【推荐2】Picture the scene: It’s midnight. You’re very hungry after studying for a long time. Then you see a nice pie in the fridge. Will you eat it? It seems that you shouldn’t, for many reasons, including its influence on your studies.

Scientists have long known that eating late at night can make us put on weight. But now a new study has shown that late night eating can also have a bad influence on our brains—it might hurt our ability to learn new things and store memories.

“We believe that late night eating may have an influence on the parts of the brain that control learning and memory,” Dawn Loh, PhD, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, “We believe the timing of when we eat may be the main cause of the damaged memory. ”

For the study, the researchers did an experiment. They looked at two groups of mice with strict feeding plans. For two weeks, the mice were allowed to eat either during the time when they are usually the most active, or during the time when they usually sleep. The mice received the same amount of sleep and calories.

Then the researchers tested the brains of the mice. In one test, the scientists tried to find out whether the mice had a good memory by putting the mice in a room connected to an electric shock for some time. The researchers noticed that, when the mice were put in the room again after 24 hours had gone by, those mice that ate when they should have been sleeping were less scared than those mice that ate during usual hours. It means that they didn’t remember.

So think twice before the midnight snack—it might be bad for more than your weight.

【推荐3】Hi, I’m Millie. It’s so easy to just get fast food when we’re hungry. But it can also be unhealthy. So I decide not to have fast food for five days and make healthy food at home.

The struggle (斗争)

The fast food restaurant is calling me! But I remember my plan. I cook fish for dinner.

Trying new things

I cook healthy vegetable noodles. I am surprised by how good they are.

New breakfast

For breakfast, I have a banana sandwich. Don’t let the name “sandwich” cheat (欺骗) you. The banana works as the “bread” for this breakfast.

The at-home burrito

I make myself a burrito. I use tomatoes, beans and some other vegetables. What a great meal!

Going all out

I make it! I will try to eat healthy food more often.

Sleep plays an important role in brain (大脑) development. Children should get enough sleep.

    1     A study says that because of being short of sleep, it is much harder for children to do something carefully. And also they become forgetful and easy to make mistakes. Another study shows that the right amount of night-time sleep is just as important for children’s development as healthy eating and taking exercise.

    2     In general, a younger child needs more sleep than an older one. Children at the age of 5—11 will need 10—12 hours of sleep a night while children at the age of more than 11 will need fewer hours.

In fact, many parents don’t know how to help their children get enough sleep. Here is something you can do. For children at the age of 5—11, a 30—40 minutes’ routine (常规) before sleep is helpful.     3     In the activities, children relax and enjoy themselves a lot, and they will go to sleep more easily.

Children at the age of more than 11 may go to bed late in the evening, talking with friends online, playing games or watching TV.     4     And even they will be tired during the day. So limit (限制) your children’s use of the Internet, games and the TV before they go to bed.     5    

【推荐3】Mr. Ma, a famous mental (心理的) doctor from Beijing once said at an important meeting, “Now many young students can have many problems with their minds. Some students become worried because they have to study very hard. Others have trouble getting on well with people around them like their parents and classmates. Parents and teachers should care more about this problem.”

Then Mr. Ma gave some examples. One patient, a middle school student from Xi’an was doing badly in his lessons. He thought his teachers and friends often laughed at him, and he became so nervous and worried that one night he left his home without telling parents. Another student, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Shanghai, was very afraid of exams. While she was reading the exam paper, she couldn’t think of anything to write.

A recent report from Jie fang Daily says about 18% of the young students in Shanghai have mental problems. They often feel worried and very unhappy. Unluckily, many of them won’t go and ask for help. Some think they will look stupid if they go to see a doctor. Others won’t talk about their own secrets (秘密).

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Ma offered some good ideas to young people:

◆Talk to your parents or teachers often.

◆Take part in group activities.

◆Try to get along well with the people around you.

◆Go to see a doctor if you often feel unhappy.

If you’re having difficulties in class and it seems that your teacher is unfair to you, take sometime to think hard about what’s happening. Try to find out whether your teacher really dislikes you, or whether something else is going on. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1.Are you the only person being treated badly, or is your teacher rough on the whole class? Ask your classmates if they are having trouble with the teacher, too. If they say yes, perhaps your teacher is having problems outside the school, or is new and at a loss.

2.Are you working up to your ability? Maybe you got a C in your last test, and your teacher told you that you could do better. But the kid sitting beside you got a C, too, and the teacher didn’t say anything to him! Isn’t this unfair? Well, it could be that your teacher knows that you could get a better grade if you put more effort into it. Teachers often grade students by different standards（标准）. It’s their way of encouraging a student to try a little harder.

3. Are you more sensitive（敏感的） than other students? There’s nothing wrong with being sensitive, but if you react to criticism（批评） quite differently from others, this could be a reason why you think your teacher doesn’t like you.

4. Does your teacher seem to act unfairly all the time, or just once in a while? Think about the harsh（严厉的） things your teacher has done or said to you. Are these things happening every day, or just once or twice a month? If your teacher really hates you, you would probably be picked on all the time. If your teacher has acted unfairly only a few times, then there’s probably something else going on.

If you take the time to ask yourself these questions, you’ll get a better sense of what’s happening between you and your teacher.