From the very beginning of school we make books and reading a constant source of possible failure and public humiliation. When children are little we make them read aloud, before the teacher and other children, so that we can be sure they “know” all the words they are reading. This means that when they don't know a word, they are going to make a mistake, right in front of everyone. After having taught fifth-grade classes for four years, I decided to try at all costs to rid them of their fear and dislike of books, and to get them to read oftener and more adventurously.

    One day soon after school had started, I said to them, “Now I'm going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of  books this year, but I want you to read them only for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that's enough for me. Also I'm not going to ask you what words mean. “

    The children sat stunned and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and seriously, Mr Holt, do you really mean that?” I said just as seriously, “I mean every word of it.

    During the spring she really astonished me. One day, she was reading at her desk, From a glimpse of the illustrations I thought I knew what the book was. I said to myself, “It can't be,” and went to take a closer look. Sure enough, she was reading Moby Dick , in edition with woodcuts. I said, “Don't you find parts of it rather heavy going?” She answered, Oh, sure, but I just skip over those parts and go on to the next good part. “

    This is exactly what reading should be and in school so seldom is, an exciting, joyous adventure. Find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, go on to something else. How different is our mean-spirited, picky insistence that every child get every last little scrap of “understanding” that can be dug out of a book.

    Mom wanted only one thing for her birthday. “Can you find me another copy of this song?” she asked, and handed me a worn-out cassette tape (磁带). I knew exactly what was recorded on it: My Redeemer (救世主). I heard the song played at least a thousand times while growing up. After so many years, the cassette tape was too worn out to be used. I promised her I would find a replacement.

    My Redeemer became Mom's favorite song after my younger brother Tim was killed by a drunk driver in 1973. The only thing that helped her calm down was the soulful sound of My Redeemer from the local radio station.

       We recorded it on a cassette tape so she could listen to it any time she wanted but none of us knew who the soloist (独唱者) was. These days, I thought the song would be easy to find out. I went home and searched the Internet. Several songs with that title popped up, but none of them was the one Mom loved. I got frustrated.

    Mom's birthday drew near and then one day, I was driving home, listening to our local radio station. A familiar tune came on. It was My Redeemer! As soon as I could, I phoned the station. I got a line on the soloist, who was called Alan Parks. I typed his name into Google and found his home number in South Carolina. Minutes later, I was telling him how much his recording meant to Mom. He offered to ship two CDs out to me personally. I gave him my address.

    'Red Lion, Pennsylvania?' he said. 'Do you know the Logans?' 'They are our neighbors!' 'I've been friends with them for 25 years,' Alan said. 'They'll be at my concert at York Gospel Chapel on April 17th. Would you and your mom come too” We sure would. Mom was excited to hear Alan sing My Redeemer to her, live in concert —on the evening of her 87th birthday.

    The pursuit of longevity has long been on people's minds, prompting an abundance of research on the effects of food and diet on the human lifespan. According to recent research from the UC Irvine Institute, drinking coffee and wine could help you live longer.

    The 90+ Study evaluated more than 1,600 people over the age of 90 for their lifestyle habits and other qualities that might have contributed to their longevity.

    Participants were visited every six months, when they were given various tests. Researchers also collected information about the participants' diets, lifestyles, and medical histories.

    They found out that two of the habits that helped preserve lives the most are drinking alcohol and coffee. “I have no explanation for it,” admitted Dr Claudia Kawas, “but I do firmly believe that moderate (适度的) drinking improves longevity.” So should we all be drinking more coffee and wine? While that would be great news, the research may not be as definitive as it seems.

    “Most studies about alcohol consumption, including The 90+ Study, are observational, so we  can only say that something about drinking is associated with health and longevity,” registered dietitian Jennifer Markowitz told The Daily Meal.

    “I'd be curious to see if the coffee and alcohol drinkers shared other important habits or lifestyle factors that might also play into their longevity.”

    In other words, it might not be the wine and coffee that's helping people live longer, but the two substances do have some considerable health benefits. “Wine and coffee are packed with antioxidants(抗氧化剂) which are known to protect our bodies from damage caused by free radicals,” explained registered dietitian Keri Gans to The Daily Meal. “Research on antioxidants has shown several heath benefits, including the possibility they may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, improve cognitive function, decrease the risk of dementia, and lower the risk of heart disease.”

