【推荐1】

What things make you laugh? There are many things that make us smile or burst into laughter. This natural show of emotion gives off signals that we are happy and we find something humorous. Experts have been looking at why we do it and what the benefits are.

Laughter is a very common way of making a sound. When we do it, we make very strange noises and snorts (鼻息声). Most of the time our laughter is unconscious (无意识的) and easy to spread, particularly between friends. Expert, Sophie Scott, told the BBC that it’s a social emotion. “It’s better to laugh with people we like.” She defines (定义) two types of laughter—spontaneous (自发性的) laughter, where we laugh freely, and laughter while talking—where we laugh together with friends. Research found, on average, people laugh seven times for every ten minutes of conversation.

The BBC World Service program Crowd Science checked the science of laughter. It wanted to know what caused this action. It found we use laughter to show others that we’re being playful and non-threatening, and this serves to make and keep social bonds (纽带). Also, people outside of our social group can understand the relationship between the laughter by the sound of our chuckles.

Research has found good laughter can relax our bodies. That’s why laughter is being used as a useful method to traditional treatments. But generally, our ability to laugh is out of our control. When you start doing it, just go with the flow and others will join in.

Do you know the Chinese 24 Solar Terms(节气)? Can you say all of them?

The 24 Solar Terms are part of the traditional Chinese culture. Chinese people began to use it to predict(预测) the weather a long time ago. It was very useful because most people made their living by farming(耕作) at that time.

How did Chinese people create the 24 Solar Terms in ancient times? Clever Chinese people studied the sun’s movement and other natural changes. In the Shang Dynasty(朝代), people divided a year into four parts, so there were four solar terms. In the Zhou Dynasty, there were eight solar terms. In the Han Dynasty, people finally used 24 solar terms to divide a year. Each year started with the Beginning of Spring and ended with Greater Cold. There were four seasons every year and each season had six solar terms.

Even today, people still use the 24 Solar Terms. For example, during the Waking of Insects(惊蛰), the warm weather is coming and farmers should get busy working.

【推荐1】The Tyrannosaurus rex (霸王龙), or T. rex, is a dinosaur that lived from about 150 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. Most artistic exhibitions of the animal show its large teeth out of its mouth, which can always be seen. The T. rex model of the Jurassic Park is an example. But scientists now say it probably did not look like that.

T. rex belongs to a group of meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods (兽脚亚目食肉恐龙). A latest study found the teeth on T. rex and other big theropods might be covered by thick lips (唇). The scientists found that the teeth couldn’t be seen when its mouth was closed. They added that even in a wide open bite, only a small area of its teeth would show.

The research is the latest in a long argument over what dinosaur mouths really looked like. Some people think the dinosaurs’ teeth were just too big to fit in their mouth. When researchers compared skulls (颅骨) from dinosaurs and living reptiles (爬行动物), they found this was not the case. Some reptiles actually have bigger teeth than T. rex compared to their head size, and can still fit them under lips.

The scientists also found signs of wear (磨损) on the surface of the teeth. Reptiles without such lip protection experience wear on their teeth quickly. But when researchers studied a tooth from Daspletosaurs, a T. rex relative, they found it was in good condition and it did not show similar signs of wear.

Most of what science learns about dinosaurs comes from their bones. It is harder to get clear answers about soft parts, like lips. Remains of soft parts disappear more quickly. Adding lips to dinosaurs may make them look a little less frightening, but it also makes them feel more realistic.

Wherever Chinese go, the custom of drinking tea follows. Tea was first discovered by the Chinese. Tea is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. Tea is made from the young tender leaves of the tea tree. ①中国有许多种茶, such as green tea, black tea, oolong tea and white tea. Drinking tea does good to people in many ways. It can refresh mind and help people lose weight.

Tea culture, one of the representations (表现形式) of Chinese culture, refers to the cultural characteristics formed in the process of tea-drinking including tea ceremony, tea virtues, tea spirits, tea couplets, tea classics, tea sets, tea paintings, tea study and stories of art of tea. Chinese tea enjoys a long history and is well-know all over the world. ②The further the Chinese tea culture develops, the more people understand it and accept its value.