4 . Well, to pick up where we left off last time. I’m certain that you know all too well the dangers hiding on the World Wide Web. And whether it’s for schoolwork, entertainment, or just socializing with friends, the Internet will surely be a major part of your child’s life. So, it’s important to secure their online stays.

It’s not the easiest thing, but keeping open lines of communication is primary. Let them know they can share their online activities with you. Talk to them about their online presence as early as possible, ideally before they begin to use email, social media, or a smartphone. Discuss what they find interesting online and learning from them about popular websites and apps; this will create understanding and allow you to identify potential risks.

Next, monitor without spying. Most kids learn to understand boundaries, like respecting others’ personal space, or not opening the cookie jar without asking. Internet use is no different. It’s helpful for kids to have ground rules as to which websites they can visit,which apps they can use, and what they can share online. Remind them that if they feel uneasy with anything that occurs online, they need to alert an adult immediately.

How you handle your kids’ internet usage will depend in large part on their age. There are sites and browsing tools meant for younger kids, such as YouTube Kids, which aims to provide a safe online experience for children. Older kids may be allowed more freedom since they want to network and need to use the internet for information-gathering. But you can set boundaries that feel right for you. Just limit access appropriately.

Allowing your children to make good decisions online teaches them responsibility, shows that you trust them, and reminds them that rules may be tightened if they disobey them. Stay tuned.

5 . Gender(性别)equality at work benefits everyone and the way to get there faster is to empower men as allies(同盟) in the fight.

The difference between women’s and men’s earnings is on average 18 cents per dollar earned, and even more than that for women of color. After years in which women have formed about half of the college-educated work force, this significant unchanging pay gap and the lack of representation of women in the upper ranks of senior management are troubling. In fact, only a surprisingly tiny 7.8 percent of CEOs at S&P 500 companies were female at the close of 2020. Why is it taking so long to break the well-known glass ceiling once and for all?

At an individual level, men who are unwilling to work closely with women can of course have a damaging effect on the careers of their female colleagues. But men who are indifferent about gender equality and also without necessarily meaning to prevent women’s advancement.

However, men have never been entirely absent from the struggle to expand economic access and professional opportunity for women. In 1984 the Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives and another two officials-all men-spoke out in favor of naming a woman to the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, and eventually, they made Geraldine Ferraro the vice president, the first woman ever to run on a major party ticket. Ferraro’s access to an important leadership role was the product not only of decades of activism and protest by women but also of powerful men’s endorsement of those demands, a practice that continues to be important today. In 2020, Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden made a promise to select a woman as his vice-presidential nominee(候选人) and ultimately shared electoral victory with running mate Kamala Harris, the first woman and first person of color to be elected vice president.

Men’s voices are important. When men speak up against gender discrimination, they not only become obvious as allies who can be counted on to support industry or company rules to advance equality, but they also improve awareness and acceptance of gender inequality as a shared problem, not a special interest.

6 . Will skipping breakfast make me fat?

The good news for those who don’t have breakfast is that putting on weight isn’t inevitable —as long as you control those high-calorie desires and stay active.

Research shows that although avoiding breakfast will make you hungrier and you might make up for that with a bigger lunch, this won’t necessarily make you “fatter” — on average, those who skip breakfast don’t eat more across the whole day than if they didn’t skip it. Some researchers have found that you may even eat fewer calories overall, and end up using your body’s fat reserves for energy, which can actually help you lose weight.

However, weight isn’t the only consideration: studies show that breakfast-skippers are likely to exercise less. This may be because they have lower energy levels-after eight hours or so without food, the body will have used up most of its stores of easy-to-access energy during sleep. Morning fasters are also more likely to have unhealthy, but appetite-suppressing habits, such as smoking or drinking a lot of coffee.

If you want to ensure that you eat a regular, nutritious breakfast, try preparing it the night before don’t leave it until the morning, when your brain struggles to make good decisions.

If you do skip breakfast. . .

■Don’t make up for it with a huge lunch, otherwise you’ll suffer overeating.

■Make sure you eat something before you exercise, or you risk “hitting the wall”.

■Don’t make up for lack of energy with coffee-it can make you lose your appetite and make you anxious and nervous.

7 . Humans evolved (进化) from apes. This is what we learned in biology class. But what came before apes? Chinese scientists have discovered fossils that could enrich the evolutionary story of how humans evolved from fish.

According to four articles published in the journal Nature in late September, Chinese researchers found fish fossils that provide the “missing link” about the origin of the jaw (下颌)，a key trait (特征) that 99.8 percent of vertebrate species (脊椎动物) have.

Zhu Min, a lead researcher of the studies from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily that the findings drew a large amount of interest in the science world due to the importance of jaws in animal evolution. However, the rise of the jaw had been a mystery due to a lack of sufficient fossil evidence to support that jawed vertebrates lived 450 million years ago.

The latest findings made by Zhu’s team presented a set of five surprisingly well-preserved fish fossils that included three whole-bodied fish, helping scientists paint a more accurate evolutionary picture of the origin of the jaw. The fish fossils were discovered at two sites in Chongqing and Guizhou, whose strata (地层) date back to the Silurian Period (志留纪) that began around 440 million years ago.

