【推荐2】Inside а tiny shop in Manchester, Adam Birce carefully carves at а woodblock. He looks carefully at each piece to ensure they fit and match before gently setting them together. Adam Birce, the owner of Four Strings, restores stringed instruments like violins, and his passion is restoring and appreciating what has already been crafted and loved.

Birce started playing the violin in grade school and grew to truly appreciate it. He played semiprofessionally out of high school and later got his degree in music at Virginia Commonwealth University as a violinist. After graduating, he landed a job selling violins. “As fate would have it, I was asked by my employer to learn to fix violins 15 years ago,” he says. “I soon moved off on my own to do restoration.” Since 2014, he has been on a mission with Four Strings to offer excellent fine-instrument restoration services to the community.

Violin restoration isn’t a self-taught skill. Each summer for the past decade, Birce has traveled to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts for up to two weeks to study under famous violin restoration expert Hans J. Nebel. Here, students learn everything from delicate edging repair to violin identification. “A lot of the work itself is learning as you go,” Birce says. “It’s a lot of problem-solving and critical thinking, like coming up with a woodworking plan.

“How long а job takes varies. Most are about 3-6 months for major work, unless a full top-to-bottom restoration is needed, which can take even longer,” Birce explains. “I leave that up to the client if they want to commit to that.” One of his longest jobs was working on a Scottish violin from the early 1800s that had been water-damaged. “I had to use every skill in my toolbox to fix it,” Birce laughingly recalls. “It was a very onerous job.”

If there’s one thing to be learned from Birce’s passion, it’s that each violin is unique in its own right. He compares the fine instruments market to the fine arts market. “A lot of these instruments are fine art,” he says. “I kind of say this is a Picasso I’m playing or a Degas. I’ve worked on a few, which is always a joy.”

【推荐3】Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the United States today because it is about simple but strong human feelings and events — love, sadness, good times, and bad times. It tells real-life, stories and sounds the way people really talk. As life becomes more complicated (复杂), it is good to hear music about ordinary people.

Country music, sometimes called country-western, comes from two kinds of music. One is the traditional music of the people in the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. The other is traditional cowboy music from the west. The singers usually play guitars, and in the 1920s they started using electric guitars. At first city people said country music was low class. It was popular mostly in the South.

But during World War II, thousands of Southerners went to the Northeast and Midwest to work in the factories. They took their music with them. Soldiers from the rest of the country went to army camps (军营) in the South. They learned country music. Slowly it became popular all over the country.

Today country music is also popular everywhere in the United States and Canada — in small towns and in New York City, among black and white, and among educated and uneducated people. About 1, 200 radio stations broadcast country music twenty-four hours a day. English stars sing it in British English, and people in other countries sing it in their own languages. The music that started with cowboys and poor southerners is now popular all over the world.

【推荐1】Despite the vital role they play in many ecosystems, animals considered to be “ugly” are being ignored by scientists. A study had found uglier animals attract less attention and less funding when it comes to conservation efforts and research. This could mean the ugliest animal population could be under threat.

The study was conducted by wildlife biologists Trish Fleming and Bill Bateman in Perth, Australia. They looked at research publications concerning 331 Australian mammal species that broadly fell into categories they labeled as “the good, the bad and the ugly”. It turned out that studies into “the good group” and “the bad group” were carried out while “the ugly group” was ignored.

Ugly animals, such as the fruit bat and the tree bat, are being ignored by conservationists. And some animals are even becoming endangered because of how they look. The Madagascan lemur (狐猴) called the aye­aye is so ugly that the natives have long seen them as a bad sign, or a sign of death, so they kill them whenever they see them. Other ugly animals under threat include the dugong (儒艮) and the proboscis monkey (长鼻猴).

Despite making up 45% of the 331 species studied, the ugly animals have attracted little attention from scientists. “We know so little about the biology of many of these species,” said Trish Fleming. “For many, we have catalogued their existence, but when it comes to understanding what they eat, their habitat needs, or how we could improve their chance of survival, we are still in the dark.

