Can exercise during childhood protect you against memory loss many decades later? Exercise early in life seems to have lifelong benefits for the brain, in rats at least.

    “This is an animal study, but it shows that physical activity at a young age is very important—not just for physical development, but for the whole lifelong track of cognitive (认知的) development during ageing,” says Martin Wojtowicz of the University of Toronto, Canada. “In humans, it may delay the appearance of Alzheimer's symptoms (阿兹海默氏症), possibly to the point of preventing them.”

    Wojtowicz's team divided 80 young male rats into two equal groups, and placed running wheels in the cages of one group for a period of six weeks. Around four months later-when the rats had reached middle age-the team taught all the rats to connect an electric shock with being in a specific box. When placed in the box, they froze with fear.

    Two weeks later, the team tested the rats in three situations: exactly the same box in the same room, the same box with the room arranged differently, and a completely different box in a different room.

    The rats without access to a running wheel when they were young now froze the same percentage of times in each of these situations, suggesting they couldn't remember which one was dangerous. But those that had been able to run in their youth froze 40 to 50 percent less in both changed box settings.

    “The results suggest the amount of physical activity when we're young, at least for rats, has influence on brain and cognitive health-in the form of better memories-when we're older,” says Arthur Kramer of Northeastern University in Boston, who has found that, in humans, exercise promotes the growth of new brain cells.

    The writings of Shakespeare are today little read by young people in Britain. His young readership is limited to those who choose to study literature at university.

    Shakespeare's work, together with most other classics, is seen as remote, and written in a 400­year­old version of English that is about as inviting as toothache.

    Still, in Britain schools, it is compulsory to study the bard(诗人), and when something is made compulsory, usually the result is boredom, resentment(憎恨) or both.

    This was my experience of the classics at school. But when I reached my late teenage years, I had a change of heart. Like every other young person since the dawn of time, the world confused me. I wanted answers, so I turned to books to find them.

    I went on to take a PhD in literature and have taught it in Britain and China. I have never regretted it. There is something in literature that people want, even if they don't read books. You see this in the popularity of TV and movie adaptations of great works, the recent film version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice being a case in point. These popular adaptations may help increase people's interest in the classics.

    Reading a simplified Romeo and Juliet may perhaps lead to a reading of Shakespeare's actual play. If that is the case, then I welcome the trend. But do not make the mistake of thinking that it is the same thing. Shakespeare is a poet. His greatness is in his language. Reading someone else's rewriting of his work is like peeling a banana, throwing away the fruit, and eating the skin. Take on the original. It really is worth the effort.

    Keeping the kids busy over the school holidays can be discouraging and cost parents a lot.  But we've found some cheap and cheerful ways to enjoy family time this Easter from free days out to fun-filled theme parks which won't cost us much. We've done the homework so you can get started on having a great time.

Theme Parks

    Save from 10% to 25% off the price of tickets for Legoland in Windor by booking in advance online. A family of four can save up to ₤45.90 on a one-day ticket, paying ₤137.70.

    Book seven days in advance and save ₤43 off the price of a family of four tickets for Drayton Manor Theme Park. Call 0844-472-1950 or book online and you'll pay ₤65 on the day.

    You can pick up a family of four ticket for a day at Alton Towers in Staffordshire for ₤43.80 off the day price.

    Save ₤16 off the price for a family trip to The Making of Harry Potter by buying a family ticket (two adults and two children) online. Family of four ₤101, compared to ₤117.

Activities

    Students looking for a cut-price trip to see the animals can save 15% off the ticket price at Bristol Zoo and pay ₤12.71 rather than the full adult price ₤14.53. Teens should show their identity as students.

Freebies(免费赠品)

    Let your kids discover what it's like to be an animal on the African Plain in the ocean. Or, they can learn to love leaf beetles（甲壳虫） or become a scientist for the day at the Natural History Museum in London.

    What makes a gift special？Is it the price you see on the gift receipt？Or is it the look on the recipient's face when they receive it that determines the true value? What gift is worth the most?

    This Christmas I was debating what to give my father. My dad is a hard person to buy for because he never wants anything. I pulled out my phone to read a text message from my mom saying that we were leaving for Christmas shopping for him when I came across a message on my phone that I had locked. The message was from my father. My eyes fell on a photo of a flower taken in Wyoming, and underneath a poem by William Blake. The flower, a lone dandelion standing against the bright blue sky, inspired me. My dad had been reciting those words to me since I was a kid. That may even be the reason why I love writing. I decided that those words would be my gift to my father.

    I called back. I told my mom to go without me and that I already created my gift. I sent the photo of the cream-colored flower to my computer and typed the poem on top of it. As I was arranging the details another poem came to mind. The poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe； my dad recited it as much as he did the other. I typed that out as well and searched online for a background to the words of it. The poem was focused around dreaming, and after searching I found the perfect picture. The image was painted with blues and greens and purples, twisting together to create the theme and wonder of a dream. As I watched both poems passing through the printer, the white paper coloring with words that shaped my childhood. I felt that this was a gift that my father would truly appreciate.

    Christmas soon arrived. The minute I saw the look on my dad's face as he unwrapped those swirling black letters carefully placed in a cheap frame, I knew I had given the perfect gift.

    Email has brought the art of letter writing back to life, but some experts think the resulting spread of bad English does more harm than good.

    Email is a form of communication that is changing, for the worse, the way we write and use language, say some communication researchers. It is also changing the way we interact(交流) and build relationship. These are a few of recently recognized features of email, say experts, that should cause individual and organizations to rethink the way they use email.

    "Email has increased the spread of careless writing habits, "says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University. She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation(标点符号) and sentence structure of emails reflect a growing unconcern to the way we write.

    Baron argues that we should not forgive and forget the poor writing often shown in emails. "The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing," the professor says.

    Others say that despite its poor prose(文字), email has finished what several generations of English teachers couldn't: it has made writing fashionable again.

    "Email is a critical new communication technology," says Ian Lancashire, a University of Toronto professor of English." It fills the gap between spoken language and the formal methods of writing that existed before email. It is the purest form of written speech."

    Lancashire says email has the mysterious ability to get people who are scared by writing to get their thoughts flowing easily onto a blank screen. He says this is because of email's close similarity to speech." It's like a circle of four or five people around a campfire," he says.

    Still, he accepts that this new found freedom to express themselves often gets people into trouble. "Almost everyday I get emails that apologies of previous emails," he reports.

    In the US, the number of emails sent in a day exceeds(超过) the number of letters mailed in a year. But more people are recognizing the content of a typical email message is not often exact.