Is there anything more important than health? I don't think so. “Health is the greatest wealth.” wise people say. You can't be good at your studies or work well when you are ill. If you have a headache, toothache, backache, earache or bad pain in the stomach, if you complain of a bad cough, if you run a high temperature and have a bad cold, or if you suffer from high or low blood pressure, I think you should go to the doctor. The doctor will examine your throat, feel your pulse, test your blood pressure, take your temperature, sound your heart and lungs, test your eyes, check your teeth or have your chest X-rayed. After that he will advise some treatment, or some medicine. The only thing you have to do is to follow his advice.    

    Speaking about doctor's advice, I can't help telling you a funny story. An old gentleman came to see the doctor. The man was very ill. He told the doctor about his weakness, memory loss and serious problems with his heart and lungs. The doctor examined him and said there was no medicine for his disease. He told his patient to go to a quiet place for a month and have a good rest. He also advised him to eat a lot of meat, drink two glasses of red wine every day and take long walks. In other words, the doctor advised him to follow the rule: “Eat with pleasure, drink with pleasure and enjoy life as it is.” The doctor also said that if the man wanted to be well again, he shouldn't smoke more than one cigarette a day. A month later the gentleman came into the doctor's office. He looked cheerful and happy. He thanked the doctor and said that he had never felt a healthier man.“ But you know, doctor,” he said, “it's not easy to begin smoking at my age.”

    Ever get that feeling you're being watched? Well, if you're a dog-owner, you may have a point. Dogs are able to watch people's interactions with one another to determine who holds yummier treats, according to a new study. This study joins others that show dogs are good observers of human behaviors and feelings. It offers evidence that dogs use information not only from people's direct interactions with them, but also their interactions with one another.

    In the study, dogs watched a man ask two women for some of their corns. Both women gave the man corns when he asked, but in response to one woman, the man showed his enthusiasm and said the corns were so delicious. In response to the other woman, he gave the corns back and called them gross（in Spanish；the study was conducted in Argentina）. After these interactions, the man left and an assistant holding the dog let the dog go. While many dogs didn't approach either woman, the dogs that did have a preference tended to prefer the woman with the yummier(美味的) food.

    Other studies of dogs' people-watching ability have found dogs are able to tell the difference between happy and sad faces in their owners. They prefer people who give others food when asked over people who don't give others food. And in one study, dogs turned toward crying people more often than toward talking people.

    So how much do dogs really understand about the humans around them? That's not totally settled yet. In a strange twist to the Argentine study above, when the researchers tried an experiment in which they put two plates of corns on a table and had a man react to each plate, dogs didn't preferentially approach the tastier plate afterward. You could say dogs watch for the interaction between two persons, not just how a person reacts. Yet a previous study found dogs will choose boxes that people reacted to happily, but not boxes people reacted to with a disgusted face.

    Well, either way, you can be sure Fluffs is keeping an eye on you, to the best of her ability. The study was published in the journal PLOS One.

TaIL Spin

    Two dolphins race around in a big pool in the Ocean Park. The smaller dolphin Grace, shown off a few of her tricks, turning around and waving hello to the crowd. The most amazing thing about her, however, is that she's even swimming at all. She doesn't have a tail.

Grace lost her tail as a baby when she got caught up in a fish trap. When the dolphin arrived at the Ocean Park in December 2005, she was fighting for her life. “Is she going to make it?” Her trainer, Abbey Stone, feared the worst. Grace did make it — but her tail didn't. She ended up losing her flukes and the lower part of her peduncle.

Over the past six years, she has learned to swim without her tail. Dolphins swim by moving their flukes and peduncle up and down. Grace taught herself to move another way—like a fish! She pushed herself forward through the water by moving her peduncles from side to side.

    The movement put harmful pressure on Grace's backbone. So a company offered to create a man-made tail for her. The tail had to be strong enough to stay on Grace as she swam but soft enough that it wouldn't hurt her.

    The first time Grace wore the artificial tail. She soon shook it off and let it sink in the bottom of the pool. Now, she is still learning to use the tail. Some days she wears it for an hour at a time, others not at all. “The tail isn't

necessary for her to feel comfortable,” says Stone, “but it helps to keep that range of motion(动作) and build muscles(肌肉).”

    Now, the dolphin is about to get an even happier ending. This month, Grace will star in Dolphin Tale, a film that focus on her rescue and recovery. Her progress has inspired more than just a new movie. Many people travel from near and far to meet her. Seeing Grace swim with her man-made tail gives people so much courage.

