People these days always complain how they suffer stress from their daily life. With drugs widely available in the market today, it is still advisable that we consume the best kind of medicine for our body, that is natural drugs.

    One of the natural resources for a relaxation drug is the Valerian Root Extract. Scientifically known as Valeriana Officinalis, this plant is a flowering type with heads of pink and white flowers mostly blooming in the summer months. Native in Europe and in small parts of Asia, the plant became popular worldwide because of its sweet scent and unique health benefits.

    Past research suggests that the valerian root has healing characteristics that focus on the neurotransmitter of the brain, which makes the brain cells function well. Other researches about this herb suggest that it can keep a person free of anxiety. Although there are various types of valerian root products in the market today, modern medical studies have concluded that further research has to be taken into consideration before acknowledging the so-called benefits of Valerian Root Extracts.

    One sample of the so-called benefits is the treatment for anxiety disorder called “social anxiety disorder” or SAD. The benefit has insufficient evidence to support its claim as an alternative relief for anxiety. However, many patients said that they felt improvements on their nervous conditions, stress and overall mental ability.

    Valerian Root Extract can be acquired as a tea, tablet, or liquid extract. It is recommended that you consult your physician about this herbal plant if it can really benefit your health.

    Every year, about 600 monkeys are invited to eat fruits and vegetables during an annual feast(盛宴)in Thailand. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}It is said that Rama once rewarded his friend Hanuman, the Monkey King, with some land. Organizers of the annual Monkey Buffet use more than 3,000 kg of fruits and vegetables to prepare for the feast.

    This event is held in England. Though it might sound very gentle, it is actually very dangerous. Running down a very steep hill behind a 7-pound wheel of cheese can be very dangerous. In fact, the police have attempted to ban the event, but participants have refused to carry out the ban. Men and their cheese wheels cannot be separated so easily.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Simple: the cheese is set rolling down the hill, and the racers run down the hill after the cheese. However, as the cheese can reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, it rarely happens that someone catches the cheese. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    In this festival, grown men jump over newborns, with their parents' permission. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} This custom has been observed since 1620; any onlookers who seem to be in need of ＂cleaning＂ also get involved in the event.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} This Naked (裸的) Festival is held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in summer or winter. Hidden somewhere in these men is one fully naked man, and touching him is believed to bring good luck.

A. This event is very interesting.

B. Everybody takes an active part in it.

C. So what happens during a cheese roll?

D. The first to reach the bottom wins the cheese.

E. It is held in honor of Rama, the greatest of the Gods.

F. There is a Japanese festival where participants wear little clothing.

G. Wearing scary costumes, the Spanish men attempt to ＂clean＂ babies of evil (邪恶).

    Sometimes known as “The Big Apple” or “the City That Never Sleeps”, New York is both the most populous city in the USA and a leading center of business, commerce, finance and media. The city is often referred to as “New York City”, in order to distinguish it from the state it is in. The city is part of a large metropolitan（大都市的）area, and the combined city population exceeds 18.7 million.

    New York City is made up of five boroughs（行政区）and hence another nickname of the city is “The Five Boroughs”. The five boroughs are: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

    There are many famous buildings and sights in New York, especially in Manhattan. These include the Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building and the United Nations Building. When you visit New York, make sure you see Central Park, Times Square, Chinatown, Little Italy and of course the Statue of Liberty. Additionally, there are many wonderful museums in New York, some truly excellent shops, some of the world's best theaters in the Broadway area, and the neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and SoHo which are well-known for the artists who reside there.

    Getting around New York City is simple—the city's subway network is one of the most comprehensive in the world, connecting all parts of Manhattan in rapid time.

    However, the best way to see New York is undoubtedly on foot. Central Park is an ideal place to start a walking tour of New York City—843 acres of shining ponds and lush greenery attract locals and tourists. And apart from offering breathtaking scenery, it is a centre for recreation. Visitors can listen to music groups, watch performers, walk along the trails and even take a romantic ride in a horse carriage.

How to Recognize a True Friend

Sometimes it can be hard to recognize a true friend. Hopefully this article will help you recognize which friends are the keepers.

