3 . There are well-documented mental health benefits to pet ownership, as much research has shown. Indeed, we know there are some physical benefits as well, as dog owners tend to have more active lifestyles. Yet when it comes to conditions like allergies (过敏), we tend to think of pet ownership as exacerbating, not alleviating them.

Hence, a recent study published in the journal PLOS One might come as a surprise. The study, published Wednesday, found that children raised with cats and dogs early in life had a 13 to 16 % lower risk of developing all food allergies than those who did not own pets.

The researchers engaged in a detailed survey, studying 65,000 children. They found that children who were exposed to dogs either during fetal (胎儿) development, or up to the age of 3 years old were less likely to have nut, milk and egg allergies.

This wasn’t true for other pets that weren’t cats and dogs. Indeed, the same research found that children exposed to hamsters during this same period had an increased risk of nut allergies. Yet children who were exposed to cats during their early years were likewise less likely to develop specific allergies — namely, allergies to wheat, soybean and egg.

While the study is not the final word on the issue — the researchers note “further studies using oral food challenges are required to more accurately assess the incident of food allergies” — it reinforces preexisting research on the seemingly funny ways that cats influence human development.

In addition to adding to the growing body of scientific literature about pets and human health, the PLOS One also reinforces earlier research about the role of the environment in developing allergies. The research repeatedly found that exposure to farmyard dirt, dust and the various fine hairs that fly off animals helps children in their breathing system development.

4 . People solve some new problems readily without any special training or practice by comparing them to familiar problems and extending the solutions to the new problems. That process, known as analogical reasoning (类比推理), has long been thought to be an ability only humans have. But now people might have to make room for a new kid on the block.

Psychologists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) claim that, astonishingly, the artificial intelligence (AI) language model GPT-3 performs about as well as college undergraduates when asked to solve the sort of reasoning problems that typically appear on intelligence tests and standardized tests.

But the psychologists raise the question: Is GPT-3 copying human reasoning as a by-product of its massive language training data set or using a fundamentally new kind of cognitive (认知的) process? They also say that although GPT-3 performs far better than they expected at some reasoning tasks, the popular AI tool still fails completely at others. “It can do analogical reasoning, but it can’t do things that are very easy for people, such as using tools to solve a physical task,” says Taylor Webb, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher in psychology.

Webb and his colleagues tested GPT-3’s ability to solve a set of problems inspired by a test known as Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which ask the subject to predict the next image in a complicated arrangement of shapes. To enable GPT-3 to “see” the shapes, and make sure that the AI tool had never met the questions before, Webb transformed the images into a text format that GPT-3 could process.

The psychologists asked 40 UCLA undergraduate students to solve the same problems. Surprisingly, not only did GPT-3 do about as well as humans but it made similar mistakes as well. GPT-3 solved 80% of the problems correctly — well above the human subjects’ average score of just below 60%, but within the range of the highest human scores.

At the end of the fifth grade, there was a burst of excitement in the classroom. The school year was almost over, and we would be moving on to a new school for the sixth grade. All the girls made autograph books (签名册) and collected signatures.

As I signed my classmates’ books, I noticed their moms had written in them, too. Such sweet thoughts were expressed, “I couldn’t be prouder of you. Can’t wait to see how you like junior high!” “You’re graduating. Congratulations! We love you and know you have a bright future!” ...

I asked my mother to sign mine, too. She was busy, but she said she’d sign it. Several days later, when I asked about it, she told me she just forgot. Anyway, she handed it back to me later. I was anxious to see what encouraging words she had written. And this is what I found on the page:

When a thing is first begun,

Never leave it till it’s done.

Be the labor great or small,

Do it well or not at all.

Mom

My heart sank. That was it? I was disappointed that there were no words of pride or encouragement. It was just a stupid poem-another indication to me that if I couldn’t be perfect, I wasn’t good enough.

I held back my tears, not expressing my disappointment.

That page in that handmade book bothered me for years,

I battled perfectionism and low self-respect and never felt good enough for most of my life. Many times, I gave up on things after I barely got started. All I could hear was "You’re not good enough."

When my mother was in her eighties and in a nursing home, I gave her a book to fill out so we could know more about her. It had hints (暗示) at the top of each page and then blank space to respond. I wanted her to write down her memories and a lifetime of experiences, so I. along with her grandchildren, would have some precious sections of her life.

In the beginning, she was very excited.

One day I went to the nursing home to see her, only to find her sleeping, with the book lying beside her.

