Sometimes it's necessary to take a break, relax and forget the routine (日常工作), so I know of an excellent place to do it outside the city. It's a beautiful place and I really enjoy going there.

    The name is Tepoztlán, 71 km south of Mexico City. Here you can find a lot of different meals, beautiful landscapes, historical buildings, local souvenirs, and so on.

    The weather most of the time is very hot, and I have to give you some advice if you go.

    I give you this advice because I ended up with sunstroke. I'm going to tell you how my trip started. When we got there we were really starving, so we decided to have breakfast and when we go to Tepoztlan we usually enjoy "quesadillas" in the market.

    In Mexico, it's very common to eat in the market, but these kinds of markets not only sell food but also you can buy clothes, flowers, everything you can imagine.

    Tepoztlan has a lot of tourist sites, but the main attraction is Tepozteco hill, and it's more attractive for the visitors during "Spring Equinox". To be honest, I've never climbed it, I'm too lazy to walk a lot and even more in the sun.

    In my trip we didn't have time to do all that because one day is not enough, but if you have the opportunity to stay for more than one day it's an excellent idea.

Tomato Festival

    Started in 2005, the Tomato Festival has grown into a local tradition in Malta． In recent years, the festival has added amusement park-style rides and a yearly Creature Feature, which screens old horrible movies．There are also dance competitions, parades and pancake breakfast．Third weekend in August．

    Address: 833 Tinkham Rd, Fountain Park, Wilbra-ham, Massachusetts 01095

Phone: （413）599-0010

                                                                                                           Brat Days

Don't mistake this festival for a day filled with poorly behaved children． Begun in 1953, the gathering is the biggest festival in the city each year and features more than 50 stands selling the sausage, as well as a contest to see who can quickly eat the most bratwurst in ten minutes．Early August．

    Address: 17th and New Jersey sts, Kiwanis Park, She boygan, Wisconsin 53081

Phone: （920）457-9491

                                                                                               Hope Watermelon Festival

    The festival dates back to the 1920s, when many trains went through this small town and local watermelon growers would sell their watermelon to parched travelers．These days, the festival sees a Watermelon Queen crowned（加冠的） and sometimes a world-record watermelon grown．There are also more than 300 stands selling arts and crafts from a six-state area, as well as a car show and the Watermelon Olympics．Early August．

    Address: 108 W 3rd St, Hope, Arkansas 71801

Phone: （870） 777-3640

                                                                                                     Oyster Festival （牡蛎节）

Featuring appearances from tall ships and oyster boats, this festival has regularly drawn 60,000 visitors a year since it began in 1978．More than 3,000 volunteers make the festival possible each year．Norwalk is less than a two-hour drive from many of New England's larger cities, making it easy to attend the festival during a trip to New York or Hartford．Weekend after Labor Day．

    Address: Sea view Ave, Veteran's Park, East Nor-walk, Connecticut 06855

Phone: （800） 866-7925

    What does it mean to say that we live in a world of persuasion? It means that we live among competing interests. Your roommate's need to study for an exam may take priority (优先) over pizza. Your instructor may have good reasons not to change your grade.

    In such a world, persuasion is the art of getting others to give fair and favorable consideration to our points of view. When we persuade, we want to influence how others believe and behave. We may not always prevail — other points of view may be more persuasive, depending on the listener, the situ­ation, and the merit of the case. But when we practice the art of persuasion, we try to ensure that our position receives the attention it deserves.

    Some people, however, object to the very idea of persuasion. They may regard it as an unwelcome interruption into their lives. Just the opposite, we believe that persuasion is unavoidable — to live is to persuade. Persuasion may be ethical (合乎道义的) or unethical, selfless or selfish, inspiring or degrad­ing. Persuaders may enlighten our minds or get our vulnerability(脆弱之处). Ethical persuasion, however, calls on sound reasoning and is sensitive to the feelings and needs of listeners. Such persuasion can help us apply the wisdom of the past to the decisions we now must make. Therefore, the most basic part of edu­cation is learning to resist the one kind of persuasion and to encourage and practice the other.

    Beyond its personal importance to us, persuasion is necessary to society. The right to persuade and be persuaded is the bedrock of the American political system, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution (美国宪法).

