【推荐1】54-year-old Abdul has a special job. He has been working as a living statue for over three decades, standing perfectly still for six hours a day and resisting people’s attempts to make him move or smile, anything that proves he is a living person.

Abdul, known as “India’s Statue Man”, has been performing his daily routine ever since 1985, soon after getting a job as a security guard. His boss had recently traveled to the UK, where he was so impressed by the statue-like members of the Royal Guard outside Buckingham Palace that he wanted to do something similar back home. So he had his guards receive three months of training, where they would sit perfectly still for around four hours. They weren’t allowed to talk or smile, eat, drink, or even shoo away a fly if it sat on their faces. In the end, Abdul proved the best of the group, so he got the strange job.

Abdul isn’t the only person in the world acting as a living statue, but what makes him special is the fact that he can do it for as long as six hours without even blinking his eyes. Once, a $ 155 prize was put up for anyone who can make him move a muscle. But try as they might, no one has ever succeeded. Actually, Abdul tries to move about as much as he can in his spare time, and only eats healthy home-cooked food, to keep his body in shape. But he claims yoga has been the biggest help. In the 32 years, Abdul has become a celebrity in India and other Asian countries. Many Bollywood celebrities have come to witness this living statue and try to finally make him move, but none have succeeded.

Abdul earns about 10,000 rupees ($ 156) a month, which is enough to support his family, but definitely not enough to encourage his children to follow in his footsteps. It’s just too stressful and taxing on the body. “Despite all the hardship and health problems, I love my job and I am thankful to people for the love and respect they have showered on me” he says, “When the time comes, I want to die playing a statue.”

【推荐2】People across the world use Airnbn to offer their homes to travelers usually for a nightly fee. The home-sharing service provides some people a way to make extra money while they work other jobs.

The company announced recently that one of its most popular professions among American Airbnb hosts is teaching. The information came from an Airbnb study to find out what industries its American hosts work in. the study found that almost 10 percent of U.S. Airbnb hosts in 2017 identified themselves as teachers or in the field of education. The home-sharing service estimated it has about 45,000 active teacher hosts in America. In addition, the study says there are an estimated 75,000 other hosts living in households with a teacher.

American teacher hosts earned more than $160 million dollars from Airbnb in 2017, the company said. That includes about $54 million earned during the summer alone. The average amount earned by teacher hosts individually was $6,500 in 2017. The study did not provide data from hosts about why they choose to become part of Airbnb. But the company noted that many teachers in America face difficult economic situations. Airbnb says additional earnings from hosting can help.

The U.S. Department of Education reported this year that 94 percent of public school teachers said they had spent their own money on some classroom supplies in the 2015-2016 school year. It also reported that the average pay for public school teachers in 2015-2016 was lower than in the 1990-1991 school year when the inflation rate was considered. Some states had even higher rates of teacher hosts than Airbnb’s estimated national average.

Airbnb spokesman Christopher Nulty told The Atlantic magazine that the home-sharing industry was not a total solution for the current problems facing many teachers. But he said he thought Airbnb could be an “important tool” to help teachers make extra money and give them “the respect and dignity” they had earned.

The report on the number of teacher hosts comes as Airbnb continues to face opposition by activists and officials in some areas. U.S. critics of the company say the service is driving up rental market prices in several cities. Elected officials in some areas have proposed or approved rules to limit the influence of the service. Hotel companies have also protested that the business presents unfair competition.

【推荐3】The Forbidden City is well known for being full of Chinese cultural and historical relics. But Masters in the Forbidden City does not just focus on the stories of the past. Instead, the documentary film, which came out in Chinese cinemas on Dec. 16, focuses on ordinary people—the restorers of relics and antiquities.

The stories are told at a slow and relaxed pace, reflecting the restorers’ work. Restoration of cultural relics and antiques can be time-consuming, and sometimes boring. Yet these restorers’ patience and peace of mind are especially precious in a society where everything is changing so fast.

“If you choose this job, you have to stand hours of work sitting on a chair. You need to be quiet and get used to being quiet,” says Wang Jin, an ancient clock repair expert.

A touching part of the documentary is the spirit of craftsmanship in the restorers. “Years of dull work requires not only skill, but also faith and spirit,” China Daily commented. “Looking for precision and perfection, devoting yourself to work, patience, endurance, loneliness. All these qualities come from the ‘craftsman spirit’.”

