Despite the general rule for quiet demanded by libraries, they've been the subject of some fairly significant noise__ Children's Laureate（儿童桂冠作家）,Chris Riddell, along with eight former Children's Laureates, has written an open letter to Justine Greening, the British Secretary of State for Education, demanding an investigation into school library service closures（关闭）.

    Why should parents or pupils be concerned whether or not school libraries close? Are they surely just mausoleums（陵墓）to the paper-bound past? Or are they rooms that are of little use to today's Internet-connected student population, who have access to a world of books and information through their digital devices?

    Quite simply, school libraries, as well as their librarians, are critical to our children's future.

    Research has proved this to be the case. The level of development of a school library is a highly accurate predictor of academic success, which means that parents should perhaps go so far as to compare the libraries of the schools they are considering, rather than look at league tables, when seeking the right schools for their children. Chris Riddell and his fellow former Laureates are absolutely right to emphasize the importance of librarians in introducing children to life-changing books and turning them into lifelong readers. Reading is a skill that needs to be developed.

    Librarians play the crucial role of introducing pupils to different genres or authors, as well as encouraging children of varying abilities to read—from the reluctant readers to those with higher than average reading ages.

    However, if libraries were to have a "job description", cultivating a love of reading and promoting literacy（误写能力）is just one of their essential roles. The other role is, to be at the very centre of learning, a resource, for students to use in acquiring knowledge. Ultimately, as students get older they need to become increasingly experienced readers for information, as well as, hopefully, for pleasure. They need to be able to find out and access, through reading and understanding, the answers to their questions themselves.

    Independent learning skills are very much in demand by pupils and parents, as well as universities and employers, because real education is about so much more than just academic success or grades on a piece of paper. As Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, pointed out," the simple truth is that we can't teach all that we would like them to know. "The emphasis therefore must now be on teaching children how to learn for themselves.

    Talking of libraries, we would always focus on the collection of books and the dissemination（传播）of knowledge to aid learning. Therefore surely, it makes sense that if libraries are given the right status and adequate resources, they will play a vital role in the development of these much-needed independent learning skills. This has never been more important than in today's information age, when everything we need to know is only a few clicks away.

Libraries and librarians should be central in helping pupils understand how to access data or knowledge for their studies or interests—regardless of whether this is from a book an online resource or a journal.

    It is equally important that libraries guide students on how to "read" the information that is available to them—a vitally important skill given that the Internet contains a large amount of mistakes and misinformation. But, of course, libraries can only offer this support and guidance if they are properly valued and resourced, which means that we need as many voices as possible to be "shouting" about the importance of libraries in the education of our children.

    Chris Riddell is encouraging children to ask their teachers where their school library is. Perhaps parents also need to be asking their current and prospective schools about the same question. Let's make the "noise" far louder—it needs to be uncomfortably deafening（震耳欲聋的）.

    We spend so much time waiting to be loved, hoping love will find us, and searching for that special love. Unfortunately, that's not usually how life works. Loving yourself is mainly having self-respect, which is the only dependable way to create love in your own life, so you can share it with others. To be able to be loved, you must love and respect yourself as much as you do others. By doing so, you are enabling positive energy and allowing for great situation to occur in your life.

    Bringing joy to other people's lives will help you find joy in your own. In addition, those who you treat well will likely repay you with the same kindness. Gradually, you will start to feel your worth through the smiles of gratitude. However, don't just be very kind to people so you can receive royal treatment.

    Don't punish yourself for something you have done in the past. Instead, look at the mistake as a learning experience. Say to yourself now, “I forgive myself for..." Go to look in a mirror, and say it out loud to yourself. Look at yourself right in the eyes, and speak forgiveness like you mean it. If you do, laugh out loud, realizing that was then and this is now. Every day is a new beginning.

    We all want a nice house, nice things, and someone to share our life with. Find your true wants objectively. Are you eager for power, a religion, or simply a motive? Sometimes, it's easier to hide the truth from yourself, but figuring out what you really want will help you know yourself better. This will hopefully aid you in answering important questions you often ask yourself.

    Write about your experiences, good and bad. When you write down good experiences, allow yourself to feel those feelings. When you remember bad experiences, allow yourself to feel self-compassion(自我同情). Compassion is not self-pity, but rather a willingness to accept one's own pain and regret. Compassion allows us to be present with our pain, so we can acknowledge it and let it go.

    Cakan is a successful businessman from Montenegro, who has earned himself nicknames(昵称)like “the best boss” and “Brother” by being surprisingly generous to his employees.

    Cakan, who owns "Cakan Sports", the largest sporting goods store chain in Montenegro, has been making news headlines for years, but not for his professional success. He is best known for the generosity he shows to his faithful and hard-working employees. The businessman firmly believes that his company can boom only if he keeps his employees happy, and to that end, he has offered the best of them some pretty unbelievable presents.

