【推荐1】If we compare active listening with passive listening, is one better than the other? As we will find one is better than the other for many situations but not necessarily all. Many people think that listening is a passive business. It is just the opposite. Listening well is an active exercise of our attention and hard work. It is because they do not realize this, or because they are not willing to do the work, that most people do not listen well.

Listening well also requires people pay all their attention to someone else. A necessary part of listening well is the rule known as “bracketing”. Bracketing includes the temporary giving up or setting aside of your own prejudices (偏见) and strong wishes, to experience as far as possible someone else’s world from the inside, stepping into his or her shoes. That means if you want to listen well you should have a short acceptance of the other person. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will seem quite willing to open up the inner part of his or her mind to the listener. True communication is under way and the energy required for listening well is so great that it can be completed only by the will to improve oneself for the growth of each other.

Most of the time, we lack this energy. Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listening well, what we are usually doing is listening selectively. Often we have a prepared list in mind and wonder, as we listen, how we can achieve certain expected results to get the conversation over as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us. Many of us are far more interested in talking than in listening, or we simply refuse to listen to what we don’t want to hear.

It wasn’t until toward the end of my doctor career that I have found the knowledge that one is being truly listened to is always therapeutic (有疗效的). In about a quarter of the patients I saw, surprising improvement was shown during the first few months of psychotherapy (心理疗法), before any of the causes of problems had been uncovered or explained. There are several reasons for this experience, but the most important among them, I believe, was the patient’s sense that he or she was being truly listened to, often for the first time in years, and for some, perhaps for the first time ever.

Henan with an area of 167, 000 square kilometers (64, 479 square miles) lies in the east-central part of China. It borders with Anhui and Shandong to the east, Shanxi and Hebei to the north, Shaanxi to the west and Hubei to the south. At present, Henan has a population of 9936, 5519. Henan has a warm-temperate climate. Dry and windy in winter and spring, the province is hot and rainy in summer and hot in strong sunlight during the autumn months.

The name of the province Henan comes from its geographic location. Henan means ‘the south of the river’, showing that the province lies in the south of China’s Yellow River. Given the higher location, Henan is an important traffic center. It is also the cradle of Chinese civilization since it had been the political, economic and cultural center of the country for more than 3, 000 years. More than 20 capitals were set here in history and the four great inventions of ancient China were all created from Henan.

A visit to Henan is like a talk with many historical places. While traveling to Henan, you cannot miss the Zhengzhou’s Shaolin Temple, Luoyang’s Longmen Grottoes, Sanmenxia’s Hangu Pass, and Kaifeng City Wall.

①Henan province whose location is on the Yellow River is considered the cradle of Chinese civilization because of its history and culture.②This rich historic heritage has leftitwith a large number of historic treasures, from earliest houses to earliest articles for daily use.③The remains of some of the earliest human homes have been discovered here, including the over 7000-year-old Peiligang Culture Site, the 6000-year-old Yangshao Culture Remains and the 5000-year-old Dahe Culture Remains.④All these cultural remains have great meanings in the history of Chinese civilization.

Counting the hairs on your head would be very difficult. Many have tried, but most people give up after losing count or getting bored! However, scientists say people have more than 100,000 hairs on their heads on average. Of course, this number is different from person to person. Some people have much more hair than others.

What causes hair loss? There are many reasons, such as stress, illness and styling. It also runs in families. Besides, many people simply lose hair as they grow older. To avoid losing hair, you should wash your hair correctly and condition（养护）your hair to help keep your hair healthy. It’s also important to be gentle when brushing or combing hair.

Hair loss is not the same as daily shedding（脱落）. People lose an average of 50 to 100 hairs a day. It’s normal. If you are losing more hair than average, talk to the adults you trust. They can help you decide whether to ask a doctor for help.

Why do humans have hair on their heads? Most other mammals（哺乳动物）have thick fur（毛）covering their whole bodies. While humans grow small and fine（细微的）hairs on much of their skin, it’s much thicker on the top of the head. Scientists say the answers come down to evolution. Humans probably evolved without fur because they have more sweat glands（汗腺）than other mammals. Humans walk upright on two legs. Therefore, the top of their heads needs protection from the sun. This is why people have more hair on their heads than on the rest of their bodies. The hair also helps keep heat in cold weather and keep a healthy body temperature.

【推荐2】Every kid has his or her own favorites. Dolls, dinosaurs, remote controls and cellphones—they might have a toy box with all kinds of playthings to keep them excited, but there’s a favorite they always reach for first—cars. Although the sex difference in the toy world remains, it’s not only little boys who are drawn to all things with wheels. That my 20-month-old daughter dotes on the red bus toy proves this.

From age 0 to 2, children are in the sensorimotor (感觉运动的) stage of development, explains Alyssa Wilkins. “They are learning by taking in everything through their senses — sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing,” Wilkins says. “Toys and real-life objects like cars are very sensorially engaging. Kids can interact with toy cars, trucks and so on through spinning (旋转) their wheels, watching them move in different directions, or hearing the sounds they make.”

Also, kids are just naturally drawn to loud and moving objects. “They see the lights on the cars and the rolling wheels, and hear the sound of the running engine. It’s very attractive.” Wilkins says. “Kids will always be drawn to attractive and loud things because that is what engages (吸引……的注 意) their brain and sensory systems.”

Another attraction of toy vehicles is that they’re typically small enough to fit in a child’s hand. Cars become the favorite of both boys and girls because they can put their cars in their pockets or carry them around. A car is also a cause-and-effect toy—it teaches children that their actions can make something happen. “It’s super interesting and exciting for kids to learn that they can change something in their environment and they may feel proud of what they have done.” Capanna-Hodge says.

Every child is unique in how they play with toys, and the reasons for their play style may be different and complex. Finally, how your kids play with their toy vehicles could be a little window into what controls or excites them.

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In many ways, our memories define (定义) our sense of self. You first have a sense of yourself early in life, perhaps as young as 18 months, when you recognize that the little baby you see in the mirror is really you, and not another child. As you progress through childhood and into teenage years, you start to develop a set of views about your identity (身份), including how your body looks and performs, your abilities, your personality and your place in society.

While we are growing up, we start to create our own descriptions about the events we have gone through, or what I call the “life story”. Our identities are shaped by our life stories, as the memories of these stories gradually become a part of our sense of self. Of all these memories, the most important are “self-defining memories”. They are remembered most clearly and can help to build up our overall sense of self most greatly.

Learning to recognize your own self-defining memories can help you gain important insights about your identity. The easiest way to discover your own self-defining memories is by thinking about the events in your life that you are most likely to tell other people about when they say “tell me a little about yourself”.

However, self-defining memories are always changing as you experience more events. They may vary according to your age and what you care about in present life.

In a study, scientists compared older adults with college students. They found that older adults were more likely to feel more positively (正面地) about their self-defining memories, even if the memories were of events that were negative in nature. A similar study also suggests that older adults have found ways to make sense out of their life stories. They turn memories of troubling events into positive stories, and in this way, they make peace with their past struggles (挣扎). For younger adults, troubling events cause them to experience more pain when they recall them. As scientists have discovered, a self-defining memory does not have to be positive in order for you to grow from it. It’s not the event, but the meaning you make out of the event, that affects (影响) your sense of well-being.

Discovering your self-defining memories is an important step in dealing with your life experiences. By recognizing and making sense out of past events, your identity can continue to grow and improve how you see yourself, both now, and in the future.