【推荐1】How many books have you finished since high school? Between study, work, family, and social lives, trying to find time to read needs more effort than a relaxing hobby. How can you get reading books into your full schedule?    1    

Borrow more books than you can read. Libraries have very large “limits” on books you can take out.     2     Return anything you don’t like. Some of the most efficient readers return five out of six books unread. This is not something to be ashamed of.

    3     If you have a whole morning to read, you might hope for more kinds. People who read a lot have something going to suit all tastes.

Try the 50-page rule. If you feel you have to finish all the books you start, you may be stuck in something boring and not read again for weeks.     4     You’ll find something else you love more soon.

Don’t care about any thoughts about what you “should” be reading. It is OK if you are not so interested in the world’s great literature. Read what you want.     5     If you’re only reading because you “should” read, then over time, reading will drop from the top of your list down to laundry level or going to the dentist.

【推荐3】How to Train Your Dragon by British author Cressida Cowell is one of the best pieces of children's literature. A child can make a whole alternative universe with a vivid imagination and Toothless, the hero's hunting dragon, thus turning a rainy day into an adventure of a lifetime. However, if you have never read the book but instead choose to see the film version, you might think you were seeing a new-age war movie meant for adults rather than children.

Let's look at Where the Wild Things Are for further discussion. The story centers around a lonely eight-year-old boy named Max, who sails away to an island. Creatures living there declare Max their king.

What an amazing piece of children's literature! A treasure for every child's library. Yet, children were crying in the movie theatre. Owls were falling from the sky, chicken's arms were being torn off, and a child was running around a dark abandoned world fighting evil as the only human. It was almost as if Hollywood could not imagine children enjoying a movie for its basic literature content. Hollywood might be right. But more and more its audience are complaining that there is an increased amount of violence in children's stories today than in the past.

While there appears to be a trend in our society to make more violence more accessible to younger children, books and literature are generally an exception. I truly believe that children's literature has become more vivid, and more colorful. This is a great treasure for the children, and is certainly not violent. What has changed the children's stories of today is not the writers, but the film industry. In some way, children's literature is just being strangely twisted. I wonder how much influence the authors have over this.

【推荐1】Almost everyone has heard the expression, “the calm before the storm”. It is usually used to describe a peaceful period just before a very stressful situation or a tense argument. British sailors coined the phrase in the late 1600s; they noted that before certain storms the seas would seem to become static and the winds would drop.

But why is it often so calm before a storm?

Science has given us the answer. According to US infotainment (资讯娱乐) website HowStuffWorks, a calm period occurs because many storms, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, draw in all the warm and humid air from the surrounding area. As this air rises into the storm clouds, it cools and acts as “fuel for the storm, like petrol in a car”. Once the storm has taken all the energy it can from the air, it is pushed out from the top of the storm clouds and falls back down to ground level. As the air descends, it becomes warm and dry. Warm, dry air is stable, so once it covers an area, it causes a calm period before the storm. This same process also causes the “eye of the storm” in hurricanes and tornadoes. In these conditions, the calm occurs in the center of the storm because of the strong rotating (旋转的) winds.

The Weather Network has a tip for working out how far away a storm is. First, count how many seconds there are between a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. Roughly three seconds equal one kilometer. So, for example, if you count nine seconds, the storm is about 3 kilometers away. A good gauge (评估) is that if your count is below 30 seconds, you should seek shelter straight away.

However, due to the complexity of storm system, not all storms are preceded(先于) by calm. Given the right conditions, some storms announce themselves with heavy rain and chilling winds.

So, your best bet is to keep yourself updated with weather reports for any predictions regarding a coming storm in your area. That’s the most reliable and sensible way to predict the next display of nature’s temper.

【推荐2】Although onions taste delicious, watering eyes come with the process when you cut them up. Thankfully, Good Housekeeping has suggested some tips to prevent yourself from crying while trying to cut up an onion．

According to the findings from the Institute, putting onions in a fridge 30 minutes before cutting can prevent the annoying hurt, as the cold stops tear-jerking (催泪的) gas from being produced.

Another way to reduce the gas released by the onion is to put it in water for a while. Good Housekeeping recommends:“ Cut the end off the onion and then put it straight into a bowl of water. The water will draw out the acid making you tear up less when you cut it.”

When an onion grows, it mixes with sulfur (硫) in the soil to create a special mineral acid. When the onion is cut into pieces, it reacts and creates a gas. As it reaches your face, this annoying gas causes the eyes to produce tears．

The root is where the gases are most concentrated, so it is recommended that this part of the onion be left on as you cut it to avoid uncomfortable eyes. Do this by cutting the vegetable in half down the middle to create a flat surface. Then, place the onion with its flat surface down and cut it towards the root．

Also, to reduce the gas’s effect on your eyes, cut it next to a window or near a fan so the gas is blown away from your face. And take care to use a sharp knife; this will make it easier to move through the vegetable, causing fewer cells to be broken and less gas to be released as a result．