It is hard not to desire victory with all your efforts when the world seems so competitive, especially if you’re a boy growing up with those values. A boy called Edward grew up in a similar environment where winning was all that was valued, and he longed to succeed. He was good at running, so he called everyone in the nearby villages for a race. A large group of people from around came to see this exciting event!

Edward had been training hard for this race. He ran among the strongest boys from around the villages, and the young boy came out victorious! The crowd went wild with excitement as they cheerfully held banners (横幅) praising him. The boy loved the attention. It made him feel happy and energetic.

There were two types of races-short distances and long distances. The boy was unbeatable in both the races he competed in. The crowd loved him even more after the second victory; they clapped with excitement. The boy felt very proud of his achievements.

But among the crowd was a wise older man who did not seem as impressed with the boy’s performances as the rest. Just as the boy thought the races for the day were over, the old man shouted from the crowd, “There is one more race left, the most important one.” The boy was surprised by the additional race, but he was, confident he could win any race.

The old man brought two new competitors for the boy, a blind man and a weak old lady. “What type of race is this? I can easily win them,” the boy said. “The most important one,” repeated the old man. So, the boy ran the race as he knew he would win this time, too. When the boy crossed the finish line, the blind man was still at the start, and the old lady had just started to move. The boy was successful, and he raised his hands with great joy after his victory.

8 . A little brain stimulation at night appears to help people remember what they learned the previous day, a study of 18 severe epilepsy (癫痫) patients has found.

During sleep, brain cells fire in rhythmic patterns. When two brain areas synchronize (同步) their firing patterns, they are able to communicate. During non-rapid eye movement sleep, the hippocampus, found deep in the brain, synchronizes its activity with the prefrontal cortex, which lies just behind the forehead. This helps transform memories from the day into memories that can last a lifetime.

Dr. Itzhak Fried at the University of California and his team gathered 18 epilepsy patients who already had electrodes (电极) in their brains for medical evaluation. This offered the scientists a way to both monitor and change a person’s brain rhythms. They used a “celebrity pet” test in which participants were shown images matching a particular celebrity with a specific animal. The goal was to remember which animal went with which celebrity.

Patients saw the images before going to bed. While sleeping, some of them got tiny electrical stimulation through the wires in their brains. In patients who got the stimulation, rhythms in the two brain areas became more synchronized. And when they woke up they scored higher on the test.

The experiment was based on decades of research done by scientists, including Dr. György Buzsáki, a neuroscientist at New York University. But changing rhythms in healthy peoples’ brains might not improve their memory, he says, because those communication channels are already in perfect condition. The epilepsy patients may have improved because they started out with sleep and memory problems caused by both the disorder and the drugs used to treat it.

Even so, he says, the approach has the potential to help millions of people with damaged memory. And brain rhythms probably play parts in many other problems. “They are not specific to memory. They are doing a lot of other things,” Buzsáki says, like regulating mood and emotion.

Sista raced ahead, the sea breeze streaming against her face. Rafi finally caught up and then they rested in the shade.

I’m hungry. I know where there’s a great apple tree.” Sista said, “It belongs to an oldlady called Susan who lives in the little house by the hill. I heard she’s stubborn,but that sometimes she gives fruit in return for an errand(跑腿).”

“Let’s go,” Rafi said. They crossed a stream by hopping from rock to rock. Finally,upon ahilltop,they saw a splendid apple tree with bright red fruits.

A small farmhouse stood at the bottom of the hill. Rafi’s heart pounded as Sista knocked onthe door. An elderly woman answered.

“Yes?” the lady asked, staring at the girls.

“We heard ...“ said Sista, her voice shaky, “that we could run an errand for you in exchangefor apples.”

Susan raised one eyebrow. “Ah, yes. ” She clicked her tongue. “Nothing is free, eh?”

She led the girls into the kitchen. When passing the living room, Sista found that the wallwas decorated with colourful crayon drawings, which seem to be children’s. She wondered whodrew these since Susan was alone,with no grandchildren,even no families or relatives. The ladygrabbed two baskets, one large and one small, and pushed them into the girls hands. “Go fill these with apples. Come right back.”

The girls raced up the hill to the tree, climbed the branches, and picked the ripest apples.After filling the baskets, they returned to the house.

Susan filled a bag with rice and dried beans, and then she handed it to Sista.“Take this bagand the large basket of apples to the Gomez family. Do you know them?”

The girls nodded. Sista had heard that Mr. Gomez has been sick in bed for a long time andMrs.Gomez has to raise three little kids.

“Good.And ask them for the payment," Susan added with a tight smile.

The girls hit the road.

When Susan opened the envelope, the girls saw the payment!