【推荐1】In a foreign country, a man visited a local restaurant. He didn’t speak their language. He ordered something indecipherable (难以辨认的) off the menu. When the waiter brought him a plate of delicious looking fried noodles, he smiled and made an OK sign at the waiter with his thumb and forefinger linked in a circle. Looking angry, the waiter then picked up the dish and thrown it to his lap. What he did wrong, he wondered. Well, nothing is quite as it seems when it comes to using hand gesture in another country.

Gestures have been used to replace words in many countries, and they are often specific to a given culture. Gesture may mean something complimentary in one culture, but is highly offensive in another.

The gesture “thumb-up” is commonly misinterpreted. In English, it is popularly known as “thumbs up”, despite the fact that the action is commonly performed with only one hand. English-speaking Caucasians use it to signal “OK”, which is the same meaning as OK ring gesture. The two can in fact be used almost interchangeably.

Avoid using this gesture in Northern Greece unless you want to invite a fight. While American, British and Australian would use the thumb-up to signal hitch-hiking to the drivers, this message will not encourage a Greek driver or motorist to stop to give them a ride.

There are no right or wrong signals, only cultural differences. Lack of cultural understanding will lead to disharmony among people from different cultures. When we know what to look for, such encounters with other cultures are actually very interesting, fascinating and fun. It is certainly a great topic to discuss over a cup of coffee and cakes.

【推荐2】Koko the gorilla knew over 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language, and used them to do everything from asking for food to joking around. Her trainer and long-term companion, Penny Patterson, thought Koko went further still, signing in novel ways and showing complex emotions. According to Ms Patterson, when a cat that Koko loved was killed in an accident, Koko signed: “Cat, cry, have-sorry, Koko-love.” When Koko died last month, some of her obituaries (讣告) mourned the gorilla who had “mastered American sign language.”

Then came the backlash, from linguists and experts in sign languages. Sign languages have complex grammars, equivalent to spoken tongues in expressiveness. Koko’s ability, it was pointed out, fell well short of a fluent human signer. Moreover, Ms Patterson was her interpreter, a role that invited the question of how much she was inferring what Koko “must have meant,” and explaining away random signs. It was hard to be sure: Ms Patterson preferred speaking to journalists over sharing her video and raw data about Koko with fellow researchers.

There is no doubt that animals communicate. Animals from one region can share sounds that differ from groups in another, leading researchers to talk of animal “dialects.” Then there are the remarkable achievements of Koko and her primate predecessors, including a chimp delightfully named Nim Chimpsky. Yet there is an important distinction between communication and language. Take the misleading term “body language.” It is sometimes claimed that words convey just 7% of meaning, and that body language and tone of voice do the rest. This wildly overstretches an old study which found that most emotional messaging — as opposed to the propositional kind — comes from tone and body language, especially when a neutral word such as “maybe” was used. But try conveying a fact like “It will rain on Tuesday” with your eyebrows, and the difference becomes clear. Language allows for clear statements, questions and commands.

Nim Chimpsky’s near-namesake, Noam Chomsky, has argued that people have a kind of “universal grammar”, and that all humankind’s languages are mere variations on a theme. Mr Chomsky has changed his mind repeatedly on what constitutes the core of human language, but one obvious candidate is syntax — rules, not just words, which allow the construction of a huge variety of meaningful utterances (所说的话). This capacity may even be infinite. Any statement in English, for example, can be made longer by adding “He said that …” at the beginning. This property is called recursion: a simple statement (“It’s cold”) is embedded in a more complicated one (“He said that it’s cold”). Human syntax also allows for hypotheticals (“If she hadn’t arrived …”), talking precisely about events distant from the present, and so much more.

That gorillas lack syntax should not blind humans to their magnificence. But the fact that Koko could communicate should not mislead observers into thinking she possessed language.

