Adding math talk to story time at home is a winning factor forchildren's math achievement, according to a new research from the University ofChicago. The study from psychologists Sian Beilock and Susan Levine shows amarked increase in math achievement among children whose families used Bedtime Math, an iPad app that delivers engaging math story problems for parents and children to solve together.

    Even children who used the app with their parents as little as once a week saw gains in math achievement by the end of the school year. The app's effect was especially strong for children whose parents tend to beanxious or uncomfortable with math.

    Previous research from this group has demonstrated the importance of adults' attitudes about math for children's math success. For example, a recent study found that math-anxious parents who help their children with math homework actually weaken their children's math achievement.

    The new findings demonstrate that structured, positive interactions around math at home can cut the link between parents' uneasiness about math and children's low math achievement.

  “Many Americans experience high levels of anxiety when they haveto solve a math problem, with a majority of adults feeling at least some worries about math,” said Beilock, professor in Psychology andauthor of Choke, a book about stress and performance. “These math-anxiousparents are probably less likely to talk about math at home, which affects how competent their children are in math. Bedtime Math encourages a dialogue between parents and kids about math, and offers a way to engage in high-quality math interactions in a low-effort, high-impact way.”

    Study participants included 587 first-grade students and their parents. Families were given an iPad installed with a version of the Bedtime Math app, with which parents and their children read stories and answer questions involving math, including topics like counting, shapes and problem-solving. A control group received a reading app that had similar stories without the math content and questions related to reading comprehension instead. Children's math achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Parents completed a questionnaire about their nervousness with math.

    The more times parents and children in the math group used the app, the higher children's achievement on a math assessment at the end of the school year. Indeed, children who frequently used the math app with their parents outperformed similar studentsin the reading group by almost three months in math achievement at year's end.

    For Pei Shiyou, this year's Lunar New year's Eve was among the few he ha spent with his extended family.

“It's one of the benefits of starting a business in my hometown,” said Pei, who was born and raised in Hefei, Anhui province, and will soon turn 60. His wish for the Year of the Dog is to see smart glass— the product his team has been developing since 2016—go into production.

    Starting a business with a creative research team and receiving government support have given him a strong sense of pride, a feeling he says he often lacked during his 25 years working in the United States, he said.

    He was among Chinas first students to travel to the US for postgraduate stud. After that, he landed his first job at Amoco Corp and later moved to California eventually becoming head of product research and development at KLA-Tencor, a global capital equipment company in Silicon Valley. Yet Pei said he still felt unfulfilled and unsatisfied.

    “It seemed there was an invisible ceiling for me when I pursued my career in the US. I felt like it was unlikely for me to achieve any higher sense of achievement or recognition.”

    He returned to China in 2017, and nine years later established a smart-glass company in Hefei with two other US-trained engineers.

    The company's product is suitable for low-temperature, flexible smart-film manufacturing and is able to self-adjust its level of transparency based on temperature changes and sunlight conditions, according to Pei, who said it has the potential to reduce the need for air conditioning and make curtains abandoned.

    Between 2007 and 2016, Pei lived and worked in several Chinese cities. “What attracts me to Hefei is that it is easy to gather tech talents here due to the city's rapid development in recent years, and also because it has several universities,” he said. Support from the local government has been one of the best attractions that convinced Pei to locate his company in the eastern Chinese city.

    In January last year, Hefei was approved as the site of a national-level science center, the second of its kind after an earlier one was built in Shanghai. The center, now under construction, will focus on areas including information technology, energy and health.

    Once there was an old man, who was completely broke (破产的), living in a tiny house. He had to live on a $105-a-month social security (保障) check.

    At 65 years of age, he decided things had to change. So he thought about what he had to offer. His friends thought highly of his chicken recipe (烹饪法). He decided that this was his best shot at making a change.

    He left Kentucky and traveled to different states to try to sell his recipe. He told restaurant owners that he had a mouth-watering chicken recipe. He offered the recipe to them for free, just asking for a small percentage (比例) on the items sold. Sounds like a good deal, right?

    Unfortunately, not to most of the restaurants. He heard "NO" over 1, 000 times, but he didn't give up. He believed his chicken recipe was something special. He got rejected (拒绝) 1,009 times before he heard his first yes.

    With that one success, the old man changed the way Americans eat chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken, popularly known as KFC, was born. The old man was Colonel Harland Sanders, who was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. His name and image (肖像) are still symbols of KFC now.

    According to the Guinness World Records, a Sitka Spruce (锡特卡云杉) growing on New Zealand's southernmost island is the loneliest tree on Earth. Not only is it the only tree on Campbell Island, but the nearest other tree can be found over 200 km away on the Auckland Islands.

    Bluff, Campbell Island is one of the harshest places in the world. With strong winds blowing almost all year round and less than 600 hours of sunshine, it's not exactly a good place to live in, which is probably why, except for occasional visits by research scientists, it, has remained deserted for over half a century.

    It is believed that the Sitka Spruce on Campbell Island was planted by Lord Ranfurly, a former governor of New Zealand, sometime between 1901 and 1907. It's not clear why he decided to plant there, but according to some sources he said that the island was not productive, and took the first step to cover it with forestry. His idea was never going to work because of the harsh climate of the area, but somehow the Sitka Spruce survived.

    Apart from its reputation as the loneliest tree on Earth, the Sitka Spruce of Campbell Island has a series of other particularities. First of all its shape makes it look more like a giant cauliflower than a tree. This is believed to have been caused by repeatedly cutting down its trunk every year, for decades. Another interesting thing about the world's loneliest tree is that, though it is over 100 years old, it has never produced cones (球果).

    Who knew a lonely tree growing 200 km away from its nearest cousins could be so interesting?

    Do you know the term "tweenager"? It's a slang word being used in the UK to describe children 10-13 years old. They are between junior and the teenage years. Why are they suddenly referred to in this way?

    Tweenagers now have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than they've ever had before. More and more companies are creating products and services for tweenagers. You can get everything from branded lunchboxes and mobile phone covers, to monthly fan magazines and clothing-it's all about sales.

    Most children in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did a decade ago. It is because parents are having fewer children on average than in the past. In addition, the divorce rate in the UK is continually rising and parents spend less time with their children than they used to. So, many parents try to compensate(补偿) by buying presents for them.

    And do tweenagers have more freedom? Well, UK children today are very familiar with media and computer. Many have a television, if not a computer, in their bedrooms. They have access to much more information about the world.

    They may have experienced a lot in life as well, since 24% of UK kids live in single-parent families. People now say that "Kids are getting older younger". With such sophistication (世故) at such a young age, they are much more fashion conscious and concerned about their image.

    In a world of TV programs that promise overnight success and fame at a young age, some people think it's extremely important to look fashionable. Surely none of the above is a good thing, is it? Can it really be healthy for us to encourage kids to be like adults at such a young age? Are we stealing childhoods in return for profit?

    The UK government is certainly concerned, and for that reason has strict laws preventing companies from marketing their products and services at children. So, is there a happy ending to this story?

    Companies have just worked out that the older tweenage audience is now looking for something darker and more rebellious. As a result, films such as Twilight are being produced for this older tweenage audience.