When I looked at the grade on my math paper my jaw (下巴) almost dropped to the ground: a big “65” in bright red ink. I had never received such a terrible grade before.

    I was so ashamed that when I got home that afternoon I lied to my dad. I told him I got 85 and that the report wouldn't come until the end of the month. Dad smiled. His daughter would never lie about her grade, so he didn't doubt the unusual delay (延迟) of my report.

    A month later, Dad casually (随意地) asked me again about the report at the dinner table. He looked right into my eyes and asked for an answer. Having no choice. I told him that I had in fact got just 65 in my math final. I had lied because I didn't want to let him down.

    For a moment, he just looked at me. I would have preferred a telling off (斥责) than that silence. Finally, Dad said, m a hurt voice, “You have already let me down, with your lie. I am not disappointed at your math score. That is no big deal-on one can be perfect all the time. But I am very disappointed in you. If you can't be honest with your dad. who can you be honest with? It's much easier to achieve a better grade than rebuild someone else's trust in you.”

    Dad's words touched my heart. I couldn't forgive (原谅) myself for having hurt his feelings I took out the report that I had been hiding for weeks, handed to him and apologized, sincerely I realized that my honesty is not only important to me personally, but to those around me that truly care .about my well-being (幸福).

    In one of Shakespeare's plays a character says: “No legacy (遗产) is so rich as honesty.” After the crisis between Dad and me, I began to understand those words.

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    With its snow-covered mountains and a variety of wildlife, Yellow Stone National Park is one of the scenic treasures of the United States. Located primarily in Wyoming, the park hosts millions of visitors every year. If you plan to travel within the park, keep in mind advice from the National Park Service.

    Seasonal Travel

    Travel varies vastly from season to season. Roads are generally open in the summer except for cases of rock or mud slides, wild fires, accidents or road construction. Early snows in the fall can cause some roads to close temporarily. In the winter almost all roads are closed to motor vehicles, but snowmobiles and other snow vehicles with tracks are allowed. Roads begin to open for the spring by the latter part of April but can close if snowfall continues.

    Driving Time

    Grand Loop is the main road through Yellowstone National Park; it passes by most of the major attractions. These include Old Faithful, Yellowstone Lake and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The maximum speed limit on the Grand Loop is 45 miles per hour, but the speed limit drops during some of the winding and twisting sections of this narrow road. Allow yourself at least two days to fully travel the loop due to the size of the park and being sometimes stuck in heavy traffic.

    Safety Awareness

    Buffalo(水牛)often block the roads in the park as they move through the fields. If a group is traveling across the road you are on  you can either wait for them to pass or find an alternative route. If you get out of your vehicle, the National Park Service says to stay at least 25 yards from any buffalo (and 100 yards or more away from bears and wolves). Buffalo are particularly unpredictable and charge people at speeds up to 30 mph.

    You can take your bicycle on any public roads and routes designed for bikes, but bicycles are not allowed on the park roads which are narrow with few shoulders. Altitudes range from 5, 300 to 8, 860 feet. The National Park Service recommends cyclists wear helmets and noticeable clothing.

    Don't put it off, do it now!

    Why do we spend so much time not doing the work we should do, or putting off small jobs that have piled up to create a big problem? Procrastinating, as putting things off like this is called, is in our character we have naturally since birth; we avoid dull or difficult jobs until it's too late to do anything else.

    "We often put things off although we know it will make life more stressful," says Dr. Steel, an authority on the science of motivation. "If these tasks were fun, we'd just do them now. We put off what is difficult or unpleasant, such as the paperwork that needs doing before leaving the office or cleaning the bits of your home that people can't see. But the fact is, the less people procrastinate, the more money they have, the better relationships they have, and the healthier they are." This is obvious when you look at the couples who don't argue about whether anyone has cleaned the kitchen, and the people who simply go for a run instead of endlessly rescheduling it in their heads.

