Yellow flowers always in the countryside.

 all day long is a bore.

    Self-esteem (自尊) plays a role in almost everything you do. If you want to improve your self-esteem, here are some useful tips.

    ★Try to stop having negative thoughts about yourself. If you're used to focusing on your shortcomings, start thinking about positive aspects of yourself.

    ★View mistakes as learning opportunities. Accept that you will make mistakes because everyone does. Remind yourself that a person's talents are constantly developing, and everyone does well in different things.

    ★ If you realize that you're unhappy with something that you can change, then start today. If it's something you can't change (like your height), then start to work toward loving yourself the way you are.

    ★Make a contribution. Help a classmate who's having trouble, offer to clean up your neighborhood or volunteer your time in some other way.

    ★Have fun. Enjoy spending time with the people you care about and doing the things you love. Relax and have a good time.

    It takes some work to develop good self-esteem, but once you do it's a skill you'll have for life.

A. Mistakes are part of learning.

B. Recognize what you can change and what you can't.

C. Each day, write down the things that make you happy.

D. Low self-esteem is a negative evaluation (评价) of oneself.

E. That your help is valued can do wonders to improve self-esteem.

F. Experience is the great thing that enables you to recognize a mistake.

G. People with high self-esteem do better in school and find it easier to make friends.

    Every new year of the last decade I set a personal challenge. My goal was  (grow) in new ways outside my day-to-day work running Facebook. These  (lead) me to learn Mandarin, code an AI assistant for my home, read more books, run a lot more, and get  (comfortable) with public speaking.

    When I started these challenges, my life was almost all about building the Facebook website. Now there's so much more to learn. At Facebook, we're building lots of different apps and technology and we're handling a lot more social   (responsible). And outside Facebook, I'm a father now and I love spending time with my family, working on our charity and improving at the sports and hobbies I  (pick) up over the past years.

    This decade I'm going to take  longer term focus. Rather than having year-to-year challenges, I've tried to think about  the world and my life will be like in 2030 so I can make sure I'm focusing  those things. By then, if things go well, my daughter Max will be in high school. We'll have the technology to feel  (true) present with another person no matter where they are, and scientific research will have helped cure  prevent enough diseases to increase our average life expectancy(平均寿命) by another 2.5 years.

    By the time you read these words, winter should have gone within the Northern Hemisphere (半球). But at its worst, this winter was unusually cold. Here in New York City on January 31, the low temperature dropped to -17℃. In Chicago, it was also -17℃—but that was the high. The low jumped to -29℃. And the wind chill within the Windy City was -44℃ or -46℃, relying on which climate station was crying out in pain. As comic Lewis Black said, "That is not weather. That's an emergency condition."

    When the forecast warned us a few days earlier that Arctic air was looming (阴森地逼近), President Trump issued a sincere and helpful tweet, which ended with: "What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!" And being the most powerful man on Earth, he was successful in his polite request. On February 4 the Chicago temperature reached 11℃. And the following day the Big Apple was in a sunny 19℃.

    The Arctic is warming at twice the speed as the global average. This heat might help disrupt (打破) the polar vortex, a gradual wind pattern that usually stays focused on circling the North Pole. A shaky jet stream (高速气流) then runs right into a brick wall of that Arctic air, which continues to be fairly cold by human standards, and both wind up lots of miles farther south than they usually belong. And for a few days we in the Deep South—by which I mean Chicago or New York compared with the Arctic—freeze our butts off. But less than a week later, thanks to some warm air coming up from the real South, I was walking outside without a coat on a date when the temperature in Chicago reached 11℃ on February 4.

    Like so much else we are currently living through, this experience is not normal. Or it didn't used to be, anyway.

    After all, scientists have been warming—sorry, warning—that warming can have these very results. Climate change deniers may sneer (冷笑), "So when it's warmer than usual, that's because of global warming. And when it's colder, that's also because of global warming?" Well, yes. And anybody who just can't accept these kinds of seemingly paradoxical conditions needs to reflect on the expression "freezer burn."

