question on the test, even if you're not sure of the answer. The only exception(例外) is if you will lose points for wrong answers {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. If you're not sure whether you should change an answer, it's best not to. More often than not, your first instinct (本能) will be correct.

    Try your best.

    Above all, study well and try your best. If you do that, you can be proud of whatever score you get.

    If you are in a crowd, the first and most important thing is to make yourself familiar with your surroundings and mentally notice alternate exits.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Make yourself aware of the type of ground you are standing on, and know that in a crowd of moving people wet or uneven ground can be slippery or hazardous, causing you to fall.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}When in danger, a few seconds can make all the difference, giving you the possibility of taking advantage of escaping route. Always stay closer to the escape route. If you find yourself in the middle of a moving crowd, do not fight against the pressure, do not stand still or sit down, because you could easily get trampled.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Take advantage of any space that may open up to move sideways to the crowd movement where the flow is weaker. Keep your hands up by your chest, like a boxer—it gives you movement and protects your chest.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}If you cannot get up because you are injured, get someone to pull you back up. If you have kids, lift them up. If you fall and cannot get up, keep moving by crawling in the same direction of the crowd, or if that is not possible, then cover your head with your arms and curl up into fetal position.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Be aware of the general atmosphere of the event, as panic situations can often be expected.

B. There is always space between people.

C. Do not lie on your stomach or back, as this dangerously exposes your lungs.

D. The worst is to be pushed by the crowd against an immovable object

E. If you fall, get up quickly.

F. No matter where you are, make sure you always know how to get out.

G. Instead, move in the same direction of the crowd.