    It was a hot, humid day, and my brother Walt and I had decided that the only way to survive it would be to go swimming in a deep swimming hole across Mr. Blickez's pasture(牧场) and through some woods.

    The only problem with our plan was that this pasture was guarded by a huge, mean Hereford bull. Mr. Blickez had told us that Elsie was the meanest bull in the township, maybe even the county, and we believed him. But the hotter it got, the more we thought there was something fishy about his claim. For one thing, we remembered Mr. Blickez liked telling tall tales; for another, Elsie seemed like an odd name for a bull.

    Finally, I talked Mom into asking permission for us to walk through the pasture, but then another problem surfaced. Mom said she would talk to Mr. Blickez if we would take our cousin Joanie along with us. Joanie was almost two years older than me and a head taller. If her teasing ever got around my grade school, it would be all over for me. In fact, I still had a headache from a quarrel with her that morning. “I'm not going swimming with that dumb girl cousin.” I told my mom.

    “Either Joanie goes with, or you stay home alone,” Mom said in her serious tone. I gave in and we set out. On our way across the pasture, Walt yelled suddenly. Elsie had approached him quietly and was licking(舔) his back.Joanie and I dove under the wire fence, but while I was on the ground I looked up and saw that Elsie wasn't a big mean bull after all. She was going to keep licking my brother's back as long as he stood still.

    We had many good days growing up and visiting our secret swimming hole guarded by the so-called “big mean bull”. And as it turned out, for a girl cousin, Joanie hasn't been too bad. She's been one of my best friends over the years.

Pride and Prejudice for the Modern Woman

    Let us imagine how Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's most famous work, might be updated, 200 years on.

    Austen's popularity is rooted in her intelligence. But today she would certainly have had a very different life, as would her characters. Here's my own suggestion.

    It is a truth finally and universally acknowledged that a single woman with brains deserves to have equal opportunities to men, however disadvantaged she may feel by sexism.

    " My dear husband," said his hopeful wife one day, " have you heard that the local store, standing empty for so long, is taken over by a bright young businesswoman?"

    Her dull and indifferent (漠不关心的) husband replied that he had not. "But it is, it is," she replied excitedly. Mr Dull-Husband made no reply.

    "Don't you want to know her plans?" she cried with some impatience.

    "Well, clearly you think it matters to your silly little head. .. so I'd better listen. "

    "Well, my dear, the rumour (传言) is that she has already set up a string of successful businesses in northern England, though how a woman can know anything about that is beyond me. She will move in herself next month. " "What is her name?" "Bingley. "

    "Is she married or single?"

    "What a question! And none of your business. But her coming will be a fine thing for our five boys. " "How so? How can it possibly affect them? "

    "My dear love; those lazy boys need something to wake them up. There are bound to be jobs going. "

    " Is that her point in settling here? Surely as a woman she has simply taken a fancy to the place. "

    " Nonsense, my love, how little you've noticed the world has changed. She's got a first-rate degree and some sort of business qualification, I'm told. She surely needs one of our boys! Perhaps you might give her a call. "

    " Me? No. Perhaps you can take an interest. You still have your looks, after all. She may even offer you a job. " "Oh, that's not likely. These new chances belong to the younger generation. But now you mention it, I think I'll go along all the same. "

    And Mrs Bennet went along. That was 10 years ago. She is now managing director of a FTSE-listed company.

     It would remain the case, of course, that Mrs Bennet would be one of very few women on the company board, that her salary would be lower than her male colleagues, her bonus of a more "female" dimension and her lifespan (年限) among the city's business leaders shorter than theirs. Still, she'd no doubt have enjoyed Davos—and might even have hobnobbed (攀谈) with influential figures.

    Many parents have learned the hard way that what sounds like open communication is often the very thing that closes a youngster's ears and mouth. One common mistake is the Lecture, the long monologue that often starts with “When I was your age” Eighteen-year-old Kelly calls lectures “long, one-side discussions in which I don't say much.”

    Kids reflexively(条件反射地)shut down in the face of a lecture. Their eyes glaze over(呆滞),and they don't register any incoming information. Listen to 13-year-old Sarah describe her least favorite times with her mom and dad. “First, they scream. Then comes the ‘We're so disappointed' speech. Then the ‘I never did that to my parents' lecture begins. After that, even if they realize how ridiculous they sound they never take it back.”

