1 . The exploration of the origin of the slow living movement in the Western world began with a slow eating movement in 1986. Slow food, which means purchasing local and sustain-able food that has been carefully cooked, became a global movement. Slow food unavoidably stimulates the interest of the Western world in slowing down the pace of life, which does not require wolfing down low nutrient meals between back-to-back meetings, but advocates respecting the tradition and enjoyment of using time.

When we consider the alternate lifestyle that leads to stress and depression, it is a significant sign to poor health, woeful issues like headaches, sleep issues, digestive disorders, depression, and anxiety. With this in mind, slow living isn’t only more enjoyable; it is also a major boon for one’s overall health.

Kathleen DeVos, a mental psychology expert, said, “To me, slow living is as much about how we’re structuring our lives and spending our time as it is how we are relating to our time and the things in our life.”

The resolution to live a more thoughtful lifestyle is common. About 25% of Americans who made resolutions in 2022 focused on the intention to live a healthier life. Another 21%stated they were resolving to commit to their personal improvement or happiness. However, the idea of working towards a goal seems to be antithetical to the concept of slow living. After all, the point is to slow down, live more, and work less. Plus, many struggle to actually meet their resolutions.

Without a doubt, career demands and financial realities can outshine the possibility of slow living for many. However, if you find yourself in a dilemma of nine to nine and find it unbearable, then you must make a change. For those of you working in busy environments with urgent deadlines, the Pomodoro Techniques are ways to call in slowness into your daily life.

2 . Smiling’s A Stress Reliever

A University of Kansas study found that participants who were asked to smile during stressful tasks had lower heart rates during stress recovery. So it seems even forcing yourself to look happy helps manage tricky situations.

    1     The fact smiling reduces your heart rate when you’re stressed is also likely to have a knock-on effect on blood pressure. Other research has shown blood pressure doesn’t rise when people are exposed to humour.

Beaming (笑容满面) boosts immunity. A smile releases certain hormones in the brain, including serotonin (血清素), which is associated with an improvement in immune function.     2     Depression, on the other hand, can weaken your immune system.

A smile can relieve your pain. Being amused also prompts the release of endorphins (内啡肽) in the brain.    3     In one study, participants who smiled while being injected reported 40% less pain than those holding a neutral expression.

Looking happy encourages positivity.     4     A 2022 study of 3,878 participants in 19 countries found people’s happiness rating was higher when they smiled.

Smiling makes you welcome to others and helps you connect with them. Fortunately, with enough practice, smiling can become an automatic behavior. You can use certain situations as cues to smile. You might remind yourself to smile when you hear someone laugh or while you’re in the process of making tea. You could set a note on your phone to help remember to smile.    5    

3 . The magic of baseball is its fluid connection between players, each in the right position at the right time, playing their part to perfection. When a team is on the site of competition, there is nothing more breathtaking than baseball. But it takes a lot of practice to look effort-less.

That’s what was happening —practice —one afternoon when the Valley High School team was distracted by a scream for help. Coach Brett Sawyer heard the noise and saw the en-tire team rushing towards the parking lot, jumping over fences.

One of their schoolmates was stuck under a car that had accidentally backed over her. One of the players, Chas Roberts, remembered afterward, “You had to do what you had to do to save someone’s life.” The players quickly surrounded the car, each taking a hold, and lifted the car. An assistant coach was then able to pull the girl out from underneath the car. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Maybe it’s the connection human beings have with each other, rushing in to help when it’s needed. And maybe playing together as a team became natural because each knew what to do. Or maybe it’s both. Maybe, deep inside, we all know that we are on the same team.

The next day, the varsity team lost their last game of the year. But winning was a little less important to them that day. The coach was proud of them for what they accomplished and said, “To be honest, we might not have the best baseball team around, but we do have a great group of guys.”

The magic of life is the fluid connection between people: how they love, how they share, how they help. There is nothing more breathtaking than the game of life well played.

4 . Giving and receiving gifts is one of the great pleasures of the holiday season, but that pleasure is somewhat reduced when you behold the pile of packaging waste that’s left behind. And this year, in the midst of America’s Great Recycling Crisis, the remainder packaging waste is a bigger deal than ever.

However, the US has failed to build additional recycling facilities, launch waste-reduction campaigns or even simply pressure manufacturers to come up with better packaging designs. Even a few of those things could have helped cope with this enormous problem. Instead, the recycling situation is in a state of chaos.

USA Today reports that countless cities across the country cannot find a market for their recyclables. Many are driving their trucks directly to the landfill. Others are paying recycling companies to take away their trash.

These issues, which are big enough on a day-to-day basis, are intensified during the holidays, when people are shopping and consuming more than ever, particularly online. Although UPS predicts it will deliver fewer packages this holiday season, it still expects to process several hundred million packages. If FedEx’s numbers match those from previous years, it will deliver around 400 million packages. That’s a whole lot of cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and packing peanuts.

Unfortunately, the lack of recycling infrastructure cannot change the unfortunate fact that our society has not yet been established to handle this level of waste. But knowing that, we have a clear responsibility to minimize this waste as best we can, and tackling it on a personal level is all we can do. We can avoid unnecessary packaging when shopping for and wrapping holiday gifts in a number of ways.

It’s not going to solve the recycling crisis overnight, but neither will improve our recycling facilities. What’s needed more than that is a dramatic shift in the way we shop and handle our goods, always moving toward less packaging.

