Lots of people stress out about talking in front of the class or getting laughed at if they make a mistake in front of an audience. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}The “stress hormones" that your body produces at times like these can actually help you focus.

    But when worry and stress about performing get to be too much, these hormones give people that “red alert(紧急状态)” feeling—the one that causes you to feel cold or sweaty, or get butterflies in your stomach. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Be prepared. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Rehearse(排练) as much as you can and practice in front of others at every opportunity. Most of all, think positively. Tell yourself “I'll be OK" or “I can do this" even if you are not 100% sure of it

    Look after yourself. Before big performances it's easy to let taking care of yourself slip as you spend too much time on rehearsals and practice. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Exercise can also help you feel good, and along with sleep and nutrition, is an excellent way of keeping those stress hormones from getting out of control.

    Find out what the experts do. You can find books, DVDs, and online information about how to give your best when you perform, depending on what type of performance you're preparing for. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Or ask the cast of your school play or your drama or music teacher how they beat stage fright. And if your parents or grandparents ever performed, they may have their own secrets to share.

    When important events are happening around the world, most people turn to traditional media sources, such as CNN and BBC for the news. However, during the war in Iraq in 2003, many people followed the war from the point of view of an unknown Iraqi citizen who called himself "Salam Pax" (Salam Pax means peace).

    Salam Pax wrote a diary about everyday life in Baghdad during the war, and posted it on his website. Pax's online diary was a kind of website known as a "blog". Blogs are online diaries, usually kept by individuals, but sometimes by companies and other groups of people. They are the fastest growing types of website on the Internet.

    A blog differs from a traditional website in several ways. Most importantly, it is updated much more regularly. Many blogs are updated every day, and some are updated several times a day. Also, most blogs use special software or websites, which can help ordinary people easily set up and start writing their own blogs.

    There are many different kinds of blogs. The most popular type is an online diary of links where the blog writer surfs the Internet and then posts links to sites or news articles that they find interesting, with a few comments about each one. Other types are personal diaries, where the writer talks about their life and feelings. Sometimes these blogs can be very personal.

    There is another kind of blogging, called "moblogging", short for "mobile blogging".

    Mobloggers use mobile phones with cameras to take photos, which are posted instantly to the Internet. The use of mobile phones in this way made the headlines in Singapore when a high school student posted a movie he had taken of a teacher shouting at another student on the Internet. Many people were shocked by what the student did, and wanted phones with cameras to be banned from schools.

    Many people think that as blogs become common, news reporting will rely less on big media companies, and more on ordinary people posting news to the Internet. They think that then the news will be less like a lecture, and more like a conversation, where anyone can join in.

How to Fill Your Empty Walls with Beautiful Art

    If you've ever stared at an empty wall wondering what to put there, you're not alone. The idea of having the same museum print as everyone else doesn't seem that appealing.

    But, many people who may be interested in purchasing art are at a loss on how to start. The amount of time taken to discover art and artists that you truly love, and the expense of purchasing art, keep many people from even considering it.

    But now, TurningArt is solving this dilemma(困境). TurningArt is an online subscription(订阅 ) service that allows the average consumer to learn about art and be able to afford to own it. TurningArt offers art-lovers an online gallery of thousands of works, from highly accomplished and successful artists, to view in their homes and eventually buy if they want to.

    Here's how it works

    Visit TurningArt.com to browse through the work of hundreds of independent artists from across the country. Sorted by style, medium, color, price, artist, or even region, new art is added daily. You're sure to find several things you like.

    Then, simply sign up for one of TurningArt's subscription plans. These start at just $10 per month. TurningArt will send you your first piece, framed and ready to hang right out of the box. The piece will not be the original, but rather a museum-quality print produced together with the artist. You can request the next piece at any time. New prints arrive in a mailer that you can use to send back your old prints.

    You can enjoy each piece for one, two, or three months—however long you want. And, best of all, you never have to worry about taping, sizing, or centering your new print, because all prints are pre-sized to fit easily into the frame originally sent to you.

    If you've got an empty wall to fill, or simply like the idea of getting fresh art in your home every now and then, TurningArt is for you.

    You should make thorough plans before you undertake a camping trip. Just follow these simple camping guidelines to make your trip safe and rewarding.

Selecting an appropriate tent

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} When determining the size of your tent, you should take into account the number of campers as well as the camping equipment necessary for your trip. There should be enough room in tihe tent for the camping equipment{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Importance of food

    While camping, you will need enough food to give you enough energy for your outdoor work.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}You should use a two burner stove to do all your cooking. Insist on simplicity in cooking and use vegetables and ready-made food during your trip to minimize cooking time.

Adequate sleep

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Nights are generally cooler than the days so you need to have enough warm clothes to feel comfortable enough to sleep during the night. When buying a sleeping bag, check that you feel comfortable in it. Extra air mattresses (气垫) may be included in your camping equipment to make your bed more comfortable.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Bear these camping guidelines in mind and make sure you are fully prepared to enjoy your camping trip.

A. All campers should have adequate sleep during the night.

B. Thus you must have an efficient arrangement for food preparation.

C. The best camping trips are had by those people who prepare the best.

D. Take healthy and nourishing food with you to meet energy demands during your trip.

E .The comfort level in a tent determines the success of a camping trip.

F. The size is the most important thing you should carefully consider when choosing a tent.

G. It will destroy the mood of the entire camping trip if you don't have a good sleeping bag.

Plastic-Eating Worms

    Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

    Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

    Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. “Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well,” she explains, “The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ”

    Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

    Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team's findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply “millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”

    Have you ever changed your mind, or even given up a dream because you were afraid of what someone else might think of you? If you're often worried about what friends, family, or even strangers in the street might think, then you're using up a huge amount of energy worrying.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} But the steps below should help.

Step 1: Ask yourself what matters to you.

    Maybe you can't stand the gym, but your best friend works out every day. It's natural for people around you to have different values from you.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Step 2:{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    The truth is that I'm not the centre of the world, and neither are you! Most of the people around you are far too busy going about their own lives to think much about you.

Step 3: Recognize that their opinion can't hurt you.

    There are a few cases where opinions will make a difference.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} But the people who really matter are going to love you for who you are.

Step 4:{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    You can't control people's thoughts. You've got no idea what might go through their head, or why. You can't please everyone all of the time, and there's no need to try to.

A. Do whatever you want to do.

B. This is a hard habit to get rid of.

C. You should make everyone around you happy.

D. So just be clear and honest with yourself.

E. Remember that they're not all watching you.

F. Accept that you can't control what people think.

G. For instance, your boss's opinion is usually important to you.