2 . Many people like to read the Guinness Book of World Records (《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》), and some people want to be in it! How do people get their names in the book? They do something new and different, such as (比如) making the world’s largest (最大的) cake with more than (多于) 54,000 eggs.

For many people, it is fun to make world records. It’s exciting. But who eats the cake? While (当……时候) some people are making world records, others don’t have much food to eat. Hunger is a very serious (严重的) problem in many places. How many old people do not have enough (足够的) money to buy good food? How many children go to bed without (没有) dinner? The answer is “too many”.

3 . Is there a connection between music and language? According to recent studies, the answer is yes. Music boosts (促进) certain language abilities in the brain. Here are two examples.

A study from Northwestern University shows that playing a musical instrument can improve a person’s hearing ability. As a part of the study, two groups of people listened to a person talking in a noisy room. The people in the first group were musicians, while those in the second group had no musical training. The musicians were able to hear the talking person more clearly.

Musicians hear better, says study leader Nina Kraus, because they learn to pay attention to certain sounds. Think about violinists in an orchestra (管弦乐队). When the violinists play with the group, they hear their own instruments and many others, too. But the violinists must listen closely to what they are playing and ignore (忽视) the other sounds. In this way, musicians are able to concentrate on certain sounds, even in a room with lots of noise.

Gottfried Schlaug, a doctor at Harvard Medical School, works with stroke patients (中风患者). Because of their illness, these people cannot say their names, addresses, or other information normally. However, they can still sing. Dr. Schlaug was surprised to find that singing words helped his patients to eventually (最终地) speak. Why does this work? Schlaug isn’t sure. Music seems to activate (激活) different parts of the brain, including the damaged parts. This somehow helps patients use those parts of the brain again.

Music improves concentration, memory, listening skills, and our language abilities. It can even help sick people get better. Playing an instrument or singing, says Nina Kraus, can help us do better in school and keep our brains sharp as we get older. Therefore, music is not only enjoyable. It’s also good for us in many other ways.

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4 . What does it mean to be green? Green is more than just a color. It also means taking special steps to protect the environment. Buying a green product is a small step everyone can take. Deciding whether a product is green, however, isn’t always easy. We need to consider the whole life cycle of the product even after it’s of no use. Here is what we may keep in mind.

The materials of a product are usually our first focus (关注). What is it made of? Are there any harmful chemicals in it? Green products are made of more natural materials which are free from harmful chemicals, so they can be good for our physical health.

Packaging is important. How is a product packaged? Is it over packaged? We’d better choose glass, metal and paper packaging, as these can be reused or more easily recycled. We can also look for less packaging or even choose unbagged products whenever possible.

Location (地点) matters. Where was a product produced? Where are we buying it? Think about how much energy was used to get it to us. Try to choose local products. When it comes to food, it is a good idea to order directly from local farmer, shop at markets and buy fruits in season. Buying from stores near our houses is also a good choice, because we can go there without driving a car.

Look into what the company tells us about their products. It’s easy to say that a product is “green” or “all natural” but the words may be too good to be true. So much of the information about a product should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, companies try to make us believe that their products are environmentally responsible.

The greenest thing is certainly the one we don’t buy. Things like food and clothing are necessary for life. But many others are not. Better than buying is choosing to leave an unnecessary product in the store and doing without. It sends a message to the producer, keeps money in our pockets, reduces (减少) waste and keeps the planet healthy.

5 . Cinyee Chiu, an artist from Taiwan, is always happy to try something new. Her amazing works won lots of prizes. Among them, “24 Solar Terms (节气)” is the most popular.

Ancient Chinese divided a year into 24 parts according to the changes of the weather. It’s the 24 solar terms. But not everyone knows them well. Cinyee Chiu put the 24 solar terms in pictures to help people understand them better.

Cinyee turned each solar term into an animal. But these animals are not just animals. You can also find seasonal fruits, vegetables or beautiful flowers on them.

When spring comes, water gets warm and fish start to swim around. So Cinyee chose fish as a symbol of Start of Spring. Also, she drew spring vegetables, Chinese chives (韭菜) on the back of the fish.

White Dew (露珠) falls on about Sept. 8. It shows the beginning of the cool autumn. There are colorful leaves and cooler nights at this time of year. As the temperature falls, white dew is often seen on the grass and trees at night. For White Dew, Cinyee chose a raccoon (浣熊)—a small animal with thick hair. She drew white spots (小圆点) on the raccoon to show dew. And she used the dragon fruit to show the rich colors in autumn.

