【推荐1】Nowadays, are you sitting more and more? Take a moment to think about your sitting habits. You’re probably sitting while reading this.     1    Besides, many people still lie on the sofa swiping their phones instead of doing exercise after work. That’s undoubtedly a lot of sitting. The fact is that the amount of time spent sitting has increased over time.     2    

People know sitting too much is unsuitable, and most of us naturally feel a little guilty after a long-time TV watching. But what problems gradually exist when we seat ourselves for nearly eight hours per day? A study on nearly 8000 adults suggests that there’s a direct relationship between the time spent sitting and our risk of early death from any cause.     3    

“Sit less, move more” is what the Heart Foundation encourages us to do.     4    It is like telling people to just “exercise” without telling them how. Exercise guidelines are always more practical. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults do exercise for two hours and 30 minutes every week, plus muscle strengthening exercise two or more days a week. We need similar guidelines for sitting.

    5    One of them is from Diaz’s research team. “It would probably be like this: for every 30 continuous minutes of siting, stand up and move or walk for five minutes at a quick pace,” Diaz, the lead researcher, said, adding that the study has put us a step closer to the satisfying guidelines. But more researches are needed to confirm their approaches.

【推荐1】The Chinese word “Shanzhai” means a small mountain village, but now it becomes an accepted name for fakes, after “Shanzhai Cell-phones” produced by small workshops in southern China became popular in the mainland market over the past two years. Besides “Shanzhai” electronic products, there are “Shanzhai” movies, “Shanzhai” stars and even a “Shanzhai” Spring Festival Gala, a copy of the 25-year-old traditional show presented by CCTV on Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve.

“Shanzhai” has become a culture of its own, meaning anything that imitates something famous. In Chongging, “Shanzhai” version “Bird’s Nest” and “Water Cube” woven by farmers with bamboo attracts wide attention from tourists. Both are copies of the famous Olympic buildings in Beijing.

A literature critic said that taking the “Shanzhai” Gala as an example, when the traditional CCTV program becomes less and less attractive to the audience, the “Shanzhai” version appears timely to attract people. “Although it is often connected with poor techniques and operation, ‘Shanzhai’ culture meets the psychological needs of common people and could be a comfort to their minds,” he said.

To the mainstream culture, the rise of “Shanzhai” culture is a challenge and a motivation. People believe different kinds of cultures developing together is a perfect way and it is for the public to choose.

【推荐2】As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”

According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.

On a summer day at Brookfield Zoo,near Chicago,a three-year-old leaned over the fence at the gorilla(大猩猩)exhibit. He leaned too far. Before anyone could grab him the boy fell 18 feet into the exhibit. He hit the hard ground and did not move. Suddenly,a gorilla named Binti Hua ran in the direction of the little boy.     1    .

Would the huge gorilla hurt the boy？Would the boy lose his life？No,Binti Jua gently picked up the little boy. She carried him to a door where zookeepers stood. The boy lived.

This story would not surprise some people. They believe that certain animals can think and feel almost the same as humans can. What makes animals act this way in times of danger and conflict？Can we thus conclude that animals and people are more alike than different？

    2    .One possible proof is seen in elephant behavior. Elephants have been known to feel dying relatives in an effort to save them. Also,when relatives die,elephants may bury them and gather around the grave.

Some scientist believe that wild animals can think,too. One of the most intelligent animals is the crow(乌鸦). In one experiment,a crow picked up a straight piece of wire and bent it into a hook. It used the hook to lift food from a tube that was too deep.

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But do animals sincerely care about humans？This is a challenging questions.     4    . These researchers argue that if animals were actually programmed to act this way,all gorillas would save humans and all dogs would alert people to dangers. Why do some animals act this way while others do not？Animal researchers are still trying to answer this question.

【推荐1】Jim Thorpe is one of the greatest athletes of all time. He had amazing athletic abilities and was well-known during his lifetime, yet that did not make Thorpe a stranger to adversity.

Thorpe was an American Indian from Oklahoma who developed his extraordinary athletic skills in his youth through hard labor. It was also in his youth that he learned to endure hardship brought upon by racial prejudice. Many would say his childhood was not easy. He grew up poor and at age 9, his twin brother passed away and a few years later he lost both of his parents.

But that did not stop him from doing what he loved and pursuing his dreams. Nothing seemed to stop him, not even stolen shoes. Just hours before Thorpe was going to compete in the 1912 Olympics, somebody stole his shoes. Thorpe improvised by getting shoes out of the garbage. The shoes were two different sizes. He wore an extra pair of socks on one foot to even them out.

He still went on to win two gold medals — winning each event he competed in except for one, the javelin (标枪).The javelin was the only event he didn’t win, probably because he had never competed in that event before. It is interesting to note that Thorpe had tried to throw the javelin once before in the Olympic trials. At the time, he didn’t know that he could throw it with a running start He threw it standing still and was placed second.

At the Olympics, he also took part in the decathlon (十项全能运动). He finished first in two events, third in four events, and fourth in two more. Thorpe ended up finishing third in the world. He was undoubtedly a dominating force that couldn’t be stopped and just kept on going.

I think Paul Dughi said it best, “It’s hard to imagine now that pro athletes get paid millions of dollars just to wear a particular brand of shoes. For Jim Thorpe, it didn’t matter what kind he wore.”