【推荐1】Rich, heavy food is a major part of the end of the year holidays in the United States. People in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving on the third Thursday of November. People around the world celebrate Christmas on December 25. Both holidays involve (包含) traditions of cooking very large meals. The food at these meals usually has lots of sugar, salt, and butter in it. Turkey and pie are some of the most common foods in these holidays.

Terri Price has hosted a holiday party on the last Saturday before every Christmas for 30 years. It started when her children were very, very small. She has been preparing many of the dishes for most of the 30 years.

But over time, some traditions do change. The Neveldines are a family who hope to be healthier by changing what they eat. Mick Fury, the Neveldine’s oldest child, said this change is important during the holidays and the rest of the year, too.

Mick and his wife, Michelle, try to eat only organic food. Organic food is any plant or animal food product made without the use of unnatural chemicals or processes. But, Mick is not the only Neveldine who changed their diet. Felicia Neveldine, Mick’s sister, decided nine years ago to become a vegan. A vegan is a person who does not eat or use animal products of any kind.

Felicia became a vegan because of her concern for the treatment of animals and the environmental effects of animal farming. She said that her change in diet also improved her health.

Choosing these special diets means the Neveldines choose their foods carefully. Mick grows a garden behind his house where he gets fresh vegetables.

Holiday traditions may not change, but the way these traditions happen just might.

【推荐3】If you're from the northern hemisphere (北半球), you'll find Christmas to be rather different in New Zealand.     1     December is in the middle of summer in New Zealand.Many visitors from the US or Europe can't quite get used to having a barbecue on the beach as Christmas dinner.However, Christmas marks the beginning of the summer holidays for most New Zealanders.

    2     One of the best­known Christmas events is the Farmers Santa Parade in Auckland, which has been a feature (特点) of the Auckland Christmas since 1934.It attracts thousands of visitors every year and is a great event for children.

New Zealanders continue the British tradition of having a family dinner during the middle of the day on Christmas Day.It usually begins on Christmas morning by exchanging presents which will be left under the Christmas tree in the home.    3     Often it is a barbecue in the garden.However，the traditional Christmas food, such as turkey, ham and roast potatoes, is still very popular, along with salad and glasses of wine.

It may seem a bit strange to hear songs, such as White Christmas or Deck the Halls, in the middle of summer！Nevertheless, Christmas carols (颂歌) are popular.    4    

New Zealand is an extremely(极端地) diverse(多样的) society.People from many cultures do not recognize Christmas in the same way as the early European settlers.    5     It's a time to get together with the family and enjoy the great New Zealand summer outdoors.

【推荐1】People who have got rhythm might have an advantage when it comes to language and reading skills. A new study shows the brains of people who can move to a musical beat react to speech on a more consistent basis than those who can't. Researchers also find that musical training can sharpen the brain's response to language.

The researchers say their discovery provides the first biological link between the ability to keep a beat and how the brain responds to speech, something that can have important value for reading skills. To gather materials for their research, the team got more than 100 teenagers who lived in Chicago, Illinois. The teens were given two tests. First, they were instructed to listen to and tap their fingers along to the beat. The researchers calculated how accurately their young volunteers were able to tap along to the musical timekeeper. Second, the teen subjects were linked to an EEG device, which measures electrical activity in the brain. The EEG device was focused on an area of the brain that not only processes sound, but is also connected to parts of the brain responsible for motor-movement. The researchers recorded the brainwaves as their teen subjects listened to the synthesized speech sound, which was repeated irregularly for half an hour. The researchers were able to find out how the nerve cells in that particular region of the brain responded every time the synthesized sound was played. a Across this population of adolescents, the more accurate they were at tapping along to the beat, the more consistent their brains' response to the letter unit was," said Nina Kraus.

While past studies have showed the links between reading skills and a person's ability to keep a beat, the researchers said their new findings show the hearing system is what provides a common basis for those links. “Rhythm is naturally a part of music and language." Nina said.

【推荐2】The Best Free Tourist Places in America

Alaska: Anchorage Market and Festival

Although Anchorage isn’t the capital of Alaska, it is the state’s largest city with the largest population. The Anchorage Market and Festival is open and free of charge on weekends. Anchorage is at the beginning of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, where walks can last between two hours and a half day.

It’s free, of course.

Arkansas: Walmart Museum

Lying in the northwest corner of Arkansas is Bentonville, which gave birth to a little mall you may have heard of. It’s Walmart, one of the biggest companies in the world at present. It is free to visit the Walmart Museum, which attracts thousands of visitors every year. And just outside the town is the well-known Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is also free.

