1 . While video games used to be considered harmful to young people, various studies have also proved the positive effects of computer games, especially action video games.

Angela Pasqualotto from the University of Trento and her team have now tested whether such video games can help primary school children learn to read. They’ve developed such a computer game called Skies of Manawak.

“Reading involves many important skills, including knowing how to move our eyes on the page or how to use our working memory to connect words into a meaningful sentence,” explains Pasqualotto. “It’s known that action video games improve these still, such as vision, general attention, working memory and cognitive (认知的) flexibility.”

For their study, the researchers tested 150 school children between the ages of eight and twelve. Half of them played the game Skies of Manawak two hours a week for six weeks. The other half, the control group, received the educational game Scratch, which is intended to teach children the basics of programming. Both games are basically to train the executive (执行的) functions of the brain.

“We started by examining the children’s ability to read words, non-words and paragraphs and their attention control,” explains Pasqualotto. “After six weeks, these skills were tested again.”

“We found a seven-fold improvement in attention control in the children who played our action video game compared to the control group,” said Pasqualotto. The team also saw significant improvements in reading speed and accuracy among Skies of Manawak players—there were no improvements in the kids who played Scratch. It’s also worth mentioning that the children’s reading skills have improved, although the game itself doesn’t contain any reading exercises.

“For the study, we also carried out three further evaluation tests six, twelve and eighteen months after the training. Each time, the trained children performed better than the control group,” adds Pasqualotto.

Of course, while the study suggests some benefit in action video games, it does not mean that one must do nothing else.

2 . If knowledge is power, then books are fuel and libraries are power stations! Here are four amazing libraries that can get you positively charged.

New York Public Library—New York

Opened in 1911, New York Public Library was the largest marble building in the world. Over the years the library has a collection of 53 million items, including rare first edition books, 300 million pages of historical newspapers and around 40 ,000 restaurant menus dating back to 1850!

Chetham's Library— Manchester

Founded in 1653, Chetham's Library is a free public library with the longest history in the UK. The building itself is even older —built in 1421, it's one of the most well—protected medieval buildings in England!

With 100 ,000 + books lining the shelves, the special atmosphere of the library attracts students and scholars alike to attend guided tours offered throughout the year.

The Library of Congress Washington, D. C.

Located on Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress is considered the national library of the US and the second largest library in the world. The library has around 168 million items, adding 10 ,000 to this number every day.

Need to catch up on the news? The Library of Congress, which was founded in 1800, holds the world’s largest newspaper collection, with some dating back as far as 1659!

The British Library—London

The British Library was founded in 1973. With around 170 million items spread across 750 km of shelving, it's the largest library in the world. And this number is continually growing and 8 km of shelving has to be added every year! This is partly because the British Library must receive a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland, by law.