Many facts suggest that children are overweight (超重的) and the situation is getting worse, according to the doctors. I feel there are a number of reasons for this.

    Some people blame the fact that we are surrounded by shops selling unhealthy, fatty foods, such as fried chicken and ice cream, at low prices. This has turned out a whole generation of grown-ups who seldom cook a meal for themselves. If there were fewer of these restaurants, then probably children would buy less take-away food.

    There is another argument that blames parents for allowing their children to become overweight. I agree with this, because good eating habits begin early in life, long before children start to visit fast food shops. If children are given fried chicken and chocolate rather than healthy food, or are always allowed to choose what they eat, they will go for sweet and salty foods every time, and this will carry on throughout their lives.

    There is a third reason for this situation. Children these days take very little exercise. They do not walk to school. When they get home, they sit in front of the television or their computers and play computer games. Not only is this an unhealthy pastime (消遣), it also gives them time to eat more unhealthy food. What they need is to go outside and play active games or sports.

    The above are the main reasons for this problem, and therefore we have to encourage young people to be more active, as well as steering them away from fast food shops and bad eating habits.

    Are you truly happy? Do you ever know what it means to be happy and what it takes to achieve happiness? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The following are a few tips that I follow to create happiness in my life.

※ Make a plan for attaining goals that you believe will make you happy. Your moods will very likely increase if you are going after something you value.

※ Surround yourself with happy people. It is easy to begin to think negatively when you are surrounded by people who think that way. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} .

※When something goes wrong, try to figure out a solution instead of being absorbed in self pity. Truly happy people don't allow setbacks (挫折) to affect their mood because they know that with a little thought they can turn the circumstances back to their favor.

※ {#blank#}3{#/blank#} These few minutes will give you the opportunity to focus on the positive things in your life and will lead you to continuous happiness.

※ {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Whether you treat yourself to lunch, take a long, relaxing bath or simply spend a few extra minutes on your appearance, you will be subconsciously (下意识地) putting yourself in a better mood.

※Finding the humor in situations can also lead to happiness. Find a way to make light of a situation that would otherwise make you happy.

※Keeping healthy is another way to achieve happiness. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

A．It's also important to take some time each day to do something nice for yourself.

B．What makes one person happy may be very different from what makes someone else happy.

C．On the contrary, if you are around people who are happy, their emotional state will be infectious.

D．Being overweight or not eating nutritious foods can have a negative effect on your mood．

E．These are important questions for anyone who is seeking happiness to ask themselves.

F．Spend a few minutes each day thinking about the things that make you happy.

G．There are some tips in life that lead to happiness.

    When 19-year-old Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation (基金会)，nobody understood what she was talking about. But Sophia knew just how important Make – A –Wish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one her best friends. We were interested in finding out more, so we went along to meet Sophia listen to what she had to say.

    Sophia told us that Make – A –Wish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980. ” It's a charity(慈善机构)that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. Make – A –Wish help children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true, ” Sophia explained.

We asked Sophia how Make – A –Wish had first started. She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris, who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman. Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris's dream come true —-so, with everybody's help, Chris, only seven years old at the time, had been a “policeman” for a day. ” when people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too , and that was the beginning of Make – A –Wish, ” explained Sophia.

    Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A Make-A-Wish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.

    “Educational researchers, political scientists and economists are increasingly interested in the characteristics and skills that parents, teachers and schools should foster in children to increase chances of success later in life,” said lead author Marion Spengler, PhD of the University of Tubingen.” Our research found that specific behaviors in high school have long-lasting effects for one's later life.”

    Spengler and her co-authors analyzed data collected by the American Institutes for Research from 346, 660 U. S. high school students in 1960, along with follow-up data from 81,912 of those students 11 years later and 1,952 of them 50 years later. The initial high school phase measured a variety of student behaviors and attitudes as well as personality characteristics, cognitive abilities, parental socioeconomic status and demographic(人口统计的)factors. The follow-up surveys measured overall educational attainment, income and occupational prestige(声望).

