Easy Ways to Keep Your Brain Sharp

    Everyone is forgetful, but as we age, we start to feel like our brains are slowing down a bit — and that can be a very annoying thing. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Read on for some techniques worth trying.

    ⒈ {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    People who regularly made plans and looked forward to upcoming events had a 50 percent reduced chance of Alzheimer's disease (早老性痴呆症), according to a recent study. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Something as simple as setting a goal to have a weekly coffee date with a friend will do. There's evidence that people who have a purpose in life or who are working on long or short-term goals appear to do better. In other words, keep your brain looking forward.

    ⒉ Go for a walk.

    Mildly raised glucose (葡萄糖) levels can harm the area of the brain that helps you form memories and physical activity can help get blood glucose down to normal levels. In fact, exercise produces chemicals that are good for your brain. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    ⒊ Learn something new.

    Take a Spanish class online, join a drawing club, or learn to play cards. A study found that mental stimulation (刺激) limits the weakening effects of aging on memory and the mind. But the best thing for your brain is when you learn something new and are physically active at the same time. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Or go dancing with your friends.

A. Focus on the future.

B. This can be especially harmful to the aged.

C. It should be something like learning gardening.

D. So take a few minutes each day to do some reading.

E. But don't worry if your schedule isn't filled with life-changing events.

F. Luckily, research shows there is a lot you can do to avoid those moments.

G. In other words, when you take care of your body, you take care of your brain.

UK 5 Days

Today:

    A chilly (寒冷的) and frosty start for many this morning, followed by a day of sunshine and local showers. The showers will be slow moving and heavy at times, particularly in the east with a risk of thunder.

Tonight:

    Showers will ease this evening and clear spells (一段时间) will develop, causing a widespread frost. However, rain will push into the northwest during the early hours, turning heavy at times.

Friday:

    Rain, locally heavy, will continue southwestwards through the day with strong winds. Elsewhere, it will be bright with some sunshine.

UK outlook for Saturday to Monday:

    Rain across central parts on Saturday will ease and move northwards. Largely dry elsewhere with some misty sunshine. A mixture of sunshine and showers on Sunday and Monday, turning warmer.

    Updated at 04:04 on Thur. 31 Mar.

UK 6-30 days

UK outlook for Tuesday 5 Apr. to Wednesday 13 Apr.:

    A generally unsettled picture is likely next week, with showers or longer spells of rain affecting the majority of the UK, but with some drier and sunnier interludes (间歇). Temperatures will probably be around normal for most, but central and southeastern areas may see some warmer air moving up from the continent at times. The week after next will probably continue to be changeable with showers or longer spells of rain crossing the UK, but with some brighter and drier interludes in between. Temperatures may become rather low across the north and northwest later next week.

    Updated at 12:36 on Wed. 30 Mar.

UK outlook for Thursday 14 Apr. to Saturday 30 Apr.:

    It is likely to be changeable with a mixture of sunny spells and showers. However, some longer drier spells are also likely, particularly in northwestern areas. Overall temperatures will remain around normal for the time of year but with some warmer spells developing at times.

    Updated at 12:37 on Wed.30 Mar.

    Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world.

    When it comes to cancer, the sooner you know you have it, the better your chances of surviving are.

    A new blood test could change the way doctors and researchers find cancer in patients. Researchers say the test could provide some hints of the early forms of the disease.

    Gareth Jenkins is a professor at the University of Swansea. He says he and his team did not look for cancer. They instead looked for a by-product of cancer, mutated (突变的) red blood cells. They looked for, what Jenkins calls, the collateral (附带的) damage of cancer—the damage left by the disease.

    “In this blood test we don't measure the presence of cancer，we measure the presence of mutated red blood cells which are the collateral damage that occurs—a by-product of the cancer developing.''

    The researchers used normal laboratory equipment to perform the tests. This equipment looks for changes in the structure of millions of red blood cells. Those mutated cells lack a surface protein (蛋白质) that healthy cells normally have.

    “The goal of the test is looking for very rare cells which have picked up a mutation. The number of mutated red blood cells in a healthy person is around 5 or so mutated cells per million; so, you have to look at millions of red blood cells to discover those rare events. The number increases in cancer patients—it goes up to 40 or 50 on average.”

    The researchers tested blood from about 300 people, all of whom have cancer of the esophagus (食管). Patients with esophageal cancer have high levels of mutated red blood cells. Jenkins says that at this point he is not sure if other cancers would produce similar results.