Connecticut: Yale University

New Haven, Connecticut was the first place in the U.S. to offer pizza to the hungry and the homeless, including students of Yale University. While in New Haven you can go on a tour of the campus, where many beautiful buildings have existed for a long time. It’s the university where President Bushes, Bill and Hillary Clinton, journalist Bob Woodward, and Samuel F.B. Morse studied.

Kansas: Santa Fe Trail

Western Kansas has very little light pollution. So as you travel along, stop once in a while and stare at the night sky. The Santa Fe Trail went through Kansas and you can still walk the longest remaining distance of the road just outside Dodge City.

【推荐1】One young lady is being praised for perfect manners for an apology note she wrote to the National Park, after she reportedly took a rock home as a souvenir (纪念品).In expressing her regret, the girl also returned the stolen rock to the park and even gave a donation.

On Aug, 17, the National Park shared the tale of the note to their Facebook page, where it has since been liked over 5, 200 times, and shared about 700.

“Dear Park Ranger( 护林员), Deep Creek was awesome! I especially liked Tom Branch Falls,”   the youngster, named Karina, began her letter, “ I loved it so much, I wanted to have a souvenir to come home with me.”

“So I took a rock. I’m sorry, and I want to return it, " she said. " Also, here’s a donation!”

Lucky for Karina, the park rangers were moved by her sincere apologies for the petty theft, and even wrote back.

“Dear Karina, Thank you so much for returning the rock! It has made its way back to Tom Branch Falls. We are so glad you enjoyed your visit, "the park officials wrote in their Facebook post.

“Already, you are becoming an amazing steward( 35) for the park. Thank you for recognizing that what is in the park should stay in the park. If every visitor took a rock home, that would mean 11 million rocks would be gone from the park every year! "they shared.

The park rangers went on to explain the importance of rocks in the Natural Park as homes for “hundreds” of creatures, including salamanders.

“Now that you know to leave nature the way you find it, we hope you will help share this message with others,” the officials concluded, "It is always a good thing to give another the chance to discover!”

【推荐2】Today I am here to tell you a story of death, new life and revenge（报复）. Three years ago today, the city council of Redondo Beach California ordered the death of my 30-year-old pepper tree. Its roots had begun to destroy the pavement in front of my house. They even made me pay for the damages to the sidewalk and for the tree removal.

I loved Clyde. I was beginning to get an old man, and planting something that I knew would live well beyond my lifetime was something very special. I took very good care of him. I gave him a stick to rest on when he was a young child, and I watched him grow. Just as Clyde was becoming strong and healthy, expanding his root system, and making his own way in life, the mayor took it upon himself to kill my beautiful children.

Mayor Steve Aspel. You killed my child. For this, you will pay. Two years and seven months ago, I secretly planted 45 California Redwoods and 82 Giant Sequoias in various parks, and yards of state around your city.

Today, each of their root systems will be at least 30 feet in diameter, deep in the soil. You may have noticed the trees growing in front of city council, or that new one in your backyard. That’s a Giant Sequoia, and its growth will begin accelerating rapidly in the coming months.

You killed Clyde, but I have replaced him with over 100 living giants. In a few years, they'll begin breaking heights of 100-300 feet and live well beyond 2,500 years. To remove even one of them at this point will cost well over $ 1,500... And you would pay the bill, just like you did to me 3 years ago today.

Good day to you, sir. May your city be overrun by trees. And may Clyde rest in peace.

【推荐3】Scientists say they now have proof to support the old-fashioned advice that it’s best to sleep on a problem．They say sleep strengthens the memory and helps the brain organize the masses of information we receive each day．

The lead researcher Bob Stickgold at the Harvard Medical School said, “Sleep helps us draw rules from our experiences．It’s like knowing the difference between dogs and cats even if it’s hard to explain．”

The US research team studied how well students remembered connections between words and symbols, reports New Scientist．They compared how the students performed if they had had a sleep between seeing the words and having the test, and if they had not slept．They found that people were better able to remember lists of related words after a night’s sleep than after the same time spent awake during the day．They also found it easier to remember themes that the words had in common．But they forgot around one in four more themes if they had been awake．

Prof．John Groeger, of Survey University’s Sleep Research Centre, said, “People have been trying for years to find out what the purpose of sleep is, as we know that only certain parts of it have a restorative （促使康复的）value．”

“We form and store huge numbers of experiences in the head every day, and sleep seems to be the way the brain deals with them all．”