Six volunteers are about to find out what it would be like to live on Mars without ever leaving the Earth. Three men and three women will spend eight months living in a special place on the side of a volcano in Hawaii. They are part of an experiment that is designed to mimic（模仿）life on Mars. Their mission began on October 15, 2014. NASA says it could send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. The mission would take more than two years, so NASA needs to know how people would react to living in a small group, isolated from the rest of the world, for such a long time. Some people may become depressed or bored living under those conditions. By studying people living in similar conditions here on Eares NASA hopes to learn how to choose the most suitable people for a space mission, and how to help them get along.

    They will live in a two-story building. The ground floor is about 86 square meters, roughly the size of a small two-bedroom apartment. It includes shared areas like kitchen, dining room, bathroom, laboratory and an exercise room. The upstairs is less than half the size of the downstairs. It contains another bathroom and six small bedrooms. The building is located in an abandoned quarry（采石场）about 2,400 meters up the side of Mauna Loa, the second biggest volcano in the world. It is constantly monitored for signs of volcanic activity. NASA chose the location because the appearance looks very similar to Mars.

    To make it more like being on Mars in the future, they are only able to communicate by email during the experiment. Meanwhile, there will be a 20-minute delay between the time when a message is sent and that when it is received. When they go outside, they will have to suit up in full spacesuits, just as if they were on Mars.

    The commander is Martha Lenio, a 34-year-old Canadian. During the mission, she will run experiments on growing food. The other members have backgrounds in physics and so on. None of them are astronauts.

    Most visitors come to the UK expecting the rain and weather for which the country is famous. However, when summer finally arrives, British people like nothing more than heading for the coast. Here are some of more famous places of interest that you could expect to visit on a trip to Britain. Black pool, in the northwest of England, is the most visited place in the UK. Each year around 6.5 to 7 million people come to enjoy the miles of sandy beaches, the 158m Black pool Tower and the 11km-long Golden Mile, where there are entertainments, pubs, ice rinks (溜冰场) and even a zoo. On the south coast of the country you can find Brighton. Until 1786, Brighton was a sleepy village. Then the future king, George IV, decided to build a house there, and now it has become a large, international centre. Apart from the beaches, Brighton is famous for its pier (码头). There are theatres, entertainments and restaurants there. Brighton is also fantastic for shopping. If you want to travel a little further, why not go to Cornwall in the far southwest of the UK? South Cornwall offers miles of sandy beaches and beautiful scenery. The climate there is warmer than the rest of Britain, and you can even find palm trees. For a bit more excitement, go to North Cornwall. The scenery there is nicer, and the beaches are famous for their powerful waves. As a result, North Cornwall has become the home of British surfing. One word of warning though, if you are using the roads in the UK during holidays, you can expect long traffic jams on the motorways. It might be better to take the train.

    Two summers ago I was about to tum fifty and wanted to do something I'd never done before. My daughter Bailey thought skydiving (跳伞) would be perfect for me. I can promise you that of all the things I was thinking of doing, jumping out of an airplane never came close to making the list. As I age, I seem to have developed a growing fear of heights.

    After several requests from my daughter, I finally said yes and she looked almost shocked. I told a friend what we were doing, then we set off. We had a 3-hour drive to the jump site. We drove through some beautiful countryside, but then we passed a small cemetery (基地) Then we passed another cemetery and another one. I asked if so many people died jumping out of airplanes in this area that they needed to keep building more cemeteries to bury all the bodies!

    As we squeezed into the little plane, I tightly held the right hand of my partner Ronnie. The short ride to altitude was cruel for me. As Bailey stepped to the door, she looked back at me and said “Dad, I'm sure you can do it!” I said yes as she rolled out, I immediately looked behind me and said “RONNIEI AM NOT FEELING GOOD” He said, “It's going to be great. Besides, it's too late now anyway”, any we jumped out.

    The next five minutes were some of the most exciting of my life. It was so beautiful and peaceful—except for the parts where I was screaming. I prayed to God for the parachute(降落伞)to open, but mostly I told Him how thankful I was for my life and being with me through good and bad.

A

    In no particular order, here are some songs on the Music app of my phone:

On a Sunday Afternoon by Lighter Shade of Brown— A student of mine introduced this rap song to me all the way back in the early 1990s, when I was teaching Spanish at a local university. The story in the song takes place not too far from where I live in Los Angeles. It's a good "driving" song, nothing difficult or "deep".