【推荐1】Plastic recycling is a hot topic. But what’s the real face behind it? You diligently sort your rubbish; you dutifully wash your plastic containers; then everything gets thrown in a landfill or in the ocean anyway. According to one analysis, only 9% of all plastic ever made has likely been recycled. Here’s the kicker companies making all that plastic have spent millions on advertising campaigns lecturing us about recycling while knowing full well that most plastic will never be recycled.

A new investigation by National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) reports that the large oil and gas companies that manufacture plastics have known for decades that recycling plastic was unlikely to ever happen on a broad scale because of the high costs involved. “They were not interested in putting any real money or effort into recycling because they wanted to sell raw material,” Larry Thomas, former president of one of the plastic industry’s most powerful trade groups, told NPR. “There is a lot more money to be made in selling new plastic than reusing the old stuff. But, in order to keep selling new plastic, the industry had to clean up its wasteful image. If the public thinks that recycling is working, then they are not going to be so concerned about the environment,” Thomas noted.

We have been successfully convinced that people start pollution and people can stop it and that if we just recycle more, the planet will be OK. To some degree that is right: there must be a level of personal responsibility when it comes to the climate emergency. We all have to do our part. But individual action is a tiny drop in a heavily polluted ocean. We need systematic change to make a real difference. And, more than anything, we need to change what we value.

【推荐2】Finland is the happiest place on Earth, according to the 2018 World Happiness Report of 156 nations.

The report, released Wednesday by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks the countries of the world based on six different categories of well-being: income, freedom, trust, life expectancy, generosity and social support. This year's report also pays special attention to the happiness of each country’s immigrants.

The U.S. dropped four spots from 2017 and landed in 18th place, and last year’s winner, Norway, came in second place — followed by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland.

“The top five countries all have almost equally high values for the six factors found to support happiness, and four of these countries—Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland — have been in first place in the six World Happiness Report rankings since the first report" in 2012, ”co-editor John Helliwell told CNN. “In a division with such excellent teams, changes in the top spot are to be expected."

Rounding out the top 10 happiest countries was Canada in sixth place, then New Zealand, Sweden and Australia. The order of the top 10 nations changed from the 2017 list but the countries did not, according to the report. They were also 10 of the 11 top spots in the immigrant happiness category (including Mexico — 24th overall, but 10th in immigration).

“The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” Helliwell said in a statement. “Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations resemble those of other residents in their new countries. Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.”

Other major world powers placed in significantly low spots on the list. Germany came in 15th, the UK was 19th — followed by Japan in 54th place, Russia in 59th and China in 86th.

The report, based on surveys completed by citizen volunteers, came just under a week before World Happiness Day on March 20, when the UN declared to recognize “the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives”

【推荐3】After bikes and umbrellas are made sharable across China, some companies started eyeing the fitness market, so shared gym rooms have hit the streets in Beijing.

Unlike regular gyms that provide large, open spaces for many members to share at the same time, the newly built shared gym rooms are small, stand－alone rooms for a person to use, often set up near living communities.

Every four－square－meter room is equipped with a treadmill (跑步机), an air cleaner, a mirror, a television and an air conditioner, and users can let down the shades for privacy. When exercising, users can listen to music, watch movies and check emails by connecting to the Internet by the screen fixed on the treadmill. There's no shower or washbasin.

Similar to using a shared bike, users can locate a shared gym room by smartphone application, book a room in advance and then need to scan(扫描) a QR code for use. A refundable deposit(保证金) of 99 yuan is required, and users are charged 0.2 yuan, per minute.

The shared gym rooms are created by Misspao, a Beijing－ based technology company founded in July. Within two weeks since it was founded, the company has already got two rounds of funding valued over 100 million yuan, Yicai Global reports. The idea of the shared fitness experience is not entirely nascent. Last December, the Shanghai－based technology company VRUN set up shared treadmills in office and apartment buildings.

The sharing economy is still becoming popular in China. According to Yicai Global, confident investors are pouring millions into sharing start－ups. In March, the State Information Center published a report which predicts that the total value of China's sharing economy will see a yearly growth of 40% in the coming years, and it is expected to contribute around 10% to the country's GDP by 2020.

