As we all know, sleep is very important and necessary. I would love everyone to develop the following four habits to have better sleep without needing the alarm（闹钟）wake-up call.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}If you eat much food an hour before you go to bed, your body will hate you, because your body needs time to digest while you are still awake.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}When I hear on TV that people just need 30-minute exercise a week, I think that's wrong. Every person should get 30-minute exercise every day. When you exercise, your body uses energy and feels tired. You have to recover from the tiredness. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The harder you exercise your body, the faster it falls to sleep and the better it sleeps.

    Turn the TV off. There are a few shows I still watch, but they will never get in my way of (妨碍) sleep. The bedroom is only for sleeping and rest. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}A question to ask yourself: If I didn't have an alarm, what time would I get up? If that time is the time you need to get up, you should probably throw away the alarm. If the time you actually get up is much later than the time you need to get up, make great changes to your way of life and the time you go to sleep. No one should need an alarm.

A. Exercise for at least 30 minutes every day.

B. Don't eat any food 4 hours before you sleep.

C. Throw away the alarm.

D. Sleep is one of the most important things in our lives.

E. Your body recovers when you are sleeping.

F. Try to get up as early as you can.

G. Take the TV out of your bedroom.

    Sticking to a vegan（纯素食的）diet might sound difficult. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} According to Huffpost, more than 3 million people in the US are vegans. And in the UK, about 542,000 people turned vegan during the last decade.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    One reason could be that people want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions（排放）. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} In fact, it's believed to account for 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2013 study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. This amount is even greater than that of all the world's cars, trains and planes combined.

    A growing number of people are also starting to believe that it's wrong to kill animals for food. Therefore, some of them made an ethical（道德的）choice to become vegan.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Vegan celebrities often use social media to spread the message of veganism and share tips on how to live a vegan lifestyle.

    But experts also want to remind people that meat is important for our health. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} So, if you're thinking about becoming vegan, you should do some research before making your decision.

A. Meat production is very bad for the environment.

B. So why exactly has veganism become so popular?

C. It is up to you to decide whether to go vegan or not.

D. Social media is also believed to be behind the increase in veganism.

E. Fresh fruits and vegetables, grains and nuts are all key to a vegan diet.

F. But in recent years, veganism has become a popular lifestyle in many places.

G. They say that a strict vegan diet may not offer everything that the human body needs.

How to Make Friends

    It can be difficult to make friends living in a big city, especially when you don't know many people. However, over years of experience and studying social skills, I have discovered that it's possible to make friends without even trying. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    ⒈Be seen without trying to get attention.

    You don't have to say anything interesting to get people's attention, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} This can be done anywhere you go, such as the supermarket or your yoga studio.

    ⒉{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    There's an interesting phenomenon that occurs when you listen to other people. They will keep talking. Just keep giving them good eye contact and show with your body language that you care. Listening is an instant way to build trust and likeability.

    ⒊Think about what you can give to the other people.

    We often think about what we can get from others when we try to make friends. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Try offering a piece of helpful advice or invite someone you just met to grab coffee or lunch with you the following week.

    ⒋Always have some good stories to tell other people.

    When you have at least a few stories to share with others, you'll never run out of things to talk about. Try to be honest to share your stories with others. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    ⒌Smile like there's no tomorrow.

    It may not be natural for some of us to smile, but a smile is one of the most attractive things that someone can display when they're meeting new people.

A. However, that thinking needs to be changed.

B. All you have to do is place yourself in environments where people will see you.

C. Don't ever stop thinking about how you can add value to yourself.

D. There are just a few strategies that you have to use on a consistent basis.

E. Try to be involved in conversation.

F. Use the power of listening.

G. For example, you can share a story about a struggle or challenge.

Common public speaking problems

The use of "I feel", "I think" and "maybe"

    In the question-and-answer session of the speaking competition, many contestants began their answers with uncertain expressions like "I feel", "I guess", "I hear", "maybe" and "perhaps".

    These words show that the person is only speaking from his or her point of view.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Work on keeping your answers brief and to the point, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Instead of the empty-sounding "I guess", using facts, together with a clear conclusion based on those facts, is far more likely to be popular with an audience.

