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      A glass a day keeps obesity at bay. Wine has always been thought to cause weight gain because of its high sugar content, but new research suggests a glass a day could form part of a diet. Looking at past studies they found that, while heavy drinkers do put on weight, those who drink in moderation can actually lose weight.

    A scientist for the research team at Navarro University in Spain says, “Proper drinking may be more likely to protect against, rather than promote, weight gain.” An official organization reviewed the findings and agreed with most of the conclusions, particularly that present data do not clearly show if proper drinking increases weight.

    Boston University's Dr. Harvey Finkel found that the reasons relating alcohol (酒精) to changes in body weight are not properly understood. His team pointed out the strong protective effects (效果) of proper drinking on the risk of getting conditions like diabetes (糖尿病), which relate to increasing obesity. Some studies suggest that even very fat people may be at lower risk of diabetes if they are moderate drinkers.

    The group says alcohol provides energy that is quickly absorbed into the body and is not stored in fat, and that this process could explain the differences in its effects from those of other foods. They agree that future research should be directed towards assessing the roles of different types of alcoholic drinks, taking drinking patterns into consideration.

    For now there is little evidence that drinking small to moderate amounts of alcohol on a regular basis increases one's risk of becoming too fat. What's more, a study three years ago suggested that a chemical found in grapes and red wine, destroys fat cells.

    Grown-ups are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practiced ever since. A man who has not had a chance to go swimming for years can still swim as well as even when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after many years and still ride away. He can play catch and hit a ball as well as his son. A mother who has not thought about the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" or remember the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

    One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, additional learning trials(尝试) increase the length of time we will remember it.

    In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.

    The multiplication tables(乘法口诀表) are an exception(例外) to the general rule that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood.

    The law of overlearning explains why cramming(突击学习)for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one's future development.

Dear Mom and Dad,

    I'm afraid I have some very bad news for you. I have been very naughty and the school master is very angry with me. She is going to write to you. You must come and take me away from here. She does not want me in the school any longer. The trouble started last night when I was smoking a cigarette in bed. As I was smoking, I heard footsteps coming towards the room .I did not want a teacher to catch me smoking, so I threw the cigarette away. Unfortunately, the cigarette fell into the waste--paper basket. It caught fire.

    There was a curtain near the waste --paper basket. It caught fire too. Soon the whole room was burning. The master phoned the fire brigade. The school is a long way from the town and before the fire brigade arrived, the whole school was on fire. The master said that the fire was all my fault and I must pay for the damage. She will send you a bill for about a million dollars.

    I'm very sorry for this.

    Much love

Sarah

    From childhood, Moira loved to write. Throughout school she enjoyed writing, but pursuing it professionally was never a possibility. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse. “Medicine was a fairly safe choice,” Moira says, “and writing was a career where it wasn't a certainty that you'd have high income.”

    She became a doctor but still wanted to write something. However, being a doctor was so demanding that she didn't take up writing until her thirties. She produced a novel—a fictionalized version of her travel in China after university. She got excellent reviews. Moira sent it off to as many agents as she could find, and found one who wanted to represent her. Suddenly, it seemed she was on her way as an author.

    “I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we went through all possible areas that she thought needed polishing. I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn't hear anything.” It wasn't long before Moira found another agent who was interested if she was willing to rewrite it from the first person to the third person. She did the hard work and sent it off again. “I got back a really brief letter: 'Thank you, I'm no longer interested.' It was really disappointing.”

    A decade went by, and Moira found herself eager to write again, this time purely for her own enjoyment. She set herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.

    As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen. “The characters took on a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn't thought about. It just flew.” One day, an agent called from Australia. Three weeks later, Moira had a publication deal. Her novel, Cicada, was published in March.

    “Even if it hadn't been published I still gained so much from the process,” says Moira.

    When athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics collect their medals, they'll not only be wearing something that celebrates their sporting performance, but something that symbolizes lastingness. For both the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, organizers aim to make all of the gold, silver, and bronze medals out of used electronics. This strong message about how to make use of e-waste has gotten a lot of Japan involved.

    Starting in April 2017, the Japanese Olympic Committee began collecting old laptops, digital cameras, smartphones, and other abandoned electronics. The initiative (倡议) has achieved great success. Already, the quantity needed for bronze medals has been met, and they're in the homestretch for silver and gold medals, meaning the collection process can pack up at the end of March.

    When looking just at the number of cell phones collected, the amount of waste is shocking. In a period of about 18 months, a little over 5 million smartphones were collected thanks to cooperation with NTT DOCOMO. Japan's largest mobile phone operator allowed the public to turn in phones at their shops, which counted a lot in the project's success.

    After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics underwent a smelting process to extract (提炼) all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. Thanks to this initiative, the worldwide struggle with e-waste will have a global platform. According to a study published by the United Nations University—44.7 million metric tons of e-waste were made in 2016. Only 20% of that was actually recycled. Unfortunately, this figure is set to rise significantly in the coming years, moving to 52.2 million metric tons by 2021. So while the Tokyo Olympics initiative might be just a drop in the bucket, it's a good start in showing what the public can do if they're made more aware of the issue.

A Lesson Plan from Life Planning Education: A Youth Development Program

    Purpose: To learn about body language and how to use body language.

    Materials (材料): Cards; container

    Time: 25-35 minutes

    Planning Notes:

    ·Write the words below on cards:

    angry disappointed shy afraid sad happy nervous excited bored

    ·Place the cards in the container so volunteers can draw them out one at a time.

    Steps:

    First make sure that all volunteers know what body language means (expressing feelings through body movement and facial expressions). Go over the following instructions:

    ·I'll need at least 9 volunteers to play a game similar to charades (猜词游戏).

    ·The first volunteer will draw a card with a feeling written on it and act out the feeling without using words.

    ·The rest of the group will guess what feeling is being communicated. Once someone correctly guesses the feeling, the next person in line will draw a card and act out what is written on it, again without words.

    ·The game will continue until there are no more cards or until time is up.

    At last, end the activity using the discussion points below:

    ·Can you give examples of when someone's body language communicated a different message from what he/she actually skid?

    ·Sometimes one person is offended (冒犯) by another's body language. How can you work to keep that from happening? Answers may include: be honest and direct; match your nonverbal messages to your verbal ones; be aware of (清楚) cultural attitudes toward different kinds of body language.