【推荐1】Why are some people successful and others aren’t? What’s the secret of success? You can get the answers in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers.

Gladwell thinks practice makes you good. The “10,000-hour rule” is central to the book. It means that if you want to be among the best in the world, you need to practise something for 10,000 hours, about three hours a day for 10 years. For example, the Beatles practised playing music in Hamburg more than 1,200 times between 1960 and 1964, which is more than 10,000 hours of playing time.

Gladwell also thinks that intelligence (智力) alone will not lead to success. Christopher Langan, who is mentioned in the book, got an IQ of between 195 and 210. As a boy at school, Langan passed an exam in a foreign language after looking through a text book for three minutes. But Langan never made any achievements his whole life. This shows that besides intelligence, you need hard work, support and chances.

However, it isn’t just a question of time and support. According to the book, you still need luck. Of course, many people say that you can create your own “luck” if you’re active enough.

So, are you putting in the hours? Carry on! You could get lucky!

Thanks to better health care, most people are living healthier and longer lives. Here are four rules for a healthy life.

Get off the sofa!

Sure, it is comfortable to sit on it, but doctors say you should get off it.     1     Think about it: do you get enough exercise today?

    2    

It is important to eat food that is fresh and natural, for example, fruit and vegetables. Fast food is not healthy. You should only have it once in a while.     3    

Rest while you can!

    4     Teenagers don’t need as much sleep as babies, but it is important for them to get about eight hours’ sleep a night. At weekends, you have got more time, so use it not just for your friends, but for rest, too.

Do not worry. Be happy!

Many people believe that it is important for our general health to be happy. Sometimes it is not easy to be a teenager because of the difficulties of school exams or friendships.     5    

【推荐3】Have you been asked for money by some disabled beggars(乞丐)while you’re enjoying shopping？Do you have any pity on them who are so poor and lonely or do you just feel afraid of their terrible shapes？As one of the most special groups，disabled people’s living conditions—not only their material(物质的)conditions，but their mental(精神的)world，really need improvement.

The treatment for disabled people should go like this：First，don’t look down upon them. Don’t be afraid of looking at the terrible shapes of the disabled. Try to treat(对待) them equally. Because they are a part of the society(社会)，we can’t discard(抛弃)them. The second is to help them as much as we could. If you can be a volunteer and do some work for the disabled people，that would be very nice. That does help not only to the disabled people but also to yourself because you will feel good after your kind action. If every one of us gives a little love，the world will become a beautiful wonderland！

【推荐1】The ability of reading and writing doesn’t come naturally to people, it takes a lot of effort, and most of us have learned how. Eighty-six percent of the world’s population is literate（受过教育的）, and this number has been increasing for centuries. Literacy makes it possible to make a world filled with books, websites, text messages, road signs, and more.

But the world of information is changing. Why send a long letter or text when you can share photos or videos instead? Why learn from a book when you can practice a skill in virtual reality（虚拟现实）? Why read magazines when you can listen to podcasts（播客）?

Could people take part in today’s world without reading or writing at all? Technology seems to make it possible. Nowadays most of our smart devices（设备） are able to talk and take spoken orders, like reporting the weather, playing a song or setting a timer. The devices sometimes still make silly mistakes, but it’s getting better and better. It’s possible to imagine a future world where we can easily communicate with our devices.

But reading and writing are still powerful tools. For one, most people read faster than they speak. A podcaster or audiobook teller speaks at around 150 to 160 words per minute, while a strong reader can read through a text at 300 to 400 words per minute. That’s twice as fast! Research has also found that people remember more information and stay more interested when they are reading as compared to listening.

Learning to read also creates new connections in the brain. With the invention of reading, humans rearranged the very organization of our brain, which improves the way to think and changes the intellectual evolution（进化） of our humans.

What do you think? Do you hope people keep on reading and writing or will technology make literacy obsolete?

【推荐2】To make foreigners know our country and culture is not an easy thing. It is necessary for us Chinese to learn more about our own culture and have a better understanding of it first.

Do you want to experience how to make paper for yourselves? 3D-videos of artists making paper can be found on our homepage.

【推荐3】The eyes are the window of the soul(灵魂). Eye language can express different feelings. People from English-speaking countries have more eye contact when they are in conversation. When Americans are talking, they usually look at each other. But there are many rules about eye language: Whether to look at the other speaker or not; when it is the time to look, how long they can look; who they can look at and who they can’t. All these have different meanings.

Americans put great importance on the time and the way of eye contact. In ordinary conversation, they will look at each other about one minute and then they will look away. Too long eye contact will make people feel uncomfortable. Once some Americans had a trip to a foreign village and the local people stared (盯) at them. The Americans were angry and thought the local people were not friendly. In fact, it was natural and local area. They were just curious (好奇的).

People who like each other have more eye contact than people who dislike each other. Women usually communicate with more eye contact. If two Americans stare at each other, it shows they are close friends. In North America, the children have learned to look at the other speaker in the eye. If they don’t, they are thought to be unconfident.