With the summer holiday just around the corner, it seems like everybody is busy planning their vacations. Here are some tips that can helpyou enjoy your holiday without emptying your pocket:

Travel off-season

Go to your desired destination while the demand is low and takeadvantage of huge discounts. During the peak season, the hotel and flightprices increase quickly, and you'll likely spend more of your vacation timestanding in line due to the rush of tourists.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

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      Websites can help you find discount hotel rooms. Look for placesthat do not charge extra for children if they use the existing bedding. Staywith the locals. If you and your family are going to stay for a longer period,renting a small apartment is a good choice.

Eat like a local

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During your family trip, try new food where the locals eat. Thiswill not just save money, but also provide you with a new and differentexperience. For smaller meals and snacks, avoid restaurants and try street foodor other takeout.

Don't hesitate to bargain

      Tourist- heavy places are known for overcharging for just abouteverything. Clothes, travel goodies, souvenirs, etc. are very expensive atthese places. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Bargain hard to get the best price.

Choose local transportation

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      Instead, take buses, railways or subways, which are alwayscheaper. If you are planning to stay for a while, you can consider renting acar. Hiring a car is much easier than carrying your bags everywhere if you aremoving around a lot.

A. Save on hotels.

B. Surf the Internet while traveling.

C. Therefore, avoid buying anything there.

D. So it's best to find out when the off-season starts.

E. Planning your meals is another way to reduce your travelcosts.

F. For this reason, you shouldn't feel ashamed to ask forbargains.

G .As a tourist, avoid taking taxis whenever possible, sincethey are expensive.

    There's no doubt that water is vital to any life. About 60 percent of the average adult human body is made of water. This includes most of your brain, heart, lungs, muscles and skin, and even about 30 percent of your bones. Yet there's little scientific agreement about the exact amount of the stuff an individual should consume each day. So how much water do you actually need to drink to be healthy?

    You may have heard that you should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Yet, the downside of this rule, researchers say, is that drinking water by the glass is not the only way that humans take in it. The “8 X 8” rule essentially overlooks two big sources of daily water consumption. One such source is food. Everything you eat contains some water. Watermelons, for example, are more than 90 percent water by weight. Different diets naturally contain different amounts of waters, and the counts. The other key water sources are other beverages. Non-alcoholic drinks such as coffee, and tea, contain mostly water and all contribute to your hydration（水量）.

    So, between all the food, water and other fluids you consume in a day, how much water should you aim to take in?

    The National Academics of Sciences suggests that woman consume a total of approximately 2.7 liters (91 ounces) of warm from all beverages and foods each day and men 3.7 liters (125 ounces). But these are just general guidelines.

    The truth is, there is no magic standard for hydration—everyone's need vary depending on their age, weight, level of physical activity, general health and even the climate they live in. The more water you lose, the more water you'll need to replace with food and drink. If you are looking for concrete advice, though, the best place to look is within. Drink up when you're thirsty.

    I was very fortunate to be selected by Kindspring to receive $100 for the monthly kindness competition and it has helped to make a beautiful difference in people's lives.

    The idea is simple. I took a lot of fallen branches and hung them from the ceiling with the help of volunteers and friends. Then we hung strings with pins attached to them from the branches. I got a whole lot of art supplies and as people came in for the art exhibit, they were encouraged to create a piece of art or a positive message to hang from the tree.

    The tree changed into this really fun way of exchanging positive messages. If you were to hang a message up, you had to take a message down for you to keep. The experience was really amazing. People of all ages and from all walks of life were sharing art and encouragement through the tree.

    With the $100 I received from Kindspring, I made a total of seven more trees. I am putting them all over our community（社区）. One will go to a youth shelter for homeless teens and one will be put right in the middle of town on our public square. They will have paper and art supplies at the base for people to use in creating a message or piece of art. For the classroom I was able to provide them with new colored pencils, markers, and some sketchbooks, which they all loved. The act is to create communications that are positive and can influence people's lives in great ways just by doing a simple act of kindness. The messages people receive can be kept with them forever as a reminder of the good in the world, or they can pass them along to others. The beauty of the idea is that the messages have unlimited possibilities.

    Tourism wasn't as important as it is today. In the past, only people with a good deal of money could travel on holidays to other countries. More people travel today than in the past because there is a growing middle class in many parts of the world; that is to say, people now have more money for travel. Special plane fares(费用) for tourists make travel less expensive and more attractive than ever before. One person doesn't travel for the same reason as another. But most people enjoy seeing countries that are different from their own. They also like to meet new people and to taste new food.

    Tourism causes many changes in a country and in people's lives. People build new hotels and restaurants and train native men and women as guides to show visitors interesting places. There're new nightclubs and other amusements. International tourism is clearly a big business.

    People who like travelling have their reasons. They believe that travelling can help them expand their field of view, especially in the geographical and historical sense. They also think that touring will give them more chances to enjoy different kinds of food and experience new things that would never be brought by other activities. But those who dislike travelling also have some reasons.

    Travelling, in my opinion, does more good than harm. Most importantly, it broadens  (使扩大) our mind. We can get in touch with other civilizations (文明), cultures, customs and ideas.

    Through history, most people travelled because of necessity (必要性)—not for pleasure. People travelled just in order to remain alive. They searched for food to eat or places to live in. They sometimes ran away from enemies. This is not to say that no one ever travelled just for the fun of it. In ancient times, for example, rich Romans travelled all the way to Greece to take part in the Olympic Games, and festivals. Of course, some people decided to travel just out of curiosity (好奇心). They wanted to find out what it looked like beyond the horizon (地平线). Also business travel has been going on for centuries. Traders could not only make money but also learn to speak several languages and be introduced to different cultures.

    So, travelling does enrich our mind and draw new ideas to us. There is no doubt that we can get much from it.

    Have you ever wondered how your favorite NBA team received its famous name? All NBA teams have an interesting story or a history behind their names. Some of the names reflect the city's culture or history, others came from previous owners and many were selected through "Name the Team" contests.

    For teams like Los Angeles and Utah, the names were not always a reflection of the city. Even though Los Angeles has no lakes, the Laker name has been a city treasure for almost 40 years. Before going to Los Angeles, the team originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1948, team officials chose the name for its direct relationship to the state's motto, "The Land of 10,000 Lakes." The team name went unchanged after moving to Los Angeles in 1960.

    Because Utah's team originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was called the Jazz. In 1974, New Orleans club officials chose the name to represent the city for its reputation as the "jazz capital of the world." The name stayed with the team even after finding a new home in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979.

The Chicago Bull's original owner, Richard Klein, named the team the Bulls. He picked the name because a fighting bull is relentless, and never quits. Klein, who founded the club in1966, believed these qualities were necessary for a championship team and hoped his Chicago athletes would live up to the team name. A belief that Bulls—winner of the six NBA championships have definitely followed.

    In 1967, the Indian Pacers selected their team name in a different way from most other teams. Their decision was based on what they wanted to accomplish in the NBA. Team officials chose the Pacers name because the organization wanted to set the "pace" in professional basketball.