Doing well in high school prepares students for life in college and beyond, so achieving student success is important. High school students learn valuable information from class lectures and homework, and by asking for help when it is needed. Being prepared for tests and engaging in school activities can help a student to achieve success in high school.

    Complete any homework you are assigned on time. Then, if you need help understanding a concept you will have plenty of time to get help.

    Create a study area in your home. This can be a quiet bench outside or a seating area in your room. If you like to listen to music while studying, listen to classical or relaxing music. Be sure to have plenty of lighting in the area to read your textbook or notes.

    Keep a schedule. If you have extra-curricular activities like sports or school meetings, make sure to schedule your homework and study time around them. Keeping a schedule will allow you to get better grades while they are having fun in high school.

    Eat breakfast. Having breakfast each morning before school will give you energy and brain function to pay better attention in class. Eat snacks during study sessions to keep alert and focused on your work.

    Create a study group to help fellow high school students and get help if you need it. Studying with others will help reinforce concepts and information, and if you need help there will always be someone there to help you before you get behind in your studies.

    Set up after-school hours with your teacher if you need extra tutoring. Visiting a teacher for one-on-one time before a test will help you nail down those last few concepts you need help with.

    On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that 42% of Americans could be overweight by 2030. Our expanding bodies not only lead to a medical problem, but also endanger personal safety in some situations—in an airplane crash, for example, according to a recent article in The New York Times.

The New York Times' Christine Negroni reports that engineers and scientists are questioning whether airplane seats are designed to protect overweight travelers. Government standards(标准) for airplane seat strength—first set more than 60 years ago—require that the seats be made for a passenger weighing 170 pounds. Today, the average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds and the average woman 165 pounds. Negroni reports:

     “If a heavier person completely fills a seat, the seat is not likely to behave as designed during a crash,” Robert Salzar, the leading scientist at the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia. “The energy that is built into the aircraft seat is likely to be overpowered and the passengers will not be protected properly”.

     “Nor would the injury be limited to that passenger only,” Dr. Salzar said. “If a seat or a seat belt fails,”he said, “those people who are seated nearby could not be safe from the uncontrolled movements of the passenger.”

    Most complaints(投诉) about airplane seats focus on their lack of comfort and high ticket price, and whether overweight passengers should be made to buy two seats. But The New York Times' article brings up another reason to feel anxious about flying. Investigators(调查者) got in touch with the airplane seat and seat belt makers, but they refused to talk about the problem. Experts agreed that crash testing should be done. Both airplane seats and seat belts should be tested, they said.

    Fortunately, however, according to Nora Marshall, a senior adviser at the National Transportation Safety Board, the board's investigators have never seen an accident involving a commercial plane in which the weight of a passenger was a problem.

Show Biz Summer 2018

Location: Rosewood Center for Family Arts

Important Information:

* Tuition paid on the first day of class. No tuition refunds（退款）.

* DCT reserves the right to cancel any class; refunds made for cancelation.

* Please accompany students the first day of class.

* Registration begins one-half hour before class time.

How To Register:

* Mail: fill out the form in this brochure.

* Be sure to list the class and group that you want.

Drama Days: $ 175

Entering Grades:

Group A: 1st—2nd; Group B: 3rd—5th.

Time: June 2—June 6

* Create the situations and scenes.

* Showtime—invite family and friends to your Friday Showcase!

* Bring a sack lunch and drink each day!

Laugh Out Loud: $ 175

Entering Grade: 5th

Time: June 23—June 27

* Tell a joke! Learn why old jokes can be the best!

* Work with your class to put on a Comedy Show for family and friends!

Acting—Just Acting: $ 225

Entering Grades: Group A: 1st—2^nd; Group B: 3rd—4th

Time: August 4—August 8

* Start with the characters: Who are you? Be the Star of your Dreams.

* Work with your class to create the plot.

Summer Scenes: $ 225

Entering Grades: 5th—6th

Time: August 11—August 15

* Do you want to be an actor?

* Improve your skills with instructions from professional actors & directors.

    A 525-year-old copy of a letter by Christopher Columbus, stolen from the Vatican, was returned this week. An investigation by the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Vatican located the letter.