These fossils show that jawed fish were already thriving in the world’s ancient oceans at that time. Later on, more diverse and larger jawed fish evolved and began to spread around the world, paving the way for some fish to eventually go on land and evolve into other animals — including humans.

“These fossils provide an opportunity to peek into the ‘dawn of fish’ and help scientists track many human body structures back to these ancient fish, thus filling some key gaps in the evolutionary history of how fish evolved into humans.” Zhu said.

8 . In many homes, dogs are beloved family pets. Dogs are now playing a role in educational environments, too. Since 2014, the New York City Department of Education has certified (认证) a Comfort Dog program. The program trains comfort dogs and their human handlers (训练师)for use in schools.

The Comfort Dog program began as a way to help students feel more involved in their classes and to reduce feelings of anxiety, fear, and isolation. At East Side Middle School (ESMS) in Manhattan, Bailey the comfort dog is now working with her human handler, Laurie Posner, the school psychologist.

“After a year and a half of virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many kids have felt disconnected from their classmates. At ESMS, Bailey will be involved in social-emotional lessons throughout the school year. Also, Bailey is supposed to work on specific goals.” Posner said. Students who have had difficulty going from a virtual learning model back to an in-person setting can also join a small group with Bailey. “In addition to helping small groups, Bailey will have an open-door policy - anyone on campus who is having a hard day will be welcome to come and see Bailey anytime. Mr. Posner added. “You need somewhere to relax and just pet a dog, or talk to a dog, someone who is not going to judge you. That’s what she is for.”

Bailey went through intensive (加强的)training in order to become a comfort dog. Each dog must know basic instructions and pass a test conducted by human handlers to be suitable for a classroom setting. The dogs’ interactions with children, how they walk in hallways, respond to the ringing of school bells, and take treats from working staff are all tested.

Researchers are finding that having comfort dogs in school leads to a more positive school climate.

So far, Bailey is a hit at ESMS.

9 . The AIDA model is the foundation of modern marketing and advertising practice. It outlines the four basic steps used to persuade potentials to make a purchase. The first three steps lie in creating attention (A), decorating interest (I), and building desire (D) for the product, before the fourth step — the “call to action” (A) — tells them exactly how and where to buy. AIDA can channel the customer’s feelings through each stage toward reaching a sale.

Attracting the customer’s attention is the first challenge and this may be achieved by using an attracting phrase or picture. Once someone’s attention has been clutched, it must be turned into real interest. This is best done by providing a brief description of the product’s benefits to the consumer rather than simply listing the product’s main features or problem-solving claims.

Now, it is time to transform that interest into a desire for a product or service. This is where consumers need to believe their lives could be better by possessing the product. It could be a vital step towards turning a potential into a real customer.

“Call-to-action” is where all of the initial hard work pays off and leads to the action from a potential customer. For example, they might pick up the phone to discuss the idea of a trial of the services or, alternatively, they may just buy that product or service that has been promoted to them all along.

And AIDA is used to great effect in the movie industry. Movie studios begin their marketing campaigns months in advance. The campaigns develop by offering attractive flashes of the movie without giving too much away. Desire is inspired by the release of the full preview which is fully designed to show the exciting moments of the movie, from special effects to humorous lines of dialogue on the opening weekend. Advertisements in newspapers and on television focus on the movie’s release, inviting the consumer to go and buy a ticket.

10 . For one week in May, more than 100,000 people in the UK carefully counted their plastic waste at home in a national investigation into plastic use and recycling. It was called the Big Plastic Count, run by organizations Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic.

So how did they get on, and what did they discover about their dependency on a material that has become a part of our everyday lives?

Jules, 41, and her family threw away 124 pieces of plastic during their week of counting. The packaging in party bags and sticker packs for her daughter’s sixth birthday was the most upsetting, she says. She had thought her household was quite low plastic and so was “shocked” by how much they used. “It’s the hidden stuff that isn’t recyclable—like pizza wrappers—that gets you,” Jules explains.

“Every single sheet for the stickers in the party bags came individually wrapped in its own unrecyclable bag, and then they were packed together in a bigger bag,” she says.

Her children are passionate about protecting the environment but Jules says she finds it very hard as a consumer to make the right choices.

“We can only do so much. It’s in the manufacturer’s hands. The whole thing is such a juggle (杂耍).” Taylor, a 25-year-old scheduler, says of the 70 pieces of plastic he counted, it was the cucumber packaging that upset him the most. He has family who live abroad where he says it’s easy to buy fruits and vegetables without any plastic. He’d also like to see more local produce in shops direct from farmers, which would reduce the need for excessive packaging used to transport goods long distances.

“I get progressively more upset with the fact that supermarkets sell so much plastic,” he says. Even if he could find plastic-free alternatives, he says the cost is exorbitant. “The price of everything is going up, but things that are better for the environment are much more expensive,” he says.