In agrarian(农业的), pre-industrial Europe,“you'd want to wake up early, start working with the sunrise, have a break to have the largest meal, and then you'd go back to work,”says Ken Albala, a professor of history at the University of the Pacific.“Later, at 5 or 6, you'd have a smaller supper.”

    This comfortable cycle, in which the rhythms of the day helped shape the rhythms of the meals, gave rise to the custom of the large midday meal, eaten with the extended family.“Meals are the foundation of the family,”says Carole Couniban, a professor at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, “so there was a very important interconnection between eating together and strengthening family ties.”

    Since industrialization, maintaining such a slow cultural metabolism has been much harder, with the long midday meal shrinking to whatever could be stuffed into a lunch bucket or bought at a food stand. Certainly, there were benefits. Modern techniques for producing and shipping food led to greater variety and quantity, including a tremendous increase in the amount of animal protein and dairy products available, making us more energetic than our ancestors.

    Yet plenty has been lost too, even in cultures that still live to eat. Take Italy. It's no secret that the Mediterranean diet is healthy, but it was also a joy to prepare and eat. Italians, says Counihan, traditionally began the day with a small meal. The big meal came at around 1 p.m. In between the midday meal and a late, smaller dinner came a small snack. Today, when time zones have less and less meaning, there is little tolerance for offices' closing for lunch, and worsening traffic in cities means workers can't make it home and back fast enough anyway. So the formerly small supper after sundown becomes the big meal of the day, the only one at which the family has a chance to get together.“The evening meal carries the full burden that used to be spread over two meals,”says Counihan.

    A man walked into a small Irish pub and ordered three beers. Bartender was surprised, but he served that man three beers. One hour later the man ordered three beers again. The very next day that man ordered three beers again and drank quietly at a table. This repeated several times and shortly after the people of the town were whispering about the man, who was ordering three beers at once.

    A couple of weeks later, the bartender decided to clear this out and inquired: “I do not want to pry, but could you explain, why do you order three beers all the time?” The man replied: “It seems strange, isn't it? You see, my two brothers live abroad at the moment, one – in France and another – in Italy. We have made an agreement, that every time we go to pub each of us will order extra two beers and it will help keeping up the family bond”.

    Soon all the town have heard about the man's answer and liked it a lot. The man became a local celebrity. Residents of the town were telling this story to newcomers or tourists and even invited them to that pub to look at Three Beer Man.

    However, one day the man came to pub and ordered only two beers, not three as usual. The bartender served him with bad feeling. All that evening the man ordered and drank only two beers. The very next day all the town was talking about this news, some people pray for the soul of one of the brothers, others quietly grieve.

    When the man came to pub the next time and ordered two beers again, the bartender asked him: “I would like to offer condolences to you, due to the death of your dear brother”. The man considered this for a moment and then replied: “Oh, you are probably surprised that I order only two beers now? Well, my two brothers are alive and well. It's just because of my decision. I promised myself to give up drinking.”

    Born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 10, 1928. Philip Levine was formally educated in the Detroit public school system. After graduation from university, Levine worked a number of industrial jobs, including the night work in factories, reading and writing poems in his off hours. In 1953, he studied at the University of Iowa. There, Levine met Robert Lowell and John Berryman, whom Levine called his "one great guide."

    About writing poems, Levine wrote: "I believed even then that if I could change my experience into poems I would give it the value and honor that it did not begin to have on its own. I thought too that if I could write about it, I could come to understand it: I believed that if I could understand my life-or at least the part my work played in it-I could write it with some degree of joy, something obviously missing from my life."

    Levine published (出版)his first collection of poems. On the Edge in 1961, followed by Not This Pig in 1968. Throughout his life. Levine published many books of poems, winning many prizes. A review said: "Levine writes poems about the bravery of men, physical labor, simple pleasures and strong feelings, often set in working-class Detroit or in central California, where he worked or lived."

    He taught for many years at California State University, Fresno, and served as Distinguished Poet in Residence for the Creative Writing Program at New York University. After retiring from teaching, Levine divided his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Fresno, California, until his death on February 14, 2015. His final poem collection, The Last Shift, as well as a collection of essays(短文)and other writings, My Lost Poets, A Life in Poetry, were published in 2016.

