【推荐1】A dream plays an important part in your daily life. Do you want to make your dream come true? I hope the following things can help you.

Have a strong desire (愿望) for a goal

You should remember: the starting point of all kinds of success is a strong desire. Strong desires make good results. So, the first step is to have a strong desire for your goal.

Believe in yourself

You can change your life by changing your mind. You should never stop thinking that your dream can come true. For example, you can draw a picture of something that you want and put it up on the wall. Then you can see it every day. It can encourage you to get over the problems.

Make a plan

Making a plan is the most important step. You should make sure that you think through everything in the plan first. Each day you should follow the plan so that you can reach your goal.

Check your progress (检查你的进步)

You need to check how much progress you have made and how many things you have lost. Write these things down and find out how to do better later.

【推荐3】Here is a recipe:

Ingredients:

2 potatoes; 1 egg; 2 spoons of flour (面粉); 3 spoons of vegetable oil (植物油); 1 spoon of salt.

Instructions:

Peel the potatoes and cut them up. Cook them for 20～25 minutes and put them into a bowl.

Break the egg into the bowl. Also add the salt and flour to it.

Mix them all up.

Put the pan (平底锅) on the gas cooker (煤气灶) and turn on the gas cooker.

When the pan is warm, pour the vegetable oil into it.

Then pour the mixture in the bowl into the pan when the oil is at a high temperature.

Turn it over from time to time. Bake (烘焙) it for about five minutes.

Finally, you can enjoy the delicious pancake.

【推荐1】In a digital age, we almost never write things by hand. However, multiple studies have shown that this act has many benefits (益处).

New brain research, led by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, confirms the same: choosing handwriting over using a keyboard results in better learning and memory.

“When you write your shopping list or lecture notes by hand, you simply remember the content better afterwards,” said Audrey van der Meer, author of the study.

The study was conducted (实施) using equipment to track and record brain wave activity. The participants included 12 young adults and 12 children. This is the first time that children have participated in such a study. Each subject was asked to write by hand and type on a keyboard while wearing a hood (风帽) with over 250 electrodes (电极). The sensors (传感器) in the electrodes are very sensitive and pick up the electrical activity that takes place in the brain. Each examination took 45 minutes per person.

The results showed that the brain in both young adults and children is much more active when writing by hand than when typing on a keyboard. According to Van der Meer, plenty of senses are activated (激活) by pressing a pen on paper, seeing the letters written and hearing the sound made while writing. These sense experiences build contact between different parts of the brain, opening the brain up for learning.

Van der Meer believes that the outcomes stress the importance of children being challenged to draw and write at an early age, especially at school. “Learning to write by hand is a bit slower process, but it’s important for children to go through the tiring phase of learning to write by hand,” she said.

The hand movements used to form the shapes of letters are beneficial in several ways. “If you use a keyboard, you use the same movement for each letter. Writing by hand requires control of your fine motor (精细动作) skills and senses. It’s important to put the brain in a learning state as often as possible,” Van der Meer added. For example, you might use a keyboard to write an article, but you should take notes by hand during a lecture.

【推荐2】People often remember what they were doing when they heard the news of important events in history. In America, for example, many people remember what they were doing on April 4, 1968. This was an important event in American history. On this day, Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. Although some people may not remember who killed him, they remember what they were doing when they heard the news.

Robert Allen is now over 50, but he was a school pupil at that time. “I was at home with my parents,” Robert remembers. “We were eating dinner in the kitchen when we heard the news on the radio. The news reporter said ‘Dr. King died just 10 minutes ago.’ My parents were completely shocked! My parents did not talk after that, and we finished the rest of our dinner in silence.”

More recently, most Americans remember what they were doing when the World Trade Center in New York was taken down by terrorists. Even the date—September 11, 2001—has meaning to most Americans.

This was a day Kate Smith will never forget. She remembers working in her office near the two towers. “Damon, one of my colleagues, shouted that a plane just hit the World Trade Center! I didn’t believe him at first, but then I looked out of the window and realized that it was true. I was so terrified that I could hardly think clearly after that.”

