A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.

    Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality child-care center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.

    The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the child-care center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.

    Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child-care program did much better in tests.

    The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the child-care center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.

    A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.

    The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.

    The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.

    Exercise may help to safeguard the mind against depression(沮丧) through previously unknown effects on working muscles, according to a new study involving mice.

    Mental health experts have long been aware that even mild, repeated stress can contribute to the development of depression and other mood disorders in animals and people. Scientists have also known that exercise seems to cushion against depression. But precisely how exercise, a physical activity can reduce someone's risk for depression, a mood state, has been mysterious. So for the new study, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied the brains and behavior of mice in a complicated and novel fashion.

    We can't ask mice if they are feeling cheerful or in low spirits. Instead, researchers have pictured certain behaviors that indicate depression in mice. If animals lose weight, stop seeking out a sugar solution when it's available — because, probably, they no longer experience normal pleasures — or give up trying to escape from the cold-water zone just freeze in place, they are categorized as depressed. And in the new experiment, after five weeks of frequent but low-level stress, such as being lightly shocked, mice displayed exactly those behaviors. They became depressed.

    The scientists could then have tested whether exercise blunts (延缓) the risk of developing depression after stress by having mice run first. But, frankly, from earlier research, they wanted to know how, so they bred pre-exercised mice. A wealth of earlier research by these scientists and others had shown that aerobic exercise, in both mice and people, increases the production within muscles of an enzyme (酶) called PGC-1alpha. The Karolinska scientists suspected（怀疑） that this enzyme somehow creates conditions within the body that protect the brain against depression. Then, the scientists exposed the animals, which without exercising, were in high levels of PGC-1alpha to five weeks of mild stress. The mice responded with slight symptoms of worry. But they did not develop depression. They continued to seek out sugar and fought to get out of the cold-water zone. Their high levels of PGC-1alpha appeared to make them depression-resistant（抵抗的）. Finally, to ensure that these findings are relevant to people, the researchers had a group of adult volunteers complete three weeks of frequent endurance training, consisting of 40 to 50 minutes of moderate cycling or jogging. The scientists conducted muscle biopsies (活体检查) before and after the program and found that by the end of the three weeks, the volunteers' muscle cells contained substantially more PGC-1alpha than at the study's start.

    The finding of these results, in the simplest terms, is that “you reduce the risk of getting depression when you exercise,” said Maria Lindskog, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute.

    When I was growing up，I was embarrassed to be seen with my father. He was badly crippled (跛脚)，and when we would walk together，his hand on my arm for balance，people would stare，I would be ashamed of the unwanted attention.

    It was difficult to walk together—and because of that，we didn't say much as we went along. But as we started out，he always said，“You set the pace. I will try to follow you.”

    Our usual walk was to or from the subway，which was how he got to work. He went to work sick，and even in bad weather. He almost never missed a day，and would make it to the office even if others could not. It was a matter of pride for him.

    When snow or ice was on the ground，it was impossible for him to walk，even with help. At such times my sister or I would pull him through the streets of Brooklyn，N.Y.，on a child's sleigh to the subway entrance. Once there，he would try to grasp handrail until he reached the lower steps that the warmer tunnel air kept ice free. In Manhattan the subway station was the basement of his office building，and he would not have to go outside again until we met him in Brooklyn on his way home.

    When I think of it now，I am surprised at how much courage it must have taken for a grown man to suffer from shame and disability. And I am also surprised at how he did it—without bitterness or complaint.

    He never talked about himself as an object of pity，nor did he show any envy of the more fortunate or able. What he looked for in others was a “good heart”，and if he found one，the owner was good enough for him.

    Now that I am older，I believe that is a proper standard by which to judge people，even though I still don't know exactly what a “good heart” is. But I know the times I don't have one myself.

    He has been away for many years now，but I think of him often. I wonder if he sensed my reluctance to be seen with him during our walks. If he did，I am sorry I never told him how sorry I was，how unworthy I was，how I regretted it. I think of him when I complain about my troubles，when I am envious of another's good fortune，when I don't have a “good heart”．

    Teachers in some secondary schools in Britain are worried that their job may become impossible shortly unless something can be done to restore discipline in the classrooms. In the problem schools, mostly in large cities, a small minority of teenage pupils disturb lesson to such an extent that the teacher can no longer teach their classes effectively.

