The 2016 Rio Olympic Games have come to an end. Without doubt, many Chinese sports fans sat in front of the TV and cheered our athletes on, hoping that they would get as many gold medals as possible.

    But sometimes our desire for gold medals can result in the sadness of failure. When Liu Xiang, China's track hero, pulled out of the Beijing Olympics due to injury, he greatly disappointed many Chinese sports fans.

    But things are different now. In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, we saw a healthier and more lenient Chinese attitude toward the sports people, fully in line with the Olympic spirit.

    China didn't win any gold medals on the first day. But, instead of criticizing the athletes who failed to finish on top of the podium(领奖台), the majority of fans were happy with their efforts. “Reacting in the right way when an athlete misses out on gold shows the maturity of a person, and is also a challenge for a country to face up to in the process of development,” commented CRI.

    Swimmer Fu Yuanhui won fans' hearts, even if she only won a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke final. Her fans on her Sina Weibo micro blog have increased 100,000 to over 6 million. Many sports fans appreciated her straightforward character and attitude toward competition.

    “The warm support from Internet users shows that public attitude toward competitive sport and the Olympics have gotten to a higher level,” said an article in the People's Daily.

    The plan had been made to create a beautiful nature park with a large man-made lake on the outer parts of the city of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province. However, thanks to a terrible trick played by nature, what the officials have ended up with, is a natural sandy mess!

The government wanted to create a beautiful place where people of this busy industrial city could come to relax. But things did not quite turn out that way—shortly after digging up thousands of tons of sand, the underground water dried up. As a result, the dry sand has changed into a Sahara-like desert. While official reports show that the sand is piled up to 10 meters high, some people say that it is ten times more or about a 100-feet high in certain areas.

    If that is not bad enough, the sand hills that now spread across an area the size of four football fields, have influenced the environment. What's worse is that on windy days, the dry sand moves into the city center, making it almost impossible to drive and forcing people to wear face masks and protective eyewear to prevent the sand from getting into their eyes, nose, and mouth.

    In an act of trying to keep the sand and provide the illusion(幻想) of green fields, the officials have even tried covering it with a green plastic netting. However, that has not done much to improve the terrible situation!

    As you can imagine, many of Zhengzhou's residents are upset by the disaster. They think that desert wasteland that looks nothing like the green landscape they were promised, has resulted in polluting their pleasant city environment. Some think it is even stopping businessmen from coming to the city.

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Prague VS Vienna: Which One to Visit?

    Prague and Vienna are both wonderful and exciting cities with modern cosmopolitanism and ancient history and culture. But if you've got a European vacation planned and are trying to decide which one of these amazing cities to visit, it can be daunting(困难)for sure.

    Sightseeing

    While both cities are rich in sightseeing adventures, Prague is definitely more beautiful as a city. You can walk along the Danube River for breathtaking views, sit in one of the many cafes that dot the urban landscape, and breathe in the amazing architecture  both old and modern that makes up this Central European metropolis(都市).Vienna is a hotbed of history, home to such great sites such as The Hofburg, Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens, and St. Stephen' S Cathedral.

    Shopping

    You most likely didn't travel all the way to Europe just to go shopping. But, if you happen to be a shopaholic, Vienna is definitely better. But be warned: fine goods you buy in Vienna will sometimes be three times more expensive than what they are in the United States or Canada.

    Cuisine

    When it comes to great dining, both cities are equally fascinating. Austrians are known for their love of sweets and pastries(糕点), which is reflected in the many bakeries, cafés, and restaurants scattered around Vienna. Some restaurants in either city offer local cuisine, though you're more likely to be eating a combination of Western European or even Americanized food. Bear in mind that Prague(being that it is in Central Europe)will be far less pricey than Vienna.

    Culture

    What do you hope to see on your trip? Palaces? Medieval Cathedrals? The Opera? How about museums? If you do happen to visit both cities, you'll find that culture equally as enriching. However, Vienna has more world—class museums which display the rich history of the area.

