Why TFT is the best

Our mission is authentic travel. We partner with local experts to create enriching experiences that teach teens to be savvy (有见识的) travelers. Every program is designed to be hands-on — emphasizing doing and feeling, in addition to just seeing, so teens discover what it means to live like a local in every country we visit.

Group sizes of 14-21 students allow us to travel comfortably and to make real connections to each other and the host community. Participants come from a mix of different states, regions, and countries. We also welcome solo travelers — 75% of our teens join us without a friend!

We offer cultural exploration, community service, language, and photography programs to Europe, Africa, Latin America, Oceania, Asia, and North America. We have more programs in more destinations than any other teen travel company. With over 100 programs and 40+ countries to choose from, you’re sure to find a program that’s the perfect fit.

“This is simply one of the best things we ever did for Ethan. That first trip opened him to a new world. Different cultures, food, diversity, sights, relationships, team building, confidence, independence … only a few of the positive gains for Ethan. Now, he is off to George Washington University with confidence, excitement, and an awareness for others for which we are so grateful. We are pleased and appreciative beyond words to be a member of the TFT family for a lifetime!”

Having an older brother comes with plenty of benefits. Big brothers tend to look out for their younger siblings, and except for the occasional rocky moment here and there, many siblings enjoy life-long close relationships. However, a new study finds an interesting downside: children with older brothers take longer when it comes to developing language skills.

The study, led by a group of researchers in Paris, France, builds upon a former research which showed that having older siblings is associated with poor linguistic development. Now, researchers say they have come to a more specific conclusion: only children with an older brother have these linguistic difficulties.

One would think that children with older brothers would grow up around more conversation on a daily basis, thus speeding up their language development. Yet researchers say such children actually take longer than their older brothers to begin developing these skills. Researchers studied more than 1,000 children from birth to the age of five-and-a-half years old. Each child’s language skills were tested at ages 2, 3, and 5.5, using tests specially designed to measure numerous aspects of language development. What the research team discovered was significant: children with an older brother had, on average, a two-month delay in their language development compared to studied children with an older sister.

As far as explaining this, researchers have put forward two hypotheses. The first is that older sisters tend to talk more often than older brothers, which would make up for parents being less present than they were for their first child. The second hypothesis is that older sisters usually compete with their siblings less than older brothers for their parents’ attention.

Up till now, the study’s authors say they can’t say for certain why children with older brothers have a harder time developing language skills. In the future they would like to know if culture or location affects these results.

Before the discovery of DNA profiling (分析) in the 1980s, fingerprints were the easiest way to solve serious crimes. It’s believed that each one of us has our own unique fingerprints. But did you know that our fingerprints could actually reveal a lot more about us than just our identity? According to Melanie Bailey of The Conversation, fingerprints can indicate lifestyle and environment, eating habits, possible medical problems and even the job of a person.

So how can we figure all this out from just a simple fingerprint? Well, a fingerprint is formed when a finger makes contact with a surface. Most fingerprints are invisible to the naked eye (裸眼) and require a chemical development process in order to make them visible. Stuck between the ridges (隆起的纹路) of a fingerprint, however, are substances(物质) that can tell a story about who we are. Things like traces of sweat, blood, and food reveal a lot of information about us — what we’ve touched, what we’ve eaten and even what drugs we’ve taken.

At the moment, the technique used to detect these substances are mostly used in crime detection, but its application could be much wider, according to Bailey. For example, she and her fellow researchers were able to tell what medicines people were taking from their fingerprints, which may be of great help in the future to doctors treating their patients.

A fingerprint check may also tell a doctor whether a patient is properly absorbing a drug they’ve been prescribed (开药). In the treatment of some of the most serious illnesses, it’s vital that the body is taking in these medicines. As Scientific American noted, this is particularly important for patients undergoing treatment for heart conditions and mental disease, as these people might struggle to absorb the drugs or forget or choose not to take them.

And while it’s commonly believed that our fingerprints never change, in fact, they do — and the way they change can provide a lot of very useful information. In the future, fingerprint science won’t be restricted to the crime lab but could help doctors keep us in the best possible health.

The big examination is approaching. Assignments and tests will keep many of you up late at night, and you may plan to make up for your lost sleep during the weekends.    11     A study       shows that the habit of sleeping in on weekends doesn’t fix the damage done by a lack of sleep during the week.    12    

In the study, 36 healthy young men and women with different sleep requirements were divided into three groups. The first and second groups were asked to sleep nine hours and five hours a night respectively. The members of the third group slept for five hours on weekdays, but rested as long as they wanted on the weekend.

The researchers found that people who lacked sleep ate more snacks and gained weight quickly.     13    That could be partially due to the change of the biological clock. In order to       catch up on their sleep during weekends, people in the third group would habitually eat later, changing the release of hunger hormones. “    14    ” explained US researcher Polotsky. And even if they tried to sleep for as long as they wanted to during weekends, it was still inadequate to meet standard sleep time because they found it difficult to fall asleep.

“    15    ”Polotsky told CNN. “Because short, inadequate sleep schedules will lead to an in ability to change blood sugar and increase the risk of metabolic (新陈代谢的) disease in the long term. ”

For this reason, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends at least seven hours of sleep each night for adults and much more for children.