【推荐2】A few years ago, I moved to Aurora, Ont. with my boyfriend and I longed to make friends in my new neighborhood.

Where we lived, the houses were jammed together so tightly. But the irony of living so close was that no one actually talked to each other; as in an open-concept office, they pretend they can't hear or see each other to maintain at least an illusion of privacy.

It was not so easy to make friends as an adult. I was about to give up when I caught sight of a beautiful, tall blonde taking out her recycling. She walked with confidence—even her ponytail bounced. I thought, “I recycle too! We have so much in common!”

The question was, how would we meet? What would I say? So I thought, “What if I just happened to be jogging by?” I put on my running shoes, but after a few times around the block, sweating, I didn't see her. I decided to seize on the one thing I already knew about her—she takes out her blue bin.

The following day, I woke up a little earlier than usual. A little after 8 a.m., the garbage truck appeared and the blonde appeared. I grabbed a bin and made my way to the end of my driveway. “Just act natural, Megan,” I told myself. “Good morning. How are ya?” I said, cool as a cucumber. “Good. And you?” she replied. “Doing well...I am a new comer, just a broadcaster. I talk for a living. Clearly!” “Interesting,” she said.

As we both walked away, I turned and called out, “Oh, and by the way, I'm Megan.” “Michelle,” she replied. I walked back inside, wearing a giant smile.

Our “coincidental” recycling meet-ups continued for a few weeks until I finally gathered my courage to ask her to watch The Bachelor with me and she said yes.

That night, after we got everything ready, we settled on the couch and proceeded to drink wine, have our buffet, analyze television relationships, tell stories about our own and laugh our faces off. We “found what we'd been looking for": a new friend to fall spiritually in love with.

【推荐3】Just a small smile

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed that the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked, Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.

Mark went home after leaving Bill at his house. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, and then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school, where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long-awaited senior year came. Three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.

Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. “Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” asked Bill. “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide(自杀). But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life.”

【推荐1】When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness, who possess wings of their own and who will fly with me. I seek mends whose qualities illuminate(照亮)me and train me up for love. It is for these people that I reserve the glowing hours, too good not to share.

When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and “too serious” about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say:“Let's start with a train whistle today.” We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changed into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.

When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend. He was in despair(失望)and 1 was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.

For almost four years I have had a remarkable friend whose imagination illuminates mine. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other's dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to be parts of the same mind. In my most interesting moments, I often think: “Yes, I must tell…''We have never met.

It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bright hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist, who will only fill up the healing(愈合的)silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend.

【推荐2】Your teenage best friend could be good for your long-term mental health, according to a new study published in the journal Child Development. According to the findings, teenagers aged 15 to 16 who had a close friendship rather than a larger group of friends they were less close to had a greater sense of self-worth by the time they were 25 years old. Those people with a very close best friend were also less likely to experience social anxiety, the study found.

A past research has suggested that teen friendships are important. Friendships during the teenage years predict academic success and improved mental health. But the new research further explores the type of friendships teenagers have.

Many study participants did not continue to have a close relationship with their high-school best friend, leading the researchers to wonder what exactly was responsible for the mental health benefits. They thought that the skills and ability to build such a friendship may be more important than the friendship itself.

And as the researchers point out, those skills are not necessarily brought to bear in the world of social media. “As technology makes it increasingly easy to build a social network of shallow friends, focusing time and attention on developing close connections with a few individuals should be a priority,” one of the researchers, Joseph Allen, said in a statement.

【推荐3】Kids with special needs refer to any kid who might need extra help because of a medical,emotional,or learning problem.For example,kids who cannot walk need wheelchairs.They not only need equipment that helps them get around,but they might need to have ramps（坡道）or elevators available.    1    

Kids with an illness would have special needs,too    2    Kids with sight problems might need Braille books to read.Kids with hearing problems might need hearing aids.

    3    It might be harder to do normal things,like learning to read or just getting around the school.The good news is that parents,doctors,nurses,teachers,and others can help.The goal is to help kids be as independent as possible.

Other kids can also be a big help.How?By being a friend.Kids who use a wheelchair or have lots of health problems want friends just as you do.But meeting people and making friends can be difficult.    4    Be sure to tell a teacher if you see someone being bullied（欺辱）or teased.

    5    Being friendly to kids with special needs is one of the best ways to be helpful.As you get to know them they may help you understand what it's like to be in their shoes.And you'll be helping fill a very special need,one that everybody has-the need for good mends.

