【推荐1】How to Improve Your Study Habits

Perhaps you are an average student with average intelligence. You do well enough in school, but you probably think you will never be a top student.     1     Yes, even students of average intelligence can be top students without additional work. Here are some tips for you:

◆ Plan your time carefully. Make a list of your weekly tasks. Then make a schedule or chart of your time. Fill in committed time such as eating, sleeping, meetings, classes, etc. Then decide on good, regular times for studying.    2     It’s important to set aside time for relaxation, hobbies, and entertainment as well. Furthermore, it will enable you to plan your activities so that you have enough time for both work and play.

◆     3     It may be a desk or a chair at home or in the school library, but it should be comfortable, and it should not have distractions. When you begin to work, you should be able to concentrate on the subject.

◆ Study regularly.    4    Review important points mentioned in class as well as points you remain confused about. If you review your notes and textbook regularly, the material will become more meaningful and you will remember it longer. Regular review leads to improved performances on test.

◆ Develop a good attitude about tests. The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. The world won’t end if you don’t pass a test, so don’t worry excessively about a single test. Tests provide more than grades.    5    

【推荐2】How to Have a Successful Teenage Life

Everyone wants to succeed in their life, don’t they? Even as a teenager, you can achieve success in your life. It really isn't that hard.     1    

Do well in school. No matter how boring it is now, education will help you be a productive member in society. Try your best for excellence in school: listen to teachers, do your homework, study, and get good grades. Doing so will help you get into better university, which will enable you to have bright future.

Do good in your community. Volunteering can not only improve your community’s status, but make you happier. Studies show that people who volunteer are less likely to develop depression(抑郁症)than people who don't.     2    For example, if you love animals, volunteer at an animal shelter. If you love helping the environment, plant trees or pick up litter. When you help others, it will make you feel better about yourself.

    3     Remember, they're there to help you be the best that you can be. Respect them and value their opinions, even if they annoy you sometimes.    4    You don't get to choose your teachers or your family, but you still have to put up with them. Learn how to deal with people now, because when you're an adult, you don't get to choose your boss or your co-workers, so learn how to respect them now.

【推荐3】One of the biggest challenges that traditional educators face is how to unlock students’ love of learning. Once students overcome their fear or unwillingness, they will be on the track of becoming motivated learners.

In order to help students discover the joy in learning, some teachers are turning to a simple but effective strategy called gamification-using game-related elements such as activities and rewards to promote students’ engagement in class. With an origin in educational psychology, this approach is designed to reach students by making the learning process funny and interesting.

What’s more, researches show that gamification can also make assignments less stressful. Without too much pressure, students will associate learning with curiosity and joy. Accordingly, they feel like continuing the journey because positive feelings have boosted their confidence.

But like any other strategies, gamification has its drawbacks when used incorrectly. It is very likely that some students only focus on winning rewards but have no interest in understanding concepts or learning new skills-exactly the opposite of the desired outcome. To avoid this, teachers can help prevent students from becoming wrongly motivated by choosing suitable rewards. Instead of class parties or snacks, try rewards that help students develop a passion for academic subjects.

For example, have students earn points towards a class field trip by behaving and doing their assignments, or pair subjects that a student dislikes with fun books or activities to encourage motivation. That way, they associate fun with reading, math, or other skills. More examples include competing on a leader-board, holding a talent show, or playing other team-building games. All activities and rewards need to be carefully selected and well arranged.

If you’re having a hard time getting your class interested in learning, talk with them together or individually about what motivates them and include it into your student engagement strategies.

【推荐1】A study shows exposure（暴露）to more light during the day and less light at night is important for people to get healthy sleep because it helps to keep the right body clock. The results suggest that in the office environment, being exposed to either sunlight or electric lights that are rich in short wave blue light may be important for the health of workers.

To see whether the office workers get enough light to regulate（调节）their sleep wake cycle, researchers found the participants（参与者）in five government office buildings across the United States. A total of 109 people working at the offices wore light-measuring devices（仪器）for one week to do an experiment in summer, and 81 of these participants reduplicated the experiment in winter once again. The office workers wrote down their sleep and wake time. They also answered questions of their mood and sleep quality at the end of each study period.

Researchers found that people who were exposed to lots of sunlight during the morning hours, between 8 am and noon, fell asleep more quickly at night compared to those exposed to low light in the morning. Office workers who were exposed to high levels of light all day, from 8 am to 5 pm, also fell asleep more quickly.

