To develop one's taste in English, the most effective way is to read English books extensively. However, one may be at a loss to choose the suitable books, especially as a beginner. I would like to share some of my experience.

    My first English novel was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, recommended (推荐) by many English teachers and professors as an ideal book for English learners. But I had great difficulty in understanding the novel, let alone enjoying it. It's not the vocabulary that troubled me, but rather the way Austen constructs sentences, and her way of thinking, which seemed too remote to me at that time. My fading enthusiasm was much recovered after reading Hemingway's novel Farewell to Arms. I particularly liked his brief and lively style. So my first suggestion is, as a beginner, you'd better choose contemporary (现代的) novels instead of classical ones.

    However, reading novels is not the only way to improve your English. English essays (散文) can at once inform you, entertain you, and improve your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell's work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance and the unique sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy (哲理) within the reach of ordinary people. Here comes my second suggestion—essays are indispensable.

    Never follow other's opinions blindly, however famous or influential the person might be. As a saying goes, one man's meat is another man's poison. With that in mind, we are sure to find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English.

    Maria Sibylla Merian

    Today, children can happily explain how a caterpillar (毛毛虫) turns into a butterfly, thanks to Maria Sibylla Merian. Born in Germany in 1647, Merian was fond of insects, and she began collecting, studying and drawing them when she was as young as 13. It was through her study of caterpillar that she discovered the truth about their life cycles, and she went on to publish two volumes of naturalist research about the life cycles of insects.

    Ada Lovelace

    Ada Lovelace, born in 1815, was the daughter of famous British poet Lord Byron, but she wasn't a poet herself. She was the world's first computer programmer. Lovelace wrote some suggestions as to how to program “computing machines” to calculate a specific sequence of numbers. Besides this, she predicted them to do everything that could possibly be represented by a series of numbers, from producing images to composing music.

    Hedy Lamarr

    She was born in 1914 in Austria and moved to the United States in the hope of going after a film career. In 1942, in the midst of her Hollywood success, she and composer George Antheil received a patent for a device that could change radio signal frequencies. The purpose of the technology was to keep military enemies—especially, the Nazis --from decoding (解码) messages. But it did more than that--it paved the way for much of the wireless technology we use today.

    Where to Drink

    Cafe San Bernardo

    Join table-tennis and pool-playing port. Cafe San Bernardo has been running since 1912.The Villa Crespo dive bar also offers up table football for￡4 an hour. Service is efficient; with last orders at 5 am. The daily happy hour between 6 pm and 9 pm includes 60 minutes playing your game of choice, plus a half-bottle of red wine and a corn pie, for￡9.

    Avenue Corrientes 5436, Villa Crespo, 54 11 4805 3956, cafesanbernardo.com

M Salumeria & Enoteca

    Trading only in wine with a story, sommelier(侍酒师)Mariana Torta chooses new ways on a daily basis, and keeps a list of around 250 labels. There's no wine menu—simply take your bottle from the shelf.

    Open 11:00 am-11:30 pm, El Salvador 5777, Palermo Hollywood, 54 11 4778 9016, on Facebook

    Negro Cueva de Cafe

    Coffee has found its place in Buenos Aires. While LAB: Tostadores, The Shelter and Coffee Town are famous new places, Negro Cueva de Cafe is one of the best downtown. It serves Ecuadorian, Colombian and Brazilian beans, and its attracting cakes include croissant.

    Open 9:30 am-7:00 pm, Suipacha 637, Microcentro, 54 11 4322 3000, negrocafe .com

    La Calle

    Head to the Niceto Vega address and you'll be faced with a pizza. Order the special wine, special candy, and prepare to sing until dawn with a high-energy young crowd.

    Open 8:00 pm-2:00 am, Niceto Vega 4942, Palermo Soho, 54 11 3914 1972, on Facebook

    My mother has a dining table which sits right in the middle of her dining room. It was once buried beneath piles of papers—magazines, articles, copies of schedules for vacations she took back in the 1990s, and baby pictures of grand children who are now paying off their college loans.