    Snorkelling in Silfra

The clear water at this UNESCO world heritage(遗产) site in Thingvellir National Park will leave you speechless. It is one of the highest rated dive sites in the world. During this journey, you will snorkel within a crack between the Eurasian and American continents. You'll experience truly amazing views of the colorful underwater landscape, marine life(海洋生物), and geological formations. Silfra's water is fresh and drinkable at around 2℃ - 4℃ all year round. Visibility can reach more than 100 meters, and swimming often feels more like flying.

    This trip is for anyone who knows how to swim and is up for a unique adventure. We offer transportation with a pick-up in Reykjavik, and provide you with a dry suit. The total length of the tour is approximately five hours, and includes in-water snorkelling lasting around 30 minutes. We'll guide you through the main Silfra Big Crack, Silfra Hall, Silfra Cathedral and Silfra Lagoon.

Included:

    All necessary snorkeling equipment;

    Hot drinks and food;

    Silfra entrance fee of 1,000 ISK.

    Availability: All year at 09:00 and 15:00. Pick-up in one hour before.

    Requirements:

    Participants need to complete the Silfra medical statement before the tour.

    Divers must:

    Be at least 18 years old (young people under 18 years old need a signature from their legal guardian), and the maximum age is 65 years old;

    Be able to communicate in English.

    Be physically fit;

    Not be pregnant;

    Not be under the influence of alcohol or drugs;

    Sign a medical form.

    Gardeners such as Prince Charles who claim that talking to plants encourages them to grow have long been seen as a little silly. But scientists have discovered evidence which suggests the Royal may actually be right and they could be listening to him. Biologists at Tel Aviv University in Israel have found that flowers can act as a plant's "ears" to help them detect the sound of approaching insects.

    When the researchers played recordings of flying bees to evening primrose flowers, within three minutes the sugar concentrations in the nectar (花蜜) of its flowers increased. The fluid, produced to attract pollinating (授粉) insects, was on average 20 percent higher in flowers exposed to the buzz compared to those left in silence or exposed to higher pitched sounds. Professor Lilach Hadany, who led the study, said: "Our results document for the first time that plants can rapidly respond to pollinator sounds in an ecologically relevant way."

    However, Prof Hadany said a plant's ability to respond to pollinators may be weakened in city environments or beside a busy road. While plants require water, sunlight and the right temperature to grow, it is widely believed they do not have senses in the way animals do.

    But the study, published on the open-science website BioRxiv, suggests the efforts of gardeners who talk to their plants may not be in vain. "Plants' ability to hear has implications well beyond pollination—plants could potentially hear and respond to herbivores, other animals, the elements, and possibly other plants," Prof Hadany added.

    A month-long experiment conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society in 2009 found female voices appear to speed up the growth of tomatoes. The research offers a possible explanation — women's voices were at the right frequency for the plants to hear.

About 50 feet from shore, two brothers were fighting for their lives, their mouths barely able to stay above the water. Thick fog made it difficult for beach goers to see the guys, but the screams were unmistakable and every second counted. The brothers, aged 15 and 20, were wearing shorts and T-shirts, unsuitable for a November day, let alone the 50-degree water. Keven Harder, a supervising ranger, told the North Coast Journal that swimming in such a temperature "will take the fight right out of you."

Luckily, four surfers in wet suits were nearby. Narayan Weibel, Spenser Stratton, and Adrian York, all 16, along with Taj Ortiz-beck, 15, were on their surf boards riding on waves when they heard the cries. They turned and saw two bobbing heads and four flailing arms. "We looked at each other and knew they were about to drown, " Weibel said.

Weibel, Stratton, and Ortiz-beck paddled toward the distressed swimmers while York headed to shore to call 911. As the surfers drew close, the brothers were struggling. "It was pretty stressful, but there wasn't any time to think about it," Ortiz-beck said. He pulled up alongside the younger brother. Grabbing him under his arms, he raised him up onto the board. Stratton and Weibel, meanwhile, were straining(竭力)to help the elder brother. He was large, about 250 pounds, and panicked. Fortunately, York arrived in time to help get the elder brother atop the second board. The surfers then paddled several minutes through rough water to the medical help waiting onshore. The brothers were scared but fine.

"When we get a call like this one, it's usually too late by the time we get there, " said Dillon Ceavenger, the first responder. "I can't say enough about what these boys did. They were willing and prepared to risk their lives."