1 . Sometimes you’ll hear people say that you can’t love others until you love yourself. Sometimes you’ll hear people say that you can’t expect someone else to love you until you love yourself. Either way, you’ve got to love yourself first and this can be tricky. Sure we all know that we’re the apple of our parents’ eyes, and that our Grandmas think we’re great talents and our Uncle Roberts think that we will go to the Olympics, but sometimes it’s a lot harder to think such nice thoughts about ourselves. If you find that believing in yourself is a challenge, it is time that you built a positive self-image and learn to love yourself.

Self-image is your own mind’s picture of yourself. This image includes the way you look, the way you act, the way you talk and the way you think. Interestingly, our self-images are often quite different from the images others hold about us. Unfortunately, most of these images are more negative than they should be. Thus changing the way you think about yourself is the key to changing your self-image and your whole world.

The best way to defeat a passive self-image is to step back and decide to stress your successes. That is, make a list if you need to, but write down all of the great things you do every day. Don’t allow doubts to occur in it.

It very well might be that you are having a negative self-image because you can’t move past one weakness that you see about yourself. Well, roll up your sleeves(卷起你的袖子) and make a change of it as your primary task. If you think you’re silly because you aren’t good at math, find a tutor. If you think you’re weak because you can’t run a mile, get to the track and practice. If you think you’re dull because                                 you don’t wear the latest trends, buy a few new clothes. But remember, just because you think it doesn’t mean it’s true.

The best way to get rid of a negative self-image is to realize that your image is far from objective, and to actively convince yourself of your positive qualities. Changing the way you think and working on those you need to improve will go a long way towards promoting a positive self-image. When you can pat yourself on the back, you’ll know you’re well on your way. Good luck!

5 . Today we know Antarctica as an extreme environment containing ice and snow. But new research provides evidence that the area had a rainforest in the past.

The researchers collected a piece of Earth sediment from under the seafloor off the coast of Antarctica. In the sediment, they discovered forest material that was estimated to be about 90 million years old. This would have been in the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs were the main land animals. The sediment was removed by scientists on the research icebreaker RV Polarstern in the Amundsen Sea near Pine Island Glacier.

Johann Klages is a geologist with the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. He was the lead writer of a study on the findings, published in the journal Nature. He said the sediment was collected from a depth of about 30 meters below the ocean floor. Klages said an examination showed that the material didn't form in the ocean.

The researchers estimate that the area — about 900 kilometers from the South Pole — had average yearly temperatures of about 12 to 13 degrees Celsius. During the warmest summer months, average temperatures likely reached between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. The soil included fine dirt particles and hard clay, as well as substances linked to at least 65 different kinds of plants, the study found. Klages added that the plants included trees, ferns and flowering plants. While no animal remains were found, Klages said there were likely dinosaurs, flying reptiles and many insects in the environment.

The research represents new evidence of the major climate changes Earth has experienced in the past — and is currently undergoing today. The soil in the sediment dates back to the planet’s warmest period of the past 140 million years, with sea level about 170 meters higher than today. The researchers said that the rainforest environment in Antarctica was especially surprising because each year, the area experiences a four-month polar night when there is no sunlight to fuel plant life. Klages said no ice sheets were present during the time, but seasonal snowfall was likely.

6 . The damage that aging does to a body extends all the way down to the cellular level. But the damage increased by cells in older muscles is especially severe, because the cells do not reproduce easily and they become weaker as their mitochondria (线粒体), which produce energy, reduce in energy and number. A study, however, suggests that certain sorts of exercise may remove some of what time can do to our mitochondria.

Exercise is good for people, as everyone knows. But scientists have surprisingly little understanding of its cellular impacts and how those might vary by activity and the age of the exerciser. So researchers recently conducted an experiment on the cells of 72 healthy but sedentary (久坐的) men and women who were 30 or younger or older than 64. After baseline measures were established for their aerobic (有氧的) fitness, their blood-sugar levels and the gene activity and mitochondrial health in their muscle cells, the volunteers were randomly assigned to a particular exercise program.

Some of them did weight training several times a week; some did interval training three times a week on exercise bicycles; some rode exercise bikes at a appropriate pace for 30 minutes a few times a week and lifted weights lightly on other days. A fourth group, the control, did not exercise. After 12 weeks, the lab tests were repeated. In general, everyone experienced improvements in fitness and an ability io regulate blood sugar.

But more unexpected results were found in the biopsies (活组织检查) muscle cells. Among the younger subjects who went through interval training, the activity levels had changed in 274 genes, compared with 170 genes for those who exercised more appropriately and 74 for the weight lifters. Among the older group, almost 400 genes were working differently now, compared with 33 for the weight lifters and only 19 for the appropriate exercisers.

It seems exercise could help contain the decline in the cellular health of muscles associated with aging, especially if it was intense, says Dr. Sreekumaran Nair, the study's senior author. In fact, older people's cells responded in some ways more strongly to intense exercise than the cells of the young did - suggesting, he says, that it is never too late to benefit from exercise.

