【推荐1】Libraries are romantic places. The romance is that of reading, and the wealth of human imagining and learning that is contained in them. Access to the knowledge and literary art poetry, fiction, drama)in a library is precious -and particularly valuable to young minds and people of any age with an interest in education.

It would be hard to find anyone who actively disapproves of libraries. But when it comes to reality, Britain’s libraries are on less solid ground. The number of books borrowed in the year ending in March.2021 was 72.9m,down 56%on the previous year. Physical visits also collapsed, from 214.6m to 59.7m.

Of course, this is the behaviour that one would expect during a pandemic. Many libraries were closed during this period, while people were discouraged from unnecessary mixing. Book sales climbed to their highest in a decade in 2021, which suggests that some former users of libraries may have bought books instead.

Private libraries at home, whether large collections or single bookshelves, appear to be developing well. But the hope must be that visits and loans at public libraries will soon return to their former level too. Like any other service, libraries need users. And while booksellers might in one sense be regarded as competitors, in fact the vast majority of those involved in the trade, from publishers to poets, are library lovers.

This has something to do with the romantic idea of the reader as explorer, with every book a door to a new store of feeling or understanding. But it also involves the recognition that if books are to form part of our life, there must be space in public for them. Books can be treasured possessions, but there is also something special about a copy that arrives in your hands having passed through those of others -and that will go on being passed between strangers who share your curiosity.

【推荐3】If you look around your city, you might spot girls wearing hanfu in subways or people wearing T-shirts with Chinese characters on the streets. A new trend is taking hold in China — guochao, or “China-chic”.

It means the rise of China’s native fashion trends. It has expanded the concept of “Made in China”, which has been recognized as the representation of Chinese culture offered by homegrown Chinese brands. China chic came into the spotlight in 2018. During the 2018 New York Fashion Week, Li-Ning introduced its Taoism-inspired Wu Dao collection. The collection not only had a fashionable look, but also included elements of traditional Chinese culture. It immediately obtained attention at home and abroad. As a result, the company recorded 20 percent income growth in 2018, marking the first time the brand had hit the 10-billion-yuan mark since its founding.

Since then, the trend to hug home brands has spread rapidly to various sectors (领域) and products, from food and drinks to clothing, mobile phones and electric vehicles. For example, White Rabbit, whose sweet candy brings back childhood memories for many, launched its milk, cosmetics (化妆品) and so on. “We want White Rabbit to be a brand that young people want to share,” said Shen Qinfeng, the company’s marketing manager.

This March, several Western brands refused to use Xinjiang cotton. To show national pride and cultural confidence, the “I support Xinjiang cotton” campaign spread across the country, Many Chinese turned to Chinese home brands that support Xinjiang cotton, like Li-Ning and Anta. No matter how the guochao trend changes, there’s one thing that won’t change; Behind the story is people’s positive attitude toward the country’s development and their recognition of and growing confidence in national culture.

【推荐1】The Price of a Piece of History

A fresh lemon can be bought for less than $1. But in 2008, Cowan’s Auctions (拍卖) in Cincinnati sold a lemon blackened with age for $2,350. What was so special about this lemon? It was said to be from a tree planted by George Washington. According to a handwritten note attached to the bottle containing the lemon, the fruit was picked by Washington’s “old gardener” some 43 years after the first president’s death.

Collecting a piece of history, or an object associated with a famous person, is not fresh. Yet determining potential values of such objects isn’t easy. For one thing, their origin, or history of ownership, is both important and sometimes difficult to prove. Photographs of the famous person with the object, as well as letters, diaries referring to the object can help.

The uniqueness of many of historic objects makes it more difficult to put a value on them. To assess the value of a Picasso painting, one can look at recent prices paid for other Picasso paintings of the same period, similar size or style. Finding another recent sale of a lemon planted by George Washington is a different matter. Katie Horstman, head of Cowan, says she could find no comparables for the lemon as she prepared the auction. However, she finally arrived at an estimated (估计的) value by researching auction records for objects somehow associated with Washington that had appeared on the market.

