【推荐2】Have you seen your parents having a headache and reach for a bottle of aspirin (阿司匹林)? We use it when we’re hurting. And it all started with a man who gave a taste of tree skin centuries ago.

In 1758, Edward Stone took a walk on a beautiful, sunny morning in England. He stopped to rest under a willow (柳树) tree. Suddenly, he decided to try a bit of the tree skin. The bitter (苦的) taste reminded him of medicine and he started to think whether it could be used as a medicine. Edward referred to medicine books for answers, but he failed. Still, he decided to test it on his family, friends and neighbors with headache and it really helped them feel better.

Edward Stone wasn’t the first one to learn this medicine. Willows grow everywhere, so they’re cheap and easy to get. People around the world have been using it for thousands of years to reduce agony. But Edward was the first to work on it and record the risk of it.

In 1888, the Bayer company was looking for new medicines to sell. Two years later, the company invited scientists to find out which part of the willow skin could be used for medicine. Then, they studied how to turn it into medicines that were easy to take. Finally, after 7 years of work, they succeeded. The Bayer company named this new pain-killing medicine “aspirin”.

Soon, the medicine became a success and made huge money for Bayer. The hard work of scientists makes a history. Aspirin has become one of the most-used pain-killing medicines and you can buy it at a cheap price from almost every medicine store all over the world. And it all started with Edward’s curiosity.

It is curiosity that makes us learn and benefit from nature. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Maybe you are the next scientist that changes the world.

There are about 1.5 million kinds of living things on Earth, but how many do you see every day? You often see the big colourful animals, like birds, rabbits, and fish. But look more closely. Can you see the small ones, too? Insects（昆虫）make up 80 percent of all the world’s living kinds. Look on the ground. Imagine you could look under the ground, too. Many small living things with one cell live there. Life is everywhere around us, in every cubic foot (a foot= 12 inches).

David Littschwager is a photographer who wanted to find out how many living things lived in one cubic foot. So he made a 12-inch cube with a green metal frame. And then he put it in five habitats（栖息地）. He chose a tropical rainforest（Costa Rica）, a coral reef（Pacific Ocean), the Table Mountain(South Africa), a freshwater river(USA), and a small park(New York). Three weeks were spent at each place. He watched, counted, and took photos of everything down to I millimeter in size—that crawled（爬）or flew into the cube.

The results were amazing. Liittschwager found both common and rare living things. He discovered many new living kinds, like a strange transparent octopus that is the size of a fingernail! In total, more than a thousand living things were photographed. Liittchwager said the One Cubic Foot experience was like “finding treasure”. David Liittschwager also found that the highest biodiversity（生物多样性）in the reef was in the skeleton coral（珊瑚遗骨）. These skeleton coral are suitable for sea living things of all sizes to grow. Although the coral reef had the widest range of biodiversity, all the other habitats were full of life. Even the city park!

【推荐1】I can just hear some of you saying, “I don’t care what other people think! I do whatever I want!” There is a strong wish for independence (独立) in adolescence (青春期) and you say you only care about your own opinion. But don’t you really care what certain people think? Most teenagers have a circle of people who can influence them. They care very much what this circle of people think, especially about them.

During adolescence, friendships with other teens become very important. They care about what other teens think because they want to be accepted and they are afraid of other people think. Fear makes them care.

Take leaders and followers as an example. Some teenagers are leaders and some who are followers. You might think that teens leaders don’t care what other people think, but that is not true. After all, a leader really isn’t a leader unless other people follow them. Leaders care about what followers think because if they don’t, those followers may leave and follow someone else. Teens who are followers care about what the leader thinks because they want to stay a part of the group.

As we all know, it is hard to admit (承认) you care what other people think. This gives those other people-whoever they are - power over you. You give them power to have a say in what you should or shouldn’t do, to make you feel good or bad about yourself So should you not care what anyone else thinks of you? No, I don’t think that’s possible. I think it is okay to care what others think of you. The answer lies in caring most about what you think about yourself .There is a famous playwright named William Shakespeare. In one of his plays, Hamlet, the character Hamlet said, “To thine own self be true.” In other words, whatever you do, always be true to yourself. This is one of the most important tasks you should have during adolescence.

Along the way, you’ll care about what your friends, parents and teachers think. That’s fine, but use what they think to help you decide who it is you want to be. You need to keep the power to change who you are with you. To thine own self be true.

【推荐3】A black cat crosses your path? That’s bad luck. Walk under a ladder (梯子)? That’s bad luck, too. Break a mirror-seven years of bad luck! Kill a bee? You got it...bad luck!

But not everything brings bad luck. Some things bring good luck, too. For example, if you carry a rabbit’s foot with you at all times that will bring you good luck. Of course, nowadays, lucky rabbit’s feet aren’t made of real rabbit’s feet. An acorn (橡子) in your pocket is good luck, too. If you make a wish when you see a shooting star cross the sky, the wish will come true.

If you throw rice on a just-married couple, they will have many children. If you catch a falling leaf on the first day of autumn, you will have good luck all year. If you blow out all the candles on your birthday cake in one blow, you will get whatever you want.

Are any of these things true? You may have blown out all the candles on your birthday cake in one blow last year, but did you get everything you wanted? Probably not. If you walk under a ladder and a bucket of paint falls on your head-that’s pretty bad luck. But if some candy or fruit falls, that’s good luck.

In fact, good luck and bad luck are only “superstitions (迷信). Millions of people all over the world believe in superstitions, especially good luck ones. But remember, no amount of acorns is going to save you if you make your decisions because of silly superstitions.