Baby girls make their way to dolls as soon as they can crawl, while boys will head for the toy cars,  a study has shown. The findings, the first to show consistent differences in very young babies, suggest there is a biological basis to their preferences.

    Psychologists Dr Brenda Todd from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 babies aged nine months to 36 months. They were allowed to choose from seven toys. Some were boys' toys - a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy.  The rest were girls' toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set. They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked. Their choice and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded.

    Of the youngest children (nine to 14 months), girls spent much longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did. Among the two-and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it. The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched. There was no link between the parents' view on which toys were more appropriate for boys or girls, and the children's choice.

    Dr Brenda Todd said: “Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization. Boys may be given ‘toys that go' while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preference. But these findings agree with the former idea that children show natural interests in particular kinds of toys. There could be a biological basis for their choices. Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts（本能）, while girls prefer warmer colors such as pink, the color of a newborn baby.”

    Norway — Ten Chinese college students arrived at the country's Arctic（北极的） research base, the Yellow River Station, on Friday.

    On Saturday, the students are expected to witness the end of four months of darkness in the area, as the sun makes a rare appearance.

    During their four-day stay at the station, the students will meet and learn from some of China's leading polar researchers. They were welcomed at the station yesterday by its director, He Jianfeng, who is an expert on marine micro-ecosystems.

    The students will also visit the German and Norwegian stations and meet researchers there.

    As for entertainment, the visitors will get the chance to play ice hockey at the world's most northerly stadium.

    Among the visitors is Zheng Li, a student majoring in telecommunications at Dalian Marinetime University.

     “It is so exciting to see how the Chinese researchers work in the world's most northerly laboratory,” she said.

     “This opportunity is precious. Most people will never get the chance to travel so far from home and visit such an amazing place. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

    Wu Jinyou, head of the Polar Research Institute of China, and the group's leader, said, “I hope the students have not only a field trip to the Yellow River station, but are also touched by the devotion and spirit of the Chinese researchers here. I also expect in the future, some of them will choose to devote themselves to polar research and maybe even work with us.”

    The students have been in Norway since February 28, and were given Arctic training before moving to the station.

    The Arctic expedition is one of the several international cooperation and exchange activities forming the China Program for International Polar Year (2007- 2008). It was launched last March.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency, March 8, 2008)

    Make A Difference Day is the largest national day of community service in the USA, which takes place on the fourth Saturday of October.

    Who takes part in Make A Difference Day?

    Anyone! Young and old, individuals and groups, anyone can carry out a volunteer project that helps others. It might be as ambitious as collecting truckloads of clothing for the homeless, or as personal as spending an afternoon helping an elderly neighbor or relative. USA WEEKEND covers volunteers and their projects in articles and photos.

    How do I get started?

    Look around your community. Are people hungry, homeless or ill? Are parks or schools dirty or neglected? No matter where you live, there's a need nearby. And on Make A Difference Day, millions of Americans are expected to roll up their sleeves to help others. You can act alone or enlist your friends, family and co-workers. You can also call the Make A Difference Day Hot Line, 1-800-416-3824, for information. Or use the ideas on this website for inspiration.

    What do I do after I've selected a project?

    Tell others what you're doing and enlist help. Several weeks before the day, tell us about your plans in the Make A Difference DAYtaBANK, a national listing of local projects that will be viewed by interested volunteers, other people looking for good project ideas and news media looking for good stories to tell. It will only take a few minutes to post your plans in the DAYtaBANK hosted by HandsOn Network.

    Do it!

    Carry out your plans to help others on Make A Difference Day. Be sure to take lots of pictures and share them on the Make A Difference Day Photo Album.

    Imagination and fantasy can play an important role in achieving the things we fear. Children know this very well. Fred Epstein, in his book If I Make It to Five, tells a story he heard from one of friends about Tom, a four-year-old boy with a cancer in his back bone. He came through several operations and a lot of pain by mastering his imagination.

    Tom loved to pretend, and he particularly loved to play superheroes, Dr. Epstein explained that it was actually a brilliant way for his young mind to handle the terrifying and painful life he led.

    The day before his third trip to the operating room, Tom was terribly afraid. ”Maybe I could go as Superman,”he whispered to his mom. Hearing this, the mother hesitated for a while. She had avoided buying the expensive costume（戏装），finally she agreed.

    The next day Tom appeared as the powerful Superman, showing off through the hospital halls and coolly waving his hand to the people greeting him along the way. And Tom, with the strength of his fantasy, successfully made it through the operation.

    The power of imagination need not be reserved for children only. We all have the power to use our fantasies to attempt things we never thought possible, to go through those things that seem impossible, and to achieve what we never believed we could. Just as Dr. Epstein puts it, ”If you can dream it, you can do it.”

    It doesn't mean that you should dress as a superhero for your next job interview. But, next time you are texted in a way that seems impossible, imagine what it would take to overcome it .Become the person you need to become to win over your challenge and do it in your mind first. So, let your imagination run wild, and dare to dream.

    You've probably heard people expressing alarm about the spread of 'fake news' – stories that look like news articles but describe things that never happened. Fake news is written to attract attention, to trick people so they will look foolish, or to work as satire (讽刺) making a point about society. But regardless of the source's motivation, spreading fake news embarrasses you and harms others, so follow these steps to ensure you only share real news.

    Check its grammar

    Legal news sites check their grammar carefully, so articles with many errors are usually fake. Also watch out for sentences written in all capital(大写的) letters and the use of multiple exclamation points(感叹号) at the ends of sentences. These are designed to bring about an emotional reaction, but they aren't considered professional, so trustworthy publications don't use them.

    Read the whole article

    Even in real news articles, headlines sometimes overstate or simplify the point of the article. Before reacting, read the article carefully to make sure you understand the whole context. Sometimes the claims of fake news articles become unreasonable as the article goes on.

    Consider the source

    If you've never heard of the publication, check the 'About' section on its website. Fake news sites often lack such a page, provide little information or even admit that they are fake. Also check an online article's URL; if it ends with '.com.co', it's probably a fake news site.

    Check the support

    Does the article support its claims with quotations and citations(引用)from experts? If not, don't trust it. If so, you should still look up those sources and make sure they actually say what the article claims. There are also websites, such as snopes.com, that will tell you whether the facts in online articles are accurate.

    We live in a world where new technologies and new methods are constantly being introduced. As humans, we are learning machines. We are most alive and functioning closest to our potential when we are learning, adapting, adjusting and finding new ways, approaches and techniques to improve our lives or the lives of others in some way.

    Learning does not finish when we leave school. Learning can become a way of life that helps us to achieve our greatest potential. We shall never stop learning, as there is always something new and interesting to discover.

    Lifelong learners never fail, because failure isn't in the vocabulary. Failure is just defined as "a failure to learn".

    When a project does not go according to the plan, lifelong learners ask themselves "What can I learn from this？" and follow up with" How can I do this differently and achieve my outcome？"They do not say, "I did not get to my goal, so I must be a failure."

    There is a wonderful saying: "The only way to fail is to quit！" Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, said, "The only reason I am standing up here and you aren't is that I have failed more often than you have."

    It is sad but true that our greatest lessons come from our greatest failures.The important thing is the lesson. There is no such thing as failure as long as there is a lesson to be learned.

    Learn something new every single day. Three very good reasons for becoming a lifelong learner include promoting your brain's health, giving your life a sense of purpose and promoting your financial security. Any one of these reasons should be enough, but all three combine to a powerful motivation to learn.