【推荐1】Below are the future optional majors for you to take into consideration before entering college.

Architecture

Degree: Bachelor of Arts

Architecture is the design of the built environment: buildings and their surroundings. As a profession, it is an art, science, and business with careers(职业)available in schools of architecture, and in architectural research. Department of Architecture Design 101 Alumni Hall Phone: 513-529-7210

Accountancy

Degree: Bachelor of Science

Accountancy is the language of business. Accountants prepare profit and loss statements, cost studies, and tax reports. They can work for any size firms, ranging from a large international firm to a small local accounting practice, and government. Farmer School of Business Student Services Office Phone: 513-529-1712

Journalism

Degree: Bachelor of Arts

Journalism includes the fields of Media & Culture, and Interactive Media Studies. In addition to fundamental reporting, writing, and editing skills, journalism combines the art of communication with the science of digital technology. Graduates may become magazine editors, reporters, or copywriters.

Department of Media, Journalism & Film 206 Williams Hall Phone: 513-529-5893

Anthropology

Degree: Bachelor of Arts

Anthropology is the study of humans. Individuals and societies are complex and dynamic, which means anthropology covers a lot of ground. The study of people can lead to almost any career path, including education, health care, social work, international development, government and human relations.

Department of Anthropology 120 Upham Hall Phone: 513-529-8399

【推荐2】Parties and social gatherings no longer excite us the same way they once did. This is not due to a lack of desire to socialize, but the smartphone.

At parties, people focus more on their smartphones than on their drinks. According to a recent study from International Data Corporation，over half of all Americans have a smartphone and reach it the moment they wake up, keeping it in hand all day. In addition, too many people are using smartphones while driving and as a result, they get into car crashes. 34 percent of teens admit to text while driving，and they confirm that texting messages are the major interruption while driving. People’s attachment (依恋) to their smartphones is unbelievably becoming more important than the lives of themselves and others.

Just as drivers dismiss the importance of focusing while on the road, many people also fail to recognize the significance of human interaction. When with their friends, some people pointlessly (无谓地) check or send messages in the presence of their friends., which means that their friends are less important. In addition, relying on our smartphones to make friends does not give us the same advantages as making new friends in the real world. Face-to-face conversations will give us the chance to improve our communication skills in the long run.

As many people risk their lives and the lives of people around them just to send a text or mindlessly check their messages, smartphones are in many ways more dangerous to people. The technology shows the achievement weaken the value of communication. Not only is the smartphone affecting our desire to interact face to face, but it is also lowering people’s ability to communicate.

The big question which shocked parents often ask their child after a confrontational（冲突） moment is, "Where did you get this attitude from?" I know you hate to admit it, but I get much of my determined and strong-willed nature from you.

Mom, I know it's hard dealing with the teenage anxiety and the ever-changing moods that come with raising a child. But you should also marvel at the fact that I've made it this far, that I'm healthy and happy.

When I was small, I would attend barbecues and family events and wander away from my parents. It wouldn't be long before someone would stop me to ask whether I was my mother's daughter.

"Your mom is Melissa," they'd say, a warm smile on their faces. "Is that Tight?” I would nod. I think parents feel much hurt when their child talks back or defies them, I was shocked at this statement. To me, I acted nothing like you, Mom.

No one says, ”I know you're Melissa's daughter because of your eyes and nose". It's the character traits（特点）that seal the deal. Dry wit, intelligence, and yes, maybe a little bit of attitude-these are the things I am grateful I have received from you. There's nothing wrong with having attitude.

Like for most black individuals, attitude is what defines you and me, and it's what keeps us from being mentally oppressed and defeated. Attitude is a non-violent form of protection and confrontation-where would we be in the world without this tool? Surely not where we are.

Mom, when people ask me where I get my attitude from, I tell them: you. And when they ask me where I got my drive, my work ethic, my good hair, and my sense of humor, I say you as well. I will always say this.

When I'm asked why I am the way I am, why I refuse to allow others to hurt me with their words or actions and why I think and speak about things openly and without fear. I'll tell them it's because of you.

