【推荐1】My name is Caroline and I work as a doctor in a children’s hospital. I must share a heart-warming experience I enjoyed last week.

Last Friday there was a big party at the hospital. Most of the doctors and nurses would be there, but of course some of us had to stay to look after the children. I felt a little sad because I was not free to go to the party. I enjoyed dancing very much. While my friends were getting ready to go to the party, I felt very sorry for myself.

At ten o’clock, I went to see each child one after another and said good night to them. Then I came to a little boy called Jimmy. Jimmy was only 10 years old, but he already talked like an adult. Poor Jimmy was badly ill. In fact, he was getting weaker day by day. However, he was always thinking about others. We all liked the little boy very much.

When I came up to his bed, I noticed a piece of cake on the table beside his bed. When I was thinking why the cake was there, he said, “I’m very sorry that you have to miss the dance because of us. But we are going to have a party for you. Have you seen the cake? I saved it from my supper today, so It’s quite fresh.” I thanked him. “I’d dance with you myself if I was able to get up,” he added. His words warmed my heart.

Suddenly the hospital party seemed very far away and not at all important to me.

【推荐2】Jon Hoffman was sitting at a red light when he saw a man run out of a store carrying a plastic donation jar full of cash.Dressed in plain clothes，Jon Hoffman caught the man and pressed him against the hood(引擎盖) of his car. But Hoffman had trouble controlling the thief，and they got into a struggle.

“The detective has a military background，and he said he thought the suspect must have a military background，too，because he was able to break away so easily，” a local police spokesperson said.

The detective called out for help as a crowd gathered. Among those watching were Harvey and Kirby，two day laborers.

Harvey did what has become common these days—he took out his phone to shoot the video. “I hate to say it，but I thought that this policeman was doing something stupid，”Harvey said. “But when he asked for help，I thought，well，there wouldn’t be shooting if I got over there in time.” Harvey jumped into action，while he was still recording the video. So did Kirby.

“Harvey caught hold of the suspect’s arms，while Kirby seized his legs，and they were able to get the suspect to the ground to help Detective Hoffman put the handcuffs(手铐) on，”said the police spokesperson. The 27­year­old suspect was charged with resisting arrest and other offenses. The charity jar he stole held less than$50.

“I’ve been on the wrong side of the law several times in my life，”Harvey said. “It feels good to be on the right side and do something positive.”

After the arrest，the three men got to know each other at a local steak house—Hoffman’s treat，as a thank you.

【推荐1】If you've ever pulled a rolling suitcase through the airport, chances are that you've also been annoyed by this common occurrence: the suitcase starts rocking back and forth on each wheel and finally tips over.

"It's a very classic phenomenon in physics," said Sylvain Courrech du Pont, a physicist at the University of Paris Diderot. "So if you disturb the system it goes very easily unstable. This is shared by many, many phenomena in nature."

Courrech du Pont and his students wanted to get to the bottom of why luggage tips. So they built what looks like the structure of a wheeled suitcase, and then filmed it rolling on a treadmill (a machine for running). Then they modeled what they saw mathematically.

And here's what they found. Under normal rolling conditions, the forward motion of the suitcase is perpendicular(垂直的） to the wheels' axis of rotation（旋转轴）. All is good. But when you hit a bump or drag the handle fiercely and abruptly, one wheel lifts up. All of a sudden the pulling motion is no longer perpendicular to the still-rolling wheel's rotation axis, and the wheel corrects that by accelerating towards the center. But by that time the other wheel's coming down, the same thing happens, and now the suitcase is really rocking.

"And the first reaction you will have maybe is to slow down. But actually if you slow down you'll experience very big rocking. Therefore, the way back to a smooth ride is to keep up your speed," he says, "or move even faster, once rocking begins.

There are other solutions to suitcase instability—like doing a better packing job. "If you put heavy contents close to the axis of symmetry, then it will be stable, too."

And Courrech du Pont has one more piece of advice to avoid rocking in the first place: "If you go slow enough, it will always be stable." Keep that in mind, next time you're running to your gate.

【推荐2】A competition making up Versailles literature was launched on Sina Weibo recently. So what is Versailles literature?

Actually, the term has nothing to do with the French palace nor with literature. It came from The Rose of Versailles, a Japanese manga series about aristocratic（贵族化的）life at the palace of Versailles in France in the late 18^th century, and was coined by a Chinese influencer earlier this year. Known as humblebragging, it is a big takl disguised as a complaint. “I have too many houses. How can I decide which one to decorate?” and “I thought I lost weight this morning. So disappointed when I realized it was because I took off the huge diamond ring my boyfriend gave me last night” are some examples of Versailles literature. The intention is to show off --- usually things of materialistic values, yet one ought to pretend that’s not the point.

As the 19^th century English author Jane Austen famously wrote, “Nothing is more dishonest than the appearance of modesty.” The psychology behind humblebragging is to be recognized for one’s successes and be liked by others at the same time, according to scholars. In her article titled Why do people hate humblebragging? published in Psychology Today, psychologist Dr. Susan Krauss Whitbourne at the University of Massachusetts Amherst noted that humblebragging is a “strategy in pursuit of respect” because it draws attention to one’s accomplishments in a circuitous way.

However, studies on social media users show that humblebragging as a self-promotion strategy does not work. In the essay Humblebragging: A distinct and ineffective self-presentation strategy, the University of North Carolina researcher Ovul Sezer and Harvard University scholars Francesca Gino and Michael Norton concluded from their research that humblebraggers are perceived more negatively than straight braggers due to the former’s insincerity. “The critical factor differentiating the two groups of people is sincerity. People don’t like braggers, but they at least see them as more sincere than humblebraggers,” said Francesca Gino.

So, how can we annoy humblebraggers back? “Just pretend you don’t get whatever it is they try to show off,” a netizen advised. “And respond with genuine sympathy for their complaints.”

【推荐3】“How are you?” is a nice question. It's a friendly way that people in the United States greet each other. But “How are you?” is also a very unusual question. It's a question that often doesn't have an answer. The person who asks “How are you?” expects to hear the answer “Fine”, even if the person's friend isn't fine. The reason is that “How are you?” isn't really a question, and “Fine” isn't really an answer. They are simply other ways of saying “Hello” and “Hi”.

People also don't say exactly what they are thinking when they finish conversations with other people. For example, many conversations over the phone end when one person says “I've got to go now”. Often, the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse: “Someone's at the door”; “I’ve got to put the groceries（杂物）away.” “Something is burning on the stove（炉子）.” The excuse might be real, or it might not. Perhaps the person who wants to hang up simply doesn't want to talk any more, but it isn't very polite to say that. The excuse is more polite, and it doesn't hurt the other person's feeling.

Whether they are greeting each other or ending a conversation, people often don't say exactly what they are thinking. It is an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it's all part of the game of languages.