【推荐2】How you open your car door matters to cyclists

Typically, a person sitting in the driver's seat of a car opens the door with the hand closest to it.    1    Pull the handle, and the door is open. but if you do that at the wrong time, you may create a barrier for a passing cyclist. The cyclist will be knocked off the bike, and the car door is likely to be damaged by the fast-moving bicycle.

Luckily, there's a simple way to solve the problem: open your car door with your other hand, using the Dutch reach.    2    This will force you to turn your body. At least, you'll look into your side view mirror to check for any traffic. This way, you can prevent harm to cyclists.    3    

The Dutch reach is just what Dutch people do. They are used to opening their car doors this way. All Dutch are taught it.    4     The technique dates back about 60 years in the Netherlands, but it didn’t really become known as the Dutch reach until a retired American physician named Michael Charney started the Dutch Reach Project in 2016 in an effort to popularize the practice in the United States and other countries. He was motivated by the death of a 27-year-old who rode into an open car door and died just five blocks from his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    5     When people do it, it works. To make it a habit, Charney recommends attaching a ribbon to the door handle as a visual reminder to use your other hand.

【推荐3】Did you know that something as simple as the wallpaper on your computer can tell people a lot about you? According to researcher Donna Dawson,our computers say something about what we're like because they are part of our “personal space.”

A picture of a child or family on the screen often means the person cares deeply about their loved ones.A photo of the person surrounded by friends shows they value their popularity and probably work well with other people.On the other hand,pictures showing examples of past successes,like winning a prize may mean a person is only interested in themselves.

Pictures of nature and natural scenery tell people that you are driven to succeed and use the pictures to relax and remove the pressure（压力）in your life.Cityscapes,pictures of cities or towns,show that you enjoy travel and adventure.Most people with cityscapes as their wallpaper are optimistic（乐观的）,happy people who feel even better thinking about the places they’ve visited or want to visit.

Pictures of animals show that you are optimistic and kind-hearted.You are often happy and you enjoy life and act young.Cartoons（漫画）or drawings show that you are a multitasker,someone who does many things at once.You have many responsibilities,but you deal with them well.That's one reason you like having something to smile about when you look at your computer wallpaper.

Then,what does plain blue wallpaper tell us about a person?According to Dawson,a person with plain blue wallpaper probably values their privacy and keeps work from becoming too personal,

【推荐1】Life can change in the blink of an eye. For Bridgette Ponson, one of those moments took place in the parking lot at her workplace, Layton Christian Academy. While she was in the parking lot, her 2-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl in tow, a car hit them. This left the mother and her kids trapped beneath the car. Thankfully, the woman driver wasn’t driving very fast. At that moment, she was blinded by the sun. However, she got out of the car to help as soon as possible. Plus, she wasn’t the only one who stopped what they were doing to save Bridgette and her kids.

Soon, Chris Crowder, CEO of the school, became aware of the accident. Without delay, he united a group of students to help. “It was split second,” Chris recalled. “I immediately just ran into the building because I knew I had to get a lot of people to lift this car. The students just heard me shout. All students from different countries just ran out and lifted it up.”

Still, this wasn’t an easy task. The car was heavy. But the whole group of students worked together to lift the car enough for Bridgette and her kids to get free. Finally, one kid was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital while Bridgette and the other kid were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Although Bridgette took the brunt of the injuries, all three of them were expected to make complete recoveries within a few days. The heroic students who helped out certainly got their well-deserved praise.

“I’m very proud of our kids. They ran out without hesitation, and they just knew what to do without even being told what to do. I’m even surprised by the driver who was behind the wheel. She immediately ran to help,” said Chris.

【推荐2】Mr. King lived with six hundred wild animals on the Greek Island of Kyklos. Ever since he left school, he had traveled all over the world collecting animals for his own zoo. He hoped to collect two examples of every kind of animal on his island. But he was afraid that people would find him someday.

He wrote books about his travels and about his animals that he collected. The money from the books helped to pay for all the food those animals ate.

