The Children's Book-Show Competition is a chance for young readers to be writers.

    Reading, it seems, is coming back in fashion, if a survey by the famous National Literacy Trust (the NLT) is true. It shows that the percentage of children who admit enjoying reading has grown for the first time in the past 8 years.

    So it's a good time to launch a competition that includes a shed-load of new books for schools as prizes. The Children's Book-show Competition, backed by The Independent, is taking to the roads again from the start of next term, with a nation-wide tour of 15 big cities, featuring a line-up of a dozen children's writers and illustrators (插图画家) aiming to persuade pupils to follow their footsteps.

    The competition, launched by the children's writer and illustrator Jessica Souhami, has two categories: the under-nine's and nine to 13-year-olds.

    Children are asked to choose their favorite fairy or folk tale and set it in an extraordinary place.

    Then they are to retell it with the aid of drawings and writings—whether it is set at sea, on a distant planet, in the future or in the past. The closing date for the competition is 30th November.

    “Tell your tale in pictures and in words, ”say the organizers of the competition. “It can be in a picture book or comic-book format.”

    The winner of each competition will receive a signed copy of a book by each of the 12 authors involved in this year's tour, plus £150 worth of books for their school. The runners-up will receive a signed copy of Souhami's new book.

    Newspapers in Great Britain vary greatly in their ways of carrying the news. There are serious papers for those who want to know about important happenings everywhere, both at home and abroad. There are popular newspapers for those who prefer entertainment to information.

    The London newspaper that is best known outside Great Britain is probably the Times. It began in 1785, and has a high reputation for believable news and serious opinions on the news. It calls itself an independent paper, which means that it does not give its support to a particular political party. Its leading articles give the opinions of the editors, not those of the owners of the paper.

    Letters to the editor are printed in the newspaper. These parts of the Times are always interesting. Most of the letters are serious subjects. But from time to time there will be long letters on the subject which is not at all serious, perhaps on a new fashion of dress, or the bad manners of the young people, compared with manners of thirty years ago.

    The meaning of silence varies among cultural groups. Silences may be thoughtful, or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in a conversation may also show stubbornness, uneasiness, or worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; thus efforts may be made to fill every gap(间隙) with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person's needs.

    Many Native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of communicating among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person from one of these cultures is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be implied(暗示) is that the person wants the listener to think about what has been said before continuing. In these cultures, silence is a call for thinking.

    Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with disagreements among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show agreement between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may use silence when instructions (指示，命令) are given by a person in authority rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.

    Nurses and other care-givers need to notice the possible meanings of silence when they come across the personal worries their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient's silence is not disturbed too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing(治愈) value of silence can use this understanding to help in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.

    Two strangers came to a village in the evening. They came to the leader of that village and asked for a place to live for the night. The leader said they could stay in the house for strangers. But they were also told about the old custom in the village- people kill the man who snores.(打鼾)

    The two strangers went to the house. They had a good supper there and then they went to sleep. They slept well. One hour passed. Two hours passed. Then one of them began to snore, “Vo, vo, vo…” The other stranger heard the snoring. He thought, “The people will hear the snoring and kill him.” The stranger wanted to save the man. He thought for a while and then began to sing. He sang very well. The people didn't hear the snoring. They listened to the song. Then they began to dance. Some of them sang the song together with the stranger and danced to the music. Men, women and even the leader sang and danced. That entire night one stranger snored, one stranger sang, and all the other people sang and danced.

    In the morning the strangers came to the leader to say goodbye and express their thanks for all he had done. The leader gave them a small bag of money and said, “I give this money to both of you. We had a good time with you. Thank you very much.”

    The strangers left the village. But along the way they began to quarrel. The one who snored wanted more money. He said, “I must have the bigger part. Why did you sing that song last night? Because I snored.” The man who sang had his reason, too. He said that without him the man who snored might have got killed.

    They quarreled and quarreled and couldn't decide on anything. Can you?

