The uninvolved dad, turning up his nose at diapering(换尿布) and too busy to bathe, dress and play with his kids, is mostly a myth(神话) , a big government survey suggests. Most American fathers say they are heavily involved in hands-on parenting, the researchers found.

    The results are encouraging and important " because others have found the more involved dads  are, the better the outcomes for their children. " said researcher Jo Jones of the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control Prevention. She co-authored the report released Friday.

    "Times have changed," said Robert Loftus, 34, of Yonkers, NY. He quit a six-figure sales job a year ago to care for his two young children while his wife works full time. "We are trying to rethink our priorities (优先考虑的事) and family seem to be NO.1 priority while in the past maybe people were more focused on career. "

    The study involved nearly 4.000 fathers who were interviewed in person between 2009 and 2013.

◇ Key findings among fathers living with children younger than 5 :

*9 in 10 bathed, diapered, helped them use the toilet or get dressed at least several times weekly .

* Even higher numbers played with them and ate meals with them that often

* Almost 2 0ut of 3 read to them at least several times weekly.

◇Among dads living with kids aged 5-18.

* More than 9 0ut of 10 ate meals with them at least several times weekly and talked with them about what happened during the kids' day that often.

* Almost 2 0ut of 3 helped with homework several times weekly.

* About half took their kids to or from activities that often.

    Dr. David Hill, a Wilmington, N. C. pediatrician (儿科医生) said the survey reflects what he's seen among his patients' fathers. Increasingly, fathers rather than mothers take their kids to the doctor. Some "are anxious about changing a diaper, " he said.

    Census(调查) numbers show that there were almost 190,000 stay-at-home dads nationwide last year versus 93,000 in 2010. Loftus, the New York stay-at-home dad, said, "I feel fortunate to be able to be such a hands-on father.  I'm doing the most significant occupation in the world. "

    US student Vanessa Tahay stands out from the other teenagers in her school. Her skin is dark, her accent is thick, and if you ask her, she will tell you these are the things she is proudest of. Tahay is a poet, and at 18 she was considered among the best in Los Angeles.

    When she is on the stage, audiences often go silent. They also laugh, shout and cry. But this doesn't come easily for someone who comes from a village that sits at the base of a huge mountain range in Central America. When she first appeared at school, she was teased by others for being short and different. She never spoke, so they called her “mouse”.

    “How do I defend myself?” Tahay thought. “I don't know how.”

    “Keep going,” her mother would tell her. “At some point, you'll learn.”

    She spent hours after school and on weekends watching the same DVDs: English without Barriers.

    Tahay's elder brother, Elmer, persuaded her to go to the after-school poetry club. In the last six years, her English teacher Laurie Kurnick has turned Cleveland Charter High School's poetry program into one of the most respected in the city. Her team draws from the likes of D.H. Laurence, Pat Mora and Kendrick Lamar to create poems about their own lives. The poems focus on many things —some funny, some painful.

    The first time Tahay read the group's poems, chills went up her spine (脊柱). “I wish I could write like that,” she thought. “I want to say something.”

She wrote her first poem about her first year in America. She called it Invisible. The day her turn came to recite in front of the team, she broke down crying. She cried for 15 minutes. “I had so much held in,” Tahay said. “I couldn't even finish it.”

    But she kept at it despite her less-than-perfect grammar, spelling and diction (措辞). Still, she wouldn't tell her friends about her poetry because she worried they would make fun of her.

    But with time, her poems changed her. “They gave me pride,” Tahay said. “They told me that I'm worth something.”

    “She had this innocence,” Kurnick said. “This willingness to be genuine and show you things you don't ever see.”

    Rachel Carson (1907-1964) is a writer, biologist, and environmentalist. As a trained scientist and a great writer, Rachel Carson did much to shape people's attitudes toward the natural world. Born in Springdale, Pennsylvania, she shared from childhood her mother's love of books and feeling for the beauty and mystery of nature. At Pennsylvania College for Women, she first majored in English, but later learned biology. The imagination of a creative writer with a scientific lobe for fact made her books successful. After graduating with honors, she won a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University, where she earned an A.M. in zoology.

    When her father died suddenly in 1935, she took a job as an aquatic(水生的) biologist. An article for the Atlantic Monthly led to her first book, Under the Sea Wind (1941). During World War II she wrote a series of booklets on wildlife refuges(收容所). Meanwhile she had been working on a book that would make her known throughout the world. Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us became an immediate best-seller, won many honors and literary awards, and was translated into thirty-two languages. After earning enough money, she could devote full time to writing. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea (1955), was also a success.

