【推荐1】My son Leon’s passion for surfing began at the age of 13. After school each day, he put on his wet suit, paddled out beyond the surf line and waited to be challenged by his companions.

One afternoon, the lifeguard reported over the phone to my husband Wilson that Leon’s eye was badly injured by his board. Wilson rushed him to the emergency room. He received 26 stitches (缝针) from the corner of his eye to the bridge of his nose.

I was on an airplane flying home. Wilson drove directly to the airport after they left the doctor’s office. He greeted me at the gate and told me Leon was waiting in the car.

“Leon?” I questioned. I remember thinking the waves must have been terrible that day.

“He’s been in an accident, but he’s going to be fine.”

A traveling working mother’s worst nightmare had come true. I ran to the car so fast that the heel of my shoe broke off. I swung open the door, and my son with the patched eye was leaning forward crying, “Oh, Ma, I’m so glad you’re home.”

I cried in his arms telling him how awful I felt about not being with him.

“It’s okay, Mom,” he comforted me. “You don’t know how to surf anyway.”

“What?” I asked, confused by his logic.

“I’ll be fine. The doctor says I can go back in the water in eight days.”

I wanted to tell him he wasn’t allowed to go near water again until he was 35, but instead I bit my tongue and prayed he would forget about surfing.

For the next seven days he kept pressing me to let him surf again. One day after I had repeated “No” to him for the 100th time, he beat me at my own game.

“Mom, you taught us never to give up what we love.”I gave in.

Back then Leon was just a boy with a passion for surfing. Now he ranks among the top 25 professional surfers in the world.

【推荐2】Quality time with my dad

When I tell people I wrote a book with my dad, they usually say, “It must be nice to think of the legacy (遗产) you created with someone who means so much to you.”

This was a beautiful idea, but it was not the way I, or my dad, ever thought about the cooperation.Though we created something we’re proud of, “nice” is not the word either of us uses to describe the process.

“It was more confrontation(对抗) than cooperation,” my dad likes to say.I agree.When we landed a book deal，we began a writing journey that was more difficult than either of us had expected，but also far more rewarding.

For almost three years.we met once or twice a week at my parents*house and talked daily to plan and outline each chapter.After these meetings，one of us would write a rough draft that the other would build on.I wanted the book to focus on positive vices (不良习惯):such as moderate (适度的) chocolate. However, my dad felt the book should include chapters dealing with things like walking and spending time with family. Eventually, I saw it his way.He said the book was about more than just good vices.It was about encouraging people to enjoy life in healthy ways.

Writing this book was a reminder that our family members share not only our faults but also our strengths. My dad is smart, funny, critical and caring.He has a strong passion for the truth.I hope I share these great qualities. For this book, he researched each topic with an enthusiasm I’d never seen from him, and he insisted that we constantly question and critically analyze every piece of information- even our own conclusions.He was determined to cooperate on a book, not because he couldn’t write one on his own, but because he believed that we could create than we something better together than we could alone.

I’m not sure if our cooperation led to better writing, but it led to a better writing experience.Writing this book was difficult, sometimes more difficult than past projects, but it was never lonely.

【推荐1】The first apes evolved 20 million years ago in the forests where they would go up a tree to get their food, and then come back down to move on to the next tree. Getting out of a tree presents all kinds of new challenges. Big apes can’t afford to fall because it could kill or badly injure them. Natural selection would have favoured those with body structures that allowed them to descend (下来) safely.

Dartmouth researchers report in the journal Royal Society Open Science that apes probably evolved free-moving shoulders and flexible elbows to slow their descent from trees as gravity pulled on their heavier bodies. These flexible body parts passed on from ancestral apes would have allowed early humans to climb trees at night for safety and comedown in the daylight unhurt. When early humans transitioned from forests to open savannas (热带稀树草原), flexible shoulders and elbows were crucial for gathering food and using tools for hunting and defense.

