Recently, I've been following a simple rule that is helping me crush procrastination(拖延症) and making it easier for me to stick to good habits at the same time. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} There are two parts to the 2-Minute Rule.

    Part 1—If it takes less than two minutes, then do it now.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} For example, washing your dishes immediately after your meal, tossing the laundry in the washing machine, taking out the garbage, sending that email, and so on.

    If a task takes less than two minutes to complete, then follow the rule and do it right now.

    Part 2—When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.

    Can all of your goals be accomplished in less than two minutes? Obviously not. But, every goal can be started in 2 minutes or less. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    It might sound like this strategy is too basic for grand life goals, but I beg to differ. The 2-Minute Rule works for big goals as well as small goals because of the inertia(惯性)of life. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} I love the 2-Minute Rule because it embraces the idea that all sorts of good things happen once you get started.

    The most important part of any new habit is getting started—not just the first time, but each time. It's not about performance, it's about consistently taking action.

    I can't guarantee whether or not the 2-Minute Rule will work for you. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Anyone can spare the next 120 seconds. Use this time to get one thing done. Go.

A. I call this little strategy the "2-Minute Rule".

B. And that's the purpose behind this little rule.

C. Here's what you need to know to stop procrastinating.

D. Once you start doing something, it's easier to continue doing it.

E. But, I can guarantee that it will never work if you never try it.

F. The goal is to make it easier for you to get started on the things you should be doing.

G. It's surprising how many things we put off that we could get done in two minutes or less.

    Before there was the written word, there was the language of dance. Dance expresses love and hate, joy and sorrow, life and death, and everything else in between.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} We dance from Florida to Alaska, from north to south and sea to sea. We dance at weddings, birthdays, office parties and just to fill the time.

    "I adore dancing," says Lester Bridges, the owner of a dance studio in Iowa. "I can't imagine doing anything else with my life." Bridges runs dance classes for all ages. "Teaching dance is wonderful. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It's great to watch them. For many of them, it's a way of meeting people and having a social life."

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} "I can tell you about one young couple," says Bridges. "They're learning to do traditional dances. They arrive at the class in low spirits and they leave with a smile. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}"

    So, do we dance in order to make ourselves feel better, calmer, healthier? Andrea Hillier says, "Dance, like the pattern of a beating heart, is life. Even after all these years, I want to get better and better. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} I find it hard to stop! Dancing reminds me I'm alive."

A. So why do we dance?

B. Dance in the U.S. is everywhere.

C .My older students say it makes them feel young.

D. If you like dancing outdoors, come to America.

E. Dancing seems to change their feeling completely.

F. I keep practicing even when I'm extremely tired.

G. They stayed up all night long singing and dancing.

The winner's guide to success

    Do you know what makes people successful? To find out the answers, an American scholar recently visited some of the most successful people in America.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Be responsible for yourself.

    Sometimes you may want to blame others for your failure to get ahead. In fact, when you say someone or something outside of yourself is stopping you from making success, you are giving away your own power.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Write a plan

    It is very difficult to try to get what you want without a good plan. It is just like trying to drive through strange roads to a city far away.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Without this "map", you may waste your time, money and also your energy; while with the "map" you'll enjoy the "trip" and get what you want in the shortest possible time.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Nothing great is easy to get. So you must be ready to work hard even harder than you have ever done. If you are not willing to pay the price, you won't get anything valuable.

    Never give up

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}When you are doing something, you must tell yourself again and again: giving up is worse than failure because failure can be the mother of success, but giving up means the death of hope.

A. A good plan is like a map to you.

B. It seems to us that everyone knows this. But it is easier said than done.

C. Some people achieve success much later in life because they didn't work harder earlier.

D. You are saying they have more control over your life than you do.

E. Someone else's opinion of you doesn't have to become your reality.

F. Be willing to pay the price.

G. Here are some keys to success that they give.

    Is our planet heating up? Are human beings to blame for climate change? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The discussion on this subject has been heated, but what are scientists actually saying? At Reader's Digest, we decided to find it out.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Yes, it has, and even warmer. Greenland was forested between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, so temperatures were considerably warmer then. There have also been other times of relatively high temperatures.

    So why does the concern exist?

    It's all about the speed at which temperatures are changing. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} But in the 20th and 21^st centuries, especially since 1976, temperatures have probably risen more quickly than during any century in the past 1 ,000 years. Warming may bring improved crop production and other benefits to northern countries such as Canada or Russia. However, many species may not adapt to these conditions, and the one that is able to may cause a problem. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The West Nile virus, first seen in North America nine years ago, infected about 4,000 people in the US in 2006. The mountain pine beetle, which is active during warmer winters, has already destroyed about 13 million hectares of Canada's forests, worth an estimated $6. 4 billion.

    What is causing the warming?

    IPCC has concluded that human activity is very likely responsible, by increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases and thus the greenhouse effect. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They argue the human contribution is nothing.

A. Some scientists, however, still disagree.

B. Has the planet ever been this warm before?

C. Has human behavior made the planet warm?

D. Temperatures have been changing all the time.

E. In the past, temperatures moved up or down gradually.

F. Mosquitoes have been moving northwards to higher places.

G. These questions have burst into newspapers, films and popular books.

    My mother is a diligent and kind woman. She is very busy from morning till night. As a teacher, she works hard. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Both my brother and I love her dearly as she loves us.

    My mother has been teaching math at a middle school in my hometown. She goes to work early in the morning and does not return home until in the late afternoon. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} She treats them with patience and teaches them well. For her excellent quality and very good teaching results, she has been elected as a model teacher several times.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Every day, when she comes back home from work, she sets about doing housework, sweeping the living room and bedrooms or cleaning the furniture, and putting everything in good order. She seems to be busy all the time. As she has been very busy working every day, she looks older than her age. But she looks as cheerful and happy as ever. Mother never buys expensive dresses for herself, but she often buys some inexpensive but high quality clothes for us. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} She just eats a plain meal outside when she is too busy to cook herself. She lives a busy yet simple life, without any complaints.(抱怨)

    Often she says to us, "work while you work, and play while you play. That is the way to be happy. If you do not work, you will become lazy and be of no use to society". What a piece of good advice this is! {#blank#}5{#/blank#} This advice of hers will always serve as a guide to my behavior. My mother is great indeed, and I always feel proud of her.

A. She enjoys listening to classic music.

B. As a mother, she takes good care of us and gives us every comfort.

C. She loves her students and cares for them.

D. She never goes to expensive restaurants to enjoy meals.

E. My mother is hard-working and never wastes money.

F. I never forget it and always bear it in my mind.

G. Can you tell us something about your mother?

{#blank#}1{#/blank#} People use money to buy food, furniture, books, bicycles and hundreds of other things they need or want. When they work, they usually get paid in money.

Most of the money today is made of metal or paper.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} One of the first kinds of money was shells.

Shells were not the only things used as money. In China, cloth and knives were used. In the Philippine Islands, rice was used as money for a long time. Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used as money in parts of Africa.

The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the centre.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Sweden and Russia used copper to make their money. Later some countries began to make coins of gold and silver.

But even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive. Again the Chinese thought of a way to improve money.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than the paper money used today.

Money has had an interesting history from the days of shell money until today.

A. The first coins in England were made of tin (锡).

B. But people used to use all kinds of things as money.

C. No one knows for certain when people began to use money.

D. People strung (串连) them together and carried them from place to place.

E. Money, as we know, is all made of paper.

F. They began to use paper money.

G. Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services.