How do you get a good night's sleep?

    You may put your pillow (枕头) at the proper height, drink a glass of hot milk or maybe listen to some light music before bedtime. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}When World Sleeping Day falls on March 21, it will be a good time to explore a long-ignored fact that may make you feel tired after you wake up. Scientists have discovered that the position of your spine (脊椎) is very important when you sleep.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Let's have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each position.

On your back

    Sleeping on your back is the ideal (理想的) position to be in. First of all, your spine is in the best position.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}The downside is the greater likelihood of snoring (打鼾) and sleep apnea (窒息).

Lying on belly

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Dr Vaclav Vojta, a US child development specialist, said this is bad for your back because it takes away the natural curve (曲线) of your lumbar (腰部的) spine. But he also noted that this helps to prevent some snoring and sleep apnea.

On your side

    Sleeping on our sides happened naturally while we were in the womb (子宫).{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Plus, sleeping on your side (the left side in particular) has been reported to reduce troublesome digestive problems like heartburn. The downside is the “dead arm” and finger numbness (麻木) from this position.

A. Lying face down with your legs straight and your arms right by your sides is a bad idea.

B. Sleeping on your side can be a quick fix for snoring and can help to improve breathing.

C. Do you and your friends ever talk about your sleeping position with each other?

D. And a new study suggests that the sleeping position has something to do with it.

E. Of the three sleeping positions, which one do you usually go for?

F. You are also less likely to have digestive (消化的) problems.

G. But one thing you may tend to ignore is sleeping positions.

    Some idiomatic phrases in English, often used in both spoken and written language, are very confusing! They don't even make sense when you first see them. However, using one of these phrases correctly when speaking or writing to an English speaker is very impressive and shows that you are comfortable with the language. Here are some wonderful and interesting British idioms. Use them wisely.

    When pigs fly!

This expression is one of my favorites and I use it all the time. It is used primarily when speaking, meaning that something is extremely unlikely or impossible. For example, "I will forgive him when pigs fly!" "When do you think you will get a gym membership, Lucy?" "When pigs fly!"

    A penny for your thoughts?

This question is used in a situation where someone appears thoughtful or is very quiet seeming lost in thought. But remember that you don't actually have to pay them a penny if they do tell you what is going on! For example, "You've been a bit quiet this evening, Pete. A penny for your thoughts?"

    It's the bee's knees

The phrase dates back to the 1920s, and refers to an extraordinary person, thing, idea, and so on. For example, "Try this chocolate. It's the bee's knees."

    To feel a bit under the weather

    I use this expression in many different situations but most use it to refer to feeling ill, or unwell. You would not use this phrase if you were feeling extremely unwell. It is only for those times when you are feeling a little ill or suffering from something slightly like a cold or a cough. However, this can also be used to refer to feeling emotionally low.

    Mexico sites on an island plateau (高原) surrounded by volcanic peaks, which makes air quality a constant concern for people who live there.

    In April, the country took a decisive step toward improving air quality by enacting a temporary ban on private and Federal vehicles in the city. The rule forbids people from driving in the city one day each week and one Saturday each month. Electric vehicles, government service vehicles, public transport options and school buses are not included in the ban.

    Mexico City isn't the first urban center to be involved in car-free living. But the ban is more than an awareness-raiser. It was enacted with the direct aim of solving air pollution. In March, the city sank into a deep brown haze of smog when the pollution levels passed the 200 mark. The city ordered some 1.1m of the area's 4.7m cars off the streets and also offered free bus and subway rides.

    Mexico City's temporary vehicle ban raises questions about the best ways to improve urban air quality. India, whose citizens breathe some of the world's dirtiest air, has tried a variety of solutions. Earlier this year, the Indian government started a 4% sales tax on new-car purchases.

    Beijing also has experience with cleaning the air. The city introduced alternate-day rules in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games, which produced good results. And then there is the London congestion (拥挤) charge, introduced in 2003. The charge has had a measurable effect on air quality.

For now, Mexico City — named by the United Nations as the most polluted city on the planet in 1992 — can look forward to the start of the region's rainy season, when daily showers will help lo clean the air.

    Here is an astonishing and significant fact: Mental work alone can't make us tired. It sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue(疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day laborer, we would find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素)and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins at the end of the day.

    So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired?

    Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue comes from our mental and emotional(情感的)attitudes. One of England's most outstanding scientists, J. A. Hadfield, says, "The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is rare. "Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares, "One hundred percent of the fatigue of a sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems. "

    What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired? Joy? Satisfaction? No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety, tenseness, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated—those are the emotions that tire sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.

    Body language is a broad term for several forms of communication using body movements or gestures, instead of, or as a complement to, sounds, verbal language, or other forms of communication. In turn, it is one category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not language.

    Paralanguage including body language has been extensively studied in social psychology. In everyday speech and popular psychology, the term is most often applied to body language that is thought to be involuntary, but in fact the distinction between voluntary and involuntary body language is often blurred: a smile or a wave may be given either voluntarily or involuntarily, for example.

    Voluntary Body Language is less commonly discussed because it seems unproblematic. It refers to movement, gestures and poses intentionally made by the person: smiling, hands, imitating actions, and generally making movements with full or partial intention of making them and a realization of what they communicate.

    The relation of body language to animal communication has often been discussed. Human paralanguage may represent a continuation of forms of communication that our non-linguistic ancestors already used, or it may be that it has been changed by co-existing language. Some species of animals are especially skilled at detecting human body language, both voluntary and involuntary: this was the reason for trying to teach the chimpanzee Washoe American Sign Language rather than speech and perhaps the reason why the Washoe project was more successful than some previous efforts to teach apes how to dance.

    Body language is a product of both genetic and environmental influences. Blind children will smile and laugh even though they have never seen a smile. The ethnologist (文化人类学者) Iraneus Eibl-Eibesfeldt claimed that a number of basic elements of body language were universal across cultures and must therefore be fixed action patterns under instinctive (本能的) control. Some forms of human body language show continuities with communicative gestures of other apes, though often with changes in meaning. More refined gestures, which vary between cultures (for example the gestures to indicate "yes" and "no"), must obviously be learned or modified through learning, usually by unconscious observation of the environment.

In the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, many climate changes including an ice age are caused by global warming. Much of the science in the movie has been questioned by people. However, there may be some truth to the idea in the movie that global warming could cause an ice age.

The theory starts with an understanding of why Europe and Scandinavia are not colder already. After all, other places at the same latitude(纬度) are covered with ice. The ocean current called the Gulf Stream brings warm waters from the Caribbean to the UK and Europe. These waters warm the countries around their path. This is why the UK, Europe and Scandinavia have a warmer climate than Alaska. Global warming has nothing to do with this. Global warming is significant. It could slow the Gulf Stream, or even stop it. If this were to happen, the cold waters would stay in the area of Europe, the UK, Scandinavia and the Northeastern US. It could mean an ice age for those regions.

Some weaknesses in the Gulf Stream could happen for different reasons. These days, it could happen due to global warming, caused by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels.

If a new ice age happened, it would probably be caused by the melting of the polar ice. This will lead large quantities of cold and fresh water to come into the ocean, which would disrupt the Gulf Stream and cause the cooling of many areas that now have a mild climate.

Scientists have gathered a lot of data from the oceans and the land to try to determine whether an ice age could be caused by global warming. With all this information at hand, it appears that it is indeed possible that global warming could lead to an ice age.