Successful budgeting is a key to good financial health and it really isn't hard. These steps will help create a realistic and successful budget:
List your expenses.
Make a list of your fixed expenses such as rent payments and insurance payments. Then make a list of your fluctuating (波动的) expenses, such as expenses for dining out, hobbies, and other expenses that don’t have a consistent payment. 1.
Separate your wants and needs.
2.This is especially important to successfully budgeting to pay off debts or save money toward a specific goal. Any place where you see you’re clearly wasting money, get rid of it.
Consider buying budgeting software.
Part of the reason you do this is, of course, for guidance in successful budgeting.3. Another part of it, though, is psychological. By investing (投资) in budgeting software, you mean business when it comes to your budget and saving goals.
4.
For the most successful budgeting possible, everyone in your family needs to know and understand the budget. It won’t do any good to create a budget if your husband or wife isn’t aware of it and continues to spend money in ways you haven’t planned for.5.They need to know that there are limits to how much money they can spend. So the earlier you get them started, the better.
A.Get your family on board.
B.Make sure your expectations are realistic.
C.This is not fundamental to successful budgeting.
D.And it’s never too early for kids to develop money skills.
E.Check those lists you have made for costs you can cut or avoid.
F.Review old bank statements to help you calculate approximate figures for these expenses.
G.It helps you understand the expenses categories and map out plans for successful budgeting.
By analyzing the movement of the smile across a person’s face, the software developed by researchers at the University of Bradford can determine whether or not the expression is true. The most significant movements detected by the software were around the eyes, supporting popular theories that a true smile is one that can be seen in a person’s eyes.
“A smile is perhaps the most common of facial expressions and is a powerful way of signaling positive emotions (情绪)” says Hassan Ugail, Professor of Visual Computing at the University of Bradford, who led the research. “Techniques for analyzing human facial expressions have advanced a lot in recent years but distinguishing between true and false smiles remains a challenge because humans are not good at picking up the relevant messages.”
The software works by first mapping a person's face from within a video recording, and identifying the mouth, cheeks and eyes of the subject. It then measures how they move through the progress of the smile and calculates the differences in movement between the video pieces showing true and false smiles. They found significant differences in the way the subjects' mouths and cheeks moved when comparing the true and the false expressions. The movements around the subjects’ eyes, however, showed the most striking difference, with true smiles producing at least 10 percent more movement in these muscles (肌肉).
“We use two main sets of muscles when we smile — the zygomaticus major, which is responsible for the movements upwards of the mouth and the orbicularis oculi which causes movements around our eyes,” explains Professor Ugail. In false smiles it is often only the mouth muscles that move but, as humans we often don’t spot the lack of movement around the eyes.
He adds, “An objective way of analyzing whether or not a smile is true could help us develop improved interactions (互动) between computers and humans. It could also be important to scientists aiming to gain more understanding into human behavior and emotion.”
1.Why is it hard for humans to recognize a false smile?
A.Humans are good at hiding their smiles.
B.The relevant details are hard to catch for our eyes.
C.Humans often put on too many facial expressions.
D.Techniques for analyzing facial expressions are hard to develop.
2.What do the researchers find by the software?
A.People usually use two main sets of muscles when smiling.
B.True smiles produce more muscle movement around eyes.
C.Mouths and cheeks move the same for true and false smiles.
D.True smiles are a powerful way of signaling positive emotions.
3.What can we infer from Professor Hassan Ugail?
A.There are different sets of muscles on every human’s face.
B.The software can improve humans’ behavior and emotion.
C.Humans can spot the movement around the eyes in true smiles.
D.The interactions between computers and humans remain to be improved.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Eyes Can Smile
B.Smiles Can Show One's Personality
C.More Smiles, Longer lives
D.True Smiles, False Movements
Luis Reynoso says he’s always tried to get involved (牵涉) in his children’s education: attending meetings on school-improvement projects and providing classroom food. But when his youngest daughter’s school invited families to attend a nine-week program Let’s Change the Course organized by a leading education advocacy group here to learn about parenting and school participation, he realized his past efforts barely scratched the surface.
