【推荐1】It was New Year time, but I wasn’t looking forward to it. That winter, my mother and my stepfather moved our family to Southern California. My brother and I were leaving our rural Alabama behind. This would be our first New Year away from Alabama. My mother took to California like a swan to a royal lake. My athletic little brother, Paul, was thrilled at a climate that allowed him to go to the beach whenever he wanted.

I, however, was a fat child with heavy southern pronunciation. My first day in the new class, I introduced myself in a low voice. The instant I opened my mouth to speak, the whole class burst into laughter, “He talks funny.” It was so frustrating that I went to place a call to Granny Smith after school, who was my biggest support. But I didn’t get through.

On Sunday evening, the phone rang. It was Granny. She often took advantage of the discounted long-distance rates (长途电话费) on Sundays. She said she’d shipped a New Year package. Sure enough, it arrived. Surprised at the box, large enough to hold a small refrigerator, we eagerly tore it open. The smell of Granny’s house filled the room: a combination of fried meat, sausages, furniture polish and decorations. Her house was tiny and always filled with cheap holiday decorations and homemade food before New Year. But in my childhood eyes, it was precious and fantastic.

There were countless tins and containers. We open them to discover piles of holiday treats. She even included our traditional candy bats. The box was as bottomless as a magical box. There, beneath all these, was familiar holiday.

Every New Year that we spent in California, the postal service would call and say our package arrived. Over the years, many treasures arrived in the box. For me, it’s always been the best part of the holiday.

【推荐3】You’ve gotten a bad grade on a test.    1    So you’d better spend a little time preparing yourself to break the news. Here are some tips.

Talk to your teacher.

Before you tell your parents, it might be helpful to meet with your teacher. Ask him where you have gone wrong with the examination paper.    2    Besides, he can guide you on the right path for the future.

Practice what you will say.

    3    You can talk to a toy animal or yourself in front of a mirror. Either way, having some idea of what you will say and how you will say it ahead of time can be very helpful.

Tell your parents sooner rather than later.

It will look like you’re trying to cover up your grade if you wait two weeks to tell them about your grade. Try to get it out of the way within a few days of getting the news.    4    

Pick a good moment.

If you approach them when they’re already stressed or angry, they’ll be less likely to react well. Try a calm family time when your parents aren’t disturbed by other concerns.    5    You can also talk with them when you’re out on a dog walk.

【推荐1】“It hurts me more than you” and “This is for your own good” are what my mother used to say years ago when I had to learn French, clean my room, stay at home and do homework.

However, today the story is quite different. Most parents take a let-alone policy. We parents stopped making our children do homework. We gave them computers, turned on the TV, left the teaching to the teachers and went on holiday.

Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, come to know that we’ve made a terrible mistake. One such teacher says of her students---“so passive(被动的)” and believes their passivity has something to do with TV. “We are talking about a generation of children who have never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will do it for them. Instead of saying “go and do it yourself” you tell them the answer. It takes great courage to say “no” to child.

Yes, it’s time for parents to end their holidays and come back to work. It’s time to turn the TV off, to tell them “it hurts me more than you” and “it’s your own good”. It’s time to start telling them “no” again.

【推荐3】A study showed that the experiences children have in their first few years are important . These experiences affect the development of the brain. When children receive more attention, they often have higher IQs. Babies receive information when they see, hear and feel things, which makes connections between different parts of the brain. There are a hundred trillion(万亿)connections in the brain of a three-year-old child.

Researcher Judit Gervain tested how good newborns are at distinguishing different sound patterns. Her researchers produced images of the brains of babies as they heard different sound patterns. For example, one order was mu-ba-ba. This is the pattern"A-B-B". Another order was mu-ba-ge. This is the pattern “A-B-C”. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during the" A-B-B"pattern. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. They also were sensitive to where it occurred in the order.

Gervain is excited by these findings because the order of sounds is the building block of words and grammar. "Position is key to language," she says. "If something is at the beginning or at the end, it makes a big difference: 'John caught the bear.' is very different from 'The bear caught John.'”

Researchers led by scientist Patricia Kuhl have found that language delivered by televisions, audio books, the Internet, or smartphones－no matter how educational－doesn’t appear to be enough for children’s brain development. They carried out a study of nine-month-old American babies. They expected the first group who’d watched videos in Chinese to show the same kind of learning as the second group who were brought face-to-face with the same sounds. Instead they found a huge difference. The babies in the second group were able to distinguish between similar Chinese sounds as well as native listeners. But the other babies －regardless of whether they had watched the video or listened to the audio－learned nothing.

【推荐1】If there is no difference in general intelligence between boys and girls, what can explain girls’ poor performance in science and math?

It has been suggested that girls do not take math courses, not because they are difficult, but for social reasons. Girls do not want to be in open competition with boys because they are afraid to appear less feminine (女性的) and attractive (有魅力的).

However, there are still more high-achieving boys than girls when taking math exams. This difference appears to be worldwide. Biological explanations have been offered for this, but there are other explanations too.

Perhaps the difference which comes out during the teenage years has its roots in much earlier experiences. From their first days in kindergarten, boys are encouraged to work on their own and to complete tasks. Facts show that outstanding mathematicians and scientists have not had teachers who gave answers.

Besides, there can be little doubt that teachers of math and science expect their boy students to do better at these subjects than their girl students. They even appear to encourage the difference between boys and girls. They spend more time with the boy students, giving them more time to answer questions and working harder to get correct answers from them. They are more likely to call on boys for answers and to allow them to take the lead in classroom discussion. They also praise boys more frequently. All of this seems to encourage boys to work harder in science and math and to give them confidence that they are able to succeed.

Such a way of teaching is not likely to encourage girls to take many math and science courses, nor is it likely to support girls who do. When it comes to these subjects it seems certain that school widens the difference between boys and girls.

【推荐2】Some educators told us that more years of school could help students get higher scores on intelligence tests.That was a finding of a study of teenage males in some countries.Now，another research shows that physical activity may help students do better in their classes.

The research comes as educators in some countries are reducing time for activities like physical education.They are using the time instead for academic(学术的) subjects like math and reading.The studies appeared between 2008 and 2014.They included more than 55,000 children，aged 6 to 18.

Amika Singh：“According to the results of our study，we can conclude that being physically active is beneficial for academic performance.There are，first，Physiological explanations，like more blood flow，and so more oxygen to the brain.Being physically active means there are more hormones(荷尔蒙) produced like endorphins(内啡肽)．And endorphins make your stress level lower and your mood improved，which means you also perform better.”

Also，students taking part in organized sports learn rules and how to follow them.This could improve their classroom behavior and help them keep their mind on their work.

The study leaves some questions unanswered，however.Ms Stash says it is not possible to say whether the amount or kind of activity affected the level of academic improvement.This is because of differences among the studies.

The researchers said they found only two high­quality studies.They needed more high­quality studies to confirm(证实) their findings.They also pointed out that “results for other parts of the world may be quite different”．

Still，the general finding was that physically active kids are more likely to do better in school.Ms Singh says schools should consider that finding before they cut physical education programs.Her paper on “Physical Activity and Performance at School” is published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.