Recently actor Adrien Grenier has launched(发动)a campaign to reduce the amount of single-use plastic usage in order to protect and save marine (海洋的)wildlife and the environment. Plastic drinking straws are among many single-use plastic products contributing to the great loss of marine life, but they're a great place to start because they're something that are used by millions of Americans who are unaware that they're so damaging.

    Americans use more than 500 million straws daily, which is enough to fill 127 school buses each day and they can't be recycled. That means plastic straws might end up in oceans, where fish and other marine wildlife mistake the small bits for food and swallow them. After seeing a photo of a beached whale with a belly full of plastic, Grenier felt the inspiration to launch the Lonely Whale Foundation, hoping to inspire and educate others on the challenges faced by marine wildlife.

    Along with stopping the use of straws, Grenier hopes to educate consumer on the dangers of other single-use plastic items such as grocery bags and water bottles. While many Americans use these plastic products in their daily life, there are many alternatives that can help protect the environment such as straws made from stainless steel, glass, and even bamboo instead of plastic.

    In addition to quitting your straw habit, you can further help the environment by taking the I Choose to Reuse commitment, and stop your use of single-use coffee cups, checkout bags and bottled water. Instead, take advantage of any number of alternative reusable products.

    Need another reason to stop drinking from straws? Grenier also says using straws can cause wrinkles!

    I've been researching my family tree since 1998 ，and I've long been curious about DNA as a way to learn more about my roots. The technology has come a long way in the last decade, and it's become more affordable too. Finally, I went ahead and ordered a Y-DNA test.

    The results came in my email inbox from the DNA lab! When I logged in to see the results, there are 29 living people today with whom I share a common direct male ancestor in about the last 1,000 years. They live in Ireland, England, Scotland, South Africa, the United States and probably elsewhere.

    I had two close matches, and the rest were more distant. They both live in Ireland! What makes the connection  to these two men so interesting is that most Irish genealogical (族谱的)records were burned in fires in Dublin and don't exist today. Without them, it's hard to trace Irish roots any further back than the 1800s. I've written emails to both of them and hope to hear back!

    I did some more research on my Y-DNA and found my direct male ancestors were Celtics. They seem to have lived in Western Europe at the time of Ancient Rome. Migration patterns show that my DNA group likely originated in Western Asia, living there 20, 000 and 30, 000 years ago. There are relatives with similar DNA going thousands of years back in what is now Iran, India, Syria, Israel and Turkey.

    I was so excited by these results that I decided to trace my motherly line too. My DNA is already at the lab, so now I just have to wait another month or so, and I'm sure to find more interesting things.

    Animal Farm by George Orwell

    Animal Farm is probably one of the most popular school reads in the world. George Orwell wrote it as a political allegory(讽喻)and has since then inspired the minds of not only adult revolutionaries but also the younger ones who start feeling the spark of being right and free for all of the humanity in their hearts.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

    This is a wise, funny, and heartbreaking memory of Marjane Satrapi's years growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, and how she dealt with life while experiencing the ruinous effects of the war with Iraq. The mistakes she felt she made opened her eyes and shaped her into becoming the influential individual she is today.

    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Regarded as a masterpiece of literature—-it is no wonder it won the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 16 years old. The novel is famous for its warmth and humor, despite telling a story of innocent Tom Robinson being accused of raping(强暴)a white woman because he was black.

    The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

    A story showing the absolute courage of a young boy, who was never afraid to speak his mind in the face of injustice and would always defend the helpless. A boy shows us the importance of believing in ourselves and others. Harry Potter reminds us that the true power to defeat any enemy is not found in others, but found within each of us.

    If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven't you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?

    According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.

    The study also found the effect is greater when the younger people learn a second language. A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of "early bilinguals" who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.

    Scans showed that grey matter density (密度) in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference.

    "Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language," said the scientists.

    It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.

    Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills. "Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible (灵活的)," he said. "You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas."

    The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of two and thirty-four. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. "Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world," explained the scientists.

    Don't put it off, do it now!

    Why do we spend so much time not doing the work we should do, or putting off small jobs that have piled up to create a big problem? Procrastinating, as putting things off like this is called, is in our character we have naturally since birth; we avoid dull or difficult jobs until it's too late to do anything else.

    "We often put things off although we know it will make life more stressful," says Dr. Steel, an authority on the science of motivation. "If these tasks were fun, we'd just do them now. We put off what is difficult or unpleasant, such as the paperwork that needs doing before leaving the office or cleaning the bits of your home that people can't see. But the fact is, the less people procrastinate, the more money they have, the better relationships they have, and the healthier they are." This is obvious when you look at the couples who don't argue about whether anyone has cleaned the kitchen, and the people who simply go for a run instead of endlessly rescheduling it in their heads.

    Of course, there are the rest of us, who feel the small jobs piling up around us daily. "We've evolved to respond to the moment, and not to set our sights too far in an uncertain world," Dr. Steel adds. "We are not set up to appreciate long-term rewards, whether it's the benefit of a four-year degree, doing exercise or dieting. We usually feel the cost now and the reward comes much later." According to Dr. Steel, we have two decision-making systems. They are the limbic, which is responsible for the short term, and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with the future. We bounce between long-term goals and short-term temptations, so we need goals that will translate our plans for the limbic system.

    Let's take the example of students' writing essays. They should set themselves targets and word counts per day. These are thus turned from seemingly endless tasks into something concrete with measured progress. Dr. Steel recommends such techniques, or "pre-commitments", adding that leaving you a month before the "deadline" makes it more likely a task will be completed. The benefit is that you'll avoid the embarrassment of not following up on something people are expecting you to do—telling everyone you are going to take up jogging makes you more likely to do so.

    Overcoming procrastination finally comes down to planning, which, if you're not careful, becomes procrastination in itself. But it is worth making sure you have everything in place. "Successful people don't pretend they don't procrastinate," Dr. Steel says. "People who pretend they have willpower are less successful." Instead, plan for procrastination: make your work environment a temple of productivity by cutting out what stops you paying your attention, so you can really focus on moving forward.

    Why does night fall but never break and day break but never fall？Why are people who ride motorcycles called bikers and people who ride bikes called cyclists？In what other language do people drive in a parkway and park in a driveway？In what other language do they call the third hand on the clock the second hand？

    Let's face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy， while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

    We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes(悖论), we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths in them.

    And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham？If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese - so one moose, two meese?

    How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next？

    English was invented by people, not computers, and it shows the creativity of human beings. That's why, when stars are out, they are visible; but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.