1 . “Oh no, Haley. Why are you crying?” A question we often hear when we’re chopping onions.     1    

Well, it all starts underground. Life for an onion is pretty sweet when they’re down there in the dirt. Except when bugs (虫子) come by wanting a bite. Onions don’t like that at all.     2     When the bugs bite the onion, it releases a chemical which stings really bad. This gas acts as a natural insecticide, keeping bugs away from the onion.

This chemical is called syn-propanethial-S-oxide, which is what causes the tears when we cut into them. When we slice into onions to cook them,     3     When it reaches your eyes, it makes them sting. The gas can react with the moisture in our eyes and forms a mild acid. This acid irritates (刺激) our eyes, making them water in an attempt to wash away the irritant. This is why we end up crying when we cut onions.

So, how can we avoid crying while cutting onions? Well, here are a few tips.

    4     When the cold temperature slows down the reaction, less gas is released, which may reduce the amount of syn-propanethial-S-oxide that is released into the air. Alternatively, put a silver spoon in your mouth. When the chemical gets to the spoon, it binds with a metal before it reaches your eyes, or wear some very cool glasses like me. These glasses have side shields that block the gas from reaching your eyes.

In conclusion, onions make us cry because of the gas they release when we cut into them. Although it may be an annoyance,     5     So don’t let that stop you from enjoying their delicious flavor in your favorite dishes.

3 . South Korea’s birth rate, already the world’s lowest, has dropped yet again in the latest setback to the country’s efforts to boost its declining population.

The national statistics body reported Wednesday that the birth rate fell to 0.72 in 2023—down from 0.78 the previous year. Countries need a birth rate of 2.1 to maintain a stable (稳定的) population, in the absence of immigration. South Korea’s birth rate has been falling since 2015 and the country recorded more deaths than births for the first time in 2020, a trend that has continued since. In 2022, the country recorded about 249, 000 births and 372,800 deaths. Meanwhile, Korean women are also having children later in life. The average age of childbirth in South Korea was 33.5 last year.

Similar population declines are being seen in several other Asian countries including Japan and China, raising concern that there will be too few people of working age to support the ballooning elderly population.

Experts say the reasons for these population shifts across the region include demanding work cultures, stagnating wages, rising costs of living, changing attitudes toward marriage and gender equality, and rising disappointment among younger generations.

But despite the economic factors at play, throwing money at the problem has proved ineffective. Last September, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol admitted that more than $200 billion has been spent trying to boost the population over the past 16 years. The South Korean government has introduced various initiatives such as extending paid paternity leave, offering monetary “baby vouchers” to new parents, and social campaigns encouraging men to contribute to childcare and housework. But experts and residents say more support is needed throughout a child’s life, as well as change on several deep-rooted social issues.

4 . All the external parts of your life are like a dream. Let go of the shell you’re in while you’re alive so you can get out of the cage that holds you.

Not long before I made the decision to leave the rock band, I invited a friend of mine over for Friday night dinner. Though I waited all long, he didn’t turn up. However, what happened instead changed my life. My neighbor Alex, who was near to me, saw me sitting there waiting, and said, “Hey, come on over and join us.”

Alex and I sat around the dinner table for about an hour and a half, talking about the band, touring, and all the great things we had accomplished.

“Well, do you have a picture of what you would like your life to look like in ten years?”

I hadn’t thought about it until he asked me, but I closed my eyes and could see a vision of who I wanted to be. It was so clear. I started describing the vision of a young man who was walking his kids to school and helping and assisting others with their spiritual pursuits. When I finished describing the vision I had seen, I looked at Alex, and his eyes were filled with tears.

“Alex, I know I paint a pretty picture, but why on earth are you so emotional about it?”

He looked me in the eyes and said, “I had that kind of clarity once. I chose to listen to others about what I should do and how I should live my life. I didn’t want to go to law school, but I did because of my parents, my scholarship, and a lot of external pressure. It’s been ten years, and I am just figuring that out now. You know, if you are adding a black and white pixel onto the screen of your life. Soon, the vision will be gone, the inspiration will fade, and you will have had your life chosen for you instead of choosing your life for yourself.”

After he said those words, I changed my decision. It was a moment of grace, a moment where I was given another chance and an opportunity to start again and live a life I wanted to live.