    Rachel Carson's last book, Silent Spring (1962), became one of the most famous books of the last half of the twentieth century. Ever since the end of World War II, when the insecticide (杀虫剂) DDT came on the market, she had been worried about the dangers in the uncontrolled use of the poisons: their effect on wildlife, on human life, and on the environment. She decided to speak out. The result was a book showing how modern society has been poisoning the earth on a worldwide scale. "A few thousand words from her," wrote a newspaper editor, "and the world took a new direction."

    In today's society, almost half of all marriages in America end in divorce, which means many children have divorced parents, and 1 am by no means a rare case. There are plenty of other people understanding the difficulty of having separated parents and living in two households. Despite this, people who haven't personally experienced divorce really have no idea what it's like.

    My parents have handled divorce and joint custody(监护) well, at least better than expected. Occasionally my parents put up the curtain to block my brother and I from the reality and I will get a glimpse of the not-so-bright-and-sunny reality, the fact that my parents simply don't like each other, let along get along. They try to make sure my brother and I don't overhear the argument and do their best to keep my brother and I out of their issues.

    Last Mother's Day I woke up at my dad's house with a text message from my mom saying, "Call me when u can." I rolled out of bed and dialed her number. On the other end of the phone I could hear my mom's trembling voice. "Your dad isn't letting me have you until 7 tonight." I knew Mother's Day was important to her and me. I began to get angry with my dad, but I told myself that getting mad and fueling my mom's anger towards my dad wouldn't help. Later my father told me that he had planned to spend time with my grandma and step-mom for Mother's Day, which I understood and accepted but I also understood why my mom wouldn't accept it.

    While having divorced parents is difficult, I have learned a lot about how to deal with conflict from an early age and I've been blessed with an extremely large family, which is an amazing network of support.

    Elephants have impressed us for centuries. They are big, clever, and sociable. But what if someone told you that they may also hold the key to fighting cancer (癌症)?

    People have been wondering why elephants do not develop cancer, even though they have lifespans (寿命) that are similar to humans, living for around 50 to 70 years.

    Now scientists believe they know why. A team at the University of Chicago, US has found that elephants carry a large number of genes that stop tumors (肿瘤) from developing. To be precise, they found 20 copies of an anti­tumor gene called TP53 in elephants. Most other species, including humans, only carry one copy.

    According to the research, which was recently published on the online science network BioRxiv, the extra copies of the gene improved the animal's sensitivity to DNA damage. This lets the cells quickly kill themselves when damaged before they can go on to form deadly tumors.

    “An increased risk of developing cancer has stood in the way of the evolution of large body sizes in many animals，” study author Dr. Vincent Lynch told The Guardian. If every living cell (细胞) has the same chance of becoming cancerous, large creatures with long lifespans like whales and elephants should have a greater risk of developing cancer than humans and mice do. But across species, the risk of cancer does not show a connection with body mass.

    This_phenomenon was found by Oxford University scientist Richard Peto in the 1970s and later named "Peto's paradox". Evolutionary (进化的) biologists believe it results from larger animals using protection that many smaller animals do not. In the elephant's case, the making of TP53 is nature's way of keeping this species alive.

    The study also found that when the same genes were brought to life in mice, they had the same cancer resistance (抵抗) as elephants. This means researchers could use the discovery to develop new treatments that can help stop cancers from spreading or even developing in the first place.

    "Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer, " said Joshua Schiffman, an oncologist at the School of Medicine, University of Utah, US.

    “It's up to us to learn how different animals tackle (处理) the problem so we can use those strategies to prevent cancer in people.”

Brazil sports are out of control! Brazil may be one of the most sports­crazy countries in the world. Whether you are into watching or playing, Brazil sports have a lot to offer everyone.

Football in Brazil is more than a sport. It's a way of life. Football is popular in Brazil for several reasons. One reason is that it is fast paced and fun to watch. This is the reason why the World Cup Soccer is the most watched sports event in the world aside from the Summer Olympics. Also, you don't need anything to play soccer except for something to kick, and a big area in which to play. Few will argue if you say that Brazil leads the world in football. No nation has won as many world cups as Brazil.

Volleyball is a close second in Brazil sports. In the world of international volleyball, Brazil wins many championships of all kinds, including indoor and beach volleyball. Brazil has nearly 5,000 miles of coastline. If you go to a beach in Brazil, there will always be a volleyball game going on somewhere, and usually two or three.

Footvolley was created in Brazil in the 1960s. It is a mix of football and volleyball, where the players must use their feet and head to get the ball over the net and into the opponents' court, and is also played in sand. It is one of the most popular beach sports in Brazil.

Swimming, tennis, rugby, boxing, judo, sailing, golf, surfing, and handball are all greatly popular in Brazil.