3 . As the autumn colors fade over time, cold days are well underway. The Start of Winter or “Lidong” (立冬), the 19th solar term (节气) in China, begins this year on Nov. 7 and ends on Nov. 21.

    1     For the northern hemisphere, biting winds blow from the north, crops harvested in autumn have been stored up, and creatures begin to rest and hibernate (冬眠) for the coming winter.

    2     in the first phase of Lidong, water begins to freeze. Ice often encrusts lakes in just one night in northern China, which reminds people of the coming cold winter. The second phase of Lidong brings frozen ground. The thin ice is easily broken if stepped on. The ice covers and protects crops and farmlands from pests and discases.     3     As migratory birds move south and resident birds store their food in the nest, the sky often seems lonely without its winged friends.

On the day of Lidong, people would treat themselves with feasts, as a reward for their hard work during the busy months. Some brave swimming enthusiasts take a dive in cold rivers to celebrate the Beginning of Winter, and of course, to exercise their bodies.

    4     For people in southern China, high-caloric food such as beef, chicken, mutton, and fish is their favorites during the days of Lidong, and can provide enough energy and fat to help them see the winter out.

Though for the northern hemisphere, the days are getting colder and nights longer, the year will soon pass by.     5    

4 . Prepare for a test

In your school, tests or quizzes maybe a part of your regular classroom work. Many teachers use tests to ensure that students have accurately learned the material that’s been studied. If taking a test makes you feel worried, the good news is that there are many easy ways for you to prepare and feel better before the exam or quiz.    1    

Be organized

Studying for a test will be easier if you organize you notes, handouts, and assignments ahead of time for each of your classes.    2    Consider using a separate folder for each subject. You can keep them at home, at school, or in your backpack.

Make a plan

    3    This might mean committing to studying for 30 minutes for a few afternoons the week before the test Or maybe you have more time on the weekends and want to plan extra study time then. No matter what you decide, block out the time on your calendar so you remember.

    4    

If you have learned a lot of material, such as in science class, ask your teacher what information will be on the test If your teacher hands out a study guide, use that guide to help you figure out what information you need to focus on most Next, decide how you want to review the material. Besides reviewing your notes, you could write key concepts on flash cards to test yourself.    5    If there is some information in your notes or in the study guide that is confusing to you, highlight that part and ask your teacher for clarification when you get to class.

These strategies can help you feel confident about demonstrating your knowledge.

5 . Yoga has a well-deserved reputation for helping improve balance and flexibility and for inducing calm and relaxation.     1     While you might not burn as many calories by practicing yoga as you would by running or doing some other high-intensity activities, yoga can still raise your heart rate and help build muscle. Here’s more about how yoga is a complete body and mind workout.

·Reduce stress and reduce pounds. Yoga helps deal with stress.     2     Yoga has an impact on the body’s stress response and reduces the production of chemicals linked to weight gain, such as cortisol (皮质醇), a stress hormone.

·Move well and eat well.     3     Participants involved in yoga practice realize that they tend to notice not only the amount of food they eat, but also what type of foods they eat and the impact of eating those foods. They become aware of the effect of certain foods on their bodies during their yoga practice.

·    4     Doing yoga long term not only can help people lose weight but also can strengthen cognitive skills to help keep it off. A multiyear study examines the possibility of yoga maintaining weight loss. Its findings suggest that yoga may help to improve long-term weight loss outcomes via improvements in distress tolerance, self-compassion and a more positive mood.

Yoga is a very reasonable form of exercise, but you have to choose the right type. A 2021 study found no difference in weight loss totals for participants practicing a gentle, restorative yoga versus a more vigorous type of yoga.     5     Everybody can benefit from a yoga practice.

7 . Every October, families rush to the farms to pick out the perfect pumpkins. Some use them to carve scary jack-o’-lanterns,     1    . Unfortunately, the fascination with the colorful fruit disappears once Halloween ends, and most pumpkins end up in the dustbin.

A 2020 survey carried out by the UK-based non-profit organization found that over fifty percent of the 24 million Halloween pumpkins that British citizens bought that year were thrown into the landfill.     2    , where about a billion pounds of pumpkins get thrown out and left to rot (腐烂) in landfills annually. In addition to a lot of food waste generated, the rotting fruit also emits large amounts of methane—a greenhouse gas even more powerful than carbon dioxide.

    3     We can all help reduce the food waste by keeping the eatable parts of the fruit during carving. Roasted pumpkin seeds make a nutritious snack, while the flesh can be transformed into a delicious soup, a tasty puree, or a lip-smacking pie.

Once Halloween is over, drop your jack-o’-lanterns at a local compost (堆肥) collection center if possible. Better still, see if your city or town hosts a pumpkin smashing (打碎) event and have fun throwing yours on the ground with your friends. Don’t worry,     4    

    5    . Fill your hollowed-out pumpkins with grains and leave them in the yard or hanging from a tree for birds, squirrels, and other garden visitors to enjoy. If your pumpkin is too far gone to save, bury it in your backyard—your garden will be all the happier for it.

8 . Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it will get you the right ones. That’s true, so you should pursue authentic positivity in your friendships, the opposite of toxic (有毒的) positivity that would have you encouraging friends in all things, regardless of what you might feel or observe or know about the challenges of life.     1    

1. Ask questions.

A feature of authentic positivity is a curious mindset, a mentality where you are less locked into “telling it like it is” and more interested in wondering and exploring the possibilities together with your friend.     2     If your friendship has a history of welcome advice-giving, your question could be “Are you looking for ideas, or do you just want me to listen?”

2.     3    

“That’s so disappointing” is sometimes the most positive thing you can say to your friend when they are struggling. Resisting the urge to say “It’s all going to work out; don’t worry” shows your friend that you see them in their pain, and that you are available to support them here and now.     4     You can use “yes/and” statements like “What happened at work is so frustrating—AND I know how creative you are, so you’ll find a way to move forward.”

3. Learn to apologize —and ask for an apology.

    5     That includes you, too. Being authentic in a friendship means having the freedom to say to a friend, “I’m sorry I hurt you.” It also means being able to say, “Your words/ actions hurt me.” Friendships that stand the test of time have room for mistakes, and for repair.

10 . Thinking about the past week, did any of you forget where you put your phone? Did you have a word stuck on the tip of your tongue? You couldn’t remember the name of the movie a friend recommended? What is going on here? Is your memory failing?

It’s not.     1    Despite memory’s extraordinary, necessary and common presence in our lives, it is far from perfect. Our brains are not designed to remember people’s names, to remember to do something later or to catalogue everything we experience.     2     Even in the smartest heads, memory is likely to be wrong. So what determines what we remember and what we forget?

    3    Your memory is not a video camera recording a constant stream of every sight and sound you're exposed to. You can only remember what you are concerned about. Accordingly, one major reason for forgetting what someone said or where you parked your car is lack of attention.

The other has something to do with stimulus(刺激物). For example, the tip of the tongue is one of the most common experiences of memory failure.     4    Why does this happen? The tip of the tongue can occur when there’s only partial or weak activation(激活)of the nerve cells that connect to the word you’re looking for.

So when you walk into a room and suddenly don’t know why you’re there, you’re not going crazy or getting Alzheimer’s disease, and your memory isn’t terrible. Go back to the room you were in before you landed in this one and imagine the clues that were there.     5