Can you speak English? Maybe you know a lot of English words. You can read, speak and understand English, but there is another kind of language—the language of the body. All over the world, people “talk” with their hands, their heads, and their eyes. When Japanese people meet, they bow. When Indians meet, they put their hands together. When British and American people meet someone for the first time, they shake hands. They do not usually shake hands with their friends. Women sometimes kiss their women friends, and men kiss women friends on the cheek(脸颊). When a man meets a man friend, he just smiles, and says “Hello”. Men do not kiss each other, or hold hands. Even fathers and sons do not often kiss each other.

【推荐2】Why Should We Learn Body Language?

In English classes, we spend a large amount of time studying grammar and learning new words.     1     Few of us, however, pay enough attention to body language. So body language is not important, is it?

The answer is, “Yes”! As the old saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.”     2     For example, shrug our shoulders, and, without a word, we’ve just said, “I don’t know.”

Body language can help us stress what we are saying. It can help us express our true and inner feelings. Moreover, body language can help us find out if someone is lying. Often, people who are lying do not make eye contact.     3     Because they are uncomfortable with the conversation.

In job interviews, the interviewers can sometimes judge the interviewee before he or she speaks.     4     It can show if you really care about your friends. Leaning forward into the conversation, for example, means you are interested in what is being said. Listening without making eye contact means you are not paying attention but are waiting for your turn to speak.

Scientists have been studying body language for a long time. They say more than 70 percent of our messages are delivered through body language. Sometimes, body language is more accurate (精准的) than the words we use.

So it is very important for us to learn body language.     5     We will find it easier to get a job. We will also have lasting friendships.

【推荐1】People around the world know LEGOs very well. These years, the LEGO Group are trying using recycled plastic (可回收塑料) to make LEGO bricks. They aren’t ready yet, but the company says it’s making big progress.

In fact, people who often play LEGOs may know that the first LEGO brick came out in 1949. Since about 1960, LEGO bricks have been made from a kind of plastic called ABS. Sadly, it can’t really be recycled, and it takes a long time to break down.

But since 2015, LEGO has been trying to make their products (产品) more environment-friendly. Three years ago, the company began making some LEGO parts with a kind of plastic made from sugar cane (甘蔗). Recently, LEGO decided to use paper bags only. And the company has also started to make bricks by using recycled plastic.

Over the past three years, the company has tested over 250 different ways of creating LEGO bricks from recycled plastic. Now, the company has found a way to make a good 2×4 brick from PET plastic, which is softer than ABS plastic and can be found in things like bottles and clothing. The only problem is that the company should think about how to make PET plastic stronger and give it better clutch power (离合力) like ABS.

The company believes that they can find more sustainable materials (可持续材料) to make all of their main products by the year 2030. Making bricks from used PET instead of new ABS cannot only cut plastic waste, but also cut pollution by about 70%.

【推荐3】Before you read this story, let’s take a look at a sentence in Chinese: “研表究明, 汉字序顺并不定一影阅响读。” Did you notice that some of the characters in this sentence are in the wrong order? You might not realize it, but your brain can read and understand most sentences, even when the words are in the wrong order.

Do you know why that happens?

When we’re first learning how to read, we read word by word. But after we become more experienced, we read in full phrases and even sentences. People can read five to six words at one time. Also, as experienced readers, we take the things we’re familiar(熟悉的) with for granted(把……当作理所当然). We don’t pay much attention to small details, such as the word order.

Therefore when we read the sentence at the beginning of this article, the content(内容) was familiar to us. So we read it in the way we think it should be, with all the words in the right order. This is like when we see a person with long hair—we usually think that the person is a girl without taking a closer look.

This can be also seen in many other languages, such as English. Read the following sentence: “This is bcuseae the huamn mind deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.”

It is believed that humans remember the meanings of words mostly by their shape and layout, rather than the order or the letters. However, we cannot read scrambled(打乱的) sentences as quickly and efficiently as we read normal text.