Forgive the accidental. A sudden fall is humorous not because we like to see people fall, but because it surprises. Froma spilled（溢出）water glass in a meeting to Aunt Rae's teeth coming off in the Thanksgiving turkey, the embarrassment of accidents can be relieved by humor and a helping hand. After making sure that nobody's hurt, forgive accidents with a chuckle（咯咯地笑）rather than a scolding.

    Look for the unexpected. The kid whoused to look at you with his eyes closed during a test had the idea. Parents who serve green eggs and ham to their children on graduation day get the idea. Unexpected actions lighten an atmosphere and relax people.

    Learn to laugh with your kids. Most of what children say and do is funny. Help them learn that accidents are sometimes funny and sometimes occasions for joining in and helping another human being. By sharing laughs and attempting to explain humor, you develop your sense of humor, as well as help kids develop their own sense of humor.

    Owning a smartphone may not be as smart as you think. It may let you surf the Internet, listen to music and snap photos wherever you are…but it also turns you into a workaholic, it seems.

    A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the all-singing, all-dancing mobile phone adds as much as two hours to your working day. Researchers found that Britons work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles.

    The study by technology retailer Pixmania reveals the average UK working day is between 9 and 10 hours, but a further two hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls. More than 90 percent of office workers have email-enabled phones, with a third accessing them more than 20 times a day. Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails. Some workers confess(承认) they are on call almost 24 hours a day, with nine out of ten saying they make work emails and calls outside their normal working hours. The average time for first checking emails is between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., with more than a third checking their first emails in this period, and a quarter checking them between 11 p.m. and midnight.

    Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said, “The ability to access literally millions of apps, keep in contact via social networks and take photos and video as well as text and call has made smartphones invaluable for many people. However, there are drawbacks. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smartphones mean that people literally cannot get away from work. The more constantly in contact we become , the more is expected of us in a work capacity(容量).”

    Women are friendly．But men are more competitive．Why? Researchers have found it's all down to the hormone oxytocin （荷尔蒙催生素）．Although known as the love hormone, it affects the sexes differently．

"Women tend to be social in their behavior．They often share with others．But men lend to be competitive．They are trying to improve their social status," said Professor Ryan．

    Generally, people believe that the hormone oxytocin is let out in our body in various social situations and our body creates a large amount of it during positive social interactions （互动） such as falling in love or giving birth．

But in a previous experiment Professor Ryan found that the hormone is also let out in our body during negative social interactions such as envy．

    Further researches showed that in men the hormone oxytocin improves the ability to recognize competitive relationships, but in women it raises the ability to recognize friendship．

Professor Ryan's recent experiment used 62 men and women aged 20 to 37．Half of the participants（参与者）received oxytocin．The other half received placebo （安慰剂）．

    After a week, the two groups switched with participants．They went through the same procedure with the other material．

    Following each treatment, they were shown some video pictures with different social interactions．Then they were asked to analyze the relationships by answering some questions．The questions were about telling friendship from competition．And their answers should be based on gestures, body language and facial expressions．

    The results indicated that, after treatment with oxytocin, men's ability to correctly recognize competitive relationships improved, but in women it was the ability to correctly recognize friendship that got better．

    Professor Ryan thus concluded: "Our experiment proves that the hormone oxytocin can raise people's abilities to better distinguish different social interactions．And the behavior differences between men and women are caused by biological factors （因素） that are mainly hormonal．"

    Writing it down

    Unlike some other European languages, English is a little tricky when it comes to writing. How a word is pronounced and how it is actually spelt can be very different things.

    Same spelling, different meanings

Imagine, then, a situation where two words are spelt and pronounced exactly the same way, but have completely different meanings. Welcome to the world of homonyms（同形同音异义词）. Take, for example, the word "fair"—it can be a kind of festival, an adjective to describe the colour of your hair or how you should play a game. Or "leg", which can be attached to a person, or a table and can also be a distance you travel, or a part of a competition.

Don't take it literally（字面意思）

So how do you know which meaning someone is referring to? You don't, except by the context. Obviously, if someone asks you to "give them a hand", they don't want you to remove what is at the end of your arm.

What's in a name?

    Sometimes even the context doesn't help much—the result can be amusing. These sentences play with the double meaning of a noun:

    Sentence 1: I used to be a banker, but I lost interest.

Sentence 2: A small boy swallowed some coins and had to go to hospital. When his grandmother phoned to ask how he was, the nurse said: "No change yet".

    More ambiguity（歧义）

    Sentence 3 plays with the different meanings of a verb:

    Sentence 3: I wondered why the ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Double trouble

    And sometimes a word can be a noun and a verb, but have different meanings. Can you work this one out?

    Sentence 4: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

    If you like these homonyms, you will be pleased to know that English has plenty more!

    Pakistan should be everyone's tourist destination for 2018, but what if you already live there? Then perhaps you should consider visiting these five must-visit places for this year.

    Lake Saiful Muluk

    At an altitude of 3, 224m, surrounded by snowy mountains, the lake rewards those that make the three-hour uphill walk from Naran. You will find the pathway just above the free market, but the best choice is to get a jeep and share the costs with some other tourists; expect to pay about 700 rupees, worth it to view this natural beauty.

    Deosai National Park

    As another high point in Pakistan, it has an average altitude of 4,114m－the Deosai Plains are one of the highest plateaus (高原) in the world. If you make it to the park, you expect to find rich plants and wild animals. The breathtaking scenery on show at the plains is enough to make 2018 a memorable year.

    Naltar Valley

    Accessible via a 2.5-hour drive from Gilgit, well worth visiting. Covered with pine trees and other plants, it has a dreamlike feel about it. Various colors all year around make you fall in love.

    Shangrila Resort

    Right in the north of Pakistan in the central valley of Gilgit Baltistan. Locals call this a paradise (乐园), and that's what it feels like. No visit is complete without checking out the restaurant which is built in the structure of an aircraft.

    Rama Meadow (牧场)

    Doesn't feel like Pakistan at all, more like somewhere in Minnesota. Watch the sheep and cows feeding while clear water flows in streams from high in the mountains. Against Chongra's ice-covered peak, this little meadow is a piece of art.

Jean was a teacher who taught first grade. She drove an old Jetta with dull blue paint and worn seats. It wasn't the speediest tool, but Jean was never late to work. In fact, each school day she was the first teacher to arrive and the last teacher to leave.

She took great care to plan instruction, create assessments, and decorate her classroom. Parents in the neighborhood would beat down the principal's door to have their children arranged to her class. Jean could teach a mouse to read, and all her students passed into second grade with advanced vocabularies and language skills.

One August, two sisters in high school did not want to enter foster care (家庭寄养). They contacted their first grade teacher, Jean. Jean lived in quite an ordinary home with her son. Yet, she took the sisters in. Packed with children, the little blue Jetta sputtered (劈啪作响), but they had a good laugh.

One day, Jean spoke about her car, which she had driven for many years and had been old enough to retire. It was kind of dangerous for students to ride in such a car. She wanted a van. However, a new van was not within her ability. As a good friend, I listened to her concerns. Then, an idea came to me. I wrote a letter to The Oprah Winfrey Show, sharing Jean's story and her wish.

A month passed. Jean was invited to attend The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah hugged the teacher and told the details of Jean's story. Oprah announced that Jean deserved a new van.

The year was 1999. Six hundred miles away, I watched the joy of it all from the television. Jean's big heart taught me many lessons that year. One of them is that the simplest acts (like writing a letter) can require a strong faith. And nothing impossible.