【推荐2】True happiness lies in rewarding relationships, not material wealth, according to new research. Scientists have said that a close circle of friends and family is most important for happiness, and that owning things such as iPhones, computers, being wealthy and owning a sports car do not provide the same level of satisfaction.

The study was done by psychologists at the Sahlgrenska Academy and Lund University, in Sweden. The experts analyzed articles in Swedish newspapers published in 2016 and recorded which words most often occurred in the same articles as the Swedish word for happiness. In this way, they could know our common happiness.

Co-author Dr Danilo Garcia, a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy’s Center for Ethics, Law and Mental Health, said, “It’s relationships that are most important, not material things that we possess, and this is in line with other findings in happiness research.”

The study, which contained more than 1.5 million words, showed that terms such as “grandmother” and personal pronouns such as “you”, “me”, “us” and “them” often emerge in the same article as the Swedish word for happiness. Researchers found that words such as “iPhone”, “millions” and “Google” almost never appear with the word “happiness”.

The study is a part of a larger research project on how people describe both positive and negative events in their lives. The researchers believe that the word analysis reflects a common perception among the members of our society as to what should make us happy.

Dr Danilo Garcia said, “Just as the Beatles sang, most people understand that money can’t buy you happiness or love. But even if we can understand the importance of close and warm relationships at a social level, it isn’t certain that everyone is aware that such relationships are actually necessary for our own personal happiness.”

【推荐3】Scientists say we are all born with a knack for mathematics. Every time we scan the cafeteria for a table that will fit all of our friends, we’re exercising the ancient estimation center in our brain.

Stanislas Dehaene was the first researcher to show that this part of the brain exists. In 1989, he met Mr. N who had suffered a serious brain injury. Mr. N couldn’t recognize the number 5, or add 2 and 2. But he still knew that there are “about 50 minutes” in an hour. Dehaene drew an important conclusion from his case: there must be two separate mathematical areas in our brains. One area is responsible for the math we learn in school, and the other judges approximate amounts.

So what does the brain’s estimation center do for us? Harvard University researcher Elizabeth Spelke has spent a lot of time posing math problems to preschoolers. When he asks 5-year-olds to solve a problem like 21+30, they can’t do it. But he has also asked them questions such as, “Sarah has 21 candles and gets 30 more. John has 34 candles. Who has more candles?” It turns out preschoolers are great at solving questions like that. Before they’ve learned how to do math with numerals and symbols, their brains’ approximation centers are already hard at work.

After we learn symbolic math, do we still have any use for our inborn math sense? Justin Halberda at Johns Hopkins University gave us an answer in his study. He challenged a group of 14-year-olds with an approximation test: The kids stared at a computer screen and saw groups of yellow and blue dots flash by, too quickly to count. Then they had to say whether there had been more blue dots or yellow dots. The researchers found that most were able to answer correctly when there were 25 yellow dots and 10 blue ones. When the groups were closer in size, 11 yellow dots and 10 blue ones, fewer kids answered correctly.

The big surprise in this study came when the researcher compared the kids’ approximation test scores to their scores on standardized math tests. He found that kids who did better on the flashing dot test had better standardized test scores, and vice versa (反之亦然). It seems that, far from being irrelevant, your math sense might predict your ability at formal math.

【推荐1】Air travel is growing around the globe, and so is its contribution to climate change. The climate cost of flying has drawn more public attention in recent years, even leading to“ flight shame” in some places, especially for local or avoidable flights.

And while a decline in air travel would help with climate change，flight shame can also be added by other ways that make air travel more environmentally friendly. That includes switching to cleaner，renewable fuel , but as a new study indicates , there's also another, less obvious option: flying at lower altitudes.

In a new study, researchers used computers to predict how adjusting aircraft altitudes might reduce the number of contrails(尾迹)，which we see as white lines across the sky containing black carbon particles (颗粒)，thus reducing their warming effect. The study found that aircraft would only need to adjust their altitudes by about 2 ,000 feet, and since some flights have a larger climate effect than others , only a small part of flights would need to make any adjustments.