Often the final selling price of objects touched by history has to do with the moods and passions of the collectors and other potential buyers expected to be present on auction day. But even the experts can make a mistake sometimes. For instance, a 2016 Christie’s sale in London included a 1935 jacket worn by Albert Einstein, and a pocket watch the physicist had owned in 1900 when he was 21 and still largely unknown. The jacket sold for ₤110,500, well above its estimated value of ₤40,000 to ₤60,000. The watch, meanwhile, which had an estimated value of ₤15,000 to ₤20,000, sold for ₤266,500.

Thomas Venning, director of Christie, has his explanation for why the watch sold for so much more than the jacket, and likely for more than the experts would have guessed. There are photographs of Einstein, the father of relativity, wearing the jacket, Mr. Venning says. “But Einstein’s jacket didn’t change the world. The watch, and the sense of time, is what we know him for, which made it more valuable to collectors.”

【推荐2】Do you sometimes pay no attention to your mom while chatting with friends? If you’re a teen, that’s fairly common. And new research may explain why so many adolescents (少年) stop listening to their moms’voices.

The researchers studied the brains of 7- to 16-year-old kids as they listened to things said by their mothers or by unfamiliar women. As the kids listened, certain parts of their brains became active. This was especially true in brain regions that help us to pay attention.

Daniel Abrams, a scientist, and his co-workers already knew that younger kids’ brains respond (反应) more strongly to their moms’ voices than to strangers’. “In adolescence, we show the exact opposite of that,” Abrams says. For teens, these brain regions respond more to unfamiliar voices than to their moms’. “As a teen, you don’t know you’re doing this. You’re just being you: You’ve got your new friends and you want to spend time with them. You take more notice of these unfamiliar voices,” Abrams adds.

These areas in the adolescent brain don’t stop responding to Mom. It’s just that unfamiliar voices become more attractive and then are worthy of attention. As kids grow up, they expand ( 扩 ⼤大 ) their social connections way beyond their family. So their brains need to begin paying more attention to that wider world. “That’s exactly what it should be like,” Abrams says.

The brain seems to adapt to new needs that come with adolescence. “As we grow up, our survival depends less and less on our mother’s support,” says Leslie Seltzer, a scientist. “Instead, we depend more and more on our friends and others at the same age as us.” So while both teens and their parents may sometimes feel sad about missed messages, that’s okay. This is how the adolescent brain works, and there’s a good reason for it.

【推荐3】Morocco’s national women’s soccer team is set to make its first appearance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. After years of being largely hidden, Moroccan women’s soccer is getting new growth at home and around the world.

During one game in May, the audience was not very big. The game was between a Moroccan national women’s professional league team and the armed forces team called ASFAR. ASFAR, a strong women’s team in Morocco, won 7 to 0.

Dressed in a shirt reading “Morocco” in Arabic, Aliae Benazzouza went to the field to meet the players. “I was very happy,” the young girl said. Idriss Benazzouza is Aliae’s father. “I teach my daughters confidence, not fear,” he said. “There is no difference between men and women in physical exercise.”

The national women’s team is known as the Lionesses. Benazzouza said the Lionesses shows “how women’s soccer has progressed” in the North African country. He said the team has filed him with joy.

Morocco hosted the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. The event drew large numbers of fans and augmented interest in this year’s worldwide women’s championship.

Hiba Karami plays for a local team called Fath Union Sport. The development in women’s soccer has made a dream of hers a reality. Last year, Karami was one of the players playing for Morocco in the FIFA under-17 Women’s World Cup. “Some kids or men would say that women belonged (属于) in the kitchen and weren’t made for soccer,” she said. “I knew that I loved the game and that I would play. Boys in my neighborhood accepted me because I played better than they did and they thought of me as a role model.”

Nouhaila Benzina also plays for the national team and for ASFAR. She said her soccer career (职业) opened up new chances for her. The 25-year-old never saw soccer going against her clothing. Many look up to her. “This makes me want to work harder to show girls that they can achieve great things,” Benzina said.