The researchers used sports analysis and statistical software to study how primates (灵长目动物) like chimpanzees and small monkeys called mangabeys climbed in the wild. They found that chimps and mangabeys scaled (攀爬) trees similarly, with shoulders and elbows mostly bent close to the body. When descending, however, chimpanzees extended their arms above their heads to hold on to branches, much like a person using a ladder, to counteract (抵消) their heavier weight pulling them downward.

Luke Fannin, the lead author of the study, emphasized that their findings highlight the importance of “down climbing” in the evolution of apes and early humans. He explained, “Our research introduces the idea that down climbing played a significant role in shaping the structural differences between monkeys and apes, which eventually showed in humans.”

“Our field has thought about apes climbing up trees for a long time but we’ve been ignoring the second half of this behaviour,” said Professor Jeremy DeSilva. The findings are among the first to identify the significance of “down climbing” in the evolution of apes and early humans.

【推荐2】When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn't sit quietly. Back in 1983,two scientists,Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple trees (枫树) getting bitten by insects send out a particular smell that neighboring plants can get. These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. What the plants send through the air is a mixture of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds,VOCs for short.

Scientists have found that all kinds of plants give out VOCs when being attacked. It's a plant's way of crying out. But is anyone listening? Obviously. Because we can watch the neighbors react.

Some plants give out smelly chemicals to keep insects away. But others do double duty. They give out smells designed to attract different insects who are natural enemies to the attackers. Once they arrive, the tables are turned. The attacker who was launching now becomes lunch.

In study after study, it appears that these chemical conversations help the neighbors. The damage is usually more serious on the first plant, but the neighbors, relatively speaking,stay safer because they heard the alarm and knew what to do.

Does this mean that plants talk-to-each-other? Scientists don't know. Maybe the first plant just made a cry of pain or was sending a message to its own branches, and so in effect,was talking to itself. Perhaps the neighbors just happened to "overhear” the cry. So information was exchanged,but it wasn’t a true, intentional back and forth.

Charles Darwin, over 150 years ago,imagined a world far busier, noisier and more intimate (亲密的) than the world we can see and hear. Our senses are weak. There's a whole lot going on.

【推荐3】Did you know that the color of uniforms can influence the performance of an athlete? It may sound strange, but a study suggests this might be true.

Two British scientists studied the results of four sports in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games where the athletes had been given either a red or a blue uniform. They discovered that when there was a big difference in the score, color had no influence on the result. But if it was a close match, the athlete in a red uniform was more likely to win. Then they looked at the uniforms of the soccer teams at the Euro 2004 tournament. Again, teams wearing red won more games.

The two scientists got their idea from earlier studies of wild animals. It had been discovered that when a male shows red on its body, it sends a signal of its power and strength. For example, in many kinds of monkeys, the more the male shows off its red scars, the more females it can attract.

Based on this fact, the British scientists thought that the idea might work for humans, too. According to them, when an athlete sees a competitor in a red uniform, he gets a feeling that his competitor could be stronger than him. And that kind of feeling may have a bad influence on the player’s performance in the actual game.

Although the idea is interesting, most people don’t accept that color signals in the animal world can really be useful to humans in sports. They think that it is unreasonable to develop an idea based on such a small number of examples. Much more research has to be done to prove the influence of uniform colors on the performance of athletes.

【推荐1】A survey has shown that what you do on a plane can be determined by which nationality is listed on your passport.

According to the results of an international passenger survey, Australians are the biggest drinkers on board with 36 percent choosing to down the hatch, compared to 35 percent of Americans and 33 percent of Brits.

The Airline Passenger Experience Association(APEX) spoke to around 1,500 people, aged 18 and older, who have traveled by plane at least once during the last three months and were living in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia and Brazil.

The results found Chinese travelers are most likely to nod off once the seat-belt sign switches off. They are also the first to take out their credit card for some in-flight shopping and the biggest fans of gaming. Americans on the other hand like to use their time in the air more productively---- when not drinking---- choosing to work while flying at 35,000 feet.