Of course flying at a lower altitude might increase flying time and it also means burning significantly more fuel, and thus giving off more CO₂, but the benefits of controlling contrails are worth it.

In addition to changing altitudes，better engine technology could also help control contrails, the researchers add, since black carbon particles are produced by incomplete fuel combustion ( 燃烧). With more efficient engines, aircraft could reportedly reduce their contrail by as much as 70%。Combined with slight altitude adjustment for a small part of flights, this could help reduce overall contrail problems by 90%，the study suggests.

This is promising, but more research i still needed, and it may be a while before improvements like these take effect at a significant scale. So, while it's good to know air travel can have a smaller effect on the climate, for now the best way to achieve that is often by simply staying on the ground whenever possible.

【推荐2】Sustainability(可持续性), one of the biggest topics of the last decade, has become the ray of hope to protect the planet. It's a topic we can't ignore and we must act now in a more sustainable way.

What does that mean for the world of technology? E-waste is one of the planet's biggest contributing waste problems.

Not only e-waste, but the materials that go into tech products are part of the problem. Take the smartphone industry for example, dozens of metals, minerals which have to be taken from the earth(including 16 of 17 rare metals) go into making phones. And with demand for mobile phones bigger than ever, it's a problem that needs to be solved.

With a challenge comes an opportunity, and there's already some progress happening - great news for those of us wanting to be more sustainable with our tech. People used to turn their noses up at the idea of a second-hand product, but there's been a huge increase in demand for refurbished tech(翻新技术). For example, refurbished smartphone sales in the US have risen by 28% in the last 12 months while brand new sales have fallen by 21%.

Many communities are making an effort to deal with e-waste as well. Cities, schools, or churches will sometimes hold events to collect e-waste and send it to recycling centers. Some companies even offer buy-back programs where people will be given cash if they turn in old devices.

So the next time you want to deal with your e-waste, whether a smartphone, a laptop, an MP4 player or other, consider the more environmentally-friendly choices. It is possible to be sustainable with your tech after all.

【推荐3】The COVID-19 pandemic has spread far and wide. Because of this, countries around the world have implemented containment measures(实施遏制措施) to help stop the virus in its tracks. As more and more people stay inside to stay safe, the outside world seems to have become much quieter. In fact, scientists have seen this change in their research, too.

Seismologists—scientists who study earthquakes— have heard less seismic noise recently. Seismic noise is made from vibrations in the ground that are caused by things like ocean waves and human activity, such as construction work and traffic. This noise makes it difficult for scientists to pick up seismic activity that is made at the same frequency.

Thomas Lecocq, a scientist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, located in Brussels, was the first to notice this phenomenon.

According to Lecocq, the amount of seismic noise in Brussels has been reduced by about 30 to 50 percent since mid-March. Interestingly enough, this is around the same time Belgium started its containment measures.

Because of this reduction in background noise, scientists like Lecocq have been able to pick up on smaller earthquakes that some seismic stations—like the one in Brussels—wouldn’t have been able to before.

This phenomenon isn’t unique to Brussels, though. Once Lecocq shared his findings online, seismologists from all over the world echoed similar findings.

Celeste Labedz, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, mentioned in a tweet that Los Angeles also experienced less background noise.

Researchers from the UK, France and New Zealand also noted a decrease in background noise since containment measures were put in place.

These global efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus have helped to shed light on seismic activity that may have gone unnoticed. It also shows that people are listening to health officials and following lockdown guidelines.

“From the seismological point of view, we can motivate people to say, ‘You feel like you’re alone at home, but we can tell you that everyone is home. … Everyone is respecting the rules.’ Lecocq told CNN.

【推荐1】Life satisfaction is the way persons evaluate their lives and how they feel about their directions and options for the future. It's a measure of well-being and may be evaluated in terms of mood, satisfaction with relations with others and with achieved goals and self-concepts to cope with daily life. It's having a favorable attitude towards one's life as a whole rather than just an evaluation of current feelings. Life satisfaction has been measured in relation to economy, education, experiences, and residence, as well as many other topics.

