【推荐1】The Secret to Happiness

A new report makes it clear that when it comes to the life satisfaction of UK citizens, the ball is in the government’s court. For some time, sensible people have been arguing that governments need to focus less on economic growth and more on the wellbeing of citizens. Be careful what you wish for.

In response to this demand, the UK government begins to gather data on people’s self-reported happiness and life satisfaction. Little practical good has come from this so far, but a new report by George Bangham for the Resolution Foundation is one of the best attempts to make useful sense of the data. He concludes: “The best prospects for policymakers targeting future increases in national wellbeing lie in raising job quality, raising incomes, particularly at the lower end, and policies to improve security in the housing market.”

The happiness of pensioners is not just a function of their age, but of policy. On average, 70-year-old boomers today are the most affluent retirees in history, often owning their own homes and in receipt of generous pensions. People of 70 are not going to be as content in 30 or 40 years’ time if they are unable to retire, don’t own their homes and have small incomes.

However, there is one respect in which teens and recent retirees are remarkably similar. Compared to other age groups, they tend to inhabit a sweet spot of having high degrees of freedom. The typical 16-year-old has new freedoms without ever having had any serious responsibilities. The typical 70-year-old, having experienced a lifetime of work and family duties, has a very different kind of freedom, one born from relief.

Besides, it should not surprise us to find that people tend to be happier when they have fewer worries. But this, too, has important political implications. If the government is really interested in raising overall national happiness, it has to make sure as many citizens as possible feel secure in their health, their housing and their incomes. Different states’ records in achieving this is one important reason why Nordic countries repeatedly score highly in international life satisfaction surveys and North America underperforms relative to its GDP. Whichever way you look at it, there is no escaping the conclusion that increasing wellbeing across society requires joined-up, long-term policy efforts. This is exactly what the Resolution Foundation recommends.

【推荐3】Canada is home to many of the world’s top universities. Here are some scholarships in Canada that will help reduce some of the financial burden for students.

University de Montreal (UdeM) International Student Scholarship Program

The UdeM scholarship program aims to support international candidates in their university studies. They offer graduate scholarships for students. The scholarship is valued at CA $9,420 per year or CA $3,140 per session. Deadline to apply is March 1st, 2023.

China Scholarship Council—University of Saskatchewan Joint Funding Program

The China Scholarship Council (CSC), partnering with the University of Saskatchewan (USask), is offering outstanding Chinese graduate students the opportunity to pursue PhD and post-doctor studies through the CSC-USask Joint Funding Program. To be qualified, you must be a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. Applicants should not be older than 35 years old at the time of the application. Deadline is February 20th, 2023 (China time).

University of Saskatchewan Graduate Scholarship

If you are not a Chinese citizen but want to pursue your postgraduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan, you can choose this scholarship. Their PhD scholarships are valued at CA $20,000 each; alternatively, their Master’s thesis(论文)is valued at CA$16,000. Deadline to apply is February 22nd, 2023.

Canada-ASEAN Scholarships and Educational Exchange for Development (SEED)

If you are keen to engage in a short-term exchange opportunity for study or research in Canadian post-secondary (中学后) institutions at the college, undergraduate and graduate levels, this scholarship is for you. Do note that only Canadian institutions can submit applications on behalf of candidates. If you are interested in this scholarship program, contact your institution to make your interest known and to request information about the application process. Deadline is March 4th, 2023.

【推荐1】One Saturday afternoon, I went to a fast food restaurant to have some food with my kids. As we were walking into the restaurant, I noticed a woman smoking a cigarette outside. While we were waiting in line, with about ten other people, we saw the woman rush back into the store to help the busy staff.

A customer standing next to us started yelling at the employee who had begun filling brown paper bags with fries, burgers, and nuggets, “I saw you,” she said. “I saw you out there smoking; then you came in straight and touched our food! It’s disgusting! Why would you do that?” The woman wouldn’t stop. Everyone was staring. The employee was getting teary. It looked as if she just wanted to find a place to hide. The manager came over and told her to wash her hands and leave the floor for a while. He then apologized to the customer.