Poor-quality sleep has been linked to health problems. Researchers say there are many easy things we can do during the day to increase our exposure to sunlight, such as looking out of the window and walking out for light during the day, especially during the morning and lunch time.

【推荐2】We all know that birds use their feathers to line their nests. But have you ever heard of a bird eating its own feathers? It is a bird which lives in water and is called the great crested grebe. It cats its own feathers and feeds them to her young ones too. And it always prefers soft feathers, which it loses throughout the year.

Scientists believe that its feather-eating habit has something to do with the process in which it throws waste. The grebe has an unusual throwing waste system. It throws out one or two balls of waste through its mouth on every two days. The main food of grebes is fish. So the ball of waste has fish bones apart from parasites. It is important for the grebe to throw these parasites out. If it didn’t, they would attack the grebe and make it sick.

According to scientists, the feathers add hard things to its waste. They make it easier to form the ball of waste and throw it out. The grebe’s feathers arc silky to touch and are black or gray in colour. Sometimes, it may he red on top with white parts. The great crested grebe is usually 7 to 10 inches long, and has short wings and a pointed beak.

Another peculiar part about the bird is its toes. They form a web, helping it to swim. In fact, the grebes are excellent swimmers and they use their feet only for rising under water.

The grebe makes its nest on floating leaves or plants and lays about two to ten eggs in it. Although the eggs are white in the beginning, they begin to get dirty as the leaves on which the nest is made become bad. Both the male and female grebes hatch the eggs and care for the young ones. However, although there are 18 to 20 species of grebes living around the world, some of them are endangered.

【推荐1】A report revealed that about 85% of the working mothers surveyed felt that their parenthood had affected their career “in a significant way”. Over 30% of them said that they went through a “long period of mental distress” before announcing their pregnancy at work, and 35% said their bosses immediately started looking for their replacements after learning about their pregnancy.

While Chinese women may no longer sacrifice their careers for their husbands, they are still expected to do so for their children. The study found that nearly half of the mothers left the labor force for at least one year after giving birth, among whom roughly 20% ended up becoming stay-at-home moms. When asked about the impact of motherhood on their identities and life goals, nearly 35% said that the most profound change was how they started to balance between family and work.

The adjustment, however, is not always by choice. Responding to a question about the distribution of child¬care labor in their home, almost 40% of the working mothers said that their husbands basically spent no time on parenting.” Moreover, over half of the husbands didn't use up their paternity leave(陪产假), whereas about 21 percent never took it at all.

Another key finding from the survey was that although it's illegal for Chinese companies to ask a woman about family plans, many employers still do. The unlawful yet prevalent practice has been a main factor influencing women's decisions about timing of motherhood. The survey showed that about 40% of the childless respondents delayed parenthood because of “the time it would take,” which they thought would                                        have a negative impact on their promotion opportunities.

In theory, there has never been a better time than now for working mothers in China to shine. Faced with an aging population and shrinking workforce, Chinese officials encourage Chinese women to have babies while working at the same time.

Reputation of the corporate kind is a ''strategic asset(资产) '' that can be employed to gain ''competitive advantage'', a ''safety buffer(缓冲) '' that can be called upon to protect you against ''negative news''.

The Reputation Institute has offices in 30 countries. Plenty of other organizations offer firms advice on improving their reputations, such as Perception Partners in the United States or specialized divisions within many big consultancies. And a rapidly growing number of consultancies, like Reputation Defender, give people advice on managing their reputations online. For example, they offer tips on how to push positive items up the Google ranking and neutralize(抵消)negative ones.

It's easy to see why so many bosses are such eager consumers of this kind of advice. The market value of companies is increasingly determined by the things you cannot touch: their brands and their intellectual capital, for example, rather than their factories or fleets of trucks. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can turn on a company in an instant and accuse it of racism or crimes against the environment. Customers can trash its products on Twitter. Corporate giants such as Toyota and BP have seen their reputations collapse in the blink of an eye.

Nevertheless, there're three objections to the reputation-management industry. The first is that it conflates(混合)many different things-from the quality of a company's products to its relationship with NGOs-into a single notion of ''reputation''. It also seems to be divided between public-relations specialists (who want to put the best possible information on the news) and corporate-social-responsibility types (who want the company to improve the world and be thanked for it).

