【推荐2】Energy balance is the balance of energy in and energy out.     1    Energy out is the calories (卡路里) burned from physical activity(like walking in the climbing stairs)，activities of daily living(like getting dressed and cleaning your room) and basic body processes(like thinking and sleeping).

Human beings need energy to survive—to breathe，move and think.     2    When we say a kind of food or drink contains 100 calories，that is a way of describing how much energy our body gets from eating or drinking it.    3    Our height，weight，age and activity level all affect the amount of energy we need. That energy is then used by the activities we do each day and the basic body processes.

Keeping balance between our energy in and energy out contributes to the lifestyle.     4     For children，however，the focus should also be about having enough energy to do all the things they want to do and to become strong and healthy.

    5    But our goal should be to keep balance over time. Energy balance in children happens when the amount of energy in and energy out supports normal growth and development without gaining too much weight. So an exact 1：1 ratio(比例) of energy in and energy out is not our goal. What’s important is to balance our daily calorie requirements with regular physical activities.

【推荐3】The spread of Western eating habits around the world is bad for human health and the environment. These findings come from a new report in the journal Nature.

David Tillman, a professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota, America, examined information from 100 countries to identify what people ate and how diet affected health. He noted a movement beginning in the 1960s. He found that as nations industrialized, population increased and earnings rose, more people began to adopt what has been called the Western diet.

The Western diet is high in sugar, fat, oil and meat. By eating these foods, people began to get fatter and sicker. David Tillman says overweight people are at greater risk of non-infectious diseases like diabetes (糖尿病)and heart disease.

Unfortunately, when people become industrialized, if they adopt this Western diet, they are going to have these health problems, especially in developing countries in Asia. China is an example where the number of diabetes cases has been jumping from less than one percent to 10 percent of the population as it began to industrialize over a 20-year period. And that is happening all across the world, in Nigeria and so on.

And, a diet bad for human beings is also bad for the environment. As the world’s population grows, more forests and tropical areas will become farmland for crops or grasslands for cattle. We are likely to have more greenhouse gas in the future from agriculture than that coming out of all forms of transportation right now.

Mr. Tillman calls the link between diet, the environment and human health, “a dilemma”, a problem offering a difficult choice. He says one possible solution is leaving the Western diet behind.

【推荐3】About 12% of the total global energy demand comes from heating and cooling homes and businesses. A new study suggests that using underground water to maintain comfortable temperatures could reduce consumption of natural gas and electricity in this section by 40% in the US. The approach is called ATES, short for aquifer thermal energy storage(含水层热能储存).

“We need storage to absorb energy from the sun and wind. It’s crucial to creating affordable, reliable, and deeply environmental-friendly electricity systems. Most people are interested in batteries and other kinds of electrical storage. But we were wondering whether there was any opportunity to use geothermal (地热的) energy storage,” said first author A. T. D Perera. “With ATES, energy can be stored for a long period of time, without adding an additional burden to the grid (输电网).”

ATES is a pleasantly simple concept that takes advantage of the heat-absorbing property of water and the natural geological features of the planet. You simply pull existing underground water up and heat it at the surface in the summer with environmental heat or energy. Then you send it back down. It stays fairly hot because the Earth is a good insulator (绝热体).

“Unlike above-ground tank-based water or ice storage systems, ATES will not need space. It’s also more efficient and can support larger communities in cooling or heating than traditional geothermal heat pump systems that rely on heat moving with the underground soil,” added coauthor Hong Tianzhen.

A major benefit of ATES is that it will become more efficient as weather becomes more extreme in the coming years due to climate change. The hotter summers and severer winters could increase the amount of free thermal energy that can be stored with ATES. “It’s very much a realistic thing to do and this work is really about showing its value,” said Perera. “This technology is ready to go, so to speak. We just need to do it.”

【推荐1】This is not a diet. It’s a simple way to lose weight. And you don’t even have to give up the food you love or join a gym. It’s about balancing (平衡) calories in tiny ways that add up to big benefits. You just form some habits that lean people have. Stick with them, and you’ll become thin.

•Wake­ up

When your eyes open, sit up slowly without using your hands. With legs straight out, bend forward until you feel a stretch (舒展) in your back. Hold and then use your abs (腹部肌肉) to lower yourself flat. Rest and repeat two more times. It will burn about 10 calories.

•Start with soup

When you have your meal, order a clear soup, and have it before having the main food. It can save twice the calories. Besides, you’ll feel fuller, so you’ll eat less when the main food comes.

•An apple (or more) a day

Apples are packed with fibre and water, so your stomach will want less. The study shows that people who eat at least three apples a day lose weight.

•Stand up and walk around

Every time you take the phone, stand up and walk around. Heavy people sit on average two and a half hours more per day than thin people. This trick is very important as standing up and walking around will burn 50 or more calories.

Use these tricks.With these small changes, you will have a big weight loss.

【推荐2】This is not a diet. It's a simple way to lose weight. And you don' t even have to give up the food you love or join a gym. You just follow some habits that lean people have. Keep them, and you'll become thin.

Wake-up

When you wake up in the morning, sit up slowly without using your hands. With legs straight out, bend forward until you feel a stretch in your back. It will burn about 10 calories (热量单位,卡路里).

Start with soup

When you have a meal, order a clear soup, and have it before having the main food. In this way, you'll feel fuller, so you'll eat less when the main food comes.

An apple (or more) a day

Apples are full of fiber (纤维) and water, so your stomach will want less. The study shows that people who eat at least three apples a day lose weight.

Stand up and walk around

Every time you use the mobile phone, stand up and walk around. Heavy people sit on average two and a half hours more each day than thin people. This skill is very important as standing up and walking around will burn 50 or more calories.

Use these skills, and you will have a big weight loss.