Are you content with the shape of your nose? If not, the climate may be to blame, not your parents.

    This is according to a recent study carried out by scientists from Pennsylvania State University, US. They found that climate played a key role in shaping our noses. The findings were based on an examination of the size and shape of noses of 476 people from four regions — West Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Northern Europe, using 3D facial imaging technology.

     “People have thought for a long time the difference in nose shape among humans across the world may have arisen as a result of natural selection because of climate,” Arslan Zaidi, one of the lead authors of the study, told the Guardian. But while previous studies were based on measurements from human skulls(头骨), Zaidi and his team looked at nose shape itself.

    The result showed that wider noses are more common in warm and humid climates, while narrower noses are more common in cold and dry climates. That, Zaidi said, could be because narrower nasal passages (鼻道) help to increase the wet content of air and warm it, which is easier on our lungs. This, in turn, led to a gradual decrease in nose width in populations living far away from the equator (赤道).

    More study is still needed to test the link between climate and nose shape, but Zaidi believes the current findings are valuable in understanding potential health issue. “As we become more of a global community, we are going to come across climates that we are not adapted to,” he told the Guardian. This means moving to a very different climate might increase the risk of breathing problems.

    However, he added, “This may not be necessarily true for various reasons such as of modem medicine and the fact that our current climate is very different from what it used to be.”

    New research suggests that there are only four basic facial expressions of emotion. However, how these expressions are understood might depend on where you are from.

    Research by scientists from the University of Glasgow in the UK has challenged the traditional view of how the face expresses emotions. Many scientists had believed that there were six basic emotions that people from all cultures recognized. These were happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust(厌恶). However, the University of Glasgow's work now suggests that the human face only had four basic expressions of emotions. This is because some pairs of emotions are impossible to tell apart, especially when they are first shown on the face. Fear and surprise, both share wide-open eyes. The facial expressions for anger and disgust also look the same.

    So if our faces are only able to express four basic emotions, how do we communicate much more complex feelings? The study found that the way expressions are understood is different in different cultures. Lead researcher Rachael Jack was studying this because “facial expressions were considered to be universal”, she explained. However, while looking at how people from the East and West recognize different parts of the face, they found that although there are some common features across cultures, the six basic facial expressions of emotion are not recognized universally.

    “We said we don't know what a disgust face looks like in China, so the best way to go about that is to make all combinations of facial movements and show the Chinese people and ask them to choose the ones they think are disgust faces.” With the software they developed, they discovered that in the early stages of signaling emotion, fear and surprise, and anger and disgust, were often confused. Jack explained that this development of facial expressions is related to biology and social situations.

    What has caught people's interest is the cross-cultural aspect of the work. “This study shows which emotions we share, and which are different in different cultures,” Jack said. This finding could help us develop new communication technologies, for example ones that use video-calling programs like Skype. When you talk to someone in Japan in the future, a programme could “read” your facial expressions and then “translate” them for the Japanese person. The Japanese person would see the Japanese facial expression on their screen. In this way, people from different cultures could understand each other better.

    One Sunday, my son asked me if he could ride up to his elementary school on his bike and meet his friend. He wanted both of them to ride back to our house so they could play video games and jump on the trampoline (蹦床). I have to admit, part of me wanted to say no. We could go to pick him up or his parents could bring him over here. I thought. But my son is eleven years old now. And after all, I do let him ride his bike to school. But I also drive my daughter to school and I can see him on the way, making sure he is getting there safely.

    My husband thinks I am overprotective. I don't dare to let my children walk anywhere without one of us going along. As you go out of our neighborhood, there is a shopping center across the street. My son always asks if he can ride his bike or walk over to the drugstore by himself. But crossing that street is just too dangerous. The cars fly around the comer like they're driving in a car race. What if he gets hurt? What if some teenager bullies are hanging out in the parking lot? I want so much to give my children the freedom that I enjoyed having when I was growing up but I hesitate to do so, because there are dangers around every comer. Too many kidnap, too many robberies and so on.

    I honestly don't think my mom worried about such things when her children were young. Growing lip in the 1970s was indeed very different. I never wore a helmet (头盔) when I rode a bike. We were all over the neighborhood, on our bikes and on foot, coming home for dinner and then-back out again until dark. We rode in the back of the truck and didn't wear seat belts. I walked to and from school every day.

    Last summer I sat at a long picnic table near a breathtaking mountain. While the parents were eating dinner, the kids ran up a trail in search of a secret fort. Twenty minutes later one excited little boy, James, interrupted the adult conversation.

    “Mom, Mom, you can't believe what we found!”

    Lovingly, his mother smiled and whispered, “I can't wait to hear, James, but grown-ups are talking, and there will be a pause in the conversation. Please wait for the pause.”