“That’s disgusting,” my oldest son whispered to me, “But I do feel bad for her.” I was glad he followed it up with that last sentence. His comment showed me that he’d probably never treat someone the way that customer had treated that employee.

You are allowed to be angry at others’ improper behavior and tell them how you feel. However, you don’t need some audience or witnesses when you are making negative comments on others. Doing that in public doesn’t strengthen your point.

I’m willing to bet that the woman being criticized was so shamed that she wasn’t able to hear the message that was being forced down her throat. However, had the customer taken her aside, and said in a quiet voice, “I noticed you didn’t wash your hands after your smoke break; can you please go to do that now?” The employee would have had the opportunity to do just that. The message the customer wanted to convey would have gotten to that employee more effectively, and her entire day would not have been ruined.

【推荐2】Give your dead batteries (电池) a new life. Recycle them!

Batteries are used to power clocks, computers, tools and more. However, your batteries have some serious power when their lives are over.

WHY TO RECYCLE BATTERIES:

Remember, batteries are harmful waste. This means we should properly throw them away. You may not think one little battery can cause that much pollution. But don’t think of it as just one battery—there can be millions. In Canada, each person uses about 20 single-use batteries every year. That’s about 700 million batteries! If all these batteries end up in landfills (垃圾填埋场), the heavy metals inside them can get into the water, land and air. It can be harmful to humans and wildlife.

By recycling single-use batteries instead of throwing them away, you can cut down pollution and also help save energy. All batteries are mainly made of plastic and valuable metals. Through recycling programs, dead batteries can be changed into something useful like steel products, or even new batteries.

HOW TO RECYCLE BETTARIES:

Make a difference by starting to collect batteries at your home or school today. You can prepare a box for battery collection and invite friends, family and classmates to bring in old batteries to be recycled.

There are many ways to deal with your batteries. You can:

● Find a Call to Recycle public collection station near you.

● Ask the store where you bought the batteries if you can return them there.

● Communicate with your local city government to find out if there are special programs for recycling used batteries!

For more information, visit https://ecokids.ca/batteries.

【推荐3】Are you sometimes a little tired and sleepy in the early afternoon? Many people feel this way after lunch. They may think that eating lunch is the cause of the sleepiness. Or，in summer，they may think it is the heat. However，the real reason lies inside their bodies. At that time—about eight hours after you wake up—your body temperature goes down. This is what makes you slow down and feel sleepy. Scientists have tested sleep habits in experiments where there was no night or day. The people in these experiments almost always followed a similar sleeping pattern. They slept for one long period and then for one short period about eight hours later.

In many parts of the world，people take naps (小睡) in the middle of the day. This is especially true in warmer climates，where the heat makes work difficult in the early afternoon. Researchers are now saying that naps are good for everyone in any climate. A daily nap gives one a more rested body and mind and therefore is good for health in general. In countries where naps are traditional，people often suffer less from problems such as heart disease. Many working people，unfortunately，have no time to take naps. Though doctors may advise taking naps，employers don't follow it! If you do have the chance，however，here are a few tips about making the most of your nap. Remember that the best time to take a nap is about eight hours after you get up. A short sleep too late in the day may only make you feel more tired and sleepy afterward. This can also happen if you sleep for too long. If you do not have enough time，try a short nap — even ten minutes of sleep can be helpful.

【推荐1】One advantage of the Internet is shopping conveniently online for clothes; one disadvantage of the Internet is also shopping conveniently online for clothes.

“Nothing fits,” said Lam Yuk Wong, a senior in electrical and computer engineering at Rice University. “Everyone says this. They order clothes and they don’t fit. People get very unhappy.”

