My father had returned from his business visit to London when I came in, rather late, to supper. I could tell at once that he and my mother had been discussing something. In that half-playful, half-serious way I knew so well, he said, "How would you like to go to Eton?"

    "You bet," I cried quickly catching the joke. Everyone knew it was the most expensive, the most famous of schools. You had to be entered at birth, if not before. Besides, even at 12 or 13, I understood my father. He disliked any form of showing off. He always knew his proper station in life, which was in the middle of the middle class, our house was medium-sized; he had avoided joining Royal Liverpool Golf Club and went to a smaller one instead; though once he had got a second-hand Rolls-Royce at a remarkably low price, he felt embarrassed driving it, and quickly changed it for an Austin 1100.

    This could only be his delightful way of telling me that the whole boarding school idea was to be dropped. Alas! I should also have remembered that he had a liking for being different from everyone else, if it did not conflict(冲突) with his fear of drawing attention to himself.

    It seemed that he had happened to be talking to Graham Brown of the London office, a very nice fellow, and Graham had a friend who had just entered his boy at the school, and while he was in that part of the world he thought he might just as well phone them. I remember my eyes stinging (刺痛) and my hands shaking with the puzzlement of my feelings. There was excitement, at the heart of great sadness.

"Oh, he doesn't want to go away," said my mother, "You shouldn't go on like this." "It's up to him," said my father. "He can make up his own mind."

The Secret of a Long Life

    I am Peter Brown. I am a writer with an important magazine. The other day I saw a white-haired man sitting on the chair in front of his house. I could see the wrinkles (皱纹) in his face and neck, and his wrinkled hands. Articles on the secrets of living to an old age are always popular with our readers, so I decided to write a story and discover the secret of this man's long life. As I went near him, I said:

    “Sir, would it be okay if I talked with you for just a moment?”

    “Not at all. Actually, it would make me very happy. I get very bored sitting here, even for a short time. Until a little while ago, I lived a full and active life without a moment's rest.”

    “Well, they say that a lot of activities help one to live a long time.”

    “That's true, very true. I still feel very well, although my step has slowed down a little.”

    The conversation continued in that way for a while. Although I tried to be very thoughtful about getting information from older people, it seemed to me that it would now be all right to begin to ask some polite questions.

    “Would it be okay if I smoked?”

    “Not at all.”

    “I'd offer you one, but I suppose you probably don't smoke, or drink, or…”

    “You're wrong! I've always smoked a great deal. And until a little while ago, I went dancing every night. And as for alcoholic drinks ...”

    “Do you mean to say that you've done these things all your life?”

    “Of course. Why does that surprise you so much?”

    “I've always been told that doing those things is bad for the health.”

    “Nonsense!”

    “I suppose that you have another secret ... a lot of fruit... vegetables ... a lot of exercise in the fresh air…”

    “Don't be silly! I hate exercise in the fresh air, and I don't like any kind of vegetable.”

    “This is unbelievable!”

    “What do you mean, unbelievable? What are you talking about?”

    “It's just that I can't understand how you've been able to live like that and to have lasted so long. Tell me, how old are you?”

    “Me? I'm twenty-eight. Why?”

    Lawns（草坪）are some of the most common things in the world until you really start thinking about them. That's when you realize that they make no sense. Why do people keep these uninteresting, pointless little plants outside their homes? They're not beautiful like flowers, they don't provide food and you have to take care of them constantly.

    Israeli bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari thought these deeds were weird too. He looked into their history and ended up with an interesting story.

    No one considered putting patches of grass outside their homes in ancient times. That changed in the Middle Ages, when French and English kings and nobles started putting patches of grass at their castle entrances.

    “Well-kept lawns demand land and a lot of work,” wrote Harari in his book. “In exchange, they produce nothing of value.” Peasants could never afford to waste their time or land on lawns, so these lawns were a perfect status symbol（身份的象征）for nobility（高贵）.

    When the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th and 19th centuries, the middle classes started being able to afford their own suburban（郊区的）houses. And guess what became the suburban status symbol? A perfectly kept lawn.

    The popularity of lawns continued to grow, taking over public event spaces and sports. In the past, people played sports on all kinds of surfaces—dirt, ice, sand. But in the last couple centuries, they made the switch to green grass.

    “Grass is nowadays the most widespread crop in the USA after corn and wheat,” Harari continued. Lawns spread beyond Europe and the U.S, and they're now status symbols around the world.

