Finding time to read is an important part of developing reading and writing skills for all kids. And there are many easy and convenient ways to make reading a part of each day — even when it's tough to find time to sit down with a book.

    Car trips, waits in checkout lines and the doctor's office are all opportunities for reading. Keep books or magazines in your car, or backpack to pull out whenever you're going to be in one place for a while. Even if you can't finish a book, read a few pages or discuss some of the pictures.

    Encourage kids to bring favorite books and magazines along wherever you go. While it's attractive to provide electronic games and readers, be sure to alternate electronic media with plenty of opportunities to read traditional print books.

    Reading opportunities are everywhere you go. While riding in the car, for example, encourage kids to spot words and letters (on billboards, store signs, etc.), turning it into a game (“Who'll be the first to find a letter B?”).

    Even daily tasks like cooking can provide reading moments. Kids can assist you as you cook by telling you how much flour to measure. Give your child a catalogue to read while you sort through the mail. Ask relatives to send your child letters, e-mail, or text messages, and read them together. Help your child create letters or messages to send back to the relatives. These types of activities help kids see the purpose of reading and of print.

    Even when you're trying to get things done, you can encourage reading. While cleaning, for instance, you might ask your child to read a favorite book to you while you work.

    Make sure kids get some time to spend quietly with books, even if it means cutting back on other activities, like watching TV or playing video games.

    Most important, be a reader yourself. Kids who see their parents reading are likely to imitate them and become readers, too!

    Japan has made a lot of noise in recent years about removing the traditional view that women should stay at home while men go out to work. So it was shocking when, on August 7th, Tokyo Medical University (TMU), a distinguished medical school, admitted marking down the test scores of female applicants to keep the ratio of women in each class below 30%.

    Their defence was that women are more likely to drop out to marry and have children. To judge female applicants to medical school purely on their academic performance would leave Japan with a shortage of doctors, they said. The admission has caused outrage.

    "Doctoring has long been a male field. But it is not the only one. Discrimination is common in banks and trading firms, where stamina (耐力) and loyalty, qualities somehow associated with men, are prized," says Mari Miura, a political scientist at Sophia University. All this embarrasses a government that has promised to make women "shine". The policy seems based on the need for more workers rather than on genuine concern for women.

    Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, says he wants to bring millions more women into the workforce to make up for a labour shortfall caused by its ageing and declining population. In the field of politics, the record under Mr. Abe's premiership (首相任期) is disappointing. Just two members of his 20-strong cabinet are women, including Seiko Noda, in charge of women's rights. Ms. Noda, who makes little secret of her ambition to beat Mr. Abe in a leadership contest next month, has just published a book called "Grab the Future", her public declaration for pulling Japan into line with "global standards". She has almost no chance of winning.

    The search engine Google celebrated on Thursday the 110th birthday of the first Native American woman engineer. Google honored Mary Ross with a special Google Doodle on its homepage.

    Ross was born on August 9, 1908, in the state of Oklahoma. She was the great-granddaughter of John Ross, the longest—serving chief of the Cherokee Nation. Her work is considered important to the early stages of the age of space travel.

    Ross showed special abilities in math and science from an early age. As a student, she developed an interest in aviation, or the practice of flying aircraft. She went on to earn a master's degree in mathematics from Colorado State Teachers College, now called the University of Northern Colorado.

    During World War II, Ross began working for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as a mathematician. She earned a special certification in the field from the University of California in1949.Ross was later chosen to join Lockheed's top—secret Skunk Works team that worked on aircraft designs. The name refers to a group that is permitted to work independently on advanced projects. She was the only female engineer among the team's 40 members.

    Early on, she researched defense systems. By the late 1950s, her work centered on satellites and a series of space rockets called Agenda. The rockets were extremely important in the 1960s during the Apollo moon program.

    Ross also helped develop early design ideas for space travel between planets, including flyby space flights to study Venus and Mars. Ross retired from Lockheed in 1973.But she continued to give talks at high schools and colleges to encourage more women and Native Americans to study engineering. She died in 2008, a few months before her 100th birthday.

