Sports can help you keep fit and get in touch with nature. However, whether you are on the mountains, in the waves, or on the grassland, you should be aware that your sport of choice might have great influence on the environment.

    Some sports are resource-hungry. Golf, as you may know, eats up not only large areas of countryside, but also tons of water. Besides, all sorts of chemicals and huge amounts of energy are used to keep its courses(球场) in good condition. This causes major environmental effects. For example, in the dry regions of Portugal and Spain, golf is often held responsible for serious water shortage in some local areas.

    There are many environment-friendly sports. Power walking is one of them that you could take up today. You don't need any special equipment except a good pair of shoes; and you don't have to worry about resources and your purse. Simple and free, power walking can also keep you fit. If you walk regularly, it will be good for your heart and bones. Experts say that 20 minutes of power walking daily can make you feel less anxious, sleep well and have better weight control.

    Whatever sport you take up, you can make it greener by using environment-friendly equipment and buying products made from recycled materials. But the final goal should be "green gyms". They are better replacements(代替物) for traditional health clubs and modern sports centers. Members of green gyms play sports outdoors, in the countryside or other open spaces. There is no special requirement for you to start your membership. And best of all, it's free.

    When asked about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, an absolute delight, which seems to get rarer as we get older.

    For kids, happiness has a magical quality: Their delight at winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved (毫不掩饰的).

    In the teenage years, the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it's conditional on such things as excitement, love and popularity. I can still recall the excitement of being invited to dance with the most attractive boy at the school party.

    In adulthood the things that bring deep joy－love, marriage, birth－also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. For adults, happiness is complicated (复杂的).

    My definition of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”. The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It's easy to overlook(忽视) the pleasure we get from the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, and even good health.

    I experienced my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First I was overjoyed when I shut the last lunchbox and had the house to myself. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing, which I love. When the kids and my husband came home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.

    Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mix of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I don't think that my grandmother, who raised 14 children，had much of either. She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what satisfied her most.

    We, however, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we've got to have. We're so self-conscious about our “right” to it that it's making us miserable. So we chase it and equal it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren't necessarily happier.

    Happiness isn't about what happens to us－it's about how we see what happens to us. It's the skillful way of finding a positive for every negative. It's not wishing for what we don't have, but enjoying what we do possess.

     Stephen Hawking is perhaps the world's most famous living physicist. To the public, he's best known as an author of bestsellers such as The Universe in a Nutshell and A Brief History of Time, which have brought an appreciation of theoretical (理论上的)  physics to millions. He is regarded as having one of the brightest minds on the planet. But outstanding astrophysicist (天体物理学家) Stephen Hawking has admitted that he did not learn to read until he was eight years old.

    In a public lecture at the Royal Albert Hall, Professor Hawking also admitted that he was not active in studying while at Oxford University, where he studied physics, and that only the news that he might die young from motor neurone (运动神经元) disease made him focus on his work.

    Professor Hawking said, “My sister Philippa could read by the age of 4 but then she was brighter than me.” He said that he was common at school and was never further than halfway up his class. “My classwork was very untidy, and my handwriting was very bad in the teachers' eyes,” he said. “But my classmates gave me the name Einstein, so probably they saw signs of something better.”

    But he said that it was when doctors told him that he probably only had a few years to live at the age of 21 that he began to focus on his work, which resulted in some of his early achievements. He said, “When you are faced with the possibility of an early death, it makes you realize that life is worth living and there are lots of things you want to do.” Hawking serves as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where he continues to contribute to both high-level physics and the popular understanding of our universe.

    Guide Dogs of America, A History is the book that we all have been waiting for. It's a book that tells how and where the guide dog movement really started, with information never before revealed--until now. After reading this 200-page, picture-filled work, you will know about every aspect of Guide Dogs of America(GDA) from its inception to how it has become one of the top guide dog schools in the country.

    Joseph W. Jones, Sr., was refused a guide dog because of his age--he was fifty seven--but he would not accept defeat. He researched the guide dog movement and with the help of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, established his own school, one that would provide guide dogs free of charge to visually impaired people regardless of their age.

