Christian Eijkman, a Dutch doctor, left the Netherlands for the island of Java. Many people on the island had a disease called beri-beri. He was going there to try and find a cure.

    At first, Eijkman thought some kind of germ (细菌) caused beri-beri. He raised some chickens. He didn't eat them, but made experiments on them. The local people were quite surprised at that. One day he noticed that his chickens became sick when they were fed the food most Javanese ate — refined white rice (精炼米). When he fed them with unrefined rice, also known as brown rice, they recovered. Eijkman realized that he had made an important discovery — that some things in food could prevent disease. These things were named vitamins. The Javanese were not getting enough vitamins because they had actually removed the part that contains vitamins. Later, other diseases were also found to be caused by the lack of vitamins in a person's food.

    Today many people know the importance of vitamins and they make sure they have enough vitamins from the food they eat. If they don't, they can also take vitamin pills.

                                                                       Balloon Volleyball

    It's a rainy, dark day and there's nothing to do. You don't feel like sitting quietly but you are not allowed to make a lot of noise. What can you do for fun? Try balloon volleyball.

    Items needed for this game: a balloon (or two, in case the first one bursts), some ropes, two chairs, at least two people and a room.

    Set up the room. If you're in the living room, or a family room, be sure to move all the furniture out of the way. Get two chairs and set them in the middle, outer edges(边缘)of the room. They should be at the same place where you put a volleyball net. Turn them so that the seat is facing the wall, not the “playing” space. Tie the rope onto the top of the chair, and run the rest of the rope to the other chair. Now tie it on this chair at the same place as the first chair. You can decide the “out-of-bounds”(出界) lines, if you want to have them, but they really are not necessary in this game.

    Blow up the balloon. Choose sides. You will play this game on your knees (at least until they start hurting and you want to stand). Each side must get the balloon over the rope in three hits. If it does not get over, the other side gets the balloon and a point. This game becomes more difficult because you must play without talking.

    You can also add other rules to make it more difficult; for example, you can only use your left hand or only your right hand to hit the balloon.

    Continue playing until one side gets 10 points. You can make your game longer or shorter by changing the number of points it takes to win.

    This is a fun way to get your energy out, have fun, and not make too much noise on a rainy, stay-in-the-house day.

    Getting late for a meeting, I need to run,” he said, as he put his coat over the shoulder and rushed out of the house. As he drove away, she came running down the stairs two at a time. “Wait, wait,” she shouted, but he had already left.

    “He forgot to give me a goodbye kiss,” she said in a low, sad voice that shook under the weight of the hurt. She called him and said, “You left without giving me a kiss.” “I am sorry, sweetheart,” he said, his voice shaking. “It is okay,” she said, trying to be all grown-up as she cut the call.

    She ate her breakfast quickly, put on her shoes, picked up her school bag and started to walk out of the door. Her shoulders were slumped(耷拉) and her eyes were filled with tears. As she climbed down the steps, a car came to a stop outside the house. He got out of the car. She ran to him.

    “I am sorry I forgot,” he said, as he picked her up and hugged her. She said nothing. Her jaw ached from smiling.

    Fifteen years later, no one would remember he was late for a meeting, but a little girl would never ever forget that her father drove all the way back home just to kiss her goodbye!

    What is more important, work or family? Some parents always put work before everything. But some put family first. Remember, the company will run the same without you and your colleagues(同事) may forget you soon after you leave. But you are everything to your children.

    If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunity, you really have to see it.

    Men and women wearing old-fashioned, tattered(褴褛的)clothing dance in the street of towns and villages across the country during  the holiday periods. Women wear long，frilly (有 褶皱边的）skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.

    Some groups carry heavy black sticks which they bash (击打）against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air whilst they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when it's over, the dancers and spectators (观众）can sing some traditional folk songs over a pint of beer. The festivities (欢庆）will often continue long into the night, by which point most people are too drunk to think about performing again.

    Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis (危机).As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually, if nothing is done to change this trend, the tradition will die out within the next few decades.

    If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Putting it bluntly (直截了当地)，it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to be doing. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going clubbing (逛夜店)？ Or playing sport? Or doing anything else?

    However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and vibrant (有活力的)part of England's history and culture. It's important to look after some traditions and customs especially when it's something as harmless and happy as morris dancing. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.

    Insects(昆虫) are a very healthy food. They have almost as much protein(蛋白质) as meat from a pig or cow and are low in fat. Eating insects is also very good for the environment since they need less land and water than larger animals.

    Marcel Dicke, who studies insects, explained in a talk how insects also produce more meat from the food they eat. For example, imagine a farmer feeds a cow 10 pounds of food. Those 10 pounds of food produce about 1 pound of meat for people to eat. However, imagine the farmer gives a certain number of insects 10 pounds of food. Those 10 pounds of food produce 9 pounds of meat for people to eat!

    Eating more insects can also help people in poor areas. Many people can raise and sell insects, which can provide jobs and food.

    But insects will not replace animal meat very quickly. First, people in some countries would have to change how they think about eating insects. Many people in North America and Europe eat a lot of meat like beef and pork. But they do not traditionally eat insects. In fact, for many people in the west, eating insects sounds crazy. They believe insects are dirty and dangerous. Insects make them feel uncomfortable.

    Some people are trying to deal with this problem. For example, David George Gordon wrote a book named “The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook”, which tries to show people that insects can be delicious. Other insect experts travel around telling people about the benefits of eating insects. But they will still have a lot work to do.

    Being able to land safely is a critically important skill for all flying animals. Whereas terrestrial animals face no particular challenge when they need to stop running or crawling, flying animals move at much higher speeds, and they must be careful about how they land. Hitting the ground, or even water, at full flight speed would be quite dangerous. Before touching down, they must decrease their speed in order to land safely. Both bats and birds have mastered the skill of landing, but these two types of flyers go about it quite differently.

    In the past it was believed that, in terms of flying mechanics, there was little difference between bats and birds. This belief was based only on assumption, however, because for years nobody had actually studied in detail how bats move their wings. In recent years, though, researchers have discovered a number of interesting facts about bat flight. Bats are built differently from birds, and their wings incorporate(结合) both their front and hind limbs (后肢). This makes their limbs working together more difficult for bats and, as a result, they are not very good at flying over longer distances. However, a bat can quickly change its direction of flight or completely reverse it, something a bird cannot easily do.

    Another interesting characteristic of bat flight is the way in which bats land—upside down! Unlike birds, which touch down on the ground or on tree branches, bats can be observed flying around and then suddenly hanging upside down from an object overhead. How do they do it? A group of researchers recently used video cameras to film bats landing on nets suspended from the ceiling of their laboratory and studied the recordings in slow motion. They painted spots on the bats' wings to see in detail what happens to the wings in flight and during touchdown. It turns out that the bats flew in a straight line up to the net and then quickly flipped over and attached themselves to it upside down. One disadvantage to this landing routine is that the bats often slam into their landing spot with some force, which probably causes pain. However, not all bats hit their landing spots with the same speed and force; these will vary depending on the area where a bat species makes its home. For example, a cave bat, which regularly rests on a hard stone ceiling, is more careful about its landing preparation than a bat more accustomed to landing in leafy treetops.