    Lines like “When you have children of your own, you'll understand” have been seriously said by parents since time immemorial. But many of our expert parents, like Bobby, a registered nurse and mother of three, feel that by falling back on clichés(陈词滥调)to justify your actions, we weaken our position.

    Since kids are creatures of here and now, the far-off future has no relevance to them. Therefore, good communicators like Bobby suggest, “Give specific reasons for your actions in present language: ‘I'm not letting you go to the party because I don't think there will be enough adult supervisions.'”

    Betty, who lives in Missouri, uses an indirect approach. “I find that warnings are accepted more readily if I discuss a news article on a subject I am concerned about. My husband and I talk about it while our children absorb the information. Then they never think I'm preaching(布道).”

This really helped when Betty's kids began driving. Instead of constantly repeating “Don't drink; don't speed,” she would talk about articles in the paper and express sympathy for the victims of a car crash. Betty made no special effort to draw her kids into the conversation. She depended on a teenager's strong desire to put in his opinions—especially if he thinks he isn't being asked for them.

    My husband and I had been married nearly twenty-two years when I acquired Stevens-Johnson syndrome,a disorder where my immune system responded to a virus by producing painful blisters（水疱）.Although my long-term evaluation was good,I,who had been so fiercely independent,rapidly became absolutely helpless.

    My husband,Scott,stepped up to the plate,taking care of kids and cooking dinners.He also became my personal caretaker,applying the medicine to all of my blisters because my hands couldn't do the job.Needless to say,I had negative emotions,bouncing from embarrassment to shame caused by total reliance on someone other than myself.

    At one point when I had mentally and physically hit bottoms I remember thinking that Scott must somehow love me more than I could ever love him.With my illness he had become the stronger one,and I the weaker one.And this disturbed me.

    I recovered from my illness,but I couldn't seem to recover from the thought that I loved my husband less than he loved me.This seeming distinction in our love continued to annoy me for the year following my illness.

    Then recently Scott and I went on a long bike ride.He's an experienced cyclist;I'm quite the green hand.At one point with a strong headwind and sharp pain building in my tired legs,I really thought I couldn't go any further. Seeing me struggle,Scott pulled in front of me and yelled over his shoulder,"Stay close behind me."As I fell into the draft of his six-foot-three-inch frame and followed his steps,I discovered that my legs quit burning and I was able to catch my breath.My husband was pulling me along again.At this very moment I woke up to what I now believe: during these and other tough times,love has the opportunity to become stronger when one partner learns to lean on the other.

    I pray my husband will always be strong and healthy.But if he should ever become the struggling one,whether on a bike ride or with an illness,I trust I'll be ready to call out to him: Stay close behind me—my turn to pull you along.

    A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man--the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as a farmer or laborer of some sort.

    This attitude toward manual (体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward, furthermore the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily assembled from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the near- by bakery. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education.

    Here's an interesting fact: Every teenager American seems to have, at some point, appeared drunk or rude online. This generation didn't invent stupidity, of course; it's just the first to post the picture online the entire world to see. And that's the rub: Employers are getting clever at looking you up online. They look at what people post and wonder. Is that new salesperson, the one who made a strange face on collegehumor.com,likely to do the same at a conference?”

    Anything that you put online is public information. This should seem pretty obvious to the generation who grew up on these sites, right? But it's not. When it comes to the Net, young people tend to fell for two traps. One:“ Many of them believe it's truly private, and they'll determine who gets to sec what, and it will stop there.” Wrong! And two: “Their sense of what things will be like in the next stage of their life is not realistic.”

    So what do you do about that picture? Take it down! But what if it is now on other sites? After all, a friend can post your photo elsewhere, and from there, it can be posted on another site. This problem is so common that a new industry has appeared: identity management, which helps people remove embarrassing material.

    The new industry serves to remind us that we've got to be careful out there. Most of us have got drunk or done something we regret. But putting it online is another matter. And for some, it's even become an addiction, one with a nickname: Crackspace. Young or old, students and managers alike turn into exhibitions, putting every aspect of their lives on public display(展示).

