Everyone loves a hot shower, except maybe your skin and hair. As it turns out, hot water dries out skin and leaves hair dry and easily broken, Sejal Shah, MD (Doctor of Medicine) in New York City, told Women's Health. And if you dye (染)your hair, the color is likely to fade faster once the water gets steamy. To make matters worse, by making your skin lose natural oils, hot showers—above 99 degrees Fahrenheit—may bring about health problems. You may not like it, but the showers temperature that offers the greatest hair and skincare benefits is, well, cold.

Cold showers “strengthen the contractile fibers around pores(毛孔), muscles, and hairs which improves the firmness of skin,” says Carl Thornfeldt, MD with over 30 years of skin research experience. Though many people believe hot showers open and clear pores, it's actually wiser to close them. “Closing pores helps keep pollution from getting into the skin, at least temporarily,”

The benefits of cold showers are numerous, but surely we can't be expected to stand under cold water shivering every day especially in winter--not to mention that too cold (below the body's average temperature of 96.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is also bad. Fortunately, Dr. Thornfeldt recommends a happy medium. “The best solution is to take a warm, not too hot shower and then finish off with cold water for the last few seconds to still gain the rewards of the cold water,” he says.

That doesn't sound too unbearable. Considering the fact that our beloved, steamy showers may cause so much damage to skin and hair, it's best to switch to slightly warm temperatures to avoid losing natural oils and drying out, especially in winter when indoor heat is already sucking moisture(水分) out of skin. So, when the main part of an extremely comfortable warm shower is complete, finish off with a cool splash. Your hair and skin will thank you!

    Their cheery song brightens many a winter's day. But robins are in danger of wearing themselves out by singing too much. Robins are singing all night一as well as during the day, British-based researchers say.

    David Dominoni, of Glasgow University, said that light from street lamps, takeaway signs and homes is affecting the birds' biological clocks, leading to them being wide awake when they should be asleep.

    Dr Dominoni, who is putting cameras inside nesting boxes to track sleeping patterns, said lack of sleep could put the birds' health at risk. His study shows that when robins are exposed to light at night in the lab, it leads to some genes being active at the wrong time of day. And the more birds are exposed to light, the more active they are at night.

    He told people at a conference, "There have been a couple of studies suggesting they are increasing their song output at night and during the day they are still singing. Singing is a costly behaviour and it takes energy. So by increasing their song output, there might be some costs of energy."

    And it is not just robins that are being kept awake by artificial light. Blackbirds and seagulls are also being more nocturnal. Dr Dominoni said, "In Glasgow where I live, gulls are a serious problem. I have people coming to me saying `You are the bird expert. Can you help us kill these gulls?'.During the breeding(繁殖)season, between April and June, they are very active at night and very noisy and people can't sleep."

    Although Dr Dominoni has only studied light pollution, other research concluded that robins living in noisy cities have started to sing at night to make themselves heard over loud noise.

    However, some birds thrive(兴旺)in noisy environments. A study from California Polytechnic University found more hummingbirds in areas with heavy industrial machinery. It is thought that they are capitalising on their predators(天敌)fleeing to quieter areas.

    My 10-year-old Donna said, “Mom, I made a new friend at school today. Can she come over tomorrow?” Donna was a shy girl and I wanted her to make some friends to bring her out of her shell.

    “Sure, honey, that sounds great.” I said, thinking back to my own best friend, Lillian. We lived across the street from each other in Washington Heights, New York. We met at the age of 10, too. Like my daughter, I was shy, but Lillian drew me out. She was one of the friendliest people in school, with shiny black hair and a mile-wide smile.

    In senior high school, Lillian went on a trip to Florida. This was the first time we had to be away from each other for a few days. “I'll be back soon.” she told me. But three days later, Lillian's sister told me that she had fallen into a river and hadn't come out any more. Soon, my family moved to New Jersey. Whenever I thought of her, tears came into my eyes.

    The next day Donna brought her new friend home. “Hi, Mrs. Loggia.” the little girl said. Her hair was so shiny and black and she shot me a big smile. “My name is Laura.”

    My daughter's new friend was so much like Lillian. I was still puzzled (迷惑) when Laura's mom came to pick her up later that afternoon. I opened the door to let her in. “Judy!” she cried. “It's me, Lillian's sister, from Washington Heights.” Yes, my daughter's friend looked familiar. She was Lillian's niece.

    Do you often lose things? Don't worry. Now a new tool, which can be connected to any object you might lose, may be the way to solve your problem. The Tile, a small square linked up to your iphone or ipad by means of Bluetooth, lets you see how close you are to your missing item, within a 50-to-150-foot range (范围). If the item goes out of your phone's 150-foot range, it can still be found on other smart phones with the same app.

    When you drive the app on your phone, it shows you, with green bars that increase or decrease, how close or far away you are from the Tile. You can also program it to make a sound when you get close to the Tile. And you can link up your phone with up to ten Tiles. And if your lost object — a dog, for example, or a stolen bike — go out of your own phone's 150-foot Bluetooth range, you can set it as a “lost item”. If any of the phones with the Tile app comes within range of your lost item, a message will be sent to your phone, telling you its position. The Tile app also has the function to remember where it last saw your Tile, so that you can easily find where you left it.

    Since the Tiles use Bluetooth rather than GPS, they are never out of battery or needn't to be charged, and they work for one year before needing to be replaced. And the app works with all generations of iPhones and iPads.

    For further information, please visit www. tile666.com.

    English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every seven human beings can speak it. More than half of the world's books and three quarters of international mail are in English. Of all languages, English has the largest vocabulary — perhaps as many as two million words.

    However, let's face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

    We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoes (探索它的矛盾), we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths in them.

    And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, should't the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese — so one moose, two meese?

    How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?

    English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of human beings. That's why, when stars are out, they are visible (能看见的); but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

The Big Ben is located in the tower at the eastern end of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, Greater London. It was designed by Edmund Beckett and Baron Grimthorpe.

The Big Ben is very famous throughout the world, but nobody really knows why it is called Big Ben. There are two hearsays about this. Some people say that it was named after Benjamin Caunt, a boxer, who was called Big Ben. More people believe it was called after Welshman, Sir Benjamin Hall. He was the commissioner(特派员)of the work at the time of its installation in 1859. A story was told that during a debate in the Commons on what to call the bell, Sir Benjamin was about to give his ideas when a MP who sat behind the front bench shouted, "Let's call it Big Ben!" Then this name came into being.

The bell hasn't gone through a smooth road since the beginning of its design. Because there was great disagreement about the design of the clock. It took fifteen years to build. In 1857, the bell was completed and tested on the ground, but a four-foot crack appeared and the bell had to be cast again. Finally, the clock started ticking on 31 May, 1859, and struck its first chime(报时)on 11, July. Then in September, the bell cracked again. It was silent for four years but was eventually turned a quarter of a revolution(旋转). In this way, the crack was not under the striking hammer. Craftsmen made a square above the crack to stop it growing longer and it can still be seen today.

The Big Ben is famous not only for its 13-ton weight, but also for its accuracy(准确性) which is a result of its precise mechanism(机械装置). Even one extra penny's weight on the balance will cause a gain of two fifths of a second in twenty-four hours. Although there have been several problems, the bell is still striking today. Its chimes can be heard all over the world on the B. B. C.