    The school graduated 18 guide dog teams the first year with students staying at, GDA's first trainer, Lambert Kreimer's house on South Virginia Avenue in Burbank, and Jones manning the office on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood.

    In 1952, Jones addressed the quadrennial(四周年纪念的) IAM Grand Lodge Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. “I sincerely prayed to God for two things,” Jones said. “After my wife passed away and left me with a ten-year-old boy, I prayed that I would be spared long enough to see this organization well established and that my ten-year-old boy would become a man. Both prayers have been answered. The organization is well established, it is in the hands of the IAM and my boy is a man, and I am proud to say that today he is a member of the IAM.”

    Jones' pray for a successful organization had been answered now, ten years after he was rejected for being too old, his dream of having a guide dog for himself, hundreds of others had already been given the gift of sight because of his drive and determination. That school, now known as Guide Dogs of America, has provided guide dogs to thousands of people free of charge.

    Some houses are designed to be smart. Others have smart designs. An example of the second type of house won an Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects.

    Located on the shore of Sullivan's Island off the coast of South Carolina, the award-winning cube-shaped beach house was built to replace one smashed to pieces by Hurricane（飓风）Hugo 10 years ago. Before Hugo, many new houses built along South Carolina's shoreline were poorly constructed, and enforcement of building rules wasn't strict, according to architect Ray Huff, who created the cleverly-designed beach house. Soon after Hugo, all new shoreline houses are required to meet stricter, better-enforced rules. The new beach house on Sullivan's Island should be able to withstand a Level 3 hurricane with peak winds of 179 to 209 kilometers per hour.

    At first sight, the house on Sullivan's Island looks anything but hurricane-proof. Its redwood shell makes it resemble “a large party lantern (灯笼)” at night, according to one observer. But looks can be misleading. The house's wooden frame is reinforced with long steel rods to give it extra strength.

    To further protect the house from hurricane damage. Huff raised it 2.7 meters off the ground on timber pilings－long, slim wood pieces anchored deep in the sand. Pilings might appear insecure, but they are strong enough to support the weight of the house. They also raise the house above storm waves. The pilings allow the waves to run under the house instead of running into it. 'These waves come ashore at terrible speeds and cause most of the damage done to beach-front buildings,” said Huff.

    Huff designed the timber pilings to be partially hidden by the house's ground-to-roof shell. “The shell masks the pilings so that the house doesn't look like it's standing with its pant legs (裤腿) pulled up,” said Huff. In the event of a storm, the shell should break apart and let the waves rush under the house, the architect explained.

    Italian Joseph Caspar Mezzofanti was said to have spoken more than 38 languages fluently at the time of his death in 1849, a skill that would have been useful in today's globalized economy. Unfortunately, when it comes to the high school Spanish lesson in the decades, most people nowadays have remembered that there is nothing more complex than "Donde esta la biblioteca". So we set out to uncover what's involved in learning a foreign language and which methods work best.

    Some advertisements say that some language learners believe they're just a 15-minute audio tape away from becoming UN interpreters. But experts say these get-fluent-fast programs are a complete sham." Actually, there is hardly a shortcut that can do that," says Dekeyser, a professor of second language acquisition at the University of Maryland." The only way to learn a language is to make quite a bit of effort on a daily basis."

    Many experts agree that the ideal learning method for language learners really depends on the individual." Find the method that works for you and stick with it," says Simcott, a polyglot who has professionally worked in over 14 languages at once for the British Foreign Service." If audio works for you, do audio. If you like taking classes, do classes. But remember to keep practicing every day."

    However, not all people are created equal. Some may have talent for language learning, but it doesn't mean they can passively await fluency. "Practice is an effective learning method," says Davidson." The more time that you spend during the day speaking your second language, the better at it you're going to be."

    Learning from multiple people is also a good way, especially when you are attempting to cultivate a native accent. "When you are exposed to a lot of people, you get a much better sense of what the sound of a word is supposed to be," says Davidson. "You avoid exposing yourself to what could be features in one individual's speech patterns."