Life satisfaction can reflect experiences that have influenced a person in, a positive way. These experiences have the ability to motivate people to pursue and reach their goals. As a matter of fact, in these experiences there are two kinds of emotions that may positively influence how people understand their life. Hope and optimism both consist of emotional processes that are usually directed towards the reaching of goals. People who have higher life satisfaction are always full of hope for a better future; additionally, optimism is linked to higher life satisfaction, while pessimism is related to symptoms in depression.

The psychologist, Yuval Palgi, studied the old-old-people who were primarily in their nineties. This subject group was found to have thought highly of their past and present, but they thought lower of their future. A large factor that was talked about in life satisfaction was intelligence. The experiments talk of how life satisfaction grows as people become older because they become wiser and more knowledgeable, so they begin to see that life will be better as they grow older and understand the important things in life more. But when they step into their nineties, future becomes a luxury to them.

According to Seligman, the happier people are, the less they are focused on the negative. Happier people also have a greater tendency to like other people, which promotes a happier environment, which then correlates to a higher level of the persons' satisfaction with their life.

Twin Cities Campus · Office of Admissions

240 Williamson Hall · 231 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Congratulations! You have been admitted to the University of Minnesota (U of M) Twin Cities. Your college of admission is the College of Science and Engineering.

We believe your accomplishments have prepared you well to thrive here. When you step on campus as a Golden Gopher, you will be involved in our world-class academic programs and will shape your future in cutting-edge facilities.

Choose a community bursting with Gopher pride. By choosing the U of M, you choose to work with classmates and professors who are “Driven to Discover.” When you choose the U of M, you will...

■Discover exceptional academics. With thousands of courses to pick from each semester, you can engage with professors who are leaders in their fields and make meaningful connections with your fellow students in our technology-packed active learning classrooms.

■Discover unique opportunities. At the U of M, your college experience goes beyond the classroom. Your knowledge and talents can shine in one of our 900+ student organizations.

■Discover an ideal location. Campus is in the center of Minneapolis and St. Paul, where you can work as trainees at one of the 18 Fortune 500 companies or thousands of startups and nonprofits in the Twin Cities.

■Discover great value. The U of M is committed to four-year graduation, which lowers your costs and gets you an internationally recognized degree sooner. The University has been named “best value” by Forbes, Princeton Review, and Kiplinger’s.

On behalf of the U of M, we are honored to have you join our academic community. In the coming weeks you will receive additional information about your next steps to becoming a U of M student. Welcome to the Class of 2024!

Executive Director of Admissions

Sincerely

Heidi Meyer

【推荐3】Sonya took Rupert, a rescue dog, back home three years ago, and soon found it liked attacking strangers and other animals, which she believed was caused by pain.

It took Sonya a year to develop a normal relationship with Rupert, during which she learned it was afraid of being left alone and also couldn't walk properly. Finally, she decided to take it to see a vet (兽医). After examining Rupert, the vet said its leg was broken, and it needed an immediate operation.

But when it had to go in for an operation on its leg, there was a problem - the vet Mike couldn't get near the dog. Mike and Sonya were left scratching (抓)their heads until one of them came up with an idea. Sonya said Rupert slept on a mouse suit so she suggested that Mike put it on.

At first, the dog barked (吠叫) wildly when Mike tried to operate on it in usual clothes. To make his patient feel at ease, Mike decided to dress up in the mouse clothes to see if it would be less worried. Amazingly, it worked. It stopped barking and immediately became good friends with Mike when he put on the suit. As a result, he was able to perform an operation on the leg safely and the result was quite satisfying.

After the successful operation, Mike hugged the dog around the neck, which isn't usually well - received by pets. Mike tried to be as respectful of its needs as possible and made time to give some attention. What Mike had done created a special experience or event in the dog's life.

