Biography

    When Salinger learned that a car park was to be built on the land , the middle-aged writer was shocked and quickly bought the neighboring area to protect it… The townspeople never forgot the rescue and came to help their most famous neighbor.

    J. D.  Salinger：A  Life by Kenneth Slawenski（Random House,$27）

Mystery（疑案小说）

     “You're a smart boy.  Benny's death was no accident, and you're the only who saw it happen. Do you think the murderer should get away with it ? ”The boy was starting stubbornly at his lap again.

    A thought suddenly occurred to Annika ,“Did you …You recognized the man in the car , didn't you?”

    The boy hesitated, twisting his fingers ,“Maybe ,”he said quietly.

    Red Wolf by Liza Marklund（Atria Books, $25. 99）

Short Stories

    She wants to say to him what she has learned , none of it in class. Some women are borm stupid,and some women are too smart for their own good. Some women are born to give ,and some women only know how to take.  Some women learn who they want to be from their mothers,some who they don't want to be.  Some mothers suffer so their daughters won't.  Some mothers love so their daughters won't.

    You Are Free by Danzy Senna （Riverhead Books,$15）

Humor

    Do your kids like to have fun? Come to Fun  Times! Do you like to watch your kids having fun? Bring them to Fun Times! Fun Times! 's “amusement cycling ”is the most fun you can have , legally , in the United States right now. Why spend thousands of dollars flying to Disney World when you can spend less than half to that within a day's drive lf most cities?

    Happy And Other Bad Thoughts by Larry Doyle（Ecco,$14. 99）

    Some of the most famous universities in America are urging students to consider the idea of putting off college for a year. It's called a “gap year.” And while it's been common and popular in Australia and the U.K. for decades, the concept is now starting to gain significant steam here in America.

    Why? A growing number of high school seniors are tired of riding the academic conveyor belt from preschool all the way to university. They're burnt out. Or not quite ready. Or they want to explore a few interests before deciding what to study in college, they're volunteering in New Orleans or teaching in Thailand. They're starting the great American novel, or working for a short time to help figure out what they want to do with their lives.

    Understandably, that makes a lot of parents nervous. But a gap year does not mean that a student will remain degree-less forever. While there are no formal studies on the number of students who don't finally go to college after the gap year, evidence from admissions officers across the country says very few actually leave college without finishing their courses. Taking a gap year can actually make kids more focused and ready for future academic life. In fact, Harvard University believes so much in the gap year that it encourages every student it admits to consider a year off before matriculation (入学).

    The reason behind higher education's support of the gap year is clear: Better-prepared students mean higher completion rates. And it's completion that matters. Parents should remember that getting a kid into college is only half the battle. According to the College Board, three out of five students who enter a public four-year college don't manage to obtain a degree within five years. And nearly 30 percent of all students who enter college don't return after the gap year. Considering the fact that this year's average price at a four-year private college is about $ 23,712 per year, it's a pretty expensive place to play around.

    It's generally believed that people act the way they do because of their personalities and attitudes. They recycle their garbage because they care about the environment. They pay $5 for a caramel brulee latte because they like expensive coffee drinks.

    It's undeniable that behavior comes from our inner dispositions(性情), but in many instances we also draw inferences about who we are, as suggested by the social psychologist Daryl Bern, by observing our own behavior. We can be strangers to ourselves. If we knew our own minds, why should we need to guess what our preferences are from our behavior? If our minds were an open book, we would know exactly how much we care about the environment or like lattes. Actually, we often need to look to our behavior to figure out who we are.

    Moreover, we don't just use our behavior to learn about our particular types of character — we infer characters that weren't there before. Our behavior is often shaped by little pressures around us, which we fail to recognize. Maybe we recycle because our wives and neighbors would disapprove if we didn't. Maybe we buy lattes in order to impress the people around us. We should not mistakenly believe that we always behave as a result of some inner disposition.

    Whatever pressures there can be or inferences one can make, people become what they do, though it may not be in compliance(符合) with their true desires. Therefore, we should all bear in mind Kurt Vonnegut's advice: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

    There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so.

    A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents.  The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.

    The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain.  The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.

    The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study.  The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.

    The researchers published their findings online on the AmericanJournalofPsychiatry's website.

    Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.

    The world's first luxury space hotel, Aurora Station, was announced Thursday at the Space 2.0 Summit in San Jose, California. Developed by US-based space technology start-up Orion Span, the space station will host six people at a time, including two crew members, for 12-day trips of space travel. It plans to welcome its first guests in 2022.

    "Our goal is to make space accessible to all," Frank Bunger, CEO and founder of Orion Span, said in a statement." Upon launch, Aurora Station goes into service immediately, bringing travelers into space quickly and at a lower price point than ever seen before."

    While a$10 million trip is outside the budget of most people's two-week vacations, Orion Span claims to offer an authentic astronaut experience. "It has taken what was historically a 24-month training to prepare travelers to visit a space station and streamlined(精简)it to three months, at a fraction(小部分)of the cost," says Bunger. During their 12-day adventure, the super-rich travelers will fly at a height of 200 miles above the Earth's surface in Low Earth Orbit, where they will witness incredible views of the blue planet. The hotel will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, which means guests will see around 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.

    Activities on board include taking part in research experiments such as growing food while in orbit, which guests can take home for a super-smug souvenir, and soaring over their hometown. Guests can have-live-video chats with their less-fortunate loved ones back home via high-speed wireless Internet access and, upon(return to Earth will be greeted with a specially arranged hero's welcome. While enjoying the thrills of zero gravity, the travelers will be able to float freely through the hotel, taking in views of the northern and southern aurora from the station's windows.   Deposits are already being accepted for future stays on the space hotel.

    I was disheartened recently when I turned on the news to hear a story about a family who is petitioning (请愿) the Hampton School Board to receive out-of-district compensation to place their daughter in an out-of-district school due to racial bullying. I was disheartened because I know that even if this family wins their petition, the root of the problem will still continue.

    While there are many contributing factors to the rapid increase of the bullying, I believe that the root of this problem lies within the restrictions of schools, or rather the teachers and administrators who allow bullying to happen while feeding the line "We have a no-tolerance policy" to students and parents.

    This family can move their daughter to a new school where she will feel safe to learn and grow, but they will leave behind the problem of the educators at this school who let the racial bullying happen.

    My son went to a private school in Concord. He was bullied on the play yard. The administration gave us the "No tolerance" line, but did nothing to stop the bullying or change the climate of the school.

    We pulled our son out of this school and placed him in another school. This school truly understands how to guide students' acceptance of differences and embrace teachable moments so that bullying is a non-issue.

    I truly hope that this family gets the out-of-district placement for their daughter. However, I am doubtful that the school district will address the root of the problem.