【推荐1】The Chinese words for “fish” and “plenty” are homonyms (同音异义词). A whole fish, eaten on the eve of the lunar new year — represents a wish for plenty to come. It can be deep-fried or roasted in a pan, but if you live on a coast, or have access to first-rate fish, steaming is the way to go.     1    , which symbolizes hopes for a surplus (盈余) in the year ahead. Spring rolls, with their fanciful appearance of gold bars, represent hopes for wealth. Uncut noodles symbolize a long life.

    2    . On the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, Jews make their challah, a traditional enriched bread, in a round shape to represent the cycle of life and creation. The bread, and often apples too, are covered with honey, symbolizing the wish for a sweet year.

On New Year’s Day in America, black southerners have long eaten green vegetables together with Hoppin’ John, a delicious dish of rice and black-eyed peas (豌豆), cooked with salt pork.     3    . Some people put a clean coin in the pot. Whoever gets it on their plate will enjoy a lot of good luck.

Whether anyone actually believes in a causal relationship between eating these foods and receiving the promised benefits is unclear. Mainly, these traditions continue for the same reason that other traditions do.     4    .

Fish and noodles, bread and apples, beans and greens appear regularly on Chinese, Jewish and American tables.     5    . Rather these foods are ordinary, yet with good meaning when eaten at the right time and in the right frame of mind. Good fortune, they suggest, lies all around, and is always within reach.

【推荐2】Sweetest Day is always the third Saturday in October.This holiday is much more important in some regions than in others (Detroit,Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities).It is a holiday that is gaining in popularity every year throughout the country.

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,aged,and orphaned,but also friends,relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.

Over 60 years ago,a Cleveland man,believing that the city's orphans and shut-ins too often felt forgotten and neglected,formed the idea of showing them that they were remembered.He did this through the distribution of small gifts.With the help of his friends and neighbors,he distributed these remembrances on a Saturday in October.During the years that followed,other Clevelanders began to participate in the celebration ceremony,which came to be called "Sweetest Day".In time,the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the poor was broadened to include everyone,and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small gift.And soon the idea spread to other cities all over the country.

Sweetest Day is not based on any single group's religious belief 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 practical way.

【推荐1】The days of staring attentively at the computer screen pretending to be interested in an assignment even though you are bored out of your mind may soon be coming to an end. That’s because if Dr. Harry Witchel has his way, computers of the future will be able to detect （察觉）boredom and even react to it real-time.

But before you get concerned, the machine is not reading your mind. It is just keeping track of the constant involuntary movements that people exhibit when in front of a computer or even a television. These are not the bigger instrumental actions like moving a mouse or using the remote, but subtle barely noticeable movements like scratching or stretching. Witchel says the level of movement is directly relative to how absorbed the person is in what he/she is reading or watching — the higher the interest level, the lesser the movement!

To test the theory Witchel and his team invited 27 people and exposed them to a variety of digital content for three minutes at a time. The activities ranged from playing online games to reading documents like the EU banking regulations that most people would find boring. A video motion tracker monitored their movements as they powered through each assignment. Just as the researchers had suspected, the involuntary actions decreased surprisingly, by as much as 42%, when the subjects were totally absorbed in what they were reading or seeing.

Fortunately, the scientists are not planning to use the findings that were published in the online Journal to create machines that report students who are not focusing at school. Instead, they believe that combining the motion detecting technology into future computers will help enhance （加强）the digital learning experience.

The scientists say that being able to measure the student’s interest level, will enable educators to adjust the materials real-time and re-engage the student. Witchel also believes that the technology can provide filmmakers with honest audience opinions and in the future, also be used in developing more understanding companion robots.

【推荐2】A test that measures blood flow changes in the brain shows people with high blood pressure are more likely to experience poorer communication between brain regions than those with normal blood pressure, according to a small study published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

"This study may help to explain why hypertension is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.” said the study's lead author, Lorenzo Carnevale.

Researchers compared images of the brains of 19 people with high blood pressure and 18 people with blood pressure in the normal range. The images were resting-state functional MRIs, which measure small changes in blood flow at rest. Researchers also gave participants cognitive tests. Compared to people with normal blood pressure, those with hypertension performed slower and poorer on the cognitive tests, and their brain images showed a pattern of abnormal connections.

Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of California, noted the brain changes appeared prior to any structural changes in the brain associated with poorer cognitive skills.

“It could be that the changes are there, and we just don't see them yet,” Yaffe said. "Or maybe the functional connections are altered earlier in the process. The really amazing thing to me is that they are seeing these changes at such a young age." The average age of participants with high blood pressure was 55.

Yaffe, however, pointed out a larger study over a longer period of time is needed to flesh out these findings. "We need to see if cognitive function gets worse, who is most likely to experience this and what it means in terms of when brain changes appear. We can't answer those questions with such a small study.”

“The study should not be interpreted to mean everyone with high blood pressure is on the road to Alzheimer's disease,“ she added. "The brain is really complicated. There are some subtle changes in connections shown here, but that doesn't mean the brain isn't working. There may be other ways the brain is compensating （弥补）for this.”