Meanwhile, Brits and Germans are the best at making chat with random strangers----spending 50 percent more time than any other nationality. Comparatively, Brazilians conduct their conversations online via email, messaging apps or social media.

Despite plane food having a bad reputation, seven out of ten interviewees said they were happy to eat up on the selection of in-flight snacks and meals. In-flight magazines were also popular with four out of five passengers.

The international flyers did however express their desire for better in-flight entertainment. “The industry has greatly improved the comfort, entertainment and onboard service, and passengers are accepting those improvements” said Russell Lemieux, APEX executive director. “At the same time, passengers are demanding more from their air travel experiences which will drive more improvements touching all aspects of the journey.” he added.

【推荐2】The Tokyo Summer Olympics is going green. The 5,000 medals Japan has made are more special than most.

One novel focus of the Tokyo Olympics is to be “sustainable”— to avoid using too many natural resources, so that the games are easy on the environment. As part of this goal, the organizers decided to make all of the Olympic medals out of metal recycled from old electronics.

Almost all electronics are made with small amounts of “precious metals”, like gold and silver. But collecting enough of these metals to make 5,000 medals was a huge challenge. That’s because the amount of metal in each device is tiny. It would take about 20,000 cell phones to get just 1 kilogram of gold.

Beginning in April 2017, the organizers placed collection boxes around the country, and asked people to turn in their old electronic devices. Soon people began to respond to the initiative, turning in smartphones, digital cameras, hand-held games, and laptops. At first, collection went slowly, but soon more and more areas began to take part. By the end, 1,621 local governments had helped out with the collection process.

Then came the job of breaking those devices down into smaller pieces. After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics were smelted (熔炼) to get all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. This is a tricky job, which calls for careful attention and good skill. It’s also dangerous, because some of the metals and other things aren’t safe for people to touch or breathe.

By the end of March, 2019, the organizers had hit their targets of getting enough metal for the medals. They had collected around 32 kilograms of gold, 4,100 kilograms of silver and 2,200 kilograms of bronze. And now all the 5,000 medals are available for the would-be winners.

【推荐2】As most of us know, talking to and listening to parents don’t always go smoothly. Emotions and past experiences can get in the way. Since communication is a two-way street, some depends on your parents and some of what happens depends on you. The way you talk can influence how well a parent listens to and understands you.    1    

•Be clear and direct.

Be as clear as you can about what you think, feel, and want.     2    They can listen better or be more helpful if they understand what you mean specifically and what’s really going on.

•Be honest.

If you’re always honest, a parent will be likely to believe what you say.     3    If you sometimes hide the truth or add too much drama, parents will have a harder time believing what you tell them.

•    4    

Using a friendly and respectful tone makes it more likely that parents will listen and take what you say seriously. Of course, this is hard for any of us when we’re feeling heated about something.If you think your emotions might get the better of you, do something to let off steam and calm down before talking.

•Try to understand their point of view.

If you have a disagreement, can you see your parents’ side? If you can, say so.    5    

【推荐3】Oldest, Youngest, or in the Middle?

Were you the first or last child in your family? Or were you a middle or the only child? Some people think it matters where you were born in your family. But there are different ideas about what birth order means.

Some people say that oldest children are smart and strong-willed. They are very likely to be successful. The reason for this is simple. Parents have a lot of time for their first child. They give him or her a lot of attention. So this child is very likely to do well. An only child will succeed for the same reasons.

What happens to the other children in a family? Middle children don’t get so much attention. So they don’t feel that important. If a family has many children, the middle ones sometimes get lost in the crowd. The youngest child, though, often gets special treatment. He or she is the “baby”. Often this child grows up to be funny and charming.

Do you believe these ideas about birth order? A recent study saw things quite differently. This study found that the first children believed in family rules. They didn’t take many chances in their lives. They usually followed their own ideas . They took chances. And they often did better in life.

Which theory about birth order do you believe? Look at your own family or you friends’ families. Decide which idea fits what you see.