【推荐1】How to improve your homework

Homework is an important thing in your school life. You are also troubled by the homework.     1    

Write it down.     2     Always be sure to write down all the homework so you won’t forget anything.

Create a homework station. Find somewhere comfortable and quiet to do your homework.     3     It will take twice as long to get the homework done. Shut off your cell phone, log off (退出) your computer (unless you need it for your homework) and close the door.

Do homework as early as possible. Don’t leave homework to the last minute.     4     The earlier you start your homework, the sooner you will finish! Do all your homework as early as you can, so you don’t have a pile of(一堆) homework the next day.

    5     Think about how long it will take you to complete homework for each subject. For example: English—ten minutes, science—ten minutes, math—forty minutes, history—twenty minutes.

Treat yourself. You can easily get tired by sitting through an hour or two of homework without stopping. Once you finish homework for a subject, take a small break. Just make sure it’s short (no more than 15 minutes). Do not turn on the TV, or you’ll never go back and finish your homework. After short breaks, return to finish the rest of your homework.

【推荐2】How to Teach Confidence

While it might seem like some people are just born confident, confidence is largely an acquired skill. It’s something you can model and teach other people.     1    . Then show them how to achieve goals, and how to deal with failure when it happens. With lessons like these, you can teach the people around you to become more confident.

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If you’re trying to improve someone’s confidence, be a model for how they should behave in a confident way. Act confident around them and in your interpersonal interactions. Show them confident interpersonal relations like eye contact, handshakes, and making small talk. This lets them practice in a safe environment.

Praise small accomplishments to raise a person’s self-worth.

If you’re trying to build someone’s confidence, start small. Each accomplishment they complete is a cause for celebration, even if it seems small. Be happy for your friends, kids, or students.     3    

Give specific praise so people know what they did well.

    4    . Instead, tell the person exactly what they did well. This makes your praise more genuine and boosts the person self-esteem more by showing them their strengths.

Start with a positive statement before correcting something.

You may have to point out where someone needs to improve. This is especially important if you’re a parent, teacher, or coach.     5    , always start by saying something positive first. This raises the person’s spirits and makes it easier for them to take the critical feedback that’s coming up.

【推荐3】Talking to children about disasters

Natural disasters are terrible events. They are difficult for adults and children. But adults should not be afraid to talk to children about natural disasters.    1    But talking can help children feel safer and less afraid of the future. Here are five things adults can do when children show fear of natural disasters.

First, adults should be willing to talk with children. When children are allowed to talk about their fears, they feel safer. Sometimes, the best thing an adult can do is just listen.     2    

Second,    3    When answering their questions, it is best to give short, honest answers. If you do not know the answer, you can be honest and say that you do not know.

Third, it is important to wait until a child is ready to talk about a natural disaster. Adults should not force children to talk.

Fourth, help children feel safe.    4    One way is very simple: adults can tell frightened children that they love them. It is also important for children to do the same things they do every day. Simple things like going to school and eating dinner can help children feel normal.

Fifth, use activities to help children communicate their fears. Heshani was 13 when the Indian Ocean tsunami (海啸) ruined her house in SriLanka. One year later, she was still living under the shadow (阴影) of the natural disaster. She did not like to visit her ruined house. And she did not want to talk about the problems her family had. However, she loved to write.     5    Writing poems was a way for her to share her fears since she did not like to talk about them.

【推荐1】A terrible storm destroyed fourteen homes. Seven others were so badly damaged that their owners had to leave them, and fifteen others had broken windows or broken roofs. One person was killed, several were badly hurt and taken to the hospital, and a number of other people received smaller hurt. Altogether over two hundred people were homeless after the storm.

A farmer, Mr Tan, said that the storm began early in the morning and lasted for over an hour.

“I was eating with my wife and children，” he said, “when we heard a loud noise. A few minutes later our house fell down on top of us. We tried our best to climb out but then I saw that one of my children was missing. I went back inside and found him safe but very frightened.”

Mrs Woo said that her husband had just left for work when she felt that her house was moving. She ran outside at once with her children.

“There was no time to take anything，” she said. “A few minutes later, the roof came down.”

