“Educational researchers, political scientists and economists are increasingly interested in the characteristics and skills that parents, teachers and schools should foster in children to increase chances of success later in life,” said lead author Marion Spengler, PhD of the University of Tubingen.” Our research found that specific behaviors in high school have long-lasting effects for one's later life.”

    Spengler and her co-authors analyzed data collected by the American Institutes for Research from 346, 660 U. S. high school students in 1960, along with follow-up data from 81,912 of those students 11 years later and 1,952 of them 50 years later. The initial high school phase measured a variety of student behaviors and attitudes as well as personality characteristics, cognitive abilities, parental socioeconomic status and demographic(人口统计的)factors. The follow-up surveys measured overall educational attainment, income and occupational prestige(声望).

    Being a responsible student, showing an interest in school and having fewer problems with reading and writing were all significantly associated with greater educational attainment and finding a more prestigious job both 11 years and 50 years after high school. These factors were also all associated with higher income at the 50-year mark. Most effects remained even when researchers controlled parental socioeconomic status, cognitive aibility and other broad personality characteristics such as conscientiousness.

    While the findings weren't necessarily surprising, Spengler noted how reliably specific behaviors people showed in school were able to predict later success.

    Further analysis of the data suggested that much of the effect could be explained by overall educational achievements, according to Spengler.

    “Student characteristics and behaviors were rewarded in high school and led to higher educational attainment, which in turn was related to greater occupational prestige and income later in life,” she said. “This study highlights the possibility that certain behaviors at crucial periods could have long-term consequences for a person's life.”

    If you want to travel from Xi'an to Chengdu by train, it will take about 16 hours. But starting this month, the new Xi'an-Chengdu high-speed railway will shorten this travel time to three hours.

    The 643-kilometer line is China's first high-speed railway to run through the Qinling Mountains, which form a natural boundary (分界线) between China's north and south. With a speed of 250 km per hour, it's also the first mountain-heavy train line to provide a 4G network. Along the way, the train passes through two areas for rare (稀有) wild animals — one for pandas and the other for crested ibises (朱鹮).

    To reduce the railway's influence on the animals, workers and experts have designed and built the railway to be environmentally friendly. There were 345 wild pandas living in the Qinling Mountains. China currently has 1,864 wild pandas in total, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

    To avoid disturbing the pandas, the railway was designed to run through tunnels (隧道) within the area. Protective shields (防护屏) are placed near the entrance of each tunnel to stop animals from going in.

    To protect the thousands of crested ibises that fly near one part of the railway, protective nets have been set up to make sure the birds will not fly into a train.

    The nets are about 32 km long and 4 meters high. Experts tested different shapes and materials for building the nets before making their final choice.

    If you'd love to be more eco-friendly but don't know where to begin, start with a few small changes.  {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Adjust your thermostat（恒温器）to save on heating and cooling costs.  {#blank#}2{#/blank#}In summer, set your thermostat to 78 ℉when you're at home and raise the temperature when you're away. In winter, turn your thermostat to 68 ℉ and lower it by 5°-10° when you're sleeping or out of your house. To stay warm in winter, put on a sweater or another layer instead of turning up the thermostat.

    Turn off lights and unplug power strips that you're not using. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Some devices can still use energy even when they're turned off. So, turn off the power strips at night to completely cut off energy use. If you need to leave your computer or TV on, try setting it to sleep mode.

    Make your taps and toilets low-flow. Cut back on water waste by installing flow restrictor(节流装置) inside your taps and installing a low-flow shower head in your bathroom. This can save 3 to 4 gallons of water for every minute. If you're replacing a toilet, look for a low-flow one to save thousands of gallons of water a year.  {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Adjust your washing machine to use cold water instead of warm. Since more energy is spent drying the clothes, skip the machine and hang your washed clothes on a clothesline. If you don't have space for a clothesline or can't hang clothes outside, set up a clothes drying rack that you can use inside. Try running your clothes through an extra spin cycle to remove even more water from the clothes. This will make them dry quicker.

    Scientists are studying different foods, and they will see which foods protect us from cancer(癌症), and which cause it. It is known that a healthy diet(饮食) will help keep a healthy body weight, which can also decrease the risk(风险) of many types of cancer.

    Fruit and vegetables

    Fruit and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. They can decrease the risk of some cancer types like mouth and throat cancer. They are a good source of many important nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and are an excellent source of fiber.

    Our advice

    Try to get plenty of fruit and vegetables in your diet. Eating fruit and vegetables with a variety of colors will help you get many kinds of vitamins and minerals, as the chemicals that give these foods their colors are good for you.

    Meat

    Eating lots of red and processed meat can increase(增加) your risk of stomach cancer. Red meat includes all fresh and frozen beef, pork and lamb. Processed meat includes ham, bacon and sausage. White meat, such as chicken, is unlikely to increase your risk of cancer.

    Our advice

    Eat smaller and fewer parts of red and processed meat. Try using beans or peas instead of meat in your diet. When you cook meat, use low-temperature methods.

    Fat

    Fat is a necessary part of our diet but high-fat diet can increase our risk of cancer, heart disease and other diseases. Meat is higher in saturated fat(饱和脂肪) and eating too much saturated fat may increase your risk of breast cancer.

    Our advice

    Try not to eat too much fatty foods. In particular, try to cut down on saturated fat contained in fatty meat, biscuits, and butter. Try to avoid frying foods in lots of oil.

    Nowadays, there is a trend that more and more people spend their holidays in foreign countries. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} So read our travel tips that are simple and practical, and you can always enjoy your travels.

    On a business card, write down the emergency contact's information and place it in your wallet. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Give your emergency contact a copy of your travel plan, a passport data page, and the visa information. Give each piece of your luggage a unique look: tie a bright handkerchief to a handle or purchase a colored luggage tag. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}If you don't speak the local language, carry a matchbox, or a brochure with the name and address of your destination. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    To avoid being a target of crime, don't wear eye catching clothing: dress conservatively (保守地), and don't wear or carry obvious signs of wealth (gold watches, expensive jewelry and etc.) and don't carry more cash than necessary. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    To make sure of a safe journey and avoid some unnecessary trouble when traveling in foreign countries, you could never be too careful.

    "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is one of the most common sayings in the English languages. This is because apples were one of the first foods that medical professionals recognized as healthy­their benefits became obvious when  quite simply, doctors found that people who ate apples were sick less often than those who did not. Today we have a more specific understanding of why apples are so beneficial to overall health.

    Apples can help keep your levels of bad cholesterol (胆固醇) down. The pectin (果胶) in apples helps you to maintain cardiovascular health and reduce LDL cholesterol(which is the "bad" kind). Apples themselves do not add cholesterol to your diet and are full of water and fiber to help prevent the cholesterol in other foods you might digest. According to Health Diaries, people who eat two apples per day may lower their cholesterol by as much as 16 percent.

    Apples are naturally low in calories and high in water content. Eating an apple can satisfy your hunger and keep you from reaching for high-sugar, high-calories snacks. By eating apples, you will be more able to maintain a healthy weight because they fill you up, potentially stopping you from eating food that encourages a waistline increase.

    Apples contain respectable levels of boron (硼) which helps build healthy bones, and can also prevent diseases like arthritis. Apples are rich in vitamin C, which is known to help build immunity.

    Studies have shown that apples can decrease the risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, and liver cancer. One theory is that the apple skins are responsible for this, so be sure not to peel your apple before you eat them, as you could remove some of the health benefits.