With Bill Bateman, Trish Fleming has called for improved funding for the lesser­known mammals. “It would be ‘tragic’ if humans ended up causing the extinction of more species without even knowing anything about them,” they said.

【推荐1】Once a circle missed a wedge (楔子). The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine Finally it found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

In some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some way a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted or never had.

There is wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and does not feel like a failure for doing so. There is wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive- he or she can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

Life is more like a baseball season, when even the best team loses one third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose. When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved wholeness that others can only long for.

【推荐2】Julie boergers, Ph．D a sleep expert from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center, recently led a study connecting later school start times to improved sleep and mood in teens．

"Sleep deprivation is common among teenagers, with potentially serious impacts on mental and physical health, safety and learning.Early high school start times contribute to this problem，"said Boergers."In this study, we looked at whether a delay in school start time would change students' sleep patterns, sleepiness, mood and caffeine(咖啡因)use."

Beorgers' team conducted the School Sleep Habits survey among boarding students attending an independent high school both before and after their school start time was experimentally delayed from 8 to 8:25 a.m.during the winter term.The delay in school start time led to a significant increase (29 minutes)in sleep duration on school nights, with the percentage of students receiving eight or more hours of sleep on a school night jumping from 18 to 44 percent The research found that younger students and those sleeping less at the start of the study were most likely to benefit from the timetable change.Daytime sleepiness, low mood and caffeine use were all significantly reduced after the delay in school start time.The later school start time had no effect on the number of hours students spent doing homework, playing sports or taking part in activities outside class. And once the earlier start time changed back during the spring term, teens reverted(恢复)back to their original levels.

Beorgers said that these findings are important for public policy."The result of this study add to a growing body of research showing important health benefits of later school start times for adolescents, " she said, " and we have students who are more alert(机敏的), happier, better prepared to learn, and aren't dependent on caffeine and energy drinks just to stay awake in class."

【推荐3】Today companies have branches around the world. More than 11% of the US managers and workers work online either full-time or part-time, and that number is continuing growing. It is believed that it is a waste of time and money to fly around the world for face-to-face meeting. An effective solution to this problem is to use Web meetings.

A large group of presentations, training classes and meetings are done online without losing the   face-to-face   experience.   Web   meetings   are   online   meetings   where   an   organizer   invites attendees(参会人员) to listen to or watch an online presentation by presenters. Besides, Web meetings can be recorded for later use or downloaded for playback.

Presenters can take surveys to study how to hold a successful meeting. Some Web meeting software programs can watch the users’ desktop behavior to see if they become not focused on the presentation and begin working on other documents. If so, the program can tell presenters when the listeners lose their attention, which will help the presenters know which parts of the meeting need improving.

Web meetings can work well because they’re connected by a server(服务器). Companies have two choices when it comes to these servers. They can either buy a special Web meeting server to hold their meetings at high speed, or they can pay for a Web meeting service center every time to let it help connect every attendee, whose speed is always worrying. The choice depends on how frequently the company holds Web meetings and the average number of people attending the meetings.

Web meetings are an excellent example of how technology is changing the way we do business. With all the technologies today, the traditional office might soon be a thing of the past.

【推荐1】Scientists are working to stop a deadly virus that infects(感染)pigs. The virus is causing huge losses for farmers in China and other Asian countries. Many farmers have tried to contain African swine flu by quarantining(隔离)pigs and destroying infected animals. But the spread of the disease into East Asia has stepped up the search for other ways to deal with the problem.

The virus had not been considered a major concern for researchers until it appeared in China last year. Chinese farmers raise about half of the world's pigs. Some researchers think the virus might have come from infected animals in Eastern Europe or Russia. Since then, it has spread to China, Vietnam and other Asian countries. Millions of pigs have been destroyed.