    Yes, it can be great fun. But should those of us posting pictures of ourselves dancing in our underwear be given a good comment? In a forgiving, kindly environment, yes. But what about in a business environment? Well, you decide.

    We have two daughters: Kristen is seven years old and Kelly is four. Last Sunday evening, we invited some people home for dinner. I dressed them nicely for the party, and told them that their job was to join Mommy in answering the door when the bell rang. Mommy would introduce them to the guests, and then they would take the guests' coats upstairs and put them on the bed in the second bedroom.

    The guests arrived. I introduced my two daughters to each of them. The adults were nice and kind and said how lucky we were to have such good kids.

    Each of the guests made a particular fuss over Kelly, the younger one, admiring her dress, her hair and her smile. They said she was a remarkable girl to be carrying coats upstairs at her age.

    I thought to myself that we adults usually make a big "to do" over the younger one because she's the one who seems more easily to be hurt. We do it with the best of intentions.

    But we seldom think of how it might affect the other child. I was a little worried that Kristen would feel she was being outshone. I was about to serve dinner when I realized that she had been missing for twenty minutes. I ran upstairs and found her in the bedroom, crying.

    I said, "What are you doing, my dear?"

    She turned to me with a sad expression and said, "Mommy, why don't people like me the way they like my sister? Is it because I'm not pretty? Is that why they don't say nice things about me as much?"

    I tried to explain to her, kissing and hugging her to make her feel better.

    Now, whenever I visit a friend's home, I make it a point to speak to the elder child first.

    Songs that make our hearts happy can make them stronger too, US researchers reported on Tuesday.

    They found that when people listened to their favorite music, their blood vessels (血管) dilated in much the same way as when they are laughing, or taking blood medications.

    “We have a pretty impressive effect,” said Dr Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology (心脏病学) at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

    “Blood vessel diameter improved,” he said.“The vessel opened up pretty significantly. You can see the vessels opening up with other activities such as exercise.” A similar effect is seen with drugs such as statins.

    When blood vessels open up more, blood flows more smoothly and is less likely to form the clots (凝块) that cause heart attacks and strokes. “We are not saying to stop your statins or not to exercise but rather to add this to an overall program of heart health,” said Miller, who presented his findings to a meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans.

    Miller's team tested 10 healthy, non-smoking men and women, who were told to bring their favorite music.They spent half an hour listening to the recordings and half an hour listening to music they said made them feel anxious while the researchers did ultrasound tests designed to show blood vessel function.

    Compared to their normal baseline measurements, blood vessel diameter increased 26 percent on average when the volunteers heard their joyful music.Listening to music they disliked — in most cases in this group — blood vessels narrowed by six percent, Miller said.

    Miller said he came up with the idea after discovering that laughter caused blood to literally flow more smoothly. “I asked myself what other things make us feel really good, besides calories from dark chocolate of course.Music came to mind. It makes me feel really good,” he said.

    Most of the volunteers chose country music but Miller said the style is not so important rather than what pleases each individual.

    If you're a cycling lover, you will have to pay a lot of attention to your bicycle and maintain it well, for bicycle parts are exposed to wear and tear (磨损) over time and you have to examine the bicycle to see if there are any signs of wearing such as scratches, dents (凹陷) etc. Sometimes, a part may not work because it has exceeded its life expectancy. Sometimes, you will need to find replacement parts for it to keep up the performance of the bicycle.

    Different parts of a bicycle will wear at different rates so it is very important that you have a basic understanding about the role played by each part. One of the most important parts of the bicycle is the frame. You will need to choose a frame that lasts for a very long time. Of course, you will see some paint scratches after some time. When you're selecting a frame, you have to think about the material. Aluminium (铝) frames will not rust easily, but they have a higher chance to dent. Steel frames will be hard to dent, but you will need to make sure they get a good paint job so that they won't rust.

    Wheels also experience a lot of wear and tear and you should go for a professional seller when you want to buy wheels. There are different types of wheels that you can buy, like Zipp wheels that provide more aerodynamic efficiency (空气动力学效能). Investing in new tyres instead of going for used is a good idea because you will be able to get more use out of it. The same goes for chain as there's a higher chance of a used chain breaking. You may also experience shifting problems. However, some parts of bicycles such as pedals can be used for a long time and you can find different styles.

