Watching some children trying to catch butterflies one hot August afternoon, I was reminded of an incident in my own childhood．When I was a boy of 12 in South Carolina, something happened to me that cured me forever of wanting to put any wild creature in a cage.

    We lived on the edge of a wood, and every evening at dusk the mockingbirds would come and rest in the trees and sing. There isn't a musical instrument made by man that can produce a more beautiful sound than the song of the mockingbird.

    I decided that I would catch a young bird and keep it in a cage and in that way would have my own private musician.

    I finally succeeded in catching one and put it in a cage. At first, in its fright at being captured, the bird fluttered about the cage, but eventually it settled down in its new home. I felt very pleased with myself and looked forward to some beautiful singing from my tiny musician.

    I had left the cage out on our back porch, and on the second day of the bird's captivity my new pet's mother flew to the cage with food in her mouth. The baby bird ate everything she brought to it. I was pleased to see this. Certainly the mother knew better than I how to feed her baby.

    The following morning when I went to see how my captive（被俘虏的） was doing, I discovered it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was shocked! What had happened! I had taken excellent care of my little bird, or so I thought.

    Arthur Wayne, the famous ornithologist, happened to be visiting my father at the time, hearing me crying over the death of my bird, explained what had occurred. “A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poison berries. She thinks it better for her young to die than to live in captivity.”

    Never since then have I caught any living creature and put it in a cage. All living creatures have a right to live free.

    Science has a lot of uses. It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up. Indeed science is so good at what it does that there's always a temptation(诱惑) to drag it into problems where it may not be helpful. David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to resist the temptation.

    Brooks gained fame for several books. His latest book The Social Animal, however, is more ambitious and serious than his earlier books. It is an attempt to deal with a set of weighty topics. The book focuses on big questions: What has science revealed about human nature? What are the sources of character? And why are some people happy and successful while others aren't?

    To answer these questions, Brooks surveys a wide range of disciplines（学科）.Considering this, you might expect the book to be a dry recitation of facts. But Brooks has structured his book in an unorthodox(非常规的), and perhaps unfortunate, way. Instead of introducing scientific theories, he tells a story, within which he tries to make his points, perhaps in order to keep the reader's attention. So as Harold and Erica, the hero and heroine in his story, live through childhood, we hear about the science of child development and as they begin to date we hear about the theory of sexual attraction. Brooks carries this through to the death of one of his characters.

    On the whole, Brooks's story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discovers how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks's attempt to translate his tale into science.

    Let's look back all these years you've gone through, what have you done for your life? Are you spending your time wisely to make your life worthwhile? Neal Wu shared some ways we should do to make our short time of life meaningful, find out what you need to do next:

    a. Make friends as opposed to networking

    Your friends will go a lot further than the professional contacts you make, especially since only one of the two groups is invested in your personal happiness.

    b. Become an expert by learning as much as you can and deeply seeking out the things you are curious about

    Find the things you enjoy and practice the skills you want to develop. If you can achieve expertise then it will be easy to obtain an audience.

    c. Volunteer to help out those less fortunate

    In the process you will gain a ton of new perspective and will better understand other people's real problems. In a society that always looks upward, these people are being forgotten easily.

    d. Become as independent as possible

    Even though you work in a big company, you should constantly make small steps to reduce your dependence on your job. Write a book, build an app, or start a small business on the side. Release your inner entrepreneur.

    e. Don't spend too much time worrying about your personal brand

    Accomplish(完成) things, and the recognition will follow.

    f. Stop treating life as a competition and do things for their own sake

    Genuine(真正的) interest should be what drives you to improve yourself, rather than a desire to beat others. Find a community of people who are interested in the same things as you do, and drive each other to keep improving.

A typical school day in the UK starts around 8:30 am. This is often even earlier elsewhere in the world, with students sitting down to their first lesson at 7:30 am in the US. The average teenager ideally needs eight to nine hours' sleep each night, but in reality a lot of teenagers struggle to get this much. A lot of the problems arise because our sleep patterns are not fixed, and they change as we grow.

So a later school start time could help to solve this problem, by ensuring to get their eight plus hours of sleep and react properly to their body's natural rhythms (规律). There has been a general shift over the past 25 years to shorten the school day. This is not at the cost of teaching time (which has remained constant) but at the cost of natural breaks, which has led to reduced lunch time and lesson breaks.

Later start times could help teens' grades and health. This is mainly because it makes the management of children easier. Supervising (监管) hundreds of children “playing” requires effective staffing (人员配备). And there is always the fear that behavior worsens during breaks. So the theory goes that having them in class and strictly supervised must be better.

    But this means that students barely have enough time to absorb what they were doing in maths before suddenly they are thrust into ancient history. And teaching staff also transit from one class to another, with hardly a rest or time to refocus.

    Clearly rethinking the school day could benefit everyone involved. Anyway, it could also lead to better achievement in teenagers and less of a struggle for parents in the mornings. For teachers, it could also mean a less stressful day all around and what could be better than that?

    Hiring a self-drive car really adds to the enjoyment of your holiday. There are so many places of interest to visit. And if you enjoy seeing more than just the city centre, there's no better way to explore than by car.

    Conditions of Hire

    ⒈The shortest rental period at these especially low prices is three days. For prices and for periods of one or two days you only see our representative at the hotel.

    ⒉Car hire must be booked six weeks or more before arrival in London to guarantee a car. But if you have been unable to make a booking in advance, please see our representative at the hotel who may still be ab le to help you.

    ⒊The car types on the sheet are examples of the types of cars in each price range, but a particular car cannot be guaranteed.

    ⒋Upon delivery the driver(s) will be asked to sign the car hire company's Conditions of Hire.

    ⒌If you decide to hire a car, just fill in the Booking Form and return it to us. A booking fee of ￡12 as part of the car hire cost is required.

    ⒍Should you be forced to cancel your car hire booking after payment in full (two weeks before date of hire), a cancellation charge of ￡12 will be made.

    Have you ever made your life look a little more charming than it actually is by posting truths on social media? If so, you may be damaging your mental health.

    The posts we make on social media platforms allow us to look back and see what we did on a given day. But what happens when, in an effort to impress our online friends, photos and videos we post become beautified versions of the things we did?

    A young girl named Sophia went out to a romantic anniversary dinner with her boyfriend, had a near relationship-ending fight during dessert, then came home and posted, "Had the best time out with the love of my life!"—even with a photo of the meal. No surprise, but according to a new study, Sophia was by no means unique. Two-thirds of users admit lying about their lives on social media with 20 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 stating that they edit their own stories by frequently lying about relationships and promotions.

    By beautifying our online stories, we are harming our memories. We start believing the stories we tell rather than remembering what really happened. Soon, the real experience is lost and all that remains is the beautified version of history.

    Scientists fear that these edited stories will end up changing our memories. It's well confirmed through research that our own memories are often unreliable and can be easily controlled. Writing down one's life in the form of a journal, or even on social media can help us keep our memories undamaged, but only if we tell the truth. So recording our experiences through whatever medium, to later recall lessons we learned, is not only acceptable but desirable. In fact, looking back at our own past—however embarrassing or uncomfortable - is not just healthy but can be enjoyable.