Be able to trust your friends. You should be able to trust true friends and they should return this trust. Do your friends tell you secrets that no one else knows? Ask you for advice? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} However, if your friends hide things from you and act secretly, then this is a sign that they may not trust you.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Think about it. How comfortable are your friends when they are around you? Are they being themselves around you? Are they acting fake or perhaps hiding something? True friendships can take a while to develop, but if your friends are true they should feel comfortable around you, and vice versa (You with them)

Think about loyalty(忠诚). {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you are in need of a helping hand, your true friends should be there to offer it to you. True friends don't try to get one another into trouble. A true friend will always be loyal to you and will not reveal secrets.

    Think about nicknames. A lot of true friends love to give each other nicknames！ If your friend is giving you nicknames, then this is a great sign. Think of the nickname your friend has given you, does it suit you well? {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Look at how you fight. Nearly all best friends fight. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} True friends will find their way through a fight, no matter what the size is. True friends will remain “faithful” to each other even during a fight. They will not tell each others' secrets, and they still care about each other.

A. Consider comfort.

B. Choose your friends carefully.

C. True friends are always there for one another.

D. Both are sure signs that your friend trusts you.

E. If so, this shows your friend must know you quite well.

F. So if you and your friend have a little argument, don't worry!

G. An inside joke shows that you share a special connection with your friend.

    Gabriella's family immigrated to the US from Peru when she was two years old. As a compound bilingual (双语使用者), Gabriella develops two linguistic codes at the same time, with a set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, Spanish at home. Finally, Gabriella's parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learned a second language by translating it into their mother tongue.

    Regardless of accent and pronunciation, all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language. It seems that the difference may not be apparent. But recently brain imaging technology has given a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. It's well known that the brain's left hemisphere (半球) is in charge of logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones. Language involves both types of functions. "Critical Period Theory" says children learn languages more easily because their developing brains let them use both hemispheres in language learning, while in most adults, language relies on one hemisphere, usually the left.

    Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed the children's development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between languages. But a recent study did show that bilingualism may make you smarter. It does make your brain more complex, healthier, and more actively engaged, and even if you didn't have the good fortune of learning a second language like a child, it's never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from "Hello" to "Hola" "Bonjour" or "nihao" because when it comes to our brains, a little exercise can go a long way.

    Imagine you are opening your own company and want to hire a manager. You have two candidates and they are both capable and experienced, so who would you rather hire: Julia Watson or Shobha Bhattacharva? Chances are that you would prefer Watson, right? But why?

    "Easy names are evaluated as more familiar, less risky and less dangerous," Eryn Newman, a scientist at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, told Scientific American. As a result, people with easier names are often assumed to be more trustworthy. This is what Newman and her teammates have found in their recent study.

    In the experiment, they picked 18 different foreign names, including difficult-to-pronounce ones like Yevgeni Dherzhinsky and easy names like Bodo Wallmeyer. They then attached each name with a statement such as "turtles are deaf" and "giraffes are the only mammals that cannot jump" and asked volunteers whether they thought the claims were true.

    The results showed that claims connected to easier names were more often ranked as believable than those attributed to difficult names, regardless of what the truth really was. In fact, previous studies have already found that our judgments about products can be affected by their names. For example, we tend to think of a food additive (添加剂) with an easier name as safer and a stock with an easier name as more lucrative (利润丰厚的)，according to Medical Daily.

    But researchers pointed out that this effect can change depending on where someone comes from. For example, a native British man may find "Yevgeni Dherzhinsky" hard to pronounce while Russian people could say it without effort. Newman hopes that this finding can make us better see our biases (偏见). It's not just unfair to people that we make judgments based on gut feelings (直觉) rather than facts, and it can sometimes have serious consequences.

    For example, we may choose to believe certain eyewitnesses in court simply because their names sound more trustworthy even if they are actually lying. Or, we may let go of qualified job candidates due to their "difficult" names.

    Now, if you could make that decision again, would you still prefer Julia Watson to Shobha Bhattacharva?