7 . It was late, about 10:15 p.m. Janice Esposito got off the train at Bellport, New York, went to her car and started driving home. She was so familiar with the route that she almost drove automatically: turned left to the Station Road, then another left onto Montauk Highway, and then — bam! When Esposito’s car had just crossed the railroad tracks, it hit another vehicle and was plashed back onto the tracks. Injured but mostly shocked by the crash and by the airbags that popped up, she was stuck in the vehicle.

As it happened, Pete Dipinto was just about to go to sleep when he heard a sharp noise and saw the accident not far outside his bedroom window. As a volunteer firefighter and retired teacher, Dipinto who was 65, fetched a flashlight and rushed out without hesitation. “Any firefighter would have done what I did. We're always on duty.” he said.

At first, he spoiled the other car in the accident. After making sure that the driver was all right, Dipinto looked around and discovered Esposito’s car straddling (跨立于) the railway tracks. And then he heard die bell ring, which signaled a train’s arrival.

Dipinto rushed to Esposito’s car and broke the window on the driver’s side. Esposito looked up at him, with her eyes glazing over, “I don't know where I am.” she said.

“You’re on the railroad tracks,” Dipinto yelled. “I have to get you off right now!” The train was running toward them at a speed of some 105, kilometers per hour. The driver’s door cannot be opened due to the collision, so Dipinto quickly ran to the other side and managed to open the door. He put the airbags aside, seized her arms, pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until finally got her out and walked her to safety as swiftly as possible. Several seconds later, the train crashed into the vehicle. It was like a Hollywood movie, Dipinto told reporters the next day.

“Last night?” said Gregory Miglino Jr. Chief of the Department in South Country Ambulance, the hero arrived in pajamas (睡衣), not in a fire truck.”

9 . One summer during high school, my mom volunteered me to help Grandpa research our family tree. Great, I thought, imagining hours spent pawing through dusty, rotting boxes and listening to boring stories about people I didn't know. "You'll be surprised," my mom promised, "Family histories can be very interesting."

In truth, Grandpa didn't want to limit my work to just research, hoping to also preserve our family memories. He'd discovered a computer program that helps digitally scan old pictures and letters to preserve their contents before they crumble from old age. Grandpa wanted me to help him connect the scanner and set up the computer program. He could type documents and send emails, but had never used a scanner.

Soon after, I became fascinated with my relatives' lives. I asked Grandpa to tell the story behind every picture and letter we scanned. The stories, which turned out not to be boring at all, helped me not only understand but also relate to my relatives. I became so hungry for more information that Grandpa needed additional props to keep me satisfied. He showed me a chest filled with random stuff, all covered in dust.

Perusing through their belongings, I felt I was opening a window into the world of my relatives, a world long since gone. Grandpa showed me a bundle of letters he had sent to Grandma from the front lines of World War II and I could almost smell the gunpowder. I turned the pages of my great-grandmother's recipe book and could picture her cooking in her kitchen. All of the people who had been merely names to me now had faces to match.

Later, Grandpa admitted, "I probably could have done this project myself. I just wanted someone to share it with." I can't thank him enough for sharing the experience and making me appreciate the family members who have made me the person I am. I will cherish family memories and hope that someday will be able to pass them down to my own grandchildren.

10 . Maybe no one forgets their first bicycle and there is no exception to a woman like me. Mine was a Schwinn coaster bike, second-hand, painted a distinctive red and yellow by its previous owner. I remember riding too fast down the big hill on Springfield Avenue. I knew at once that the world was mine to explore.

A couple of years later, when I was 11, my grandmother visited from England, bringing me a bike. It was a shiny dark green, with three gears (齿轮) and hand brakes. As the owner of the first English bicycle my neighbors had ever seen, I was, for a time, almost a star.

Unlike my coaster bike, it was light and responsive — riding it felt like flying. I rode it past big stone houses with their huge yards and trees. I rode past brick row houses. I rode alone and with groups of friends.

That beloved bike went with me to college, carrying me to the library and to classes. Beyond transport, it was often a prop (道具): pushing it along as I walked the college paths made me feel less self-conscious. Somehow, conversation flowed more easily on either side of a bike.

After college, I lived abroad for a time. Returning from London, I discovered to my horror that my parents had sold my bike. They didn’t even know who had bought it.

For years after that, I didn’t have a bicycle that was specifically mine. Teaching in a New England prep school, I simply rode whatever bikes its graduates had left behind. I rode around the little town on bikes which slipped in and out of gear, with brakes that often failed.

I did not take any of those bikes with me when I moved south to the coastal town where I now live. But after a while I missed riding. Finally, on a fall day, I bought a bicycle. Called a comfort bike, it has wider tires than my old bike and seven gears. But it is green — a brighter green bike.

Still, I was a bit apprehensive. I was out of practice and a lot older. I brought the bike home and put on my helmet — I’d never worn a helmet before. Then I got on the bike. After a tentative, slightly shaky start, I fell exactly as I was on that long-ago day on Springfield Avenue: free. Soon I was riding along. It seemed that everyone I passed smiled and waved or call out, great day for a bike ride! And I knew they all remembered their first bike and how it had set them free. I wanted to call back to them, “I still can!”