Some 30,000 years ago, artists who lived in caves in Europe painted pictures of the animals around them: panthers, hyenas, rhinos, cave lions, mammoths and other creatures which have been extinct for a long time. The paintings were highly realistic. Some even showed movement.

The artwork, more than a thousand drawings, is considered the oldest group of human cave drawings which have ever been discovered. They were preserved because the cave was sealed—closed off--for more or less 23,000 years.

    Fast forward to December 18, 1994, a group of French cave scientists were exploring caves in southern France. Jean Marie Chauvet, who led the group then, describes the process of discovering the cave paintings. “At that time I was in the front, Eliette just walked behind me, Christian behind. Eliette said she saw two marks with red ochre and she said, ‘They came here.' And at this very moment everything began. The drawings and everything linked to the parietal art(壁画). That is where it is tarted.”

    Cave art expert Jean Clotttes reviewed the paintings. “I was amazed at the number of paintings there were and paintings of their quality and particularly in front of the panel of the horses.”

    Scientific analysis confirmed the prehistoric date of the artwork. Studies showed the drawings were created tens of thousands of years ago, before human history was written. The United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO lists the cave as a World Heritage Site. They say that the drawings form a remarkable expression of early human artistic creation of grand excellence and variety.

    The Chauvet Cave has been named after the explorer who first entered it. However, its environment and drawings are too fragile to be visited by human beings. So the cave is closed, and only people there for scientific purposes can go inside and see the artwork.

    However, French authorities asked experts to create an exact copy of the cave, called Pont d'Arc Cavern. The copy, which we also called replica, cost more than 59 million dollars to build. It opened at the end of April in France.

    Pascal Terrasse is the president of the cavern. He says everyone will be able to experience the thrill of looking at drawings made by the first humans in Europe. He says the place is magic because it is done so well. Authorities say they think as many as 400,000 people will be allowed to visit Pont d'Arc Cavern every year.

    It is a popular Internet thing to focus on the upside of being in your 30s, and it is nice to know how to do basic modern-human-being things like paying your taxes and cooking a simple meal. But it can be a less-encouraging story at work: People in their late 20s to early 40s tend to report lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of emotional exhaustion than other age groups, according to new research.

    There's an obvious reason: These tend to be the ages when people have young children at home, and the researchers did find that this group reported feeling increasingly crunched for time. But adding to that pressure, coworker support also tends to decline at this age. Some researchers interpret the findings:

    Support from co-workers probably decreases in midlife as peers compete for limited resources（promotion bottlenecks are often encountered during this career stage. Also, whereas younger co-workers are often hungry to make up new social networks, and older workers seek identity-affirming work experiences in their remaining tenure（任期）, mid lifers find it demanding enough just to maintain existing social networks. Meanwhile, time pressure likely increases as colleagues are all trying to enrich their own knowledge and experience.

    But the good news is that after about a decade of struggle, things start to pick back up again. Occupational psychologists say that happiness at work recovers when people reach their 40s, and that people in their 50s are more satisfied with their jobs than any other age group. Hang in there, 30-somethings-soon you will be older, but at least work will meet less frustration（挫折）!

    As my fortieth birthday approaches, inevitable as a new hair-do, I realize how many women friends I've had over the years: Most have come and gone with the changes of life, just like the latest shoe fashions waltz in and out of my closet.

    Some of my friends, like some of my shoes, were silly mistakes. They never did fit properly, and they always felt slightly “off”, no matter how hard I tried to fit my feet into them. Others were my absolute favorite for a while, but they wore out or wore off. All style and no substance; the quality just wasn't there.

    Then there are my true friends—the ones who, like a pair of fine shoes, never go out of style or out of favor, whose appeal and value just increase with wear and time. These are friends who stay in touch and stand by me—as if they and I have never gone off to a new state, or a new job. Physical distance does not separate us; time does not change the fundamental fact of our friendship; the wear and tear of life does not stop us. The sole still support us; the colors and lines still please us; the uppers, still strong but gown son, gently bent around feet. Our connection is securely fastened, unaffected by the whirlwind of changes we've each been through, even when life carries us in different directions.

    If the comparison fits...

    Deborah is the evening shoe, elegant and lovely. She appreciates the finer things, choose only the best, and still looks polished long after the rest of us have drooped. She is a study in elegance and knows the difference between bone, and winter white. From this splendid treasure, I've come recognize my own appreciation for the finer things in life—and to the realization that I deserved them.