But unlike the popular idea of serious experts who sit around being serious, the documentary shows off the enthusiasm of the restorers. They play their guitars and make jokes about each other after a long day of restoration work. One scene that has been very popular with Internet users features a young female restorer riding a bicycle through the empty Forbidden City on a Monday. While she is doing this, a narrator says, “The last person to do this was Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty.”

Masters in the Forbidden City has proved many people’s ideas about antique restorers wrong, allowing them to realize that they are not old, dull professors, but people in their 40s, 30s and even 20s who can be quite pleasing to the eye.

【推荐1】While still catching-up to men in some spheres of modern life, women appear to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category. “Women are particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxiety disorders in response to stress compared to men,” according to Dr. Yehuda, chief psychiatrist at New York’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital.

Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormones somehow affect the stress response, causing females under stress to produce more of the trigger chemicals than do males under the same conditions. In several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats had their ovaries (the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemical responses became equal to those of the males.

Adding to a woman’s increased dose of stress chemicals, are her increased “opportunities” for stress. “It’s not necessarily that women don’t cope as well. It’s just that they have so much more to cope with,” says Dr. Yehuda. “Their capacity for tolerating stress may even be greater than men’s,” she observes, “it’s just that they’re dealing with so many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly and sooner.”

Dr. Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. “I think that the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in more of a chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to combat stress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence. The kinds of interpersonal violence that women are exposed to tend to be in domestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family members, and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that comes from these longer relationships can be quite devastating.”

Adeline Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but was determined to finish college. “I struggled a lot to get the college degree. I was living in so much frustration that that was my escape, to go to school, and get ahead and do better.” Later, her marriage ended and she became a single mother. “It’s the hardest thing to take care of a teenager, have a job, pay the rent, pay the car payment, and pay the debt. I lived from paycheck to paycheck.”

Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stresses Alvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot of obligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain. Alvarez’s experience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stress before it threatens your health and your ability to function.

【推荐2】Before uploading a photo of ourselves to social media, chances are that we’ll use an app to smooth our skin, make our eyes look bigger, and lips fuller. With a couple of taps on our mobile phone, we can get a quick fix and present the “best” version of ourselves to the world. However, the problem is, when we simply edit our imperfections away, we’re also changing the way we look at ourselves.

Last month, researchers published the article Selfies—Living in the Era of Filtered (过滤的) Photographs. The article analysed photo editing apps’ bad influences on people’s self-respect and their possibility to cause appearance anxieties. The researchers also warned that such apps make it difficult to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. “These apps allow one to change his or her appearance in minutes and follow an unrealistic standard of beauty,” the article reads.

In the past, people may have compared their looks to those of famous people. But for today’s young people, beauty standards are most likely set by what they see on social media. “From birth, they are born into an age of social platforms where their feelings of self-worth can be based purely on the number of likes and followers that they have, which is linked to how good they look,” British cosmetic doctor Tijion Esho told The Independent. This is why many young people suffer an identity trouble when it comes to appearance.

“Now you’ve got this daily comparison of your real self to this fake self that you present on social media,” Renee Engeln, a professor of psychology, told the HuffPost website. Engeln further pointed out that when people spend too much time making such comparisons, they may become “beauty sick” and find it difficult to accept what they actually look like. “Because between you and the world is a mirror. It’s a mirror that travels with you everywhere. You can’t seem to put it down,” she told The Washington Post. So when we look in a real mirror, we shouldn’t think to ourselves, “Do I look as good as myself in the filtered photos?” Instead, we should think, “I feel good; I have my health.”

【推荐3】In the latest attempt to deal with what academics and news call a “masculinity crisis”, the Education Ministry has proposed emphasizing the “spirit of yang”, or male qualities, by hiring more sports instructors and redesigning P.E. classes in schools.

Some social media users expressed support for the proposal, with one writing, “It’s hard to imagine such womanly boys can defend their country when an outside attack happens.” But others saw evidence of sexual discrimination and gender stereotypes (刻板印象).

Even state news media CCTV wrote on its Weibo account: “Education is not simply about cultivating ‘men’ and ‘women’. Strong inner qualities come first.”

