【推荐1】Unlike a tourist, a traveler is someone who wants to experience another culture and avoid “tourist traps” and other less authentic experience.     1    . And you must connect with locals for advice and new friendships.

Study your travel destination before leaving. Knowing the history and culture of where you’re going will help you connect with the locals, be more travel-conscious, and improve your experience overall.     2    , and then look into local newspapers and documentaries if possible.

    3    . You don’t have to stop someone random on the street to get advice from a local. Ask your taxi drivers, waiters, and hotel receptionist where they recommend. Whether you want day trip, food, nightlife, or other advice, the locals can help!

Try free activities like riding bicycles and hiking. These types of activities are often overlooked during vacations because of the need to do everything “important” in any given city.     4    . Similaly, hiking in forests and parks can be a beautiful and relaxing way to connect with the culture.

Travel alone.     5    . Sometimes, you’ll make temporary friends, otherwise, they might be friends you stay in contact via social media or messaging. But sometimes, travelling alone and meeting someone else in a foreign place lead to a friendship that can last a lifetime.

【推荐3】Located along the Pacific Flyway, a good migratory pah that st etches from Alaska to Patagonia, Santa Cruz is home to hundreds of bird species. Just head to one of the spots listed below and sec for yourself!

UCSC Arboretum

The diverse plants that attract a wide range of birds make these gardens a wonderful place to star. Mark your calendar for the Arboretum’s popular Hummingbird Days, a family-friendly festival that celebrates the tiny birds on March 5th and 6th.

Natural Bridges State Beach

This scenic park is perfect forbid watchers due to its wide sampling of local habitats. Over 250 bird species have been recorded in the area.

Neary Lagoon

Birdsong fills the air at this peaceful oasis (绿洲) less than a 10-minute walk from the fun of the Santa Cruz Beach. A walkway allows visitors a front-row view of birds such as American Coots.

Watsonville Wetlands

The wetlands provide a year-round home for local bids and serve as as top for migratory birds visiting from faraway. Drop by the Nature Center for exhibits, maps, and suggestions for best spots to visit.

Birding Tips

·The early birder gets the worm. You’re likely to sec more birds earlier rather than later in the day.

·No two visit are likely to be the same. Different times and seasons bring different bids and behavior.

·No matter how cute those little bids are, you should not feed them with your bread. It’s unhealthy for the bird and the surrounding ecosystem.

How to Get More Involved

We recommend joining the Santa Cruz Birding Club for public events and abundant online guides. Contact us free at Birding&Wildlife Watch Kit for registration.

This time of year, thousands of college applicants wait for e­notices and auspiciously(吉利地) sized envelopes from schools, under terrible pressure from their parents, friends, teachers, and themselves. As to this, I offer some advice, which comes not only from a bit of experience, but also a bit of research: just cool out and continue, okay?

Many parents and students think there is a world of difference between the lifelong outcomes of an A­minus student who gets into, say. Princeton, and an A­minus student who applies to Princeton but “only” gets into some less selective school, like Penn State or the University of Wisconsin. They assume that a decision made by faceless Ivy League admissions officers, to some extent, will mark the difference between success and failure in life.

There are two important things to say about this stress. First, to put the anxiety into context, the kids applying to these schools are already doing quite well. Seventy percent of 29­year­olds don't have a bachelor's degree, and the majority of BAs are earned at non­selective schools that accept a majority of their applicants. Many of the applicants have already won life's lottery.

But if that doesn't ease the nerves of the 40，000 people waiting on Stanford or Penn, here is a more encouraging conclusion from economics. For most applicants, it doesn't matter if they don't get into their top choice, according to a paper by Stacy Dale, a mathematician at Mathematica Policy Research, and Alan Krueger, an economist at Princeton University. They tracked two groups of students—one that attended college in the 1970s and the other in the early 1990s. They wanted to know：Did students attending the most elite colleges earn more in their 30s. 40s. and 50s than students with similar SAT scores, who were rejected by elite colleges? The short answer was no. Or, in the author's language, the difference between the students who went to super­selective schools and the students with similar SAT scores rejected by those schools and went to less selective institutions was “indistinguishable from zero.”

