【推荐2】Job for You!

There isn’t just one skill or quality that makes someone a good yourself. But I can think of two things that most journalists have in common, they are curious, and they love language. Journalists look around and always ask who, what, why, where and when. Then they try to tell others what they find out.

【推荐2】Port Lympne Reserve, which runs a breeding (繁育) programme, has welcomed the arrival of a rare black rhino calf (犀牛幼崽). When the tiny creature arrived on January 31, she became the 40th black rhino to be born at the reserve. And officials at Port Lympne were delighted with the new arrival, especially as black rhinos are known for being difficult to breed in captivity (圈养).

Paul Beer, head of rhino section at Port Lympne, said: “Obviously we're all absolutely delighted to welcome another calf to our black rhino family. She's healthy, strong and already eager to play and explore. Her mother, Solio, is a first-time mum and she is doing a fantastic job. It's still a little too cold for them to go out into the open, but as soon as the weather warms up, I have no doubt that the little one will be out and about exploring and playing every day.”

The adorable female calf is the second black rhino born this year at the reserve, but it is too early to tell if the calves will make good candidates to be returned to protected areas of the wild. The first rhino to be born at Port Lympne arrived on January 5 to first-time mother Kisima and weighed about 32kg. His mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all born at the reserve and still live there.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the global black rhino population has dropped as low as 5500, giving the rhinos a “critically endangered” status.

【推荐1】Languages like Italian or Finnish can be spelled more easily because each letter of the alphabet matches to one sound. Students studying these languages can have 90 percent reading accuracy after the first year. However, students even after years of learning English are still far below Italian or Finnish students in reading accuracy.

English started as a Germanic language. It is most closely connected to German and Dutch, especially in grammar and basic vocabulary. During the Norman invasion in the 12th century, Old English was spoken but French was used in government and legal documents. And Latin was used in religious and educational activities. As a result, more French and Latin words entered the English language. The printing press invented in the late 1400s helped to establish English spelling. The English of today is how the language was written at the time. However, the spoken language started to change in the 1500s with the pronunciation of all long vowels (元音). For example, “bite” was pronounced closer to “beet” in the 1400s, before changing through the years to its current sound. The effect was that the English language had old spellings, but new sounds.

English has 26 letters in the alphabet, but over 44 individual sounds depending on the variation of spoken English. There are several sounds represented by only one letter. For example, the letter “C” can sound like an “S” as in “city”. And it also sounds like a “K” as in “cat”.

There are only 5 or 6 vowel letters in the English alphabet. They include A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. But there are 20 different ways to sound them. At the centre is the most common vowel sound of “uhhh”. It is the most relaxed and natural sound. It takes almost no effort of the tongue or throat to create the sound. Since it takes little effort, the sound “uhhh” often makes its way into pronunciations. For example, the word “please” often turns into “PUH-lease” when someone is trying to call attention. This is another reason why spelling in English is so difficult!

【推荐1】Most parents can remember the artful mix of excitement and anxiety accompanying the choice of their baby’s name—it will follow the child his or her entire life. But the effect could be even more significant. In research recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, our research team shows that the stereotype (模式思维) that a given society has of a first name can influence the way people look.

In eight studies, we found that participants shown ID-style photos of people they’d never met were able to recognize the first name of the described person well above the chance level. In other words, there is something about an Emily that…just looks like an Emily.

If an Emily really does look like an Emily, even a computer should be able to guess her true name. The computer was even able to produce a “heat map” for each name, a face with the features that “betray” a person carrying that name shown in red or orange colors. How should we understand this effect? Until now, social psychologists knew that our facial appearance influences the extent to which others perceive us as attractive, intelligent, trustworthy or warm. These studies show that others’ perceptions of our first name are reflected in our faces.

Interestingly, the face -name effect occurs even if we can only see the hair of a person. Our hair is possibly the part of our face that we control with the most ease. The fact that this alone can produce the face name effect further illustrates the suspected self-fulfilling mechanism behind it.

