Many people think of guys as being carefree when it comes to their appearance. But in fact, a lot of guys spend plenty of time in front of the mirror. They care just as much as girls do about their body image.

    Body image is a person's opinions and feelings about his or her own body and physical appearance. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}You appreciate your body for its capabilities and accept its imperfections.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Here are some ideas.

    Recognize your strengths. Different body types are good for different things. What does your body do well? Maybe your speed, strength, or coordination makes you better than others at a certain sport. That may be basketball, table tennis, mountain biking, dancing, or even running. Or perhaps you have non-sports skills, like drawing, painting, singing, playing a musical instrument, writing, or acting. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Exercise regularly. Exercise can help you look well and feel good about yourself. Good physiques (体形) don't just happen. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} A healthy habit can be as simple as exercising 20 minutes to 1 hour three days a week. Working out can also lift your spirits.

    Respect your body! Practicing good habits regular showering; taking care of your teeth, hair, and skin; wearing clean clothes, and so on can help you build a positive body image.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Your body is just one part of who you are. Your talent for comedy, a quick wit (智慧) and all the other things make you unique. So try not to let small imperfections take over.

    A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.

    Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality child-care center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.

    The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the child-care center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.

    Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child-care program did much better in tests.

    The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the child-care center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.

    A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.

    The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.

    The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.

    I still remember my first day at school in London and I was half-excited and half-frightened. On my way to school I wondered what sort of questions the other boys would ask me and practiced all the answers: “I am nine years old. I was born here but I haven't lived here since I was two. I was living in Farley. It's about thirty miles away. I came back to London two months ago.” I also wondered if it was the custom for boys to fight strangers like me, but I was tall for my age. I hoped they would decide not to risk it.

    No one took any notice of me before school. I stood in the center of the playground, expecting someone to say “hello”, but no one spoke to me. When a teacher called my name and told me where my classroom was, one or two boys looked at me but that was all.

    My teacher was called Mr. Jones. There were 42 boys in the class, so I didn't stand out there, either, until the first lesson of the afternoon. Mr. Jones was very fond of Charles Dickens and he had decided to read aloud to us from David Copperfield, but first he asked several boys if they knew Dickens' birthplace, but no one guessed right. A boy called Brian, the biggest in the class, said: “Timbuktu”, and Mr. Jones went red in the face. Then he asked me. I said: “Portsmouth”, and everyone stared at me because Mr. Jones said I was right. This didn't make me very popular, of course.

    “He thinks he's clever,” I heard Brian say.

    After that, we went out to the playground to play football. I was in Brian's team, and he obviously had Dickens in mind because he told me to go in goal. No one ever wanted to be the goalkeeper.

    “He's big enough and useless enough.” Brian said when someone asked him why he had chosen me.

    I suppose Mr. Jones, who served as the judge, remembered Dickens, too, because when the game was nearly over, Brian pushed one of the players on the other team, and he gave them a penalty (惩罚). As the boy kicked the ball to my right, I threw myself down instinctively (本能地) and saved it. All my team crowded round me. My bare knees were injured and bleeding. Brian took out a handkerchief and offered it to me.

    “Do you want to join my gang (帮派)?” he said. At the end of the day, I was no longer a stranger.

    You've just come home, after living abroad for a few years. Since you've been away, has this country changed for the better—or for the worse?

    If you've just arrived back in the UK after a fortnight's holiday, small changes have probably surprised you—anything from a local greengrocer suddenly being replaced by a mobile-phone shop to someone in your street moving house.

    So how have things changed to people coming back to Britain after seven, ten or even 15 years living abroad? What changes in society can they see that the rest of us have hardly noticed—or now take for granted? To find out, we asked some people who recently returned.

    Debi: When we left, Cheltenham, my home town, was a town of white, middle-class families—all very conservative (保守的). The town is now home to many eastern Europeans and lots of Australians, who come here mainly to work in hotels and tourism. There are even several shops only for foreigners.

    Having been an immigrant (移民) myself, I admire people who go overseas to find a job. Maybe if I lived in an inner city where unemployment was high, I'd think differently, but I believe foreign settlers have improved this country because they're more open-minded and often work harder than the natives.