    Some people consider that the permissive (随意) nature of modern society is responsible for such kind of behavior. Small children who are continuously encouraged to express themselves without reservation are naturally unwilling to accept school discipline when they grow older. Furthermore, modern teaching techniques) which appear to stress personal enjoyment at the expense of serious study work, might be teaching the child to put his own interests before his duties to the community in which he lives.

    Perhaps the problem can be solved by improving facilities for the moral guidance of these difficult children or by better cooperation between the schools and the parents—for the parents may be mainly responsible for the bad behavior of their youngsters. Violence at home, violence and crime on TV make some children turn violence themselves.

    But some of the teachers believe that there ought to be a return to more “old fashioned” methods. At present, in some school teachers are even not allowed to punish a child who does something bad and wrong. Physical punishment is not permitted now. People are too soft on children these days. It seems that children can do whatever they like at school while the teachers can't do anything to punish them. I don't know why the schools authority abandoned some of the effective punishments that worked well. Things like that didn't happen when we were at school because the teachers kept those problem students under control by using a stick.

    It is 6:00a.m.on the first day of the school year. In Chery brook Technology High School, mathematics teacher Eddie Woo is already at work.

    One of the first things before the first bell rings is to set up his tripod（三脚架）and iPad in the middle of the classroom. “I'm Mr. Woo. I record my lessons. I record all of them. In fact, I'm about to record this one,” he explains to his new maths class.

    He started posting videos online in 2012 for a student who was sick with cancer and missing a lot of school, so he started sharing them across the country and beyond. Wootube now has more than 38,000 subscribes(用户) and has attracted almost 4 million views worldwide.

    Cherybrook Technology High School principal(校长) Gary Johnson said Mr. Woo was helping maths teachers in Australia and making maths popular again. “He has an ability to simplify(简化) maths to a level where kids can really understand it.” Mr. Johnson said.

    12-year-old student Emily Shakespear said Mr. Woo's teaching style made maths easy and interesting. “I don't want to say it, but he sucked me into maths,” she said. Owen Potter, who attends high school in Cobar agreed. “It's difficult to understand how someone in Sydney can influence thousands of people across the whole country,” he said.

    Mr. Woo won the 2017 University of Sydney Young Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement, and he was one of 12 Australian teachers honored at the Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards.

China Experience Tours

    China Experience Trip

    Beijing →Shanghai →Xi'an (8days)

    Price: Adult $1,517 p/p Under 17 $1,230

    Imagine you are a king or queen when entering the great Forbidden City

    Have a hike on the world famous Great Wall

    Discover the Terracotta Warriors (兵马俑)

    Admire Shanghai where east meets west and walk around some local markets

    Glories of China

    Beijing →Xi'an →Guilin →Yangshuo →Shanghai (11days)

    Price: Adult $2,219 p/p. Under 17 $1,650

    Discover more of China's extraordinary history from Beijing and Xi'an

    Visit the easy part of the Great Wall at Mutianyu

    Cycle near Yangshuo and admire the beautiful rural scenery

    Discover Shanghai lifestyles ancient and modern

    China Impression Experience

    Beijing →Xi'an →Yangtze River →Shanghai (11 days)

    Price: Adult $2, 329 p/p. Under 17 $1,810

    Explore both the ancient cultures and modern features, and relax on the yangtze river Cruise (乘船游览) to see the various ideas of China. Your guides will show you around not only the most classic spots, like the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Terracotta Army, and the Three Gorges but also take you for a local experience by visiting lovely giant pandas and local markets.

    Cultural and Natural Wonders of China

    Beijing →Xi'an → Zhangjiajie →Shanghai (11days)

    Price: Adult $2,159 p/p. Under 17 $1,360

    Wind your way from Beijing to Shanghai in style and discover. Climb up the Great Wall, walk around the Forbidden City while listening to the stories of kings, and see the Great "Avatar Mountain" in Zhangjiajie.