4 . Some people must carefully pay attention to everything they put in their mouths in order to control their weight. By contrast, others can eat French fries to their hearts' content and achieve the same result. How do some people manage never to gain weight?

"Perception, one of the most important factors, has nothing to do with the body type because our personal feeling is always wrong. We often feel that some people who eat more don't put on weight. Actually? those who appear to eat whatever they like without gaining weight aren't eating more than the rest of us," said professor Kathleen Melanson. "For example, your friend who eats ice cream on a daily basis might eat less at another meal- or snack less throughout the rest of the day.”

“Physical activity can also make a difference, but it doesn't have to be a gym workout. There's little evidence to suggest that—without exercise-some people were born to burn significantly more calories than others," said Dr Ines Barroso, a researcher at the University of Cambridge. But there may be physical differences that allow some people to naturally control the number of calories they consume without exercising much self-regulation.

A lot of nervous system signals and hormones （激素）that circulate in our blood interact to tell us when we're hungry or full. This is called the appetite regulatory system, and it may be more sensitive in some people than others, Melanson said. One important hormone involved in this system is leptin （瘦素）.It helps regulate how much food we want to eat over longer periods of time, not just for our next meal. So a person with a more sensitive system might go back for seconds and thirds at a party, then feel full for the next few days and eat less.

Genetics can also play a role in a person's tendency to gain or lose weight. Researchers have identified over 250 different regions of DNA that are associated with obesity, according to a 2019 study published in PLOS Genetics.

5 . Sleep Struggle

One in every five young people has a sleep problem, so you're not alone. Getting enough sleep has become as important as eating vegetables and exercising regularly. It's very important for your body.

Most young people only get seven hours of sleep each night, when they actually need nine hours. And making up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping on weekends doesn't really work. In fact, sleeping late on weekends may actually do you more harm than good, if you have sleep problems.

What happens if you don't get enough sleep? If your sleep problem continues for a few nights, you could suffer serious problems. Lack of sleep can affect learning and memory. Worse，if your sleep difficulties last a long time，that could lead to anxiety（焦虑）. Therefore，you've got to have some healthy sleep habits. Below are some suggestions:

* Go to bed at the same time—including weekends, if possible.

* Wake up around the same time every morning. When you sleep late just one morning during the week, it may disturb your body clock. This will make it hard for you to sleep that night.

* Do something relaxing before going to bed.

* Exercise during the day. Don't exercise right before going to bed.

* Avoid drinking. Alcohol（酒精）makes you excited. This prevents you from falling asleep or wakes you up during the night.

* Don't smoke. Smoking is always bad for the body. Smoking before bedtime keeps you awake.

If trying these tips over a couple of weeks does not help you, consult your doctor. Do not take any medicine without first asking your doctor. Many of them have strong side effects.

6 . At thirteen, I was diagnosed (诊断) with kind of attention disorder. It made school difficult for me. When everyone else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.

In my first literature class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hand right away and said, “Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it.”

She glanced down at me through her glasses, “You are not different from your classmates, young man.” I tried, but I didn’t finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.

In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braile. He lived in a time when the blind couldn’t get much education. But Louis didn’t give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots (点), which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.

Wasn’t I the “blind” in my class, being made to learn like the “sighted” students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was not different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problem, why should I ever give up?

I didn’t expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day — with an “A” on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words, “See what you can do when you keep trying?”

7 . On a farm in England, Gavin and Alice Munro are taking sustainability to the next level: they harvest trees which they grow into chairs.

The couple have a furniture（家具）farm in Derbyshire where they are growing 250 chairs, 100 lamps and 550 tables. It is their answer to what they see as the inefficient（无效率的）process of cutting down mature trees to create furniture.

"Instead of force-growing a tree for 50 years and then cutting it down and making it into smaller and smaller bits…the idea is to grow the tree into the shape that you want directly. It’s like a kind of 3D printing, "said Gavin.

Part of the inspiration for the idea came when Gavin was a young boy. He spotted an overgrown bonsai tree（盆栽） which looked like chair.

The 44-year-old began experimenting in 2006. In 2012, Gavin and Alice set up the company Full Grown. Within several years, the couple developed the most effective way to shape a tree without limiting its growth. They guided shoots（嫩枝）already heading in the right direction, rather than force them the wrong way against their natural growth.

