【推荐1】Three in five people in the UK hold a library card. For some, they’re a shelter from the stresses of day-to-day life.     1     If you’re considering joining your local library, now is the time to do so. And if you need any more encouragement, here are several reasons why you should.

Most libraries in the UK allow members of the general public to come and go as they like.     2     You can also take out a library card and borrow books for free, although you will inevitably face a fine for late returns.

    3     Imagine just how many books you have at your fingertips with a library card? There are lots of modern ones, as well as originals, and you can continue to expand your learning and vocabulary all the time. It’s a priceless experience, especially for kids, and also a great way to level the educational playing field.

Libraries develop with times. They have changed greatly since decades ago.     4     Some libraries have apps so you can see when your books are due back and even reserve books in some cases. There are also libraries which let you access books in digital formats on your mobile device — pretty cool.

Libraries are one of very few spaces left in towns and cities where members of the public can come together and actually be and feel like a community. They have notice boards to offer services like exercise classes or learning centers.     5    

【推荐1】A new study shows that we spend more time using the mobile Internet to read newspapers and magazines or do some other things. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the average European spends 4.8 hours reading newspapers and magazines but 1.6 hours more using the mobile Internet per week.

The IAB questioned 15000 people in 15 European countries, looking at how people were using the Internet and its influence on their everyday lives. It found that the mobile Internet is increasingly finding its way into the public awareness. Over 71 million Europeans now have the Internet access on their mobile phones. In the UK,10 million people now access the Internet through their mobile phones and spend 6.3 hours doing so per week on average.

Unsurprisingly, young generations in the UK are leading the way, with nearly half the country’s16-to 24-year-old young people and a quarter of 25- to 34-year-old people using the Internet, spending 6.5 and 6.2 hours online each week respectively.

Entertainment plays a main role in our mobile Internet lives, with one in five British people using their phones for online games, a third listening to the online video and 39% watching movies, TV or other videos at least once a week. One third of those using an Internet phone said they received videos, images or other multimedia information on their mobile phones and 61% said they passed on the contents they had received.

From a communicative point of view, 80% of these questioned agreed that the Internet had made it easier for them to stay in touch with friends and family.

Alison Fennah, Executive Business Adviser at IAB Europe, said the use of the mobile Internet had come to the point that marketers should be looking to strategies (策略) that connect them with consumers more effectively. “Better devices, as well as improved consumer motivation that started coming together in 2011, can make a great difference to extending the online experience.” Fennah said.

【推荐2】According to a new study，a lot of kids don't drink enough water.Erica Kenney，a scientist at Harvard's T．H.Chan School of Public Health，planned to look into the amount of sugary drinks kids drank at first.However，she found many kids had not enough water to drink.

Kenney and her team studied a group of 4，000 children，aged 6 to 19，between the years 2009 and 2012.She noticed that more than half of the kids were dehydrated (脱水的)．Boys were 76% more likely than girls to lack (缺乏) enough water.Nearly one quarter of the kids reported having no plain water.

“These findings are important because they show a potential (潜在的) health problem that has not been given a lot of attention in the past，” said Erica Kenney.

60% of the human body is made up of water.It controls the body temperature，sends oxygen all over the body，helps digestion，and performs various other tasks that keep our bodies healthy.

Not drinking enough water can lead to health problems.Your body needs more water when you are in hot climates，when you take part in physical exercise，and if you have a fever.

The United States National Agriculture Library says on average，kids need between 10 to 14 cups of water every day.This water can come from some foods that contain high amounts of water，such as melons or tomatoes，instead of sugary drinks that are high in calories and can lead to weight problems.

“The good news is that this is a public health problem with a simple solution，” said senior author on the study and professor health sociology at Harvard University，Steven Gortmaker.“If we can focus on helping children drink more water，we will help them feel better throughout the day and do better in school.”

【推荐3】Many people believe that language belongs to human beings. However, cats have developed a language not for each other, but for the human beings who have them as pets.

