【推荐1】Researchers in the 1960s found bilingual (双语的) people scored higher on intelligence (智力) tests than monolingual people who speak only one language. The latest studies show that being bilingual does not necessarily make people cleverer, but it probably does make you better at certain skills.

Imagine driving down the highway. There’re many things that could draw your attention and you really need to be able to watch all of them. Why would bilingualism make you any better at that?

The answer is that bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention — a function (功能) called the executive (执行的) control system. It’s quite possibly the most important system you have because it’s where all of your decisions about what to pay attention to, what to ignore (忽视), what to process (处理) are made.

The best method to measure (测量) the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. Suppose you would have the word “blue” written in red, but you have to say the colour red. But “blue” is so eye-catching, and you really want to say “blue”. You need to ignore it so that you can say the colour red. That’s the Stroop Test.

Bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to ignore one to be able to speak in the other. This exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are more likely to have friends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔茨海默氏病).

【推荐3】It’s just another day at school. You and your friend are playing in the classroom. Suddenly, your friend’s nose starts to bleed (流血). What would you do? Would you do something to help your friend?

In daily life, we run into emergencies now and then. Nosebleeds are just one kind of emergency.

But if you learn some basic first aid skills, you can help people during emergencies.

The second Saturday of September is World First Aid Day. First aid, as its name tells us, means the first steps you can take to care for someone who gets hurt. It includes keeping him safe and staying calm. It also includes getting help by telling other people or calling 120.

Every year in China, about 3.2 million people die in emergencies. That’s an average (平均数) of six people per minute. Doctors say that the first 10 minutes after an accident can make a difference between life and death. This is why it’s important for us to learn first aid skills.

CPR (心肺复苏) is one of the most useful first aid skills. It can help people who suffer cardiac arrest (心搏停止). But if you want to perform CPR, you need to learn how to do it properly. You can take courses offered by the Red Cross or some hospitals.

【推荐1】

“What’s the name of the man living next door? I can’t remember it right now.” Have you ever heard your grandparents ask questions like this? Usually, we think old people’s memories (记忆力) become bad because their brains (大脑) can’t work quickly. But a team of German scientists has a different idea.

“The human brain works slower in old age,” said scientist Michael Ramscar, “but only because they have kept much more information over time.”

The findings are a result (结果) of many computer simulations (模拟) of learning and memory. Scientists let the computers read words and learn new things each day. When the computer “reads” only so much, its result in memory tests is the same as that of a young man. But if the computer learns much more than that, its result is the same as that of an older man. It is slower because more information makes the computer’s database (数据库) grow and the computer has more data to work with —it takes time. This is the same as old people.

   Think about this. A man knows two persons’ birthdays. Another man knows the birthdays of 2,000 people, but can only match the right man to the right birthday nine times out of ten. Can you say that the first man has a better memory than the second one? The fact is that “The larger the library you have in your head, the longer it usually takes to find a word,” Benedict Carey, a science reporter for the New York Times, wrote in a report about the study.

【推荐3】Many people want to buy the newest gadget (小玩意), the fastest car and the most expensive watch—but are these things really worth?

For some people, these things give them status (地位). They’re cool because they have a cool car, or they’re better at the newest Xbox game. Lots of people say that buying new things makes them happy. They like having new, pretty and impressive things. The problem is that people don’t stay happy, and the feeling you get when you buy something new disappears. For example, there’s a new iPhone. You stop liking your old car. Your friends have Beats in a different color and they’re so much nicer! Things get old and outdated, and someone else always has something better.

So, what can you buy and stay happy with? A research suggests that the best thing to spend your extra (额外的) money on is doing things like traveling, learning to cook, speaking a language, skiing or surfing. What about going to the theater, eating at a Michelin star restaurant or climbing a mountain?

In the long term (从长远来看), people are happier with money they spend on activities than on things. You don’t remember what shoes you wore, but you remember running the marathon! When you do new things or things you enjoy, you get life experience and memories. You can share them with people. Even if you don’t enjoy the experience, you can learn something and often a little while later you see the good sides of it. At least, it’s a story to tell—maybe even a funny one.

So forget about designer clothes and fancy gadgets—a new skill or experience lasts longer!