The average chair takes six to nine years to grow-and another year to dry out. The labor and time involved in producing the organic pieces means they do not come cheap. Chairs sell for ￡10,000 each, lamps for ￡900 to ￡2,300 and tables for ￡2,500 to ￡12,500.

8 . While many people dream of mermaids, few people actually try to become one. How can someone become a mermaid if they don't exist? Just ask Dana Richardson, who is a professional mermaid in Hawaii!

“As a child, I always felt very connected to the ocean and played mermaids in the water,” says Dana. “My love of the ocean took me to different types of work such as a lifeguard, swim instructor, boat crew member, underwater photographer, boat captain and surfer. I just decided to take it to the next level and grow a tail.”

Dana doesn't mean literally. In 2008 she began making mermaid tails from materials including shiny fabric that she wears while free-diving in the waters around Kona, Hawaii. Free-diving means diving without any protective equipment. It requires you to hold your breath while swimming deep underwater. As she dives in, Dana not only like a mermaid; she experiences what it is like to swim like one too.

The waters around Dana's home in Kona are filled with wildlife, including dolphins and whales. Kona is by a sheltered sea where the waters are calm for swimming. For ten years Dana has been swimming with the creatures of Kona. Some of them have even learned to recognize her.

Dana knows how to swim with sea life because she is a trained marine naturalist She understands the behavior of sea life and knows how to safely interact with it. Every morning when she swims with sea life she gets to experience her other “home”. The ocean beneath the depths really is another world. Watching how the world works so gracefully in the circle of life underwater is a beautiful thing?

For Dana Richardson being a mermaid just makes sense. “I always felt more comfortable underwater than on land,” she says. Would you like to follow your dream, even if it seems impossible? Dana Richardson reminds everyone, “One person can truly make a difference. By following your heart and offering the world your unique gifts, you will inspire others to do so. The world needs you!”

9 . Using technology in the classroom can produce unbelievable results. But for note-taking, it may pay to keep it old-school and stick with pen and paper. Students who take notes by hand appear to process information more deeply than those who take notes on a laptop or an iPad and other technological appliances, according to a study published this year.

Using the new fashionable method generally produces more raw notes. But students using laptops tend to do worse than note-takers by hand when answering conceptual questions about the material.

Researchers from Princeton and UCLA conducted several experiments with college students watching some video lectures. In one experiment, note-takers by hand wrote down fewer words than those typing on laptops. But the two groups performed about the same when answering factual questions about the lecture material, and students who wrote longhand did much better than laptop note-takers on conceptual questions .

What gives? Students using laptops tended to write what they heard word by word rather than processing the information; that resulted in a sort of “shallower” learning, the researchers say.

In a second experiment, students taking notes on laptops were told not to write down what they heard word by word. It didn't help in spite of the instructions. They still took notes word by word and they still did worse on conceptual questions than those taking notes by hand.

In a third experiment, students were able to briefly study their notes before answering questions asked a week after the lecture. Those reviewing their longhand notes did far better than students reviewing their typed notes.

A student named Jerry from the experiment said, “The study is right, and we have to think about what was said to take the notes because I could not write down every word. I even developed complex letter symbols to help. To study for tests, I went over and underlined key points to reinforce them. The process helped me understand the lectures better.”

10 . Welcome to our website. Here are some magazines to recommend this week.

Cover: $56.00

Sale Price:$25.00

Alarm celebrates independent thinking in music, art, film and fashion through in-depth writings. Each issue of Alarm features interviews, reviews and life stories of famous people in the artistic world. It also provides the   latest news on famous bands, artists, film makers and fashion trends.

Cover Price: $47.40

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Alternative Press celebrates music and youth culture. It features the latest music news and releases, and includes interviews with new bands as well as famous bands. The magazine is written for fans of electronic, industrial, punk, underground, rock, experimental and other musical types. It also offers columns about new technology, book reviews and film reviews.

Cover Price: $39.92

Sale Price: $12,00

Sound & Vision is for people with a great interest in music and video. It is also for people who want to know how to reproduce video. The magazine tests new technology and explains how to uy and use music equipment.

Cover Price: $23.70

Sale Price: $12.00

Plex is a lifestyle magazine. It covers everything with hip-hop culture. Articles cover music, fashion, film and sports. It also has a buyer's guide to the hottest gear, clothes and gadgets. Plex combines two magazines into one. It is not only a lifestyle magazine but also a product guide.