When communicating with each other, cats "talk" with a system of signals. Their tails, rather than any kind of “speech", act as an important way to express themselves. They also touch each other to express their feelings. With other cats, they will use their voice only to express pain. Unbelievably, all of that changes when a human walks into the room. Cats use many different kinds of vocal （声音的）expressions when they communicate with a person. Since these vocal expressions are not used to communicate with other cats, it seems that cats have developed this "language" to communicate with their human owners.

This fact is shown more clearly when researchers are watching rooms that have only one cat and those with several cats. And when there is only one cat in the room, it is usually very vocal, since the only creature around with whom the cat can communicate is its owner. Cats with other cats, though, are much quieter. If they want to have a conversation, they only need go to other cats and communicate in their natural way.

Since cats have learned to meow（ 喵喵叫） for the only purpose of communicating with human owners, their owners should take the time to learn what their different meows mean. If an owner knows, to name just a few examples, which meow means the cat is hungry, which means the cat .wants to be petted, and which means the cat wants to have a little "conversation" , the relationship between cats and owners will be closer.

【推荐1】Teenagers who spend more time watching TV, using iPads and playing electronic games take longer to fall asleep and get poorer quality rest. A new study suggests the growth in use of electronic media devices by children could harm their physical and mental health.

The 16-19-year-olds were asked how much screen time they spent outside school hours, and on what activities, for any of six electronic devices: computer, tablet, smartphone, MP3 player, games console（游戏机）and TV. They were also asked questions about their sleep routine on weekdays and at weekends: when they normally went to bed and got up; how much sleep they needed to feel rested; and how long it took them to get to sleep. Girls spent longer on their computers chatting online while boys spent longer playing games on computers.

The study found poorer quality sleep was related to more time spent on such devices, and it often took more than an hour to drop off. Total daytime screen use of more than four hours was related to a 49 percent greater risk of taking longer than 60 minutes to fall asleep.

On average, the teens said they needed 8-9 hours of sleep to feel rested. But those who spent more than two hours emailing or chatting online were more than three times as likely to sleep for less than five hours. Those spending more than four hours in front of any screen were 3.5 times as likely to sleep for less than five hours. Computers were the device most likely to cause problems.

Dr Mari Hysing, of Uni Research Health, Bergen, said screen use may simply replace sleeping time or it may affect sleep by stimulating the nervous system. It is also possible that the light from electronic devices may affect a teenager’s body clock. “The recommendation is not to have a TV in the bedroom,” added Dr Mari Hysing.

【推荐2】Almost all calligraphy(书法) lovers agree that writing characters with a brush and ink on straw paper offers a way to communicate with not only history and culture, but also oneself. But now Chinese character handwriting is under threat from computers and mobile phones.

A college graduate looking for a job was reportedly turned down by a company because he wrote 24 characters incorrectly in a 400­character handwritten resume. A survey by HorizonKey, covering people from 12 major cities in China, found that nearly one third of those interviewed often experience “character amnesia(遗忘)”， with 94 percent saying this is a problem for them.

The main reason is that most Chinese rely too much on the pinyin­based Chinese language input method, which is replacing the tradition of writing characters stroke(笔画) by stroke. The software will conveniently choose the right characters according to the context or word frequency, as there are dozens of characters with the same pronunciation in Chinese.

Education is another problem. In college, most homework and papers are printed out, instead of handwritten. And few teachers use chalk and blackboards, with Microsoft's PowerPoint the most­often used software to teach knowledge to students.

The number of electronic devices in the classroom is thought to be another reason why students are easily satisfied with just a poor knowledge of the Chinese language and characters. It is quicker to look up a character in an electronic dictionary, but traditional printed dictionaries offer more detailed information on the usage and meaning of the characters. Students pay more attention to remembering a character's pronunciation, but not the other knowledge related to it, which e­dictionaries rarely provide.

Another worry is the “pollution” of Chinese characters by Internet language. Young people regard using Internet language as cool and fashionable. After they learn to use these expressions, they automatically include them in their writing.

【推荐3】Inspiration Tower

Inspiration Tower is on the highest point in Southwest Missouri. Take a glass lift to the spacious observation deck (甲板). The views are absolutely phenomenal in any season. On a clear day, you can see over 90 miles. Opens from 9 am to 5 pm daily: closes at 4 pm on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Titanic Museum Attraction

You’ll enter as a guest and leave as a Titanic Passenger! The exhibits you see throughout the ship are real and valued at over 4 million dollars. Visit a room where you can touch an authentic iceberg (冰山) and experience the coldness of the icy waters where the Titanic sank. Walk along decks at the same angle as the decks when the ship went down.

