【推荐1】One early morning, I went into the living room to find my mother reading a thick book called Best Loved Poems to Read Again and Again. My interest was aroused only by the fact that the word “Poems” appeared in big, hot pink letters.

“Is it good?” I asked her. “Yeah,”she answered. “There’s one I really like and you’ll like it, too.” I leaned forward. “ ‘Patty Poem,’ “ she read the title. Who is Patty? I wondered. The poem began:

She never puts her toys away,

Just leaves them scattered ⁽散乱的)where they lay,...

The poem was just three short sections. The final one came quickly:

When she grows and gathers(稳重的)poise,

I’ll miss her harum-scarum(莽撞的) noise,

And look in vain for scattered(徒劳地)toys.

And I’ll be sad.

A terrible sorrow washed over me. Whoever Patty was, she was a mean girl. Then, the shock.

“It’s you, honey,” My mother said sadly.

To my mother, the poem conveyed a parent’s affection when her child grows up and leaves. To me, the “she” in the poem was horror. It was my mama who would be sad. It was so terrible. I burst out crying.

“What’s wrong?” my mother asked.

“Oh Mama,” I cried. “I don’t want to grow up ever!”

She smiled. “Honey, it’s okay. You’re not growing up anytime soon. And when you do, I’ll still love you, okay?”

I calmed down.But I could not help thinking about that silly poem. After several years, I read the poem again and was confused. It all fit so well together, like a simple puzzle easy to understand, yet it was still beautiful. I was now attracted by the idea of poetry, words that had the power to make or break a person’s world.

I have since fallen in love with other poems, but “Patty Poem” remains my poem. After all, “Patty Poem” gave me my love for poetry.

【推荐2】A lot of kids struggle with reading. Parents have tried encouraging them in all sorts of ways, but nothing seems to work. Actually many factors(因素)can cause reading problems.    1     Here are a few things you can do to help your kid become a better reader.

Read to your kid-and have him/her read to you

Grab one of the books you loved when you were your kid's age and read it to him/her or take turns reading it to each other.     2     Make reading a regular part of the night-time routine.

Don't be pushy

Just because you're a science fan or read on history and other nonfiction doesn't mean your kid will be remotely interested in any of those things. In fact, you've been pushing your tastes on your kid.     3    

Choose books that interest your kid

Most kids love movies. Did your kid like Ready Player One or Ender's Game? They are based on books.     4     If your goal is to get your kid interested in reading and improve his/her skills, what your kid's reading is less important than how much time he/she spends doing it.

    5    

Kids who have trouble reading often feel that there's something wrong with them. So work with your kid to come up with manageable goals and make a big deal every time he/she accomplishes one. With time, gradually make the goals more challenging.

【推荐1】A study found that of young Danes who played video games in English, those who did so regularly outside school scored higher on English vocabulary tests than their peers who did not.

With video games, “all of sudden English becomes an instrument, something that's very useful for them in order to progress in the game, "says the author of the study, Signe Hannibal Jensen, professor at the University of Southern Denmark. This changes kids' focus from "learning to learn", as in a classical school setting, to "learning to play".

It makes sense that “the very things that we can't drag out of students in school are the kinds of things that they're doing for fun on their own outside school,” says Steven Thorne, a professor of second language acquisition at Portland State University. “You're sharing an activity. You're sharing a passion,” he says.

The language learning isn't only effective in learning English. From Internet-spotty central Pennsylvania, Fiona Girotti explained how her love of K-pop led her to turn to an online gaming platform she used to learn Korean. She says learning grammar online is tough, and gaming isn't a direct replacement for in-person- instruction. “But you get good at conversations, sentences, and things you can say to anyone,” says Fiona.

And her online language practice is working. When Ms. Girotti listens to pop now, she can understand many words. It's not really the same as being in class, though. “Of course, classes are structured. When you're just me, earning independently, you don't really understand the grammar,” she says. She uses a grammar app on her phone to understand tricky sentences.

Dr. Thorne notes that video games are not a perfect solution. "Some gaming environments are very language heavy and language rich. Others don't really require much language at all,"he says. He warns that gaming isn't always good, and players can become dependent on games. But combine a quality, communication-dependent game with the 15 hours a week kids spend gaming, and learning will come out of that, he says.

