【推荐1】I used to tell my children that they were smart, because I was impressed by their rapid growth. I remember clearly watching my daughter figure out how to build a Lego house that would stand up on its own, and thinking: Look at this tiny architectural genius.

But decades of research now suggest that we should not tell our children they’re “smart” when they do impressive things. When I first heard it, I felt instinctively irritated. But after I dug into the research, I was persuaded. It all goes back to something called “growth” mindset, a term developed and popularized by Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford. Professor Dweck believes that we can change our abilities through effort and strategy. The alternative to a growth mindset is a “fixed” mindset — the idea that our abilities are inborn and can’t be changed. When we praise our children for being “smart”, based on victories like doing well on a test, we’re unwittingly (不知不觉地) encouraging them to believe that if they do poorly or make mistakes, they’re not smart.

It’s not just what we say that matters, but how we tolerate our children’s failures. A 2016 study by Dweck showed that parents’ “failure mindsets” affect their children more than their views on intelligence. In other words, if parents think that failure is shameful, their children are more likely to be afraid of making mistakes. The study concludes that everyone is actually a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets, continually evolving with experience. Whatever we say or don’t say to our kids, the key is to get them more comfortable with failures big or small.

It’s helpful for kids to understand that you make mistakes and learn how they happen. When you chat with them, you can describe what you learned, or how you strategized a solution. “You don’t have to deny you have negative emotional reactions,” Dweck said. “We, as a society, don’t do that enough because we feel embarrassed when we make mistakes.” But if we discuss our missteps more and explain how we overcame them, our children can learn to do the same.

【推荐2】To help the environment, many Americans have made the change from paper and plastic(塑料的) bags to reusable shopping bags. But a report by a Florida newspaper says that reusable shopping bags sold by some supermarkets have high levels of lead (铅), which can be dangerous to humans, especially young children. Now, there's a call for a rethink about the use of reusable shopping bags.

“When our families go to the store looking for safe and healthy foods, the last thing they should be worrying about is a bag,” Charles Schumer, a government official said.“Quick and complete research will allow everyone to make right decisions.”

The newspaper bought more than a dozen bags sold at Publix supermarkets from Florida supermarkets to test them for lead. The results showed that certain bags had lead levels that worried health officials. Some bags had enough lead in them to be considered dangerous waste if people were to throw the bags out with other rubbish. Lead in the bags may not move onto food. But over time, paint on the bags can break off and the bags can wear out. When this happens, lead can be freed.

The bags with the highest levels of lead had beautiful designs and many pictures. Plain（朴实无华的） reusable bags without them are found to have little lead. People worried about lead levels in reusable bags can turn to cloth. Paper bags are also a good choice, since paper can be reused.

【推荐1】Children are now more likely to want to work in social media or gaming than traditional careers, a survey has found. According to the new research, many seven to eleven-year-olds are looking at modern technology when they think about future jobs, rather than professions such as police officer or doctor. Children’s career aspirations are often based on factors such as gender stereotypes or what they’ve seen in the media, TV and film.

Around 21% said they wanted to be sportsmen or sportswomen, followed by 11% wanting to be teachers, and 7% wanting to be vets. Another 6% wanted to work in social media and gaming. This was a sign that there had been “a shift in the aspirations of children, built largely upon new communication methods and the growth of online and console-based gaming”.

“For more and more children and young people, online celebrities and YouTube gaming ‘vloggers’ have taken the place of TV and movie stars,” the report said. Social media and gaming is the fourth most popular career choice for children, while singer/musician and actor/actress further down the list at ninth and thirteenth.

“It could be argued that this is due to the growing fame and attraction of YouTube and video blogging stars, who are especially popular among younger audiences.” Also, these choices may also speak to children’s present worlds. Many seven to eleven-year-olds will spend their time gaming and perhaps simultaneously watching celebrity gaming bloggers instructing them how to do it.

The survey found that 5% of children who took part wanted to be in the police, with the same proportion planning on becoming doctors. A gender breakdown shows the top job choice for girls was teacher (19%), followed by vet (11%) and sportswoman (9%), while for boys it was sportsman (34%) followed by social media and gaming (9%) and police (8%).

This highlights the pressing need for closer ties between employers and schools, to make sure that all children have access to role models in a wide range of sectors to help them develop an awareness of career options at an early age. “This is important to ensure that all children—regardless of gender and backgrounds—can fulfill their full potential.”

【推荐3】At the foot of the Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang, a homestay (民宿) is attracting travelers from far and wide, which has won architectural medal at the 2021 German iF Design Awards.

