A warm drink of milk before bed has long been the best choice for those wanting a good night's sleep. But now a study has found it really does help people nod off—if it is milked from a cow at night.

       Researchers have discovered that “night milk” contains more melatonin(褪黑激素), which has been proven to help people feel sleepy and reduce anxiety.

       The study,by researchers from Seoul, South Korea, involved mice being fed with dried milk powder made from cows milked both during the day and at night.

       Those givennight milk, which contained 10 times the amount of melatonin, were less active and less anxious than those fed with the milk collected during daytime, according to the study published in The Journal of Medicinal Food.

       Night milk quickened the start of sleep and caused the mice to sleep longer.

       While the effect of cows milk harvested at different time has not been tested on humans up to now, taking melatonin drugs has been suggested to those who are struggling to fall asleep at night.

Previous studies have also indicated that milk can be excellent for helping sleep because of the calcium content, which helps people to relax.

       Milk is also sugar-free and additive-free with nutritionists recommending skimmed milk as the best choice before bed as it is the least fattening. The more fat you take in before bedtime, the greater burden you will put on your body at night.

    In addition to the official basketball world, various other types of basketball are practiced around the world.

    Wheelchair Basketball

    Wheelchair basketball was invented in 1946 by former American basketball players, who, after wartime injury, wanted once again to experience the excitement of a highly athletic sport within a team environment. It is now played in more than 80 countries by over 25,000 men, women and children with a physical disability which prevents them from playing competitive basketball on their feet.

    http://www.iwbf.org

    Beach Basketball

    Beach basketball is an exciting, non-stop action game played in the sand. The game was born more than forty years ago on the physical education fields of Gulf Shores School. This kind of basketball, invented by Philip Bryant, has grown from an extremely effective skill improvement game to a very popular, widespread competitive sport.

    http://www.beachbasketball.com

    Street Basketball

    Street Basketball or streetball is mainly played as a leisure game, but streetball players can also compete against each other. There are no specific streetball rules and the game is played outdoors; the players make up their own rules to play. Streetball is very popular among younger players and allows players to publicly show their own individual skills.

    http://www.streetball.com

    Deaf Basketball

    Basketball for the deaf (unable to hear in one or both ears) men and women has been played since the early 1920s. The game today has exactly the same rules as FIBA (International Basketball Federation).

    http://www.dibf.org

    Bankshot Basketball

    Bankshot is a new game of skill and challenge that is often described as “mini golf, but with a basketball.” Bankshot is the only sports system that allows the able-bodied and athletes with a disability to play together at the same time. This game is about no running, jumping, or body contact(接触)and relies on the shooting skill.

    http://www.bankshot.com

    America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while - then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

    Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

    Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet n friend. We may take days off to net as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homos, but truly can not manage the lime to do n great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, worm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

    For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly lo invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

    Alibaba, Bank of China and Huawei—these are the dream employers for Chinese students, according to a new survey.

    “The survey of more than 55,000 students, conducted by the research firm Universum, has found that roughly a quarter want to work for an international company, while only 9％ want to work for a start-up. Five percent want to start their own business.”

    The students said that work-1ife balance was the most important career goal, followed by job stability. When it comes to desirable companies, Bank of China has been named the top choice by business students for seven consecutive years, and the gigantic state-owned firm shows no signs of giving up its lead.

    William Wu, the China country manager for Universum, said that banking remains an attractive industry for young Chinese. “China's government is now emphasizing the revolution of the finance industry, which leaves the younger generation with the impression that although banking is a traditional industry, there are still a lot of development opportunities.” Wu said.

    E-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) improved six places from 2014, ranking second among business students. Alibaba's rise shouldn't come as much of a surprise—the company held a record-breaking $25 billion IPO in September.

    Among engineering students, Alibaba was once again a bridesmaid. Instead, Huawei—a telecoms infrastructure firm that now makes consumer products-took the top spot.

    “Both of these companies are pioneers in terms of local companies going international.” said Wu. “It shows that… an international development strategy has a positive influence among Chinese young talents.” Tech companies ruled the rankings for humanities students, with Alibaba—which was ninth in 2014 —landing at the top. Last year, Apple was the Number l choice of Chinese students.

    A new study suggests some language learning can take place during sleep. Researchers from Switzerland's University of Bern say they discovered people were able to learn new language words during deep levels of sleep.

    Much of the earlier research found that memories made when awake were strengthened during sleep. This supported the idea that information learned while awake is replayed and deeply embedded in the sleeping brain.

    The researchers theorized that, if replay during sleep improves the storage of learned information while awake, the processing and storage of new information should also be possible during sleep.

    They carried out experiments on a group of young German­speaking men and women, which centered on periods of deep sleep called "up­states". They identified these slow­wave peaks as the best moments for sleep­learning.

    The researchers observed individuals in a controlled environment during brief periods of sleep. Brain activity was recorded as pairs of words were played for the study subjects. One word in the pair was a real German word. The other was a made­up foreign word. For later identification purposes, the German words chosen were things clearly larger or smaller than a shoebox.

    Each word pair was played four times, with the order of the words changed each time. The word pairs were played at a rhythm that is similar to actual brain activity during deep sleep. The goal was to create a lasting memory link between the false word and the German word that individuals could identify while awake.

    When the subjects woke, they were presented with the false language words­both by sight and sound. They were then asked to guess whether the false word played during sleep represented an object smaller or larger than a shoebox. Results of the study found that a majority of subjects gave more correct answers about the sleep­learned words than would be expected if they had only guessed at random.

    The researchers said they measured increased signals affecting a part of the brain known as the hippocampus. This brain structure is very important for building relational memory during non­sleep periods. The researchers also said memory was best for word pairs presented during slow­wave peaks during sleep.

    The study suggests that memory formation in sleep appears to be caused by the same brain structures that support vocabulary learning while awake. The researchers say more studies are needed to support their findings. However, the experiments do provide new evidence that memories can be formed and vocabulary learning can take place in both conscious and unconscious states.

    Scientists say they discovered an earth­like planet orbiting the star closest to our planet other than the sun. It is the closest planet ever found outside our solar system that could support life as we know it. This planet is just 4.2 light years away from us. It is so close that space scientists have compared it to a next door neighbor. They say it could be reached by an unmanned spacecraft before the end of the century. The newly­discovered planet is a little larger than the earth. Scientists have named it Proxima b. It orbits its sun, Proxima Centauri, once every 11days.

    Alan Boss is the Chairman of NASA's advisory group for planet exploration. He told VOA that Proxima b not only confirms the discovery of a planet, but also increases the number of other possible "earths" by a huge amount. Boss said it is possible that most stars may have at least one earth­like planet orbiting them.

    This makes the possibility of living organisms increasingly likely. Boss said he believes human beings will prove that there is life in places other than the earth in his lifetime. "I am 65," he told VOA, "But I expect to still be alive when it happens."

    Paul Butler works at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He told VOA that finding Proxima b "makes the case concrete" that there are other planets where life could exist. Paul Butler said the researchers used two telescopes in different countries to look for possible planets like the earth. Discovering Proxima b, he believes, changes the world.

    "This work has resulted in the discovery of hundreds of planets around the nearest stars, and now a potentially habitable planet around the nearest star is in the sky," Butler said.