【推荐2】Are you carrying too much on your back at school? I’m sure lots of children of your age will say “Yes”. Not only do the students in China have this problem, but children in the United States also have heavy school bags.

Doctors are starting to worry that younger and younger students are having back and neck problems as a result of school bags being too heavy for them.

“It’s hard for me to go upstairs with my bag because it’s so heavy,” said Rick Hammond, an 11-year-old student in the US.

Rick is among students who have common school bags with two straps (带子) to carry them, but many other students choose rolling bags(拉杆包).

But even with rolling bags, getting upstairs and buses is still a problem for children. Many of them have hurt their backs or necks because of the heavy school bags.

But how much is too much? Doctors say students should carry no more than 10% to 15% of their own body weight.

Scott Bautch, a doctor, said children under Grade 4 should stay with 10%. But it is also important that older children don’t stay with over 15%, because their bodies are still growing. “Children are losing their balance and falling down with their school bags,” he said.

Parents and teachers are starting to tell children to only take home library books they will be reading that night. Some teachers are using pieces of paper or thin workbooks for students to take home.

One of the best answers is, as some children said, to have no homework at all!

【推荐1】September is a difficult month for all students as they return to continue their education, but for high school and university green hands, it is not just the heavy study tasks they need to follow. They will also go through military(军事的) training, which aims to help students improve their health and help them adapt to college life. The Ministry(部) of Education requires that universities should carry out at least 14 days' military training for freshmen(新生).

Hou Zhengfang, an education expert, questioned the benefits of military training. “It does little to improve students' physical health over only two weeks' time,” she said. “Maybe some disaster prevention training, such as earthquake survival or escaping from fires, would be of greater benefit.”

A freshman who fainted(晕倒) during training said that many students, especially girls, are unwilling to train in direct sunshine. “For me, military training is physically challenging and even damages my health,” said the 19-year-old.

Although Chu Jinjing, a Tsinghua University freshman, did feel some discomfort while training in the heat, the 18-year-old did recognize the benefits of military training. “By going through this tough(艰难的) training, I've become more independent and determined,” said Chu. “I have also managed to make a lot of friends.”

Wang Hui from Xi'an Jiaotong University sees the advantages of military training besides character building. “From senior high school to college, we join military training to start a new journey,” said Wang. “I would feel a bit incomplete without it.”

【推荐3】Nine months ago，I was packing my daughter’s backpack with new school supplies，wondering how I was going to send her off to kindergarten．I stood on the playground，tears pouring down my face because I wasn’t ready for this first day of kindergarten——but she was ready．Today I will be standing on the playground， once again with tears，because this precious time went by too quickly．This week I realized that I never told you "thank you"．I don’t know how to express a mother’s thanks in the way a teacher deserves．

We first met you at the open house the week before school started and I immediately knew you would be the type of teacher we would appreciate forever．While the students lined up for the day，you touched each one on the shoulder as you greeted them．If a student was having a tough I got to know you as I volunteered in the lunch room．You made sure your students were all ready for Iunch before you went on your own lunch break．You kept track of their big things and small things，because as a veteran kindergarten teacher，you know that the small things are the big things．I loved the way you made each student feel special．You helped them fall in love with school which is so important at the start．

To all of the teachers in the world who are like you．I wish you knew how grateful parents are for you．We adore you．respect you，and appreciate you．We don’t tell you enough——we probably don’i tell you ever．I wish we could take you with us to the next 12 grades．

【推荐1】Guy Raz is the king of podcasts (播客). The 44-year-old NPR (National Public Radio) hosts (主持) three of Apple’s top-20 podcasts, including Wow in the World, NPR’s first podcast for kids.

Raz, who is known for his light-blue eyeglasses, has entertained many families across thousands of miles of road trips. The best thing about him is that he can make any topic feel like just the thing you’ve always wanted to know about.

Podcasts are whenever and wherever radio, Raz explained. You can listen to them wherever you want, wherever you want — in a plane, a car, or at the kitchen table.

Wow in the World is the brainchild of Raz and his co-host, Mindy Thomas. The show “takes” kids through time and space, reporting science news with surprising sound effects (效果), and funny words like “exactdoritos” and “ bonkerballs.”

When asked why the show was created, Raz said, “Mindy has two kids, and I have two kids. Both of us were really worried about how much screen time our children not only had, but wanted. We don’t want kids to pay too much attention to the screen. So the idea was, ‘Let’s create something that is so good; it competes with a video.’ What happened was beyond (超出) our expectations.”