I'll complain to you about the arguments between us that leave me wondering about how God made us so much alike that we hardly even noticed. But I'll tell them about you.

Love,

Malahni

【推荐1】In life，once on a path，we tend to follow it，for better or worse.What's sad is that even if it's the latter，we often accept it anyway because we are so used to the way things are that wed don't even recognize that they could be different This is a phenomenon psychologist call functional fixedness.

This classic experiment will give you an idea of how it works and a sense of whether you may have fallen into the same trap: People are given a box of tacks (大头钉) and some matches and asked to find a way to attach a candle to a wall so that it burns properly.

Typically, the subjects try tacking the candle to the wall or lighting it to fix it with melted wax. The psychologists had, of course, arranged it so that neither of these obvious approaches would work. The tacks are too short, and the paraffin (石蜡) doesn't stick to the wall. So how can you complete the task? The successful technique is to use the tack box as a candle-holder. You empty it, tack it to the wall. and stand the candle inside it. To think of that, you have to look beyond the box's usual role as a receptacle just for tacks and re-imagine it serving an entirely new purpose. That is difficult because we all suffer to one degree or another from functional fixedness.

The inability to think in new ways affects people in every corner of society. The political theorist Hannah Arendt coined the phrase“frozen thoughts”to describe deeply held ideas that we no longer question but should. In Arendt's eyes, the self- content reliance on such accepted “truths”also made people blind to ideas that didn't fit their worldview, even when there was plenty of evidence for them.

Frozen thinking has nothing to do with intelligence, she said,“It can be found in highly intelligent people.”

【推荐2】NEW YORK—Women are now as likely to use the Internet as men--about two-thirds of both genders(性别)--yet a new study shows that gaps remain in what each sex does online.

American men who go online are more likely than women to check the weather, the news, sports, political and financial information, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported Wednesday. They are also more likely to use the Internet to download music and software and to take a class.

Online women, meanwhile, are bigger users of e-mail, and they are also more likely to go online for religious information and support for health or personal problems.

“For men, it's just, 'Give me the facts',” said Deborah Fallows, who wrote the report based on six years of Pew surveys. “For women, it's 'Let's talk about this. Are you worried about this problem? ' It’s keeping in touch and connecting with people in a richer way.”

About two-thirds of the 6,403 adults surveyed by Pew during 2005 said they use the Internet. By gender, it was 68 per cent of the male respondents(调查对象), and 66 per cent of the female participants－a statistically insignificant difference given the study's margin of sampling error (误差幅度) of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

In 2002, by contrast, the gap was slightly larger: 61 per cent vs. 57 per cent.

The surveys find that for many activities, such as getting travel information or looking up a phone number, men and women are equally likely to use the Internet.

【推荐3】The populations of common animals are just as likely to rise or fall in number in a time of accelerating global warming as those of rare species, a study suggests.

Until recently, scientists were still accumulating data on how animal populations were shifting over time globally across the different regions of the planet.

Making use of the newly available data, a team of University of Edinburgh researchers studied nearly 10000 animal populations recorded in the Living Planet Database between 1970 and 2014 to provide a new perspective on animal population change. These include records of mammals, reptiles, sharks, fish, birds and amphibians.

The team found that 15 percent of all populations declined during the period, while 18 percent increased and 67 percent showed no significant change. Amphibians were the only group in which population sizes declined, while birds, mammals and reptiles experienced increases. The overall decline in amphibians makes them a priority for conservation efforts, researchers say, as their loss could have knock-on effects in food chains and wider ecosystems.

Gergana Daskalova, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said, “We often assume that declines in animal numbers are prevalent everywhere. But we found that there are also many species which have increased over the last half of a century, such as those which do well in human-transformed landscapes or those which are the focus of conservation actions.”

Dr. Isla Myers-Smith, also of the School of GeoSciences, who co-authored the study, said, “Only as we bring together data from around the world, can we begin to really understand how global change is influencing the biodiversity of our planet.”