【推荐1】After the summer break, Delhi’s children returned to school this month and found a new class added to their schedules: happiness.

It wasn’t a welcome-back joke. In a country where top universities require average test scores above 98 percent and where cheating on final high school exams is organized by a “mafia” that includes teachers and school officials, the Delhi government's new scheme marks a change of emphasis(强调)from student performance to well-being.

“We have given best-of-the-best graduates of ability to industry,” said Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s education minister, “…But have we been able to supplied best-of-the-best human beings to society, to the nation? “

Sisodia’s happiness classes represent a major experiment in a country known for its overstrict, bookish education system, which has helped cement a new middle class over the past thirty years but is also poorly thought of for encouraging rote(死记硬背的) learning and causing high pressure levels. Under the program, 100,000 Delhi students spend the first half-hour of each school day without opening a textbook, learning instead through inspirational stories and activities, as well as such thinking exercises as meditation.

Some teachers, though, remain uncertain. Some of them say, the public schools are too crowded for a course based so heavily on classroom interaction(互动). Others doubt that the happiness classes can change the culturally deep-rooted emphasis on exams and memorization. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, chair of education, economics and international development at University College London, said that there haven’t been any studies to value their workability. “As far as I know, in some schools they are just another box-ticking exercise,” she said.

【推荐2】You’ve probably heard such reports. The number of college students majoring in the humanities (人文学科) is decreasing quickly. The news has caused a flood of high-minded essays criticizing the development as a symbol of American decline.

The bright side is this: The destruction of the humanities by the humanities is, finally, coming to an end. No more will literature, as part of an academic curriculum, put out the light of literature. No longer will the reading of, say, “King Lear” or D.H. Lawrence’s “Women in Love” result in the annoying stuff of multiple-choice quizzes, exam essays and homework assignments.

The discouraging fact is that for every college professor who made Shakespeare or Lawrence come alive for the lucky few, there were countless others who made the reading of literary masterpieces seem like two hours in the dentist’s chair.

The remarkably insignificant fact that, a half-century ago, 14% of the undergraduate population majored in the humanities (mostly in literature, but also in art, philosophy, history, classics and religion) as opposed to 7% today has given rise to serious reflections on the nature and purpose of an education in the liberal arts.

These serious anxieties are grand, admirably virtuous and virtuously admirable.     They are also a mere fantasy.

The college teaching of literature is a relatively recent phenomenon. Literature did not even become part of the university curriculum until the end of the 19th century. Before that, what came to be called the humanities consisted of learning Greek and Latin, while the Bible was studied in church as the necessary other half of a full education. No one ever thought of teaching novels, stories, poems or plays in a formal course of study. They were part of the leisure of everyday life.

It was only after World War II that the study of literature as a type of wisdom, relevant to actual, contemporary life, put down widespread institutional roots. Soldiers returning home in 1945 longed to make sense of their lives after what they had witnessed and survived. The abundant economy afforded them the opportunity and the time to do so. Majoring in English hit its peak, yet it was this very popularity of literature in the university that spelled its doom, as the academicization of literary art was accelerated.

Literature changed my life long before I began to study it in college. Books took me far from myself into experiences that had nothing to do with my life, yet spoke to my life. But once in the college classroom, this precious, alternate life inside me got thrown back into that dimension of my existence that bored me. Homer, Chekhov and Yeats were reduced to right and wrong answers, clear-cut themes and clever interpretations. If there is anything to worry about, it should be the disappearance of what used to be an important part of every high-school education: the literature survey course, where books were not academically taught but thoroughly introduced—an experience unaffected by stupid commentary and useless testing.

The literary classics are places of quiet, useless stillness in a world that despises (鄙视) any activity that is not profitable or productive. Literature is too sacred to be taught. It needs only to be read.

【推荐1】You can’t walk into the office without Rihanna’s voice singing “work work work work work work” in your head. And that one line from Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” still makes you want to scream. These are commonly known as earworm songs—those sticky tunes that continue to play in your head. A recent study finds that more than 90% of adults report hearing earworm songs on a weekly basis.

Fortunately, most people report earworm songs as pleasant. But others find them annoying or even maddening. “Some people are troubled by them to the point that it disturbs life,” says Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, a professor at the University of Arkansas who has studied earworm songs.

Margulis says earworm songs tend to have some predictable characteristics. For one thing, they tend to small parts of a song—not the whole track. And “the songs you’ve heard recently also have the most possibility to get stuck in your memory,” she says.

But sometimes something strange and unpredictable can also start a track paying in your head. “Once I was at the doctor’s office and saw a poster of a man who I thought looked like Gaston—a character from Beauty and the Beast,” Margulis recalls. A couple minutes passed, and she realized she couldn’t get “Be Our Guest”, the song in the movie, out of her head, even though she hadn’t thought of the tune in years. In that instance, she was able to identify her earworm’s trigger: the Gaston-looking man in the poster. “But the connections can be really unclear,” she says.

