Taking good notes is a time-saving skill that will help you to become a better student in several ways. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Second, your notes are excellent materials to refer to when you are studying for a test. Third, note-taking offers variety to your study time and helps you to hold your interest.

    You will want to take notes during classroom discussions and while reading a textbook or doing research for a report. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Whenever or however you take notes, keep in mind that note-taking is a selective process. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

The following methods may work best for you.

●Read the text quickly to find the main facts and ideas in it.

●Carefully read the text and watch for words that can show main points and supporting facts.

●Write your notes in your own words.

●{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

●Note any questions or ideas you may have about what was said or written.

    As you take notes, you may want to use your own shorthand(速记). When you do, be sure that you understand your symbols and that you use them all the time. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

Things to Remember When You're Having a Bad Day

    Even the hardest days contain lessons that will help you be a better person. Feeling down? Consider these things to remember when you're having a bad day.

    No one promised life would be perfect.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Don't base your happiness on meeting every expectation you set for yourself. It is good to be ambitious, but you'll never be perfect. If you expect otherwise, your life will be filled with disappointments.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. Don't kid yourself into thinking success will come quickly. It isn't easy to be patient, but anything worth doing requires time{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Without hard times, you wouldn't appreciate the good ones.

    Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to give up, that is strength{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. It is hard to find much to smile about when you fail, but how else would you improve yourself? If you look at failures as a part of your growing process, you'll stay positive and follow your goals for as long as it takes.

    It's OK to cry sometimes.

    Do not apologize for crying. Without this feeling, we are only robots. Don't be afraid of crying{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Instead, it is an acceptable way to let go of your depressed feelings. If you let those feelings build up without release, you'll have a much harder time dealing with them later.

A.Don't get sad if you lose.

B.It isn't a sign of weakness.

C.Success doesn't happen overnight.

D.It's not OK to worry now and then.

E.Don't compare your life with others'.

F.Remember: Rome was not built in a day.

G.If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.

    What do the world's most successful people all have in common? The researchers found that high achievers like Robert Moses turn out to be all alike:

    Busy！Busy!

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in a study of general managers in industry, John Kotter reported that many of them worked 60 to 65 hours per week-which translates into at least six 10-hour days. The ability and willingness to work difficult and tiring hours has characterized many powerful figures. Energy and strength provide many advantages to those seeking to build power.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything. And that's what gives them the time to accomplish so much. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. And focus means saying “no” to a lot of distractions（分散力）.

    Know what you are

    Ignore weakness and keep improving your strengths. Don't waste time exploring skill areas where you have little competence. Instead, focus on-and build on-your strengths. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Wiseman created a “luck school” to test these ideas-and it was a success. In total, 80 percent of people who attended luck school said that their luck bad increased. On average, these people reported that their luck had risen by more than 40 percent.

A. Just say no！

B. Ask for more time.

C. Strengths are exactly what you are good at.

D. Achievement requires concentrations（注意力）

E. This means knowing who you are and what you are good at.

F. Does applying these principle（原则）to your life actually work?

G. High achievers never stop working and they never lose a minute.

    Most of us lead unhealthy lives; we spend far too much sitting down. If in addition we are careless about our diets, our bodies soon become loose and fatty and our systems slow moving.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. I am thinking of such features of modern city life as pollution, noise, rushed meals and stress. But keeping fit is a way to reduce the effects of these evils. The usual suggestion to a person who is looking for a way to keep fit is to take up some sport or other. While it is true that every weekend you will find people playing football and hockey in the local park, they are outnumbered a hundred to one by the people who are simply watching them.

    For those who do not particularly enjoy competitive sports—{#blank#}2{#/blank#}—there are such separate activities as cycling, walking, jogging and swimming. What often happens though is that you do them in such a leisurely way, so slowly, that it is doubtful if you are doing yourself much good, except for the fact that you have at least managed to get up out of your armchair.

    Even after you have found a way for keeping in shape, through sport or gymnastics, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, because, according to the experts, you must also master the art of complete mental and physical relaxation(放松). {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Yoga, as practiced in the West, is the most widely known and popular of the systems for achieving the necessary state of relaxation. It seems ironical (讽刺性的), though, that as our lives have improved in a material sense we have found it increasingly necessary to go back to forms of activity—{#blank#}5{#/blank#}—which were the natural way of life of our forefathers.

A. be active and practise Yoga

B. There are some aspects of our unhealthy lives that we cannot avoid

C. and it is especially difficult to do so if you are not good at them

D. physical effort on the one hand and relaxation on the other

E. they spent most of the time out of doors

F. you are still only half way to good health

G. It has to do with deep breathing, emptying your mind of all thoughts, meditation, and so on

Five Steps to Better Handwriting

    Some kids love handwriting, but others hate when it's time to put their pen to paper. Maybe they are worried about their handwriting. Are you one of them？{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are five steps that really work!

    Get a great grasp

    Try this—hold your pencil at the top and try to write your name. Pretty hard？ But when you hold your pencil the correct way, writing is much easier. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Hold it in place with your thumb, and your index(食指) and middle fingers.

    Let the lines be your guide

    Lined paper is your friend！ Those lines can help you create letters that are the right size and proportion(均衡)．{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Also be sure to fill up the lined space completely. Those capital letters should be from the bottom line to the top one.

    Slow down

    If your writing is hard to read, try slowing down a little. If you rush, it's hard to control where you stop and start your letters.

    Lower the pressure

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} That makes it harder to make the smooth lines. Try easing up and don't hold the pencil too tightly.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Lots of games require you to write or draw pictures. So even though it's not schoolwork, you're still using the skills you need to control your pen better.

A. Play games.

B. Ask for more advice.

C. You've been writing since you were a little kid.

D. So "a" should be half the height of a capital "A".

E. Some kids press down really hard when they write.

F. The good news is that just about everyone can improve their handwriting.

G. The best way to hold a pen or pencil is to let it rest next to the base of your thumb.

    Some people lie all the time. However, it can be difficult to determine when they are lying to you. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    Make false eye contact

    A person who is lying to you won't make eye contact with you or they make too much eye contact. If a person is lying he may feel you are watching him and he will look down at the floor or away from your eyes. Some people try to stare at you in the face in a deliberate way. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    Avoid using contractions (缩略语)

    The liars will say "I did NOT notice your money", instead of "I didn't notice your money". This is an attempt by the liars to be absolutely clear what they mean. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Liars often feel uneasy, turn away from the person to whom they are speaking, blink rapidly, smile less and have pitch changes in their tone of voice. They may cross their arms which is a sign of being "closed" or trying not to reveal too much information. They could touch parts of their face, an ear or a nose or play with keys or another item that they have in their hand.

    Provide additional information without being asked for it

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. The result is the more complicated the story is, the less believable it will be. You will have the feeling that nothing could be further from the truth.

A. Usually, it ends up making the story a lot less believable.

B. Luckily there are always some indications that can help you recognize liars.

C. Use unusual body language.

D. Behave abruptly.

E. Liars seem to think that by telling their story in detail, you will find it more believable.

F. Liars try to talk the story with their own words using imagination.

G. In this way, they feel like making eye contact will make what they are saying more believable.