One day, when Mr. King was out looking for drinking water, he found oil. He needed money for his travels and for his zoo, and a little oil would buy enough water for what he needed all his life, but he knew that if he told anyone else about it, it would be the end of his zoo and his life’s work. So he decided not to tell anyone else about what he had found, because oil and water couldn’t mix.

【推荐3】I was born with a disability (残疾). When I started to go to school, my classmates were always teasing about it. I told them I’d fallen as a baby and cut my lips on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. By seven, I was sure no one outside my own family could ever love me or even like me.

And then I entered the second grade, and Mrs. Leonard’s class. She was round, pretty and sweet, with shining brown hair and warm, smiling dark eyes. Everyone loved her. But no one came to love her more than I did.

The time came for the annual hearing tests given at our school. I was hardly able to hear anything out of one ear, and wasn’t about to show yet another problem that would single me out as different. So I cheated.

During the hearing tests, each child would go to the door of the classroom, turn sideways, close one ear with a finger, and the teacher would whisper something from her desk, which the child would repeat. Then the same thing was done for the other ear. I had discovered in kindergarten that nobody checked to see if the untested ear was being fully covered, so I only pretended to block mine.

My turn came. I knew from previous years that the teacher whispered things like “The sky is blue.” or “Do you have new shoes?” I turned my bad ear to her, covering the other with my finger, and gently backed my finger out enough to be able to hear. I waited, and then came the seven words that changed my life forever: “I wish you were my little girl.”

【推荐1】In 1885, a young doctor named Conan Doyle opened offices in London. He wanted to be a successful doctor, but for some reasons he never found enough patients. To pass the time, he began to write stories and send them to the newspapers.

Conan Doyle’s stories were about a clever detective, Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle wrote that Sherlock Holmes lived in Baker Street in London, and people with problems came to him for help. Even police detectives came to Sherlock Holmes with their problems, too. He was able to solve mysteries that the cleverest policemen in England were unable to figure out. Sometimes Sherlock Holmes could solve a mystery without leaving his chair. He listened carefully to the information his client (委托人) gave and figured out the answer. At other times he spent days or weeks looking for clues. Sherlock Holmes traveled to different cities and countries to solve the mysteries. Sometimes he wore disguises, pretending to be an old man, or a sailor. Holmes did anything to find out the answer to the mysteries he was working on. His best friend Dr. Watson kept him company (陪伴) on most of his adventures.

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous detective in English literature, but many people don’t understand that he is a fictional character, not a real person. The English post offices report that people still send mail to Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street. Even he gets more than 2,000 letters every year.

【推荐3】Little Women is the best-known work of author Louisa May Alcott. Published after the end of the Civil War, the book is about the lives of the author and her sisters. Although it was her most successful work, it was not her first.

Alcott began writing at the age of 20, when she published her poem “Sunlight”. Throughout her early career, she wrote many poems and short stories for magazines. At the age of 22, she began to write fairy tales, romantic thrillers, and other novels, mostly to earn money. At a time when few opportunities were open to women, Alcott supported women’s right to work. With her small income, she had long provided for her family.

When the Civil War broke out, Alcott, at the age of 30, joined the war effort to fight against slavery. She had originally wished to serve as a soldier. However, women were not allowed in battle at that time. As a result, she became a Civil War nurse. Alcott’s work as a nurse served as a milestone (里程碑) in her writing career.

In December of 1862, she left New England to work in the Union Hotel Hospital in Washington, DC. There were few supplies, and doctors performed operations without painkillers. The conditions for patients and doctors were terrible. Within a few weeks, Alcott herself became so ill that she nearly died. She returned home and recovered slowly over a period of months.

As soon as her health improved, Alcott started a new project. The letters she had sent home became the basis of a newspaper series about her experience as a Civil War nurse. She wrote about her tasks, the wounded soldiers she looked after, and the difficulties they faced. The series, Hospital Sketches, was a success, which received praise from readers and critics (批评) at the same time. Although her best-known work was yet to come, the success of Hospital Sketches marked the achievement of her dream to become a popular author.