    Other parts that you can buy used are seats, handlebars and the stem. When you are buying handlebars, you have to see if there are any dents or if they have been bent out of shape. There shouldn't be any cracks in the seat post or the handlebars. There are many shops where you can buy parts, so you will have to check the references to see how customers respond to them before you buy anything.

    "Make way, good people, make way, in the King's name! "cried he. "Open a text; and, I promise you, Mistress Prynne shall be set where man, woman, and child, may have a fair sight of her brave clothing, from this time till an hour past noon. A blessing on the moral Colony of the Massachusetts, where immorality is dragged out into the sunshine! Come along, Madam Hester, and show your scarlet （鲜红色的；罪孽深重的）letter in the market-place!

    A lane was at once opened through the crowd. Led by the beadle （狱吏），and attended by an irregular procession of serious-looking men and unkind-looking women, Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment. A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys, understanding little of the matter in hand, except that it gave them a half-holiday, ran before her progress, turning their heads continually to stare into her face, and at the winking baby in her arms, and at the shameful letter on her breast.

    It was no great distance, in those days, from the prison-door to the market-place. Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might be considered to be a rather long journey; for, though her manner was proud, she perhaps underwent an extreme pain from every footstep of those who thronged to see her, as if her heart had been thrown into the street for them all to step upon. In our nature, however, there is a condition that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present suffering, but chiefly by the pain that rankles （使痛心）after it. With almost a calm manner, therefore, Hester Prynne passed through this portion of her suffering, and came to a sort of scaffold （刑台），at the western end of the market-place. It stood nearly beneath the eaves of Boston's earliest church, and appeared to be a fixture there.

    Inspired by a 9-year-old cyclist, Lauren Turner, who can only use one hand, a group of University of Guelph students has won an international award for their invention－a bike brake lever (刹车手柄) that pulls both the front brake and the back brake at the same time.

    Lauren Tuner was able to ride her bike, but not as confidently and quickly as her friends.

    “She couldn't use the front brake. She only used the back brake, but the front brake makes you stop twice as fast,” says Micha Wallace, who, with Katie Bell, Anina Sakaguchi and Andrew Morries won second prize in the James Dyson Award for their single-handed bike brake lever.

    "Lauren Turner tried the device (装置) first and she used it all last summer. She had no problems. It helped her go faster because she felt more confident in her braking abilities. She felt safer." says Wallace.

    The invention was the fourth-year design project for the four students. They designed, tested and created a prototype (模型) within a four-month period.

    When Wallace heard about the James Dyson Award on the news, she and her co-inventors entered their project in the U.K.-based contest, which rewards students designers who create products that improve the way we live. The students collected the runner-up prize－£2,000 for them and £500 for their school.

    As well, they had a chance to meet James Dyson, a U.K. famous inventor. Praising the students for their invention, Dyson says the single-handed brake lever could improve safety for all cyclists. By using both brakes at once, you could prevent the possibility of flying over the handlebars and ending up with an injury.

    The students hope to sell it to a major company. It may be used in other devices that require two hands for operation.

    A company in San Francisco, California, has found a way to turn used plastic bottles into women's shoes.

    Every day, millions of Americans drink water and other liquids from plastic bottles. More than 60 million of them are thrown away each day. Many of the plastic bottles end up in landfills or are burned with other waste products.

    A San Francisco start-up company called Rothy's, however, turns this plastic waste into environmentally friendly shoes. Roth Martin is the company's co-founder. He explains how they turn plastic into soft material for women's feet. They take the plastic, clean it, and break it down into small pieces. Then they press them through a device that makes soft fibers. Those fibers are then combined together. This is done by a 3D machine. It is designed to reduce waste while making the shoes. The knitted stuff and the inner part of the shoe are then attached to the shoe's outer part, called the sole (鞋底). This outer sole is also made from environmentally friendly material: responsibly sourced no-carbon rubber.

    Rothy's shoes are sold online. They are flat shoes, with either a rounded or pointed toe. They come in different colors and designs. They cost either $ 125 or $ 145 per pair, depending on the design. After American actress Gwyneth Paltrow discovered them last year, the demand for the shoes grew. Martin says there is no shortage of material to fill that demand. "We're not going to run out of water bottles any time soon. So we have a limitless supply of material, and I think that is a good sign for our future." When the environmentally friendly shoes wear out, customers can return them at no cost to a company that uses the recycled materials to make other products.