    On my other side, another boy came running up to his mother with equal enthusiasm.

    “Mom, Mom, we had so much fun—”

    “I am talking! Don't interrupt,” she said.

    “But, Mom—”

    “Be quiet! Can't you see that I am talking?”

    “But Mom we found the—”

    “Shut up, Steve!” she yelled.

    My heart sank. I knew what was coming. James, on my right, patiently waited for the pause, enthusiasm still alive and well. Steve, on my left, walked away from the table, looking shamed, carrying with him stories of secret forts never to be shared.

    What markedly different messages to the child! “Wait for the pause” versus “Shut up” gets incorporated (包含)so differently into a child's developing sense of self.

    Harsh(刺耳的) words have bad effects. That's why I want you to promise to delete the phrases “Shame on you” or “You should be ashamed” from your vocabulary. I have seen countless patients whose parents' thoughtless words echoed in their heads and chipped(消除) away at their self-worth, even decades later.

    So we have to discipline ourselves to make our instructions constructive. One great tool is to look for positive behavior to reinforce. Don't ignore the things that your kids are doing right. Thank your children. Tell them that you noticed how they waited patiently or cleared their plate without being asked. Chances are that they will do it again. Let them feel noticed, appreciated, and valued. There's no better way to shape behavior.

    Black Friday

    The day after Thanksgiving is the start of the holiday shopping season. Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, so the day after is a Friday. This day has come to be known as Black Friday. It has been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005.

    Most stores offer great deals on Black Friday. They open their doors in the small hours of the morning. They try to attract shoppers with big discounts. Some items like TVs are much cheaper than usual. Stores may even lose money on these items. They hope that shoppers will buy gifts for other people while they are in the store.

    Black Friday is a great time to get good deals. The problem is that there are not enough low-priced items to go around. Each store may only have a few. These items are in high demand. People stand in long lines to get such great deals. They may line up hours before a store opens. They may be hoping to get a low price on a TV or laptop, but not everyone who wants one will get one. Some people leave disappointed.

    The situation can be tense(紧张的). Some Black Friday events have been violent. Large, eager crowds have trampled(践踏) workers. Fights have broken out over toys or people cutting in line. People have shot one another over parking spots. But most Black Friday events are safe and fun. Still, if you plan on going, expect large crowds and a bit of pushing and shoving.

    So where does the name "Black Friday" come from? It was first used in Philadelphia in the 1950s. The police called this day Black Friday because of the heavy traffic it drew. In the 1960s, spread across the country. It seems that it is here to stay.

    Now people all over the country take part in the event known as Black Friday. It is even spreading to other parts of the world. Stores have held Black Friday events in the U.K., Australia, and Brazil since 2012. In Costa Rica Black Friday is known as "Viernes Negro." And in Mexico, stores offer an annual weekend of discounts. They call it "El Buen Fin," which means "the good weekend" in Spanish. I guess the language of savings is universal.

 The recent opening of a new exhibition building at the Sanxingdui Museum, in Guanghan, in Sichuan province, made the place {#blank#}1{#/blank#} instant tourist hot spot. The bronze heads, golden masks, holy trees and various statues reveal the {#blank#}2{#/blank#} ( mystery) faces of a culture dating back more than 3,000 years.

 For those who cannot make it to Guanghan, where the extensive site of Sanxingdui is located, an immersive exhibition equipped with digital technology, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} ( title) Hello Sanxingdui, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}( offer) an alternative means to be awed by the magnificence of this Bronze Age culture. It is running at the Longfu Art Museum in Beijing until Feb 29.

 It provides a time- travel experience for both an educational and artistic appeal. The journey begins {#blank#}5{#/blank#} a brief timeline of texts, photos and videos, showing how Sanxingdui was first discovered in the 1920s,{#blank#}6{#/blank#} objects were found by farmers digging an irrigation ditch(灌溉沟渠); and it highlights the important moments in the past century's continued archaeological efforts, to reveal the myths surrounding Sanxingdui and the secrets yet {#blank#}7{#/blank#} ( uncover).

 On show {#blank#}8{#/blank#} ( be) life- size reproduction s of dozens of astonishing artifacts, supervised by Sanxingdui Museum, such as 2.6- meter bronze statues, 3.8- meter- wide bronze masks and" the holy tree" standing nearly 4 meters.

 Images of these objects found at Sanxingdui and their {#blank#}9{#/blank#} ( pattern) have been digitalized, animated and projected on screens, leading the audience into the ancient kingdom of Shu, a {#blank#}10{#/blank#}( civilize) that thrived for centuries in the southwest during the Zhou Dynasty, and disappeared suddenly, leaving many myths and legends.