【推荐1】Technology is a double-edged sword(双刃剑)— while it brings convenience, it also brings new problems. The sword of “social media” even has its preference: It cuts deeper into girls than boys.

Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University in the US, recently discovered an alarming trend: Since 2010, the number of teenage girls who suffer from major depression, showing signs like self-harm and suicide (自杀), has increased much faster than that of boys. It is social media again that is to blame.

Statistically, girls use social media more than boys. Boys tend to spend their screen time on games, where they talk to their teammates through headphones. Though not directly, this still counts as real human contact. Girls, however, simply type and browse through posts, which is a much more isolated (孤立的) experience. “They're not having a real-time conversation with someone most of the time,” Mary Fristad, psychologist at The Ohio State University, told NPR.

And when it comes to online shaming, girls are also more vulnerable than boys. “Girls face more pressure about their appearance, which could be exacerbated (加重) by social media,” wrote Twenge. Shannon McLaughlin, for example, is an 18-year-old from Blackburn College in the US. She shared with the Guardian how social media made her feel depressed.

But McLaughlin found a solution. She started volunteering with the National Citizen Service, where she made face-to-face contact with people. "It's so easy to forget the importance of real connections when we have hundreds of people that we' re trying to impress at our fingertips," she told the Guardian. And she hopes that others "look up from their phones and focus more on the world around them".

【推荐2】It is every kid’s worst nightmare(噩梦) and six-year-old Jaden Hayes has lived it twice. First he lost his dad when he was only at the age of four and then last month his mom died unexpectedly in her deep sleep.

“I tried and I tried and I tried to get her awake , but... I just couldn’t,” said Jaden.

No one could imagine how heartbroken Jaden was.

But there’s another side to his sadness. A side he first made public a few weeks ago when he told his aunt, Barbara DiCola, and now his guardian(监护人) after both his parents died, that he was sick and tired of seeing everyone sad all the time. And he had a plan to fix it.

“And that was the beginning of it,” said Barbara. “That’s where the adventure began.”

Jaden asked his aunt Barbara to buy a bunch of little toys and bring him to downtown Savannah, Georgia near where he lives, so he could give them away to anyone who will smile to him. “I’m trying to make people smile,” said Jaden.

Jaden targets people who aren’t already smiling and then turns their day around. He’s gone out on four different occasions now and he is always successful. Even if sometimes he doesn’t get exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

It is just so overwhelming to some people that a six-year-old orphan would give away a toy — expecting nothing in return — except a smile.

“I’m depending on it to be 33,000,” said Jaden. When asked if he thinks he can make that goal, he answered: “I think I can.”

【推荐3】It was another day to jump rope in gym class. Lynn and Mike turned the long rope in big, slow circles. The whole class hurried to get in line to wait for their turn to jump. Millie stood at the back of the line and frowned.

Nick went first. He watched the rope and ran in at just the right time. Everyone counted. He made it all the way to 30 jumps. One after another, the kids watched the rope ran in and jumped. Then it was Millie’s turn. She watched the rope go around and around, but she didn’t move. She felt like everyone was looking at her.

Millie’s friends cheered, “Go, Millie, go!”

Millie’s face turned red. At last, she gave it a try, but she failed.

The truth was that Millie had been jumping rope at home every day. With a short rope, she could jump 100 times without missing. She just didn’t how to run in and start jumping with a long rope. Since she was the only kid on her street, there was no one to help turn the long rope.

Just then, Ms Miles, the gym teacher, brought bunch of short jump ropes.

“Let’s see how long each one of you can jump without missing,” she said as she gave each student a short rope

“Ready, set. Go!”

Millie smiled for the first time ever in gym class. As she jumped, she sang rhymes quickly to herself.

After a while, Millie realised that everyone was cheering “Go, Millie, go!”

She was the only one still jumping rope! The surprise almost made her miss a step, but she kept going. When at last she was too tired to go on, she stopped. The whole class cheered. Everyone was looking at her and smiling. Millie smiled back!