Many of today's parents fondly remember childhood days spent playing outdoors. When children make mud pies and observe ants, it may seem like just fun and games, but the truth is the outdoor play is an important part of growing up healthily. The National Association for the Education of Young Children reports that outdoor play reduces (make…less) stress and restlessness in children and improves their attention.

    Outdoor play is the perfect way to fight against the childhood's obesity(being fat).Research shows that children who play outdoors are more fit and thin, according to the National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play. Children who spend time outside on a regular basis  also have healthier immune (免疫) systems. And playing outdoors is a good way to get enough vitamin D.

    Playing outside enables children to relax , reduces tension（紧张）and helps them solve problems. When children play outdoors, they learn to share and cooperate (work together) with one another. Kids who feel confident outdoors are likely to become able clever adults.

    The outdoors is a giant laboratory for learning that improves creative thinking and problem solving. Researchers have found that children learn best when their body, mind and spirit are involved (牵连的), and this appears in outdoor play. Outside activities develop all five senses, which create a powerful learning environment. The outdoors also lets children have the chance to explore (探究), experiment, form questions and create their own ideas about how the world works.

    Although there are the many advantages of outdoor play, time spent outside has been reduced for many of today's children. Kids today spend much more time in front of electronic media than children a generation (代) ago. The lack of outdoor play is tied to the childhood widespread obesity. And experts predict that the situation is so serious that this generation will have much trouble when they grow up. To get kids involved with the outdoors, encourage them to collect rocks, fly kites, climb trees, garden, camp, swim, go fishing, watch birds and butterflies or play games with other children.

    One early morning, I went into the living room to find my mother reading a thick book called Best Loved Poems to Read Again and Again. My interest was aroused only by the fact that the word ＂Poems＂ appeared in big, hot pink letters.

    ＂Is it good?＂ I asked her.

    ＂Yeah,＂ she answered. ＂There's one I really like and you'll like it, too.＂ I leaned forward.

    ＂‘Patty Poem,'＂ she read the title. Who is Patty? I wondered. The poem began:

    She never puts her toys away,

    Just leaves them scattered^①where they lay,…           ^①散乱的

The poem was just three short sections. The final one came quickly:

    When she grows and gathers poise^②,         ^②稳重

    I'll miss her harum-scarum^③ noise,                   ^③莽撞的

    And look in vain^④ for scattered toys.                  ^④徒劳地

And I'll be sad.

    A terrible sorrow washed over me. Whoever Patty was, she was a mean girl. Then, the shock.

    ＂It's you, honey,＂ My mother said sadly.

    To my mother, the poem revealed a parent's affection when her child grows up and leaves. To me, the ＂she＂in the poem was horror. It was my mama who would be sad. It was so terrible I burst out crying.

    ＂What's wrong?＂my mother asked.

    ＂Oh Mama,＂I cried.＂I don't want to grow up ever!＂

    She smiled.＂Honey, it's okay. You're not growing up anytime soon. And when you do, I'll still love you, okay?＂

    ＂Okay,＂I was still weeping. My panic has gone. But I could not help thinking about that silly poem. After what seemed like a safe amount of time, I read the poem again and was confused. It all fit so well together, like a puzzle. The language was simple, so simple I could plainly understand its meaning, yet it was still beautiful. I was now fascinated by the idea of poetry, words that had the power to make or break a person's world.

    I have since fallen in love with other poems, but ＂Patty Poem＂ remains my poem. After all, ＂Patty Poem＂ gave me my love for poetry not because it was the poem that lifted my spirits, but because it was the one that hurt me the most.

    No one is sure how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near Cairo. But a new study suggests they used a little rock 'n' roll. Long-ago builders could have attached wooden poles to the stones and rolled them across the sand, the scientists say.

    "Technically, I think what they're proposing is possible," physicist Daniel Bonn said.

    People have long puzzled over how the Egyptians moved such huge rocks. And there's no obvious answer. On average, each of the two million big stones weighed about as much as a large pickup truck. The Egyptians somehow moved the stone blocks to the pyramid site from about one kilometer away.

    The most popular view is that Egyptian workers slid the blocks along smooth paths. Many scientists suspect workers first would have put the blocks on sleds(滑板). Then they would have dragged them along paths. To make the work easier, workers may have lubricated the paths either with wet clay or with the fat from cattle. Bonn has now tested this idea by building small sleds and dragging heavy objects over sand.

    Evidence from the sand supports this idea. Researchers found small amounts of fat, as well as a large amount of stone and the remains of paths.

    However, physicist Joseph West thinks there might have been a simpler way, who led the new study. West said, "I was inspired while watching a television program showing how sleds might have helped with pyramid construction. I thought, 'Why don't they just try rolling the things?' "A square could be turned into a rough sort of wheel by attaching wooden poles to its sides, he realized. That, he notes, should make a block of stone "a lot easier to roll than a square".

    So he tried it.