Say Something by A Great Big World—A more recent song about a couple losing contact with each other. The piano part is of very little playing but beautiful.

    The Weight by The Band — Another old song, originally made public in 1968, but one I didn't hear until I was in high school more than 10 years later. I don't understand the words to the song completely, but the feeling of the song is very comforting to me.

Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers — This Los Angeles group wrote a song that I used to listen to when I first moved to LA more than 25 years ago. I didn't know anyone here when I first arrived. When I got bored, I used to drive up and down the major streets that cross the city from east to west, listening to this song about t4the city of angels" being as "lonely as I am" (Don't worry. I have plenty of friends now.)

    Farah was sitting in the kitchen going over the party list with her mother. The exams were over and Farah wanted to invite her friends for a party.

    "Farah, aren't you going to invite Hafsa?" her mother asked. Hafsa had been her best friend since childhood.

    "Mother, you know I am now a part of Purple Girls Club and we have some rules about people we can be friends with," Farah answered.

    "Really? And what are the rules?" her mother asked.

    "Well, only very pretty girls can be part of our group. And Hafsa is so...you know...dark."

    "I cannot believe it," her mother said angrily.

    As Farah left the kitchen, her father called her from the living room. Farah went to her father and paled when she saw the exam report in his hands. "Farah, what has happened to your grades? You have failed in Mathematics," her father said. Farah had no answer. The truth was that the activities of Purple Girls Club left her with very little time for studies. "Farah, it says that you can take part in supplementary exams(补考). If your grades don't improve then, I'll cancel(取消) your trip to Spain." Farah went to her room and called Gina, the leader of Purple Girls Club, "Gina, can you help me to complete my notes before the exams?" Gina laughed. "Exams? Who cares about exams?"

    One by one, she called her friends in the club but no one seemed to care or wanted to help. Farah knew Hafsa would help her. Farah also knew Hafsa had been hurt by her, but Hafsa said, "If you need any help, just let me know. We can study together till your exams." Next Monday, as two friends entered the school together, Gina called out. "Farah, you know our rules. You cannot be friends with those who do not belong to our club."

    "Gina, I have a new rule about friendship," Farah replied.

WISH YOU WERE MORE CREATIVE?

    I want to ask you a favor. I have a pair of pants. Tell me: How many different ways can I put a pair of pants to use? Now imagine you're an architect. Same question. Now imagine you're Bill Gates. A scuba diver. A medieval knight. You still have the pants. What alternative uses come to mind?

    What you just practiced--the conscious act of "wearing" another self-is an exercise that, according to psychiatrist SriniPillay, MD, is essential to being creative.

    One great irony (讽刺) about our collective addiction to creativity is that we tend to frame it in uncreative ways. That is to say, most of us marry creativity to our concept of self: Either we're "creative" or we aren't, without much of a middle ground. "I'm just not a creative person!" a discouraged student might say in art class, while another might blame her talent at painting for her difficulties in math, making a comment "I'm very right-brained."

    Dr.Pillay, an assistant professor at Harvard University, has spent years overturning these ideas. He believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to challenge the stereotyped (陈词滥调的) advice that urges you to "believe in yourself." In fact, you should do the opposite: Believe you are someone else.

    He points to a study showing the impact of stereotype on one's behavior. The authors, psychologists Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar, divided their college student subjects into two groups, instructing one group to think of themselves as "eccentric poets" and the other to imagine they were "rigid librarians". The researchers then presented them all with ordinary objects, including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one. The former group came up with the widest range of ideas, whereas the latter had the fewest.

    These results suggest that creativity is not an individual characteristic but a "product of context and perspective". Everyone can be creative, as long as he or she feels like a creative person.

    Dr. Pillay's work takes this a step further: He argues that simply identifying yourself as creative is less powerful than taking the brave, creative step of imagining you are somebody else. This exercise, which he calls psychological Halloweenism, refers to the conscious action of "wearing" another self. An actor may employ this technique to get into character, but anyone can use it. According to Dr. Pillay, it works because it is an act of conscious unfocus, a collection of brain regions that spring into action when you're not focused on a specific task or thought. Most people spend nearly half of their days in a state of "unfocus." This doesn't make us lazy; it makes us human.

    Imagining yourself in a new situation, or an entirely new identity, never felt so productive. You're making yourself more creative, and you're giving yourself permission to do something you'd otherwise feel guilty about.