World Book Day falls on April 23 every year．It was set up by the United Nations Educational,Scientific, and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) in 1995 to encourage people, especially teenagers, to discover the pleasure of reading．It is also the day to honor great writers，for example，William Shakespeare，born or dead on that day．

    Many countries celebrate World Book Day．Take UK as an example．On that day，millions of school children can buy books of special price，a much lower price than usual，in any bookstore．It has been done every year since 1998．World Book Day is also celebrated in China. Our Former Premier Wen Jiabao, a bookworm, who does lots of reading every day, has called on people to do more reading. He suggested that young people should spend more time reading．"Books cannot change the world, but people can change the world by changing themselves through reading,” he said．

    Why do people like reading? One big advantage is that reading helps us become more knowledgeable and more intelligent. Also, reading helps us to follow the latest developments of science and technology. Besides, reading gives us information about other cultures and places of the world. When we read, we may find many things that are unfamiliar to us. We would have to use our brain to think about them or do more reading to find out the answers. The more we read, the more we know. What's more, reading is also one of the most important ways to learn a foreign language like English．

    "Reading makes a full man" (Bacon，1597). Books，magazines，newspapers and other kinds of materials can help us to know more about the outside world and perfect us. So it is necessary for us to spend time on reading every day．

    A new study says electronic toys are not helping babies learn.

    "Even if companies are marketing them as educational, they're not teaching the babies anything at this time," said Anna Sosa the study's author.

    Researchers listened to audio(声音的) recordings of parents playing with their babies aged 10 months to 16 months. The researchers compared the experiences when the children played with electronic toys, traditional toys such as blocks, or when the children looked at books. What they found is that parents talked less with their babies when the babies played with electronic toys.

    Why is this important? Research shows that how quickly children develop language is often based on what they hear from parents. When the infants played with electronic toys, parents said little to their children. But with traditional toys, such as blocks, parents shared the names and descriptions of the animals, colors and shapes as their children played. There was even more information given by parents as their babies looked at the pictures in books.

    Of course, there is no need for parents to throw out electronic toys, but they should look at their infants' play with such toys as entertainment, not a learning experience.

    Toy Industry Association spokeswoman Adrienne Appell responded to the study. She said it is important that parents make time to play with their children. "Playing is a way that kids can learn so much, not only cognitive(认知的) skills, but social and developmental skills," she said. She added that play should be balanced, including time for just "make believe" activities, as well as traditional and electronic toys.

    Do you believe in the power of music? If you're like most kids these days, you probably have an electronic device loaded with hundreds or even thousands of your favorite songs. At any moment in time, you can fill your headphones with the sounds of a particular song that suits your mood at that exact time.

    Are you getting ready for a big soccer match or do you need to get excited? Maybe some hip hop with a strong beat will do the trick! Besides, you might be ready to study for a big exam the next day. To calm your nerves and help you concentrate, a little bit of Mozart might make memorization more manageable.

    But is there any scientific evidence of these effects that music seems to have? You bet there is! Scientists have long recognized the power of music. Over the years, many studies have been conducted to examine in greater depth the nature and extent of the effects music has on people.

    For example, scientists at the University of Missouri have found that listening to music can have a positive effect on your mood. Their research gives scientific credibility(可信性)to the behavior that many people have already experienced on their own: listening to upbeat music can brighten your day and boost your mood.

    Other studies have shown that upbeat music isn't the only type of music that can be helpful, however. When people are sad or have suffered a personal loss, sad music can be helpful because people identify with the tone and lyrias(歌词)of the music. Likewise, people under a lot of stress or experiencing upsetting situations can benefit from listening to angry music. Although angry music might not help you if you're in a normal mood, its tone can benefit you when you are dealing with stressful and upsetting situations.

    Russ Gremel, now 98 years old, decided it was time to donate $2 million to the Illinois Audubon Society, a charity to purchase nearly 400 acres of land for wildlife protection. Gremel was able to make this amazing donation because he purchased $1,000 worth of Walgreens stock seven decades ago whose value has grown recently.

