【推荐3】It could be time to admit that you have a habit of putting off your tasks because of you wasting much time on the Internet. If you are ready to reduce the time you spend on it, it may seem challenging.     1    

Monitor your Internet usage time. To break that habit, learn how to manage the time you spend online. Monitor how long it takes you to do each task and record exactly what you did.     2     You’d be surprised at how much time you actually spend on necessary instead of unnecessary online activities.

    3     While it may feel strange to use technology to stop you from using technology, this is where we are today. To increase your productivity while you are online, use apps that block your go-to sites. This will lessen the desire to jump over to these sites if the task at hand is challenging.

When working, avoid using your phone. Due to smart phones, it is now very easy to access the Internet. You have to stop wasting time online. Put away your phone when you are working or studying. So you are unable to see or hear any signals when they come up.     4     So you are unable to check your phone when it is out of sight.

Seek professional help.    5     If you can’t seem to stick to your own boundaries and you are spending more time online than you are with real people, it may be time to seek professional help. Recently, Internet addiction has become a cause for concern in clinical psychiatry.

【推荐2】Lucca, a retired US Marine Corps dog, was awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal at a ceremony in Wellington Barracks in London on Tuesday. The award is considered the animal equivalent (相等的东西)）of the Victoria Cross and was given out by veterinary charity. People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA).

The 12-year-old German shepherd (牧羊犬)）completed over 400 separate missions during six years of service. In 2012, Lucca discovered a 301b explosive (爆炸的）device while on patrol (巡逻），and when she started searching for other devices ，a second exploded . She lost her left leg and suffered severe chest burns, but thanks to life-saving first aid from her handler , Corporal Juan ，she was saved and recovered.

None of the soldiers were hurt in the explosion which took Lucca’s leg. Corporal Juan said, "Through all of her treatment and in spite of the pain she was in, her temperament never changed. Her fighting spirit was still clear to see and I was so proud of how quickly she recovered. "

Lucca is the 67th animal to be awarded a PDSA Dickin Award and the first US Marine Corps dog. The award, started in 1943 by PDSA founder, Maria Dickin, has been previously awarded to 30 dogs, 32 WWII(World War II) carrier pigeons, three horses and one cat.

The medal was awarded to Lucca by PDSA Director General, Jan Mcloughlin, who said, "Lucca's bravery together with devotion to duty makes her a hugely deserving recipient (接受者) of the PDSA Dickin Medal. Her ability and determination to seek out arms and explosives protected human life.”

Lucca attended the ceremony with her current owner, Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Willingham. Willingham said, “Lucca is very smart and loyal, and had an amazing drive or work as a search dog. Besides her unbelievable detection abilities, she was instrumental in increasing morale (士气)for the armies we supported.”

【推荐3】Terasa Hill did not intend to do something unplanned. It began when Terasa, who had grown up around horses, was observing a horse auction (拍卖). A chestnut: racehorse was for sale? The horse had an injured leg, but that didn’t matter “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” said Terasa.

When the bidding started, Terasa surprised herself by stepping in. There was no way she was going to allow that horse to have an uncertain future. At MYM450, the bidding stopped! Terasa became the new owner of Sierra, a nervous racehorse with an unfortunate past.

Sierra, limping (病) and hurt with pain from a broken knee, became a labour of love for Terasa. After three long months of nursing her under the guidance of a local animal doctor, the leg recovered and Terasa’s most impressive game began.

It wasn’t only Sierra’s leg that needed to recover; Sierra needed to relearn how to trust people. Terasa thought the best way to win Sierra’s trust and fondness was to feed her treats. Terasa provided Sierra with many treats, but none passed the sniff (嗅) test—Sierra turned up her nose at all of them. Desperate, Terasa experimented by making her own mixture of molasses and grains, which she baked in her own kitchen. The cookies were a hit with Sierra and other horses, sending Terasa’s life in a new direction.

Terasa look her treats, called “Barnies,” to a local store. They sold like hotcakes, and within months local businessmen began demanding for more. Terasa’s kitchen was no longer big enough for the increased demand, which forced her to move her operation to an Oshawa company.

Then a serious health problem threatened to derail her plans. Terasa called upon the same determination that had helped her save Sierra to help her overcome her own illness. Family and friends came to her rescue and kept Barnies Ltd. going. Almost a year later, healthy and more resolute than ever, Terasa found a national distributor and Bainies began selling in 144 stores across Canada.

And what about Sierra, the inspiration for all this success and change? The horse has fully recovered and has become a wonderful riding horse.

【推荐1】A city in Netherlands is planning to construct a pretty bike path made of recycled wood.

The first of its kind in the world, the path near the city of Emmen will be surfaced not with the usual asphalt（沥青） but with wood chips packed together with organic resin(有机树脂).