    Earlier this month, the University of Glasgow in Scotland launched a course entitled: The Simpsons Introduce Philosophy（哲学）. The course's aim is to ease students into the typically heavy topic by relating it to the popular cartoon family.

    “The Simpsons is one of the modem world's greatest cultural products, partly because it is so full of philosophy,” John Donaldson, creator of the course, told the BBC. “Aristotle, Kant, Marx, Camus and many other great thinkers' ideas are represented in what is arguably the purest of philosophical forms — the comic cartoon.”

    While this may seem like an unusual way to attract pupils to a traditionally dull topic, this class isn't the first of its kind. In 2009, Liverpool Hope University in the UK began offering a master's degree on the music of world-famous 60's group The Beatles, which still runs today. The following year, the UK's Durham University gave students the chance to enroll on a Harry Potter-themed module, covering contents such as “Gryffindor and Slytherin: prejudice and intolerance in the classroom,” and “muggles and magic”.

    To some, these courses may seem like a waste of a valuable education, but Donaldson believes that packaging certain topics into something more easy to relate to will enhance the learning experience, without distracting（分离）from the main subject. “Firstly, scholars want to be taken seriously by other scholars and ideas like this can be seen as not serious,” he tells iNews. “There are definitely ways to include popular culture into academic subjects that still remains their nature and doesn't take away from the quality of the ideas,”

    Already booked full, Donaldson's Simpsons class isn't meant to be taken as seriously, however. The lecturer says that his one-day course, which will pose philosophical questions around morality, free will, and religion by relating them to scenarios（情节）from The Simpsons, aims to introduce students to his area of expertise greatly while having a bit of fun.

    If you want to convince the boss you deserve a pay rise or promotion, the solution could be simple — eat the same food as they do. Psychologists have discovered managers are much more likely to instantly trust us if we choose the same dishes as them.

    During experiments, discussions over wages and work conditions were much more successful if both sides chose to snack on the same treats. And shoppers were much more likely to buy a product advertised on TV by someone eating a similar food to them at the time.

    The reason is thought to be so-called similarity attraction theory — where people tend to like others who have similar tastes or habits to themselves. But this is believed to be one of the first studies highlighting the role of food in this relationship. Researchers at Chicago University in the US conducted a series of experiments to examine food's role in earning trust.

    In a test, participants were told to watch TV — where someone pretending to be a member of the public praised a certain product. The volunteers were given Kit Kat bars to nibble (咬), while the TV people ate either a Kit Kat or grapes as they talked.

    The results showed viewers were much more likely to express an interest in buying the product if the TV showed the other person eating a Kit Kat too.

    The researchers added, “Although similarity in food consumption is not a sign of whether two people will get along, we find consumers treat this as such. They feel more trusting of those who consume as they do. It means people can immediately begin to feel friendship and develop a bond, leading to smoother transactions (交易) from the start.”

    Harley Street psychologist Dr. Lucy Atcheson said it was already known that wearing similar clothes could instantly create trust. But this was the first report that food had the same effect. She said, “This is really interesting. It makes sense as people feel they have common ground and can trust the other person. That means negotiations are more likely to be successful.”

    More and more people in America are celebrating the Indian holiday Diwali. Diwali is Hindi for "row of lights". It is the most important holiday in India.

    Many people around the world are beginning to celebrate it as well. The United States is one of the places where the festival is becoming more common. Diwali celebrations can now be found at American landmarks like Disneyland in California and New York City's Times Square. They are also held in many parks and museums.

    Neeta Bhasin created the Times Square event. She said Indian immigrants have found great success in America. But, she said, many Americans still do not know much about India. So, she decided to act." I felt it's about time that we should take India to mainstream America and show India's rich culture, heritage, arts and variety to the world," she said, "and I couldn't find a better place than Times Square."

    Bhasin came to the United States from India 40 years ago. She is president of ASB Communications, the marketing firm behind Diwali at Times Square. Tens of thousands of people attend the event, now in its fourth year.

    In India, Diwali is a five-day harvest festival held just before the Hindu New Year. The exact dates change from year to year but Diwali is always in the fall. Celebrations include lighting oil lamps or candles called "diyas".

    A Diwali celebration will light up Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim this year. Visitors can watch performances of traditional Indian dances and take part in a Bollywood dance party. The event is part of a Festival of Holidays program at the theme park to show cultural traditions from around the world. The program takes place on November 10th through January 7th.

    San Antonio, Texas, also holds a Diwali celebration. And it is one of the nation's largest celebrations, with more than 15,000 people in attendance each year. Visitors can enjoy Indian dance，food and fireworks. Organizers also plan to float hundreds of lighted candles in the San Antonio River, along the city's famous River Walk.