    My brother Ross and I recently flew to New York to visit my mother. "Mom, why don't we go through all that stuff?" Ross said. "No. Don't touch it!" My mother said. The next afternoon, when she couldn't find a bill she needed, Ross suggested it might be put somewhere in the dining room and that we find it together. "Besides," he said, "all those papers are clearly stressing you out." However, my mother just said, "Are you boys hungry?" And then she seemed to have lost herself in deep thought.

    On our last night there, my mother walked up to us with a small pile of unopened mails, which she had collected at the western edge of the dining table, and said, "Help me go through these." "Sure," I said. When we had succeeded in separating wheat from chaff (谷壳), I asked, "Would you want to deal with another little pile of papers?"

    My mother led the way  walking into the dining room the way an animal manager might be while entering a cage with tigers in it. Ross and I came in behind her and suddenly he reached for a pile of the papers on one side of the table. "No!" my mother said sharply. "Let's start at the other end. That's where the older stuff is." Finally, we threw 95 percent of the stuff into paper shopping bags. Then I asked what she wanted us to do with them, she surprised us all by saying, "Put them in the incinerator (垃圾焚化炉)."

    When I returned home, inspired by the visit to my mother, I sorted out my own accumulated(累积的) piles of papers, sold or gave away half of my possessions, and moved into a smaller house. It seems that my life has been cheaper and easier since then. And it proves that a small change does make a big difference.

    A new study from brain researchers helps explain how the human brain evolved or changed over time, to permit people to speak and write.

    Michael Ullman, the lead researcher, a professor at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington, D.C, has been studying language learning for more than 20 years.

    Ullman says his research shows that the human brain does not have a special area or system for making language. Over time we have simply reused or co-opted (指派) parts of our brain for language. And those parts, he says, are ancient-older even than humans themselves.

    "This study examines the theoretical framework (准则) that language is learned, stored and' processed in two ancient learning and memory systems in the brain."

    Ullman, Hamrick and the rest of the team looked at data from 16 other studies on language. They found that people learn language using two memory systems: declarative and procedural. Memorizing vocabulary, for example, is a declarative memory process. But learning grammar is, mostly, a procedural memory process.

    "Declarative memory, in humans at least, is what we think of as learning memory', such as, 'Oh, remember what you said last night' or things like that. And procedural motor memory is what we often call motor memory' such as how you learn to ride a bicycle." Or, Ullman adds, "These procedural memory skills become so deeply leaned that we are no longer aware that we are doing them."

    However, Ullman explains that the two long-term memory systems can share tasks. And, he adds, the adult brain uses the systems to learn language a bit differently than a child's brain.

    "Adult language learners of a second language may use their declarative memory for using grammar patterns. They think about it purposefully. For a child, the grammar may come more naturally. They don't have to think about the grammar rules before speaking."

    In addition to language learners, Ullman's study could help people who have a brain injury that affects speaking and writing. This knowledge can also help those who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia (阅读障碍). People with dyslexia have difficulty recognizing words and symbols accurately.

    The famous director of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset over the ocean, so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other forever. He sent his camera crew out one evening to film the sunset for him.

    The next morning he said to the men, "Have you provided me with that sunset?"

    "No, sir," the men answered.

    The director was angry. "Why not?" he asked.

    "Well, sir," one of the men answered, "we're on the east coast here, and the sun sets in the west. We can get you a sunrise over the sea, if necessary, but not a sunset."

    "But I want a sunset!" the director shouted. "Go to the airport, take the next flight to the west coast, and get one."

    But then a young secretary had an idea. "Why don't you photograph a sunrise," she suggested, "and then play it backwards? Then it'll look like a sunset."

    "That's a very good idea!" the director said. Then he turned to the camera crew and said, "Tomorrow morning I want you to get me a beautiful sunrise over the sea."

    The camera crew went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful bay. Then at nine o'clock they took it to the director. "Here it is, sir," they said, and gave it to him. He was very pleased.

    They all went into the studio. "All right," the director explained, "now our hero and heroine are going to say goodbye. Run the film backwards so that we can see the 'sunset' behind them."

    The "sunset" began, but after a quarter of a minute, the director suddenly put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera crew to stop.

    The birds in the film were flying backwards, and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach.