【推荐1】People who are cheerful and relaxed are less likely to suffer from colds. It’s possible that being full of vim and vigor helps the body fight illnesses, say the researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh.

“We need to take more seriously the possibility that a positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk,” says psychologist Sheldon Cohen, the study’s lead researcher.

In a previous study, Cohen and his colleagues found that people who tended to be cheerful and lively were least likely to develop sniffles, coughs, and other cold symptoms.

Those findings were interesting, but they didn’t prove that a person’s attitude affects whether he or she gets sick. Instead, it was still probable that a person’s underlying personality is what matters.

Evidence suggests, for instance, that certain people are naturally more likely to be outgoing and optimistic, with high self-respect and a sense of control over life. This would mean that who we are, not how we feel, finally decides our chances of catching colds.

To figure out which mattered more (personality or emotions), the CMU team interviewed 193 healthy adults. The researchers talked to each person over the phone every evening for 2 weeks. They told the researchers about the positive and negative feelings they had experienced that day.

The results showed that everyone in the study was equally likely to get infected. Their symptoms, however, differed depending on the types of emotions that they had reported over the previous 2 weeks.

Among those who reported good moods and had been infected with the flu virus, for example, 28 percent developed coughs and stuffy (堵塞) noses. On the other hand, those symptoms struck 41 percent of people who had been less positive. Scientists argue about whether negative emotions or positive emotions have a stronger effect on how healthy we are. For now, it can’t hurt to look on the bright side more often than not!

【推荐2】The ocean waves (波浪) are getting stronger as a result of climate change, which might cause dangers for coast cities in the future, according to the latest study published in the scientific journal Nature. Researchers found that waves have increased in strength by 0.41 percent per year since 1948. This change is related to the increasing sea-surface temperature, which is driving sea level to rise and bringing more serious and extreme weather.

This relationship is important, as it shows that “global wave power can be a valuable reminder of global warming, carbon dioxide concentration, the global sea level rise or the global surface atmosphere temperature,” said director of research at the Environmental Hydraulics Institute at Spain’s University of Cantabria.

The study reveals a long-term and increasing wave energy. The effects of this increase are particularly clear during the storm seasons. A storm was formed in the winter of 2013-2014 in the North Atlantic, which affected the west coast of Europe. “The storm in 2017 in the Caribbean reminded people of the huge economic effects coming from coastal storms,” said the study.

Researchers hope the findings could provide a more complete understanding of the dangers faced by coastal cities in the coming decades. “Our results show that ignoring the changes in wave power and having sea level rise may cause us to think little of climate change, which will result in not enough or poor preparation,” warned the author Fernando J. Mendez, a professor at the University of Cantabria.

The findings may warn governments to better protect the population in the coastal cities and infrastructure (基础设施) such as ports and harbors by building coastal defenses.

【推荐2】If women are mercilessly exploited year after year, they have only themselves to blame. Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores. Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion. When you come to think of it, only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.

Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste. Many women spend vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn. Women who can not afford to throw away clothing in this way waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have. Skirts are lengthened or shortened；necklines are lowered or raised, and so on.

No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society. Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth, comfort and durability. They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort, as long as they look right. There can hardly be a man who hasn't at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day, or delicately picking her way through deep snow in high­heeled shoes.

When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusions to be drawn are obvious. Do the constantly changing fashions of women's clothes, one wonder, reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability? Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers. Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability? That is for you to decide.

【推荐3】Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in October as a day to make someone happy. It is an occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, the aged, and children who have lost their parents, but also friends, workmates, relatives and neighbors whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.

Over 60 years ago, when a Cleveland man noticed that some people, such as children who lost their parents and patients who lay in bed, too often felt forgotten and neglected, he developed in his mind the idea of showing them that they were remembered. He did this by giving them small gifts. With the help of his friends and neighbors, he gave those people small gifts on a Saturday in October. During the years that followed, other Clevelanders began to take part in the celebration, which came to be called ''Sweetest Day''. Over time, the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the poor, the sick and children who had lost their parents was broadened to include everyone, and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small gift. Soon the idea spread to other cities all over the USA.

Sweetest Day is not based on any single group's religious(宗教的) beliefs or on a family relationship. It is a reminder that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning.

Because for many people remembering takes the form of gift giving, Sweetest Day offers us the opportunity to show others that we care, in a positive way.