19

Reader's Bank_Level 5_Unit 07                                    Reading Text

Each culture has a different way to fight a cold. When Americans catch a cold, they often drink orange juice. They also take a warm bath and try to sleep. In East Asia, people drink hot ginger tea with sugar. It makes your body feel warm and helps if your throat hurts. Finnish people often go to the sauna when they are sick because they think sweating helps clean the body and keep it warm. Although these home remedies are different, they all share one idea—keeping the body warm. Why is that? Cold viruses don’t like heat. Warm temperatures make it harder for viruses to grow,  but when our bodies are cold, viruses become more active.  That’s why colds spread more in winter.

20

Many artists in history painted self-portraits, but few were as honest as Rembrandt van Rijn. His self-portraits went beyond his face; they uncovered the soul behind his eyes. Through light, shadow, and expression, he gave us a window into his world. Rembrandt painted over 80 self-portraits during his life. He used a mirror while he was painting. So left and right are switched in the paintings. He painted his face and clothes very carefully. That’s why his paintings show every small detail. He is also famous for using dark colors to show light and shadow more clearly. This gave him the nickname “the magician of light and shadow.” His self-portraits don’t just show his face. They also show his life and feelings . In each painting, we can see how he changed over time from a young man full of hope to an old man with a tired face. When he had hard times, his paintings looked darker and more serious. When life was good, he smiled a little more. His brush told the story of how he lived, not just how he looked.

21

Sometimes, we cannot control our feelings. This can make us do things that we might regret later. When this happens, we can think about putting our feelings in an emotional “backpack.” This means we should wait until we feel calm. Imagine your friend laughs at something you said in front of others. You might feel embarrassed and angry. You may want to say something mean back. But if you do, you might regret it later. That’s when you should use your emotional backpack. Take a deep breath and wait until you feel calm before you respond. If we keep putting feelings in our backpack, it might get too full and spill over. This can make us feel angry at someone for no reason. Sometimes, we should take out the strongest feeling and talk about it. We can meet the person who made us upset. We can tell them how we feel without blaming them. This can  help fix a misunderstanding. If they understand our feelings, they might even apologize. When that happens, we can feel much better.