Each weekly session touched on different parenting themes, like setting up a special space at home for kids to do homework, like the importance of confidence. One of the most helpful sessions, he recalls, focused on what a child should know academically in each grade and how to talk to teachers about his daughter’s performance. “The workshops really woke me up,”says Mr. Reynoso.
Levels of parental participation in Mexican schools have long been low. Many people commonly believe a child's education is the school s job to get involved. In some parts of the country, a mother's or father's own lack of education can play into a sense that they have nothing to contribute. And even in private schools, where there might be more adults with fixed jobs and the participation is very rare, with some parents viewing their tuition (学费) bill as their educational contribution. There are also cases where the schools themselves ignore the potential of parents in a child's education, discouraging communication between families and schools.
But the importance of family participation is something many non-profit, education advocates and recently the government are starting to home in on Mexico. Part of Mexico’s 2013 national education reform stresses the importance of parents playing a more active role in their child’s education, encouraging an increase in parental-participation programs, including Let’s Change the Course.
Susana Castellanos, headmaster of a school in Mexico City, says, “People are recognizing you have to work together to create happy successful citizens. It’s no longer acceptable to set apart the roles of teacher vs. parent vs. school headmaster.”
1.What does Reynoso mean by the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1?
A.His previous efforts were in vain.
B.He missed the key point of participation.
C.His daughter disagreed with what he did.
D.He failed to catch the importance of school.
2.What did Reynoso find most beneficial about Let’s Change the Course?
A.The necessity to set up a space for kids to do homework.
B.The academic requirements for kids in different periods.
C.The importance of knowing children’s performance.
D.The ways to increase students’ confidence.
3.What is the main idea of Paragraph 3?
A.How to contribute more to children’s education.
B.How to know the levels of parental participation in Mexican schools.
C.Why schools failed to provide chances for parents to get involved,
D.Why parents played a less active role in school education in Mexico.
4.What influence did Mexico’s education reform have?
A.The number of parental-participation programs rose.
B.Many non-profit educational organizations were set up.
C.Teachers role in school education started to get increased.
D.Parents began to attach importance to children's education.
This centuries-old town of stone homes could be any rural (农村的) village in Europe. It reached its maximum population at around the turn of the last century, and since then it has slowly emptied until, in 2007, its public school finally shut its doors.
“They say when a town loses its school it loses its soul,”says the governor of St. -Pierre-de-Frugie, Gilbert Chabaud, who was elected to office the following year. After the village’s only restaurant closed too, Gilbert took up his post with a central question, “What can we do to make it come back to life, to make people come here?”
Gilbert, who himself left St. -Pierre-de-Frugie to work in the automobile industry before retiring, found his answer in sustainability (可持续发展). He opened up a store for local producers to sell their vegetables which were grown without using any artificial chemicals. He opened a community (社区) garden and ongoing ecological workshops that encourage knowledge-sharing among the community.
He has a businessman's knowledge: he is making use of the idea shared across the West by many people looking for an alternative to the high-pace urban life. And after the rapid urbanization of the 1950s and 1960s left many villages across Europe abandoned or only partially used, a mini urban-to-rural flow is under way.
Since taking office, 40 new people have moved here — most of them from the cities, bringing the population up to 400. Last year a new school opened in the village. Gilbert is eyeing a bigger place for a new school.
Just a few months ago, lulia Timofticiuc and her partner Guillaume Bled were living in Paris. They were concerned about global environment and at a more micro level about what foods they were consuming and where they were coming from. “We wanted to live lighter, be productive, and be autonomous,” Timofticiuc says. But they didn’t just want to go anywhere. They wanted to go where things were already happening. So they chose St. -Pierre-de-Frugie.