CCTV also offered a general understanding of yang, writing, “Men show ‘the spirit of yang’ in manners, spirit and body shape, which is a kind of beauty, but ‘the spirit of yang’ does not simply mean ‘masculine’ (男性的) behavior.’ It should focus on a willingness of taking responsibility”.

The proposal was first made by Si Zefu, a deputy minister. He proposed that “many, many more” men should be hired as P.E. teachers to power a “masculine influence” in schools.

Mr. Si said the commonness of female teachers in schools and the popularity of “pretty boys” or “little fresh meat” had made boys “weak, fearful and shy,” adding that boys no longer wanted to become war heroes, warning that such a trend could endanger the Chinese people.

While the proposal did not include different treatment for boys and girls, educators like Liu Wenli, a professor at Beijing Normal University, see some risks. She said that even the reference “feminization of male youths” in the proposal could lead to more bullying of students because of their gender expression.

“Educators cannot call for the prevention of bullying in schools while developing the soil for bullying in schools,” she wrote on Weibo.

【推荐1】The sales advertisements tempt (诱惑): Blue-light-blocking glasses are supposed to protect eyes from the effects of short-wave length light emitting from our smartphones, computer screens and LED lights. Given how much time we spend on our devices, this sounds like a smart investment, right? After all, eye strain (疲劳) is a real issue and can lead to poor sleep and even eye diseases. The glasses can cost $15 all the way up to several hundred dollars. But do they work?

Elizabeth Esparaz, an ophthalmologist (眼科专家) based in Cleveland, Ohio, says the science that manufacturers share as they promote these glasses can be confusing. For starters, blue light is not just about tech devices, and it’s not always bad. “The sun emits a much higher intensity of blue light than human-made devices, which helps our mood, alertness and sleep-wake cycle,” says Dr. Esparaz.

The problem is blue light at night: It contains the release of melatonin. “Melatonin helps regulate our circadian rhythms (生理节奏) and makes us sleepy,” says Dr. Esparaz.

So, in theory, wearing blue-light-blocking glasses should help people who watch movies in bed or read from a tablet at night avoid sleeplessness. A review study from the University of Oklahoma that looked al 24 previous studies found that people affected by sleep disorders, jet lag and shift work fell asleep faster after using these glasses.

As for eye strain, a 2021 Australian study showed that those wearing the glasses did not experience less eye strain than those using clear glasses. And a 2018 review study, also by Australian researchers found insufficient evidence that they prevent certain eye diseases.

“These glasses aren’t going to be harmful,” says Dr. Esparaz, But, she adds, a lack of standardization in the industry means there’s no way to know if one pair is better than another. A more reliable solution: Turn on the blue-light-filtering function on your devices and limit screen time before bed. To help with eye strain, Dr. Esparaz suggests taking breaks and using lubricating eye drops.

【推荐2】From talking robots to driverless vehicles, technology has become so advanced that the previously impossible seems to occur on a daily basis. And yet-we still have no cure for the common cold.

Why can't we stop the common cold? According to Peter Barlow, a scientist at Edinburgh Napier University, the main challenge lies in the many different types of cold viruses that belong to the rhinoviruses(鼻病毒). There are at least 160 types.They mutate(突变) so easily that they quickly become resistant to drugs, or learn to hide from our immune systems. In other words, a single cure isn't likely to work on every type of cold.

However, researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, have found a possible answer. They discovered a protein(蛋白质) that the viruses need. All the viruses were unable to replicate(复制) inside cells without a gene that produces a specific protein called SETD3.

To identify the gene which produces the specific protein, researchers used a gene-editing technique to test all genes in the human genome (基因组). Namely, they randomly disabled a single gene in each of the cells, so that the cells lacked one or another of every gene in our genome. These genetically modified cells were then exposed to the rhinoviruses, which cause the common cold. The team then looked at which gene was missing in cells that continued to grow. As it turned out, the one that stood out was SETD3, which makes a protein of the same name.

Carette said the plan is to find a drug which can temporarily disable the protein, instead of producing genetically modified humans. “We have identified a fantastic target that all rhinoviruses require and depend on. Take that away and the virus really has no chance,” said Carette.