    Christine: As we flew home over Britain, both of us remarked how green everything looked. But the differences between the place we'd left behind and the one we returned to were brought sharply into focus as soon as we landed.

    To see policemen with guns in the airport for the first time was frightening—in Cyprus, they're very relaxed—and I got pulled over by customs officers just for taking a woolen sweater with some metal-made buttons out of my case in the arrivals hall. Everyone seemed to be on guard. Even the airport car-hire firm wanted a credit card rather than cash because they said their vehicles had been used by bank robbers.

    But anyway, this is still a green, beautiful country. I just wish more people would appreciate what they've got.

    The word advertising refers to any kind of public announcement that brings products and services to the attention of people. Throughout history, advertising has been an effective way to promote(促进)the trading and selling of goods. In the Middle Ages, merchants employed "town criers" to read public messages aloud to promote their goods. When printing was invented in the fifteenth century, pages of advertisements(ads)could be printed easily and were either hung in public places or put in books.

    By the end of the seventeenth century, when newspapers were beginning to be read by more people, printed materials became an important way to promote products and services. The London Gazette was the first newspaper to set aside a place just for advertising. This was so successful that by the end of the century several companies started businesses for the purpose of making newspaper ads for merchants.

    Advertising spread quickly throughout the eighteenth century. Ad writers were starting to pay more attention to the design of the ad text. Everything, from clothes to drinks, was promoted with clever methods such as repetition of the firm's name or product, words organized in eyecatching patterns, the use of pretty pictures and expressions easy to remember.

    Near the end of the nineteenth century, companies that were devoted to the production of ads came to be known as "advertising agencies(广告商)．"The agencies developed new ways to get people to think of themselves as members of a group. Throughout the twentieth century, advertising agencies promoted consumerism(消费主义)as a way of life, spreading the belief that people could be happy only if they bought the "right" products.

    What's on in Beijing

    Discover the best things to do in Beijing with our weekly introduction of art and exhibitions, music, performances and trending activities around town. To recommend an upcoming event or activity, please contact li-ping(@chinadaily.com.cn.

Jersey Boys

    Jersey Boys is a Broadway musical that dramatizes the rise and fall of Frankie Valli and the 1960s rock 'n' roll group Four Seasons.

    According to Selladoor Worldwide, the group's Beijing tour will see a brand-new production of the musical. Since its 2005 premiere in New York, the musical has won 57 major awards worldwide.

    2:30 pm to 7:30 pm, Jan. 5 to Jan. 13. Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, 9 Tianqiao Nandajie, Xicheng District. 400 - 635 - 3355.

Ticket: 199 - 1 299 yuan($ 30 - $ 200)

    London Philharmonic Orchestra set to thrill Beijing

    The London Philharmonic Orchestra will give two performances in Beijing on Jan. 5 and 6.

    Under Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko, the orchestra will perform pieces by H. Berlioz's and P. I. Tchaikovsky's.

    7:30 pm, Jan. 5-6. Concert Hall, National Center for the Performing Arts, 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng District. 010 - 6655 - 0000.

Ticket: 380 - 1 680 yuan

Works of Chinese master woodcarver

    A solo exhibition of Chinese woodcarving master Lu Guangzheng is underway at the National Museum. The exhibition is a showcase of traditional woodcarving techniques unique to the city of Dongyang, East China's Zhejiang Province.

    9 am - 5 pm (closed on Mondays), through Jan. 21. National Museum of China, 16 East Chang'an Avenue, Dongcheng District. 010 - 6511 - 6188.

Ticket: Free

Large-scale (大型的) immersive show

    The large-scale show Memory 5D +, directed by Ulan Xuerong, is ongoing in Beijing from Jan. 4 to 7. The show follows the emotional entanglement (纠结) between black and white spirits, representing yin and yang, and the flora girl.

7:30 pm, Jan. 5; 2:30 pm/7:30 pm, Jan. 6; 7:30 pm, Jan. 7. Beijing Exhibition Theater, 135 Xizhimenwai Dajie (Street), Xicheng District.

Ticket: 180 - 1 080 yuan