Growing Up in Australia

    Since 2004, Australia has been holding its largest study of children's health ever. This project, “Growing Up in Australia,” is following two groups of children from early childhood until they become adults. The project is being supported by the Australian government and involves hundreds of researchers visiting the homes of 10,000 children. Researchers hope to find a relationship between the children's future behavior and their health, education, and family environments.

    When the study began, the first group of children was aged 0-1, while the second group was aged 4-5. In order to make sure that children from every kind of environment and background were chosen, the study found volunteers from each area. Some volunteers are in the countryside, while others are in big cities. The volunteers for both groups were chosen from a variety of different social and ethnic (种族) backgrounds.

    The researchers visit the participants' (参与者) homes every two years to gather information. They interview the parents about parenting styles and the child's daily activities. They also take measurements of the children's health and how well the children perform in school. The researchers also collect information such as the income of the child's family, the school the child attends, and the kind of community (社区) in which the child lives. They plan to use the information to improve children's lives.

    Researchers have already begun to publish some interesting results. For instance, after examining information from the second group of children when they were 10-11 years old, researchers found that children who spend a lot of time doing organized activities, such as music lessons or sports, have good control of their emotions and behavior. The study also found that they are able to complete their homework without their parents around. On the other hand, it found that children who watch a lot of television get upset easily and have worse behavior. The Australian government is now using this information to make better educational and health policies for Australian children.

    According to body language expert Robert Phipps, the way people sleep at night actually determines a lot about the type of personality they have. Phipps has identified four sleeping positions that affect personality.

    Phipps found that worriers, those who stress the most, tend to sleep in the fetal (胎儿的) position. He found that this is the most common bedtime position, with nearly 58 percent of people sleeping on their side with knees up and head down. The more we curl up (蜷曲), the more comfort we are seeking, according to Phipps.

    The second most common position is the log. Sleeping with a straight body, with arms at each side, as if they are standing guard at Buckingham Palace, indicates stubbornness, and these people (the 28 percent who sleep this way) often wake up stiffer than when they went to sleep.

    “The longer you sleep like this, the more rigid your thinking is and you can become inflexible, which means you make things harder for yourself,” according to Phipps.

    Yearner (向往) sleepers are next on the list. About 25 percent of people sleep in this style—on their side with arms stretched out in front, looking as if they are either chasing a dream or perhaps being chased themselves. Yearners are typically their own worst critics, always expecting the best results, explained Phipps. These people often wake up refreshed and eager to face the challenges of the day ahead.

    Perhaps the most peculiar (奇怪的) of sleep styles is the freefaller position. This sleep style makes up 17 percent of the population. They sleep face down with arms stretched out. These people, according to Phipps, feel like they have little control over their life. Not only is this the strangest of sleep styles, but also the least comfortable, and people may wake up feeling tired and have no energy.

    Inconclusion, Phipps has only one more thing to add: “A good night's sleep set you up for the following day and our sleeping positions can determine how we feel when we wake.”

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    Ahead of so-called Singles' Day on the 11th of this month，2013, online sales have already begun peaking.

    The leading e-business platform, tmall.com, has promoted(促销) its fifty-percent-off discount(折扣) to attract consumers. They are also trying to attract buyers through social media. Vice President of tmall.com Wang Yulei says more than 20 thousand online stores have joined the Double 11 Day sales. But this number has doubled. The final number of how many products going to be on sale has not been known yet. But so far, many more products planned to be put on shelves with discounts.

    During last year's Singles' Day, tmall.com, together with taobao.com, reached a record of 19.1 billion yuan in sales, which considered a milestone in the e-business history of China.

    Singles' Day was first started by Chinese college students in the 1990s as the opposite of Valentine's Day, a celebration for people without romantic partners. The timing was based on the date: Nov. 11—or double 11—for singles. Single young people would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to show love to someone and end their single status.

    But now, the Singles' Day has been promoted as a kind of grand craze just for the shopping season, thanks to thousands of discounted products being promoted online.

