3 . Foreign visitors to the UK might be disappointed when they learn that not everyone there speaks like Harry Potter and his friends. Usually, there’s an assumption by many non-Brits that everyone in Britain speaks with what’s known as a Received Pronunciation (RP，标准发音) accent, also called “the Queen’s English”. However, while many people do talk this way, most Britons speak in their own regional accents (口音).

Scouse, Glaswegian and Black Country — from Liverpool, Glasgow and the West Midlands — are just three of the countless non-RP accents that British people speak with. There are even differences in accents between towns or cities just 30 kilometers apart. What is even more disappointing is that not speaking in a RP accent may mean a British person is judged and even treated differently in their everyday life.

In a 2015 study by The University of South Wales, videos of people reading a passage in three different UK accents were shown to a second group of people. The group then rated how intelligent they thought the readers sounded. The lowestrated accent was Brummie, native to people from Birmingham, a city whose accent is considered working class.

However, there is no need to be disappointed though you are not speaking in a RP accent. In fact, doing the opposite may even give you strength.

Kong Seongjae, 25, is an Internet celebrity from Seoul. After studying in the UK, he picked up several regional accents. He’s now famous for his online videos, where he shows off the various accents he’s learned. “British people usually get really excited when I use some of their local dialect words, and they become much friendlier. I think it makes a bit of bond between local people and foreigners to speak in their local accent,” he said.

So if you’re working on perfecting your British accent, try to speak like someone from Liverpool, Glasgow or Birmingham. You may not sound like Harry Potter, but you are likely to make more friends.

4 . What a day! I started my new school this morning and had the best time. I made lots of new friends and really liked my teachers. I was nervous the night before, but I had no reason to be. Everyone was so friendly and polite. They made me feel at ease. It was like I’d been at the school for a hundred years!

The day started very early at 7:00 am. I had my breakfast downstairs with my mom. She could tell that I was very nervous. Mom kept asking me what was wrong. She told me I had nothing to worry about and that everyone was going to love me. If they didn’t love me, mom said to have a good talk with them. I couldn’t stop laughing.

My mom dropped me off at the school gate about five minutes before the bell rang. A little blonde girl got dropped off at the same time and started waving (招手) at me. She ran over and told me her name was Abigail. She was very nice and we became close straight away. We spent all morning together and began to talk to another girl called Stacey. The three of us sat together in class all day and we even made our way home together! It went so quickly. Our teacher told us that tomorrow we would really start learning and developing new skills.

I cannot wait until tomorrow and feel as though I am really going to enjoy my time at my new school. I only hope that my new friends feel the same way, too.

5 . Humans spend about one third of their lives sleeping. But some mammals (哺乳动物), like the northern elephant seal, survive with much less sleep.

Researchers in a new study described the unusual sleep pattern of these ocean animals. They found that when these mammals go to feed on trips that can last seven months, they sleep just two hours each day. Those two hours of sleep are made up of short moments of rest lasting only 10 minutes each as they dive deep to avoid predators (捕食者). The only other mammals known to get so little sleep are African elephants.

The researchers placed a head covered with sensors on the heads of the seals that they studied. The sensors recorded sleep signals created by the seals’ brains and heart rate. The sensors also recorded the animals’ location and depth beneath the sea.

The researchers studied female seals because they go out on long open-ocean trips while males feed in coastal waters.

During dives lasting about 30 minutes, the seals went into a deep sleep called slow-wave sleep while keeping a controlled downward movement. When they then experienced rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, the seals fell into a turning pattern. Then, at the deepest point of their sleeping dive — up to 377 meters deep — they wake up and swim back to the surface.

Terrie Williams is a scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz who helped write the study. She said, “It is remarkable that a wild animal will fall into deep, paralytic REM sleep when there are predators on the hunt.” She added that the seals solve this problem by going into deep sleep in the deep parts of the oceans where predators usually do not hunt them.

Williams said the brain’s ability to control awakening the sleeping seals at a depth before they drown is also a discovery about how mammalian brains work. She commented on this saying that it shows the survival control of the seals’ brains.

7 . At Phoenix Bikes, a bicycle shop, students are learning to repair bikes. Phoenix Bikes sells bikes to the public at their business in Arlington, Virginia. But it also teaches teenagers how to repair bikes.

Most students at Phoenix start in its after-school “earn-a-bike program,” at middle and high schools in and around Arlington County. Once a week over a 12-week period, students learn repair skills. They learn how to use tools, fix flat tires, correct the wheels, and change gears (齿轮). The first lesson includes taking the bike apart. By doing this, they learn all the parts of a bike.

In the first few weeks, they work in small groups to repair a bike given to the shop. The bikes often have missing or damaged parts. The finished bike is then given to a person in need from the community. In the last four weeks of the program, students come to the shop to work on one of the given bikes which they can then take home at no cost.

Anthony is a student at nearby Wakefield High School. He just completed his bike. He said it was not in good shape at first but was the kind of bike he was looking for and could be made into something better. He said it had no lights, no front tire, and was without a chain, which controls the gears. He said he joined the program to get better at working with his hands and fixing things.

Phoenix Bikes is teaching 300 to 400 young people this year. Phoenix communicationscoordinator Gage said the classes are fun and let students learn with their hands after sitting in the classroom all day at school. He added that bikes are interesting for teenagers especially because they are a means of transportation and freedom. Learning how to fix a bike can also be a fun challenge, she said.

10 . “Do what you love, not what others tell you is right,” says Georgia Lines of New Zealand.

I spoke with the 24-year-old singer-songwriter earlier this month about her rise to fame. In 2022, Lines was named breakthrough artist of the year at the annual Aotearoa music awards ceremony. Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand, an island country in the Pacific Ocean that is home to more than 5.1 million people.

Lines makes success look easy, but she has worked hard to perfect her skills. “I love what I do,” she told me. “I love it when I get lost in the music, and everything works together.”

Already, Lines has opened for pop singer George Ezra. She hopes “to open for Harry Styles one day,” she added.

Lines has written more than 20 songs and worked together with several top artists, including Jack Burton, Alex James, and Cassie Henderson. “I love working with other people and cooperating,” Lines said. “I find I work better when I’m with others so we can bounce ideas off each other.”

When asked about her musical ambitions growing up, Lines smiled. “I was never a musical genius as a child,” she said. “But I always loved singing and music.”

In recent years, Lines has drawn enthusiastic crowds for her concerts. The video for her hit song, “No One Knows”, won best music video of the year in New Zealand in 2021.

As for her future goals, Lines said that she wanted “to have a sustainable (可持续的) career and to keep doing what I love.” That means, focusing on her own career and artistic achievements. “Comparison is the robber of success,” she said. “If I had stopped to compare myself with others, I wouldn’t have made it as far as I have.”