Wong and her design partner, Xuaner “Cecilia” Zhang, are Team White Mirror, creators of what they call a “virtual (虚拟) fitting room”. Their goal is simple and consumer-friendly: to let online clothing shoppers have a perfect fit and a perfect look when shopping every time.

Both women are from China, Wong from Hong Kong and Zhang from Beijing. They both order most of their clothing online. They got the idea from their own experience as consumers and from listening to the complaints of friends and relatives. “They say, ‘The color is wrong’ or ‘I got the right size but it still does not fit.’ We want to make it like you’re in the store trying on the clothes,” Zhang said.

Using a Kinect developed by Microsoft for use with its Xbox 360 video game player,

Zhang scans Wong and turns   her image into, in effect, a virtual model, keeping Wong’s dimensions (尺寸), and even her skin and hair color. “We put the clothes on the shopper’s 3-D body models and show how they look when they are dressed,” Wong said. So far, Wong and Zhang have adapted the software to show dresses and shirts, and they are now working on shorts.

Asked if she thought men as well as women might be interested in using their virtual fitting room, Wong said, “I think their wives will care about this, so it will also be important to men.”

【推荐2】If you exhibit positive characteristics such as honesty and helpfulness, the chances are that you will be thought as a good-looking person, for a new study has found that the perception (认知) of physical attractiveness is influenced by a person's personality.

The study, which was led by Gary W. Lewandowski, has found that people who exhibit negative characteristics, such as unfairness and rudeness, appear to be less physically attractive to observers. In the study, the participants viewed photographs of opposite-sex individuals and rated them for attractiveness before and after being provided with information about their personalities.

After personality information was received, participants also rated the probability of each individual's becoming a friend and a dating partner. Information on personality was found to significantly change the probability, showing that cognitive (认知的) processes modify (修改) judgments of attractiveness.

"Thinking a person as having a desirable personality makes the person more suitable in general as a close relationship partner of any kind," said Lewandowski.

The findings show that a positive personality leads to greater expectation of becoming friends, which leads to greater expectation of becoming romantic partners and, finally, to being viewed as more physically attractive. The findings remained consistent regardless of how "attractive" the individual was formerly thought to be or of the participants' current relationship status.

"This research provides a positive outcome by reminding people that personality goes a long way toward determining your attractiveness; it can even change people's impressions of how good-looking you are," said Lewandowski.

【推荐3】What I am writing is in English.You can read and understand because you are English language learners. But when you say people in England or the English people speak English, you would be wrong, or at least inaccurate in your remark. Ah yes, you might correct yourself, the Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders speak English too. That is true, but apart from that, what you really have in mind, or should say is people in Britain or the British speak English.

The words England and English are perhaps the two most misused words in the English language. The English themselves一I beg your pardon, I am making the same mistake! The     British themselves often say England and English when they really mean Britain and British. The Chinese words“英国”is even more misused than not because the term “不列颠” is hardly ever used. What's the difference, you may ask. To understand the question we have to know something about the history of the country and its people.

Before there was a country there were the people. And before there were people, there was land. So let us start off from here and take the land first.

We all know that Britain(though we often say England by force of habit) is an island country separated from the European continent by the English Channel.

Actually there are two main islands. The larger one is called Britain, or Great Britain, and the smaller one is called Ireland, and these two, together with many small islands make up what is called the British Isles.

The British is a geographical term. It is not the name of any country. At present it is made up of two countries, the larger of which is the one we very often inaccurately call England. The full official name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but people call it Britain or Great Britain for that. It consists of England, Scotland, Wales and a small part(about one-sixth) of Ireland, then or the astern part.

People still tend to call Britain England not only because England is the largest in area and the most populous but mostly because England is the strongest and also the most influential country in every respect before it absorbed the other three countries(The whole of Ireland was apart of the United Kingdom at one time) . Call it national chauvinism if you like, but people in England call Britain England out of habit rather than conscious sense of superiority, though it annoys the Welsh and especially the Scots who are proud of their separate national tradition.

