Our family made a decision to host an exchange student at the beginning of this month. I really wanted to host an exchange student, but I knew my husband wouldn’t agree because of our financial situation. I spent a couple of days reading about the exchange program and trying to see how much money would be involved in this process. I found out that the cost wouldn’t be that much. Finally, my husband agreed.

    The next step in the process was to decide on an exchange student. The first thing my husband said when we discussed this was that it would have to be a girl. I completely understood because we have two young girls. Our daughters are 4 years old and 7 years old.

    We were looking for someone that would coincide withour family. We ended up narrowing it down to 5 girls, but one of these girls just stood out to us. Her name was Victoria. She not only was involved in sports, but also she seemed very outgoing. After a couple of days, we made our final decision on that girl that stood out to us all along.

    We had the interview with a local coordinator who had to check out the house to make sure it was suitable for another child to stay in. Thankfully, after some hard work from my husband and me, we made a great impression at the interview.

     Finally, the Tuesday after the interview, I received an email with a 15-page profile with our exchange student’s information. I received the email when I was with a close friend of mine and we talked about what I should say to her in the first email I write to her. I was so nervous!

     Now, we have been having so much fun exchanging email and we both are very excited about her arrival next month..

On Thanksgiving, Scott Macaulay is preparing a full turkey dinner for a whole bunch  of people he’s never met. His 70guests----elderly people, low-income people, at-risk teens, and others—have one detail in common: without Macaulay, they’d be alone on Thanksgiving.

“What I do isn’t a big deal, really,” the 52-year-old said. “I just cook some food.”

Macaulay’s unconventional Thanksgiving tradition began in 1985, right around the time his parents decided to get divorced. The holidays got messy that year, and Macaulay, who was 24 at the time, sensed he’d be spending Thanksgiving alone. It was a terrible feeling.

“Thanksgiving isn’t about fireworks(烟火) or band concerts,” he said. “It’s a celebration around a table with food. It’s not fun to do that by yourself.”

Macaulay placed an ad in his local paper with a simple message: If people thought they might be alone on Thanksgiving, they could give Macaulay a call.

A few people showed up at Macaulay’s place that first year. It was nice. So he placed another ad the following year, and the year after that.

In recent years, Macaulay has been hosting his Thanksgiving dinners at local churches with lots of space. He still buys and prepares all the food himself and spends about 40 hours putting the whole affair together. On Thanksgiving Day, he runs around nonstop from about5a.m. to 8p.m. Macaulay said he’d love to see other people hold similar dinners all over the country. “I think someone in every town should do this,” he said, “so nobody has to be alone.”

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  In a recent business magazine article, a president said, laughter in the workplace is a waste of time. This is a place to do business, not to laugh, some researchers, however, disagree with his words. As scientists have learned more about the brain, they’ve discovered that smiles and laughter stimulate the brain, which can help increase happiness and reduce pain.

Why do we need laughter in our lives? Laughter is a powerful tool for our health. In a number of studies that were carried out, it was shown that people who are more humorous have stronger immune systems(免疫系统)while people who feel stressed have weaker immune systems. Humor can help make your immune systems stronger.

Here are some tips to add more humor to your life:

    Laugh at yourself. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have a positive attitude towards yourself and your worries will become lighter too.

    Don’t worry why people laugh---just appreciate it. Be funny. Look for the humorous side of and otherwise difficult situation.

Prepare a fist-aid laughter source. This could include books, cartoons, CDs, or videos.

Write down the amusing things that happen and save them for a sad day.

    Be open to silly things. Humor is the child within yourself.

    Laugh with others for what they do, rather than what they are.

    Research has shown that laughter is indeed the best medicine, so make time for humor now.

  When Dan Shaw gets up from the sofa in his home, Cuddles is never far away. When he wants to go outside, he doesn’t take Cuddles out for a walk—Cuddles takes him for a walk Cuddles is clearly no ordinary family pet. It is a two-foot-high miniature horse and serves as the guiding eyes of Shaw, who is blind.

      When Shaw lost his sight, his wife suggested he apply for a guide dog. Shaw, an anima lover, said he couldn’t hear to part with a dog(which usually lives about eight to ten years)and get used to a new one, perhaps several times in his life.