【推荐3】When I was seven years old my mom was diagnosed（诊断）with cancer. The doctors told us my mom might be saved with surgery（手术）. But it could also kill her. She chose to have it.

The day before the surgery I was off school, and my mom planned the best day of my life, everything I loved at seven and everything that would put a smile on my face. The day began with her waking me up saying, "Kate, I have a surprise for you. Come and see." The surprise was a doll I had wanted for the longest time. Throughout the day, she told me everything that she thought I would need to know to grow up and be a good person; she told me to be the best I could be and that I would always make her proud. We had a picnic in the park, and it was so cold that we moved to the car. The day was filled with laughter. For the first time in a long time I could see she was really happy. I would never forget her smile, or the way her eyes shone as if we were the same age. It was the best day of my life, and I will never forget the conversations we shared.

My mother managed to live through the surgery. Now when I look back, I realize that the best day of my life could be her last and this could be the last day I would remember with her, the last one we shared. I also understand how unselfish a mother is.

【推荐1】We use money to buy things we need or want. But a long time ago, people didn’t use money. So how did they get the things they wanted? Well, there is a long and interesting story.

At first they would exchange things they had for something they need. For example, if a shoemaker needed some bread, he would give a baker shoes and the baker would give him bread. This was called “bartering(以物易物)”.

Bartering worked well for a while. But after the baker didn’t need so many shoes, the shoemaker still needed more bread. What could they do? The solution （解决办法） to this problem was money.

Money is an agreement among people. There were many earlier forms of money, such as cattle, salt, grain and shells. But it was not easy to move them to faraway places or store them. So metal money began to take the place of these things. Metal money was used in China as early as 1,000 BC.

About three hundred years ago, paper money was used widely. Paper money is much cheaper to make than metal money. It is also easier to carry. Now paper money is used by most countries.

It was a cold evening. I was in a restaurant wearing a pair of new white shoes when a boy of ten came to me. He was in an old large shirt. "Excuse me, sir! Could I clean your shoes?" the boy asked. "__________" I answered.

The boy was busy doing his work when a heavy rain began. More and more people rushed in and I could not find the boy. Several hours passed, I thought the boy would not return my shoes. When it was near midnight, the rain stopped. As the restaurant was to be closed, I had to move to the door.

To my surprise, at the door, I found the boy was sleeping without his old large shirt. He held a package wrapped (包裹) by his shirt in his arms. I shook him and woke him up. He jumped up and cleaned his eyes for a while before he recognized me, Then he opened the package hurriedly, gave my shoes back to me, and said, "I am sorry, sir." "It doesn't matter." I said. Then, I thanked him and wrapped him with his unfit shit. On my way home, the boy still stayed in my mind.

【推荐3】You may charge(充电) your phone every day, but do you clean your phone as much? Whatever your hands touch, your phones touch. It has been discovered that some phones have 18 times more bacteria and viruses (细菌病毒) than any surface in a public restroom. So it   won’t surprise you that a 2011 University of London study found that one in six of our phones have bacteria and viruses on them.

The research on bacteria and viruses led to the invention of PhoneSoap. It is not actually liquid (液体). It is a phone charger that uses the electromagnetic radiation (辐射) to kill 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses, cleaning your phone while it charges.

“Certain types of bacteria and viruses are really on our phones,” says Wes Barnes, the PhoneSoap founder. “It would be the fastest, most powerful way to kill them .”

PhoneSoap looks like a little metal suitcase. Your phone rests in to charge and get cleaned at the same time. Instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you’d plug it into the PhoneSoap charger box. The process only takes a few minutes but, Barnes says, “The idea is that you can leave it in there overnight if you want to keep charging. and it cleans the phone fully.”

The founder found the right companies and then started shipping the product in late November. By last week’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, PhoneSoap was very popular with people. The founder has left his present job and is selling PhoneSoap without a stop. “We sell out PhoneSoap every day, and we will try to provide enough PhoneSoap” Barnes says. “It’s been a great challenge.”