1 . Young babies make many short and word-like sounds such as “ba” or “aga”. Those early sounds are later replaced with words and, eventually, sentences. While some of them are born to be more talkative than others, a new study confirms that male babies make more sounds than female babies in the first year.

While the research confirms earlier findings from a much smaller study by the same team, they still come as a surprise. That’s because there’s a common and long-held belief that females have an advantage over males in language.

In the study, Dr Kim and his team included more than 450,000 hours of all-day recordings of 5,899 babies, using a device about the size of an iPod. Those recordings were processed to count the number of words spoken by babies and adults across the first two years of life.

Generally, the data showed that male babies made 10% more sounds in the first year compared to females. In the second year, the difference turned directions, with female babies making about 7% more sounds than males. Those differences were observed even though the number of words spoken by adults caring for those babies was higher for female babies in both years compared to males.

Why, then, would male babies be more talkative than females in the first year and not later? “We think it may be because boys are more likely to die in the first year than girls. Given that so many male deaths happen in the first year, boys may have been under especially high selection pressure to produce fitness signals to express their wellness and improve their chances of surviving,” says Kim. By the second year of life, as death rates drop sharply across the board, he added, “the pressure on special fitness signaling is lower for both boys and girls.”

3 . Students at West Side Elementary School in California, with the help of their art teacher, created a telephone hotline to offer cheerful advice during difficult times. In just days, the hotline began getting thousands of calls an hour. The hotline, available in English and Spanish, offers the happy voices of children of different ages sharing positive messages.

Most people agree that with concerns like Covid-19, extreme weather, and the climate crisis, the last years have been stressful.

“To hear the pure joy from kids is extremely comforting in these difficult times,” art teacher Jessica Martin says.

Ms. Martin called the project “Pep Talk”, which later changed to “PepToc” to draw an ad for the hotline. The project had two parts, one the hotline, and the other creating encouraging posters. Along with artist Asherah, she worked with students from kindergarten to sixth grade. Students working on the hotline thought of what they would like to say. When they were ready, Ms. Martin recorded each one. Later, she sorted out the recordings into the different parts of the telephone hotline. For example, pressing 2 results in words of encouragement and life advice. This includes messages like: “The world is a better place with you in it.” and “You are okay!” Pressing 4, you hear the sounds of children laughing — a sound certain to bring a smile to anyone’s face. Other students took part in making encouraging posters to hang up around the town. Many posters had strips of paper that people passing by could tear off and take with them.

Ms. Martin thought the project would attract interest from people near the school. But word of the hotline spread quickly on social media. The hotline has become popular with stressed adults, patients in hospitals, older people in homes, and others to beat stress by hearing the happy voices of children.

4 . Tracy was always hard-working and creative. She started a website called TEAM for girls when she was 16, and it’s doing better than ever.

TEAM now has 10 million visits every month.

When she was ten, Tracy drew four characters (人物). They are all girls, and they are good friends. She called them “Amazing Girls”. The main amazing girl, Miss E, represents (代表) her younger sister Elizabeth. Amy writes stories, and Mary answers questions. “Amazing Girls” finally became TEAM. “TEAM” means “Together everyone achieves more”.

At that time, Tracy wanted a safe and warm site for girls, but she couldn’t find one. So she decided to create one herself.

At first, Tracy asked family members and friends for help. Her computer teacher also helped her a lot. She created a small website. “There was a homepage, which had the four characters and simple flash animations (动画),” Tracy says. “It was very, very simple, but it was a start.”

Now it is a heaven for millions of girls. It has message boards, quizzes, games, music, and more. Girls can help each other with homework here. And they can also discuss fashion, dancing and singing stars. They feel free and comfortable. They have made their life more fruitful and meaningful.

“I’m able to learn so much about culture around the world,” Tracy says. “The goal for the site was, and still is, to help young girls to believe in themselves.”

7 . As a popular tour operator, Travel China Guide designs a lot of China tour packages (旅游套餐) for foreigners with the best-selling travel deals to wonderful must see destinations and offers the best quality services. We warmly invite you to join us on an exciting vacation. Today we will offer you a three days’ private Zhangjiajie in-depth tour.

Welcome to this charming city, Zhangjiajie. Your guide and driver will pick you up at the airport and drive you to the hotel we booked for you ahead of time. The rest time of the day remains free for you to relax.

Today, your private Zhangjiajie tour will start with a visit to the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, where you will have a chance to experience the world’s longest and highest glass bridge, Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge. In addition to an unforgettable experience, it will also give you a special angle to enjoy the beauty of the Grand Valley

Afterwards, your guide will lead you to the Baofeng Lake where you will take a scenic boat ride. When you finish visiting the scenic area, the driver will send you back to the hotel.

Today your Zhangjiajie tour will continue to go to the Tianmen Mountain, known as the most beautiful “Hanging Garden” in the world. Tianmen Mountain is named after a natural wonder, Tianmen Cave, which is a naturally formed hole among thousand-metre high cliffs. In addition to this wonder, you may also see different old trees, green vines and rare animals there.

Your three-day Zhangjiajie tour package will come to an end here. You will then be driven to the airport and we will say goodbye there. If you want to have your China tour schedule further, we will be glad to provide detailed information.

10 . Returning from an early-morning walk with my dog, I dug in my pockets for the keys to the front door but failed. I decided to return to find them.

I spent an hour looking for the keys, but the keys remained lost. At home again, I pulled the backup key from its hiding place, let myself in the house, and fell on the couch thinking. The house key wasn’t that important as I had an extra. I had a spare car key, but the iron heart made by my grandson was precious. For some reason, thinking of it being gone forever made tears come to my eyes. I blamed myself for not being more careful. In my head, I reflected on my steps but finally gave up. Life is too short to get worried over these things.

For some reason, I continued the day without beginning the various tasks of getting replacements. That night, it began to snow. I settled into a peaceful evening. It was peaceful until I heard the scream of my car alarm. I rushed to the car, opened it, and stopped the alarm. I felt red-faced as I imagined my next-door neighbors being annoyed.

I went back in the house, and the next sound was the front doorbell. Assuming it was a neighbor ready to complain, I opened the door with apologies ready.

In the light snow stood three neighbors from several streets away. One of them held out my keys with a smile! I wanted to hug her, but in a COVID world, all I could do was say. “Oh, my goodness! Thank you!” She said, “Sorry about the alarm. We had to press it to find your home!” Pressing the alarm until I heard a car alarm wouldn’t have occurred to me. I was astonished by her clever kindness and wished I could have hugged her. Instead, I hugged the keys.