Margulis points out that, in all of human history, recorded music is a very new phenomenon. She says some have inferred that earworm songs are also new—the unintended consequence of being able to hear the same song played everywhere in the same way over and over again. So far, the convincing explanation for why human beings experience earworm songs remains a mystery. But there are some well-established ways to cast off the earworm songs.

“Finding a mentally demanding task and putting your mind on it usually shifts attention away from internal music. People tend to get earworms when performing tasks that don’t require their full attention—stuff like doing the dishes,” Margulis says.

Chewing gum can also help. When a song is stuck in our heads, it’s almost like we’re singing along with it. If you make your mouth do something else—chewing gum, eating a meal or talking with a friend—that can kick out the earworm.

You could also face your enemy. By listening to the full track that includes the passage stuck in your head, you may find “closure” and relief.

Over the past twenty years, American country music has become more and more popular. Song writers are no longer writing about the modern values of the USA—money, success or expensive things to buy. Instead, they are writing once more about things that are common for everyone: feeling alone in the modern world, the value of having good friends and so on.

In the 1950s, American music was about other things, for example, love—getting or losing a boyfriend or girlfriend. Money was also thought to be important.

Then in the 1960s, song writers turned to other subjects. During these years many young students were angry with society, so songs were often full of anger. Political leaders were not well thought of.

Today country music has returned. It has become big business and brings in between 200 and 400 million dollars a year. Once, the home of American country music was Nashville, Tennessee. Now, however, the music has reached all parts of the States, from Los Angeles in the west to New York in the east. Singers do not just come from the States but from all over the world. There are many famous singers from Britain, Canada and Australia. A lot of them appear on television too.

The first country singers sang while playing the guitar. It was easy for them to carry a guitar on their travels. Now, however, a lot of electrical equipment is needed for large theatres.

Country music today still remains very popular.

【推荐3】Throughout history, music spread among people of different cultures. In today’s technological advanced society, however, people spread music online, sometimes without an artist’s permission. This can lead to many problems, and music companies are now cracking down on this practice. Sharing music online without permission is theft.

Sharing music online prevents recording companies from making money from their efforts. They say that sharing music online has resulted in a huge drop in profits and sales over the past 10 years. People who find music for free online are not paying for CDs or every MP3 downloaded. To truly understand the influence of music piracy (盗版行为) on creators, one must understand how many people are involved in the recording process. For the sale of each album, profits must be shared between musicians, sound engineers, music producers, managers, advertisers,and the company selling the product. Many people believe sharing music only affects the recording artist, but the reality is that sharing hurts business for all companies involved.

There are many people who don’t see the harm in sharing music online and even think they have the right to do it.One online blogger states that he originally paid for an entire CD and that he should be able to do with the material whatever he wants. While he may have legally paid for the music, he does not have the right to provide permission,which means people like the blogger are thieves.

Although we don’t spread today’s music the same way we did before, there’s no doubt that people around the world love to share music. However, internet piracy would prevent musicians from continuing producing albums for fear of theft. Therefore, if people want to continue listening to their favorite artists, they need to buy their music so that artists will make enough profit to continue their music careers.

【推荐2】The 1953 painting"Goyita"by Rafael features his mother with a red scarf on her head,a determined look on her face,and heavy expression lines,a portrait(画像）of a working-class woman that broke from traditional ones of the time that focused largely on wealthy men.

“Goyita"is one of more than 350 paintings from Puerto Rico that Google Arts&Culture digitized(数字化）for the first time with help from"Hamilton"creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who started the online exhibition that features works from four Puerto Rican art institutions.

The aim is to expose the world to Puerto Rican art,preserve it,and help museums in the U.S.that are struggling to exhibit paintings because of limited space and budget cuts.

Puerto Rico's artwork joins Google's current online exhibitions and stories from around the world.As part of the project,Google brought its so-called"art camera"for the first time to Puerto Rico.The camera has an extremely high resolution(分辨率）thanks to a 400 millimeter zoom(镜头）that uncovers details invisible to the human eye,including brush strokes(笔法）。It also allowed those at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to find the signature of a pioneering female artist.

The camera took thousands of pictures to digitize 48 pieces of Puerto Rican art as it went inches by inches to cover an entire painting,a job that took 30 minutes to several hours depending on the size of the artwork,said Simon Delacroix,U.S.lead for Google Arts&Culture.

As Mr.Delacroix showed the power of the zoom on a painting called"El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz",a collective"Wow"escaped from the audience attending the project at the Museum of Puerto Rico.The crowd could appreciate details in the background including someone that appears to be laughing from a balcony.

Google Arts&Culture already allows users to explore more than 2,000 museums and historic sites including Nelson Mandela 's prison cell.In total,it offers more than 6 million photos,videos,and other documents.