Good manners are important, but you can easily make a social blunder when you visit a foreign country, because sometimes good manners in one place are bad manners in other places.

    Suppose you visit some friends in Mongolia and they ask you to eat with them. What kind of manners do they want you to have? They want you to give a loud “burp” after you finish eating. Burping shows that you like your food. But in some other countries, if you give a loud “burp”, you are supposed to say, “Excuse me, please.”

    In many places people like to eat together. But in some parts of Polynesia it is bad manners to be seen eating together. People show their good manners by turning their backs on others while they eat.

    What are manners like in an East African town? The people try not to see you. When you are visiting a friend, he may not see you at all. If you are polite, you will sit down beside him. You will wait until he finishes what he is doing. Then he will talk to you.

    If you visit a friend in Arabia you should walk behind other tents until you come to his tent. If you pass in front of other tents, you will be asked into each one. The people will ask you to eat with them. And it is bad manners if you say no.

    Manners are different all over the world. But it is good to know that all manners help people show that they want to be friends.

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    Time flies, but the tracks of time remain in books and museums. This is what made a recent tragedy in Brazil even more terrible.

    On Sept.2, a big fire ripped through the National Museum of Brazil.“ Two hundred years of work, research and knowledge were lost,” Brazilian President Michel Temer wrote on Twitter after the fire. “It's a sad day for all Brazilians.”

    Most of the 20 million pieces of history are believed to have been destroyed. Only as little as 10 percent of the collection may have survived, Time reported. Among all the items, there were Egyptian mummies, the bones of uniquely Brazilian creatures such as the long－necked dinosaur Maxakalisaurus, and an 11,500－year－old skull called Luzia, which was considered one of South America's oldest human fossils.

    Besides these, Brazil's indigenous(本土的，土著的) knowledge also suffered. The museum housed world－famous collections of indigenous objects, as well as many audio recordings of local languages from all over Brazil. Some of these recordings, now lost, were of languages that are no longer spoken.

    “The tragedy this Sunday is a sort of national suicide, a crime against our past and future generations,” Bernard Mello Franco, one of Brazil's best－known columnists, wrote on the O Globo newspaper site.

    The cause of the fire is still unknown, as BBC News reported on Sept. 3. After the fire burned out, crowds protested outside the museum to show their anger at the loss of the irreplaceable items of historical value.

    According to Emilio Bruna, an ecologist at the University of Florida, museums are living, breathing stores of who we are and where we've come from, and the world around us.

    Just as underwater grass floats on the surface if it loses its roots, a nation is lost without its memories. The fire at the National Museum of Brazil teaches the world an important lesson: We should never neglect history.

    Teens and younger children are reading a lot less for fun, according to a Common Sense Media report published Monday.

    While the decline over the past decade is steep for teen readers, some data in the report shows that reading remains a big part of many children's lives, and indicates how parents might help encourage more reading.

    According to the report's key findings, “the proportion (比例) who say they 'hardly ever' read for fun has gone from 8 percent of 13-year-olds and 9 percent of 17-year-olds in 1984 to 22 percent and 27 percent respectively today.”

    The report data shows that pleasure reading levels for younger children, ages 2-8, remain largely the same. But the amount of time spent in reading each session has declined, from closer to an hour or more to closer to a half hour per session.

    When it comes to technology and reading, the report does little to counsel(建议) parents looking for data about the effect of e-readers and tablets on reading. It does point out that many parents still limit electronic reading, mainly due to concerns about increased screen time.

    The most hopeful data shared in the report shows clear evidence of parents serving as examples and important guides for their kids when it comes to reading. Data shows that kids and teens who do read frequently, compared to infrequent readers, have more books in the home, more books purchased for them, parents who read more often, and parents who set aside time for them to read.

    As the end of school approaches, and school vacation reading lists loom(逼近) ahead, parents might take this chance to step in and make their own summer reading list and plan a family trip to the library or bookstore.

    Scientists have connected the "fat gene" with the "happy gene". They believed there could be genetic evidence which explains why fat people are often happier than their skinny friends. The breakthrough could be an explanation for why fat characters, such as The Laughing Policeman and Father Christmas are often described as joyful and kind.

    FTO is the major genetic contributor to being fat. But it is also connected with an eight percent reduction in the risk of depression. Researchers at McMaster University in Canada had been studying whether there was a connection between being fat and being depressed. They found the opposite was true.

    They studied 17, 200 DNA from participants in 21 countries. Results showed people with FTO gene—the fat gene—showed less signs of depression. This finding was supported by three additional international studies.

    Professor David Meyre said, "We set out from the belief that being depressed and being fat both deal with brain activity. We thought that fat genes may be related to depression. However, we have discovered a molecule (分子) contributing to depression. It is the first evidence that an FTO fat gene is connected with protection against depression.

    In a recent interview, actress Lisa Riley said she was more than comfortable with her size. She said she is a "big, really happy" girl who is lucky enough to be confident in her own skin, and added, "Many people want to be thinner. Not me. I love being different and it drives me mad that people don't believe I'm happy with what I am."

It was the early 1950s, and I was a member of the A class at Armidale Senior High School in norther New South Wales. 

In the second and third years we all did General Maths, and our teacher was Mrs Lindsay-Clare Lindsay. Her arrival at our classroom was always quick, "Good morning everyone!" Then our books would be out, and we would watch her closely. 

I've thought a lot about Clare Lindsay over the years. What was her special magic? There are two reasons and I think they're necessary for all excellent teachers. She loved her subject, and she loved us, in a patient and objective way. She had no favorites that I can remember, and she called us all by our first names pleasantly She had a way of teaching that I loved. 

"Now we could go down this path couldn't we? We could argue this, and then this, but that doesn't work because of this. No Can Do(NCD)!" She would put a big cross, and write" NCD" against what she had put down. "Right! Why not go down this new path?" And she would show us that this new way worked. It was fun. We, whether the poor students or the skilled, all did well because of her. I've never found maths difficult, and I_put_that_skill_down_to_her. 

In the fourth and fifth years,we were divided into the science and arts streams(按学生能力划分的班级), and Mrs Lindsay didn't teach us any more. But as the Leaving Certificate exams were coming, one of my friends became nervous about how much maths he didn't know. With great courage, he went to see Mrs Lindsay, and asked if she would help him prepare for his General Maths paper. "Of course!" she said, and did just that, after school, in her own time. He passed. What a good teacher!

Going to concerts and live performances is a lot of fun. As a teen, you'll want to prepare for the event far in advance in order to ensure that your concert experience is enjoyable.

Check to make sure that the concert venue(场所) is for all ages.

Some venues, particularly those that serve alcohol, will only allow entry for guests who are over 21 years old. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} If you buy a ticket and get turned away at the door, you likely will not get your money back.

Ask your parents for permission.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Have a conversation with your parents to figure out how you will travel to and from the concert, and talk about ground rules for staying safe at the event.

Find a friend to go with.

For your safety, it's best not to attend concerts alone. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you're having trouble finding company, consider posting on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to see if other people in your social network are interested.

Buy tickets.

If the concert is for a popular band, figure out exactly when the tickets go on sale. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Ticketmaster. com sells tickets for bigger shows, but if you're going to a smaller show, look online at the venue's website for information on how to buy tickets.

Research venue policies and regulations.

Find the venue's web page to get a sense of what to expect, and to avoid any problem on the day of the concert. You should know how early the doors will open. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}