1.What can we learn about the village St. Pierre-de-Frugie?
A.Its population began to rise at the turn of the 20th century.
B.Its public school was closed for lack of students.
C.It used to be a popular rural village in Europe.
D.It became completely empty in 2007.
2.What did Gilbert do to help his hometown?
A.He quit his job to lead the village.
B.He sold green vegetables to local settlers.
C.He increased people's ecological awareness.
D.He encouraged people to share their harvest.
3.Why did lulia Timofticiuc choose St.-Pierre-de-Frugie?
A.It allows people to grow their own food.
B.It has done a lot to be eco-friendly.
C.It is less crowded.
D.It is autonomous.
4.Which section of a newspaper is the text probably taken from?
A.History. B.Culture.
C.Education. D.Society.
We’ve prepared several destinations selected from four Asian countries for your adventure. Check them out:
Mongolia
Hardly anyone visits the country, and most people aren’t aware of the amazing potential it has. Head to Mongolia’s best-known national park, Terelji. Here, you can spend a night in a traditional tent to watch performances of archery (射箭) or enjoy outdoor adventures from bird-watching to hiking and climbing or horseback riding through grassy steppes and forest-covered mountains.
Indonesia
With the chance for world-class diving to visit the world’s biggest Buddhist temple, and to see amazing wildlife, Indonesia is a must-visit. A must-visit for anyone in Indonesia is Mount Ijen. It’s in East Java, the highest point of which is home to the most active volcano in the country, Mount Merapi. But the spot we recommend you visit is the Blue Fire Crater.
Malaysia
Want to achieve something great on your next Asian adventure? You should consider climbing one of the highest mountains in Southeast Asia. Kinabalu National Park in Malaysia is home to Mount Kinabalu, the mountain that around 40,000 people from all around the world go to climb every year. The journey normally takes two days.
China
In Shaanxi province of the country lies the world’s most dangerous hiking trail (路线). It’s up Mount Huashan, which is only 2,155m high. But the dangerous part is not the top, but the narrow, wooden boards you have to climb up to reach the top. They’re fixed onto the mountainside in a way that doesn’t look very secure. Nevertheless, many adventurers try and take a hair-raising picture as they climb up.
1.Where can tourists have access to local life?
A.Terelji. B.Kinabalu National Park.
C.Mount Ijen. D.Mount Huashan.
2.What is special about Mount Huashan?
A.It is very high.
B.It has an amazing scenery.
C.It is perfect for taking pictures.
D.It has the most dangerous route.
3.What do all the destinations have in common?
A.They are all easy to reach.
B.They are all from African countries*
C.They are in mountainous areas.
D.They all offer chances for diving.
阅读下面内容，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
Among all the fast growing science and technology, the research of human genes, or biological engineering as people call it, is drawing more and more attention now. Sometimes it is a hot topic discussed by people.
The greatest thing that gene technology can do is to cure serious diseases that doctors at present can almost do nothing with, such as cancer and heart disease. Every year, millions of people are murdered by these two killers. And to date, doctors have not found an effective way to cure them. But if the gene technology is applied, not only these two diseases can be cured completely, bringing happiness and more living days to the patients, but also the great amount of money people spend on curing their diseases can be saved, therefore it benefits the economy as well. In addition, human life span (寿命) can be prolonged.
Gene technology can help people to give birth to more healthy and clever children. Some families have hereditary diseases. This means their children will for sure have the family disease, which is a great trouble for these families. In the past, doctors could do nothing about hereditary diseases. But gene technology can solve this problem perfectly. The scientist just need to find the wrong gene and correct it, and a healthy child will be born.
Some people are worrying that the gene research can be used to manufacture human beings in large quantities. In the past few years, scientists have succeeded in cloning a sheep, therefore these people predict that human babies would soon be cloned. But I believe cloned babies will not come out in large quantities, for most couples in the world can have babies in very normal way and they also believe measures will be taken to control gene technology.
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