      Then Shaw heard of a program about the tiny guide horses. He learned that the horse possess many qualities that make them an excellent choice for guiding people. They are clean friendly, smart and have great memories. They can be trained to remain calm in noisy and crowded places. Best of all, they live for25-35 years, which would enable Shaw to have the same guide companion for most or all of his life.

      Shaw immediately applied to be and was accepted as the first person to receive a guide horse. The instant he met Cuddles, he knew he was making the right choice. Then he began his training.

      Through training, Shaw and Cuddles learned to find their way on busy streets, step over curbs(便道沿儿)and find elevator buttons. Cuddles even demonstrated(显示)its ability to step in front of Shaw and block him, to prevent him from walking into a dangerous situation The little horse also expertly led Shaw through busy shopping malls. They got along without any difficulties. Now Shaw is confident that Cuddles will change his life for the better.

Speedy eaters are three times more likely to be too fat, a problem which is made even worse by the popularity of fast food and the decrease of regular dining habits, some Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, pay special attention to how eating styles, and not just what or how much is eaten, can affect an obesity epidemic(肥胖流行病) that is becoming more and more severe because of the speed of the Western-style diet in many parts of the world.

The World Health Organization considers around 400 million people in the world as too fat, 20 million of whom are under the age of five. The researchers are concerned that the condition raises the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes(糖尿病) and heart problems.

For their study, Hiroyasu Iso and the team at Osaka University asked more than 3000 Japanese volunteers who are 30 to 69 years old about their eating. About half of the men and a little more than half of the women said they ate until full. About 45 percent of the men and 36 percent of the women said they ate quickly.

Those who said they ate until full and ate quickly were three times more likely to be fat than people in the “not eating until full and not eating quickly” group, the researchers found.

They believe that the main causes are both the popularity of eating cheap fast food and bad habits such as watching television while eating.

To fight against the bad effect of eating quickly and being too full that can lead to obesity, parents should encourage children to eat slowly and in calm environments, the study suggested.

For most Americans, a clean glass of water is just a faucet(水龙头) away. But for many of the world’s poorest people, it’s hard to get.

On Wednesday, the United Nations(UN)marked World Water Day by trying to cut the number of people without good drinking water—one billion human beings worldwide –in half．In the next ten years, the UN will work with governments around the world to reduce the shortage.

   Without clean water nearby, many people use water that is not clean. In India, many people bathe and wash their clothes in rivers that are polluted by human waste.

   According to the UN, not having enough clean water and sanitation(卫生设施) causes more than three million deaths a year.

   The links between water and human health are powerful,said Dr Lee Jong Wook, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO)．—We cannot live without clean water.

   In fact, the International Federation of the Red Cross said that quick reaction after last year’s Asian tsunami had stopped disease．The agency provided clean water to nearly 500,000 people in Indonesia and Sri Lanka after the tsunami.

World Water Day was first celebrated in 1993. Since then, it is celebrated each year on March 22 

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Maybe you are an average student. You probably think you will never be a top student. This is not necessarily so, however. Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to. Here is how.

Plan your time carefully.

When planning your week, you should make a list of things that you have to do. After making the list, you should make a timetable. First arrange your time for eating, sleeping, dressing, etc. Then decide a good, regular time for studying. Don’t forget to set aside enough time for playing. A weekly timetable may not solve all the problems, but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.

Find a good place to study.

Look around the house for a good study area. Keep this place, which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room, free of everything but study materials. No games, radios or TV! When you sit down to study, concentrate on the subject.

Make good use of your time in class.

Take advantage of class time to listen to everything the teacher says. Really listening in class means less work later. Taking class notes will help you remember what the teacher says.

Study regularly.

When you get home from school, go over your notes. Review the important points that your teacher has mentioned in class. If you know what your teacher is going to discuss the next day, read the material. This will help you understand the next class. If you do these things regularly, the material will become more meaningful, and you will remember it longer.

Develop a good attitude about the tests.

The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you to remember your new knowledge. The world won’t end if you don’t pass a test, so don’t be overly worried.

There are other methods that might help you with your studying. You will probably discover many others after you have tried these.