Together, the eight studies suggest that we wear our social belonging on our face, and that we actively shape our features to be recognized by our reference group. Choosing baby names remains exciting. Whatever the first name you give to your child, he or she will end up wearing it.

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【推荐2】How Room Designs Affect Our Work and Feelings.

Architects have long had the feeling that the places we live in can affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviors, But now scientists are giving this feelings an empirical (经验的, 实证的) basis. They are discovering how to design spaces that promote creativity, keep people focused, and lead to relaxation.

Researches show that aspects of the physical environment can influence creativity. In 2007, Joan Meyers-Levy at the University of Minnesota, reported that the height of a room’s ceiling affects how people to think. Her research indicates that the higher callings encourage people to think more freely, which may lead them to make more abstract connections. Low ceilings, on the other hand, may inspire a more detailed outlook.

In addition to ceiling height, the view afforded by a building may influence an occupant’s ability to concentrate. Nancy Wells and her colleagues at Cornell University found in their study that kids who experienced the greatest increase in greenness as a result of a family move made the most gains on a standard test of attention.

Using nature to improve focus of attention ought to pay off academically, and it seems to, according to a study led by C. Kenneth Tanner, head of the School Design ＆Planning Laboratory at       University of Georgia. Tanner and his team found that students in classrooms with unblocked views of at least 50 feet outside the window had higher scores on tests of vocabulary, language arts and maths than did students whose classrooms primarily overlooked roads and parking lots.

Recent study on room lighting design suggests that dim (暗淡的) light helps people to loosen up. If that is true generally, keeping the light low during dinner or at parties could increase relaxation. Researchers of Harvard Medical School also discovered that furniture with rounded edges could help visitors relax.

So far scientists have focused mainly on public buildings. “We have a very limited number of studies, so we’re almost looking at the problem through a straw (吸管) ,” architect David Allison says. “How do you take answers to very specific questions and make broad, generalized use of them? That’s what we're all struggling with. ”

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【推荐3】When should people be made to retire? 55? 65? Should there be a compulsory age limit?

Many old people work well into their 70s and 80s, running families, countries or corporations. Other people, however, despite being fit and highly talented, are forced to retire in their fifties or even earlier because of the regulations of a company or the nation. This essay will examine whether people should be allowed to continue working as long as they want or whether they should be encouraged to retire at a particular stage.

Some people think there are several arguments for allowing older people to continue working as long as they are able. First of all, older employees have an immense amount of knowledge and experience which can be lost to a business or organization if they are made to retire. A second point is that older employees are often extremely loyal employees and are more willing to carry out company policies than younger less committed staff. However, a more important point is regarding the attitudes in society to old people. To force someone to resign or retire at 60 indicates that the society does not value the input of these people and that effectively their useful life is over. Age is irrelevant to a working life, surely if older employees are told they cannot work after 60, this is age discrimination. That they become old does not necessarily mean they are going to be sick. Old people could be more aware, experienced and committed than some youngsters.

Others, however, think that allowing older people to work indefinitely is not a good policy. Age alone is no guarantee of ability. Old people are only ambitious workaholics who are too selfish and self-centered to believe that a younger person could do better. Actually, many younger employees have more experience or skills than older staff, who may have been stuck in one area or unit for most of their working lives. Having compulsory retirement allows new ideas in an organization. In addition, without age limits, however, many people would continue to work purely because they did not have any other plans or roles. A third point of view is that older people should be rewarded by society for their life’s labor by being given generous pensions and the freedom to enjoy their leisure. We now have youngsters who can’t find jobs because old people are choosing not to retire. Old people are not retiring because this new generation of “old people” think they will never die due to modern advances in medicine.

With many young people unemployed or frustrated in low-level positions, there are often calls to compulsorily retire older workers. However, this can affect the older individual’s freedom and right to work and can deprive(剥夺) society of valuable experience and insights. I feel that giving workers more flexibility and choice over their retirement age will benefit society and the individual.

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