5 . A swimming pool is a wonderful addition to a home that the whole family is sure to enjoy! The luxury of being able to slip into a nice, cool pool on a hot summer day in the privacy of one’s backyard is well worth the cost! The swimming pool is a lot of fun, but it also presents some hazard! The following is a list of things you can do to make sure your family is protected and your pool is a safe space to enjoy!

Learn To Swim — Being unable to swim makes you an accident waiting to happen, be it at the pool, the beach, or around any body of water! Our advice for guests is to have all visiting children have a basic swimming test at the shallow end to judge their skills — if they don’t pass, then the deep end is strictly off limits to them, even with floatation (漂浮) aids since they can be dangerously unreliable!

Children Supervised — Any children under the age of ten should be actively supervised by a responsible and vigilant adult who knows how to swim! Children should always be kept in sight, and children under the age of five should always be within easy arm’s reach.

Sun Protection — The water is not the only potential hazard in a swimming pool, exposure to harmful UV rays can be compounded as they reflect off the water’s surface, and if no measures are taken can deliver a nasty sunburn that may even require a doctor’s care! Apply waterproof sunscreen to all exposed parts of the body. Don’t use water-resistant products, they don’t resist for very long, and can just make matters worse!

Swimming pools are a lot of fun, but it’s up to you to play it safe!

6 . Coffee may be unfriendly to a financial planner, according to researchers from the University of South Florida (USF) “Caffeine (咖啡因), as a powerful stimulant, leads to a higher energetic state, which in turn decreases self-control,” said lead author and USF professor Dipayan Biswas. The findings were published on Thursday in the Journal of Marketing.

According to the study, researchers ran three experiments involving coffee machines at the entrances of a supermarket and home goods store in France and a department store in Spain. Upon entering those places, over 300 shoppers received a cup with nothing in it yet. About half of those shoppers ordered a coffee containing roughly 100 mg of caffeine, while the other half went in with either decaffeinated coffee or water. Importantly, the shoppers also shared their shopping receipts (收据) with researchers as they exited.

Sure enough, people who drank caffeinated coffee bought a significantly higher number of items and spent more money. Interestingly, drinking caffeine also appeared to influence the types of items people bought. Shoppers who drank caffeine bought more unnecessary items, such as decorative candles and fragrances (香水), than the others. However, there were few differences among caffeinated and decaffeinated shoppers when it came to making more practical decisions, including kitchen tools and storage baskets.

The study authors also conducted the fourth experiment in a lab testing the impact of caffeine on online shopping. They separated a group of 200 business school students depending on whether they just drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Then, each person had to pick which items they would buy from a list of 66 options. Again, people drinking caffeine chose more unnecessary items from the list while the others tended to choose more practical goods.

“While moderate (适度的) amounts of caffeine intake can have positive health benefits, there can be unintended results of being caffeinated while shopping,” Prof Biswas concludes.

7 . Bees are known to tell time by light and social clues. Now, researchers have shown that the biological clocks of bees can be changed by another surprising factor: temperature cycles inside the hive (蜂巢).

The researchers tried to better understand how bees lived in areas beyond where light entered the hive.They were surprised to find clear temperature fluctuations across the day throughout the hive, which was caused by daylight.

To understand how important this temperature cycle was to a bee's activity, the researchers put bees in total darkness all the time while exposing them to the temperature cycles they observed within the hive. Six days later, the scientists moved the temperature cycle back by six hours. “We saw that the bees changed their activity with the temperature, meaning their daily routines were reactive to temperature,” a researcher said.

The discovery that bees can tell exact time from temperature cycles inside the hive shows that on a cloudy day or when bees aren't going outdoors, they have other means to tell time exactly. This will affect the way that researchers understand, explain and combine what they know of bee behavior.

More broadly, as more extreme weather events occur around the world, bees will face challenges to continuing the activities that keep them and the agriculture they support healthy and energetic. If part of the southern U.S. is hit with an unexpected snowstorm, bees getting ready to search for food might not realize they need to save energy and heat the hive. In the event of a 100-degree day, bees will have to spend a lot of energy keeping the hive co. It is those considerations that will influence hive health or possible hive breakdown.

