What's your dream vacation? Watching wildlife in Kenya? Boating down the Amazon? Sunbathing in Malaysia? New chances are opening up all the time to explore the world.So we visit travel agents, compare packages and prices, and pay our money.

    We know what our vacation costs us.But do we know what it might cost someone else?It's true that many poorer countries now depend on tourism for foreign income.Unfortunately,though.tourism often harms the local people more than it helps them

    It might cost their homes and lands.In Myanmar.5.200 people were forced to leave their homes among the pagodas(佛塔）in Bagan so that tourists could visit the pagodas.

    Tourism might also cost the local people their livelihood（生计）and dignity（尊严）.Local workers often find only jobs with slim salaries in the tourist industry.And most of the profits（利润）do not help the local economy. Instead,profits return to the tour operators in wealthier countries,When the Maasai people in Tanzania were driven（驱赶）from their lands,some moved to city slums.Others now make a little money selling souvenirs or posing(摆姿势）for photos.

    Problems like these were observed more than 20 years ago.But now some non-government organizations,tour operators and local governments are working together to begin correcting them.Tourists,too,are putting on the pressure.

    The result is responsible tourism,or ethical tourism.Ethical tourism has people at its heart.New international agreements and codes of conduct（行为准则）can help protect the people's lands homes,economies and cultures.The beginnings are small,though,and the problems are complex.

    But take heart. The good news is that everyone,including us,can play a part to help the local people in the places we visit Tour operators and companies can help by making sure that local people work in good conditions and earn reasonable wages.

    They can make it a point to use only locally owned hotel restaurants and guide services.They can share profits fairly to help the local economy And they can involve the local people in planning and managing tourism.

    What can tourists do? First, we can ask tour companies to provide information about the conditions of local citizens.We can then make our choices and tell them why. And while we're abroad, we can: Buy local foods and products, not imported ones.

    Pay a fair price for goods and services and not bargain for the cheapest price.

    Avoid flaunting wealth.

    Ask before talking photographs of people.They are not just part of the landscape!

    Let's enjoy our vacation and make sure others do,too.

    We humans spend about one-third of our lives asleep. This may sound like a lot of time, but it is not wasted. Sleep not only helps us stay healthy but it also helps our brains remember. Our brains need good sleep to remember what we do and learn during the other two thirds of our lives when we are awake.

    Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that sleep helps improve brain performance by shrinking(收缩)synapses in the brain. A synapse is the area where cells pass messages to other cells.

    Scientist Chiara Cirelli is a leader at the school's Center for Sleep and Consciousness. She told the reporter that sleep is when the human brain mixes information it has learned while awake into its general collection of knowledge. Meanwhile, the brain forgets unimportant details. This forgetting is important. It makes space for new learning and new memories.

    Cirelli said that the Centers research began with this hypothesis(假设): We sleep so that our brain can repair and refresh itself. She said the idea seems simple and reasonable. However, testing and discovering how it works has been extremely difficult.

    Synapses are only about 20-40 nanometers(纳米)wide. The team began their study by measuring the size of the synapses to look for changes in these already tiny spaces between nerve cells. Cirelli says the process(过程) is difficult because"all the actual measurements of the synapses have to be done by hand." The team had to wait until improvements in laboratory technology made it possible to see these tiny changes. A University of Wisconsin press release called the research a"huge job." Many research specialists worked for four years to photograph, rebuild and study certain areas of a mouse brain. The report also said the scientists measured 6,920 synapses.

    Cirelli says they found that our synapses shrink as our brains clean themselves during sleep. We wake up refreshed and ready to fill those synapses with new information. The research findings are the result of years of hard work at the University of Wisconsin Madison. The researchers published their findings in the journal Science.

    According to new research from the University of Cambridge in England, sheep are able to recognize human faces from photographs.

    The farm animals, who are social and have large brains, were previously known to be able to recognize one another, as well as familiar humans. However, their ability to recognize human faces from photos alone is novel.