Shepherd of the Hills

Celebrate the Spirit of the Season at Shepherd of the Hills. NEW this year is "The North Pole Adventure". This All-New Family Walk Through Experience takes you on a journey through thousands of bright lights, hot chocolate stands and man-made objects. Don't forget to visit Santa's Workshop for a visit without Santa. This experience requires good weather.

7D Dark Ride Adventure

For an interactive game like you've never experienced before, gather your courage and check out the 7 D Dark Ride Adventure! Put all seven of your senses to the test today, at the 7D Dark Ride Adventure, a 3D ride guaranteed to get your heart pumping. Not recommended for visitors with back or heart problems.

【推荐2】“It’s a big hammer to crack a nut.” This is how one angry parent described the recent crackdown (严厉的打击) by London police on parents who drop their kids off at school by car. Yes, you read that correctly—the very mode of transportation that many American schools insist is the only safe way to deliver kids to school is now considered illegal in the UK.

The decision to fine any vehicles seen dropping off or picking up kids within a particular zone of east London comes from city councillors’ (议员) long-term efforts to make the area safer and less crowded. They say they’ve been trying for years “to encourage reasonable parking”, but in vain. Neighborhood residents complain frequently about their driveways being blocked by illegally parked cars for 15 minutes or more，often while they’re trying to get to work, and the streets are long overcrowded.

Now the rules have changed. Some parents are angry. Angie is a mother who made the “big hammer” comment and says the crackdown is “way over the top.” The nearest drop-off point for her six- year-old is now a five-minute walk from the school. Others are happy with the decision, severe though it may seem. Councillor Jason Frost said ：

“Traffic has significantly reduced，and more children are now walking to school, which is a great outcome. I would rather have complaints that we are slightly inconveniencing parents than hear that a child had been seriously injured because nothing was done.”

I witness daily the chaos created by these in-town drivers, when I walk my own kids to school. There’s a parking lot crowded with vehicles and a slow-moving train of cars moving in circles, many filling the air with harmful smoke. Meanwhile, the conversations around overweight children and the importance of daily physical activities continue to stand out in schools.

【推荐3】Themed "New Era Shared Future" the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) was held from Nov 5 to 10 in Shanghai. More than 2,600 enterprises gathered and presented their advanced products. And may innovative products have made their world premiere(首次亮相) Let’s have a look at three of them.

Portable kayak

Lightweight and durable(耐用的) equipment is what all sport lovers desire. At the CIIE, the French sporting goods company Decathlon Launched is portable kayak(便携式皮划艇) ITIWIT X500. According to the company, he kayak measures 380cm in length and 65cm in width when inflated(充气).When not in use, it can be folded up to the size of a backpack.

In addition to its portability, the kayak also has the high performance capability of a professional kayak. It consists of five independent air chambers(气囊). Even if two of them don't work, the kayak floats are enough for sports enthusiasts to return to the shore safely.

Myopia prevention glasses

Frequent exposure to electronic devices has led to poor eyesight among teenagers. To address this issue, French company Essilor released a myopia(近视) control lens.

With the help of advanced technology, the lens can create a beam in front of the retina(视网膜) to slow down the increase of the eye axis.

“After more than two years of clinical research, the results show that the lens has an obvious effect on slowing down myopia progression in children,” said La Fan, a professor at Eye Optical Hospital Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University.

Mind-reading ping-pong robot

Like ping-pong but afraid of criticism from your coach? The sixth generation of the Forpheus ping-pong robot from Japanese tech company Omron may help you.

The robot has multi-axis robotic arm that can imitate human strategies. It can actually live up to the feeling of playing against a real opponent.

At the same time, it can use sensors on the paddle(拍子) and five cameras to work out where you are and how you're moving. After analyzing your abilities, it can adjust its own playing level to match yours. The robot “pursues harmony of humans and machines by patiently teaching us how to play ping-pong”, noted The Verge.