Life is just like a box. Inside it are happiness and sorrow, failure and success, hope and despair. Life is a learning process. Experiences in it teach us new lessons and make us a better person.

    Love

    Love plays a key role in our life. Love makes you feel wanted. Without love a person could become cruel and violent. In the early stage of our life, our parents are the ones who show us with unconditional love and care. They tell us what is right or wrong, good or bad. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.It is only after marriage and having kids that a person understands and becomes sensitive to the feelings of others. Kids make a person responsible and mature and help us to understand life better.

    Happiness and Sorrow

    Materialistic happiness is short­lived, but happiness achieved by bringing a smile on others gives a certain level of fulfillment.  {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.No mind is happy without peace. We realize the true worth of happiness when we are in sorrow. Sorrow is basically due to death of a loved one, failure and despair. But these things are temporary and pass away.

    Failure and Success

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.It helps us to touch the sky, teaches us to survive and shows us a specific way.

    Hope and Despair

    Hope is what keeps life going. Parents always hope their children will do well. Hope makes us dream. Hope builds in patience. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, because after every night there is a day. Nothing remains the same. We have only one choice—keep moving on in life and be hopeful.

Life teaches us not to regret over yesterday, for it has passed and is beyond our control. Tomorrow is unknown, for it could either be right or dull. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, so that we will enjoy a better tomorrow.

    Many people think of guys as being carefree when it comes to their appearance. But in fact, a lot of guys spend plenty of time in front of the mirror. They care just as much as girls do about their body image.

    Body image is a person's opinions and feelings about his or her own body and physical appearance. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}You appreciate your body for its capabilities and accept its imperfections.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Here are some ideas.

    Recognize your strengths. Different body types are good for different things. What does your body do well? Maybe your speed, strength, or coordination makes you better than others at a certain sport. That may be basketball, table tennis, mountain biking, dancing, or even running. Or perhaps you have non-sports skills, like drawing, painting, singing, playing a musical instrument, writing, or acting. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Exercise regularly. Exercise can help you look well and feel good about yourself. Good physiques (体形) don't just happen. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} A healthy habit can be as simple as exercising 20 minutes to 1 hour three days a week. Working out can also lift your spirits.

    Respect your body! Practicing good habits regular showering; taking care of your teeth, hair, and skin; wearing clean clothes, and so on can help you build a positive body image.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Your body is just one part of who you are. Your talent for comedy, a quick wit (智慧) and all the other things make you unique. So try not to let small imperfections take over.

Celebrating Sleep

    World Sleep Day, observed on 21 March, was created to bring attention to the growing number of sleep problems worldwide. Sleep is a natural part of human life, but many people in the modern world ignore its importance. As a result, sleep problems are increasingly common.In 2002, scientists at the University of Athens in Greece conducted a survey of over 35,000 people in 10 countries around the world, including China, Belgium and South Africa. Of the people that responded to the survey, 24 percent said that they did not sleep well, and based on their responses, 31.6 percent were diagnosed with insomnia(失眠) and another 17.5 percent were diagnosed with borderline(边界线) insomnia. In addition, 30.7 percent of survey respondents reported visiting a doctor for help with sleep problems and 11.6 percent said that they felt very sleepy during the day.

    Overall, the survey found that many people suffer the effects of poor quality sleep, some examples of which are being unable to fall asleep and waking up in the middle of the night. The main factors causing these problems are pressure from school or work and a fast pace of life, but noise pollution and light pollution also interfere with sleep and contribute to poor quality sleep. The survey's findings are particularly troubling because large numbers of people were found to have difficulty sleeping at night. The short-term effects of this are tiredness and trouble concentrating. If this happens for a long time, the risk of gaining weight and having a heart attack may increase.

    There are many things you can do to improve the quality of your sleep. First, you should have regular sleep habits. Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day. You also need to make your bedroom a cool, dark, quiet place to sleep so that heat, light and noise do not disturb you. At night, you should also avoid things that contain caffeine, such as chocolate, coffee, tea and many soft drinks, as caffeine may keep you from sleeping.

    Getting a good night's sleep is important for everyone. By following the advice above, you can rest better at night and work better during the day.

                                                                            Common-sense Safety Tips for Travelling Abroad

    When a holiday is just around the comer, you may be planning a trip abroad. But to enjoy a worry-free adventure abroad, you also should pay attention to the following common-sense safety tips for travelling abroad.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Another reason to take only carry-on carriage—besides avoiding baggage fees—is that the less you have to carry around, the more quickly you can move, if necessary. You should always have a free hand. Besides, you won't be exhausted from dragging all those bags around.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Lock it up.

