In today's busy and competitive world, we all lead incredibly stressful lives. When stress becomes overwhelming, it can affect our mood and productivity. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The good news is that it is manageable and can be reduced, or even relieved completely.

    Enter the world of books. Feeling stressed out? Pick up your favorite book and leave the reality and worries behind. It is the most effective way to relax and overcome stress. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Getting lost in a book before bedtime can calm your mind and prepare your body for a good night's sleep.

    Connect with people. Another way to successfully beat stress is meeting with friends. Friends and loved ones are important to any healthy lifestyle. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed and just can't seem to shake it off, call your best friend or a member of your family and talk to them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Walk it off. You can also effectively relieve yourself of stress by simply taking a walk around your neighborhood. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} There's a whole new world up there that you never seem to notice while rushing to work or talking to someone. Take a moment to admire a new building or a balcony somewhere high up that reminds you of a castle from your favorite movie. Enjoy your time alone and seize every moment of it.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Nothing brings you back on track like a good laughter. It is the most powerful antidote(良方) to stress and it brings joy into your life. Laughing brings people together and drives away all stress-related problems as if they never existed. It is absolutely the best medicine there is, and it will keep you both physically and emotionally healthy.

    With busy lives, it can be hard to find time to volunteer. However, the benefits of volunteering are great to you, your family, and your community(社区).

    One of the better-known benefits of volunteering is the effect on the community. Volunteering allows you to connect with your community and make it a better place. Volunteering also strengthens your ties to the community and broadens your support network, exposing(使暴露) you to people with common interests, neighborhood resources, and fun and satisfactory activities.

    While some people are naturally outgoing, others are shy and have a hard time meeting new people. Volunteering gives you the opportunity to practice and develop your social skills, since you are meeting regularly with a group of people with common interests. Once you have the desire, it's easier to make more friends and contacts.

    Volunteering provides many benefits for both mental and physical health. You're doing good to others and the community, which makes you experience the pleasure of success. Your role as a volunteer can also give you a sense of pride and identity.

    Reducing the risk of depression(沮丧) is another important benefit of volunteering. A key risk factor for depression is social isolation. Volunteering keeps you in regular contact with others and helps you develop a solid support system, which in turn protects you against stress and depression when you're going through challenging times. Volunteering is good for your health whether you are young or old, but it's especially good in older adults.

    Volunteering offers you the chance to try out a new career without making a long-term commitment. It is also a great way to gain experience in a new field. Volunteering work can expose you to professional organizations or internship（实习）that could be of benefit to your career. That volunteer work is unpaid doesn't mean the skills you learn are basic. Many volunteering opportunities provide training. In addition, volunteering can also help you build upon skills you already have and use them to benefit the greater community.

    Volunteering is a fun and easy way to explore your interests and passions. Volunteer opportunities that match both your goals and your interest are most likely to be fun and satisfying for you. Doing volunteer work you find meaningful and interesting can be a relaxing escape from your day-to-day routines of work, school, and family commitments. Volunteering also provides you with renewed creativity, motivation, and vision that can be carried over into your personal and professional life.

    Are you suffering from FOMO—that is, Fear of Missing Out? Research shows that a growing number of young people are with worrying reasons for their sleep and schoolwork.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}You aren't able to do your best unless you sleep well. Most experts agree that the optimum（最适宜）number of hours is eight, and this has been accepted as common sense for as long as I can remember. However, I was young once and know most of you get much less sleep than that.

    I read an interesting article in a teachers' magazine recently.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Worryingly, the results showed that teenagers are facing a new problem. They may go to bed and get up at appropriate times, but a growing number are waking up in the middle of the night, not to use the bathroom or have a snack, but because of FOMO.

    According to the article, the number of students waking up during the night to check social media is growing. Afraid of missing a comment or opportunity to take part in a chat, teenagers are waking at all times of the night, going online and getting involved. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Experts are worried about this growing trend and the report reveals some worrying statistics: 23% of 12 to 15-year-olds wake up nearly every night to use social media. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} One in third of the students are constantly tired and unable to function to their full capacity.

    So I'd like to ask you to be responsible when it comes to social media. Switch off your devices at night. The world won't end and your social media will be waiting to greet you in the morning! {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. But things are getting out of hand.

B. I give you my word that you won't have missed anything important.

C. Another 15% wake up at night once a week for the same reason.

D. They did a study of 848 students in Wales.

E. FOMO is the fear that everyone else is having more fun and more excitement than you.

F. All happens when they should be sound asleep.

G. Everybody knows how important it is for students to get a good night's sleep every night.

    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 (符号) and that you use them all the time. Otherwise, you may not be able to read your notes later.

    Today, in most of the theatres in Britain, the stages are situated behind a sort of arch (拱门), called the proscenium (幕布前的舞台部分)arch. The arch runs across the building with the stage on one side of it and the auditorium, housing the audience, on the other. The audience is kept to the area from which it can get a clear view of the stage. This type of theatre has been is use for three hundred years. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The actor can ignore them until the end, when they applaud the performance. If an actor wants to speak to the audience he tends to step out of the picture, as it were—down to the edge of the stage.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Stage furniture or properties—"props", as they are referred to in the business – are now as few as possible. Elaborate scenery is used only when it is going to last throughout the play, or when it is so constructed that it can be changed quickly. Modern theatres are built with the stage extending far in front of the proscenium arch, if indeed they have a proscenium arch at all, electricity, already long in use, has recently had a revolutionary effect. A change of lighting is as good as a change of scenery, and simpler and quicker; it can light one part of the stage in place of another. Footlights have been found unnecessary. Curtains also are hardly necessary, since the stage can be darkened to signify the end of a scene.

    The modern idea of having the stage in front of the proscenium arch is not really modern, of course. It makes our stages much like Shakespeare's. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The famous speeches of Hamlet, for instance, can be delivered more quietly and naturally than they were in the las century. The actors no longer have to worry much about not being heard, or about turning their backs to the auditorium. They can get closer to the audience, while a larger audience can see them at work.

    Moreover, nowadays, people are finding that modern theatres are built to sit in comfortably for two or three hours at a stretch. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The result of these improvements is that, in spite of the high price of seats, perhaps more people than ever before are keen on theatre-going.

A. Over the last few decades, since the Second World War, theatrical customs have altered.

B. It makes people feel, as they watch a play or a show, that they are seeing a living and moving picture.

C. All these innovations have quickened up the pace of the drama.

D. This is an advantage both for actors and audience.

E. Today the theatres are much more comfortable because of the many improvements.

F. Often they can meet and eat in the restaurants attached to the theatres.