【推荐2】Do you like your name? Names are important to us. We have to live with our names for our whole lifetime.

For this reason, some parents in the US and Europe try very hard to give their children special names. Some people even pay a “naming expert (专家)” to pick a name for them. It is expensive most of the time.

However, not all parents do this. Many people read baby naming books or look online for ideas.

It is popular for parents to name their children after some family members. Other parents name their kids after well-known cities, like Austin or Brooklyn. Some parents give their children nature related (与自然相关的) names, like Reed or Autumn.

Some famous people have given their children strange name. For example, one artist named their child Audio Science, while another named their child Pirate (海盗).

If you think English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?

According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter (灰质). This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles (肌肉).

The researchers also found the effect is greater on the younger people who learn a second language. A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of British who only speak English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals (通两种语言的人)”, who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.

Scans showed grey matter density (密度) in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference was.

“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists. It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.

Professor Dylan of the University of Wales has researched the link between bilingualism and math skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible (灵活的),” he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”

The findings were matched in a study of Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of 2 and 34. Reading, writing and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance (入口) to another world,” explained the scientist.

When it’s 11:00 p.m., you may go to bed. But for some people, it’s time to have yexiao. Yexiao is the fourth meal of the day in China. It usually begins at 8:00 p.m. and finishes at 2:00 a.m. They have yexiao at home or at the night market (夜市).

The night markets in Xi’an are very famous (著名的). They are places for eating and shopping. Parents take their children to eat there. Young people can buy some nice things, like watches, hats and bags. Old people like sitting and talking to their friends.

Yexiao is not only about food, it’s a way of life. Eating with friends, talking and walking are all parts of it.

Embroidery (刺绣) is an important art form in Chinese culture. In the past, people embroidered on handkerchiefs, bed covers, tablecloths and dresses. Girls would embroider on a sachet (香囊) as a gift for their lovers. The most famous embroidery styles are Su embroidery from Suzhou, Shu embroidery from Sichuan, Xiang embroidery from Hunan and Yue embroidery from Guangdong.

Shu embroidery is the oldest of the four. It is known for its smooth needlework (针线) and beautiful colors. It dates back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). People sold it to other countries through the South Silk Road. It used to be a fashion item (时尚单品) in ancient Rome, according to China Daily.

Embroidery takes time and patience. It might take as long as a whole day to finish just 10 cm of embroidery. By the 1970s, Sichuan had as many as 5,000 embroiderers. But since modern machines can make cheaper embroidery products today, fewer people buy handmade Shu embroidery products. There are also very few young embroiderers, so the skill is in danger of dying out. To protect the skill, Shu embroidery was added to China’s intangible cultural heritage list (非物质文化遗产名录) in 2006.

It seems that self-help books are topping best-seller lists more often these days. More people are turning to self-help books for advice on how to live their lives. Last year, sales of these books in the UK rose 20 percent, reaching a record high of 3 million, the Guardian reported.

Famous people or psychologists( 心理学家) wrote many of the self-help books. They teach you how to deal with problems in your life—for example, how to get along with your classmates, how to manage your time well and how to find happiness in your daily life.

But can these books really help us with our lives? People have lots of different opinions about this.

Julie Hall from London is a big fan of self-help books. After she read more than 300 of them, she set up her own self-help website. Her site helps women succeed in the business world. “They(self-help books) can give you the courage to do whatever you want to do,” she told the Independent.

However, recent research by the University of Montreal in Canada might not agree with that. Researchers surveyed two groups of people—one of the group had read many self-help books, while the other hadn’t. They found that people in the group who had read more self-help books have more stress.

There is no single “quick fix” that can make our lives better. However, it’s always good to know that help is at hand when we need it.

Most bees are brown, hairy and 8 mm to 22 mm long. Bees live as part of a large family. Over 25, 000 kinds have been found. Among all of them, honey bees are the most common.

