Downey's mother spent one year studying abroad through an international exchange program with a French school. She often talked about how exciting and interesting the experience was. So, even before finishing high school, Downey had decided to follow suit one day.

Downey began studying architecture at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 2004. Near the end of her second year, she started to feel unhappy with her school and decided it was time to study abroad.

U. S. colleges and universities commonly have joint programs with foreign schools that permit student exchanges. These programs usually last half a school year or sometimes a whole school year. The classes students take abroad usually give them credits toward their degree. In a four­year degree program, the third year is the most common time for American college students to study abroad. Many students think they need a change before what is usually their final and most difficult year of study.

Downey said her school did not want her to go at first. The architecture program at Lehigh was very intense, and her professors were worried she might miss learning important material. However, she was eventually able to get special permission to study internationally for a whole year. During the fall term in 2006, she attended a Danish international school in Copenhagen, Denmark, explaining she did so because Danish architects are well known for their housing design.

Young adult as she was, she had to deal with travel documents and many other issues (问题) on her own. Overcoming the language barrier is the biggest challenge of studying abroad. However, she had a lot of emotional (情感的) and financial support from her family. She learned life lessons and made friendships and memories that have lasted to this day. She said, “The more you're out of your comfort zone, the more rewarding the experience is in the end.”

When you start working on something but don't finish it, thoughts of the unfinished work continue to jump into your mind even when you've moved on to other things. Psychologists refer the phenomenon as the Zeigamik effect. The effect was first observed by a Russian psychologist named Bluma Zeigamik. While sitting in a busy restaurant in Vienna, she noted the waiters had better memories of unpaid orders. Once the bill was paid, however, the waiters had difficulty remembering the exact details of the orders.

In one of her studies, participants were asked to complete simple tasks such as putting together puzzles, or solving math problems. Half of the participants were interrupted halfway through these tasks. After an hour-long delay, Zeigamik asked the participants to give an account of what they'd been working on. She discovered that those who had their work interrupted were twice as likely to remember what they had been doing as those who had actually completed the tasks.

We can use this effect to our advantage. For example, if you're struggling to memorize something important, momentary interruptions might actually work to your advantage. Rather than simply remember the information over and over again, review it several times and then take a break. While you're focusing on other things, you'll find yourself mentally returning to the information you were studying.

We often put off tasks until the last moment, only completing them in a rush at the last possible moment. Unfortunately, this tendency can lead to heavy stress and even poor performance. One way to overcome this is to put the Zeigamik effect to work. Start by taking the first step, no matter how small. Once you have begun — but not finished — your work, you'll find yourself thinking of the task until, at last, you finish it. You might not finish it all at once, but each small step you take puts you closer to your final goal.

More than 5, 000 species of birds manage annual round-trip migrations（迁徙）. These journeys can be thousands of miles, with many birds often returning to the exact same nesting and wintering place from year to year.

Migration is very important in the life cycle of birds, and without this annual journey many birds would not be able to raise their young. Birds migrate to find the richest and most abundant food that will provide adequate energy to raise young birds. If no birds migrated, competition for adequate food during breeding（繁殖）seasons would be fierce and many birds would starve.

Of course, not all birds migrate. Some birds can take advantage of different food sources（来源）as seasons change, allowing them to stay in one place all year round. Other birds are better adapted to cold climates with thicker fat reserves and better feathers, and they can survive long cold seasons while they forage for winter food. For more than half the world's birds, however, migration is necessary to stay alive.

When the timing is right for their migrating needs, birds will begin their journey. Food, weather, temperature and illness or injury are several minor aspects that may affect migration by a day or two, but most bird species follow precise migration "schedule". While migration is at its finest during spring and fall, birds migrate all throughout the year. Migration is actually an ongoing process and there are always birds at some stage of their journeys. The distance the birds must fly, the length of time it takes to mate and the amount of young birds all affect when any one species is migrating.

Migratory birds have several changes before the journey. Among them is hyperphagia, the process of migration-related weight gain. As daylight changes and migration times near, a bird's hormone levels will change and they will build a greater fat supply. Besides, old, ragged feathers create more wind drag and air resistance, which requires a bird to use more energy in flight, so many birds replace old feathers with new ones.

We see big lies.    11    We think we're fundamentally different from those big liars like Bernie Madoff or Tiger Woods.

But behind big lies are a series of small tricks or lies. Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economies, writes about this in his book The Honest Truth about Dishonesty.    12    

These small lies are quite common. There are many of us who might go a little too fast on the highway, or pocket extra change at a gas station. As humans, it seems we are natural liars.    13    

But still, we want to look in the mirror and see ourselves as good, honest people, though we benefit from our lying. That's why Ariely describes honesty as something of a state of mind. He thinks the IRS（税务局）should have people promise to be honest when they start working on their taxes, not when they 're done.    14    

Ariely says the research about honesty isn't all negative（消极的）.    15    But we usually don't take those chances. "There's a lot of good in us." he said.