    He and his students tied some poles to each of four sides of a 30-kilogram stone block. That action turned the block into somewhat a wheel. Then they placed the block on the ground.

    They wrapped one end of a rope around the block and pulled. The researchers found they could easily roll the block along different kinds of paths. They calculated that rolling the block required about as much force as moving it along a slippery(滑的)path.

    West hasn't tested his idea on larger blocks, but he thinks rolling has clear advantages over sliding. At least, workers wouldn't have needed to carry cattle fat or water to smooth the paths.

    Everything has its root. “Holiday”, is no exception. The origin of “holiday” is easy to see, coming from “holy day”, a day of particular religious significance, often celebrating the life of a saint (圣徒), during which no work was to be done. As far back as the 11th century, “holidays”, especially the major feast days, were times of “celebration and amusement”, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it.

    The number of holidays steadily increased during the Middle Ages, until a medieval Englishman would have had the luxury of 40 to 50 days a year off work, depending on where he lived, in addition to a free day on Sundays.

    During the Reformation, Henry VIII abolished most of the holidays partly because of the Protestant (新教徒的) suspicion of saints, but more practically, because, according to historian Eamon Duffy, “A large number of holidays were making the people poor by limiting agriculture.” The people took a different view and organized a protest march—the Pilgrimage of Grace—partly to protect their days off.

    Though at first the religious and festive senses of holiday were combined, the word gradually came to be used for any kind of relaxing break from work. As the word was drawing away from a religious society, the number of authorized holidays was reduced, until by 1834 most workers had only four official days off a year, in addition to Sundays. Many factory workers amplified this time by staying home on “Saint Monday” to recover from what they had gotten up to the day before.

    By the late 19th century, employers were compromising and offering half-day Saturdays, the beginning of the “weekend”, a term first used in 1879. In 1908, an innovative mill in New England gave its employees all of Saturday off, and the practice of their getting the whole Saturday off spread widely during the Great Depression as a way to keep employment up. It took 400 years, but finally workers could enjoy as many holidays as they had in the 15th century.

The Gift of Life

    Most couples demonstrate their love on February 14 with flowers or chocolates. But these four men and women have offered the ultimate loving gesture—the gift of life. Each sacrifice has enabled their loved ones to live full and active lives again after serious illness.

    I'D Do THE SAME FORHER

    Michele Johnson, 53, has been married to Gay, 57, for 26 years.

    With her husband suffering from a congenital(先天性的)kidney condition, in 2013 Michele  gave him one of him. Gay said: “I needed to be hooked up to a dialysis(透析)machine. I had no quality of life at all. However, I felt great as soon as I woke up after the operation. I told her I'd do the same for her.”

    I LOVE BRENDA TO BITS

    Brenda Green, 62, met her husband Keith, 63, when she was 24 and they married five years later. When Brenda was told five years ago she needed a kidney transplant, she cried. I Ⅱ give you mine.” Keith said without hesitation. “Brenda is my wife and I love her to bits.”

    MY WIFE'S MY HERO

    Stephen Heavyside, 61, and wife Patricia, 62, have been married for 40 years. Stephen said: “I was diagnosed with adult polycystic kidney disease five years ago. Patricia took good care of me and donated a kidney. This has brought us even closer.”

    He said “Patricia's gift changed my life. She is my hero.”

    DECISION WAS EASY

    Anna Stevens, 48, and husband Gary, 53, of Watford, Herts, have been wed for 23 years. Anna donated a kidney to her husband. She said of the transplant: “It was the easiest decision I've ever made.” Gary said. “There's only two words that I can use to describe her:  My angel.”

    At 23 I applied for full-time positions with no intention of working five days a week. As a housewife, I had two pre-school children then but wanted to work three days a week.

    This was a huge deal for me. I needed to work, but also wanted to spend time with my children while they were young. I didn't want to miss out on school drop-offs and pick-ups. But I also didn't want to miss out on the opportunity of promotion.

    Before the interviews, I prepared a plan of how I was going to make this work for me and the employer. I saw it as a two-way agreement — the business adapting to me and me adapting to the business.

    Finally I became a member of EY at 33. EY was the only firm that seemed receptive to my plan; in fact, we spent time during that first interview talking about how we could make it work together. Most importantly, the person interviewing me worked flexibly too — four days a week.

    I appreciated that I'm one of the lucky ones. Even 10 years on, flexible hiring and working remains the exception rather than the rule for most.

    What will help shift views and behavior, in addition to organizations updating their hiring policies, is talking more openly about how most of us organize our day around our responsibilities. We all have a life outside of work and we shouldn't be embarrassed to talk about it, even during a job interview.

    It's a change in the way of thinking, not just for employers but employees too. In the early days I was confident about my ability but I probably did have a preconception (先入之见) that working part-time would limit my career progression. What I quickly realized was that if I took responsibility for my development, I could make sure that I got the same opportunities as if I was working full-time. So I offered solutions to how we could make it work, and it made me stand out.