“Have a nice day!” may be a pleasant gesture or a meaningless expression. When my friend Maxie says “Have a nice day!” with a smile, I know she sincerely cares about what happens to me. I feel loved and secure since another person cares about me and wishes me well.

    “Have a nice day. Next!” This version(版本) of the expression is spoken by a salesgirl at the supermarket who is rushing me and my groceries out the door. The words come out in the same tone with a fixed procedure. They are spoken at me, not to me. Obviously, the concern for my day and everyone else's is the management's attempt to increase business.

    The expression is one of those behaviors that help people get along with each other. Sometimes it indicates the end of a meeting. As soon as you hear it, you know the meeting is at an end. Sometimes the expression saves us when we don't know what to say. “Oh, you just had a tooth out? I'm terribly sorry, but have a nice day.”

    The expression can be pleasant. If a stranger says “Have a nice day” to you, you may find it heart-warming because someone you don't know has tried to be nice to you.

    Although the use of the expression is an insincere, meaningless social custom at times, there is nothing wrong with the sentence except that others who speak it without thinking may not really care about my day. But in a strange and comfortable way, it's nice to know they care enough to pretend they care when they really don't care all that much. While the expression may not often be sincere, it is always spoken. The point is that people say it all the time when they like.

A Lifesaving At-Home Checkup

    More importance is attached to physical fitness nowadays. However, staying fit can be expensive when going to professional agencies for medical checkups. Here we show you three ways to do medical checkup at home, try them for a rough idea about your health condition.

    1 Balance On One Leg

    Hold for up to 60 seconds. If you fall down early, you may be at higher risk for brain decline. In a Japanese study, 30 percent of older adults who could balance for only 20 seconds or fewer had microbleeds in the brain, an early sign of risk for stroke or dementia(痴呆). These microbleeds can affect balance, memory, and decision making.

    2 Touch Your Toes

    Sit with your back straight, then lean forward and try to touch your toes. Not even close? You might be at risk for heart problems. By using this test, University of North Texas researchers found that some old inflexible folks have to have the heart work harder to provide enough blood, raising the risk of heart attack or stroke.

    3 Sitting To Standing

    Time how long it takes to lift and lower yourself from a chair ten times as fast as you can. Senior adults who did ten repetitions in 21 seconds or fewer were less likely to die over the next 13 years than those who took longer. The test requires muscle strength, balance, and heart fitness; being slow could mean underlying disease before symptoms arise.

    The above are home tests everyone could do to keep you fit and they don't require much time or money. Learn what possible dangers are hiding inside you and how to deal with them.

    I'll admit I've never quite understood the obsession (难以破除的成见) surrounding genetically modified (GM) (改变) crops. To environmentalist opponents, GM foods are simply evil, an understudied, possibly harmful tool used by big agricultural businesses to control global seed markets and beat local farmers. They argue that GM foods have never delivered on their supposed promise, that money spent on GM crops would be better channeled to organic farming and that consumers should be protected with warning labels on any products that contain genetically modified ingredients. To supporters, GM crops are a key part of the effort to sustainably provide food to meet a growing global population. But more than that, supporters see the GM opposition of many environmentalists as fundamentally anti-science, no different than those who question the basics of man-made climate change.

    For both sides, GM foods seem to act as a symbol: you're pro-agricultural business or anti-science. But science is exactly what we need more of when it comes to GM foods, which is why I was happy to see Nature devote a special series of articles to the GM food controversy. The conclusion: while GM crops haven't yet realized their initial promise and have been dominated by agricultural businesses, there is reason to continue to use and develop them to help meet the enormous challenge of sustainably feeding a growing planet.

    That doesn't mean GM crops are perfect, or a one-size-fits-all solution to global agriculture problems. But anything that can increase farming efficiency—the amount of crops we can produce per acre of land—will be extremely useful.GM crops can and almost certainly will be part of that suite of tools, but so will traditional plant breeding, improved soil and crop management—and perhaps most important of all, better storage and transport infrastructure (基础设施) especially in the developing world.(It doesn't do much good for farmers in places like sub-Saharan Africa to produce more food if they can't get it to hungry consumers.) I'd like to see more non-industry research done on GM crops—not just because we'd worry less about prejudice, but also because seed companies like Monsanto and Pioneer shouldn't be the only entities (实体) working to harness genetic modification. I'd like to see GM research on less commercial crops, like corn. I don't think it's vital to label GM ingredients in food, but I also wouldn't be against it—and industry would be smart to go along with labeling, just as a way of removing fears about the technology.

    Most of all, though, I wish a tenth of the energy that's spent endlessly debating GM crops was focused on those more pressing challenges for global agriculture. There are much bigger battles to fight.

    Boomerang children who return to live with their parents after university can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations, a study has found.

    The findings contradict research published earlier this year showing that returning adult children trigger a significant decline in their parents' quality of life and wellbeing.

    The young adults taking part in the study were "more positive than might have been expected about moving back home—the shame is reduced as so many of their peers are in the same position, and they acknowledged the benefits of their parents' financial and emotional support. Daughters were happier than sons, often slipping back easily into teenage patterns of behaviour, the study found.

    Parents on the whole were more uncertain, expressing concern about the likely duration of the arrangement and how to manage it. But they acknowledged that things were different for graduates today, who leave university with huge debts and fewer job opportunities.

    The families featured in the study were middle-class and tended to view the achievement of adult independence for their children as a "family project". Parents accepted that their children required support as university students and then as graduates returning home, as they tried to find jobs paying enough to enable them to move out and get on the housing ladder.

    "However", the study says, "day-to-day tensions about the prospects of achieving different dimensions of independence, which in a few extreme cases came close to conflict, characterised the experience of a majority of parents and a little over half the graduates".

    Areas of disagreement included chores, money and social life. While parents were keen to help, they also wanted different relationships from those they had with their own parents, and continuing to support their adult children allowed them to remain close.

Spring and summer are the best seasons of the year for lots of activities, especially jogging (慢跑). This kind of running is the choice of many people who live in the city, work in the office and want to keep healthy. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

Make good preparations before jogging.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. There, you'll have an opportunity to find and buy all the necessary sportswear. Pay attention to the selection of jogging shoes, if you don't want to suffer from the feeling of heaviness, pain and leg swelling after the run. With all these pieces of wisdom; your body will be truly grateful to you.

Do fit warm-up activities.

Every runner, especially the beginner should know that all physical activities without a proper warm-up can cause a terrible pain and result in harm to muscles. It will probably lead to. final discomfort in your body oreven disease. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Actually, it usually just takes you 15 minutes to increase the range of motion of ourjoints and warm up every muscle of the body.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

When running, you usually feel physical and mental pleasure. Sometimes this pleasure can be replaced by negative feelings or even some kind of pain. No matter how healthy you're, you should always pay attention to how your body reacts. If something is wrong during your jog or run, the body will certainly let you know by giving you some hints (暗示). Watchfulness can help you avoid all possible after-effects of over exercise. Every type of sports is special and useful in its own way. While jogging can sometimes bring pain and discomfort, it really offers you greater joy and satisfaction. So don't step back. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} I hope these tips will help you prepare yourself for jogging and avoid some serious issues.

A. Listen to your body signals (信号).

B. Never give in to difficulties while jogging.

C. However, jogging without preparation will bring great harm.

D. One of the best ways to prepare is to go to specialized (专门的) shops.

E. Just go in for jogging, but remember to follow the above rules.

F. Therefore, you should make it a habit to warm up before jogging.

G. Here are some basic rules to make jogging safe, useful and comfortable.