    Many celebrated Ross' life on social media. Twitter user Aaron Perez, for example, wrote: “Mary Ross was an engineer who pioneered in the field of satellites. I never would have known if it wasn't for the doodle. Women engineers deserve more recognition.”

    Have you ever wished you could grow fresh fruit in your garden but worry about there not being enough space, or it won't look pretty, or it's too difficult?

    What if I was to tell you that even a beginner can successfully grow a wide variety of fruit from apples and pears to cherries, blueberries and raspberries, and possibly even figs or nectarines?

    The first thing you need to know: the sweeter the fruit, the more sun it will require. If you have a sunny wall it's an ideal place to train a sun-loving fruit tree like a peach or an apricot. Plant the tree at the base of the wall but not too close (about 30cm is about right) in soil enriched with fertilizer (肥料). As it grows, splay (整枝) the branches evenly and attach them to the wall. As the plant grows gradually cut out old untidy branches and tie in new healthy branches. The idea of splaying or “fanning” is that as much sun as possible gets to the fruit, so it can ripen beautifully and maximize your crop.

    Choose a variety that won't grow too large. In slightly shadier spots you can grow gooseberries or raspberries. Most of these come in compact (紧凑的) varieties and can also be fan-trained against a wall if space is an issue.

    I have a tiny orchard (果园) of space-saving apple, pear and plum trees bought as single vertical stems (茎) which I grow in pots. They grow to a maximum of 2m high and no wider than 45cm. My children love them! Simply cut back the side stems to about 10cm at this time of year and you're good to go. Just remember that pot-grown plants rely totally on you for their food and water.

    As a gardener I was quite late to fruit-growing, but I realized quickly that it becomes an addictive hobby. And as a complete bonus I've noticed a definite increase in my bee population over the past few years. There's free food, and it's good for the environment too. What could be better?

    When I was small and my grandmother died, I couldn't understand why I had no tears. But that night when my dad tried to cheer me up, my laugh turned into crying.

    So it came as no surprise to learn that researchers believe crying and laughing come from the same part of the brain. Just as laughing has many health advantages, scientists are discovering that so, too, does crying.

    Whatever it takes for us to reduce pressure is important to our emotional health, and crying seems to work well. One study found that 85 percent of women and 73 percent of men report feeling better after crying.

    Besides, tears attract help from other people. Researchers agree that when we cry, people around us become kinder and friendlier and they are more ready to provide support and comfort. Tears also enable us to understand our emotions better; sometimes we don't even know we're very sad until we cry. We learn about our emotions through crying, and then we can deal with them.

    Just as crying can be healthy, not crying - holding back tears of anger, pain or suffering - can be bad for physical health, Studies have shown that too much control of emotions can lead to high blood pressure, heart problems and some other illnesses. If you have a health problem, doctors will certainly not ask you to cry. But when you feel like crying, don't fight it. It's a natural –and healthy-emotional response.

Sonya took Rupert, a rescue dog, back home three years ago, and soon found it liked attacking strangers and other animals, which she believed was caused by pain.

It took Sonya a year to develop a normal relationship with Rupert, during which she learned it was afraid of being left alone and also couldn't walk properly. Finally, she decided to take it to see a vet (兽医). After examining Rupert, the vet said its leg was broken, and it needed an immediate operation.

But when it had to go in for an operation on its leg, there was a problem—the vet Mike couldn't get near the dog. Mike and Sonya were left scratching their heads until one of them came up with an idea. Sonya said Rupert slept on a mouse suit so she suggested that Mike put it on.

At first, the dog barked wildly when Mike tried to operate on it in usual clothes. To make his patient feel at ease, Mike decided to dress up in the mouse clothes to see if it would be less worried. Amazingly, it worked. It stopped barking and immediately became good friends with Mike when he put on the suit. As a result, he was able to perform an operation on the leg safely and the result was quite satisfying.

After the successful operation, Mike hugged the dog around the neck, which isn't usually well-received by pets. Mike tried to be as respectful of its needs as possible and made time to give some attention. What Mike had done created a special experience or event in the dog's life.