6 . How to Stay Cool and Save Money in Summer?

Although summer is filled with various fruits, food, and various water entertainment activities. But how to enjoy summer while saving energy and expenses?     1    , and you may find some that suit you.

Set your air conditioner to 28 degrees or higher.

An obvious pointer, but also one of the most ignored. Running your air conditioner at colder temperatures won’t cool down a room any faster than a more moderate setting, but it will force your system to work harder. Worse yet, it’s easy to forget to turn it back up.     2    , and move on to other stay-cool ideas.

Wear cool, loose clothing—even indoors.

Shorts, absorbent fabrics and loose-fitting clothes all work outdoors. They’ll work in-side, too. It’s your space: dress for comfort.     3    , the less you’ll need air conditioning.

    4    

If you live in an area experiencing water shortages, skip this one. Otherwise, a quick three-minute cold shower is a fantastic way to cool down. Going longer than three minutes won’t make you feel much cooler, so skip the soap and just enjoy the relief. For regular showers, avoid using hot water during the summer. In most temperate locations, tap water is plenty warm for bathing by July. The cooler you run your shower, the less heat and steam you’ll need to remove from your living space. Use the exhaust fan if it’s vented outdoors.

Clean your air conditioning filter.

    5    . Check your filter once a week, and clean as often as necessary. Filters are generally throwaway items, but some may be reusable if thoroughly cleaned. Clean window-unit filters once a week. Some window air conditioners have a warning light to indicate when air flow is restricted.

7 . It was the first Sunday in December and I was in the Sunday School to learn about a family that was in real need of clothes and food.

Our director began to _________ what he saw. The mother was working two jobs trying to _________ and clothe three children. She has been working hard all year to save money to buy Christmas gifts, but she just _________. All her money was _________ to buy food.

Hearing what he saw, I began to _________ all the Christmas’s that I had as a child. I can still smell the _________ of various delicacies wafting from my mother’s kitchen. The sight of a big Christmas tree with _________ piled all around and the looks on each of the faces of my family as we opened Christmas presents. I just couldn’t _________ what it would be like to have a Christmas that was being described to us. What—no food, no presents, no family gatherings and no Christmas tree?

The _________ said he would like to take up an offering and anything that was received would be used to help the __________. As the plate began to make its way around. I opened my wallet and only found one $100 bill. I thought for a(n) __________ and then realized that they needed it far worse than I did. So, I put the money in the __________. He looked __________ and said “Are you sure you don’t want any change?” I nodded with a smile.

When returning back, I told my son what I had done, and more __________, I didn’t have any extra money to prepare Christmas gifts for him anymore. I thought I would see my son’s __________expression, instead, he gave me a big hug and said, “No, I already have the best gift in the world —a kind Dad.”

The main tomb of the Marquis of Haihun, the discovery of which was one of the most     1     (significance) archaeological activities in the country in recent years, opened to the public on Friday in east China’s Jiangxi Province.

The Western Han Dynasty tomb,     2     (locate) in the provincial capital Nanchang, is one of the few imperial tombs not to be destroyed. The main tomb is around 8 meters deep, 17 meters long and 16 meters wide, and linked by a long path.     3     (protect) the site, visitors will observe it from above via a newly-built passage way. Visitors can have a look at the design of the tomb and also see     4     (imitate) of some unearthed items,     5     (include) Liu’s coffin and a dressing mirror painted with the portrait of Confucius.

In addition, naked-eye 3D technology is applied to     6     (vivid) demonstrate different sections of the tomb as well as its collection of relics.

The tomb began excavation in 2011, during     7     more than 10,000 cultural relics were unearthed. Among the unearthed     8     (be) nearly 480 gold ware items and processed rehmannia (地黄) root confirmed as the earliest sample of processed herbal medicine found in China.

The marquis Liu was the grandson of Emperor Wu, whose reign ushered in one of     9     most prosperous periods in China’s history.

Liu was given the title “Haihunhou”, after he was deposed as emperor following only 27 days in this role. He was deposed by the royal family because they believed he lacked talent and     10     (moral). Haihun is the ancient name of a small kingdom in northern Jiangxi.

10 . How to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

There’s no magic method to change your thinking processes. Improvement happens with small, intentional changes in your everyday habits until a more critical approach to thinking is automatic. Here are some tips for building stronger self-awareness and learning how to improve critical thinking:

Be careful

    1    . One of the key principles of critical thinking is asking questions and analyzing the available information. You might surprise yourself at what you find when you stop to think before taking action. Before making a decision, use evidence, logic, and reasoning to support your own opinions or challenge ideas.     2    .

Ask open-ended questions

“Yes” or “no” questions invite agreement rather than reflection.     3    . Digging deeper can help you identify potential biases, uncover assumptions, and arrive at new possible solutions.

Learn to be quiet

Active listening is the intentional practice of concentrating on a conversation partner instead of your own thoughts.     4    . If you’re brainstorming with your team or having a 1:1 with a coworker, listen, ask clarifying questions, and work to understand other people’s viewpoints. This will help you find weaknesses in arguments for better solutions.

Put it down

Recording your thoughts with pen and paper can lead to stronger brain activity than typing them out on a keyboard. If you’re stuck and want to think more critically about a problem, writing your ideas can help you process information more deeply.     5    . Ideas are more likely to remain in the background of your mind, leading to deeper thinking that informs your decision-making process.