    Leave your hotel with only what you need and lock up the rest. Take a lock for your luggage just in case your hotel doesn't offer a safe{#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you don't need all your cash and cards, don't take them all with you when you go out for a day of sightseeing or shopping. Also, leave your passport in the hotel. Make photocopies of all your important documents and leave the hotel with a copy of your passport plus a one photo I.D. Why?{#blank#}4{#/blank#}If all of your identification is in it, imagine the trouble you have to go through to replace it all.

    Think and Plan.

    Always keep in mind that, when you travel abroad, you are in a place you don't know well and you can always be a target. Trust your senses{#blank#}5{#/blank#} After your arrival, ask the hotel staff and locals about the areas you are thinking of visiting, especially at night. And you should walk in well-lit areas at night and know how to contact the local police with your cell phone or a payphone in a foreign country, if necessary.

A. Travel light.

B. Pay by credit card.

C. Imagine having your bag stolen off a restaurant table.

D. You should also make it a habit to take your watch with you.

E. Plus, dragging lots of luggage is a dead giving away that you aren't a local resident.

F. You should call ahead to be sure, especially if your luggage is made of cloth material.

G. You are smart and mature, so if something or some situation doesn't feel safe, it probably isn't.

Making Peace with Your Parents

    As a teen, you're going through big changes physically and mentally. Your interests are increasing.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Here is the challenge: Kids need to explore the world in new ways, and parents need to protect them from the dangers that are all out in that world. These conflicts can easily set off fireworks in otherwise calm houses. Sometimes conflicts can't be avoided. But by paying attention to the building blocks of successful relationships, you can work towards making home a happy and healthy place for you and your parents.

    For example, try to find a time to talk when your parents are not angry, tired, distracted or hungry. A good time to talk is when you're all relaxed. Timing is everything if the conversation begins to turn into an argument, you'd better calmly and coolly ask to stop the conversation for now.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Listen to what your parents are saying, and repeat it back to them. This shows them that you're listening. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Respect is the building block of good communication. People who respect each other and care about each others' feelings can disagree without getting things ugly.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} How do you build trust? Trust comes by actually doing what you say you're going to do. Some teens find that doing fun activities with their parents can improve their relationships. Sometimes we forget that parents are more than rule-maker—they're interesting people who like to watch movies and go shopping—just like their teenagers!

    What do you do if you are trying your best, but your relationship with your parents continues to be rocky?{#blank#}5{#/blank#}You can find supportive adults, such as a teacher or a coach, who can lend an ear. Remember you can only change your own behavior. Your parents are the only ones who can change theirs.

A. You may consider seeking outside help.

B. And then you'll be able to accept what your parents say.

C. You can pick it up again when everyone's more relaxed.

D. Faced with the challenge, children don't know what to do.

E. And your desire to take control of your own life is growing.

F. It also gives them a chance to clear things up if you're not on the same page.

G. You are more likely to get along with your parents and have more independence if your parents believe in you.

    If there is one word to describe the progress made in the last 100 years, it's connectedness. From the telephone to the radio to the TV to the Internet, we have found ways to bring us all closer together, enabling，constant worldly access.

    I don't think I need to highlight the benefits of all this. But the downsides are also beginning to show. Beyond the current talk about privacy and data collection, there is perhaps an even more detrimental side-effect here: We now live in a world where we're connected to everything except ourselves. According to Pascal, we fear the silence of existence, and we dread boredom and instead choose aimless distraction and use the noise of the world to block out the discomfort of dealing with ourselves.

    However, we ignore the fact that never facing ourselves is why we feel lonely an anxious in spite of being so intimately connected to everything else around us.

    Fortunately, there is a solution. The only way to avoid being ruined by this is to face it. It's to let the boredom take you where it wants so you can deal with whatever it is that is really going on with your sense of self. That's when you'll hear yourself think, and learn to engage the parts of you that are masked by distraction.

    The beauty of this is that, once you cross that initial barrier, you realize that being alone isn't so bad. Boredom can provide its own stimulation.

    When you surround yourself with moments of solitude and stillness, you become intimately familiar with your environment in a way that forced stimulation doesn't allow. The world becomes richer, the layers start to peel back, and you see things for what they really are, in all their wholeness, in all their contradictions, and in all their unfamiliarity.

    You learn that there are things you are capable of paying attention to than just what makes the most noise on the surface. Just because a quiet room doesn^'t scream with excitement like the idea of immersing yourself in a movie or a TV show doesn't mean there isn't depth to explore there.

    Sometimes, the direction that this solitude leads you in can be unpleasant, especially when it comes to introspection (内省)—your thoughts and your feelings, your doubts and your hopes—but in the long term, it's far more pleasant than running away from it all without even realizing what you are.

    Being alone and connecting inwardly is a skill nobody ever teaches us. That's ironic because it^'s more important than most of the ones they do.

    Solitude may not be the solution to everything, but it certainly is a start.