    Using only one speaking style

    Don't stick to the same tone.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    For example, when they spoke about their dreams, some sounded romantic. Others used humor. Very few used several different styles together. Try mixing more than one style, rather than just sticking with the same one.

    Irresponsible answers

    Public speaking is different from personal conversations. You're responsible for your words. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}So you should think twice before you talk. Don't be like the student who, when asked about his opinion on book piracy（盗版）, started by saying he supported it.

    Talking around the topic rather than directly answering it

    You should focus on one point and give a clear solution. The key is to work out what question is being asked. Is it asking you to discuss a certain topic or to present your own point of view?

    Use one or two arguments together and give a strong conclusion.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. It can be boring. Try to mix it up.

B. Even though you want to answer quickly, you don't want to sound foolish.

C. Also work on delivering them with calmness and confidence.

D. Deliberate gestures and affected（做作的）expressions of feelings are improper in a successful speech.

E. Remember that judges are not judging you on whether they agree, but on your ability to say what you think clearly.

F. This lacks the support of facts and seems not to be reliable for the judges and audience.

G. Confidence is extremely important in public speaking as it lets a speaker sound more convincing.

    Running is becoming popular these days. Many people run to keep fit. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} However, if you're doing it wrong, you won't get such good results. Fortunately, here are some tips to help you.

    Set right goals

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Be smart and set the right goals. Sign up fora fun run or a 5K first, before even thinking about a marathon. Your goal should simply be to finish. If you push yourself too much, it is possible that you will get hurt and won't want to insist on running.

    Wear suitable shoes

    Once you've decided to try out running, it's time to get yourself new shoes, as the wrong pair can cause foot pain. Wearing the wrong shoes can destroy your workout plan. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Eat properly before or after a run

    Some of you don't eat before or after a workout. Your body needs energy to exercise. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}So it's important to give your body energy. Experts suggest that you eat foods before and after a workout to help with your body's fat burning process.

    Run out of the city

    If you live in a busy city, running along city streets is the easiest way to get in the miles, but if it's possible, find a less polluted space for your long runs. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Exposure to air pollution can cause damage to brain health and the lungs, so running at a cleaner environment might be worth the extra time.

A. Fresh air cleans our lungs.

B. It is a good, inexpensive way to get into shape,

C. It's exciting to start running, but don't set your goals too high.

D. Another side effect of skipping meals is to make you feel tired.

E. And not eating properly will affect your mental and physical being,

F. Therefore, before running, you should go to the shoe store to buy a new pair of running shoes.

G. Research shows that running in polluted air doesn't give you the same benefits (好处) as running in clean air.

    Whether they're for a teenager or not, all great stories have certain elements: they have interesting characters we enjoy reading about; they show these characters in a world we can recognize and understand.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The main character faces a problem, usually quite a serious one. The thing that most draws us to reading the story is the way the character deals with the problem—whether the character gets the better of it, or it gets the better of the character.

    Characters in a book for young adults are generally young adults themselves. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} On the one hand, they're not children anymore. They're growing up and want to stretch their wings. On the other hand, they're not yet adults. They can't do certain things, as they're not yet able to do them or because the world tells them that they can't.

    To make things even more complicated, almost all young adults feel at some point that the whole growing－up process is happening too quickly. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    This year, TEENS has selected seven of the ten books, nominated (提名) for the US 2017 National Book Awards in the categories of Young People's Literature.

    Some stories are specifically written for teenagers or young adults, meaning that their authors are very sensitive to the "in－between" nature of teenage life. They're about problems that appear for young people because of tensions between them and their parents and teachers, their siblings (兄弟姐妹)，or wider society. Often, these problems are presented very seriously by writers. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    At the same time, fiction isn't supposed to be just about the challenges people face in life, but also about how people overcome those problems. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They discover something about themselves that they never knew before, and which enables them to succeed. And the solution that they find opens the future up to them, setting them on the path to adulthood.

A. They want to hold back a little and remain a child a little longer.

B. But that's what young adults want in fiction; to be taken seriously.

C. When closing a good book, we feel we've learned something about ourselves.

D. These are stories that someone of any age could pick up and enjoy.

E. And they are in a challenging period of life.

F. But most importantly, great stories have a central drama.

G. To some degree, challenges bring out the best in characters.