In the future, video games might become a more practical option among the instruments language learners already use, including phone apps, podcasts. YouTube videos, and in-person instruction Jonathon Reinhardt, an associate professor at the University of Arizona and president of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium(CALICO), says it makes sense that gaming would increasingly enter into more formal classroom settings. “What we're going to see is generation who grows up with games and recognizes their potential as learning objects,” he says. “They have the skills and the abilities to build these sorts of things.”

【推荐2】These days,American children usually can receive about$800 each year in tips,according to the American Institute of Public Accountants. Most of American parents tie the tips to the completion of certain daily work.

“Kids are tipped for two main purposes,”says Steven Mintz,a historian at the University of Texas at Austin.“First,to give them a sense of independence—to buy candies,cheap toys,and other inexpensive products for themselves—and second,to teach them the value of money.”

However,many experts expressed concern that tying payments too closely to daily work can send kids wrong messages about family and personal responsibility. Suniya Luthar,a psychologist at Arizona State University,is doubtful of the idea of paying kids on a per-work basis.“Should we pay a child when he picks up his clothes off the floor?”she asks.

Luthar is not opposed to(反对) giving tips, but she thinks it’s important to let children know that certain work has to be done not because it’ll lead to payment,but because it’s part of what you have to do for yourself or as a family member. “In a family, no one’s going to pay you to put your clothes away or tidy up the house,” Luthar says.

Other researchers disagree.Heather Beth Johnson,a sociologist at Lehigh University,says,“When we pay kids to do things that humans have always had to do,”she says,“it sends them a message that they have to work for returns.”

Johnson adds that upper-middle-class families are usually ready to pay children for things like doing well in school or taking care of the younger children.She says that this sort of tips can make kids happier to carry out more basic responsibilities.“This isn’t happening in poor families,”she adds.

【推荐3】According to a survey, the waste of food on the dining table occupies 10% of the total grain output. Last week Meituan co-published a suggestion with a number of business organizations, calling on restaurants to stop food waste and help develop new eating habits for customers. “Restaurants should use official accounts on social media and live-streaming to promote and advocate food-saving actions,” the proposal said.

Meituan and the organizations are advocating that merchants offer guidance for consumers, including reminding them during the ordering process about the taste of the ingredients, portion sizes and other information about the dishes, to help them avoid food waste due to misleading information.

Catering associations (餐饮机构) in more than 18 provinces have also joined the campaign to remove food waste. The Wuhan Catering Association advised an “N-1” ordering code for restaurants ,where a group of 10 diners would only order enough for nine people. More food is only brought to the table if required. It has inspired people to rethink their relationship with food and waste.

On Friday, the China Cuisine Association announced that it had teamed up with Ele. me, a food delivery platform, to launch a “half-dish plan”, encouraging restaurants to provide customers with the option to order smaller portions. Besides, customers are encouraged to take their leftovers home.

To reduce food waste on social media platforms, some popular video platforms have stepped up content reviews of food-related live streams and implemented regulation of online eating shows. Now, if users search certain keywords, such as “eating show” or “competitive eaters”, a cautionary message pops up to remind them to cherish (珍惜) food and keep a reasonable diet.

【推荐3】Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on the brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all those amazing powers of music.

A recent study suggests that preterm (早产的) babies appear to experience less pain and feed more when listening to music. Experts led by Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta, Canada, found that music had a beneficial effect on reducing pain for preterm babies experiencing painful medical tests. It also appeared to benefit full-term babies during operations.

Many people experiencing brain damage have speech and movement-related problems. Music can help recover from brain injuries. As a different and effective treatment, doctors often advise such patients to listen to good music to improve the parts of the brain responsible for these two functions. When people with neurological (神经系统的) disorders hear a musical beat, it helps them to regain a balanced walk.

Though music cannot make deafness disappear, it really can stave off the loss of hearing. There was an experiment involving 163 people where 74 were musicians. Participants were asked to pass some listening tests. Musicians heard the sounds better than non-musicians, and this difference gets clearer with age. This means that a 70-year-old musician bears better than a 50-year-old non-musician, even in a noisy environment.

Besides, music mends a broken heart. It is not about a thrown-away love, but about a heart attack. The matter is that music can help people recover from a heart attack or heart operation by reducing blood pressure, slowing down the heartbeat rate, and reducing anxiety. Listening to the quality music produces positive emotions, improves the movement of blood, and expands blood vessels, thus, promoting quick recovery of the whole cardiovascular (心血管的) system.