    The recent study, the results of which were published in the journal Royal Society showed that the woolly creatures could be trained to recognize still images of human faces, including those of former President Barack Obama and actress Emma Watson.

    Initially, the sheep were trained to approach certain images by being given food rewards. Later, they were able to recognize the image for which they had been rewarded. The sheep could even recognize images of faces shown at an angle, though their ability to do so declined by about 15 percent - the same rate at which a human's ability to perform the same task declines.

    “Anyone who has spent time working with sheep will know that they are intelligent, individual animals who are able to recognize their handlers,” said Professor Jenny Morton, who led the Cambridge study. “We've shown with our study that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys.”

    Recognizing faces is one of the most important social skills for human being, and some disorders of the brain, including Huntington's disease, affect this ability.

    “Sheep are long-lived and have brains that are similar in size and complexity to those of some monkeys. That means they can be useful models to help us understand disorders of the brain, such as Huntington's disease, which develops over a long time and affects cognitive abilities. Our study gives us another way to monitor how these abilities change.” Morton said.

    Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.

    Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.

    But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard patterns into which they report each day's events. In other words, there is a traditional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.

    There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard patterns" of the newsroom seem foreign to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.

    Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.

    Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite (精英), so their work tends to reflect the traditional values of this elite. The alarming distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily conflict of world views between reporters and their readers.

    This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums (讨论会) and a credibility project devoted to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class prejudices that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.

    To develop one's taste in English, the most effective way is to read English books extensively. Yet one may be at a loss to choose the appropriate books, especially as a beginner. As a native Spanish, I would like to share some of my experience.

    My first English novel was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, recommended by many English teachers and professors as an ideal book for English learners. But my experience was somewhat disastrous. I had great difficulty in understanding the novel, let alone enjoying it. It's not the vocabulary that troubled me, but rather the way Austen constructs sentences, and her way of thinking, which seemed too remote to me at that time. My fading enthusiasm was much recovered after reading Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms. No long and complicated sentences. And I particularly liked his brief and straightforward (简洁的) style. So my first suggestion is, as a beginner, you'd better choose contemporary novels instead of classical ones.

    However, if you restrict yourself to novels you will miss a lot of treasures. English essays can at once inform you, entertain you, and improve your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell's work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance and the peculiar sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy within the reach of ordinary people. Here comes my second suggestion—essays are indispensable.

    Never follow others' recommendations and opinions blindly, however famous or influential (有很大影响的) the person might be. We should be open to various ideas, but always think and determine for ourselves. As a saying goes, one man's meat is another man's poison. With that in mind, we are bound to find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English.

When David Carter started to study art at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin in 1971, he had big dreams of becoming an artist or a writer. But his study came to a stop at 23 after he hurt his hand in an unpleasant event. He developed schizophrenia(精神分裂症) later and spent many years without a home.

Carter liked to spend time around UT, because he dreamt of being able to continue his study in the university and becoming a writer. After running into Carter many times, UT student Ryan Chandler decided to interview him for a project for the Daily Texan, the student newspaper of UT.

"I interviewed him on Austin's homeless problems. After I heard his story, we kept in touch and really became friends. I learned he wanted to get back to UT, so I decided to help him," said Chandler. "He had got 87 hours, very close to a degree. Now, with changing degree requirements, he only has 64 hours to go."

With the help of Chandler, who worked with the university office, Carter was assigned an adviser by UT's College of Fine Arts. "It' s the greatest gift I've ever received," Carter said. "He did what had to be done to get me back to school, and I couldn't have done it without him"

After seeing a magazine article about Carter, a UT schoolmate decided to pay his tuition fees (学费)without telling Chandler his name.

Doug Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts, said in a statement, "David Carter's decision to complete his degree is a testament (证明) to finishing well what was started, and stopped, even many years earlier. We welcome him back as we do many students each year whose education could not be completed easily. We're going to help him through his remaining course work."