    For now, the shoes are only available to be shipped in the United States. However, the company says it will add international shipping in the near future.

    The three phases of life are increasingly a thing of the past. Where once working lives fitted neatly into the model of education, employment and then retirement, the simplicity of that division is being challenged by changing standards of the workforce.

    Increasing numbers of workers, nearing their long-imagined transition into retirement, seem to be actively postponing the moment at which they down tools. Newly released figures from the Office for National Statistics

    (ONS)have shown that there are over a million more over 50s in part-time work than a decade ago. And with nine out of 10 employers reporting difficulties hiring workers, there's likely to be a growing market for their talents as bosses extend their searches to older people, including those who are willing to take on part-time responsibilities.

    The ending of the three phases of working life isn't simply down to people living longer or financial necessity —though those are certainly important factors — but also to an increasing desire to maintain a purposeful life. One survey of British retirees over 50 found that 85 per cent of them felt they'd retired too young — stopping working had left a void that they subsequently regretted.

    The 2015 film The Intern conveyed this human need to have value. In it, Robert De Niro plays a 70-year-old widower who finds himself a fish out of water when he joins a trendy internet start-up. In the end, not only does he find the sense of belonging that he craves but his colleagues come to rely on his experience and different perspective. It's a plot we can increasingly expect to play out in real-life offices over the decades to come as people live ever longer.

    Already, we are seeing people in their 50s and 60s looking ahead to a retirement lasting 30 years, choosing instead to build second careers that they can maintain into their 70s or beyond. Freed from the financial burden of young children, they can prioritise flexibility, shorter working hours or more rewarding jobs in areas such as charity work or teaching. Many do it for no money at all, volunteering behind the till in charity shops or showing people round National Trust properties.

    However, it's the next generation where the effect of living longer will really be felt, and the financial necessity will start to bite. In the West, more than half of the children born in 2016 have a life expectancy of more than 100 years. In their book, The 100-Year Life, London Business School professors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott suggest that acquiring sufficient funds to see oneself through a 40- or 50-year retirement will likely be beyond all but the highest earners.

    Then there's the oft-repeated claim that young people today are the first generation to be poorer than their parents. Certainly property prices are changing the way they plan for the future. In the mid-Nineties, the average home cost less than three times the average wage; last year, ONS stats placed that ratio at eight times wages.

    The overall effect of these trends is that young people recognise that they will likely have to postpone dreams of retirement and instead strap on(绑住)more debt spread over longer spans. It's why 44 per cent of under 30s say they expect to be working well into their 70s and why data this year from the Bank of England show that 16 per cent of UK mortgages(按揭贷款)now have terms of 35 years or more — a figure that has tripled in the past decade.

    All of these factors look set to contribute to a workforce that has a significantly wider range of ages in the future. In an era of work when we've all learned to be more inclusive, only eight per cent of firms with a diversity programme have adapted it to go beyond gender, race and sexuality and into age. Incorporating older employees into the workforce is set to be the next big thing at the office.

If Robert De Niro has anything to teach us, it's that this can be an enormous force for good for both employees and businesses.

Do you have a younger brother? Does he always get in trouble? Well, there might be some science behind that.

According to a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, second-borns are more likely than first-borns to behave badly, which could be why you from time to time consider your younger brother or sister sprites.

Researchers, who explored data from tens of thousands of sibling(兄弟姐妹) pairs from Denmark and Florida, found second-borns are 20% to 40% more likely to have behavioral problems. If you're the second-born child you may want to have a little chat with your parents. The reason why second-born siblings may be worse behaved than first-born is that parents tend to pay less attention to them.

"Second-born children tend to have less attention from the mother than their older siblings because first-born children experience their mother's maternity leave (产假). First-borns enjoy the rewards of not only their own time with Mum following their birth, but the time Mum takes off with younger siblings, too." the authors explain.

It's not just about the parents, however. Speaking to NRP, co-author Joseph Doyle said, "The first-born has role models, who are adults. And the second, later-born children have role models who are slightly unreasonable 2-year-olds, you know, their older siblings. The difference of parental investments and the sibling influences probably contribute to these differences we see in the labor market and what we find in behaviors against regulations, even against laws. It's just very difficult to separate those two things because they happen at the same time"

The results, the authors argue, have an important effect on social policy.

