Whether you prefer burning the midnight oil or going to bed early so you can get up at the break of dawn depends on your genes, according to experts.

    I jump out of bed each morning, eager to start an active day. But I can hear my neighbor's alarm clock ringing non-stop every morning and I doubt he gets to work on time.

    A lot of noise comes from his flat in the evening. He's happy to stay up watching TV till after midnight, while I go to bed early and try to sleep.

    Well, it might not be his fault after all. I'm called“a lark (百灵鸟)”and my neighbor“an owl (猫头鹰)”

    We all have inside “clocks”in the brain to control all kinds of bodily functions and it is reset every day by light. These inside clocks run to a different schedule in “larks” and “owls”. If you have a fast clock, you like to do things early, and if you have a slow clock, you like to do things late.

    Because we live in a 24/7 world, scientists believe it's important to understand a person's “chronotype?—the time of the day when they function the best. It could help us lead a healthier life.

    A US professor has studied sleeping patterns and thinks work times should be changed and made more individual to fit in with our chronotypes.

    And he has advice for those who can't choose their working hours:“If that's not possible, we should be more careful about light exposure,” says the professor. “You should try to go to work not in a covered vehicle but on a bike. The minute the sun sets we should use things that have no blue light, like computer, screens and other electronic devices.”

    There are several ways from which to choose for you to keep your kids safe in your neighborhood. But the first step to keep your child safe in your neighborhood is to know your neighbors.

    Knowing your neighbors can save you a lot of worry. It lets you know that the car that has just driven down the street belongs to “the yellow house on the corner”, or the truck that has just driven by the playground looks unfamiliar, but the guy in the passenger seat resides two doors down. It's these simple things that keep you from going out of your mind whenever you see someone driving by where children are playing.

    But you shouldn't just know what they look like. The next step is to know them well. What do they do? How do they act? You might be OK with them driving by the playground since they live in the neighborhood, but are you OK with them being on the playground? Knowing your neighbors solves several things. First you find out what kind of people they are. This helps you know if you should let your child go out in an area where they gather. Let us face it: you do not want your child to play around people or people's children that curse (咒骂) or hit each other. Sometimes you have to protect your child against your own neighbors.

    Knowing them also makes them know you. Being neighbors is an interesting thing. You might not like them or have the same views as them, but we all usually protect those that we consider our own. If you know your neighbors, they know you. They are more likely to look after the child of the nice lady down the street in the brick (砖) house, than the people, in the house on the corner, who no one ever sees.

    A primary school in UK has banned Valentine's Day cards because of concerns that young pupils spend too much time talking about boyfriends and girlfriends.

    Ashcombe Primary School in Weston Super Mare, Somerset, has told parents that cards declaring love can be "confusing" for children under the age of 11, who are still emotionally and socially developing. In this month 's newsletter(通讯), Peter Turner, the head teacher, warned that any cards found in school would be confiscated(没收). He wrote: "We do not wish to see any Valentine's Day cards in school this year. Some children and parents encourage a lot of talk about boyfriends and girlfriends. We believe that such ideas should wait until children are mature enough emotionally and socially to understand the commitment involved in having or being a boyfriend or girlfriend." Mr. Turner said any family wanting to support the Valentine's Day idea should send cards in the post or deliver them to home addresses by hand.

    His views were endorsed by Ruth Rice, 46, who has twins Harriet and Olivia at the school. She said, "Children at that age shouldn't really be thinking about Valentine's Day, they should be concentrating on their schoolwork." They are at an age when they are impressionable(易受影响的)and most parents including myself are with Mr. Turner." She added that "the cards cause too much competition. If someone gets a card and another doesn't, then someone will be disappointed."

    However, Rajeev Takyar, 40, who has two children Jai, 11, and Aryan, five, at the school, said he was "very angry". He said, "There are schools that have banned computer games and snowballs, and now Valentine's Cards." I think banning the cards stops children from having social skills. How are they going to learn about relationships otherwise? It's ridiculous. Alec Suttenwood, father of three children, said of the ban: "It's totally ridiculous. Young children just send the cards to each other as friends and to their parents. It's just a bit of harmless fun. There is no difference between this and Mother's or Father's Day."

    Memory, they say, is a matter of practice and exercise. If you have the wish and really make a conscious effort, then you can quite easily improve your ability to remember things. But even if you are successful, there are times when your memory seems to play tricks on you.

    Sometimes you remember things that really did not happen. One morning last week, for example, I got up and found that I had left the front door unlocked all night, yet I clearly remember locking it carefully the night before.

    Memory "tricks" work the other way as well. Once in a while, you remember not doing something, and then find out that you did. One day last month, for example, I was sitting in a barber shop waiting for my turn to get a haircut, and suddenly I realized that I had got a haircut two days before at the barber shop across the street from my office.

    We always seem to find something funny and amusing in incidents caused by people's forgetfulness or absent -mindedness. Stories about absent -minded professors have been told for years, and we never get tired of hearing new ones. Unfortunately, however, absent -mindedness is not always funny. There are times when "tricks" of our memory can cause us great trouble.