In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World,” Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Warsaw, Poland. Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students' test scores from significantly below average to well above it. Polish kids have now outscored(超过……分数) American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does. One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Warsaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind.

    That American high schools waste more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities. This December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are announced, it's safe to predict that American high-school students will once again display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers.

    Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it. And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too. She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D.C., which costs thirty thousand dollars a year. The tour leader—a mother with three children in the school—was asked about the school's flaws(瑕疵). When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted. When she said that the football program was weak, the parents suddenly became concerned. “Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?”

    One of the ironies(讽刺) of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible. American kids' performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expectations are high. It's too bad that their test scores show the same thing.

    With all of the wonderful things life brings us, it also brings us stress. It is for this reason that I am an active supporter of mental health days.

    Although it's never good to ignore(忽视) responsibilities, sometimes it is good to unplug(拔除) from the world for a day. We eat healthy and stay active to keep us from getting sick, but sometimes we forget to care for our minds. Our minds and bodies are connected, and when only one is being cared for, the other may be suffering. It is important to try to combine self care with our lives and spend time on activities we enjoy. This helps relieve stress on a daily day.

    So, what do you do on a mental health day? The answer is anything you want. Growing up, my brother and I were allowed a few mental health days a year. We would stay home from school and relax. For him, it was playing games on the computer, while my days were spent reading or watching TV. My mental health days now include picking things up around my apartment, cooking a tasty meal, and then reading for a few hours. I completely shut myself off from work or school. To me, this is relaxing. Organize the clutter(凌乱的东西) that piles up during the week, cook the meals I don't have time to cook, and read the books that I've bought but don't have time to read.

    A mental health day is great, but only if it's supplemented(增补) with self care through the week. From my experience, if self care is not regularly provided in your week, taking a mental health day is just going to stress you out even more. But when it's needed, try hard to recognize that and take care of yourself. It will help keep you happy and healthy. A mental health day is not a day to avoid life, it is a day to recoup(恢复).

    Having a smart phone may not be as smart as you think. They may let you surf the Internet, listen to music and take photos wherever you are…but they also turn you into a workaholic（工作狂）,it seems.

    A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the smart phone adds as much as two hours to your working day. Experts found that British people work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles. The study shows the average UK working day is between 9 and 10 hours, but 2 more hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls.

    Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails. Some workers say they are on call almost 24 hours a day. Nearly two-thirds say they often check work emails just before they go to bed and as soon as they wake up, while over a third have replied to one in the middle of the night. The average time for first checking emails is between 6 a.m and 7 a.m, with more than a third checking their first email in the period, and a quarter checking them between 11 p.m.and midnight.

    Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said: “The ability to access millions of Apps has made smart phone invaluable for many people. However, there are disadvantages. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smart phones mean that people cannot get away from work. The more frequently in contact we become, the more is expected of us in a work capacity.”

    All of us spend a large part of our lives at home — eating, sleeping, relaxing and communicating with our family members. Our home is a shelter for us, away from the noisy, busy, and polluted world outside — a place where we can let down our hair and dress casually. Eco­friendliness (环保) is a hot word today and we all know we should make our environment as eco­friendly as possible. This is not only good for our health, but also good for the outward environment. Here are some easy and helpful tips to make your home eco­friendly.

    Kitchen

    Plan the kitchen to be bright and airy so that you don't have to turn on the lights at daytime. Don't make wasteful use of the gas. Keep all ingredients for cooking ready before lighting the gas. Turn it to low when not required — always using it on "high" burns a lot of gas.

    Indoor plants

    Plants are extremely eco­friendly and can be used to make your home look lively. Apart from adding life to home, they give out O_2, thus making the air inside fresh. You can keep plants in your home, but be sure to show them some sunlight regularly. Also, if they are kept outside, clean their leaves with a wet cloth, as dust may be added to them. A home decorated (装饰) with plants looks attractive. Plants are a natural home decorating gift that shows concern about the environment. A green plant is a wonderful gift which will protect the earth and is sure to be appreciated.

    Saving water

    Most of the time, we take water for granted — we keep water running while brushing our teeth or washing clothes. Needless to say, this is a huge waste of natural resources (资源). Try to recycle water. For example, the water used for washing vegetables can be used for watering plants; the soapy water used for washing clothes can be used to clean the bathroom and kitchen.

    To have a successful job interview, you need to make good preparations beforehand. Here are some suggestions on what you should do before the interview.

    ⑴Find out as much as you can about the company. What goods or services do they provide? How long has it been founded? Read articles about it. Talk with people who work there. Perhaps you can look at the company website, or find some information on the Internet.

    ⑵Be sure of the time of the interview, the place and the person you'll see.

    ⑶Think about the kind of questions that the employer might ask. Write out questions and possible answers.

    ⑷Rehearse the interview with family members or friends. They can ask you questions from the list you've prepared and you can try to answer.

    ⑸Dress properly. Don't be too formal or too informal. Choose your clothes, shoes.

    ⑹Wash. Make sure that you are clean, and that your teeth have been freshly brushed.

    Many of us have had this experience: we lie down in a bed other than our own, perhaps at a friend's house or in a hotel room, and find it difficult or impossible to fall asleep. Is it because the bed is uncomfortable? Maybe, but perhaps there can be other reasons.

    According to a new study published in Current Biology, a significant reason is what the scientists call "first night effect". They believe that one side of the brain acts as a "night watch" to warn us about potential dangers. It forces us to stay awake on the first night in a new environment.

    For the study, 35 young volunteers were asked to sleep in a sleep lab for several days. Meanwhile, researchers watched their brain activities.

According to the researchers, on their first night, the left brains were more active than the right brains and people had a hard time sleeping. However, left-brain activity decreased as days went by, falling even to the point of complete calm. In this process, the participants got an increasingly better sleep experience.

    The findings suggest that the different rhythms of the sides of the brain affect our sleep. When the two sides work differently, the balance between them is broken. Thus, the brain can't relax and is sensitive to anything strange in the surroundings, just as it is in daytime.

    "At some level, the brain is continuing to analyze things, even though you are not aware of the analysis," US professor Jerome Siegel told Smithsonian Magazine. "If something unusual happens – if a door opens or you hear a key in a lock – you can be alert, even though the intensity of the stimulus is quite low."

    More surprisingly, this phenomenon is similar to the way some animals sleep. Whales, dolphins, and many birds can sleep with half of their brain while the other half stays awake, with its corresponding eye staying open.

    The researchers think that it is the result of evolution, and works to protect us in potentially dangerous environments.

    If you have ever had what you think is "first night effect", researchers suggest that you bring your own pillow or sleep in a room similar to your bedroom next time you sleep away from home.