    Moderate drinking can be beneficial according to other studies—so long as it's moderate.

    Papa was a ranger. He worked with horses. He always wore clean clothes with a hat even when he worked. His hat was always the same kind of a cowboy hat—large black hat of heavy wool. He wore his hat full and high. I think he wanted to look taller than he really was.

    Mama was proud of the way he looked when he wore his hat and his best clothes. But in some way she got the idea that papa would lose his hair if he kept wearing a heavy wool cowboy hat in the hot weather. She began to talk about his hat.

    "Papa, "she said one day, "why don't you get a nice cool straw hat? That heavy wool cowboy hat may cause losing hair!" Papa laughed at her and explained that the horses wouldn't recognize him if he changed the hat. But she didn't believe him.

    Mama talked and talked about the hat all summer long. At last papa answered, a little angry, "It would not the cowboy hat but a wife's talking about the hat that makes me lose my hair."

    Mama had a very serious look on her face. She went straight out and later came home with a straw hat. It was a bad year for ranger and we didn't have much money. She thought that if she spent the money for a straw hat, papa would wear it. When papa saw the hat, his face got red. Without a word, he pulled the straw hat down over his head until it hid his eyes and went on to train the horses.

    He was a good ranger and gentle to his horses. But as papa got close to the horses this time, they jumped high into the air, raising their front feet. All of them ran around in the rounded field and then raced toward the barn. Papa began to shout "Woo boys. Steady boys, steady." But there was nothing equal to.

    Papa walked back straight to the stove in the kitchen, pushed the straw hat deep down into the fire then turned to mama, in a way that even frightened me. "Now listen to me, mama. Understand this I will never wear a straw hat or any other kind of hat my horses do not like. "Then he put on his wool cowboy hat and walked out of the house.

    I never heard mama talk any more about hats. Perhaps, that is why when papa died many years later, there was a round spot on the top of his head where there was no hair.

    People have strange ideas about food. For example, tomato is a kind of very delicious vegetable. It is one of useful plants that can be prepared in many ways. It has rich nutrition(营养) and vitamin in it. But in the 18th century, Americans never ate tomatoes. They grew them in their gardens because tomato plants are so pretty. But they thought the vegetable was poisonous(有毒的). They called tomatoes "poison apples".

    President Thomas Jefferson, however, know that tomatoes were good to eat. He was a learned man. He had been to Paris, where he learned to love the taste of tomatoes. He grew many kinds of tomatoes in his garden. The President taught his cook a way for a cream of tomato soup. This beautiful pink soup was served at the President party. The guests thought the soup tasted really good. They never thought their president would serve his honored guests poison apples. Jefferson never spoke to his honored guests about the fact.

What makes preschoolers eat their vegetables? Raise their hand? Wait their turn? "Because I say so" is a comment that parents often repeat. But when it comes to getting kids to behave, a recent study by Duke University researchers suggests that the voice of adult authority isn't the only thing that matters. Around age three, fitting in with the group starts to count big too.

To understand what cause preschoolers to fall    in    line, the researchers conducted a test in a lab, where they invited 3.5-year-olds to help set up for a pretend tea party. Each of the 104 children was given a blue sticker (贴纸) to wear at the start of the study, and told that the people with that color sticker were part of the same team. Next the researchers watched as the children decided among different kinds of teas, snacks, cups and plates for the tea party, first on their own and then after listening to the choices of other team members.

Sometimes the other team members considered their choice as a matter of personal preference ("For my tea party today, I feel like using this snack.") Other times they presented it as a need shared by the whole group. ("For our tea parties today, we always use this kind of snack.")

After listening to the choices of others, most of the time the children stuck with their first choice. In other words, children who had said they felt like using, say, the cookie finally picked the cookie no matter what the other person said they were using. But 23% of the time the children changed their choice to accept someone else's. And when they did, they were more likely to go along with the other person when a choice was presented as a group need rather than just a personal preference. The finding held up even when the other person was another child, not an adult.