What does that mean? It means that, for many students, “who you are” is more important than where you go. It's hard to show that highly selective colleges add much earning power, even with their distinguished professors and professional networks. In addition, the decision of admissions officers isn't as important as the sum of the decisions, habits, and relationships students have built up to this point in their young life.

For the elite colleges themselves, the Dale­Krueger paper had additional, fascinating findings. It's found that the most selective schools do make an extraordinary difference in life earning for minority students from less­educated families who are more likely to rely on colleges to provide the training and job networks with great influence. Getting into Princeton if your parents went to Princeton? Fine, although not a game­changer. But getting into Princeton if your parents both left community college after a year? That could be game­changing. Whatever the results, it's more important to choose a university that is suited to the college applicants.

【推荐2】As we all know, friendship is of great importance in our daily life. A friend can give us help and share our difficulties and happiness. But how to make friends is still difficult to some of us.    1    

1. Be friendly to others.    2    You should try to make a stranger feel at home wherever he happens to be. Think more of others than of yourself and never judge a person by his appearance and clothes.

2. Be reliable. If you and your friend agree to meet somewhere, don’t be late. If you’re not going to make it on time or make it at all, call them as soon as you realize it.    3    Be someone that people know they can depend on.

3.    4    Listen carefully to what people say, remember important details about them （their names, their likes and dislikes）, ask questions about their interests, and just take the time to learn more about them.

4. Encourage your friends: A true friend always gives courage to his friends.    5    Never make fun of or laugh at your friends in front of others. You should come to support them.

【推荐3】When asked to point out one or two things that are most important to themselves, many put friends ahead of homes, jobs, clothes and cars.

A true friendship carries a long history of experience that determines(确定)who we are and keeps us connected. It is a treasure we should protect. Unfortunately, the better friends you are, the more probably you'll have disagreements. And the result can be what you don't want—an end to the relationship.

The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended. First, don't let your pride get in your way. Most of us can forgive each other when differences are brought out in the open. Second, apologize when you're wrong—even if you've been wronged. Over the course of a friendship, even the best people make mistakes. Sometimes, it may be best if the wronged person takes the lead and apologizes. When you apologize, give your friend a chance to admit that he has been wrong. Third, see things from your friend's point of view(观点). And finally, accept that friendships change as our needs and lifestyles change. Making friends can sometimes seem easy. The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that have an effect on all relationships. My suggestion: Consider the friendship an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and nurture(培养).

【推荐1】During the month of September， a dear friend of mine lost her husband suddenly in an accident． This accident was sudden and certainly unexpected． We sometimes take our love ones for granted， and we expect that they will be with us forever． However， as we all know， life does not work that way and sometimes we get a wakeup call that shocks us and realize how short life is．

In comforting her， I tried to imagine if I was in her shoes how I would feel． It was impossible to imagine what she was going through． What words do I say to help her？ Sometimes words just cannot express our feelings． Sometimes our actions are much more meaningful than words． A hug can sometimes express more than our words will ever express． Sometimes， just being there to listen is more meaningful and helpful to people．

As I was leaving the funeral parlor（殡仪馆）， I ran into Marilyn． She is one of those friends who is with you in the good times and is always by your side in the bed times． She has a sense of humor that makes everyone feel at ease． We chatted for a few moments， and then she asked me how my job was． I was telling her I was having a stressful week with my job． She listened to me， then without saying a word， she took her hands and placed them on my face， and said to me， "But at least you have a day．"

Since that day， when I start feeling stressed， I remind myself of Marilyn's words --- but at least I have a day! Things could be a lot worse， but I am alive and I have a lot to be thankful for ----- so I shall not waste my days with stress and frustrations（挫折） ------- life is too short．

【推荐1】A new wave of psychological research is pioneering Virtual Reality (VR) to treat medical conditions from social anxiety to Alzheimer's disease.

Riding a wave of interest in mental health tech, companies creating VR content for treatment are receiving a flood of attention and funding. And, while VR has been used successfully to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the 1990s, these new programs address a much broader range of conditions. The library of Palo Alto-based Limbix, for instance, includes VR content designed to treat issues including alcohol addiction and teenage depression. Barcelona-based Psious offers treatments for eating disorders.