Honey bees always live in groups called hives (蜂群). Each hive has a queen, drones (雄蜂) and workers (工蜂). Like a human society, each bee in a hive knows its own job.

The queen is the largest bee. She doesn’t go out to work, but lays eggs. Sometimes a queen can lay 3, 000 eggs in a day.

Drones do not collect food from flowers. They are the queen’s husbands. When there’s not much food, drones are often kicked out of the hive.

Workers are the smallest and busiest bees. A colony can have 50, 000 to 60, 000 workers. They collect food for the queen and babies. They guard the hive and help to keep it cool by fanning their wings. A worker only lives for 28 to 35 days.

To collect a pound of honey, a bee may have to fly a long way. Sometimes it is equivalent to (相当于) twice around the world. Bees have to visit more than 10, 000 flowers to make a pound of honey.

Have you ever thought about what you are going to be when you grow up? Many people think we can have only one job in our life. We all know that this is not true. But quite a few people think this way. However, there are many examples where people became successful after changing their jobs later in life.

J. K. Rowling, the writer of the famous novel Harry Potter, was a school teacher before writing books. In fact, she was out of work before the first Harry Potter came out.

The famous 19th century artist Vincent Van Gogh was a painter from the beginning. He once worked as an art salesman and later become a preacher (牧师). It was only ten years before he died that he decided to become an artist.

Jobs are always open to change, the most important thing is to find what you are really good at or what you really want to do. Once you find the interest, it’s all a matter of how hard you work.

How much do you know about Chinese oil-paper umbrellas? They are not just tools (工具) to keep people away from rain or sunlight, but also works of art (艺术品) with rich cultural meaning in China.

Chinese oil-paper umbrellas are one of the world’s oldest umbrellas. According to historical records, the first oil-paper umbrella came out during the Eastern Han Dynasty. They soon became very popular, especially among the literati (文人). They loved to write and draw on the umbrella to show their literacy tastes and painting skills.

Oil-paper umbrellas are a necessary part of traditional Chinese weddings (婚礼). A red oil-paper umbrella is needed when the bride (新娘) goes into the groom’s home. That’s because people believe the umbrella can help stop bad luck. Also, the sound of oil-paper in Chinese sounds like “youzi”, which means having more children.

It takes quite a lot of time and effort to make a Chinese oil-paper umbrella by hand. Luzhou in southwest China’s Sichuan Province is now the only main production place for handmade oil-paper umbrellas in China. There, craftsmen (手艺人) must complete more than 90 steps and use over 100 different tools to make a single umbrella. With all their efforts, a traditional oil-paper umbrella made in Luzhou can stand strong winds and 3,000 openings and closings.

There is a traditional toy called taiping nijiaojiao. It is a clay toy and also a whistle (哨子) in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. It has a history of over 1,000 years.

Taiping nijiaojiao is made of the mud (泥) from the local mountain. It takes more than ten steps to make the clay toy, and the key step is to knead (捏) it with your hands. You can knead the clay toy into anything, like animals and plants. The blowhole is the most difficult part to make, for the size of the blowhole makes a difference to the sound. While coloring, you can use traditional cultural elements (元素) that carry good meanings. It’s hard to make taiping nijiaojiao. But when you finally make it, you will feel proud of yourself.

Zhou Baokang, a lover of folk art, learned how to make the clay toy from local artists about 20 years ago. He wants more people to know about it, so he has opened a museum to introduce the clay toy. He teaches kids how to make the clay toy, too.

There are many traditional art forms in China, but some of them have been lost. Luckily, the traditional clay toy taiping nijiaojiao is kept to this day.

A Chinese knot is usually made of a thin rope. It can be in the shape of an animal, a flower or a Chinese character with a special meaning. Red ropes are usually used because red is a lucky colour for Chinese people.

Many Chinese knots have special meanings. People think that these knots can bring them happiness or good luck, so they carry the knots with them or put them up at home.