【推荐2】Music has existed since the beginning of time. People have always sung songs, danced to music, and played musical instruments together.     1    , yet it’s often taken for granted. In this text, we’ll explore why music is important and how it can be used in various ways to help improve our lives.

First of all, music has no borders or boundaries.     2    , so it’s easy for us with our differences to find common ground. Besides, it also helps us understand different cultures better by exposing(接触)listeners who may not have been exposed before to music from other countries.

    3    . There’s nothing quite like putting on your favorite song when you feel stressed. Studies have shown that listening to music can help reduce stress levels. When we listen to music, our brain releases(释放)dopamine, which helps control our mood.

What’s more, it has been proven that music plays a key role in brain development. This is because it helps with the development of language, motor skills, and emotional intelligence.     4    . It’s been found that music can help you remember things better by connecting them with familiar or meaningful pieces of music.

There’s nothing worse than being nervous before a big event or performance.     5     Luckily for us, listening to music can help us with that too. As mentioned earlier, music can be great at helping you relax, so using it to calm your nerves before you undertake something stressful can be hugely beneficial.

【推荐3】Many of us are disgusted at spiders or afraid of them. We don't like to touch them or go near them, and if we see one in our house, we'd better watch out. But do you know that a spider's natural color may inspire a new shade of blue textiles and offer a solution to the glare on the screen of your phone when you're out in the sun?

This color is a shade of blue, inspired by the cobalt blue tarantula (钴蓝狼蛛) — a species of spider that is native to the rainforests of southeast Asia. What surprised scientists who observed the eight-legged furry spider was that its color did not change at all even when viewed from different angles.

A team of scientists, led by Bill Hsiung from the University of Akron in Ohio, have been studying tarantulas for some time. Blue is a rare color in the animal kingdom, so the researchers set out to find the exact nature of this blue. They found that the outer body of the tarantula is covered with tiny crystalline (晶体的) structures. These tiny structures act like a mirror and when light strikes them, they reflect only one particular wavelength of light - blue. This kind of natural color is referred to as the “structural color”.

Usually, when colors are viewed from different angles, they appear different because of how light is reflected. This is because of a phenomenon known as iridescence (彩虹色). However, the blue color produced by tarantulas appears the same from all angles. Scientists find that it is the tiny crystal structures on the tarantula’s body arranged in a flower-like shape that reduce iridescence.

Scientists have known about structural colors for a while, but they have not seen them used for dye. With a clearer understanding of how “structural colors” work, scientists can now create a pigment (色素) similar to the tarantula blue to dye textiles and other products. Watch out for the tarantula blue-a color that may soon take the fashion industry by storm!