    Being a responsible student, showing an interest in school and having fewer problems with reading and writing were all significantly associated with greater educational attainment and finding a more prestigious job both 11 years and 50 years after high school. These factors were also all associated with higher income at the 50-year mark. Most effects remained even when researchers controlled parental socioeconomic status, cognitive aibility and other broad personality characteristics such as conscientiousness.

    While the findings weren't necessarily surprising, Spengler noted how reliably specific behaviors people showed in school were able to predict later success.

    Further analysis of the data suggested that much of the effect could be explained by overall educational achievements, according to Spengler.

    “Student characteristics and behaviors were rewarded in high school and led to higher educational attainment, which in turn was related to greater occupational prestige and income later in life,” she said. “This study highlights the possibility that certain behaviors at crucial periods could have long-term consequences for a person's life.”

    Nelson Mandela is respected and admired around the world. To South Africa he is a superstar. He is a hero who shocked the world by fighting for peace between races, even though he spent 27 years in the prison of the South Africa's white, racist regime(政权).

    Mandela, who won the nation's first all­race elections after the fall of apartheid (种族隔离) in 1994, retired in 1999. But even now, he is as popular as ever.

    His popularity has inspired an entire national industry. His portrait (肖像) has appeared at many places, including on some goods. His face has appeared on a South African coin, a district of a city was named in his honor and some business leaders hope to build a giant statue that looks like him—the Statue of Freedom in celebration of his birthday. It would stand taller than New York's Statue of Liberty.

    His popularity is similar to that of John F. Kennedy in the US or Winston Churchill in Britain, but few politicians today have achieved his level of admiration, said Tom Lodge, head of the Political Science Department of the University of the Witwatersrand.

    "Sometimes it isn't completely appreciated what a skilled performer Mandela has been throughout his political career. He's a very, very clever man."

    However, he is far from perfect.

    Most articles about his birthday, which appeared in every major South African newspaper on the day, briefly mentioned that Mandela did have shortcomings.

    Then they returned to their following praises.

    "Through the ages, the human race has had its icons(偶像)—men and women who rose above ordinary people to inspire their generations," The Mail and Guardian Weekly said, "In our generation, the god brought us Nelson Mandela."

    They say the average person makes 35, 000 decisions a day. Yet in her new book, How Woman Decide, Therese Huston explores a widespread phenomenon that many women fail to notice. "There's a huge double standard when it comes to how men and women are viewed as decision﹣makers," explains Therese, a psychologist from Seattle University. Therese decided to write the book after looking at her bookshelf: At one end, there were bestselling books about how to be a clever decision﹣maker ﹣ all written by men and featuring interviews with men like athletes. At the other end were books aimed at women on gaining leadership skills and confidence.

    "Once those women are at the table, will their decisions be taken as seriously as men's？" Therese wondered. "Men are respected as decision﹣makers more than women, especially in the workplace, largely because there's this cultural belief that women are unable to make smart choices at work. "

    So, Therese set out to pick apart the stereotypes（固有印象）to see what scientific research had found. "Scientific research shows that men and women struggle with decision-making equally. The only disadvantage I found was that during the teenage years-teenage girls are more indecisive than teenage boys. Otherwise, there's little difference between the genders（性别）.

    However, there are some differences. "Women are more collaborative（协作的）, "says Therese. "A female boss is more likely to ask the opinions of those around her when making a choice. Women ask for input, which helps make better decisions. However, this is often seen as a weakness rather than a strength.

    Therese also found that during times of stress, men and women make different choices, and the outcomes are often better when women are involved.

    Study after study backs this view up. Neuroscientists Mara Mather and Nicole Lighthall from the University of Southern California studied the way men and women make decisions and found that in times of stress, they react very differently.

    During their study, which involved playing a virtual gambling（赌博）game, they found that when the females became stressed, they made smart decisions ﹣ quitting while they were ahead or taking safe bets. But when the men became stressed, they did the opposite, risking everything for a slim chance of a big win.