How to calm your teens

    A major source of teen stress is school exams, and test anxiety is not uncommon. When you recognize your teen is under stress, how can parents help your teen stay calm before an exam?

    Be involved. Parents need to be involved in their teen's work. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}What they look for is your presence - to talk, to cry, or simply to sit with them quietly. Communicate openly with your teen. Encourage your teen to express his worries and fears, but don't let them focus on those fears.

    Help them get organized. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Together, you and your teen can work out a time-table in which she can study for what she knows will be on the test.

    Provide a calm setting. Help your teen set up a quiet place to study and protect his privacy.

    Give them a nutritious diet. It's important for your teen to eat a healthy, balanced diet during exam times to focus and do her best. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If this happens, encourage your teen to eat light meals or sandwiches. A healthy diet, rather than junk food, is best for reducing stress.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Persuade your teenager to get some sleep and/or do something active when she needs a real break from studying. Making time for relaxation, fun, and exercise are all important in reducing stress. Help your teen balance her time so that she will feel comfortable taking time out from studying to spend time with friends or rest.

    Show a positive attitude. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Your panic, anxiety and blame contribute to your teen's pressure. Make your teen feel accepted and valued for her efforts. Most importantly, reassure your teen that things will be all right, no matter what the results are.

A. Encourage your teen to relax.

B. The best thing is simply to listen.

C. They will only make the situation worse.

D. A parent's attitude will dictate their teen's emotions.

E. Exam stress can make some teens lose their appetite.

F. Your teen may also make negative comments about themselves

G. Help your teen think about what she has to study and plan accordingly.

    Keeping the memory in shape is important at any age, but it requires a bit more work as we grow. There are some simple activities that can improve your memory.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Awaken your senses.

    Use your senses to help your memory store(储存) needed information. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}You can ask yourself like this: Is the sky a light blue or deep purple? The more involved(参与的) you can be in the information, the easier it is for your brain to store it.

    Use imagination and relation.

    Trying to remember names? Let's say you meet a man named Frank Parker. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Tie the two together by picturing Frank dressed up in a hot dog costume(服装) parking his car in the parking lot. Now each time you see Frank, you should easily recall his name.

    Breathe deeply and relax.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Relax, breathe deeply and slowly and let your mind ease up for a minute. Being relaxed makes it easier for information to be both stored and remembered.

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    When you come upon something you need to remember, say to yourself, “Hey, pay attention and remember this!” You are giving yourself a wake-up call as well as giving your mind a marker that it can use to help in storing the new information.

A. Give yourself an order.

B. Get a good night's sleep.

C. Here are four of them to get you started.

D. Picture a hot dog for Frank and a car for Parker.

E. For example, note the colors of a picture you want to remember.

F. When we try hard to remember something we often become nervous.

G. The way you live influences not only your physical health but also your memory.

    Building the thinking habit is important because it helps you live with a purpose. How can we build the thinking habit? Here are some tips.

    Be curious

    Curiosity is powerful. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It also helps you recognize the ideas when they come. Curiosity is an important attitude to have in building the thinking habit.

    Read widely

    If you want to come up with good ideas, you need to feed your mind with good ideas. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}This will give you fresh, new ideas. Don't just read from the fields you are familiar with. Read from other fields as well.

    Read actively

    Not only should you read widely, but also you should read actively. Find some ideas and think about how you can use them. My favorite way to do this is by highlighting the book I read. I will then put the actionable ideas in my idea journal (笔记). {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Keep an idea journal

    When you find a good idea, don't just keep it in your mind. Instead, write it down to catch the idea. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Keeping an idea journal makes you more sensitive to new ideas. You will quickly recognize them because you already have the habit of catching ideas.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Of course, it doesn't do you much good if you just write down ideas. Take time to read these ideas every now and then. In my case, I mark the ideas that I consider important and review them regularly. This often opens the way to new ideas.

A. Design your own ideas

B. Go over your ideas

C. In this way, others can also benefit from your ideas.

D. One way to do that is to read.

E. Otherwise, the idea might be gone forever.

F. It makes you like finding new ideas.

G. This helps me get the most out of the book.

Tips to fight summer weight gain

    When we think of summer, most of us think of outdoor fun. So it seems like we should naturally lose weight over the summer—not gain it. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Lots of summer activities can work against our efforts to stay at a healthy weight. The good news is that it's easy to avoid problems if we know what to look out for.