Raz noted that podcasts fire the imagination in a way that screens don’t. “Every single person experiences podcasts differently.” he said. “When you watch a cartoon, for example, the pictures are given to you. Your brain doesn’t have to work.When you' re listening to podcasts like Wow in the World, your mind is your television screen. It fires up all kinds of connections in your brain.”

Raz also hosts How I Build This and The TED Radio Hour, two wildly successful podcasts for older listeners. Raz said, “There's a wow factor (要素) in every single person. What I try to do is to find exciting wow moments in the world and make us think.”

【推荐2】"Some secrets are hidden from health," wrote John Updike in his poem "Fever".

One relates to my son Chris. When I lost my health in March, I discovered something I had missed about him.

Christopher has been a scholar and athlete through high school. He has behaved responsibly, engaged in community service. He has had an impressive peer group of   serious students.

While I saw these things, I had missed before what I experienced while in hospital. Early on, Christopher offered the clearest and most forceful words about my need to be positive and to fight acute leukemia(急性白血病). He never left the room after a visit without making me promise that I would be mentally tough and positive.

During the first week, he showed his own mental toughness, researching leukemia and learning what the chances were. He even stopped my doctor outside the room, introduced himself and asked directly what he thought of my chances. He processed the answer without overreaction.

Christopher did admonish(劝告) me against my choice of words the first week at home. I had moved back into my room from weighing myself, discovering a thin figure I did not know. I announced to him and my wife, “dead man walking”. I thought it was a way to lighten the obvious. He saw it as negativity and was strongly against such thinking and talking.

When I resisted taking medicine sometimes, Christopher formed a “good-cop-bad-cop” team with his mother. Betsy gently and patiently encouraged. He directly and forcefully insisted. He always made the logical arguments for why I needed to take some awful pills.

My health had hidden something from me; my ill-health helped me to see it.

【推荐1】Say you're in the supermarket parking lot, holding your baby, bags of goods, and trying to open your car. A stranger walks up and says, “Here，let me hold your baby.” Should you let him?

According to a new New York University study, knowing whether or not to trust someone is so important that we can tell whether a face is trustworthy before we even consciously know it's there. The researchers knew from previous studies that people are fairly similar when it comes to how they judge a face's trustworthiness. They wanted to find out whether that would be true if people only saw a face for a quick moment—an amount of time so short that it would prevent making a conscious judgment.

To carry out their study, the researchers monitored the amygdala (扁桃腺结构) of 37 volunteers while showing them 300 faces for 33 milliseconds each. Those faces had already been tested with a different set of 10 subjects, who saw them for much longer. In those earlier tests, people agreed about whether to trust each face. In this new study, fascinatingly, different parts of the amygdala lit up when a subject saw an untrustworthy face and a trustworthy one—and it lit up more when the face in question was suspicious.

“Faces that appear likely to cause harm are suddenly tracked by the amygdala, so it could then quickly change other brain processes and make fast responses to people—approach or avoid,” says Jon Freeman, the study's senior author. “Our talents for making instant judgments could either come from birth or be learned from the social environment.”

So should you trust the guy in the parking lot? Your brain already knows.

【推荐3】Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work with zoo or aquarium animals? Kylene, an animal care specialist from Sea World San Diego, who cared for the African penguins at SeaWorld for many years.

Over the past several years, the South African penguins have been on the decrease in numbers. A hundred years ago, there were about 1 million African penguins, but since then their population has decreased to under 100 ,000. Scientists predict the population could fall as low as 50 ,000 over the next 20 years if we don't do anything.

Some scientists think the changing ocean temperatures have caused the penguins¹ food supply to disappear. Humans have also disturbed the penguins ' wild habitat and collected their eggs. And humans have also been collecting guano (the waste passed from the sea birds' bodies) , which can be added to the soil to make plants grow more successfully. As a result, humans damage their natural nest-digging sites. Without the piles of guano the penguins used to build their nests, they've been forced to nest on open ground.

Some other scientists think the slight increase in air temperature on the islands has had an impact on the penguins' success rate of hatching their eggs. No matter what the reason is, South African penguin population is falling, and scientists need to find a way to stop the decline.

Working with other zoos in the country, Kylene did what she could to help protect the South African penguins. Through Kylene's efforts and the efforts of the people like her at many penguin conservation organizations in South Africa, these little penguins have a chance for a better tomorrow.