He is quiet and shy. He likes to hide(隐藏) his eyes behind his hair. He doesn't smile very often. However, if you talk to him about music, he'll have a lot to say.

    This is Jay Chou, the 24-year-old Taiwanese pop king(天王). His fans are so excited because he will sing songs in Beijing on September 12. Those songs are from his new album (唱片), “Ye Huimei”, and the album was released (发行) in July and was named after his mother.

    Chou grew up just with his mother. He did not talk much and did badly in many school subjects.

    His mother noticed the boy's special interest in music and sent him to learn piano when he was only three years old. He loved it and kept on practicing.

    Chou is not very handsome. He does not speak clearly when he sings or talks. But the singer has huge crowds of fans. “He is really good at music. It makes him attractive(有魅力的) to me,” said Liu Jiajun, a Junior 2 student in No.101 Middle School in Beijing.

    “He is true to himself. He never follows others,” said Zhang Yujie, a Junior 1 girl at Huaibei Middle School in Sihong, Jiangsu Province.

    Global English Center

    General English in all four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

    3-month (700 yuan), 6-month (1,200 yuan) and one-year (2,000 yuan) courses.

    Choice of morning or evening classes, 3 hours per day, Mon.--Fri.

    Experienced college English teachers.

    Close to the city center and bus stops

    Add: 105 Zhongshan Road Tel: 6760000

    Modern Language School

    Special courses in English for business, travel, banking, hotel management and office skills.

    Small classes (2~16 students) on Saturday and Sunday from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m..

    English teachers from Canada and the USA.

    3-month (1,000 yuan), 6-month (1,800 yuan).

    Add: 675 Park Road Tel: 6777777

    The 21st Century English Training Center

    We offer morning or afternoon classes. Both of which last three months and a half at a cost of 800 yuan. Entrance exams: June 1 and December 1.

    We also have a six-week TOEFL preparation class during winter and summer holidays

    Only 15-minute walk from city center.

    Call 6016666 for more information.

    The International House of English

    3-or 6-month English course for students of all levels at very low cost: 60 yuan for 12 hours per week; convenient class hours: 9:00~12:00 a.m. and 2:00~5:00 p.m.

    4~month evening classes for developing speaking skills (same cost as day classes)

    Well- trained foreign teachers

    Free sightseeing tours and social activities

    Very close to the Central Park.

    Call 6886666 for further information.

    If you wear glasses, chances are you are smarter. Research published in the famous British journal Nawre Conurunications has found — people who displayed higher levels of intelligence were almost 30 percent more likely to wear glasses.

    The scientist, studied the genes of thousands of people between the ages of 16 and 102. The study showed intelligence can be connected to physical characteristics. One characteristic was eyesight. In out of 10 people who were intelligent, there was a higher chance they need glasses. Scientists also said being smarter has other benefits. It is connected to better health.

    It is important to remember these are connections which are not proven causes. Scientists call this correlation. Just because something is connoted to something else does not mean one of those caused the other. And it's worth noting that what constitutes (构成)intelligence is subjective and can be difficult, if not impossible, to measure.

    Forget genes thought. Plenty of proof shows wearing glasses makes people think you are more intelligent, even if you do no, need glasses. A number of studies have found people who wear glasses are seen as smarter, hard-working and honest. Many lawyers this idea to help win their cases. Lawyer Harvey Slovis explained this. "Classes soften their appearance," he said. Sometimes there has been a huge amount of proof showing that people he was defending broke the law. He had them wear glasses and they weren't found guilty.

    Glasses are also used to show someone is intelligent in movies and people who wear glares have begun to shift. People who do not need glasses sometimes wear them for fashion only. They want to look worldly or cool. But not everyone is impressed by this idea, thought. GQ magazine said people who wear glasses for fashion are trying too hard to look smart and hip(时髦的). However, that hasn't stopped many celebrities (名人) from happily wearing glasses even if they do not need them. Justen Bieber is just one high - profile fen of fashion glasses.

    A scientist working at her lab bench and a six-old baby playing with his food might seem to have little in common. After all, the scientist is engaged in serious research to uncover the very nature of the physical world, and the baby is, well, just playing…right? Perhaps, but some developmental psychologists have argued that this "play" is more like a scientific investigation than one might think.