【推荐1】Some years ago, writing in my diary used to be a usual activity. I would return from school and spend the expected half hour recording the day’s events, feelings, and impressions in my little blue diary. I did not really need to express my emotions by way of words, but I gained a certain satisfaction from seeing my experiences forever recorded on paper. After all, isn’t collecting memories a way of preserving the past?

When I was thirteen years old, I went on a long journey on foot in a great valley, well-equipped with pens, a diary, and a camera. During the trip, I was busy recording every incident, name any place I came across. I felt proud to be spending my time productively, dutifully preserving for future generations a detailed description of my travels. On my last night there, I wandered out of my tent, diary in hand. The sky was clear and lit by the light of the moon, and the walls of the valley looked threatening behind their screen of shadows. I automatically took out my pen…

At that point, I understood that nothing I wrote could ever match or replace the few seconds I allowed myself to experience the dramatic beauty of the valley. All I remembered of the previous few days were the boring characterizations I had set down in my diary.

Now, I only write in my diary when I need to write down a special thought or feeling. I still love to record ideas and quotations （经典语录） that touch me in books, or observations that are particularly meaningful. I take pictures, but not very often—only of objects I find really beautiful. I’m no longer blindly satisfied with having something to remember when I grow old. I realize that life will simply pass me by if I stay behind the camera, busy preserving the present so as to live it in the future.

I don’t want to wake up one day and have nothing but a pile of pictures and notes. Maybe I won’t have as many exact representations of people and places；maybe I’ll forget certain facts, but at least the experiences will always remain inside me. I don’t live to make memories—I just live, and the memories form themselves.

【推荐2】If you want to know the world, you must know famous global media. Here are four well-known ones recommended to help you learn about world affairs without leaving home.

The Sun(http//www.sun.co.uk)

The Sun is a popular newspaper owned by News Corporation founded by Keith Rupert Murdoch. It is filled with the jokes about heads of state and major events both inside and outside Britain such as mayor's trousers not being tied properly, politicians⁵ sleeping during conferences and so on. Its lively and popular style just meets the taste of the lower classes. Now its annual circulation(发行量) has reached 23,100,000 copies.

Daily Mail (http//www.dailymail.co.uk)

Daily Mail, compared to The Sun, it is a little more serious. Reading the Daily Mail can not only understand major political and economic events, but also read some relaxing and helpful contents. Well-known for female favorite topics, it is extremely popular with middle - class housewives. Now its annual circulation has come to 20,930,000 copies.

Onion News (http//www.theonion.com)

Onion News is the most popular satirical (讽刺)magazine in the United States with a circulation of 6,900, 000 copies a year, covering domestic, foreign and local news including entertaining newspapers and websites. Most onion readers are between 18 and 44 years old.

The New Yorker (http//www.newyorker.com)

The New Yorker is a comprehensive magazine of America. It focuses on non-fiction, including reports and comments on politics, international affairs, popular culture, art, science, technology and business. It also publishes literary works, but mainly short stories and poems, as well as humorous sketches and its unique style of the New Yorker cartoons. Its annual circulation adds up to 10,209,000 copies.

【推荐3】Stamp collection was once considered a harmless and educational pastime for small boys. It still is — but with a difference. Grandpa and grandma have joined the small boys, along with shoe clerks, waitresses, truck drivers, college professors , businessmen, presidents and kings. Stamp collecting has today grown into big business.

All the really rare old stamps are already owned by collectors who refuse to part with them. But even if these owners were willing to sell, few people could afford to buy.

A stamp becomes valuable because it is “ rare”. Modern collectors with little money to spend have to create their own “ rarities”. One rarity that stamp collectors look for is an error in the stamp. The error may be so small that it cannot be seen with the naked eye. If it is there, however, it makes the stamp more valuable.

Stamp collectors have another way of making their collections rare or unusual. They bring together as many examples as they they can of a certain kind of stamp. What makes such a collection unusual is the time and the idea that went inot making it. One may collect only stamps of some color. Another may collect only stamps from a certain foreign country, or stamps connected with some person, place or event. Still other collectors are interested in the tiny holes along the edge of a stamp. They may be long or short, round or oval. Some stamps may not have them at all. Another thing that makes a stamp “ rare” is its postmark or its cancellation. Collectors go through a lot of trouble to have letters mailed to them from unusual places.