4 . Have you heard of the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”?     1     . It can provide the host with an opportunity to give the guests small gifts. The object of the game is to place the donkey’s tail as close as possible to the place where it should actually be. Typically, the winner of a round will receive a small prize.

    2     . Generally, you need a large picture of a donkey without a tail and pictures of the donkey’s tail. You’ll also need a blindfold. Besides. you need to prepare a pin for each tail so that kids can attach the tails to the donkey.

When you choose an area for the game, keep security in mind. Since players may head off in completely wrong directions, it’s important to find a rather large area. The area had better be flat, without objects like big stones on the ground.     3     .

Here are the steps of the game. One at a time, blindfold the kid. hand him the tail you’ve labeled for him, and turn him slowly around at the starting point.     4     . All other players should keep out of the blindfolded kid’s way as he makes his way to the wall.

The kid should walk with his arms outstretched and place the tail as soon as he touches the wall.     5     . Then gather everyone to examine the picture and identify the winner — the player who has made the best attempt to pin the tail on the donkey in the proper position.

5 . New research suggests that a gene that governs the body's biological (circadian) clock acts differently in males versus females and may protect females from heart disease. The study is the first to analyze circadian blood pressure rhythms (节奏) in female mice.

The body's circadian clock-the biological clock that organizes bodily activities over a 24-hour period-contributes to normal variations in blood pressure and heart function over the course of the day. In most healthy humans, blood pressure dips (下降) at night. People who do not experience this temporary drop, called “non-dippers”, are more likely to develop heart disease. The circadian clock is made up of four main proteins (encoded by “clock genes”) that regulate close to half of all genes in the body, including those important for blood pressure regulation.

Previous research has shown that male mice that are missing one of the four clock genes (PER1) become non-dippers and have a higher risk for heart and kidney disease. A research team studied the circadian response and blood pressure of female mice that lack PER1 and compared them with a healthy female control group. On both low-and high-salt diets, both groups “retained an apparent circadian rhythm” of blood pressure, the researchers explained. Unlike the male mice in previous research, the females without PER1 showed normal dips in blood pressure overnight.

These results suggest that the lack of PER1 acts differently in males and females. The findings are consistent with research showing that women are less likely to be non-dippers than men of the same age. "This study represents an important step in understanding sex differences in the regulation of cardiovascular (心血管) function by the circadian clock," the researchers wrote.

6 . Four Seasonal Best-Sellers Online

Are you among the parents who are seeking books for your children during the coming winter vacation? The following seasonal best-sellers may be on your list of choices.

Salt

Salt, in which Helen Frost tells a story about friendship between Anikwa and James, was set in a time of war. Anikwa and James spent their happy days together in the forests of the Indiana Territory until facing the cruel war. As a children’s literature, it was once considered as a Kirkus Reviews Best Book in 2013.

Now

Now was set in the present day. This is the final book in Morris Gleitzman’s series that began with Once, continued with Then and Now. In the novel, Felix, a successful man with painful memories of his childhood recalls his time with his granddaughter Zelda. It has been popular with teenagers since it came out. Now is one of Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books of 2012.

Green

Die-cut (模切的) pages bring surprise after surprise in this magical new book. How many kinds of green are there in the world? Laura Vaccaro Seeger shapes a respect to a single color that will delight and quite possibly shock you. Green was considered as Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Book of 2012 and a 2013 Caldecott Honor Book.

Holes

In this wonderfully creative novel, Louis Sachar makes up a puzzle about Stanley Yelnats, a boy who was sent to juvenile detention center (少年管教中心) Camp Green Lake, and forced to dig a hole a day, five feet across in the hard earth of the dried-up lake bed. It is a darkly humorous tale. The book wins the Winner of the National Book Award and was one of the best sellers among children.

When the starting signal sounded, Qian Hongyan pushed herself in the pool. She     1    (win)the silver medal in the women's 100-meter breaststroke(蛙泳)final in the 11th National Games for Persons with Disabilities     2     (hold)in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.

Qian, from Luliang, Yunnan Province, lost both legs.     3     caused that was a traffic accident when she was 4 years old. Since then, she has become well-known tor moving around while balanced on an orange ball,     4     (earn) herself a nickname, basketball girl.

Qian's enthusiasm for swimming     5    (date)back to 2007. At 11 years old, she     6    (invite)by the coach Zhang Honghu to join the swimming club tor people with disabilities. However, without legs, Qian found it difficult to keep balance in water."Swimming without legs is like handling a boat     7     a rudder(舵). I tended to sway(摇摆)due to a poor sense of direction," she said.

To help her overcome the difficulty, her coach made a tailor-made training plan for her. Every day, she practiced swimming for at least four     8    (hour). She made intense efforts to strengthen her arm and balance,     9     helped her successfully get used to the water.

"I like swimming. It changed my life and helped me see     10     (extreme) wonderful things," she said in an interview.

8 . The Curb-cut Effect (路缘坡效应) refers to the fact that supporting small groups of people often ends up helping much larger ranges of society.

Curb cuts: Easing the walking

In the 1940s, hundreds of thousands of World War Ⅱ soldiers returned home with disabilities. Disappointed by the difficulties they faced, Jack Fisher of Kalamazoo, Michigan, as one of them, asked his city government to build an experimental curb cut-a gentle slope that brings the end of a sidewalk down to meet the level of the street-at the corners of several blocks downtown. A few months later, Fisher reported that even residents without wheelchairs were enjoying the impact of the little slopes.

Reading machines: Getting the message

In 1976, technologist Ray Kurzweil invented a machine for the blind and visually damaged to change images into text that it then read aloud. Smart speakers with those voices are now in roughly one-quarter of US homes. By detecting street signs and house numbers, it is helping build the maps that self-driving cars use to navigate the world.

Closed captions (字幕): Following the conversation

Sears launched the first TV with a built-in equipment that allowed deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers to read along with their favorite programs in 1980. In the 1990s, text became increasingly common as DVDs and, later, streaming services added the ability to switch the words on at will. A 2006 survey found that only around 20 percent of the people using captions had hearing problems.

DeafSpace designs: Keeping things quiet

More than 150 designs of the DeafSpace Project came from architect Hansel Bauman. One aim is to clear distracting noises, which can make it difficult for people to use their limited hearing abilities. By keeping conversations and other sound disturbances from walking and jumping around the room, these ways also make it easier for all sorts of students and workers to focus.

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10 . To keep social distancing and work at home during the pandemic (流行病) has led to less time moving around, and more time sitting and looking at screens. For many office workers, working at home means spending hours sitting at our desk.     1    . Therefore, exercise experts suggest things must be changed. Some tips here are to help you move more.

Start small

People trying to start exercising often get caught up in an “all or nothing” thinking which means either I do zero or I do two hours. And if I don’t get two hours, then it doesn’t count, or it’s not good enough.     2    . Going from no activity at all to even a little bit will indeed get some health effects.

    3    

Part of developing a good exercise habit is to know yourself well. Knowing what’s possible and what’s not realistic for you. For instance, if you’re not a morning person, don’t plan to exercise in the morning. And if you hate running, don’t run just because someone tells you it’s good for you.     4    . Arranging with a friend to work out will help you avoid struggling to get started.

Walk whenever you can

Sitting less and walking more will make a big difference. Use your stairs instead of an elevator. And if you don’t have to go out, just walk room to room back and forth to get those extra steps. If you have a meeting, use the break of that meeting to walk around.     5