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      A glass a day keeps obesity at bay. Wine has always been thought to cause weight gain because of its high sugar content, but new research suggests a glass a day could form part of a diet. Looking at past studies they found that, while heavy drinkers do put on weight, those who drink in moderation can actually lose weight.

    A scientist for the research team at Navarro University in Spain says, “Proper drinking may be more likely to protect against, rather than promote, weight gain.” An official organization reviewed the findings and agreed with most of the conclusions, particularly that present data do not clearly show if proper drinking increases weight.

    Boston University's Dr. Harvey Finkel found that the reasons relating alcohol (酒精) to changes in body weight are not properly understood. His team pointed out the strong protective effects (效果) of proper drinking on the risk of getting conditions like diabetes (糖尿病), which relate to increasing obesity. Some studies suggest that even very fat people may be at lower risk of diabetes if they are moderate drinkers.

    The group says alcohol provides energy that is quickly absorbed into the body and is not stored in fat, and that this process could explain the differences in its effects from those of other foods. They agree that future research should be directed towards assessing the roles of different types of alcoholic drinks, taking drinking patterns into consideration.

    For now there is little evidence that drinking small to moderate amounts of alcohol on a regular basis increases one's risk of becoming too fat. What's more, a study three years ago suggested that a chemical found in grapes and red wine, destroys fat cells.

Father's Day

    The United States is one of the few countries in the world that has an official day on which fathers are honored by their children. On the third Sunday in June, fathers all across the United States are given presents, treated to dinner or otherwise made to feel special.

    However, the idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Having been raised by her father, Henry Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a selfless and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spikane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

    In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge declared the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Roses are the Father's Day flowers: red to be worn for a living father and white if the father has died.

    When children can't visit their fathers or take them out to dinner, they send a greeting card. Traditionally, fathers prefer greeting cards that are not too sentimental. Most greeting cards are too special so fathers laugh when they open them. Some give heartfelt thanks for being there whenever the child needed Dad.

    There is a lot to learn about the creations of Beatrix Potter—not only is she the author of one of the world's most famous children 's books, The Tale of Peter Rabbit ,but also a pioneering conservationist(自然资源保护论者) with the spirit of a scientist.

    “Potter grew up as the daughter of a wealthy Victorian family, but along with her brother who filled an entire floor of their large house in London with all sorts of animals, which contributed a lot to her works,” said Anne Lundin, a retired professor for the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.

    “As an adult, she was a frustrated botanical scientist. That field was not open to her because she was female,” Lundin said. Potter was urged to turn the charming stories she wrote in letters to children into books. She wrote 23 books in all--a body of work that has inspired plays, ballets, films and an astonishing amount of merchandise.

    “The Tule of Peter Rabbit is probably the most famous children's book in the world, which was published in 1902 and has really stood the test of time. It's been translated into 36 languages. The parents and grandparents will share it with the next generation,” said Lundin.

    Potter also made a mark on the world through her land conservation.“In many ways, she was like Peter Rabbit, risking into a world of adventure. She withdrew from London as soon as she started making some money on her books to the Lake District and became an extremely important farmer and conservationist. She preserved and passed on 15 farms and over 4,000 acres, which were given back to the country as gifts in the 20th century,” said Lundin.

    Even though she was born 150 years ago, she was amazingly modern--her embracing of the natural world, commented Jennifer Blatchley Smith, an artistic director of the show Peter Rabbit Tales to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Potter's birth.

    An Italian company has created the world's first underwater farm. The station named Nemo's Garden consists of five biospheres(生物圈) fixed to the bottom of the sea off the coast of Savona, Italy. They're being used to grow strawberries, beans, garlic, and lettuce.

    “The main target of this project is to create other sources of plant production in areas where environmental conditions make it difficult to grow crops through traditional farming, including lack of fresh water, fertile soil, and extreme temperature changes,'' said project spokesperson Luca Gamberini.

    The five biospheres, currently floating between depths of 18 and 36 feet, are constantly watched by Ocean Reef Group —— a diving equipment company——from a control center on dry land. According to various news reports, the plants are watered by drips of water on the inner walls of the biospheres. With a constant temperature of 79 degrees day and night, and humidity(湿度) at around 83 percent, the conditions are ideal for plants to grow well. The high amount of carbon dioxide also encourages growth.

    Ocean Reef president Sergio Gamberini said he came up with the idea of growing plants underwater during a summer vacation in Italy. In his own words, he wanted to do something that's different and to show the beauty of the ocean. After two years of failed attempts, they finally were able to get these five biospheres working. Their success may lay the foundation for a new form of crop production that can be done without harming the environment.

    In fact, the biosphere seems to be attracting wildlife. Octopuses(章鱼) and endangered seahorses are taking shelter under the structure, while crabs(螃蟹) are climbing up the anchors and into the greenhouses. None of the creatures have damaged the plants so far. “It's so kind of science-fiction to see these two different forms of life interact,” Gamberini said.

    If you do not use your arm or your legs for some time, they become weak; when you start using them again, they slowly become strong again. Everybody knows that. Yet many people do not seem to know that memory works in the same way. When someone says that he has a good memory, he really means that he keeps his memory in practice by using it. When someone else says that his memory is poor, he really means that he does not give it enough chance to become strong.

    If a friend says that his arms and legs are weak, we know that it is his own fault. But if he tells us that he has a poor memory, many of us think that his parents are to blame (受责备), and few of us know that it is just his own fault.

    Have you ever found that some people can't read or write but usually they have better memories? This is because they cannot read or write and they have to remember things; they cannot write down in a little notebook. They have to remember days, names, songs and stories, so their memory is the whole time being exercised. Therefore, if you want to have a good memory, learn from the people: practice remembering.

    There's a world of difference between a horror movie and a comedy—the former scares you half to death while the latter leaves you rolling on the floor with laughter. But try watching them without the background music and you just might decide they're not so different after all. Music and movies have been closely connected since the beginning of the film industry—even before the voices of actors were recorded. In movies, music helps to provide a sense of time and place, convey ideas about the characters and, most importantly, draw emotions out of the audience.

    Studies have long shown that our heart rates and anxiety levels rise and fall depending on the speed of the music we hear. Using this knowledge, composers use sudden changes in film music speed to create fear among audiences. Slowing the speed of the music will have the opposite effect, bringing about a sense of peace or a dreamlike quality. The use of dissonant (不和谐的) tones and noises is another technique that heightens tension. Humans naturally become unnerved when we hear dissonant sounds because such noises are usually associated with danger, like those that animals make to warn against predators (捕食者).

    As crucial as it is, the best film music is subtle. All that audiences are supposed to feel is a heightened sense of emotion—they shouldn't realize what's causing it. Only when the music is taken out of the film should audiences understand its effects.

    In keeping with this principle, some filmmakers are even using what's called "infrasound" (次声波) to arouse fear. While we may not be able to hear it because its frequency is below the range of the human ear, infrasound has been proven to cause anxiety, tremble and even sorrow. For example, infrasound was used in the soundtrack of the 2007 horror movie Paranormal Activity, and audiences reposed extremely high fear levels despite the 1ack of action throughout the movie. "It doesn't affect everyone equally," said British science writer Philip Ball, author of The Music Instinct, but he predicted that "we will see more of it used in movies in the future".