"We want to see how important this research is this winter in Tennessee，when bees aren't leaving the hive as much," researchers said. "We will be interested to see how our findings apply to zones where temperature varies more greatly across the year." This research will also reshape how researchers think about bees' biological rhythms.

8 . The leather jacket is age-won and soft. I found it banging in the window of a shop in Brighton, England. I was there to deliver a talk on modem women’s writing at an international conference, a PhD student eager to make a name for herself and waiting for her life to start. I had just turned 28.

I’m still closely connected to that woman, her dreams and her ambition (雄心), although she also frightens me. She was always quite determined, this leather jacket woman — she had a five-year plan and was sticking to it! This was the woman who couldn’t find time to visit her grandmother, who regularly missed her nieces’ and nephews’ birthday parties, and who left and didn’t look back.

She and I are one and the same, but we are also very different. There was a change that happened a few years into the five-year plan. Each time one goal post was reached, another took its place. This is the pattern of the overly ambitious. I started to doubt whether it would result in any real success other than an unwavering (坚定不移的) ability to give up everything else along the way. My determination wavered. I realized I didn’t want the same things anymore. The jacket moved to the back of the wardrobe (衣橱).

Seven years later, as I stand in front of my wardrobe filled with useless clothes, I don’t know what to do with the jacket. When England’s cold spread to my bones years earlier, the jacket had felt like a practical thing I bought. Here in Australia’s sunshine, it always felt a little silly. I let it fall heavily on the bed alongside the other clothes I’ve decided to give away because they no longer make the cut.

Yet, despite its uselessness and how much space it takes up, at the last moment I return the leather jacket to the wardrobe. I think it will always stand for a part of myself that I’m not quite willing to give up forever — that ambitious, motivated woman.

9 . Many people desire stronger,truer friendships as an adult.     1     How do you leave out the embarrassing chit-chat stage and hit the fast-forward button on a possible friendship? I’ve learned a few things.

Give yourself permission to bore people

We all know the safe topics to begin when first meeting someone. But this tendency to play it safe can put off knowing whether you are like-minded with a possible friend.     2    . “What do you think is the best television finale of all time?” This is a great conversation starter as long as it interests you. And if the other person slowly backs away, then you’ve just saved yourself hours of chatting.

    3    

Often our friendships feel shallow because they are based on gossip (八卦，闲聊). It’s human nature to focus on a third person to relieve our stress. We share spicy updates about former classmates with our high school friends, or have a drink with colleagues and complained about the boss.But a friendship built on gossip can leave both people feeling exhausted and upset after they hang out.

If a friend starts to give you updates on other people you know, it can be helpful to say, “I want to hear about what’s going on with you.” Or you can ask yourself, “What would I share about myself if I were with my best friend right now?”     4    .

Be curious bout who people are, and who they want to be

    5     They are also, able to share their struggles without fear of judgement. A great way to deepen a friendship is to ask someone, “What has been challenging for you the last year?” Or, “What’s a belief you have that has changed over the course of your life?” These are questions we seldom ask each other, but they reveal so much about who we are, and who we’re trying to be.

10 . No matter how old you are, spending the night high up in the trees is an exciting idea. And with nature holidays becoming ever more popular, we’ve put together a list of some jaw-dropping reserves   (度假区) from around the world to add to your travel wish list.

Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve — Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa

Sitting high above the South African forest, this impressive reserve owns private decks with swimming pools overlooking the whole reserve. Every day, tourists can take trips on dirt roads to sec wild animals like lions and elephants in the area. Nighttime lets you catch a sight of nocturnal animals, which are active only at nights, coming right up to the reserve's doorsteps.

Tree House Lodge— Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Live your best Robinson Crusoe lift at the Tree House Lodge in Costa Rica. After a long day of swimming and having fun in the outdoor hot spring, following an instructor-led yoga class or simply lying lazily in your hammock   (吊床), it’s time to hit the beach. It's no big deal, since the beautiful blue waves of the Caribbean are just a short walk away.

The Tree House Resort — Chandwaji, India

The Tree House Resort is a fancy place to stay, located in the trees and full of tropical joy. Here, nature is peaceful except for quiet moments. From the windows at night, you can sec the Aravalli mountains and hear only the sounds of crickets   (蟋蟀).