    When you are sitting in class, have you ever drawn pictures in the margins (页边的空白处) of your notebooks? If so, you are doodling. Many people think of doodling as a distraction (分心) from more important things. But it might be just the opposite.

    One study shows that doodling may help you remember things you hear 29% more. Besides, doodling can help you think creatively. Walking away from a problem to draw might actually help you solve it. When you come back, you'll have a fresh perspective and figure out an answer more quickly.

    An author named Sunni Brown wrote a book on doodling. She argues that doodling is a tool that can help people think. In fact, she runs a business that helps companies improve organization and planning through doodling. Brown believes doodling is helpful because it includes many ways of learning. You learn in four ways: seeing, hearing, reading or writing, and through movement. The more ways you use, the better you learn. And when you doodle while listening to a lecture, you use all four.

    You might think that being good at drawing is important for doodling. But if the point of doodling is to help you think, then it doesn't matter what the picture looks like. Even if you're not an artist, doodling can help you. So next time you need help focusing, pick up a pen and doodle away!

    Gregory Kloehn digs through dustbins every day, but not for the reason that most people would think. He isn't homeless. In fact he is trying to help the homeless.

    Gregory began his life as a sculptor. But he often felt that his sculpture (雕塑) which just stood in rich people's houses for years, lacked a meaningful purpose. So in 2015 he decided to put his artistic energies into creating homes to sell—not ordinary homes but small structures built entirely from recycled materials.

    The thought of creating homes for the homeless didn't come to him until the year 2017, when a homeless couple asked him for a tarp (防水布). Instead of a tarp, Gregory offered them something better: a small home with a water tank, a kitchen and a tap for waste. They were so grateful that Gregory decided to focus his efforts on helping house the homeless population in his city. And soon his "Homeless Homes Project" was started.

    Before starting a new home, Gregory goes hunting for materials by digging through dustbins. Everything he finds is usable—refrigerator doors become house doors; washing machine doors often serve as windows, and the tops of cars become strong roofs. He put wheels at the bottom for users to move their homes around easily. Each home takes two to three days to make.

    So far Gregory has donated dozens of homes to the city's most needy. While his small low- cost mobile homes are not the final solution to the problem of homelessness, they are really practical and do provide a warm and safe place for the homeless to stay in. They are simply a way for one man to do something nice for those in need of some help.

    Gregory has written a book titled Homeless Architecture, where he explains techniques to build those homes and he is now working on weekend workshops. "A lot of people who hear about what I'm doing want to get involved," he said. "Maybe we can meet someplace and put a couple of homes together."

What makes preschoolers eat their vegetables? Raise their hand? Wait their turn? "Because I say so" is a comment that parents often repeat. But when it comes to getting kids to behave, a recent study by Duke University researchers suggests that the voice of adult authority isn't the only thing that matters. Around age three, fitting in with the group starts to count big too.

To understand what cause preschoolers to fall    in    line, the researchers conducted a test in a lab, where they invited 3.5-year-olds to help set up for a pretend tea party. Each of the 104 children was given a blue sticker (贴纸) to wear at the start of the study, and told that the people with that color sticker were part of the same team. Next the researchers watched as the children decided among different kinds of teas, snacks, cups and plates for the tea party, first on their own and then after listening to the choices of other team members.

Sometimes the other team members considered their choice as a matter of personal preference ("For my tea party today, I feel like using this snack.") Other times they presented it as a need shared by the whole group. ("For our tea parties today, we always use this kind of snack.")

After listening to the choices of others, most of the time the children stuck with their first choice. In other words, children who had said they felt like using, say, the cookie finally picked the cookie no matter what the other person said they were using. But 23% of the time the children changed their choice to accept someone else's. And when they did, they were more likely to go along with the other person when a choice was presented as a group need rather than just a personal preference. The finding held up even when the other person was another child, not an adult.