【推荐1】Bullying(霸凌) is a big problem. It can make kids feel hurt, scared, sick, lonely, embarrassed, and sad. Bullies might hit, kick, or push to hurt kids, or use words to call names, tease, or scare them.     1    

Bullying is a big deal.

It is a big problem that affects lots of kids.     2    Being bullied can make kids feel really bad, and the stress of dealing with it can make them feel sick. Bullying can make kids not want to go to school and make school a place of fear and can lead to violence and more stress for everyone.

    3    

Some bullies are looking for attention. They might think bullying is a way to be popular or to get what they want. Most bullies are trying to make themselves feel more important. When they pick on someone else, it can make them feel big and powerful. Some bullies come from families where everyone is angry and shouting all the time.

How to handle it?

    4     As much as you can, avoid the bully. You can't go into hiding or skip class, of course. But if you can take a different route and avoid the mean kid, do so. Stand tall and be brave. When you're scared of another person, you're probably not feeling you are brave. But sometimes just acting bravely is enough to stop a bully.

Talk to someone you trust if you are bothered by a bully.     5    Make a plan to walk with a friend or two on the way to school, recess, lunch, or wherever you think you might meet the bully.

【推荐2】During Amsterdam’s chaotic rush hour, nine-year-old Lotta Crok cycles to a very busy junction. “Look,” she says. “There’s traffic coming from everywhere. Four trams from four different directions. For a child on a bike that’s really confusing!”

Lotta is the first junior cycle mayor in the world and her working area is the Dutch capital. You would think this challenge would be superfluous in a city known as the bicycle capital of the world. The number of bicycles in Amsterdam is estimated at 881,000 – more than the city’s 850,000 inhabitants – and 63% of the population cycle daily.

But children who cycle in Amsterdam face challenges, Lotta says: “The three biggest problems for us are cars, cycling tourists and scooters (小型摩托). The cars take up too much space, the tourists are always swinging side to side and stop when you least expect it, and the scooters simply run you over.”

Lotta became junior cycle mayor in June last year when she won a contest in which schoolchildren were asked to come up with plans to make cycling safer and more fun. Her idea was to add children’s bikes to the popular bike share programme.

Since Lotta was appointed junior cycle mayor, she has been busy, giving interviews, opening cycling contests in the city and being a jury（评审员）member during the Amsterdam Light Parade, an event in which Amsterdammers decorate their bikes with lights.

She is now planning a meeting with the city’s mayor to discuss ideas that children have come up with: “One of our proposals is a bicycle park where children can learn how to cycle. Right now, most of us learn it in the street, which can be quite busy. Another idea is to create an app for tourists to teach them the rules of cycling, because most of them really don’t know.”

Following the success of the Amsterdam scheme, cycle mayors around the world are now planning to appoint junior colleagues. “They see it works really well,” Boerma, the senior major,   says. “I talk to the parents, Lotta talks to the children. And if you look at the city through the eyes of a child, you will also make it accessible for others. A city that’s good for an eight-year-old is also good for an 88-year-old.”

【推荐3】A hotel that calls itself the world's first "polar bear hotel" has opened in northeastern China. The Polar Bear Hotel is part of the Harbin Polarland amusement park in Harbin, the capital and largest city in Heilongjiang province.

It opened earlier this month and promised that guests would be able to see live polar bears from all 21 guest rooms. "Whether you're eating, playing or sleeping, polar bears will keep you company," Harbin Polarland said in a statement on the WeChat messenger service. Photos and videos from Chinese state media showed people watching two polar bears in a closed, indoor space with artificial ice and small pools of water.

Yang Liu is a spokeswoman for Harbin Polarland. She told Reuters that the indoor area is the only part of the bears' total living space. She said they are also let outdoors when temperature and air quality permits. Liu added there has been "very high" interest in staying at the hotel, where rooms cost from about $ 290 to $ 351 a night.

But some animal rights activists have criticized the hotel. Jason Baker is vice president at animal rights group PETA. He told Reuters, "Polar bears belong in the Arctic, not in zoos or glass boxes in aquariums - and certainly not in hotels." He added, "Polar bears are active for up to 18 hours a day in nature，roaming home ranges that can scan thousands of miles, where they enjoy a real life."