The second objection is that the industry depends on a naive(天真的)view of the power of reputation: that companies with positive reputations will find it easier to attract customers and survive crises. It's not hard to think of counter-examples. Tobacco companies make vast profits despite their awful reputations. Everybody strongly criticizes Ryanair for its bad service and the Daily Mail for its mean-spirited journalism. But both firms are highly successful.

The biggest problem with the reputation industry, however, is that the way to deal with potential threats to your reputation is to work harder at managing your reputation. The opposite is more likely: the best strategy may be to think less about managing your reputation and concentrate more on producing the best products and services you can. Many successful companies, such as Amazon, Costco Southwest Airlines and Zappos, have been notable for their intense focus on their businesses, not for their fancy marketing. If you do your job well, customers will say nice things about you and your products.

【推荐2】In the gym of Croxteth Community School, Liverpool, 50 boys have a completed a course on boxing that is seen as a pilot for its return to state schools.

The Schools Amateur Boxing Association(SABA) has developed the Kid Gloves scheme, a non-contact version of sport where outside coaches teach a range of basic skills.

Chris Andrews, assistant secretary of the SABA, said the scheme was regarded as a way of changing the decline in boxing in state schools which began 25 years ago.

Safety fears and the poor image of professional boxing had accelerated the sport’s decline.but the Croxteth example was winning more supports. Mr. Andrews said the idea was particularly well received in the north-east of England.

“The interest shown so far has been enormous,"he said."I believe that boxing will come back into schools. A video has been produced to promote boxing in schools, and a bid has been made for a Sports Council grant（拨款）.

He said,"I think there is a genuine recognition that there are aspects to boxing, if it is controlled and properly run,that really are very beneficial for children.This scheme takes away the dangers.I hope boxing can be promoted throughout the country in a more coordinated(协调)way."Such an idea horrifies such groups as the British Medical Association(BMA)and the British Safety Council, both critics of the idea.

Dr Jeffrey Cundy, the joint author of a BMA report on boxing, accepted that the scheme in Liverpool was non-contact, but he was still opposed. He said,"We feel that children should still not be introduced to boxing, because they will then be encouraged to take up an activity which is uniquely dangerous when actual contact takes place. We see this reintroduction in schools as an unhealthy development."

At the 800-pupil Croxteth school, Steve Stewart, head of PE, said boxing had helped to improve self-confidence, self-discipline, self-awareness and self-respect in those taking part. Everybody could get involved and, because all were starting from scratch, the improvements could be quickly seen. Next year, the course will be repeated and if possible girls will be allowed to take part following requests from them.

Gerry Thompson and Tony Curry, both 12, have enjoyed the boxing sessions and say they will both join a local boxing club." I thought it was brilliant,"said Gerry."I would rather be a professional boxer than a footballer. It's more enjoyable."

【推荐3】Imagine flying from Tokyo to Paris,enjoying first-class travel,a four-course dinner and a city tour—all without leaving the ground.This is the future of air travel according to Japanese company First Airlines,which has used the power of virtual reality to create dream vacations.

Passengers avoid the costly airport transfer,the baggage fees or busy airport terminal(航站楼)—and instead enjoy the privileges of business or first-class travel and an expensive tour of Paris—all while remaining motionless in Tokyo.As well as Paris,First Airlines also offers the virtual destinations of New York,Rome and Hawaii.

After boarding,guests can settle down for the two-hour flight on their advanced Airbus seat-surrounded by decoration that is modeled on the inside of an aircraft,for maximum realism.There is flight service and VR,foods,music for every destination.Passengers will be served a delicious meal by air stewards,alongside drinks and other desserts.The menu depends on the destination of choice—Manhattan clam chowder(蛤蜊杂烩汤) and cheesecake for New York and salmon and onion soup for Paris.After landing at the destination,guests can enjoy a 360-degree tour of the destination—all thanks to projection(投影) mapping and video.

It makes for a supposedly stress-free vacation,perfect for those whose ability to travel abroad is limited by cost or health.Virtual reality is becoming increasingly present everywhere at all times in the world of travel—allowing travellers to appreciate the wonders of the world,all without leaving their houses.

At just 4,980 yen($46) for business class and 5,980 yen($56) for first class—these two-hour flights are far more affordable than their real-life flights.