Salt plays an important role in our daily diet. Even a small reduction(减少) in salt in the diet can be a big help to the heart. A new study used a computer model to predict -how just three grams less a day would affect heart disease in the United States.

    The result: Thirteen percent fewer heart attacks. Eight percent fewer strokes（中风）. Four percent fewer deaths. Eleven percent fewer new cases of heart disease. And two hundred forty billion dollars in health care savings. Researchers found it could prevent one hundred thousand heart attacks and ninety-two thousand deaths every year．

    The study is in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo at the University of California San Francisco was the lead author. She says people would not even notice a difference in taste with three grams, or one-half teaspoon, less salt per day. The team also included researchers at Stanford and Columbia University.

    Each gram of salt contains four hundred milligrams of sodiu(钠), which is how foods may list their salt content．

    The government says the average American man eats ten grams of salt a day. The American Heart Association advises no more than three grams for healthy people. It says salt in the American diet has increased fifty percent since the nineteen seventies, while blood pressures have also risen. Less salt can mean a lower blood pressure.

    New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading an effort called the National Salt Reduction Initiative. The idea is to put pressure on food companies and restaurants. Critics call it government interference(干预).

    Mayor Bloomberg has already succeeded in other areas, like requiring fast food places in the city to list calorie information. Now a study by the Seattle Children's Research Institute shows that the calorie information on the menu can influence what parents order for their children. Ninety-nine parents of three to six year olds took part. Half had calories between the two groups for foods that the parents would have chosen for themselves. McDonald's menus clearly showing how many calories were in each food. Parents given the counts chose an average of one hundred two fewer calories when asked what they would order for their children. Yet there was no difference in calories between the two groups for foods that the parents would have chosen for themselves.

    Study leader Pooja Tandon says even small calorie reductions on a regular basis can prevent weight gain over time. The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.

    In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd hitch a ride (搭便车).

    I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured （使…放心）me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I'd been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

    After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.”

    I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

B

    Many of us love July because it's the month when nature's berries and stone fruits are in abundance. These colourful and sweet jewels from British Columbia's fields are little powerhouses of nutritional protection.

    Of the common berries, strawberries are highest in vitamin C, although, because of their seeds, raspberries contain a little more protein (蛋白质), iron and zinc (not that fruits have much protein). Blueberries are particularly high in antioxidants (抗氧化物质). The yellow and orange stone fruits such as peaches are high in the carotenoids we turn into vitamin A and which are antioxidants. As for cherries (樱桃), they are so delicious who cares? However, they are rich in vitamin C.

    When combined with berries or slices of other fruits, frozen bananas make an excellent base for thick, cooling fruit shakes and low fat "ice cream". For this purpose, select ripe bananas for freezing as they are much sweeter. Remove the skin and place them in plastic bags or containers and freeze. If you like, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on the bananas will prevent them turning brown. Frozen bananas will last several weeks, depending on their ripeness and the temperature of the freezer.

    If you have a juicer, you can simply feed in frozen bananas and some berries or sliced fruit. Out comes a "soft-serve" creamy dessert, to be eaten right away. This makes a fun activity for a children's party; they love feeding the fruit and frozen bananas into the top of the machine and watching the ice cream come out below.

    In the home country, a common language gives you the ability to communicate easily with the people around you; and you learn something about your country's history, people's habits, likes and dislikes, customs and traditions. This understanding influences your own behavior, and what you expect of others.

    Living abroad, it doesn't take long to realize that many things don't "work" the same, especially when moving from "the West" to "the East". Besides a different language, each country has its own social system and laws and ways of solving problems. You will find some of them strange and alien. Sometimes you may feel uncomfortable because you realize that things are not the same as you think they are supposed to be. This is what has become known as "Culture Shock".

    Living in an environment with an unfamiliar(不熟悉的)culture can cause stress, anxiety or worse- mental or physical illness in some cases. Culture shock is the shock of experiencing an unknown or new culture. Cross-culture Adjustment is the period of anxiety, great pain and confusion suffered when entering a new culture. It can have effects on a person's emotions and behavior. You should learn to accept and try to be used to different situations. One thing is certain: it is far easier to accept the new order of things than to try to change it.

    Most Asian people can bear foreigners and accept their strange habits and behavior, not only because it might be to their benefit but out of natural politeness and restraint(克制)in front of others. Westerners should not make use of this. They must try to accept and obey local rules and rules of behavior.

    The problem of robocalls has gotten so bad that many people now refuse to pick up calls from numbers they don't know. By next year, half of the calls we receive will be scams(欺诈). We are finally waking up to the severity of the problem by supporting and developing a group of tools, apps and approaches intended to prevent scammers from getting through. Unfortunately, it's too little, too late. By the time these "solutions"(解决方案) become widely available, scammers will have moved onto cleverer means. In the near future, it's not just going to be the number you see on your screen that will be in doubt. Soon you will also question whether the voice you're hearing is actually real.

    That's because there are a number of powerful voice manipulation(处理) and automation technologies that are about to become widely available for anyone to use. At this year's I/O Conference, a company showed a new voice technology able to produce such a convincing human-sounding voice that it was able to speak to a receptionist and book a reservation without detection.

    These developments are likely to make our current problems with robocalls much worse. The reason that robocalls are a headache has less to do with amount than precision. A decade of data breaches(数据侵入) of personal information has led to a situation where scammers can easily learn your mother's name, and far more. Armed with this knowledge, they're able to carry out individually targeted campaigns to cheat people. This means, for example, that a scammer could call you from what looks to be a familiar number and talk to you using a voice that sounds exactly like your bank teller's, tricking you into "confirming" your address, mother's name, and card number. Scammers follow money, so companies will be the worst hit. A lot of business is still done over the phone, and much of it is based on trust and existing relationships. Voice manipulation technologies may weaken that gradually.

    We need to deal with the insecure nature of our telecom networks. Phone carriers and consumers need to work together to find ways of determining and communicating what is real. That might mean either developing a uniform way to mark videos and images, showing when and who they were made by, or abandoning phone calls altogether and moving towards data-based communications—using apps like FaceTime or WhatsApp, which can be tied to your identity.

    Credibility is hard to earn but easy to lose, and the problem is only going to get harder from here on out.

                              Sworkit

Do want to stay fit in cold winter? Sworkit is here to help. It's good for people new to fitness, as well as those who don't have enough time to do other exercises. Once you download the app, you'll be asked to do a quiz so Sworkit can work out the best program and fitness plan for you. The app is free to download, but you'll need to pay a monthly fee to access most workouts. 

Peak

This app is all about keeping your mind sharp. It has over 45 short, interactive games and puzzles .When you open Peak for the first time, you'll get to set personal goals and choose what brain-related aspects you'd like to improve on. The app is free to download, but unless you buy the paid version.

Canva

This graphic(绘画的)design app, used by more than 150 million people, has 250,000 patterns and 1 million pictures for you to create posters, logos, and more. It can even make videos, and even websites. All you need to give is a written tip, and a design is created for you in seconds. The free version of the app offers more than enough for the average person. 

Bookly

Would you like something to track your reading progress in real time? Here comes Bookly, you can get not only detailed statistics, but also many personalized reading suggestions. It's much more convenient than manually (手动地) writing down. However, what really makes this app shine is its another distinctive function which enables users to add their own comments, quotes, or thoughts while reading.