Soldiers helped to take people out of the flooded area and the welfare department brought them food, clothes and shelters.

【推荐3】When the tornado (龙卷风) passed, Lewis returned to her house after that awful night, and the Bible was the first thing she looked for. She had bought it 35 years earlier, at the start of her marriage. Like many folks, she’d used it to preserve the family’s history: decades-old photos, newspaper obituaries (讣告) of loved ones, a handkerchief from her great-grandmother, even a piece of a scarf her uncle bad brought back from the Korean War.

The Bible was not where she d last seen it, on top of an antique dresser in her bedroom. The only thing left was the solid pieces of marble that had been on the top of the furniture. After an hour of searching, one of the volunteers ran up to her and found the bible while clearing through ruins. She had tears streaming down her cheeks. It had flown about ten feet from the dresser. Surprisingly, while many books had been destroyed beyond recognition, the Bible was still intact, even though it had sat in the rain for days. “It was a miracle,” says Lewis.

A few of the Bible’s treasures did go missing. Yet ever so slowly, they, too, began reappearing in Lewis’s life. Days after the Bible was found, volunteers discovered one of the newspaper obituaries outside the home. Two weeks later, a neighbor found another newspaper clipping (剪辑) by her house. “It was a shock,” say Lewis.

Now the Bible already has its well-deserved place of honor, on the dresser. She knows that while every good book tells stories of disastrous weather and unlikely survival, this one actually lived it.

【推荐2】The negative health effects of sleep shortages during the week can’ t be changed by marathon weekend sleep sessions, according to a new study.

Researchers have long known that routine sleep deprivation(缺乏) can cause weight gain and increase other health risks, including diabetes. But there are still some people who hope that shutting off the alarm on Saturday and Sunday will repay the weekly sleep debt and remove any ill effects.

The research, published in Current Biology, ruins those hopes. Despite complete freedom to sleep in and nap during a weekend recovery period, participants in a sleep laboratory who were limited to five hours of sleep on weekdays gained nearly three pounds over two weeks and experienced metabolic disruption(代谢紊乱) that would increase their risk for diabetes over the long term. While weekend recovery sleep had some benefits after a single week of insufficient sleep, those gains were wiped out when people returned right to their same sleep schedule the next Monday.

“If there are benefits of catch-up sleep, they’ re gone when you go back to your routine. It’ s very short-lived,” said Kenneth Wright, who oversaw the research. “These health effects are long-term. It’ s kind of like smoking once was—people would smoke and wouldn’ t see an immediate effect on their health, but people will say now that smoking is not a healthy lifestyle choice. I think sleep is in the early phase of where smoking used to be.”

Wright said that the study suggests people should prioritize sleep—cutting out the optional “sleep stealers” such as watching television shows or spending time on electronic devices. Even when people don’t have a choice about losing sleep due to child-care responsibilities or job schedules, they should think about prioritizing sleep in the same way they would think about a healthy diet or exercise.

【推荐3】       If you will be cycling, you will need to know what these traffic signs and signals mean.

A sign like this one means that there is a bike lane（道）. If there is a bike lane, you are required to use it. If there is not a bike lane, you should ride with traffic as far to the right side of the road as possible.

   When the signal light turns green, cars go. When you cross the street at a signal light, you should wait for the walk signal. Be sure to look carefully to the left, right and left again, before crossing the street.

When the signal light turns yellow, car drivers should slow down and prepare to stop. You should not cross if the light is yellow. The light is about to turn red, and cars will enter the intersection(十字路口).

This signal is the WALK sign. It has a picture of a person walking instead of using the word WALK.

This signal is the DON’T WALK sign. It is part of the signal with the picture of a person walking. This is a picture of a red hand, meaning you should stop. You should wait to cross the street until the green picture of the person walking is showing.

Car drivers and bikers must come to a complete stop at STOP signs.

A yield sign means to slow down and be ready to stop. If there are pedestrians（行人）or vehicles in or nearing the intersection, you must stop. If there is no traffic in or nearing the intersection and it is safe, you may go through.

This sign means you are coming to a crosswalk. Car drivers and bikers must stop to allow people in the crosswalk to cross the street.

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