【推荐1】Teenagers are damaging their health by not getting enough sleep because they are distracted (分散) by electronic products in their bedrooms，according to a survey.

UK advice body The Sleep Council said “junk sleep” could rival (比得上) the consumption of unhealthy junk food as a major lifestyle issue for parents of teenage children. It brings no less harm than junk food to one’s health. Its survey of 1,000 teenagers aged 12 to 16 found that 30 percent managed just 4 to 7 hours of sleep as opposed to (形成对照) the recommended 8 or 9 hours by the experts. Almost a quarter said they fell asleep more than once a week while watching TV, listening to music or using other electronic products.

“This is an extremely worrying situation,” said Dr. Chris Idzikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre. “What we are seeing is the appearance of junk sleep — that is sleep which is of neither the length nor quality that it should be in order to feed the brain with the rest it needs to perform properly at school.”

Nearly all the teenagers had a phone, music system or TV in their bedroom, with around two­thirds possessing all three. Almost one in five of the teenage boys said the quality of their sleep had been impacted by leaving their TVs or computers on. The survey also found that 40 percent of teenagers felt tired each day, with girls aged 15 to 16 doing the worst. However, just 11 percent said they were bothered by the lack or bad quality of sleep.

“I’m surprised that so few teenagers make the link between getting enough good quality sleep and how they feel during the day,” Idzikowski said. “Teenagers need to wake up to the fact to feel well, perform well and look well; they need to do something about their sleep.”

【推荐2】Teenagers’ fitness is now a major concern, to which physical exercise is very important. It reduces stress and improves fitness. Exercise makes your body strong, and helps you to keep the right body weight. Sports scientist Dr. Helen Lopez offers the following advice to teenagers: “First, you need to find out your present level of fitness. Then you can design a programme that will help you become healthier. ”

Dr. Lopez points out that there are three levels of fitness that need a change of lifestyle. “Overweight” means that the person gets very little exercise and often has a serious weight problem. “Inactive” means that the person does not join in many physical activities, but is not seriously overweight. “Active” refers to people who take part in sports and other physical activities, but do not have a high fitness level.

According to Dr. Lopez, overweight teenagers should keep active to keep healthy. “Ride a bike, play volleyball or basketball for a while, and go for a twenty-minute walk each day. All these will help to burn calories.” Inactive teenagers should do similar activities, but add some bending and stretching exercises, such as push-ups and sit-ups, starting with twenty of each a day. “Inactive people can take a little more exercise than overweight people because their bodies are stronger,” said Dr. Lopez. The same principle applies to active teenagers.

Dr. Lopez suggests one hour a week or more on running and other forms of intensive exercise, together with fifteen minutes a day spent on stretching and bending activities. “These are really important in order to prevent injuries,” Dr. Lopez said. Some weight-training and other body-strengthening exercises could also be planned in the programme in order to increase the person’s strength.

【推荐3】Definition of adult learning vary, but according to the European Commission, it is defined as all forms of learning undertaken by adults after having left initial education and training, however far this process may have gone.

Education and training are important factors in achieving the strategic goal of raising economic growth, competitiveness and social inclusion. However, with some expectations, implementation(实现，履行) remains weak. Most education and training system still largely focus on the education and training of young people and limited progress has been made in changing systems to mirror the need for learning throughout the life span. An additional 4 million adults would need to participate in lifelong learning. Recent research confirms the importance of investing in adult learning. Research on older adults indicates that those who engage in learning are healthier, with a consequent decrease in health care costs.

Europe’s key economic challenge is to raise its growth and employment performance while preserving social cohesion(凝聚力). Rapid progress in other regions(地区) of the world shows the importance of innovative (创新的), advanced and quality education and training as a key factor in economic competitiveness. General levels of competence must increase, both to meet the needs of the employment market and to allow citizens to function well in society.

Europe is facing unheard-of demographic changes that will have a major impact on society and on the economy and consequently on education and training provision and needs. The European population is aging: over the next 30 years the number of younger Europeans(up to 24 years old)will fall by 15%. One in three Europeans will be over 60 years old, and   about one in then will be over 80.

Raising the overall level of skills of the adult population by offering more and better learning opportunities throughout adult life is important for both efficiency and equity reasons given the challenges identified above. Not only does adult learning help make adults more efficient workers and, better-informed and more active citizens, it also contributes to their personal well-being.

【推荐2】No one is sure how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near Cairo. But a new study suggests they used a little rock ‘n’ roll. Long-ago builders could have attached wooden poles to the stones and rolled them across the sand, the scientists say.

“Technically, I think what they're proposing is possible,” physicist Daniel Bonn said.

People have long puzzled over how the Egyptians moved such huge rocks. And there's no obvious answer. On average, each of the two million big stones weighed about as much as a large pickup truck. The Egyptians somehow moved the stone blocks to the pyramid site from about one kilometer away.

The most popular view is that Egyptian workers slid the blocks along smooth paths. Many scientists suspect workers first would have put the blocks on sleds(滑板). Then they would have dragged them along paths. To make the work easier, workers may have lubricated the paths either with wet clay or with the fat from cattle. Bonn has now tested this idea by building small sleds and dragging heavy objects over sand. .

Evidence from the sand supports this idea. Researchers found small amounts of fat, as well as a large amount of stone and the remains of paths.

However, physicist Joseph West, who led the new study, thinks there might have been a simpler way. West said, “I was inspired while watching a television program showing how sleds might have helped with pyramid construction. I thought, ‘Why don't they just try rolling the things?’” A square could be turned into a rough sort of wheel by attaching wooden poles to its sides, he realized. That, he noted, should make a block of stone “a lot easier to roll than a square”.

So he tried it. He and his students tied some poles to each of four sides of a 30-kilogram stone block. That action turned the block into somewhat a wheel. Then they placed the block on the ground.

They wrapped one end of a rope around the block and pulled. The researchers found they could easily roll the block along different kinds of paths. They calculated that rolling the block required about as much force as moving it along a slippery(滑的) path.

West hasn't tested his idea on larger blocks, but he thinks rolling has clear advantages over sliding. At least, workers wouldn't have needed to carry cattle fat or water to smooth the paths.