    Taobao.com was the first big e-retail platform which used the double 11 idea to promote sales. Taobao.com reached one million yuan worth of sales on that day in 2009, when they first promoted the Singles' Day idea. In 2010, the sales increased to 936 million yuan. The figure climbed up to 5.3 billion yuan in 2011, putting huge demand on shipping services. The figure doubled in 2012.

    E-commerce is considered to be replacing the traditional retailing industry, but the reality is that both sides are learning from each other.

    When I was only 3 years old, my mother taught me to memorize and recite poems. She was my first teacher of the arts, and my father was the first to appreciate my performance. Even at that young age, I had a simple understanding of how art and culture affect us as human beings and how we can connect to each other through the arts, which shapes my life to this day.

    When I was growing up, my parents supported my interest in taking acting classes and doing community theater. Their faith in me and the professional（专业的）training I was getting from my theater teachers gave me a sense of purpose and a sense of self-confidence. I learned what artistic achievement actually was and what hard work the business was. While many people see the rosy picture to our business, I was really learning what it would require for me to become a professional.

    I became an actress, but arts education isn't just about preparing our young people for a job in the arts. I recently talked to some of the kids attending theater education. Some of them want to work in theater, and some don't. They are learning not only theater skills, but also about the world around them. They learn about discipline（纪律）and hard work and what's required and what they have to do to bring themselves to the work. They learn how they can be of service in the world through the arts. They learn how to work with a team. By studying the arts, these students are open to worlds and lives that they might not have any other way of knowing about or any other way to connect with in their lives the way they are right now.

    These young people are our future. We are passing the torch to them. And I think that's one of the most important reasons why we need to foster（培养）the arts.

    Many high school students consider a college education useless. Therefore, they choose not to go to college. If you're one of them, think again. Here are some reasons why you should go to college and receive a good education there.

    Schools and universities are the first sources of knowledge. We take that knowledge later on to build our careers after graduation. More knowledge will be gained after you start working, but without an education, that job will not be within easy reach. Knowledge leads to knowledge.

    While limited within the walls of the educational institutions, we openly explore other cultures of the world. We come to know that ours is not the only culture. Other cultures have valuable insights to share, enriching our own. Education also makes us want to travel and interact with various cultures, broadening our horizons.

    When there's a downturn (衰退) in the economy, those who attended college will be more likely to find a new job than those who only finished grade school and have a limited skills set. The more education you have, the more chances you will get to improve the quality of your life as you have a better job and earn a higher salary.

    When you're skillful and knowledgeable, you get to “rub knees” with people of similar backgrounds and tastes. It means a good education leads to excellent networking. Good networking can benefit you a lot in your later life.

    A good education makes you a more interesting person. You can talk about ideas and events instead of just other people and what's on sale in stores. An educated person doesn't gossip, having a preference to discuss ideas and listen to what other people have to say.

    Do you suppose Darwin, one of the greatest scientists of all time, really did foolish experiments? Or did he do experiments that were so simple and basic that other people just thought they were foolish?

    Sometimes, people think they already know the answer to a question or the solution to a problem. Sometimes, they really do know an answer or a solution, but without thinking they are important.

    Charles Darwin didn't settle for(满足于) just thinking he knew something. And, he believed all things could be important however simple they seemed to be.

    Suppose you drop sheets of paper that are of exactly the same size and shape. If you drop them at the same time in the same place, they will fall in the same way. Now make one of the sheets of paper into a tight little ball and let it drop along with the other sheets. What happens? You have done an experiment that is so simple that you might think it couldn't be worth anything.

    But this simple experiment is important. It explains part of our present-day understandings of physics, ideas that were worked out long ago by Galileo and Newton. And these understandings set aside some of ancient Greek physics.

    Scientists sometimes stop to look at very simple things and to think very hard about them. Even the simplest idea, which we might think is foolish, can shake the foundations of science.