    Suburban people may not realize it, but they care for lawns just because centuries ago, French and English kings wanted to show off by intentionally planting something useless. It's strange that people should continue to spend so much time and money on what's really a leftover（遗留物）from the Middle Ages. When you plan your house, you can shake off（摆脱）the cultural leftover and imagine for yourself a rock garden or some other new creation.

Summer Programs for Teens

University of Maryland: TERP Young Scholars

    This program is the perfect summer camp for academically talented teenagers who want to pursue academic interests, explore career opportunities, and discover college life at the University of Maryland.

    During three weeks of intellectual exploration, teens can study with students who share similar interests, and communicate with some of the university's best teachers. Upon successful completion, students can earn three college credits.

Carpe Diem: The University-bound Adventure

    Carpe Diem supports both American and international students in applying to a university by providing private consultation. This 2-week experience also includes tours of famous East Const universities Students will also have the opportunity to build their resumes (简历) by working with writing experts.

    Great Books Summer Program

    This is a lively, warm and welcoming summer camp community of outstanding teens, who love literature and ideas. In the past eleven years, it has gathered middle and high school students from across the world to read selections from the greatest works of literature, experience heated discussions and enjoy summer camp fun with other literary-minded students. Participants can gain confidence in their ability to read a text closely and express their ideas clearly both verbally and in writing.

Zeal Travel

    We offer our teens two week and three- week long trips to Hawaii, Alaska, Australia and Spain. All trips include 15-25 hours of community service activities.

    Depending on your trip of choice, you'll be helping Hawaiians protect their forest ecosystem, caring for dogs in Spain, working with Habitat for Humanity, and much more. Every trip also includes exciting outdoor activities like surfing, driving, ice-climbing, hiking and more. The possibilities are endless and there is a zeal trip for every interest.

    Here's the bad news: Men are hurting, and, according to many researchers. masculinity (男子气) is what is hurting them and making it hard for them to maintain friendships. Society tells men to hide their feelings and expects them to be aggressive, so many men lose their friendship when growing up. The good news is that those skills can be recovered!

    There are a lot of experts who can help. and here's what they recommend:

    ⒈Accept your own desire and normalize it for the people in your life. Way, an expert, recommends sharing articles about masculinity and friendship so that you can start these conversations! Concentrate on them and don't forget you have the entire Internet at your fingertips, friend!

    ⒉Model vulnerability. Say the thing that frightens or worries you. like "I'm afraid nobody will go to my party," or "I miss my grandma every day." Doing so will make it easier for other people to follow your lead. We are all on the elevator to a society where emotional availability is normalized, and I want you to press "door open".

    ⒊Ask more questions. People sometimes feel they might be prying (爱打听的) if they ask someone about themselves-especially when their friend is sharing something tough. But if you get curious in moments of vulnerability you will open the door to all kinds of growth in your relationship. Take the opportunity to really see your friend and show them they matter by following up.

    ⒋Get close with the children in your life. Way's research says that the top priority that helps children (especially boys) grow up to have enriching friendships is to be close with an adult relative who was not afraid to express emotions. So. if you are a father. stepfather. or thinking about becoming one. or if you have nieces or nephews, take the opportunity to be close to them and help them grow up to be good friends, too.

Sleep is essential for a person's well-being. Researchers have found that sleep loss increases a person's risk of developing serious medical conditions. Now, a new study has found that getting enough sleep is also the key to improving academic performance.

Jeffrey Grossman, who led the research, was not trying to find the correlation(相关性) between sleep and grades when he handed out a device to the students in his class. Instead, the professor hoped the popular wrist-worn electronic device, which tracks a person's activity 24/7, would show a connection between physical exercise and academic achievement.

As part of the research, a quarter of the participants chose a fitness class specially created for the study. After the school term ended, the researchers carefully analysed the data. Much to Grossman's surprise, they found no measurable difference in test performance between the group that had been physically active and the group that had not.

However, the study presented a surprising viewpoint in the journal Science of Learning. Going through the large amount of data, Grossman noticed an interesting trend(趋势) from the participants' sleep patterns. There was a straight-line relationship between the average amount of sleep and his/her grade in the exams.

Besides, it was not enough for students to just head to bed early the night before a test. Grossman says, "We've heard the phrase ‘Get a good night's sleep. You've got a big day tomorrow.' It turns out this does not relate at all to test performance. Instead, it's the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matters most."

The time when students went to bed each night was similarly important. Those who went to bed in the early hours of the morning performed poorly, even if the total sleep time was the same as a higher-performing student.

The research does not prove that sleep is the only component that helps improve academic performance. However, Grossman says the results are a strong indication that sleep really matters. Who knew getting A's just required some extra ZZZ's?