【推荐1】When another old cave is discovered in the south of France, it is not usually news. Rather, it is an ordinary: event. Such discoveries are so frequent these days that hardly anybody notices them. However, when the Lascaux Cave was discovered in 1940, the world was amazed. Painted directly on its walls were hundreds of scenes showing how people lived thousands of years ago. The scenes show people hunting animals, such as bison or wild cats. Other images depict birds and, most noticeably, horses, which appear in more than 300 wall images, by far outnumbering all other animals.

Early artists drawing these animals accomplished a monumental and difficult task. They did not limit themselves to the easily accessible walls but carried their painting materials to spaces that required climbing steep walls or crawling into narrow passages in the Lascaux Cave.

Unfortunately, the paintings have been exposed to the destructive action of water and temperature changes, which easily wear the images away. Because the Lascaux Cave have many entrances, air movement has also damaged the images inside.

Although they are not out in the open air, where natural light would have destroyed them long ago, many of the images have deteriorated and are barely recognizable. To prevent further damage, the site was closed to tourists in 1963, 23 years after it was discovered.

【推荐2】You might assume that being the apple of your mother’s eye could only be a good thing. But adults who believe they are their mother’s favourite child are at an increased risk of depression, according to a study.

Researchers think that being the target of sibling (兄弟姐妹) competition and feeling responsible towards their parents both take their toll on the preferred child. “There is a cost for those who realize they are the closest emotionally to their mothers, and these children report higher depressive symptoms,” said Professor Jill Suitor from Purdue University in Indiana, who led the study. “This cost comes from higher sibling tension experienced by adult children who are favoured for emotional closeness, or the greater feelings of responsibility for the emotional care of their older mothers,” added Dr. Megan Gilligan from Iowa State University, who also worked on the research.

The researchers used data collected from 725 adult children with an average age of 49, analysing levels of emotional closeness, conflict, pride and disappointment.

The researchers said that earlier studies had found that those who were closer to their mothers experienced less closeness with their siblings. Further, tension with siblings has been found to be especially high when adult children are both favoured and provide care for their mothers—a context that is particularly common when mothers are in their late 70s and 80s, as is the case in the present study.

Though few mothers or fathers would admit that they have a favourite son or daughter, studies have suggested they often do. One such piece of research, which was carried out by the University of California in 2005, found that 65 percent of mothers and 70 percent of fathers showed a preference for one of their children over their siblings. Also, a study carried out by Professor Suitor and Dr. Gilligan found that mothers tended to favour an adult child who they thought to be similar to them, in terms of values and beliefs.

Therefore, how we learn to love and be loved by people, how accepted we feel, how easy we find it to relate to others and expect them to relate to us can often connects with our upbringing.

【推荐3】Today about 70 countries use Daylight Saving Time (DST). Daylight Saving was first introduced during World War I in Australia. During the world wars, DST was used for the late summers beginning January 1917 and 1942, and the full summers beginning September 1942 and 1943.

In 1967, Tasmania experienced a drought. The State Government introduced one hour of daylight saving that summer as a way of saving power and water. Tasmanians liked the idea of daylight saving and the Tasmanian Government has declared daylight saving each summer since 1968. Persuaded by the Tasmanian Government, all states except two passed a law in 1971, for a test use of daylight saving. In 1972, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria joined Tasmania for regular daylight saving, but Queensland did not do so until 1989.

Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia have had irregular plans, often changing their dates due to politics or festivals. For example, in 1992, Tasmania extended daylight saving by an extra month while South Australia began extending daylight saving by two weeks for the Adelaide Festival. Special daylight saving plans were made during the sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The differences in daylight saving in Australia continue to cause serious problems in transport and many other social activities. It also reduces the number of hours in the working day that are common to all centers in the country. In particular, time differences along the east coast cause major difficulties, especially for the broadcasters of national radio and television.