Take a closer look at the baby playing at the table. Each time the bowl of rice is pushed over the table edge, it falls in the ground—and, in the process, it belongs out important evidence about how physical objects interact; bowls of rice do not flood in mid-sit, but require support to remain stable. It is likely that babies are not born knowing the basic fact of the universe; nor are they ever clearly taught it. Instead, babies may form an understanding of object support through repeated experiments and then build on this knowledge to learn even more about how objects interact. Though their ranges and tools differ, the baby's investigation and the scientist's experiment appear to share the same aim(to learn about the natural world ), overall approach (gathering direct evidence from the world), and logic (are my observations what I expected?).

Some psychologists suggest that young children learn about more than just the physical world in this way—that they investigate human psychology and the rules of language using similar means. For example, it may only be through repeated experiments, evidence gathering, and finally overturning a theory, that a baby will come to accept the idea that other people can have different views and desires from what he or she has, for example, unlike the child, Mommy actually doesn't like Dove chocolate.

Viewing childhood development as a scientific investigation throws on how children learn, but it also offers an inspiring look at science and scientists. Why do young children and scientists seem to be so much alike? Psychologists have suggested that science as an effort —the desire to explore, explain, and understand our world—is simply something that comes from our babyhood. Perhaps evolution provided human babies with curiosity and a natural drive to explain their worlds, and adult scientists simply make use of the same drive that served them as children. The same cognitive systems that make young children feel good about feel good about figuring something out may have been adopted by adult scientists. As some psychologists put it, "It is not that children are little scientists but that scientists are big children."

    While it's books that make a library, being in lovely surroundings may provide inspiration and help you work a little bit harder. Here are some of the coolest libraries of the world.

    Library of Birmingham – Birmingham, U.K.

    The new Library of Birmingham is said to be not only Britain's biggest public library, but also the largest in Europe. Designed by Dutch architects, this replacement for the Birmingham Central Library was opened in 2013 and has a wealth of resources within its walls, including adults and kids' libraries, music collections, a Shakespeare Memorial Room, and even a gym room. Gardens crown the roof, while the changing seasons bring variations in the shadows and reflections inside.

    National Library of France – Paris, France

    The National Library of France, which now contains an astonishing collection of 30 million, dates back to the 14th century and this royal library was set up at the Louvre by King Charles V. The Library was moved to Rue de Richelieu site in 1868, with major design work carried out by French architects Henri Labrouste and, following his death, Jean-Louis Pascal. Here, the reading rooms are elegance itself. There are more than just books to be found.

    State Library of New South Wales – Sydney, Australia

    The public State Library of New South Wales holds the honor of being the oldest institution of its kind in Australia. It was originally set up as the Australian Subscription Library in 1826, but it wasn't until 1942 that its permanent home was ready. Designed by Sydney architect Walter Liberty Vernon and completed in 1910, the magnificent sandstone Mitchell Wing is one of the architectural highlights.

Seattle Central Library – Seattle, Washington, USA

    Seattle Central Library's distinctive design ensures it stands out. Architect Rem Koolhaas is one of the names attached to its design. Architects sought to envelop the 11-story building with "a layer of transparency", using a skin of glass and metal. The finished article houses about 1.45 million books and other things, as well as more than 400 computers available for public use. The building, which opened in 2004, was included on the American Institute of Architects' list of America's 150 favorite buildings in 2007.

When I decided to quit my job as a wedding photographer, I was in my late twenties, fresh from my divorce from Bob who had left me empty and confused. I decided to leave the US and travel. I had no savings, plus more than $5,000 in debt. What I did have were two sponsored tasks as a travel photographer—and with that along, I thought, it would be easy.

My first experience was a road trip from Toronto to Las Vegas, paid for by a car delivery service. Other trips followed and then I started a travel blog (博客). It was intended to be my calling card for assignment travel photography. Yet even with my blog and past experience, email after email I sent to publications, trying to get work, went unanswered. When they did get in touch, editors told me that I had no chance of making a career with travel photography. While I struggled to get on the path that I wanted, and as I expanded my blog to help get me there, I found myself wearing the hat of a full­time blogger.

Luckily, I got in at the right time. It was 2010, and the travel industry was just starting to turn its attention to bloggers. As I never could have predicted, my blogging—not my photography—did take me around the world successfully. At first, I thought it was for personal reasons, but I realized later that it was for free marketing for my blogging.

Within two years, I was being asked to speak at travel blogging conferences, which helped me to raise a network of friends around the world. Even more meaningful, however, was when I saw that my travels were also helping other people. My blog and social media followers saw that I chased my dreams and told me over and over again how they needed that kind of example, which was absent in their lives elsewhere.