【推荐1】For some kids, old photos and baby pictures are embarrassing. For others, they are valuable keepsakes（纪念品）. But for thousands of children living in orphanages（孤儿院）worldwide, these records of the past simply don’t exist. Either the kids’ parents weren’t around to take photos, or the pictures have been lost. Whatever the reason is, the Memory Project is giving orphans a lasting document of their youth.

Over the last two years, the Memory Project has provided hand-painted portraits to more than 4, 000 children living in orphanages in poor countries. Ben Schumaker, 24, got the idea when he was visiting an orphanage in Guatemala in Central America. But he’s not creating the portraits（肖像）alone. Students in hundreds of high school art classes across the U. S. paint them using photos sent from the orphanages.

Schumaker believes that the artists benefit from the project as much as the orphans do. “There are two purposes of the Memory Project,” he said. “One is to offer a special gift to the child abroad. The other is to help open the eyes of the student who is painting.” Staring into the eyes of another person, Schumaker believes, it creates a real connection. This connection raises awareness in U. S. schools about the needs of the world’s poor children. “It’s about planting a seed,” he said.

Schumaker is also working on Books of Hope, a project in which students of all ages put together homemade books for children in Uganda and India. He hopes that one day children in Uganda and India will send books to the U. S. “It’s important to me to have it be a two-way exchange,” Schmnaker says.

【推荐2】Giving generously and receiving gratefully make it easier to live happily with others.    1    

Let me start with the idea of giving generously.    2    For example, my husband and I have family members who only contact us when they need money. We usually accept their requests, but we rarely receive a “thank you”. Most people would say that my husband and I are being used, and I suppose we are. But when we give, we shouldn’t be giving for the purpose of getting gratitude or praise. Rather, we should be giving because it is a good thing.

The good news is that when we lead our life being nice to others, our life runs more smoothly.    3    But if you practice being generous, most of your relationships will improve.

At the same time, we should remember to receive gratefully. I truly believe that you cant say “thank you” enough when you receive.

    4    Parents can feel unappreciated by their children, and teachers can feel unappreciated by their students. Do you think it unnecessary to thank them when receiving just because a task is part of someone’s job description？ That’s wrong！

    5    It is good for us to say “thank you” because we regularly need to remind ourselves how lucky we are. And hearing those two words can make us feel great for days.

If you are looking for a way to improve your life, I can give you one: Give generously and receive gratefully.

【推荐1】If you have ever felt sick at the back of a bus or after a boat cruise, then you might have experienced motion sickness. The condition’s most common symptoms are dizziness, headaches, sweating and vomiting.

Humans haven’t always experienced this reaction. According to Fred Mast, a professor at the University of Bern, motion sickness began to affect us when we created vehicles for getting to places faster. “Our bodies were not prepared for it,” he says, explaining that human-made acceleration creates a disturbance between our vestibular system (前庭系统), which is responsible for controlling balance, and our vision. While travelling on a boat or in a car, you may not be watching the movement of the vehicle, but your vestibular system registers it. Since the human brain has not evolved enough yet to resolve that conflict, it leads to motion sickness. Motion sickness can also strike when there is simulated acceleration, such as in some video games or movie scenes in the theatre that make the viewer’s brain think it’s moving when it’s not.

While one in three people experiences motion sickness at some time, certain people are more easily affected. These include: children and young adults (according to a German survey, half of those under the age of 30 report being affected); patients; and women.

Sufferers can avoid motion sickness by making changes to how they travel. For instance, sitting facing forward at the front of a bus allows you to see the movement. Sitting in the middle of a boat or next to the wing of an airplane will reduce the amount of movement you feel. Staying away from alcohol and heavy meals ahead of car, boat or plane trips can also be helpful.

【推荐3】It is hardly surprising that clothing manufacturers (生产商) follow certain uniform standards for different features of clothes. What seems strange, however, is that the standard used for women is the opposite of the one for men. Take a look at the way your clothes button. Men’s clothes tend to button from the right, and women’s from the left. Considering most of the world’s population — men and women — are right-handed, the men’s standard would appear to make more sense (更有道理) for women. So why do women’s clothes button from the left?

History really seems to matter here. Buttons first appeared only on the clothes of the rich in the 17th century, when rich women were dressed by servants. For the mostly right-handed servants, having women’s shirts button from the left would be easier. On the other hand, having men’s shirts button from the right made sense, too. Most men dressed themselves, and a sword (剑) drawn from the left with the right hand would be less likely to get caught in the shirt.

Today women are seldom dressed by servants, but buttoning from the left is still the standard for them. Is it interesting? Actually, a standard, once it is set, resists change. At a time when all women’s shirts buttoned from the left, it would have been risky for any single manufacturer to offer women’s shirts that buttoned from the right. After all, women had grown so used to shirts which buttoned from the left and would have to develop new habits and skills to switch. Besides, some women might have found it socially awkward to appear in public wearing shirts that buttoned from the right, since anyone who noticed that would believe they were wearing men’s shirts.