1 . Belfast Friendship Club

Belfast Friendship Club is a safe space for people from all over the world to meet in a relaxed atmosphere (气 氛), to get information, to take part in activities, to make friends and help each other.

Everyone welcomes!

Whether you are a worker, an international student, on holidays or coming back after living away, as long as you’re prepared to talk or just listen to people you would not normally get to meet, Belfast Friendship Club is the place for you.

Belfast Friendship Club offers a special welcome to newcomers who find themselves in Belfast for any reason. Belfast Friendship Club works on three rules: equality, respect and unity.

What we do

Belfast Friendship Club meets on Thursday evenings in a non-profit cafe.

You can come in to:

●sit around;

●have a cup of tea or coffee;

●get to know new people or meet old friends;

●find out about events, parties and activities;

●learn about volunteering opportunities;

●exchange information about anything, from language or dance classes to how to find work;

●learn from each other’s countries, backgrounds and cultures;

●develop support networks and lifelong friendships.

The atmosphere is friendly and informal. Everyone is welcome. You will receive a warm greeting at the door from one of the Club’s “older” members.

Events and activities

Belfast Friendship Club also runs events and outings. Most of them are free. Activities include social events such as clothes swaps, a wide range of volunteering opportunities in Belfast and beyond, creative workshops and art projects, picnics and outings, men’s and women’s football teams.

Contact us

To contact Belfast Friendship Club, email to Stephanie Mitchell, Belfast Friendship Club coordinator stephanie mitchell@sbrtr.org.uk.

2 . Do you have a younger brother? Does he always get in trouble? Well, there might be some science behind that.

According to a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, second-borns are more likely than first-borns to behave badly, which could be why you from time to time consider your younger brother or sister sprites.

Researchers, who explored data from tens of thousands of sibling (兄弟姐妹) pairs from Denmark and

Florida, found second-borns are 20% to 40% more likely to have behavioral problems. If you’re the second-born child you may want to have a little chat with your parents. The reason why second-born siblings may be worse behaved than first-born is that parents tend to pay less attention to them.

“Second-born children tend to have less attention from the mother than their older siblings because first-born children experience their mother’s maternity leave (产假). First-borns enjoy the rewards of not only their own time with Mum following their birth, but the time Mum takes off with younger siblings, too.” the authors explain.

It’s not just about the parents, however. Speaking to NRP, co-author Joseph Doyle said, “The first-born has role models, who are adults. And the second, later-born children have role models who are slightly unreasonable 2-year-olds, you know, their older siblings. The difference of parental investments and the sibling influences probably contribute to these differences we see in the labor market and what we find in behaviors against rules, even against laws. It’s just very difficult to separate those two things because they happen at the same time”

The results, the authors argue, have an important effect on social policy.

3 . The best podcasts for people learning to cook

The Kitchen Counter

This show is designed to help new cooks on their way to greatness. While important topics such as healthy eating, the cost of good food and cooking meals suitable for the whole family are covered on the podcast, the great strength of The Kitchen Counter is in its recipes (食谱). This is home cooking done right, with both the host and guests sharing with listeners a variety of global dishes, from their origins to their variations and most importantly, how to make them.

Recipe Club

The recipe is at the heart of everything the Recipe Club podcast dedicates itself to. Each episode (一集) presents new themes, recipes and members of the club to debate and analyze these critical cooking instructions. Listeners will hear how the presenters have cooked the meal themselves and can learn how a good recipe can be made even better.

The Splendid Table

Why do we cook? Why do we eat what we eat? The host, Francis Lam, touches upon great recipes and killer cooking tips in his conversations, but they also focus on the impact food has on our lives and the personal connections it allows us to build. New cooks looking to get caught up in this cooking world will find the podcast helpful, inspiring and very relatable.

BBC Good Food podcast with Tom Kerridge

The episodes cover a set of bases, including spices (香料), food trends, recipes, crucial kitchen equipment and even barbecuing. This is a one-stop shop for all the essentials and the host and guests offer up insights that simply aren’t available anywhere else. Plus, as a limited series, there’s not a never-ending run of episodes to keep up with.

A     1     (major) of young Chinese are taking scientists such as Yuan Longping, known as “the father of hybrid rice”, as their idols,    2     (expect) to pass on their spirit, a recent survey(调查) found.

The nationwide survey, conducted in Beijing by China Youth Daily, interviewed 1,630 people aged 14 to 35 and found that 81% said they     3     (encourage) by the stories of the top scientists and wanted to become scientists     4     (they). The survey also found that the “spirit of scientists” included love     5     the country and a willingness to serve the people, the courage and efforts     6     (make) scientific breakthroughs.

Huang Chong, the head of the     7     (society) investigation (调查) center at China Youth Daily, who     8     (lead) the survey, said   the findings were unexpected. Huang had not expected to find that in the internet age,     9    online celebrities attract much attention and quickly gain fame and benefits, so many young people would want to become scientists—    10    somewhat low-key job that requires long hours of   hard work.

At the Nobel Prize Lecture on 7 December, 2015, an 84-year-old Chinese woman walked slowly on to the stage. She began to talk about the life-saving drug, artemisinin, which she had discovered    1    the help of her team in the 1970s. The woman was Tu Youyou, the first Chinese female scientist     2    (award) a Nobel Prize for her work.

Tu Youyou was born in Zhejiang Province, China, on 30 December, 1930. She     3    (study) medicine at Peking University Health Science Centre. After graduation, she became a member of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Later, she studied Chinese medicine for two and a half years with experts in the field from     4     she gained a deep knowledge about traditional practices.

In 1969, Tu Youyou    5     (choose) to establish a team to find a cure for malaria which killed    6     (million) of people every year. Across the world, scientists had been trying to find a cure. They tested more than 240,000 chemicals with no success. However, Tu Youyou had     7     idea that Chinese herbs might hold the secret. She researched hundreds of traditional recipes     8    (connect) to anti-malarial cures. Then Tu Youyou and her team began using modern research methods to study these Chinese herbs one by one. They overcame many difficulties and at last Tu Youyou    9     (brave) volunteered to be the first human subject and the test was a success. The medicine they discovered, artemisinin, has now become     10    (effective) drug for fighting malaria in the world.