    “We are returning it to its rightful owner, “said U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Callista Gingrich, at a ceremony in the Vatican Library. Columbus wrote the letter to the king and queen of Spain after discovering “The New World.” He described what he had found and requested money for another trip. His original letter was written in Spanish. But several copies of a Latin translation were made to spread news of his discovery to the royal courts of Europe and the Pope.

    One of the Latin letters, copied by Stephan Plannack in 1493, was put in the Vatican Library. Known as the Columbus Letter, it has eight pages, each about 18.5 cm by 12 cm. In 2011, an American expert in rare manuscripts received a similar looking letter. After reviewing it, he decided that it was real. The year before, the same expert had studied a Columbus Letter in the Vatican Library and suspected that it was a fake. One reason was that the stitching (针脚) marks on the letter were not the same as those on the cover. The letter in the United States, however, had the exact same stitching marks as the leather cover of the fake letter he had studied in the Vatican.

    The expert, who was not identified, contacted Homeland Security art investigators, who began working with Vatican inspectors and rare book experts. They believed that someone took the real letter out of its cover at the Vatican Library and replaced it with an artificial one. Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues is the Vatican's chief librarian. He said, “We do not know exactly when the substitution took place. We will probably never know who the forger (伪造者) was.”

    Their investigations found that Marino Massimo De Caro, a well-known Italian book thief, had sold the real letter to a New York book dealer. De Caro is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Italy for stealing about 4,000 ancient books and manuscripts from Italian libraries and private collections. The late collector David Parsons bought the letter for $875,000 in 2004. After the investigations, his widow agreed to return the letter to the Vatican Library. Officials said the letter is now worth about $1.2 million.

    Are you looking for some new and exciting places to take your kids to? Try some of these places.

    Visit art museums. They offer a variety of activities to excite your kids' interest. Many offer workshops for making hand-made pieces, traveling exhibits, book signings(签名) by children's favorite writers, and even musical performances and other arts.

    Head to a natural history museum. This is where kids can discover the past from dinosaur(恐龙) models to rock collections and pictures of stars in the sky. Also, ask what kind of workshops and educational programs are prepared for kids and any special events that are coming up.

    Go to a Youtheater. Look for one in your area offering plays for child and family visitors. Pre-show play shops are conducted by area artists and educators where kids can discover the secret about performing arts. Puppet(木偶) making and stage make-up are just a couple of the special offerings you might find.

    Try hands-on science. Visit one of the many hands-on science museums around the country. These science play-lands are great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. They'll keep your child mentally and physically active the whole day through while pushing buttons, experimenting, and building. When everyone is tired, enjoy a fun family science show, commonly found in these museums.

    Behind most of the bad things we do to our bodies as adults, eating more than we should is the idea we carry with us from childhood. On one hand, we assume that we are indestructible. On the other hand, we think that any damage we impose on ourselves can be undone when wβfinally clean up our act.

    If the evidence for how wrong the first idea is isn't apparent when you stand naked in front of the mirror, just wait. But what if you eat right and drop all your bad habits? Is there still time to repair the damage?

    To a surprising degree, the answer is yes. Over the past five years, scientists have collected a wealth of data about what happens when aging people with bad habits decide to turn their lives around.

    The heartening conclusion: the body has an amazing ability to heal itself, provided the damage is not too great.

    The effects of some bad habits-smoking, in particular-can haunt you for decades. But the damage from other habits can be largely healed.

    “Any time you improve your behavior and make lifestyle changes, they make a difference from that point on.” says Dr. Jeffey Koplan. “Maybe not right away. It's like slamming on the brakes. You do need a certain distance.”

But the distance can be remarkably short. Consider the recent announcements from the front lines of medical research: —A study concluded that women who consume as little as two servings of fish a week cut their risk of suffering a stroke to half that of women who eat less than one serving of fish a month. —The day you quit smoking, the carbon monoxide levels in your body drop dramatically. Within weeks, your blood becomes less sticky and your risk of dying from a heart attack starts to decline ... Adopting healthy habits won't cure all that bothers you, of course. But doctors believe that many chronic diseases-from high blood pressure to heart disease and even some cancers-can be warded off with a few sensible changes in lifestyle.

    Not sure where to start? Surprisingly, it doesn't matter, since one positive change usually leads to another. Make enough changes, and you'll discover you've adopted a new way of life.