【推荐1】The Little Baby Face Foundation（LBFF）is an NYC-based nonprofit organization with a great deal of controversy. Founded in 2002, it provides free plastic surgery for children born with facial deformities（畸形）. Many teenagers who have been teased for their looks are now applying to have their problem areas “fixed” by LBFF.

Nadia, one 14-year-old teenager, had her face greatly changed in June when she went under the knife. Her classmates had been constantly making fun of her appearance. “They said I have the biggest ears that they’ve ever seen. They called me elephant ears,” Nadia said. Those comments hurt her a lot. She even considered how to end her own life.

But Nadia tried to keep the bullying a secret from her mother, Lynda. Her mother was already dealing with mounting medical bills for her 9-year-old son, Josh, who had a serious brain disease. When her mother did finally find out about the bullying, she was heartbroken.

Nadia decided to end her bullying problems with plastic surgery. Then her mother turned to the LBFF, which accepted Nadia’s application. The surgeries were very painful and it took months for her face to heal, but she did manage to return to school with a new face, a face she was finally proud of.

Nadia’s surgery may have helped her overcome her emotional pain, but should teenagers go to those extremes just because they are being bullied?

Experts warn if the deformities are not really a problem to the child, plastic surgery is not the answer! In fact, when a teen decides to get plastic surgery because he or she is being bullied, it can send the wrong message. By surgically changing the victim of a bully, it is as if you support the bullying and agree the victim is in fact worthy of all those names he or she has been called. It is like saying to teenagers: “Yes, there is something wrong with you, and you should get it fixed!”

【推荐2】Jac Grimes plays Santa in Greensboro, North Carolina. He gave up home visits which make up about a third of his business. He did it not just for his own health, but to prevent passing the virus from one family to the next. At a farmer's market where he works every year, Grimes dresses up as Santa and sits in a parking area. He talks to children who remain inside their cars.

The virus has many Santas and parents turning to online visits. Those visits have led many Santas to turn to their children and others for help in learning new computer skills. "It has been a challenge （挑战），" said Christopher Saunders, a Santa performer in Tool, a small town near Dallas, Texas. But Saunders and others say that instead of in-person visits, online visits are good, if imperfect.

Even Santas with the best jobs are hurt. Howard Graham has played Santa for eight years at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The place is known for its famous Christmas show with the Rockettes, a dance group. This year, he is making online visits and working five days with a historic railroad in Pennsylvania. “I love what I do... bringing them （children） a little bit of smile and hope," said Graham.

Brad Six first played Santa 35 years ago. He recently sat on Santa's chair for three hours at a shop in Miami. As families sat in front of a glass barrier（屏障）for photos, Six turned his head so that his face protection did not reflect （反射）the camera's light. He happily waved at children around the barrier so they could tell him their wish lists-from a distance about 1.8 meters away.

Six said the situation was a little easier physically on Santa's back because he didn't have to pick anybody up, but it was not as enjoyable because Santa didn't get the interaction （互动）he normally gets. This was definitely different, but the kids were excited and that was what mattered.

【推荐3】Many of us like to eat out and treat ourselves to delicious food. We are used to choosing hearty (丰盛的), fat-filled dishes and sugary desserts, which are not easily cooked at home.

The recent rise of light meals, however, gives us a smarter choice. According to Economic Daily, low-calorie, low-fat and high-fibre meals have become popular in China’s restaurants and online delivery plat-forms.

The country saw a rapid increase of restaurants concentrating on light meals, from just 600 in 2017 to more than 3,500 in 2018. According to a report published by Meituan, a major online food delivery plat-form, the number of light meals ordered online also rose 75 percent from the previous year.

Having a light meal, however, doesn’t mean eating only vegetables. Different from the meat-free lifestyle, a typical light dish avoids oily, salty and spicy food. Instead, it contains things like boiled meat, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Healthy nutrients (营养物) are the theme of the light meal.

These dishes are useful for keeping healthy and controlling your weight. That’s probably why so many people, especially the youths are into them. They see it as “a great way to avoid getting fat,” wrote the Telegraph.

“After eating several light meals, I now prefer light flavours,” Zou Jing, a college teacher in Wuhan, told China Daily. She shared a picture of her lunch: a mixture of beef, eggs, corn, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.

These changes in eating behaviour are connected to deeper changes in how people think about food, says Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health, US. “Diet quality, not quantity, is important for both weight control and long-term well-being,” Willett told The New York Times.

So the next time you have a party with friends, try a light meal. It will satisfy not only your stomachs but maybe also your hearts.

【推荐2】Pop music is the name for different forms of popular, commercial (商业) music. It had its beginning in the USA and spread throughout the whole world during the 1950s and 1960s. It is widely liked by the young people. The best known early form of pop music was “rock’ n’ roll”; another was “blues”. A more recent development is “folk-rock”.

Pop music has taken the place of native music in many parts of the world; it has caused the number of people for jazz to become much smaller than it was in the 1950s and earlier, and it has now begun to rule musical stage productions. It’s a big industry. Much pop music is without artistic value, but the work of some pop singers, e.g. the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the groups like Floyd and Crosby, Stills and Nash, is on a higher musical level. And there is still a great interest in it today. Pop music concerts and festivals take place all over the world.

【推荐3】A broken heart. A sad ending to a love affair. That’s something most of us have experienced, or probably will. After all, it’s part of human life; needed, at least one time, to become more fully adult. But no question, the experience can be painful, even destructive.

But research shows there are pathways through the heartache. Listening to sad music is a major one. It can help you begin to feel joy and hopefulness about your life again. It can activate empathy(同理心) and the desire to connect with others — both roads through the prison of heartache and despair.

Sad music can help heal and uplift you from your broken heart.

A recent study from Germany found the emotional impact of listening to sad music is an arousal of feelings of empathy, compassion(同情), and a desire for positive connection with others. That, itself, is psychologically healing. It draws you away from the prison with yourself, and possibly towards helping others in need of comfort.

Another experiment, from the University of Kent, found that when people were experiencing sadness, listening to music that was “beautiful but sad” enhanced their mood. In fact, it did so when the person first consciously embraced their awareness of the situation causing their sadness, and then began listening to the sad music. That is, when they intended that the sad music might help, they found that it did.

These findings link with other studies that show embracing your sad situation emotionally — accepting reality as it is — activates healing and growth beyond it. In short, acknowledging your full experience arouses hope — another seeming paradox. For example, research from Cornell University, described here and published in Psychological Science, found that embracing discomfort about a life experience or new situation, and viewing it as a step towards growth and change, create motivation to find a pathway through it, beyond it. As Churchill famously said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” That discomfort points you towards creating a plan, a new action. It fuels hope.