The owners of the homestay are a couple in their late 30s who decided to return to their hometown three years ago. Li Xiumei used to be in charge of a division at a company in Hangzhou, and her husband was a sales director. It was an ordinary situation where Li’s husband was on business trips a lot and Li still worked on weekends. City life sometimes is not easy.

In 2018, they quit jobs and went back to Dongtianmu village, which lies in a forest of bamboo. The first time they drove into the village was one late afternoon. The cooking smoke was rising from the foot of the mountain, which gave them a very different feeling from the city.

The homestay was built beside her husband’s old countryside house. The old house is preserved (保留), while a brand-new building was built on its side and the whole site is made up of four courtyards. It has been updated to have a hall, a tea room, a kitchen, a dining room. Japanese cherry trees are planted in the east courtyard. A swimming pool is placed in the west courtyard, with a bar located on one side.

Li and her husband love gardening and music, and their new home gives them enough space to continue their interests and relax in the heart of nature. Li wants to share the quiet country life, so she makes her new home a homestay. In 2019, the homestay became an online hit after guests shared their experiences on social media. “The longer I stay here, the more I feel it was the right choice to come back, and this is more meaningful than making money,” Li says.

【推荐1】The values of artistic works, according to cultural relativism (相对主义), are simply reflections of local and economic conditions. Such a view, however, fails to explain the ability of some works of art to excite the human mind across cultures and through centuries.

History has witnessed the endless production of Shakespearean plays in every major language of the world. It is never rare to find that Mozart packs Japanese concert hall, as Japanese painter Hiroshige does Paris galleries. Unique works of this kind are different from today’s popular art, even if they began as works of popular art. They have set themselves apart in their timeless appeal and will probably be enjoyed for centuries into the future.

In a 1757 essay, the philosopher David Hume argued that because “the general principles of tastes are uniform (不变的) in human nature,” the value of some works of art might be essentially permanent. He observed that Homer was still admired after 2000 years. Works of this type, he believed, spoke to deep and unvarying features of human nature and could continue to exist over centuries.

Now researchers are applying scientific methods to the study of the universality of art. For example, evolutionary psychology is being used by literary scholars to explain the long-lasting themes and plot devices in fiction. The structures of musical pieces are now open to experimental analysis as never before. Research findings seem to indicate that the creation by a great artist is as permanent an achievement as the discovery by a great scientist.

【推荐2】So many of us hold on to little resentment (不满) that may have come from an argument, a misunderstanding, or some other painful event. Stubbornly, we wait for someone else to reach out to us — believing this is the only way we can forgive or rekindle a friendship or family relationship.

An acquaintance (熟人) of mine whose health isn’t very good, recently told me that she hasn’t spoken to her son in almost three years, “Why not?” I asked. She said that she and her son had had a disagreement about his wife and that she wouldn’t speak to him again unless he called first. When I suggested that she be the one to reach out, she resisted initially and said, “I can’t do that. He’s the one who should apologize.” She was literally (简直) willing to die before reaching out to her only son. After a little gentle encouragement, however, she did decide to be the first one to reach out. To her amazement, her son was grateful for her willingness to call and sincerely said sorry to her. As is usually the case when someone takes the chance and reaches out, everyone wins.

Whenever we hold on to our anger, we turn the “small thing” into the “big thing” in our minds. We start to believe that our positions are more important than our happiness. However, they are not. If you want to be a more peaceful person, you must understand that being right is to let go, and reach out. Let other people be right. This doesn’t mean that you’re wrong. Everything will be fine. You’ll experience the peace of letting go as well as the joy of letting others be right. You’ll also notice that as you reach out and let others be right, they will become less defensive and more loving toward you. They might even reach back. But if for some reason they don’t, that’s okay too. You will have the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your part to create a more loving world and certainly you’ll be more peaceful yourself.

【推荐3】There have been some suggestions lately calling for the end of traffic in some cities by the year 2034. In order to reduce all this traffic, governments are planning to take away one of its biggest contributors(促成物)-cars. But is this a good idea? Our first reaction may be NO-NO-NO. They're taking away our cars and how can we travel in the city daily? But when you consider the problem a little longer, you may find the plans quite sound and realistic. Here's why:

The one thing that annoys most big cities is the non-stop heavy traffic. You have to see how terrible it is to drive into a very busy city centre-London, Miami, Tokyo? I'd say it's very bad. City layouts(规划) simply aren't built to manage that many moving parts. If we allow only buses, taxis and bikes to use the road, traffic problems in large cities will be immediately solved.

If you ever go to a large city centre, you often realize the difficulty some people have with sidewalk-to-sidewalk travel. If you live in New York City, there are so many people crossing in such a small area, that it's often difficult to know what exactly is even going on. But if cities begin to do away with cars, we'd see an increase in out-of-town travelers more willing to walk about city centres in safety.

