Magazines can got your students to enter the world of English speakers, read interesting articles and improve their language skills. Today we are going to introduce the most popular magazines that may come in your classes.

Students Weekly

This is a weekly magazine published by a Thai company, which has a history of 25 years. The readers of the magazine are mostly teenagers of middle level. Here you can find articles on the topics of education, entertainment, current affairs, latest events, and song lyrics. In addition, there are also some vocabulary and grammar exercises to memorize the newly learnt material.

National Geographic

The magazine is being published since 1888. It mainly contains articles about geography, science, history and world culture. Its language is a little bit complicated, and that's why this resource will suit only for higher-level students. Al part from articles, you can also find a huge collection of photos of nature.

Reader’s Digest

The magazine was founded in 1922. It is a general interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Here you will find inspiring true stories about people and what they have done, some funny moments in the lives of personalities. And you can also read articles about how to be responsible parents.

Sunset

This is a lifestyle magazine that first was published in 1898 in the USA. It focuses mainly on traveling, home and gardening, lifestyle, food and drink. The magazine is full of amazing pictures and interesting articles about places in the United States. The magazine is suitable for students with middle or higher levels.

Reggie was a normal boy, but he had been born deaf. He was well known to everyone in town, and they were all very fond of him. Unfortunately, though, he always seemed to end up being treated differently from everyone else. Children worried that they would hurt him, and that may be because he wouldn't hear the ball being hit in his direction. Adults acted like he couldn't understand them, as though he was some kind of baby.

Reggie didn't like this. But the person who disliked it the most was his friend Michael, who determined one day that things had to change. Michael's father was the town's mayor, and Michael finally convinced him that this year, in honor of Reggie, they should offer one day of the festival to the deaf. During that whole day everyone in town would have to wear earplugs.

People liked the idea, because everyone loved Reggie. The day became known as The Day of Silence, and when it arrived, everyone stuck plugs in their ears, in a spirit of great fun. That morning was filled with practical jokes and laughter. But, as the hours passed, people became more and more aware of how difficult life was when you couldn't hear anything.

However, learning about how life was more difficult for the deaf was nothing compared to the greatest discovery of the day: Reggie was amazing!

So The Day of Silence was the day when everyone realized you had to give people a chance to show how valuable they are. People wanted to make sure that others would learn this lesson. So, from that day on, whenever a visitor came, they were welcomed joyfully and a helmet with great thick car laps, was put on their head.

Poor sleep and junk food contributes to poor performance at school among primary school children, a leading nutritional expert has warned. Her speech comes after a report showing that one in five Irish teachers has reported their young pupils are suffering from a lack (缺乏) of sleep and basic nutrition.

Nutritional expert Dee Daly, who runs classes teaching healthy eating habits for the whole family, said: “If you haven’t slept well, it affects your appetite (胃口) and you are more likely to reach for sugary foods and carbohydrates (碳水化合物). Studies in the US and UK have shown that this in turn creates difficulties in terms of behavior, concentration and performance in the classroom.”

An international study recently found that in Irish 22% of primary teachers reported their pupils were suffering from a lack of basic nutrition and 4% said this was completely limiting their teaching. And the study also found that about 66% of 10-year-old pupils in Irish were suffering from a lack of enough sleep, which is almost 14% above the international average in 60 countries.

TVs and computers in children's bedrooms are being blamed for sleep disturbance (干扰), with 54% of 10-year-olds here reporting that they have both in their rooms.

She recommends a combination of "sleep hygiene” and proper nutrition.

“Your bedroom should be like a bet cave-cool, dark and quiet. Blue light from computers, iPads and TV screens keeps your brain awake for longer and children shouldn't be texting under the covers on their mobile phones.”

She stresses the importance of creating a sleep pattern where children calm down before they go to bed and eat a proper breakfast with a balance of proteins and complex carbohydrates to set them up for school.

“Pepper, a ‘culturally competent robot,’ was tested on care home residents in Britain and Japan — those persons who used it for up to 18 hours over the course of two weeks saw an improvement in their mental (精神上的) health,” researchers found.

Pepper was part of a large global study known as CARESSES, which investigated the use of artificial intelligence (A) in caring for the elderly. The scientists behind the study also found that “after two weeks of using the system there was a small but positive effect on loneliness among users.”

Pepper is fully autonomous, meaning that it is not controlled by a person. Pepper, which can play music and entertainment, does not just ask and answer questions but can actually join in and continue conversation.

It has been designed to be “culturally competent,” meaning that it can respond to the culture-specific needs of older people.

Dr. Chris, principal lecturer in public health at the UK’s University of Bedfordshire, was the lead author of the three-year project. He described the study as “groundbreaking.” adding: “The results show that using the CARESSES artificial intelligence in robots such as Pepper has real potential (潜在的) benefit to a world where more people are living longer with fewer people to look after them.”

“The project has now shown that the system could and did improve mental health and reduce loneliness,” Dr. Chris said. “However, it is just at a prototype (最初形态) level and there are many technical limitations.”

He thought it would take a further two to three years of research, before robots such as Pepper could actually be introduced to care homes.

“We really believe that this isn’t about replacing care — a robot can’t do what a human can do. But they can be a useful helper for people’s mental health,” Dr. Chris said.