In 2016, a shopping center in the southern city of Cuangzhou drew worldwide criticism after videos showed a polar bear named Pizza lying on her side in a glass-walled area.

Harbin Polarland was established in 2005. It calls itself the world's first polar performing arts amusement park.

【推荐1】The market for ride sharing is starting to look like a pie-eating competition where the prize is…… more pie.

Lyft went public on March 29,and the stock (股票) almost immediately went into a quick drop as money-providers noticed that the company hadn’t made any money yet and didn’t h pave any clear plans to do so.

On April 11, Uber went public in the stock market too. The company said it commands more than 50 percent of the ride-hailing(叫车服务) market in America and Europe----and had an operating loss of $3 billion last year, about three times as much as Lyft lost.

Think about that: those two companies lost nearly $4 billion in a single year transporting people.

What’s happening in the ride-sharing market is special in a number of ways.

First, it offers what is called “network effects”: The more riders you have, the easier it is to attract and send drivers, and the more drivers you have, the more riders you will attract. Markets that display network effects prefer to benefit a few players, and possibly only one.

Second, ride sharing has no changing costs. It’s simple to get both apps on your phones, and many riders and drivers do just that, which means fierce competition over every single ride.

There are only two ways that the price war can end. Either Uber or Lyft come to some sort of agreement to stop selling their services below cost, or at least one of the companies may need to die.

And so the pie-eating competition may continue forever, until everyone bursts. There may finally be no route to money for these companies, no payoff for money-providers. The number of major ride-riding companies may not be two, or even one, but none.

【推荐2】It happens from time to time that after a whole morning of studying,you are tired in the afternoon. It’s then that you might want to eat something sweet, perhaps a chocolate bar to lift your mood. After all, it’s popularly believed that a “sugar rush” gives us energy.

But a study published in Neuroscience& Biobehavioral Reviews suggests that sugar can make us feel worse rather than boost our moods.

The German and UK researchers collected data from 31 studies involving nearly 1, 300 adults. They studied the effect of sugar on various aspects of the mood, including anger, depression and tiredness. They found that people who have too much sugar become more tired within an hour, and that these feelings become more intense (强烈的) over time.

According to the researchers, when people take in sugar, their blood sugar levels rise rapidly, leading to a burst of energy and a short period of feeling good. However, as they begin to digest (消化) the sugar, their blood sugar levels decrease quickly, leading to a bad feeling.

To remain on a “high”, people are likely to eat more and more sugar until they become addicted to it. As with caffeine, this prevents the body from relaxing, leaving people feeling tired.

But the study findings don’t mean we must give up sweet food altogether. According to the World Health Organization, it is healthy to have the sugars found naturally in fruit, vegetables and milk, as long as these make up less than 5 percent of daily total energy intake.

So the next time you feel tired and can’t concentrate, perhaps you should think twice before you bite into a chocolate bar.

【推荐3】According to the Nordic (北欧的) legend, “ship worms will not go deep into the wood which has been painted with the seal-tar.” Scholars still debate the meaning of “seal” in “seal-tar”. one is that they mixed tar (清漆) with animal fat. Some experiments suggest this may keep ship worms away. It is clear that tar was an important technology. New findings suggest that a vast industry making it appeared at the beginning of the Viking Age, helping enable their wild ambition.

The oldest tar pits (坑) in Sweden date from around 100 A.D. to 400 A. D. The first were discovered in the early 2000s close to an ancient village suggesting that tar was initially for painting houses and household items. It was made by putting pine wood into pits a metre or two wide, setting it on fire and covering it with fuels to encourage a slow burning. In this way, the wood’s resin (树脂) would turn to tar.

However, as Andreas Hennius, an archaeologist (考古学家) reports, around the eighth century something occurred. The pits got bigger — reaching eight to ten metres in diameter — and moved far into the forest. These pits could have made around 300 litres of tar in a single production.

Mr. Hennius argues that the builders needed all this for ships. The eighth century was when sails arrived in northern Europe. That is no coincidence. Tar has been found on all parts of ships, whether big or small. It was used to make ships safe from water. It was also mixed with other paints to give sails color and offer protection from the sun. This expanded opportunities for long-distance trade, and the large, swift attacks defining the Viking Age.