The one thing that troubles any driver is being stuck in a traffic jam in the centre of town. You move forward at a very low speed, feeling annoyed, mad, and helpless. But why go through this hassle? If we do away with cars throughout major cities, it will give drivers the chance to actually enjoy their journeys on more open roads. It's a strange thought, yes, but many drivers will tell you driving in city centres is like driving in hell(地狱).

【推荐1】Goldfish have pretty boring lives, so maybe it’s a good thing they can only concentrate for nine seconds! But according to new research, humans are becoming like goldfish. Our attention span (时长) is getting shorter...and it’s all because of technology.

“We move quickly from one site to another on the web, ”says Doctor Ted Selker, a computer scientist from Massachusetts, “and we are losing the ability to concentrate.” With millions of websites to choose from, the attention span of the average internet user is just seconds. There are other digital distractions (分心) too: email, instant messaging and quickie movies on websites. Some people are worried about the effect on young people. “You need time to understand and think about what you read,” says Julia Wood, from London. “Young people search the net all the time and their brains become full of useless information but there is no time to make sense of it. I am trying to persuade my pupils to read more books, so that they concentrate on one subject for longer.”

Other teachers are trying more unusual methods to improve students’ concentration. Anne Savan, from Wales, was so worried about her students that she started playing Mozart during her science lessons. She says that it had an amazing effect: “The music made them calmer, and their concentration was much better.”

But not everyone believes that there is a problem. Ray Cole, an educational psychologist says: “On the web, young people learn to make quick decisions about what is and isn’t worth reading.

They might look at five unhelpful websites very quickly, before stopping and reading a sixth useful website more carefully. In a world with so much information available, this is an important skill.”

【推荐2】Here are four books which will make young readers want to continue turning the pages.

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

Outrun the Moon tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl and her determination to succeed, even in the face of disaster. Mercy Wong’s life is completely turned upside down when an earthquake destroys her home and school. Mercy is determined to help her broken city heal. Outrun the Moon is a heartwarming story about the determination of a teenage girl. It’s the winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

OCDaniel by Wesley King

This first-person narrative is told from the perspective of Daniel, a 13-year-old who tries to hide his obsessive compulsive disorder as he struggles to fit into the world of middle school. Then he gets a note that puts him in the middle of a mystery that may change everything. Full of heartbreak and joy, as well as important lessons and themes, OCDaniel is a thrilling novel that will definitely make you cheer for Daniel and eagerly turn the pages.

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

With dreams of becoming a teacher one day, the main character, Amal, is living a simple, ordinary life in her Pakistani village until a terrible incident forces her to become a servant for the village’s landlord(地主). Her new life is a struggle, at times heartbreaking, but she stays strong. After many struggles, she finally returns to her loved ones and works towards her goals.

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

This novel tells the tale of six students who meet weekly to speak from their hearts about issues that are affecting them, from race, prejudice and privilege to immigration. As they express the feelings and fears that they hid from others and try to make sense of the world around them, the kids show the effectiveness of talking to others.

【推荐3】The Big Ben is located in the tower at the eastern end of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, Greater London. It was designed by Edmund Beckett and Baron Grimthorpe.

The Big Ben is very famous throughout the world, but nobody really knows why it is called Big Ben. There are two hearsays about this. Some people say that it was named after Benjamin Caunt, a boxer, who was called Big Ben. More people believe it was called after Welshman, Sir Benjamin Hall. He was the commissioner(特派员)of the work at the time of its installation in 1859.A story was told that during a debate in the Commons on what to call the bell, Sir Benjamin was about to give his ideas when a MP who sat behind the front bench shouted, “Let's call it Big Ben!” Then this name came into being.

The bell hasn't gone through a smooth road since the beginning of its design. Because there was great disagreement about the design of the clock. It took fifteen years to build. In 1857, the bell was completed and tested on the ground, but a four-foot crack appeared and the bell had to be cast again. Finally, the clock started ticking on 31 May, 1859, and struck its first chime(报时)on 11, July. Then in September, the bell cracked again. It was silent for four years but was eventually turned a quarter of a revolution(旋转). In this way, the crack was not under the striking hammer. Craftsmen made a square above the crack to stop it growing longer and it can still be seen today.

The Big Ben is famous not only for its 13-ton weight, but also for its accuracy(准确性) which is a result of its precise mechanism(机械装置). Even one extra penny's weight on the balance will cause a gain of two fifths of a second in twenty-four hours. Although there have been several problems, the bell is still striking today.Its chimes can be heard all over the world on the B.B.C.