【推荐1】As we all know, any countries have their own languages. Even people speaking the same language have distinet dialects that are rooted in their history and culture, so whether you say "soda" or "pop" may reveal what country and what region you are from. What you call the night before Halloween may tie to your religious beliefs. What kind of slang (俚语) you use may come from the customs of the community you grew up in.

Languages also show connections between us and our natural environments. Plants and animals that are given names in any language are generally those that are relevant to people speaking the language. The relevance comes from the way that the people have interacted (交互) with the animals and plants, in some cases over centuries.

While we might think of languages as having a stereotyped set of words and rules that we learn in school, in fact languages are always developing. New words appear while others fall out of use and pronunciation changes over time as does the meaning of words. People also borrow words from other languages to complement(补充) their own vocabulary.

Our ability to learn languages develops when we are young. Sounds heard as babies, or even in the womb(子宫), set the stage for language learning later. Baby cooing(喔啊声) is the result of babies analysis of the languages spoken to them. Babies are practicing the pronunciation and recognition of sounds that they need for communication. Children exposed to different languages early in life and growing up with various kinds of languages around them always develop better cognitive (认知的)functions, such as the ability to focus and ignore distractions(使人分心的事).

Languages are as diverse as the communities that speak them and each of the about 7,000 world languages is a piece of evidence of a community's unique human experience. Yet, many languages around the world are endangered and as many as half of the world's languages could go silent by the end of this century. The reasons are that the speakers always receive social inequalities and disrespect from others and thus so do their language.

【推荐2】The shadow play is a typical traditional entertainment that has survived and thrived over the centuries. It is taken as an earliest ancestor of modern cinema.

Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago, Emperor Wudi of the Western Han Dynasty was very depressed over the death of his favorite concubine (妃子). To help him get over his sadness, a minister made a puppet out of cotton and silk in the likeness of the concubine and projected its shadow on a curtain for the emperor to see. The show brought the emperor some comfort. He somehow believed the shadow was his lover’s spirit. This is thought to be the beginning of the shadow play.

One mouth tells stories of thousands of years; a pair of hands operates millions of soldiers. This is how the shadow puppeteer works. Nicknamed “the business of the five”, a shadow puppet group is made up of five people. One operates the puppets, one plays a Suona and a Yueqin, one plays the Banhu, one is in charge of percussion (打击乐器) instruments, and one sings.

During performances, “actors” are held close to a white curtain with their colored shadows cast on it by a strong light from behind. The operator plays five puppets at the same time, each of which has three threads. Ten fingers handle fifteen threads. Moved by guiding sticks, the puppets play roles with musical accompaniment. The popularity of shadow play in some way lies in the equipment being light and easy to carry, the small number of people needed for a performance, and the flexible requirements for performance places. The plays can be quite dramatic and, when it comes to fairy tales or kungfu stories, the “actors” may be made to ride on clouds or perform unusual feats, to the great enjoyment of the audience, especially children.

The design of the figures follows traditional moral evaluation. The audience can tell a figure’s character by seeing his mask. Like the masks in Beijing Opera, a red mask represents honesty, a black mask, loyalty, and a white one, betrayal.

Nowadays, the shadow play has been industrialized and developed a series of tourist products for the promotion of Chinese culture and tourism.

【推荐3】From early times, man has been interested in art. People have often worked together to collect and save the world's art treasures.

Fine art treasures from many countries are kept in an art museum called the Louvre (卢浮宫) in Paris, France. The works of art have been collected by the people of France over many centuries. It is the biggest art museum in the world.

The Louvre has not always been a museum. The first building was a fort (堡垒). In 1190, it was the king's castle with high walls and a round tower. It had a moat (护城河) to keep out the enemies.

Over the years, the number of buildings around the fort grew. By 1350, the fort was no longer needed and became a palace home for French kings and queens.During times of peace, new treasures were brought in. During days of war, many treasures were stolen, and the buildings were damaged.

When Francis Ⅰ became King of France in 1515, he brought in many artists from many countries. One of the artists was Leonardo da Vinci from Italy. He worked in Paris. Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is the best-known painting in the museum today.

In 1793, the Louvre became a public museum, just as it is now. It is a place where art treasures are kept for everyone to enjoy. Every year millions of people from all over the world come to the Louvre to see the master-pieces.