The pupils of Grangetown High have been busy getting to know their newest and tallest classmate — a 7-meter-tall giraffe outside their school.

    The giraffe is a huge sculpture (雕像) made by a local artist. The school's headmaster noticed the sculpture in the artist's garden as he drove past one day, and thought it would be perfect for his school. “I knew everyone would love it,” he said, “because our basketball team is known as the Grangetown Giraffes, and they wear giraffes on their shirts. So I asked them to write a letter to the artist, asking how much it would cost to buy the giraffe. He was very kind and got it ready to deliver (递送) in six weeks — all for nothing! It was expected to arrive one Sunday morning, so that the pupils would see it when they got to school on Monday — at that time they had no idea that we were getting it.”

    The artist, Tom Bennett, was a university professor (教授) of chemistry before he left that job in 2006 and only took up metalwork a couple of years ago. “I've always drawn pictures,” he said. “I can even remember doing it on my first day at school — I drew a horse. I wanted it to be the best horse picture ever, but I don't think I succeeded.” Tom's first metalwork was a bicycle for two that he and his wife could go cycling on together. “It was the most uncomfortable bike ever created,” he said, “so I gave up making bicycles and went into sculpture instead.”

    Meanwhile the pupils at Grangetown High are very happy with their new classmate. “We're going to hold a competition to give it a proper name,” said one girl. “Everyone likes the expression on its face, so perhaps that will give us some ideas.”

    Tom was one of the brightest boys in the year,with supportive parents.But when he was 15 he suddenly stopped trying.He left school at 16 with only two scores for secondary school subjects.One of the reasons that made it cool for him not to care was the power of his peer（同龄人）group.

    The lack of right male role models in many of their lives—at home and particularly in the school environment—means that their peers are the only people they have to judge themselves against.

    They don't see men succeeding in society so it doesn't occur to them that they could make something of themselves.Without male teachers as a role model,the effect of peer actions and street culture is all-powerful.Boys want to be part of a club.However,schools can provide the environment for change,and provide the right role models for them.Teachers need to be trained to stop that but not in front of a child's peers.You have to do it one to one, because that is when you see the real child.

    It's pointless sending a child home if he or she has done wrong.They see it as a welcome day off to watch television or play computer games.Instead,schools should have a special unit where a child who has done wrong goes for the day and gets advice about his problems—somewhere he can work away from his peers and go home after the other children.

    Some parents can't resist the strong desire to help their children play hooky (逃学) for a trip. Five-year-old Erica and her siblings Alex, 9, and Kate, 12, missed school in Denver on Aug. 21, 2017. Their father Mr. Reed took them on a camping trip to Halsey to see the solar eclipse (日食). Kate had told her teachers she'd be absent and Mr. Reed let Erica's and Alex's teachers know, too. But he didn't ask for permission.

    Mr. Reed has loved astronomy since seeing Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on his sixth birthday. He says, “I want my own kids to have a similar kind of wonderment and hope about future discoveries.”

    Parents often dream of traveling with their children to teach them about science, geography and culture. Many teachers support them, as the Reed children's teachers did. Other teachers were angry about the extra work.

    Teacher Amanda says she feels frustrated when parents take students out of school for family trips. If she sends homework, she finds it's often returned incomplete or incorrect, because the absent student didn't hear her explanation in class. Some students suffer anxiety as they struggle to catch up. Research shows that students who are absent often, for any reason—excused or unexcused—performed more poorly in school.

    Garrick agreed to miss five days of school for the Antarctic trip last year as a senior high school student, however. Managing the homework was a challenge, but it helped him gain time management skills. “And the trip is worth the effort,” he says, “sparking his interest in international relations. You can't really put a price on changing your world view,” Garrick says. “That's what travel has done for me. It has changed how I think about things.”

    China's cancer researcher Zhu Chen, together with two French researchers Anne Dejean and Hugues de Thé, received Sjoberg Prize 2018 in Stockholm Concert Hall, Sweden on Friday.

    “We used wisdom from both Chinese and Western medicine and offered a cure to one of the most deadly cancers,” Chen told Xinhua, “I feel that Chinese medicine has potential to contribute more to human health. It struggles for benefiting all mankind. It's a language of peace, and of development and progress.” Chen recalled the cooperation with the two French researchers for over 30 years.

    This year's Sjoberg winners have developed a new and targeted treatment for a specific form of blood cancer called acute promyelocytic leukaemia (急性早幼粒白血病). It was once one of the deadliest forms of cancer, but it is now possible to cure nine out of ten patients who receive the new treatment. The winners have made this revolutionary development possible by methodically mapping the molecular mechanisms responsible for the disease.

    The Prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is funded (资助)by the Sjoberg Foundation. The foundation, with a donation of 2.5 billion US dollars, was founded in 2016, and serves to promote scientific research that focuses on cancer, health and the environment.

    The Prize is an annual international prize in cancer research awarded to individual researchers or research groups. The prize amounts to one million US dollars, of which 100,000US dollars is the prize sum and 900,000US dollars is funding for future research.

    Why do Americans struggle with watching their weight, while the French, who consume rich food, continue to stay thin? Now a research by Cornell University suggests how life style and decisions about eating may affect weight. Researchers concluded that the French tend to stop eating when they feel full. However, Americans tend to stop when their plate is empty or their favorite TV show is over.

    According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, a health expert, the French see eating as an important part of their life style. They enjoy food and therefore spend a fairly long time at the table, while Americans see eating as something to be squeezed between the other daily activities. Mercola believes Americans lose the ability to sense when they are actually full. So they keep eating long after the French would have stopped. In addition, he points out that Americans drive to huge supermarkets to buy canned and frozen foods for the week. The French, instead, tend to shop daily, walking to small shops and farmers' markets where they have a choice of fresh fruits, vegetables, and eggs as well as high-quality meats for each meal.

    After a visit to the United States, Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat, decided to write about the importance of knowing when to stop rather than suggesting how to avoid food. Today she continues to stay slim and rarely goes to the gym.

    In spite of all these differences, evidence shows that recent life style changes may be affecting French eating habits. Today the rate of obesity — or extreme overweight — among adults is only 6%. However, as American fast food gains acceptance and the young reject older traditions, the obesity rate among French children has reached 17% — and is growing.

    Sandi Patty has been a name synonymous (同义的) with Gospel music because of her singing ability since she released her first album in 1979.

    Patty's newest book. The Voice, takes a deep dive into parts of her life she's kept private for years. Surprisingly, The Voice is not primarily concerned with Patty's singing voice. Patty was always a talented singer. However, she struggled to find her inner voice and speak up for herself. "I was a shy kid. Words were hard for me," Patty said.

    One of the reasons why Patty found it so difficult to use her voice was a traumatic childhood experience. At age six, she was abused by a friend, an experience she opened up for the first time in the book.

    She is sharing the story of her experience now, hoping it will help other people feel less alone. "Feeling alone keeps everybody silent about the tough times in our lives, so we think we're the only ones," Patty said. She wrote in The Voice that she felt like it was her job to make everyone feel better.

    Friendships were essential for helping Patty find the courage to speak up. They reminded her that she didn't need to make others feel better because the people she loved didn't doubt she cared for them.

    Friends and family were crucial for helping Patty confront another struggle she faced—shame. She felt unpleasant for insecurities about her weight and her divorce. "I've heard it explain that guilt tells us we have done something wrong and shame says we are wrong," Patty said.

    "I want people to know that their stories and their voices matter," Patty said. "We have to figure out a way to take our pain away and put it where it needs to be, without letting it guide our lives. Pain is a part of our story. It describes us, but it doesn't need to define us."