【推荐1】What is the ideal physique(体形)? The answer is ever-changing. But it is to a large extent work of a single company that dominated the past 60 years of body image standards.

Since its creation in 1959, Barbie has been in the leading position of promoting hardly attainable body image standards, for which it was often heavily criticized. Scientific research shows that the probability of achieving a Barbie-like body shape is less than 1 in 100,000!

Mattel, the company behind the Barbie doll, has recognized that the 60s’ idea of good body image is long gone. In an effort to keep up with social change, Mattel is adjusting the dolls' body type and skin color, introducing special editions.

There is now a Barbie in a wheelchair. There is a Barbie Astronaut, Rescuer, or Engineer. In their latest Barbie special edition, Mattel honors the women fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, including Dame Sarah Gilbert. In the hope that Mattel is adapting to modern corporate standards just as well as it is to social change, we’re attracted by what the company's sustainability data may tell us.

What does the data tell us? To answer this question, we’ve launched a sustainability-focused beauty contest-with Mattel as one of the contestants. The company scores relatively well on environmental and social metrics(衡量标准).However, in terms of diversity, Mattel is well below its competitor, Hasbro. This being said, the judges advise that beauty should be equally defined by the inside and the outside.

What does this mean? Be body-positive! As we’re approaching the second quarter of the 21st century, the importance of a healthy relationship between mind and body is being recognized. And with this, body image standards are changing, allowing for more freedom of expression and identity.

Mattel’s efforts in product diversity are a welcome step in the right direction, as the doll has its very own influence. We believe that Barbie’s future lies in the empowerment(赋予力量)of today’s youth, contributing toward a generation of confident individuals.

【推荐2】We have all been in situations where we have had to talk to people that we didn’t know before. This could be because we are in a lift with them or standing next to them in a line. Generally the situation is more uncomfortable if no conversation is made, so to avoid this we make what is called small talk. Today we will look at when to use small talk and what kind of things are proper to say and what we should avoid at all costs.

The most common situations where we use small talk are when we are forced to be close to people we don’t know. This could be waiting in a long line at the supermarket or sitting in a hospital waiting room. Again it is not unheard of to create small talk with someone who is sitting next to you on a plane if you are both travelling together.

There are several topics of conversation that we can touch on with someone that we do not know and are making small talk with. By far the most common topic the world over is the weather. It is so popular because it is such a simple topic to talk about that everyone notices and has an opinion to express. There are other topics for example if you are at a party and don’t know anyone, it’s likely that you could end up in a conversation with someone talking about sport or where they work.

There are some people who don’t mind talking about anything, but it is important to bear in mind that not everyone likes this. We should be careful when choosing which topics to base our small talk around. The key topics to avoid are religion(宗教)，politics and money.

【推荐1】Gina Camelli didn't set out to be a hero. In fact, she didn't even mean to be recognized for her efforts. Instead, Camelli's task was simple: to give back to the community where she was raised. And that's just what she did.

Warren, Ohio, lies just thirteen miles north of Youngstown, the former center of steel production, and now one of the poorest cities in the country. Thirty years ago, Camelli was a student at Warren High School where she now teaches Advanced Placement Psychology. As the economy took a fall, Camelli started to notice that not enough students had access to basic necessities, such as food, clothing and personal daily products. This economic uncertainty can have a lasting influence on students — affecting everything from the way they learn, to their ability to deal with social and emotional issues. Knowing this, Camelli decided to organize Paw Pantry.

Whether it's for food, clothes, school supplies or personal daily products, students and their parents can register for the district's website and fill out a request form for Paw Pantry products. From there, they can choose to pick their goods up and have them delivered to their schools or homes. Over a year has passed since the Paw Pantry began. Camelli has collected a lot of food, clothing, lunch boxes, backpacks, school supplies - even home goods including a refrigerator, a washer and a stove, which she received from Hardee's, the fast-food chain. Still, Camelli tries to satisfy more than just her students' needs; students also respect Camelli for her emotional support.

For Camelli, this dedication just comes with the job. "Teaching isn't just something you do in the classroom, " Camelli explains. "I think of my kids as my responsibility, and I would give the shirt off my back for my students," she says. Camelli is a community activist, a mental health advocate', and by many people's standards, she's most certainly a hero, but she doesn't see herself that way. She just thinks of herself as a teacher.

【推荐2】When Laura reached school-going age the discussions about moving became more urgent(紧迫的). Her father did not want the children to go to school with the village children and for once her mother agreed with him. Not because, as he said, they ought to have a better education than they could get at Lark Rise; but because he feared they would tear their clothes and catch cold and get dirty heads going a mile and a half to and from the school in the village. So empty cottages in the market town were examined and often it seemed that the next week or the next month they would be leaving Lark Rise for ever; but again each time something would happen to prevent the removal, and gradually a new idea came up. To gain time, their father would teach the two eldest children to read and write, so that, if asked by the School Attendance Office, their mother could say they were leaving the small village shortly, and in the meantime, they were being taught at home.

So their father brought home two copies of Mavor’s First Reader and taught them the alphabet; but just as Laura was beginning on words of one syllable(音节), he was sent away to work on a distant job, only coming home at weekends. Laura, left at the c-a-t s-u-t-s on the m-a-t’s stage, then had to carry her book round after her mother as she went about her housework, asking, “Please, Mother, what does h-o-u-s-e spell?” or “W-a-l-k, Mother, what is that?”

Often when her mother was too busy or too tired to attend to her, she would sit and fix her eyes on a page that might as well have been printed in Hebrew(希伯来语) for all she could make of it, frowning(锁眉) and studying the print as though she would make out the meaning by force of concentration(专注).

After weeks of this, there came a day when, quite suddenly, as it seemed to her, the printed characters took on a meaning. There were still many words, even on the first page of that simple book, she could not understand; but she could jump those yet make sense of the whole. “I’m reading! I’m reading!” she cried aloud. “Oh, Mother! Oh, Edmund! I’m reading!”