    Of course, there are the rest of us, who feel the small jobs piling up around us daily. "We've evolved to respond to the moment, and not to set our sights too far in an uncertain world," Dr. Steel adds. "We are not set up to appreciate long-term rewards, whether it's the benefit of a four-year degree, doing exercise or dieting. We usually feel the cost now and the reward comes much later." According to Dr. Steel, we have two decision-making systems. They are the limbic, which is responsible for the short term, and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with the future. We bounce between long-term goals and short-term temptations, so we need goals that will translate our plans for the limbic system.

    Let's take the example of students' writing essays. They should set themselves targets and word counts per day. These are thus turned from seemingly endless tasks into something concrete with measured progress. Dr. Steel recommends such techniques, or "pre-commitments", adding that leaving you a month before the "deadline" makes it more likely a task will be completed. The benefit is that you'll avoid the embarrassment of not following up on something people are expecting you to do—telling everyone you are going to take up jogging makes you more likely to do so.

    Overcoming procrastination finally comes down to planning, which, if you're not careful, becomes procrastination in itself. But it is worth making sure you have everything in place. "Successful people don't pretend they don't procrastinate," Dr. Steel says. "People who pretend they have willpower are less successful." Instead, plan for procrastination: make your work environment a temple of productivity by cutting out what stops you paying your attention, so you can really focus on moving forward.

    While the start of a new school year is always exciting, this year was even more so for some elementary school students in Auckland, New Zealand. They became the world's first kids to be "taught" by a digital teacher, Will. Before you start imagining a human-like robot walking around the classroom, Will is just an avatar(化身) that turns up on the students' desktop, tablet, or smartphone screen when called.

    Thanks to a digital camera and microphone, the avatar not only responds to questions the kids may have, but also picks up non-verbal signals. For example, if a student smiles at Will, he responds by smiling back. This two-way communication not only helps draw the students' attention, but also allows the program's developers to monitor their involvement(参与) and make changes if needed.

    Vector's Chief Digital Officer, Nikhil Ravishankar, believes that Will-like avatars could be a novel way to attract the attention of the next generation. He says, "Using a digital human is a very popular method to deliver new information to people, and I have a lot of hope in this technology as a means to deliver rich and educational experience in the future." Greg Cross, the Chief Business Officer for Soul Machines, states that kids who have grown up in this digital time adapt(适应) to new technology quickly, and he hopes to develop the idea of digital humans in the area of educate further.

    The program, in place since August 2018, has been a great success so far. However, no mater how popular it becomes, Will is unlikely to replace human educators any time soon. For one, the avatar's knowledge base is severely limited. But more importantly, even the smartest digital avatars could never predict and react to all the unexpected situations that educators have to deal with on a daily basis. However, it could come in handy as a "personal teacher", providing kids with one-on-one help on the subjects or even topics.

    It is not always a good thing to praise children because "empty" words may make them unhappy. Words such as "well done" may make them doubt their own abilities, a leading psychologist (心理学家) Stephen Grosz has warned. He says that words such as "you're so clever" or "you're such an artist" could also hinder their future development at school. He says that such empty praise causes children to be unhappy as they may say they can't live up to these expectations.

    Instead he advises parents and teachers to praise children less frequently and use words like "trying really hard," Mr. Grosz said, "Empty praise is as bad as thoughtless criticism (批评). People often pay no attention to children's feelings and thoughts." He also mentions research showing that children who are heavily praised probably perform worse at school.

    Some psychologists from Columbia University asked 128 pupils aged 10 and 11 to work out a number of math problems. Afterwards, some were told, "You did really well­—you're so clever." But the researchers told the other group, "You did really well­—you must have tried really hard." Both groups of children were then given more difficult questions and those who had been told they were clever did not do as well as the others.

    He says that when collecting his daughter from a school near their home in North London, he heard a teacher tell her, "You have drawn the most beautiful tree. Well done," Later, after she had done another drawing, the same teacher said, "Wow, you are really an artist." In his book, Mr. Grosz writes, "How could I explain to the teacher that I would prefer it if she did not praise my daughter?"

    As a parent of two children, I strongly agree with Mr. Grosz. I praise them when praising is proven right. I want them to know if I praise them, they have done something beyond my expectation, beyond what they are able to do.