    In my class in middle school, there was a girl who was considered the outcast of our class. No one actually knows how this exclusion originated, but we all followed it for no reason at all. One day after lunch, we girls sat on the track field, talking about little things that happened in our little lives. Someone brought her up, and soon the topic transformed to mocking the funny texture of her hair, the awkward way she walked and… I felt extremely uncomfortable but kept silent, because I didn't want to be the one “supporting” the common enemy. After all, it's just a mild ranting session among a trusted group of friends, why should I bring unnecessary tension?

    Suddenly, one of my friends pointed her finger towards somewhere behind me. All of us turned around and saw that exact girl, hand still in the air, with a twisted look on her face. She lowered her hand in slow motion, blinked really hard for a few seconds, then turned around and ran off. For a second I wanted to stand up and chase her down to tell her that no one meant what they said, and that she is an amazing person being who she is. But my legs felt so heavy: I didn't want to make a fool out of myself—why bother taking care of the class clown（小丑）? People would think that I was crazy as well!

    No one spoke a word for a long time; we were all so caught up in our thoughts. I tried opening my mouth but couldn't—no words were coming out. Then one person started talking about the weather, and all of us were more than glad to follow this flow.

    A few weeks later, the teacher told us that a classmate dropped out of school—it was that girl. Her parents told the school that it was the peer pressure that made her want to leave. The teacher wanted to know who the bully was. Again, no one spoke a word. Perhaps it was exactly this cold, hard silence that drove her away. I certainly did not raise my hand—I had never even said anything bad about her; it was my friends who loved to make fun of her awkwardness every day.

    Surely, I didn't bully her physically or with my language, but I kept silent when others did. By failing to stand up for her and offering her support, I was giving tacit（心照不宣的）agreement. This agreement made others think that it was okay to mistreat her, because “no one cares anyways”. Perhaps I did realize I was bullying her—but by convincing myself that I had nothing to do with her leaving, I wouldn't have to bear the burden of heavy shame on my shoulders.

    Real life is not like a Hollywood movie, and the protagonists don't always have the courage to compensate for our mistakes. In that classroom, my feet were glued to the ground once again, thinking of all the possibilities that could embarrass me in front of the whole class. What if she doesn't appreciate my effort and just walk off? What if she misunderstands my actions as sympathy and gets upset? Worst of all, what if my own group mates disapprove of my decision? Am I really willing to risk my friendship just to help out one girl that I've seldom spoken to?

    To be honest, I still don't have answers to these questions. I don't know if the answers to those questions even exist. However, what I do know is that nothing will change if I keep thinking and never take actions. Talking to someone in need of support would mean the world to them, while it takes little to none effort for me. So what if those actions are under appreciated? At least I will be satisfied knowing that I did the right thing.

    Exercise could not only benefit your body, but also imp rove your memory, researchers found recently. In their paper published on Monday, researchers from the University of California, Irvine in the United States and the University of Tsukuba in Japan introduced their experiment and conclusion.

    Scientists invited 36 volunteers who were in their early 20s to do 10 minutes of light exercise before taking a memory test in which they were shown pictures like broccoli(西兰花)or picnic baskets and asked to recall them later. The same experiment was repeated with the same group of volunteers without exercising. "The memory task was really quite challenging ,said Michael Yassa, co-author of the study and a neuroscientist (神经科学家)at the University of California, Irvine. "We used very tricky similar items to see if they would remember whether it was this exact picnic basket versus (对抗)that picnic basket. "

    Researchers also scanned brains of some of the participants during the experiment. They found strengthened communication between regions involved in the storage and recollection of memories in brains of those who had exercised. This suggested that just 10 minutes of light exercise like walking, yoga or Tai Chi might increase memory power.

    As all the volunteers in the experiment were relatively young, researchers are still working to look at the effects of light exercise on older people. " Our future goal is to try to develop an exercise prescription (处方)that can be used by older adults who might have disabilities or mobility impairments, but can still adopt very simple exercise rules of life and be able to, perhaps, delay cognitive decline temporarily," said Yassa.