Today's VR content is primarily designed to aid exposure treatment, a treatment for anxiety disorders in which patients are exposed to the “threats” they're worried about in a safe, controlled environment, eventually learning that the “threats” are not actually very dangerous. For example, someone who fears heights might visit taller and taller buildings under the guidance of their doctor, while someone with PTSD might revisit painful memories.

VR allows doctors to create a safe and controlled environment inside a VR headset. It's a far safer, quicker and less expensive option. Using VR also gives doctors much more control over the intensity(强度)of their patients' experiences, which can lead to better treatment outcomes, said Stephane Bouchard, a professor at the University of Quebec. VR treatment patients can also do things they couldn't do in the real world. “In one of our studies, we asked patients who are afraid of heights to actually jump from a cliff,” Bouchard said.

However, not all VR treatment content is created equal. “Some companies show videos of VR environments that are incomplete, untested and definitely haven't been tried out by psychologists,” Bouchard said. Clearer rules and standards will make it easier for patients and doctors to identify products that work.

【推荐2】My daughter was being thrown out of the sixth grade. The teacher said to me, “She may not be up to what we’re trying to accomplish.” He was really saying she didn’t have the intelligence. I got mad because I knew she was smart, just as my father had known I was smart when I was failing in school. We had her tested and found that the troubles my daughter was having were the same as those I had had. I decided to get tested as well. She was dyslexic, and so was I. By then I was a successful television writer and producer. I’d won an Emmy for “The Rockford Files.”

Had I known earlier, though, that there was a reason beyond my control to explain why I was a low achiever, I may not have worked so hard in my late 20s and early 30s. I was writing and writing. I was working for no other reason than to hear people praise me.

I needed that praise because I was carrying around the failure in studies. I did badly in all my courses.

I once asked a friend who had always gotten an A, “How long did you study for this?” He said, “I didn’t. I just glanced at it.” So what do I take from that? He must be smarter than I am. I began to ask, “What will happen to me when I’m not good at anything?” Despite my doubts, I did become successful, and people now say to me, “So you’ve overcome dyslexia.”

No. You don’t overcome it, you learn to compensate for it. Some easy things are very hard for me. Most people who go through college read at least twice as fast as I do. I avoid dialing a phone if I can, because I sometimes have to try three times to get the number right. I get that recording “The number you have reached is not in service” more than any man on earth.

Despite my weaknesses I view dyslexia as a gift, not a curse (诅咒). Many dyslexics are good at right- brain, abstract thought, and that’s what my kind of creative writing is. And I can write quickly— I go like wind — and can get up to 15 pages a day. Writing is not the problem. That’s my strength.

The real fear I have for dyslexic is not that they have to struggle with regular school studies, but that they will quit on themselves before they get out of school. Parents have to create victories whenever they can, whether it’s music, sports or art. You can make your dyslexic child able to say, “Yeah, reading’s hard. But I have these other things I can do.”

【推荐3】It doesn’t matter if books are delivered in print or by smart phone; the main thing is to get lost in reading them. Reading books is vital for human development.

Why should we bother reading a book? All children say this occasionally. Many of the 12 million adults in Britain with reading difficulties repeat it to themselves daily. In a world of advanced technology, increasing time poverty and decreasing attention should they invest precious time sinking into a good book?

The discovery that our brains are physically changed by the experience of reading is something many of us will understand instinctively, as we think back to the way an extraordinary book had a transformative effect on the way we viewed the world. This transformation only takes place when we lose ourselves in a book, abandoning the emotional and mental chatter of the real world. That’s why studies have found this kind of deep reading makes us more sensitive to the inner lives of others.

Reasoningly, we know that reading is the foundation stone of all education, and therefore an essential basis of the knowledge economy. So reading is - or should be - an aspect of public policy. But perhaps even more significant is its emotional role as the starting point for individual voyages of personal development and pleasure. Books can open up emotional, imaginative and historical landscapes that equal and extend the corridors of the web. They can help create and strengthen our sense of self. If reading were to decline significantly, it would change the very nature of our species. However, technology throws up as many solutions as it does challenges: for every door it closes, another opens. So the ability, offered by devices like e-readers, smart phones and tables, to carry an entire library in your hand is an amazing opportunity. Publishers need to use every new piece of technology to embed (嵌入) long-form reading within our culture