【推荐2】“Did you hear what happened to Adam Last Friday?” Lindsey whispers to Tori.

With her eyes shining, Tori brags, “You bet I did, Sean told me two days ago.”

Who are Lindsey and Tori talking about? It just happened to be yours truly, Adam Freedman. I can tell you that what they are saying is (a) not nice and (b) not even true. Still, Lindsey and Tori aren’t very different from most students here at Linton High School, including me. Many of our conversations are gossip(闲话). I have noticed three effects of gossip: it can hurt people, it can give gossipers a strange kind of satisfaction, and it can cause social pressures in a group.

An important negative effect of gossip is that it can hurt the person being talked about. Usually, gossip spreads information about a topic-breakups, trouble at home, even dropping out-that a person would rather keep secret. The more embarrassing or shameful the secret is, the juicier the gossip it makes. Probably the worst type of gossip is the absolute lie. People often think of gossipers as harmless, but cruel lies can cause pain.

If we know that gossip can be harmful, then why do so many of us do it? Theanswer lies in another effect of gossip: the satisfaction it gives us. Sharing the latest rumor can make a person feel important because he or she knows something that others don’t. Similarly, hearing the latest rumor can make a person feel like part of the “in group.” In other words, gossip is satisfying because it gives people a sense of belonging or even superiority.

Gossip also can have a third effect: it strengthens unwritten, unspoken rules about how people should act. Professor David Wilson explains that gossip is important in policing behaviors in a group. Translated into high school terms, this means that if everybody you hang around with is laughing at what John wore or what Jane said, then you can bet that wearing or saying something similar will get you the same kind of negative attention. The dos and don’ts conveyed through gossip will never show up in any student handbook.

The effects of gossip vary depending on the situation. The next time you feel the urge to spread the latest news, think about why you want to gossip and what effects your “juicy story” might have.

【推荐3】“Girls are weak, and boys are strong. This is what is being subconsciously communicated to hundreds of millions of young boys and girls all over the world, just like it was with me,” said American actor Justin Baldoni. As a boy, all he wanted was to be accepted by other people. That acceptance meant he had to pretend to be strong when he was weak, confident when he felt insecure, and tough when he was actually hurting.

Is that a healthy lifestyle? A member of the CPPCC Standing Committee might say “yes”. In his proposal, he spoke of a need to “prevent the feminization of male youths”. In response to his call, China’s Ministry of Education has recently demanded that schools should hire more physical education teachers and improve teaching methods to cultivate masculinity in students.

The response has been widely debated online, with many people saying that it reinforces gender stereotypes. The state broadcaster CCTV wrote on its Weibo account, “Education is not simply about cultivating men and women. It’s more important to develop a willingness to take responsibility.” You might be wondering now: What is masculinity, and why is this so controversial?

Well, by itself, “masculinity” refers to the qualities traditionally considered to be typical of men. While there is not really a single “correct” set of qualities, the term is often associated with strength, courage, assertiveness, and emotional control. Sometimes, however, these seemingly admirable qualities can be extended in unrealistic ways. But boys are also human. Blindly asking them to control their feelings “like a man” can only increase their stress when they grow up.

As an educator who has spent years teaching in China, I agree that attaching more importance to physical education would definitely benefit students. Sports provide opportunities for physical fitness. More importantly, they can help develop lifelong skills, such as leadership and communication skills. However, putting the emphasis on masculinity is far from a sound reason for which to do so.

It is unnecessary for all boys to build up their muscles, but it is essential that they all learn how to be strong inside. It is also fine for boys to cry and to show their weakness. Schools should work on equipping students with the skills and values they will need to be successful in life, not reinforcing stereotypes of masculinity borrowed from a bygone age.

【推荐1】Positive thinking is a significant element of happiness.   In order to become a positive thinker, determination and consistency are important. The first thing to know about positive thinking is that everyone can do it.   With certain cognitive (认知的) and behavioral changes, we can all become positive thinkers.   Another important factor is that being a positive thinker does not mean you become numb to anything that is not working properly in your life or is negative - it just means that you approach life and face challenges with a healthier outlook.

Instead of selectively attending to negative events, focus on the positive ones. Then pay attention to the delayed consequences of your behavior rather than the immediate ones. For example, if a job is not going like you want, focus on the fact that you have a job and how you can take your time to make the situation better.