The young artist really gave the ancient Chinese culture a new look.

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6 . “I’ve actually never lost anyone, thank goodness. I was not a friendly 15-year-old girl. I didn’t get on well with others at times.”

Imagine you are a 15-year-old girl who seems never as good as your dead elder sister.

This is Julia’s situation at the beginning of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. It is a book which is written by Erika L.Sanchez. But things change quickly. Julia’s sister, Olga, is killed in a traffic accident. Her mother is heartbroken and so is Julia. Olga becomes prefect after her death. Their mother continuously compares Julia to prefect Olga, who now can do nothing wrong.

You expect that you’ll feel sorry for Julia, but Sanchez tries hard to make her unlikable. This is unexpected for a young-adult book. Sanchez has written a character who the reader might not want to be friends with. As Julia herself says at one point, I do dislike most people and most things.” She especially dislikes Mexican-American culture. She doesn’t care very much for her best friend Lorena.

Then we learn that Olga wasn’t the perfect girl although her family thought she was. Julia finds out that her sister had a secret life. The book is funny and smart, which helped get it nominated (提名) for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. It also has a point to make about fixed opinions and expectations. Non-Mexican-Americans have ideas about Mexican-Americans, but Mexican-Americans also have ideas about each other.

In this story, we see how the perfect Mexican daughter is expected to act, but you’ll see that maybe there’s no such thing as perfection.

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8 . Over the past 10 years, thanks to the country’s stress on cultural confidence, Han-style clothing has been developing into a fashion trend (趋势). While a city in Henan Province has held four Hanfu festivals, Chengdu has hosted Hanfu fashion shows. Even a scenic spot (景点) in Sanya, Hainan Province, announced that those wearing Hanfu will be allowed to enter it for free.

Hanfu fans have developed websites and written articles on Hanfu, attracting more than 4 billion page views on Weibo alone. The rising popularity of Hanfu has also excited public interest in other traditional cultural forms. For example, Chinese painting, calligraphy (书法) and kungfu are attracting more and more young learners while traditional Chinese medicine is returning to hospitals.                    

Although most people agree that Han-style clothes look beautiful on people on certain occasions (场合), there is still heated arguments about whether the trend should be encouraged or not. Those support Hanfu say it spreads Chinese culture and looks beautiful. And it can also help teenagers know more about traditional Chinese art and culture.

However, those against it believe that a set of Han-style clothing may cost much money because they have to be handmade but not mass-produced. They also say putting on Hanfu and other accessories (配饰), not to mention getting a hairstyle to match the dress, will waste a lot of time. They may be right. A girl I met in Suzhou told me that she had to spend more than 1,000 yuan ($138) to rent a set of Han-style dress and get a makeup to go with it, which took two hours to complete.

Most people, however, choose to ignore such arguments. They just think that seeing people wholly or partly dressed in Han-style clothes while walking in a street is a “beautiful” experience.

9 . Have you ever had trouble sleeping in a new place?

Lots of people do. And now researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island think they know why. They found that one-half of the brain “remains more awake” than the other half when people are trying to sleep in a new place.

The findings were reported in Current Biology by Brown University. In their report, the researchers said many people report they have a harder time sleeping the first night at a hotel or other places outside their home. They call it “first-night influence”. In Japan they say, “If you change your bed, you can’t sleep,” said Yuka Sasaki, one of the report’s writers. “You don’t sleep very well in a new place. We all know about it.”

The researchers measured brain waves (测量脑波) for 35 volunteers over two nights in a laboratory. The two nights were a week apart (间隔).They found during the first night the left half of the brain was more active than the right half. This was during the first deep-sleep period, the researchers said.

Sasaki said a lot of questions remain.

Researchers did not keep measuring brain waves all night long. So, they don’t know if the left half keeps “watch” all night, or whether it “works in shifts (轮换) with the right half later in the night”. They also do not know why the brain activity, at least during the first period of deep sleep, is always on the left half.

For some, this research may be calming. It is good to know that our brain is “looking out for us” in a new place. But it may not help with sleep. That brain activity, at least according to this new research, makes it harder to get the people to have a good rest when they need to wake up in the morning.