 American pilot Frank Webb first flew a glider at the age of 14, made his first flight alone on his 16^th birthday and got his commercial pilot’s license(执照) on his 18^th birthday.

After serving in the US Navy for 20 years, being a Boeing flight instructor and working with Alaska Airlines for more than three years, Webb signed a contract with Shenzhen Airlines last May to captain domestic(国内的) routes in China. As an experienced pilot, he still feels the same nervousness as he felt on his first flight.

Captain Webb said that the “Sep. 11” incident did not have a direct influence on his decision to move to China to work. “Safety is in fact tighter in the United States and I am not worried about a terrorist attack,” he said. “The main reason I came to China was that my children would have a chance to see the world and experience international living.”

Webb has not experienced any in-flight emergencies(紧急情况) during his term in China although he said the weather here was generally more changeable than in the US. “The weather changes tend to be great from north to south. We may be flying in a snow storm in Harbin, and then later that same day we may be flying through a tropical rain shower approaching Shenzhen,” Webb said.

While Webb had more flexibility(灵活性) to deal with the weather in the US, he said air traffic control in China was more strict and allowed fewer deviations(偏离).

Speaking of planes often being late in China, Webb said that in America, being late was one of the few things that would get him in trouble. “In China, on the other hand, it seems there are many things that can get you in trouble with the boss, but being late is not one of them.” Webb does everything in his power to keep his flights on time.

“They provide really excellent service during flights. Western flight attendants(服务员) just serve passengers. But the Chinese attendants will also check on the crew to see if we need anything,” Webb said.

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If you are in the market looking for a new bike, maybe you would like to consider this bicycle. The brainchild of Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni, the fully functional bike that costs just $ 10 to make, is made entirely of cardboard (硬纸板).

   Mr. Gafni came up with the idea after he heard about a working canoe that had been made of cardboard. However, when he suggested the idea to engineers, they all told him that it was impossible. Not ready to accept failure, Mr. Gafni decided to try to build one himself. However, the task turned out to be harder than he had thought. Considering that the cardboard is normally used to make just boxes, there was not much idea on how to even get started.

   While being able to get the design right, his biggest difficulty was to create a bike strong enough to carry a rider of almost any size and weight. After experimenting with several choices he found out that by using the Japanese principals of origami (折纸) he could increase the weight the cardboard can bear. Therefore, he made the bike strong enough to carry a real rider. He then had to figure out a coating that would protect the bike in all kinds of weather conditions. While getting it right took a few models, the final result is a new bike coated with a finish (抛光) that gives it the look and feel of lightweight plastic. It can carry as much as 485 pounds.

   Mr. Gafni is now working with some businessmen to get his cardboard creation into stores by late 2018. Considering that it costs only $10 to make the entire bike, he believes that the finished product could be sold for at least $80- $90, which makes it the coolest, cheapest, most eco-friendly bike in the world!

 16-year-old Laresce Brown has become the strongest schoolgirl in the UK. She says her success is due to a joint condition, which used to engender great pain.

   Laresce has six British and World Champion power-lifting records under her belt. Yet until just two years ago, a condition called hypermobility left her in so much pain that she was unable to take part in sport. Rather than letting her illness limit her Life, Laresce took inspiration from her father, and began weight-lifting. This put an end to her pain, and she became a champion in her field.

   Laresee loves to dance and she was a keen Morris dancer at the age of eleven. After that, she had to face daily pain in her knees, elbows and hands. She was forced to miss several days of school each month, due to pain and the lack of sleep that caused.

   However, she is now effectively cured, since taking up the sport of power-lifting 18 months ago.

   Laresce's position as Britain's strongest power-lifter for her age is down to her spirit and determination. To ensure her success, Laresce must train for eight hours a week. "I really enjoyed the feeling of power I got and the excitement of people encouraging me to do my best. Becoming a champion was a big surprise—I just started off for fun and I was not expecting anything. So to win six titles was amazing," she said.

   Laresce's father said, "Being the father of such a high-achieving teen, I couldn't be more proud. She's truly the apple of my eye and has worked so hard to be where she is today. She's made us all so happy, and I feel we all enjoy a bright future together thanks to her."

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