Whitman was one of the most original and inspiring American poets, well known for his art and his role as a poet. He devoted himself to poetry praising the native American's experience. As America's first epic poem, Leaves of Grass ran nine editions with more than 400 poems all written in free forms, that is, poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. The tide implies rebirth, renewal, or green life. As Whitman once said, "Leaves of Grass was the outcropping of my own emotional and other personal nature—an attempt, from first to last, to put a person, a human being freely, fully and truly on record. "

For Whitman, science, democracy(民主) and spirituality(灵性) were the three things that underlay the structure of modern poetry. Whitman tried to combine the world of science, the democracy and the spiritual feeling of life into his poetry. For Whitman, the poetic form should be free. Therefore, he threw aside the traditional form and had his own form. Both the form and content of his poems are revolutionary. With its frequent use of oral language and everyday events, his poem represented a turning point in the history of American poetry—poetry fashioned out of specially American experience in a clear American idiom. Whitman's unique poetic creation has developed a very significant tradition in American poetry.

In his poems, he celebrated new America rather than regretted it. He was against slavery, idolized(崇拜) Lincoln, supported strikes, and combined the ideal of the common people and that of the ragged individual.

The Tokyo Summer Olympics is going green. The 5, 000 medals Japan has made are more special than most.

One novel focus of the Tokyo Olympics is to be "sustainable"— to avoid using too many natural resources, so that the games are easy on the environment. As part of this goal, the organizers decided to make all of the Olympic medals out of metal recycled from old electronics.

Almost all electronics are made with small amounts of "precious metals", like gold and silver. But collecting enough of these metals to make 5, 000 medals was a huge challenge. That's because the amount of metal in each device is tiny. It would take about 20, 000 cell phones to get just 1 kilogram of gold.

Beginning in April 2017, the organizers placed collection boxes around the country, and asked people to turn in their old electronic devices. Soon people began to respond to the initiative, turning in smartphones, digital cameras, hand-held games, and laptops. At first, collection went slowly, but soon more and more areas began to take part. By the end, 1, 621 local governments had helped out with the collection process.

Then came the job of breaking those devices down into smaller pieces. After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics were smelted (熔炼) to get all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. This is a tricky job, which calls for careful attention and good skill. It's also dangerous, because some of the metals and other things aren't safe for people to touch or breathe.

By the end of March, 2019, the organizers had hit their targets of getting enough metal for the medals. They had collected around 32 kilograms of gold, 4, 100 kilograms of silver and 2, 200 kilograms of bronze. And now all the 5, 000 medals are available for the would-be winners.

Children start out as natural scientists. Helping them enjoy science can be easy; there's no need for a lot of scientific terms or expensive lab equipment. Firstly, listen to their questions. I once visited a classroom of seven-year-olds to talk about science as a job. The children asked me "textbook questions" about schooling, salary and whether I liked my job. When I finished answering, we sat in silence. Finally I said, "Now that we've finished with your lists, do you have questions of your own about science?"

A boy raised his hand, "Have you ever seen a grasshopper (蚱蜢) eat? When I try eating leaves like that, I get a stomachache. Why?" This began a set of questions that lasted nearly two hours.

Secondly, give them time to think. Studies have shown that, after asking a question, adults typically wait only one second or less for an answer, no time for a child to think. When adults increase their "wait time" to three seconds or more, children give more logical, complete and creative answers.

Thirdly, watch your language. Once you have a child in a science discussion, don't jump in with "That's right" or "Very good". These words work well when it comes to encouraging good behavior. But in talking about science, quick praise can signal that discussion is over. Instead, keep things going by saying, "That's interesting" or "I'd never thought of it that way before," or coming up with more questions or ideas.

Never push a child to think, It doesn't make sense; children are always thinking. What's more, this can turn a conversation into a performance.

Lastly, show; don't tell. Real-life impressions of nature are far more impressive than any lesson children can learn from a book or a television program. Let children look at their fingertips through a magnifying glass (放大镜), and they'll understand why you want them to wash before dinner.