Challenge any internal attributions and see if you compare your behavior to standards that are excessively rigid and perfectionistic. If so, change these and be reasonable with your comparisons. For example, if you constantly compare your weaknesses with other people's strengths, then switch this and compare yourself with those who are doing poorer than you as well. Overall, people who focus more on their strengths than their weaknesses but at the same time are aware of their weaknesses have a healthier self-evaluation result.

When faced with too much fear about a situation, imagine the worst case and visualize a solution for it, then let go of fear.   This way, you will be prepared for anything and your fear will not block you from being open and creative to different solutions. For example, if you are constantly worried about losing your job up to a point where it is creating a lot of anxiety and fear and is effecting your performance and your happiness negatively, then think of losing your job, visualize how you will handle it, find solutions in your mind and then let go of the thought and the fear attached to it.

So positive thinkers are better problem solvers and have better interactions. In addition to that, people who are positive thinkers are happier and more satisfied with their life.

【推荐2】Literature is an important part of a total language arts program at all grade levels because of the many benefits it offers.

Literature provides pleasure to listeners and readers.It is a relaxing escape from daily problems,and it fills leisure moments.Making time for recreational reading and using high-quality literature help to develop enthusiastic readers and improve achievement.Developing a love of literature as a recreational activity is possibly the most important outcome of a literature program.

Literature builds experience.Through reading,children expand their horizons through vicarious(引起共鸣的)experiences.They visit new places,gain new experiences,and meet new people.They learn about the past as well as the present and learn about a variety of cultures,including their own.They discover the common goals and similar emotions found in people of all times and places. Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly,Giff,a hard survival story,is set in Ireland during the potato hunger of I845,and Patricia Polacco's The Butterfly ,deals with Nazis,resistance,and Jewish persecution(迫害)during World War II.

Literature provides a language model for those who hear and read it.Good literature exposes children to correct sentence patterns,standard story structures,and varied word usage.Children for whom English is a second language can improve their English with the interesting context,and all children benefit from new vocabulary that is woven into the stories.

Literature develops thinking skills.Discussions of literature bring out reasoning related to sequence;cause and effect; character motivation; predictions;visualization of actions, characters, and settings; critical analysis of the story;and creative responses.

Literature helps children deal with their problems.By finding out about the problems of others through books, children receive insights into dealing with their own problems,a process called bibliotherapy. Children might identify with Gilly,living angrily in a foster home in Katherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins,or with Mary Alice,a city girl forced to live with her grandma in a“hick town"in Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder.

【推荐3】You're probably used to the periodic upgrades in our cellphone networks. There was 2G, which came along in 1991, replaced with 3G in 2001, and followed by 4G in 2009.Now we're hearing about the coming of 5G.

But 5G is a much bigger leap than what's come before. Of course, 5G is much faster than 4Gin the real world. A 5G phone in a 5G city will enjoy Internet speeds between nine and 20 times as fast. The arrival of 5G also means enormous leaps forward in capacity so much that every cell-phone plan will offer cheap, truly unlimited Internet access.

For example, apps will no longer degrade your video or postpone downloading when you're out of Wi-Fi range. Furthermore, our phones can become more powerful. Today the processors in our devices are limited by heat and battery capacity. But imagine, Hanna says, if your phone is tied, by a 5G connection, to a much more powerful computer online. “It's happening remotely, but because it's such a high-speed connection, it will feel as though the additional processor is inside your device, in your hand,” he says.

Not everyone is thrilled by the 5G development. The new standard gets its speed partly by using existing transmission frequencies more efficiently. These frequencies are much higher than anything we've used for cellular, which means they can offer unbelievable speed but at the expense of range. Mill-meter-wave cellular towers(毫米波峰窝塔) have to be about 500 feet apart. Cell carriers not only will have to upgrade all their cell transceivers(收发器) but will install a lot more of them as well. That's why the millimeter-wave flavor of 5G will be available only in densely populated cities such as New York.

The need to install more small cells means more rectangular boxes on lampposts, and more industrial-looking ugliness in places where local residents don't always want it. But 5G is a train that can’t be stopped.

Here's to all those engineers and their millimeter waves. Someday we'll tell our grand kids about the days when YouTube videos paused annoyingly, and the only way cars could communicate was by honking.