    Get going with goals. When we don't have a plan, it's easy to spend summer moving from couch to computer, with regular stops at the fridge. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Just be sure to plan for some downtime so you can relax a little!

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} With school out, we lose our daily routines. If you don't have a specific job or activity to get up for, it's easy to sleep late, watch too much TV, and snack more than usual. Make sure your summer days have some structure — like getting up at the same time each day and eating meals at set times. Plan activities for specific times, like exercising before breakfast, for example. If you have time on your hands, offer to make dinner a couple of nights a week so your family can enjoy a sit-down meal together.

    Think about what and how you eat. Summer means picnics and barbecues — activities that revolve around an unlimited spread of food. Pace yourself. Don't overload your plate. Avoid going back for seconds and thirds. Choose seasonal  healthy foods like fresh fruit instead of high-sugar, high-fat desserts. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Stay busy. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} In addition to helping you avoid the cookie jar, filling your days with stuff to do can give you a sense of accomplishment. That's especially true if a dream summer job or planned activity fell through. Limit your screen time — including TV, computer, and video games — to no more than 2 hours a day.

A. Stick to a schedule.

B. Plan more activities.

C. Appropriate summer eating sets you up on the right track!

D. Most of us, however, don't take summer weight gain seriously.

E. In reality, though, summer isn't all about beach volleyball and water sports.

F. When we're bored, it's easy to fall into a trap of doing nothing and then feeling low on energy.

G. Avoid this by setting a specific aim, like volunteering, mastering a new skill, or working at a job.

    The first Thursday in May is World Password Day, but don't buy a cake or send cards. Computer chip maker Intel created the event as an annual reminder. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    The purpose of a password is to limit access to information. Having a very common or simple one like "abcdef" or even normal words like "password", is barely any security at all. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Hackers' password cracking tools take advantage of this lack of creativity and get in our accounts easily. More experienced users would choose a less common password. However, they might still fall victim to cracking software.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}? A secure password is all that stands between us and a cybercriminal. It should be unique and complex which a hacker can't easily guess or crack. The best passwords are supposed to be at least 15 characters long and full of random numbers and letters. However, a long password means a complicated process to log into a website. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. You may want to write it down, but it is not suggested due to risk.

    Then what should we do? {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. You can choose a phrase such as "I want to go to England." Next, convert it to an abbreviation (缩略语) by using the first letters of each word and changing the word "to" to "2". Then you get following password phrase: iw2g2e. You can make it even more complex by adding punctuation, spaces or symbols: %iw_2g2e!@. It is much easier to remember and safer.

    Can't wait to try? Let's say goodbye to "666666" and change your password right now.

    If you have ever been in a school play or even made to believe you were a doctor, a detective, or a space traveler, you know the enjoyment that acting brings. Almost all of us have the wish to play the part of someone — or something else.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    In the ancient world, acting was often connected with religious ceremonies and other special occasions. As far back as 2200 B.C., trained Chinese actors performed ceremonial dances in costume and makeup at harvest festivals.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}The imitation (模仿) of movements and gestures was gradually added to the dance, as well as the wearing of masks, the singing of chants, and finally the use of dialogue.

    While acting was coming into its own in the ancient Chinese classical theatre, it was doing the same in the western world, in Greece. From about 500 B.C. on, acting became a highly specialized art in Greece. Greek actors, however, still wore masks, and their motions (动作) were largely fixed by custom.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Modern acting, by contrast, gives the individual actor great opportunity to develop his or her personal talents for serious, comic, or musical drama. The names, faces, and styles of famous movie actors are known worldwide.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}A special form of acting takes place in radio drama, which was highly popular before television. In radio drama the actors face a unique challenge. They are unseen by their audience. So they must rely on voice alone to make their characters real to the listeners.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Only forty percent of Broadway actors are employed, most of them for only part of the year. Those who become stars need not only talent, but determination. They must not be easily discouraged. Otherwise, they might give up before the opportunity for fame presents itself.

A. The origins of acting are in the act of remembering.

B. Drama in Greece began with festivals honoring Dionysus.

C. It is believed that this was the first step in the development of acting.

D. Historical records indicate that this desire is as old as civilization itself.

E. Acting is not, as many people think, a quick, easy road to fame and riches.

F. Broadway and television provide other stages on which actors can display their talent.

G. Consequently, they had little opportunity to display their individual personalities.