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.

    Here's how yo-yo dieting affects your body and your mind

    Yo-yo dieting, also known as weight cycling, occurs when a person experiences periods of weight loss followed by weight gain followed by weight loss and so on and so on. The effects of this weight cycling are significant, even when the weight lost and gained is as little as 10 pounds.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    It can make you gain weight

    While dieting may help you lose a few pounds at first, it only works temporarily. Your body responds to the lack of calories by turning to lean muscle mass for energy. Once you have returned to your normal eating habits, the weight comes back on –{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Yo-yo dieting may increase the risk for heart disease and sudden death in post-menopausal（绝经后期）women. Studies found that when normal-weight women experienced periods of weight cycling, they were 3.5 times more likely to have sudden death than women whose weight remained stable. In the same study, yo-yo dieting increased a woman's risk of death by 66 percent.

It can be damaging to your skin

    Dermatologist (a doctor who studies and treats skin diseases) Robin Evans weighed in on the effect that yo-yo dieting has on the skin. “The up and down weight losses and gains can have harmful effects on the skin especially on the face with stretching and contracting the skin,” said Evans{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

It plays games with your mind

    Yo-yo dieting is hard on the body,{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Repeatedly gaining and losing weight can leave dieters feeling more depressed about their weight and losing self-belief as a result.

    If you're a yo-yo-dieter, talk to your health care provider about lifestyle changes that can help you maintain a stable and healthy weight for years to come.

A. It only works temporarily

B. It can damage your heart

C. but in the form of fat, not muscle

D. but it's even harder on the mind

E. but with a smaller size, you will make yourself less friendly

F. The result ends up more wrinkles and an overall effect of aging the skin

G. We turned to the experts to find out how yo-yo dieting can affect your body and your mind

    As a senior year student, you may have so many pressures coming from so many directions that you can't figure out what to do first.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    When you have many things to do and a lot of demands on your time, you can lose sight of what's important. One of the best ways to see the big picture — what you want out of life — is to lay out your goals.

    Pressure Points and How to Deal With Them

    Confused or overwhelmed — {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Discuss your concerns with a friend, parent or teacher. They may help you find solutions to your problems and worries.

    Being too hard on yourself — ease up, take a break and do something you enjoy. Daydream, read a book, go out with friends — anything that helps you relax.

    Problems, problems, problems — recognize your limits. It's too stressful to try to deal with all your problems at once. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Goal-Setting Tips

    It's important to remember that goals belong to you — not to your parents, your teachers, or your friends. After you've set your goals, identify the skills you have to achieve those goals. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, do some research. Try the library, your guidance adviser and teachers, and other people who could help you.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. If your goal is something you no longer want, change it. Identify the barriers to getting your goals. Consider ways to overcome them. Don't get depressed by a big, long-term goal — see what steps you can take to achieve it and set those steps down as short-term, "do-able" goals.

A. Too much to do

B. Balancing goals in life

C. Goals exist to serve you

D. Talk to someone you trust

E. If you're not sure what skills you'll need

F. As long as you know what skill is important and what isn't

G. Choose what's most urgent and set aside the rest until later

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} I say this a lot because it's important: you need to walk more. There are a few main reasons why I'm so fond of walking, also known as moving frequently at a slow pace.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Walking might not be as effective as other forms of exercise, but frequent walking will help anyone with two functioning legs that allow movement who would otherwise meld into the couch lose some body fat.

    It's good for your brain.

    Walking does much more than work the area underneath your neck. The farther an older person can walk in six minutes, the better he or she performs on memory and logic tests. Folks who perform poorly on the walking test tend to have reduced grey matter volume in certain sections of their brains.

    It reduces stress.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Go for a walk, preferably in a natural setting. For me, it's the beach of the Malibu hills. For others, it might be the woods or even a park.

It prevents falls in the elderly.

    Walking on uneven, natural ground like hiking trails， improves balance and reduces falls in the elderly. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The earlier you start habitually walking, the better your ability to navigate the land without falling will be.

    It gives you a chance to think.

    When we walk, we think. And because walking is a low-difficulty effort, we can direct our executive functioning to more internal matters. We work through problems, come up with ideas, replay conversations, scheme, and discover solutions. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. It modestly reduces body fat.

B. It lowers blood pressure, especially after meals.

C. Don't wait until you're already at risk of falling, though.

D. What do I do when I need to get away from a particularly stressful day?

E. Try to keep the walk as close to the meal as possible to aid in weight loss.

F. Even though some of you may be tired of me saying this, it needs saying.

G. Or maybe we just think about that funny dog we saw on the way to work the other day.

    Who would win in a competition to memorize numbers, a chimp or a teenager? The teenager? Think again. Scientists have proved that chimps perform better than human beings when it comes to this kind of problem.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    Memory is our ability to learn something, save it and recall it when needed. Our memories are important to our sense of self, our personalities, and our ability to understand the world.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} There is short-term memory and long-term memory. Your short-term memory saves information for a few seconds or a few minutes. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Long-term memory involves the information you try hard to keep, because it's meaningful to you-an example is data about family and friends. And then there is visual memory and sound memory. But these are not hard and fast. In fact, Scientists argue a lot about the nature of memory.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Some memorize better with the help of pictures. Others are helped more by sounds. One thing's for sure though: If you can put the different kinds of memory together, there can be great results. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} At the same time, you could listen to recordings of the same group of words. These things may help when it comes to memorizing the words.

    Imagination and association can be useful too. By imagination, scientists mean picturing a word in your mind, while association means relating the word to something you already know.

A. So why not try pictures with English words?

B. Then how do chimps have better memories than us?

C. Scientists say that there are different types of memory.

D. We may have to rethink what we believe about human memory.

E. Scientists have also found that people memorize things in different ways.

F. For example, the time it takes to compare the prices of a few items in a store.

G. Short-term and long-term memory differ in the amount of information they can store.

    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#}

A. Use words, not complete sentences.

B. There are three practical note-taking methods.

C. You must write your notes on separate paper.

D. Otherwise, you may not be able to read your notes later.

E. You will also want to develop your own method for taking notes.

F. That means you must first decide what is important enough to include in your notes.

G. First, the simple act of writing something down makes it easier for you to understand and remember it.