Although swine flu does not sicken people, it is very infectious and deadly to pigs. "Today's situation, where you have this global danger, puts a lot more emphasis on this research,” said Doctor Luis Rodriguez. He spoke to The Associated Press. Rodriguez leads the United States government laboratory for foreign animal diseases at Plum Island , New York. As a deadly virus kills pigs across Asia, scientists are accelerating efforts to develop a vaccine (疫苗).

Vaccines often are developed by killing a virus before it is put into an animal. The disabled virus does not make the animal sick, but it activates the body's natural defenses against disease. The immune(免疫的)system is then able to identify the virus and produce antibodies against it.

However, this method is not effective with all viruses including the one that causes African swine flu. For swine flu, scientists have been working on a different kind of vaccine. It is made from a weakened virus, not a dead one. The problem for researchers has been how to change the virus so it can be safely used.

Vietnam's government reported a few weeks ago that it was testing vaccines, but provided few details of its programs. In China, the government said scientists are working on a vaccine that genetically changes the virus. That is similar to a method being used by scientists in the United States.

【推荐2】Are people happier in nature with blue skies overhead and fresh green grass underfoot? Could noisy streets, crowded with cars and people, make us unhappy?

The possible mental health problems of city living affect a lot of people. The World Health Organization estimates(估计)that 56 percent of the world's population lived in urban areas in 2019. The WHO adds that that amount will increase to 66 percent by 2050. People often move to cities for better jobs and more cultural activities. But are they putting themselves at risk? Maybe. Experts at the American Psychiatry Association say that “natural environments or green spaces” do much good to our mental health.

Many studies have shown that nature can calm us and make us feel happy. Nature, experts say, can also help us learn better. And experiencing nature helps people recover from the mental tiredness that comes from day-to-day work. On the other hand, mental health experts say some research suggests that city living might hurt our mental health. But they cannot say exactly why.

What are the specific aspects of the urban environment which causes some people to develop mental illness? Andrea Mechelli, a doctor at Kings College, London, states, “There have been studies where people were literally taken out of an urban environment into a rural (乡村的) environment and their symptoms would improve. And we also see that the greater the city is, the greater the risk is.” Mechelli say that someone who lives in a city is three times more likely to develop psychological problem than someone living in the country.

Kings College researchers, along with city planners, land and building designers and others wanted to learn more about city living and mental illness. So, they created a smartphone app called Urban Mind. They say they wanted to understand how different parts of the urban environment affect mental wellbeing(健康).

The researchers found that being outdoors, seeing trees, hearing birdsong, seeing the sky, and feeling in contact with nature were associated with higher levels of mental well-being. They also found that these seeming effects of nature were especially strong in those individuals at greater risk of mental health problems. The Urban Mind Project team says it hopes “the results will inform future urban planning and social policy aimed at improving design and health.”

【推荐3】The other day I was shopping at the local Chinese grocery store. There was a line at the fish counter, but only one staff person was there to take care of the customers. Some customers ordered quite an amount of fish for that staff person to work on. At last I was the second in line. All I wanted was a couple of crabs and should get out of there in no time.

Noticing it was very busy at the fish counter, another staff person came over to help. I was ready to be served, but the staff person went to the end of the line and began to help a couple of ladies with snail (蜗牛). The customers in front of me, being served, turned around and looked at me sympathetically and the customer behind me called to the staff person, “You should start here,” pointing at me. He was, well, ignored.

If someone asked me, “What is the most important rule to follow in America?” I would reply without hesitation. “Wait your turn at all times.” Wherever you go here in this country, you will find people waiting in a line quietly to get anything: whether in the supermarkets, department stores, bus stops, or gas stations, it’s just a matter of waiting your turn. In a larger sense, “wait your turn” is more than just a guideline — it is a very basic rule that reflects the fundamental value of the western cultures. But in some situations your turn does not always come based on when you get there and how long you have waited in line, just like my case at the store. Even though this did not often happen, it did make me feel upset.