    Jane is pair essential, timeless pumps that I wear often and would be lost without. With this classic, my basic needs and comfort level are assured—leaving me time and energy for fun. I can move gracefully from day to night, from work to play, from jokes to discussion. My step is light; laughter comes easily and I am ready for adventure.

    Georgiana is my pair of standard white Keds—familiar, comfortable and good for all seasons. I've had them since long before. They are part of my childhood. They take me home, and I am a kid again diving into the ocean on a hot summer day. They have been up the hill and through the mud with me. They keep me moving forward, even when putting one foot in front of the other feels like the hardest thing I've ever done. I know I can slip them tomorrow and after. I am indebted to these lovely worn sneakers.

    In the shoe rack of life, these are the friends I cherish. They are the base upon which I stand. They accompany me on my chosen path, regardless of where it leads or how bumpy or how humpy or winding it gets.

    Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together defines social units. For example, in some societies, the nuclear family is the unit that regularly eats together. The anthropologist Mary Douglas has pointed out that, for the English, the kind of meal and the kind of food that is served relate to the kinds of social links between people who are eating together. She distinguishes between regular meals, Sunday meals when relatives may come, and cocktail parties for relatives and friends. The food served symbolizes the occasion and reflects who is present. For example, only snacks are served at a cocktail party. It would be inappropriate to serve a steak or hamburgers. The distinctions among cocktails, regular meals, and special dinners mark the social boundaries between those guests who are invited for drinks, those who are invited to dinner, and those who come to a family meal. In this example, the type of food symbolizes the category of guest and with whom it is eaten.

    In some New Guinea societies, the nuclear family is not the unit that eats together. The men take their meals in a men's house, separately from their wives and children. Women prepare and eat their food in their own houses and take the husband's portion to the men's house. The women eat with their children in their own houses. This pattern is also widespread among Near Eastern societies.

    Eating is a metaphor that is sometimes used to signify marriage. In many New Guinea societies, like that of the Lesu on the island of New Ireland in the Pacific and that of the Trobriand Islanders, marriage is symbolized by the couple's eating together for the first time. Eating symbolizes their new status as a married couple. In U.S. society, it is just the reverse. A couple may go out to dinner on a first date.

    Other cultural rules have to do with taboos against eating certain things. In some societies, members of a family group, are not allowed to eat the animal or bird that is their totemic ancestor. Since they believe themselves to be descended from that ancestor, it would be like eating that ancestor or eating themselves.

    There is also an association between food prohibitions and rank, which is found in its most extreme form in the caste system of India. A caste system consists of ranked groups, each with a different economic specialization. In India, there is an association between caste and the idea of pollution. Members of highly ranked groups can be polluted by coming into contact with the bodily secretions, particularly saliva(唾液),of individuals of lower-ranked castes. Because of the fear of pollution, Brahmans and other high-ranked individuals will not share food with, not eat from the same plate as, not even accept food from an individual or from a low-ranking class.

    There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have ever taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority (优先) it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities (复杂性) of spelling. That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content (内容) rather than spelling.

    If spelling becomes the only focus of his teacher's interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to "play safe". He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language.

    I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a piece of writing about a personal experience. "This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling mistakes and your writing is terrible." It may have been a sharp comment on the pupil's spelling in writing, but it was also a sad sign that the teacher had failed to read the composition, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child's deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the mistakes, but if his priorities had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the spelling would have given the pupil more encouragement to seek improvement.

An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away

    Dr. Tim Johnson discusses evidence of a daily dose of aspirin's benefits. That's not the saying, but doctors have agreed, for about a generation, that an aspirin a day is good for you. It may reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes by 20 percent or more.

    The US Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group convened by the Department of Health and Human Services, has published guidelines that it says should end the confusion.

    The key points:

    ⒈Men should start a daily aspirin at age 45, mainly to protect against heart attacks.

    ⒉Women should start at 55, mainly to protect against stroke.

    ⒊For both sexes, a baby aspirin-typically 81 milligram a day-will do the job. There is no evidence that a large dose makes a difference.

    ⒋And both sexes should stop by age 80, unless their doctors say otherwise. As you get older, there's a greater risk of bleeding in the brain or the digestive system, a risk that is small but can be deadly in some cases.

    If people start taking aspirin as the guidelines, doctors say their risk of heart attacks will drop by about 20 percent. "People may ask themselves 'Am I at risk for a heart attack or a stroke?'" said Dr. Randal Thomas, director of cardiovas-cular health at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota "If you are age 45 and male, if you're above age 55 and female, the answer is most likely yes, and you will most likely benefit from taking a small dose of aspirin a day.