【推荐1】Scientists believe that music influences our behaviors. They think that the sound of western classical (古典) music makes you feel richer. When a restaurant plays classical music, you spend more money on food and drinks. When the restaurant plays modern music, people spend less money. Without music, people spend even less.

Scientists also believe that loud, fast music makes people eat faster. Some restaurants play fast music during their busy hours. This makes you eat faster and leave quickly. Restaurants can make more money in this way.

Some scientists think that music makes you think and learn better. They say that music helps students to be more active. It is true that we learn better when they are relaxed. And listening to music can help us relax.

The next time you hear music somewhere, be careful. It might influence the way you do things.

【推荐2】There are many kinds of music in the world, pop music, classical music, folk music and so on. Do you know country music? It's a traditional kind of music from the southern states of America. I like it very much! It will take me away for a while after I am tired. The guitars and songs will take me to mountains and fields.

Country music usually talks of everyday life and feeling. It's like the spirit of America, easy to understand, slow and simple. Country music developed in the Southern United States. It was the folk music of American countryside. Many of the songs tell about the lives of farmers. They talk about love, crops or death. The life of the countryside can be hard, so the words in country music are often sad. At first, people played the music only at family parties. But it became more popular later. In the 1920s, people played country songs on the radio, and they made them into records.

When people in the countryside moved to towns and cities to look for work, they took their music with them. Country music continued to change and became popular across America.

John Denver was one of America's most famous country singers in the 1970s. His song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" is well-known and people still play it today.

【推荐3】①“Without music, life would be a mistake,” famous German philosopher (哲学家) Friedrich Nietzsche said over a century ago. Music is a big part of our lives. But in recent years, some US schools have cut music classes to control budgets (预算).

②For example, Chicago public schools fired (解雇) over 1,000 teachers. And among them, 10 percent of the teachers taught music, according to The Washington Times. In fact, this is not just a problem in the US. In other countries, such as China and the UK, music classes are not thought to be as important as the ones like science, Maths and history. That’s partly because music is not seen as a very important life skill, and it isn’t tested. Many students are busy with schoolwork, so parents and students choose to focus on subjects that are tested more often.

③However, learning music is beneficial in many ways.

④When playing music, you need different abilities to work together. It is not as simple as it looks. For example, when playing the piano, people see music notes and decode (解码) them in their brains. They also use their fingers to make sounds. You need to deal with all these things at the same time.

⑤Music has a special connection with science as well. You can see that many scientists are good at playing music: Einstein played the violin, and German physicist Max Planck was talented in playing the piano.

【推荐1】Do you know what information a tiny piece of your hair can give? The answer may include who your family is, which job you could be successful in, what illnesses you may get, and so on.

All the information is carried in your DNA. Every cell in your body has your unique (唯一的) DNA. It can tell you a lot of information about your family, health and personality (性格).

DNA was discovered by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss scientist, in 1869. However, for many years, nobody realized its importance. In 1953, Dr. James Watson and Francis Crick, two wonderful scientists at Cambridge University, finally discovered the structure of DNA. And they were given a Nobel Prize in 1962.

Gradually, scientists learned to “read” more and more of the information in DNA. In 1986, DNA testing was used by the police for the first time. The testing can be a helpful tool for the police to find out the criminal and solve the case. Today it is also used for finding lost children.

In 1990, the Human Genome Project was started in the US. Scientists wanted to make a map of human DNA. More than 1,000 scientists all over the world worked on the project, and it took them about 13 years to finish the project. It is really a big and meaningful project.

The more scientists know about human DNA, the more they can do. For example, it’s possible that many illnesses will be cured (治愈) in the future.

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【推荐2】Sometimes, the people who invent something have one idea in mind for their inventions. But in the end, it gets used for something completely different. That’s the way it was with the invention of gunpowder (火药) many thousands of years ago.

Some ancient Chinese scientists were mixing some things together to expect to form something they thought would make them live forever. They put their mixture on a small fire. But it started to boil, caused a fire and burnt down their house.

The ancient Chinese realized that something strange had happened. They tried to find out what they could do with this new mixture. After a long while, they found their answer. One day, after repeated failures with different mixtures, they added saltpeter (硝石) and sulfur (硫磺), two common materials. Poof! It actually exploded. They were pleased with their achievements.

The Chinese did not use their new creation for war. Instead, they made the first fireworks out of the newly invention. They used their fireworks as signals for many things. For example, another army was coming near.

They kept developing their creation gradually. They filled a piece of bamboo with the powder. These were the first rockets. That’s the way it is with inventions. The inventor gets an idea. As he figures out his invention, he has to try and experiment with different things. And sometimes he gets unexpected results.

【推荐3】In 1826, a Frenchman named Niepce needed pictures for his business. But he was not a good artist. So he invented a very simple camera, He put it in a window of his house and took a picture of his garden. That was the first photo.

The next important date in the history of photography(摄影术) was in 1837. That year, Daguerre, another Frenchman, took a picture of his reading-room. He used a new kind of camera in a different way. In his picture you could see everything very clearly, even the smallest thing. The kind of photo was called a Daguerreotype.

Soon, other people began to use Daguerre's way. Travelers brought back wonderful photos from all round the world. People took pictures of famous buildings, cities and mountains.

In about 1840, photography was developed. Then photographers could take pictures of people and moving things. That was not simple. The photographers had to carry a lot of film and other machines. But this did not stop them, for example, some in the United States worked so hard.

Mathew Brady was a famous American photographer. He took many pictures of great people. The pictures were unusual because they were very lifelike(栩栩如生).

Photographers also became one kind of art by the end of the 19th century. Some photos were not just taken of the real world; they showed ideas and feelings, like other kinds of art.