    "A single man with no kids, Gremel has lived in the same Chicago house for 95 years, and has always lived simply", neighbor Patrick Falso told TODAY. Falso said he heard Gremel say many times the "money wasn't mine to begin with" and that he always intended to give it away.

    The Gremel Wildlife shelter was founded on June 4. Illinois Audubon Society president Jim Herkert said Gremel's donation was extremely generous. "It's allowing us to protect a really valuable and important possession and realize one of Gremel's wishes that we could find a place where people could come out and experience nature the way he did as a kid," Herkert told TODAY.

    After doing all this, this past weekend, Gremel adopted an old Chihuahua（吉娃娃犬）. Winnie the dog was picked up as a homeless dog several months ago. She suffered from a kind of cancer, which was treated—and all she needed was a loving home, which Colleen Collins, the founder of Perfect Pooches Adoption Agency, was determined to find.

    Gremel had lost his own beloved Chihuahua earlier this year. When he reached out to Collins about Winnie, she felt this could be a good match. That feeling grew when she brought Winnie to his house for a meet and greet, and Winnie was introduced not only to Gremel but also some of his friends and neighbors. One had brought over a lot of fresh strawberries; all said they'd be there to help out in any way needed.

    Food is necessary for offering energy to our bodies, but sometimes we buy too much of it at the store. When your food starts to go bad, there are many other ways you can still make use of it instead of throwing it away.

    Before throwing away old bananas, you can use the peels (皮) to shine up metals and leathers. Press the peel against the surface, move it backwards and forwards and then polish clean it with an old cloth. Banana meat is also good for reducing wrinkles. Put a bit on those trouble spots, let it sit for a while, and then wash it off, and your wrinkles will go away. Lemons are great for lightening skin and hair. If you have trouble with some skin diseases, like red spots on your face, put a bit of fresh lemon juice on them and leave it overnight. You'll notice a difference in the morning. Apples will help ripen (使成熟) tomatoes quickly when they are placed together in a paper bag, and orange peels are great fire starters for your next backyard campfire party.

    If your dog or cat brings home fleas, using salt is a great way to get rid of them around the house. Just pour salt into the vacuum cleaner (真空吸尘器). Let it sit, then vacuum up the fleas. The salt can kill the fleas. Be sure to throw away the vacuum bag or empty the vacuum bin immediately, or some of the fleas can climb out.

    Beer is a great hair lightener. If you are out of lemons, try dipping your hair in beer before going outside. Just don't forget to wash it out afterwards. Milk is great for removing dirty marks, especially if it is some type of ink.

    As you can see, there are many other uses for everyday foods around the house. So next time, before throwing food away thinking it is of no use, stop for a moment and think about all their uses talked about here.

A video of dolphins playing in the wake of the waves near a man-made island, east of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, has caught the attention from netizens across China.

The 55-km Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the world's longest cross-sea bridge, connecting the mainland province of Guangdong with the country's two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macao.

During the nine-year bridge construction period, researchers have identified and registered a total of 2,367 dolphins, with no injuries of any dolphins reported.

According to local authorities, the Pearl River Estuary Chinese White Dolphin Reserve has supported more than 100 researchers in studying and protecting the mammal and trained thousands of dolphin watchers. Luo Guocai, a certificated dolphin watcher, said his duty was to conduct a 10-minute observation of the sea each time before construction started. The dolphins have to breathe every few minutes above the water, and in order to prevent potential harm, the watchers would knock on their boat a few times to scare them away.

The preservation efforts never stopped even after the construction was completed. "Managerial personnel will continue to monitor the nearby environment and the dolphins via intelligent equipment including the bridge video surveillance(监控) system, the underwater tunnel's environmental monitoring as well as specially established research and observation stations on the man-made islands," said Yu Lie, deputy director of the bridge management bureau.

"Currently, Hong Kong, Macao, the country's two special administrative regions, and Guangdong plan to establish a conservation alliance for the dolphins, involving non-governmental organisations in the routine rescue, information sharing, and scientific research," said Chen Hailiang, head of the administration of the reserve. "We are constructing a bigger rescue and conservation base as well as increasing tissue samples and gene banks in a bid to better preserve the dolphins for generations to come," Chen said.