【推荐1】Millions of people suffer from motion sickness（晕动症）. They have a lot of activities they fear. They often avoid doing these activities which include long-distance airplane travel, sea-trips, road-trips, even certain movies and video games. However, the French company Boarding Ring promises that it has its way to solve the problem, as long as the users are willing to wear Boarding Glasses!

Why do many people suffer from motion sickness? It is believed that the brain fails to deal with mixed signals（信号）from body parts. For example, when you are looking at your phone on a moving bus, your inner ear realizes the move but your eyes, focused on the screen, think you don't move.

Boarding Glasses tries to ease motion sickness by making the user's eyes and ears send the same message. After the brain receives the same message, it will think you are in a moving environment though that sounds difficult, the science behind the glasses is surprisingly simple.

The plastic device, made up of two round frames on the front and two on the side are filled with some blue liquid （液体）. Any movement can cause the liquid to flow around the eyes. This allows the eyes to sense the move and send the correct signal to the brain.

According to Antoine Jeannin, CEO of Boarding Ring, Boarding Glasses has been tested. The CEO said that over 95 percent of the users felt better after wearing the glasses. The best part is that Boarding Glasses only has a frame, so a single pair can be worn among a group of friends, or even an entire family!

【推荐2】I’m a student in my third year at Robert Gordon University, but I also work 35 hours a week at Sainsbury’s to make ends meet.

I constantly have to force myself to stay awake, and to be alert, whatever it takes. The work I do at Sainsbury’s is very physical like stacking shelves. I am lucky because the amount I lift at work is nothing compared with the weight I lift in the gym. I know I have the strength to bear it.

I am originally from Nigeria. I came here when I was seven. Money was always tight. My parents gave me everything I needed, but there was no money for luxuries. I worked hard at school though and, with the help of professors, I got the best A-level grades in my class.

Unfortunately, though I had applied for “settled” British residential status the Home Office waited until I was in sixth form to approve my application. That meant I was not eligible for a student loan. The only way I could afford to go to university was that I got a job that would pay for all my living costs and my parents paid for my tuition fees.

I don’t have much time to socialize because of my job. Ideally, Id like to have more time to study so I can excel at my course. Yes, I have a lot on my plate, but working hard isnt new for me. Growing up, my parents cultivated in me the importance of working hard for what I want in life.

My dream is to get a job in the NHS. But now, Im just focused on trying to get the best grades I can. Whenever I find life hard, I tell myself this is about my future.

【推荐3】“If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the big environmental problems in the world.”

That’s what Thomas Lovejoy, a well-known biologist, says. He helped introduce the term “biological diversity” to the world. And he long ago predicted that by the early 21st century, the Earth would start losing a surprising number of species-a prediction, unfortunately, that is turning out to be true.

We were taken with what Lovejoy said about birds and decided to use it as a launch pad(跳板) for marking 2018 as the Year of the Bird by National Geographic. Hopefully, this will help raise people’s awareness of this problem. In this 12-month multiplatform exploration, we’ll examine how our changing environment is leading to great losses among bird species around the globe. And just as important, we’ll record what we can do about it.

At National Geographic we’ve been looking at the planet’s health from a bird’s-eye view for a long time. This magazine has featured birds on its cover more often than it has featured other popular creatures-at least 30 times, 13 times compared with apes. And the National Geographic Society has awarded hundreds of funds(资金) for the scientific study of birds.

In 2018, we’ll take our coverage of topics affecting birds to a new level. In this issue we launch a year of storytelling with “Why Birds Matter”, an essay by best-selling author Jonathan Franzen. It’s paired with remarkable photographs of birds created by National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore.

Why is National Geographic focusing so much attention on birds? That’s just another way of asking, as Franzen does. Why do birds matter? Among his fluent answers: “They are our last, best connection to a natural world that is otherwise moving gradually away from us.”