    The hope is that the new test could one day become part of commonly used medical methods to find out if a person has cancer. These new technologies could save millions of lives.

    The African elephant, which is the largest land animal remaining on earth, is of great importance to African ecosystem. Unlike other animals, the African elephant is to a great extent the builder of its environment. As a big plant-eater, it largely shapes the- forest-and-savanna (大草原) surroundings in which it lives, therefore setting the terms of existence for millions of other animals that live in its habitat.

    It is the elephant's great desire for food that makes it a disturber of the environment and an important builder of its habitat. In its continuous search for the 300 pounds of plants it must have every day, it kills small trees and under-bushes, and pulls branches off big trees. This results in numerous open spaces in both deep tropical forests and in the woodlands that cover part of the African savannas. In these open spaces are numerous plants in various stages of growth that attract a variety of other plant-eaters.

    Take the rain forests for example. In their natural state, the spreading branches overhead shut out sunlight and prevent the growth of plants on the forest floor. By pulling down trees and eating plants, elephants make open spaces, allowing new plants to grow on the forest floor. In such situations, the forests become suitable for large hoofed plant-eaters to move around and for small plant-eaters to get their food as well.

    What worries scientists now is that the African elephant has become an endangered species. If the elephant disappears, scientists say, many other animals will also disappear from vast areas of forest and savanna, greatly changing and worsening the whole ecosystem.

    Each year, we are exposed to ten thousand ads on average. They try to sell us their products by using beautiful art, videos, images or slogans that are catchy. The most famous companies have highly popular logos that can be recognized by almost everybody. For those of you who have seen the movie Finding Forrester, there is that scene where Jamal walks up to some guy with a BMW and asks him what the car logo means. The man did not know the answer and since that day, whenever I see a famous company logo I try to find the meaning of it.

    Many think the horse on the Ferrari logo represents the horsepower of the cars they manufacture. The story behind it is far more interesting. During World War I, a pilot, Count Francesco Baracca, painted the horse on his airplane to bring him luck. He had it on his plane because it was the logo of his squadron（空军中队）. Baracca's mother then convinced Enzo Ferrari to put the logo on his racing cars in the early 1930's to bring good luck to the drivers. The logo then stayed the same ever since. The yellow on the background represents the birthplace of Enzo Ferrari.

    Starbucks started in 1971, in Seattle. The mermaid（美人鱼）represented on the logo is now known by any coffee drinker. It is a mythological sea creature with the look of a female, the only difference being that they have a tail of a fish. The reason why Starbucks incorporated one in their company logo is that it was believed that mermaids used to sing to sailors in order to make them walk away from their ship or to ground their ships. In the 1500s, spices, tea and coffee were popular merchandise to trade. So the mermaid in the logo of Starbucks is the one that "brings" coffee and tea to the stores.

    Outside, it's a cold winter's day. Inside a large shopping center, people are hanging around. But then, without warning, a pop song starts to play loudly. A teenager boy walks lazily to the center of the open space, and dances crazily to the music. He's joined by two of his friends, then some of the old people. Within the space of a few seconds, more than sixty people are dancing to the music - all in time and all in step. At first, onlookers are baffled, then they start smiling and clapping. They now know what they're seeing: a flash mob （快闪）.

    According to Wikipedia, the term "flash mob" was created by Bill Wasik, an editor at Harper's Magazine, in 2003. Within a year, the phrase had entered the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Since then, hundreds - possibly thousands - of flash mobs have been carried out around the world, in almost every kind of public space imaginable!

    Each flash mob has its own style, but most flash mobs follow a similar formula （方案）. Often, the organizers search for willing participants using social media. Instructions and dance moves are given through email or video download. There are usually several rehearsals （排练） before the big day.

    While it's happening, a few lucky passers-by watch it live. Most people who watch it, however, will see it later online. Some of the most popular flash mobs on YouTube have been watched more than 10million times. A famous example is MP3Experiment Eight, a flash mob that took place in New York City in July 2011 with over 3,500 participants. This event differed from normal flash mobs in that much of it was completely silent - and there were no rehearsals.

    Flash mobs provide the participants, onlookers and online viewers with a lot of enjoyment and pleasure. For this reason alone, they're a modern, popular art form that should be celebrated.