The idea behind the path is to cut the use of conventional, less eco-friendly materials such as concrete, which is very difficult to recycle.And the creation of the wood chips will require no direct cutting down of trees; the company leading the experiment, Grontmij, plans to use waste products from sawmills(锯木厂).

The idea of creating a permanent road from a material that is celebrated for its biodegradability(生物降解性)might seem ridiculous. But the engineers working on the path insist that the wood and resin surfacing will stay in good condition for a long time, with a working life at least as long as concrete or asphalt. Rudi van Hedel, project manager of bio-based economy at Grontmij, explained that the light weight of the material also makes it far easier to move.

However, van Hedal said, “At present, the material costs of the path are higher than those of traditional paths made of asphalt or concrete, but the construction costs are comparable or perhaps slightly cheaper. We expect that as production ability increases, the costs will go down. In the future, we hope to use bio-fibres(生物纤维)that are cheaper than the wood fibres we’re currently experimenting with, and we expect that biodegradable materials will be able to compete with asphalt and concrete.”

【推荐2】Naturally, parents praise their kids. They want to encourage their children every day. But when it comes to building self-esteem (自尊) in children, praise doesn’t always have a positive effect, according to a special edition of the journal Child Development. The issue, edited by Eddie and Thomas, is focused on research into how children develop a sense of self and building your child’s confidence takes different skills than you might think.

Eddie points out that children are born without a sense of self, but it doesn’t take long before some kids have a lot of confidence and may feel superior to peers, while others may carry more self-doubt and see themselves as inferior. Yet no one really understands what causes children to view themselves the way they do. Surprisingly little is known about the origins of children’s self-concept,” Eddie said.

Research has found that when kids have a warm, loving relationship with their parents, they develop higher self-esteem. However, when they are given endless praise that is inequal to their achievements, their self-esteem may drop.

Instead of lavish praise, parents should focus on warmth to build self-esteem, researchers have found—specifically, parents should show interest in their kids’ activities and share joy with them. This makes children feel noticed and valued. According to Eddie’s own research, children may develop lower self-esteem when their parents give them lots of positive and overstated praises. Too much praise can make children worry about disappointing their parents, and may lead to an unhealthy attitude toward failure. Other studies suggest that parents can teach children that failure is beneficial by encouraging kids to ask themselves: “Why didn’t I achieve the result I wanted, and what can I do to change the outcome in the future?”

Additionally, it’s important for parents to encourage the belief that kids can develop basic abilities through devotion and hard work. Kids who are praised for their effort instead of their ability are more likely to develop a growth mindset, which have a positive impact on their confidence.

【推荐3】In the famous musical My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle, the poor daughter of a dustman who speaks with a thick Cockney accent, becomes the unwitting (不知晓的) target for a bet between two phonetics scholars. By the end of the musical, Doolittle is able to pronounce all of her words like a member of the British elite, fooling everyone at an embassy ball about her true origins.

It’s hard to imagine a version of My Fair Lady set in the U.S. because, unlike the British, Americans seem either unwilling or unable to honestly acknowledge their own social class. But a new set of scientific studies conducted by Michael Krauss and his colleagues at Yale University show that Americans find it easy to make distinctions about other people’s social class just by listening to them speak.

In one study, the researchers asked 229 people to listen to 27 different speakers who varied in terms of their age, race, gender and social class. The participants heard each speaker say a total of seven different words. Based on just this short audio, participants were able to correctly identify which speakers were college-educated 55 percent of the time-more than what would be expected by chance. A major limitation of this study, however, was that it used college education as a criterion for social class.

Then in another experiment, 302 participants were asked to either listen to or read transcripts (文本) from 90 seconds of recorded speech in which the speakers talked about themselves without explicitly mentioning anything about their social class. Participants were asked to judge what they thought the social classes of the speakers were by using a 10-rung ascending (上升的) ladder of increasing income, education and occupation. They found that participants who heard the audio recordings were more accurate in judging where the speakers fell in terms of their social status.

To show whether these inferences have real-world consequences, Kraus and his colleagues ran another experiment. They recruited 274 participants, all of whom had past hiring experience, to either listen to the audio or read a transcript of the content. The findings showed that participants were able to accurately judge the social class of the candidates and that this effect was stronger for participants who had heard the audio recordings. In addition, participants judged the higher-class candidates as more competent, a better fit for the job and more likely to be hired.

Taken together, this research suggests that despite our discomfort about the topic, Americans are able to easily detect one another’s social class from small snippets of speech. Moreover, we use this information to discriminate against people who seem to be of a lower social class. This research identifies social class as another potential way that employers may discriminate against candidates, perhaps without even realizing it.