Over 3,000 people aged 50+ applied to university in 2019. But why are so many older adults 1 to the classroom? Maybe we can get some clues from Christina's  2 of undergraduate life.

Having quit the publishing industry in her fifties, Christina chose Nottingham Trent University to follow her 3 for animal biology.

"My background is in the arts, so I wanted to see if I could 4 science degree. I am definitely a mum figure to some of my course mates, but that's fine —5 grows in different ways. I have been invited to all the club nights and such which I haven't really 6, but I have done lots of volunteering, so there have been plenty of 7 to extend my knowledge and experience.

"My family have been so 8 too — my husband has taken on lots of the housework so that I can 9. My daughter has been very helpful when I am 10 with the workload.

"I would 11 adult study to anyone, so they can feel connection and support. That is what I missed—going in 12 and having a bunch of people to talk to. It is really giving me the confidence to speak up again, to join in and be a 13 of society. I was shrinking inside the 14 world of my house. I feel a lot more 3D now. "

It is never too late to 15 something new, as Christina demonstrates.

A trust fall is a group exercise in which a person allows himself or herself to fall on purpose to be caught by someone or others in the group. The exercise is used by groups, organizations, and businesses to give the persons involved a sense of trust in one another.

In a typical trust fall exercise, group members form a circle around the person who is to fall. He or she should stand close enough to catch the person. Meanwhile, he or she must be far enough away from the falling person to allow for an almost complete fall.

The person who is to fall stands straight and then simply leans backward. He or she is not to try in any way to slow or prevent the fall. When injuries do occur, they are usually the result of panic on the part of the falling person, or the failure of the special person who cannot safely catch the falling person.

Generally there is a question and answer meeting at the end of a trust fall exercise.

They are also encouraged to talk about how it makes them feel

Some people believe that a trust fall does not really build trust. The exercise is in a controlled environment in which the participants are expected to act in a trustworthy (值得信赖的) manner. They are also in the presence of all their members.

However, group leaders point out that the exercise creates a shared sense of purpose among the participants. From which lasting trust grows as they continue to work together.

A. First, divide the group into pairs.

B. There is some danger in trust falls.

C. These seem to make the result less reliable.

D. Then a special person is asked to catch the falling person.

E. The person may fear to fall into the arms of other members.

F. It is also designed to build team spirit to help the group achieve its goals.

G. Group members are asked to comment on what the exercise means to them.

Natural disasters come without warning, and this underlines the need for disaster management. Natural disasters may cause death or damage crops and property without warning. Emergency management can reduce the damage and save more lives than if there are no systems set up for disaster security(安全).

There are steps to take when you plan for a natural disaster. Here's a list of some of them:

1 Ask your local Red Cross or emergency management office for reminders of disasters and emergency management steps. You may also request a list of emergency management steps that should be done in each type of disaster.

2 Each community has its own set of emergency signals. Knowing what to do at once gives you a head start in any emergency.

3 Include discussions on what is likely to happen and what should be done in such cases. Plan how each one of you will react and what are the responsibilities of each one, in order to be able to work as a team.

4 Set a meeting place in case of a natural disaster. It should be one within the vicinity(附近) of your workplace or home, and one outside your immediate vicinity. Agree on an emergency telephone that everyone should try to call.

5 Prepare a disaster supply toolbox. Stock it with first aid supplies. Prepare emergency lights like flashlights with batteries. Include a battery-powered radio in the kit so you can listen to updates.

A. Everyone should try to reach it when a natural disaster happens.

B. Discuss the dangers of different types of natural disasters.

C. Try to understand why these signals sound unfamiliar to you.

D. Find out what they sound like and what they mean.

E. This is also the best time to ask what kinds of disasters may likely take place.

F. Find out any disaster management plan that your community has.

G. Prepare some water and food that should be enough for three days.