The people who built Stonehenge in southern England thousands of years ago had wild parties, eating barbecued pigs and breaking pottery. This is according to recent work by archaeologists — history experts who investigate (调查) how human beings lived in the past.

    Archaeologists digging near Stonehenge last year discovered the remains of a large prehistoric village where they think the builders of the mysterious stone circle used to live.

    The village is about 4,600 years old, the same age as Stonehenge and as old as the pyramids in Egypt. It is less than two miles from the famous ancient landmark and lies inside a massive man­made circular dirt wall, or "henge", known as the Durrington Walls.

    Remains found at the site included jewellery, stone arrowheads, tools made of deer antlers, wooden spears and huge amounts of animal bones and broken pottery. "These finds suggest Stone Age people went to the village at special times of the year to feast and party", says Mike Parker Pearson from Sheffield University in England.

    He said many of the pig bones they found had been thrown away half-­eaten. He also said the partygoers appeared to have shot some of the farm pigs with arrows, possibly as a kind of sport before barbecuing them.

    An ancient road which led from the village to the River Avon was also found. Here, the experts think, people came after their parties to throw dead relatives in the water so the bodies would be washed downstream to Stonehenge.

    Parker Pearson believes Stonehenge was like a cemetery where ancient Britons buried the dead and remembered their ancestors. "The theory is that Stonehenge is a kind of spirit home to the ancestors."

    The recent discovery of the village within the Durrington Walls shows that Stonehenge didn't stand alone but was part of a much bigger religious site, according to Parker Pearson.

    People still come to worship and celebrate at Stonehenge today. They meet there when the sun sets on the shortest day of winter and when it rises on the longest day of summer. But the days of barbecuing whole pigs there and throwing family members into the river are a thing of the past.

    Why is setting goals important?{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Instead of just letting life happen to you, goals allow you to make your life happen.

    Successful people imagine how their life should be and set lots of goals.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}It's like having a map to show you where you want to go. Think of in this way. There are two drivers. One has a destination in mind which can be found in a map. She can drive straight there without any wasted time or wrong turns. The other driver has no goal, or destination or map. She starts off at the same time from the same place as the first driver, but she drivers aimlessly around. Never getting anywhere, just using up gas. Which driver do you want to be?

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}They decide what they want in life and then get there by making plans and setting goals. Unsuccessful people just let life happen by accident. Goals aren't difficult to set, and they aren't difficult to reach.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}You are the one who must decide what to achieve and in what direction to aim your life.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Written goals can be reviewed regularly, and have more power. Like a contract with yourself, they are harder to neglect or forget. Also when you write your goals in a particular way you are able to make yourself continuously aware of situations that will bring you nearer to your goal.

A. Winners in life set goals and follow through

B. It's up to you to find out what your goals really are

C. By setting goals you are taking control of your life

D. Because everybody should have a goal in his mind

E. It's difficult for a driver to reach his destination without a map

F. Because goals can help you do, be and experience everything you want in life

G. Research tells us that when we write a goal down, we are more likely to achieve it

    A new report says living in a city makes it harder for people to concentrate(集中) on some tasks. The research found that people who live in rural areas can focus better than people in urban areas. The study is from Goldsmiths College, which is part of the University of London. Head researcher Dr. Karina Linnell and her team made great contributions. They studied how two groups of people did the same "thinking tasks". The team went to a remote(偏远的) part of Namibia, southwest Africa, to study the Himba tribe. Himba people live a very basic life in the desert. They are still doing traditional farming. The team also studied members of the same tribe who had moved to the nearest town. Dr. Linnell said the tribe who lived in the desert did much better on the tests than those in the town. It's really interesting and shocking.

    Dr. Linnell said their research may lead to changes in the way companies operate. In the future, workers may move from cities to live and work in the countryside. Linnell said there are too many things around us in the city that stop us from thinking about one thing for a long time. This means we do not work at our best. She asked, "What if, for example, companies realized certain tasks would be better carried out by employees based outside of the urban environment? There their concentration ability is better. "The past century has seen billions of people move from the countryside to big cities. In the future, the trend may not continue. If Dr. Linnell's research is true, this century might see many of those people return to the great outdoors. Let's wait to see what will happen.

    Imagine yourself on the other side of the college admissions desk. It's not so glorious, apparently. At the very least, you need to be good-natured. Joseph Connolly, a guidance counselor at New Oxford High School in the United States, wanted to know the things that annoy admissions officers the most. He sent out a request to members of the National Association for College Admissions Counselors and received hundreds of responses. Apparently, college admissions officers were waiting for an opportunity to unload their frustrations. The responses fall into several areas:

    Communication

    Silly or stupid email addresses; sending emails that use texting shorthand, such as "im w8ing 4 some1 2 call me."

    Leaving a message with just a first name and no telephone number. For example, "Hi, this is Suzie. Please call me back."

    Acting distracted during a one-on-one interview; nervous habits like foot-tapping or "um", "like" and "you know", which make a bad situation worse.

    Not responding to emails from the admissions office.

    Over-involved parents

    The very common comment from parents, "We are in the process of completing applications."

    Parents attending interviews, and worse yet, speaking for their children.

    Essays

    Not identifying which question they are responding to.

    Writing about something they were great at in the seventh grade but haven't pursued since then.

    I've come back to check on a baby. Just after dusk I'm in a car down a muddy road in the rain, past rows of shackled(戴镣的) elephants, their trunks swinging. I was here five hours before， when the sun was high and hot and tourists were on elephants' backs.

    Walking now, I can barely see the path in the glow of my phone's flashlight. When the wooden fence post stops me short, I point my light down and follow a current of rainwater across the concrete floor until it washes up against three large, gray feet. A fourth foot twisted above the surface, tied tightly by a short chain and choked by ring of metal spikes(尖刺) When the elephant tires and puts her foot down， the spikes press deeper into her ankle.

    Meena is four years and two months old, still a child as elephants go. Khammon Kongkhaw, her caretaker, told me earlier that Meena wears the spiked chain because she tends to kick. Kongkhaw has been responsible for Meena here at Maetaman Elephant Adventure, near Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, since she was 11 months old. He said he keeps her on the spiked chain only during the day and takes it off at night. But it's night now.

    I ask Jin Laoshen, the Maetaman worker accompany in me on this nighttime visit, why her chain is still on. He says he doesn't know.

    Mactaman is one of many animal attractions in and around tourist-crowded Chiang Mai. Meena's life is set to follow the same track as many of the roughly 3, 800 captive(被捕获的) elephants in Thailand. When Meena is too old or sick to give rides-maybe at 55, maybe at 75she'll die. If she's lucky, she'll get a few years of retirement. She'll spend most of her life on a chain.