    Cakan first surprised his workers back in 2012, when he offered four of them brand new cars — 2 VW Golf 6 and 2 VW polo — complete with paid insurance. They were some of the oldest and most hard-working employees of Cakan Sports, and since the company had recently moved its operations outside the city, Cakan thought his best people shouldn't have to struggle to get to work. "When we saw them, we were speechless," Danijela, one of the receivers, remembers. "While the boss was saying 'his is a gift for you', all I could think of was 'this is not real, this can't be happening to us'.” But this was just one of the generous ways Cakan has rewarded his employees over the years. In 2014, after hearing that one of his workers had been saving up his paychecks so he could buy a ticket to the world Cup soccer final, in Brazil, he took him there himself, at his own expense.

    Asked why he doesn't use cheaper means of motivating his employees, like a small raise or a cash bonus, Cakan had this to say, "Money comes and goes, but memories are forever." Asked why many of his employees call him "Brother", Cakan told a reporter that it was because "brothers always help each other".

    The arts, especially music, should be part of every school's lessons at every grade level. Students would be much smarter if they had some musical experience. They could improve their classroom skills, like paying attention and following directions. People develop all these skills when they learn music. Making music also lets children use their imagination. It provides students with a chance to try out their own ideas.

    Music not only makes children better students, but also gives them something positive to do. In a music program, children can be part of a band instead of joining a gang (团伙). Parents can enjoy listening to their children's music instead of seeing them glued to a computer or TV screen. In a school band, students get to be part of a team. They can get along well with old friends and make new friends through music.

    Music builds self-confidence, too. It gives children a sense of achievement and success. Making music is something for them to be proud of, and it lets kids practice performing in front of an audience. Music gives children an opportunity for self-expression, and that helps develop their self-confidence.

    Once again, music is important because it can make children better students, give them something positive to do, and build their character. That is why music should be offered in every single grade in every school.

    One day after school, I went to the teacher's office to see my teacher, but nobody was there. As I was about to leave, I noticed a piece of paper on the floor. I picked it up and saw the words "FINAL-TERM EXAMINATION" at the top. I put the paper into my school bag secretly and ran out of the room.

    After I came back home, I took out the paper quickly. It was the exam paper of my worst subject, History. I felt excited. My heart beat fast. I took out my History book and started working on the answer. I had never answered any questions so seriously.

On the day of the History exam, I went into the exam hall confidently. When the paper was sent to me, I dreamt of getting the highest mark in the whole grade and could not help smiling. "My History teacher always encouraged me to work hard and get better grades, but I let him down time and time again. This time I will give him a big surprise," I thought.

    When the teacher said we could start, I turned the paper over. To my great surprise, all the questions were different. Later I felt nervous. In the end, I almost left the paper undone. After the exam. I ran to the toilet, took out the paper and carefully read it from the top. Oh! It was last year's exam paper. I read all the questions but I hadn't read the date.

    This is a lesson in which I know I have to put my feet on the ground. I regretted doing such a silly thing. After that, I told my teacher the truth and I promised to be honest. From then on, I worked harder than ever before.

    FOR ALL the technological wonders of modern medicine, from gene-editing to fetal(胎儿的) surgery, health care—with its fax machines and clipboards(资料夹)—is often stubbornly old-fashioned. This outdated era is slowly drawing to a close as, slowly, the industry catches up with the artificial-intelligence (AI) revolution. And it should have happened earlier, argues Eric Topol, a heart doctor keen on digital medicine.

    Dr Topol's vision of medicine's future is optimistic. He thinks AI will be particularly useful for repetitive tasks where errors arise easily, such as selecting images, examining heart traces for abnormal symptoms or recording doctors' words into patient records. In short, AI is set to save time, lives and money.

    Much of this is imaginary—but AI is already defeating people in a variety of narrow jobs for which it has been trained. Eventually it may be able to diagnose and treat a wider range of diseases. Even then, Dr Topol thinks, humans would watch over the rules, rather than being replaced by them.

    The author's fear is that AI will be used to deepen the assembly-line(流水线) culture of modern medicine. If it awards a "gift of time" on doctors, he argues that this additional benefit should be used to extend the time of consultations, rather than simply speeding through them more efficiently.

    The Hippocratic Oath holds that there is an art to medicine as well as a science, and that "warmth, sympathy and understanding may be more important than the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug". That is not just a cliché: the patients of sympathetic physicians have been shown to do better. As Dr Topol says, it is hard to imagine that a robot could really replace a human doctor. Yet as demand for health care goes beyond the supply of human carers, the future may involve consultations on smartphones and measurements monitored by chat robots. The considerately warmed stethoscope(听诊器), placed gently on a patient's back, may become history.