Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease．But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.

    Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露）to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problem, but two analyses(分析) now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风）within as little as a few hours after exposure．In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物）were up to 5% more likely（可能的） to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure．A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U．S．Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” (良好）quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.

    The authors of both studies stress（强调）that these risks are relatively（相对的）small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure．However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices．So stricter regulation（规章制度）by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.

    Whether in the home or the workplace, social robots are going to become a lot more common in the next few years. Social robots are about to bring technology to the everyday world in a more humanized way, said Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist at the robot company Jibo.

    While household robots today do the normal housework, social robots will be much more like companions than mere tools. For example, these robots will be able to distinguish when someone is happy or sad. This allows them to respond more appropriately to the user.

    The Jibo robot, arranged to ship later this year, is designed to be a personalized assistant. You can talk to the robot, ask it questions, and make requests for it to perform different tasks. The robot doesn't just deliver general answers to questions; it responds based on what it learns about each individual in the household. It can do things such as reminding an elderly family member to take medicine or taking family photos.

    Social robots are not just finding their way into the home. They have potential applications in everything from education to health care and are already finding their way into some of these spaces.

    Fellow Robots is one company bringing social robots to the market. The company's “Oshbot” robot is built to assist customers in a store, which can help the customers find items and help guide them to the product's location in the store. It can also speak different languages and make recommendations for different items based on what the customer is shopping for.

    The more interaction the robot has with humans, the more it learns. But Oshbot, like other social robots, is not intended to replace workers, but to work alongside other employees. “We have technologies to train social robots to do things not for us, but with us,” said Breazeal.

    Some people think that as more and more people have televisions in their homes, fewer and fewer people will buy books and newspapers. Why read an article in the newspaper, when the TV news can bring you the information in a few minutes and with pictures? Why read the life story of a famous man, when a short television program can tell you all that you want to know?

    Television has not killed reading, however. Today, newspapers sell in very large numbers. And books of every kind are sold more than ever before. Books are still a cheap way to get information and enjoyment. Although some books with hard covers are expensive, many books are printed today as paperbacks (平装本), which are quite cheap. A paperback collection of short stories, for example, is always cheaper than an evening at the cinema or the theater, and you can keep a book for ever and read it many times.

    Books are a wonderful provider of knowledge and pleasure and some types of books should be in every home. Every home should have a good dictionary. A good encyclopedia, though expensive, is useful, too, because you can find information on any subject. Besides, you can have such books as history books, science textbooks, cookbooks, and collections of stories and poems. Then from time to time you can take a book of poems off your shelves and read the thoughts and feelings of your favorite poets.

    Scientists say we are all born with a knack for mathematics. Every time we scan the cafeteria for a table that will fit all of our friends, we're exercising the ancient estimation center in our brain.

    Stanislas Dehaene was the first researcher to show that this part of the brain exists. In 1989, he met Mr. N who had suffered a serious brain injury. Mr. N couldn't recognize the number 5, or add 2 and 2. But he still knew that there are “about 50 minutes” in an hour. Dehaene drew an important conclusion from his case: there must be two separate mathematical areas in our brains. One area is responsible for the math we learn in school, and the other judges approximate amounts.

    So what does the brain's estimation center do for us? Harvard University researcher Elizabeth Spelke has spent a lot of time posing math problems to preschoolers. When he asks 5-year-olds to solve a problem like 21+30, they can't do it. But he has also asked them questions such as, “Sarah has 21 candles and gets 30 more. John has 34 candles. Who has more candles?” It turns out preschoolers are great at solving questions like that. Before they've learned how to do math with numerals and symbols, their brains' approximation centers are already hard at work.

    After we learn symbolic math, do we still have any use for our inborn math sense? Justin Halberda at Johns Hopkins University gave us an answer in his study. He challenged a group of 14-year-olds with an approximation test: The kids stared at a computer screen and saw groups of yellow and blue dots flash by, too quickly to count. Then they had to say whether there had been more blue dots or yellow dots. The researchers found that most were able to answer correctly when there were 25 yellow dots and 10 blue ones. When the groups were closer in size, 11 yellow dots and 10 blue ones, fewer kids answered correctly.

    The big surprise in this study came when the researcher compared the kids' approximation test scores to their scores on standardized math tests. He found that kids who did better on the flashing dot test had better standardized test scores, and vice versa (反之亦然). It seems that, far from being irrelevant, your math sense might predict your ability at formal math.

    This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts(花生), while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

    Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. "What could be causing everyone to act this way?"

    Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, "My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence." The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?

    Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly: No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I deserved a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster's office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.

Nobody says high school and college are easy. Studying is difficult, as is memorizing information for a test. Fortunately, there are books that can help to make dealing with school easier.

Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley

Do you have trouble remembering everything you're studying? Feel like you have too much on your plate? Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley may be for you. It's a bestseller in memory improvement. This book has strategies to help you learn faster while also teaching you to become more productive. Of course, having a good memory comes in handy outside of the classroom as well. Really, this is a great book for life in general.

Student ^fs Guide to Writing College Papers by Kate L. Turabian

Many students reach college and find that essay writing in college is very different from that in high school. Whether this is the case for you or you just want to improve your writing skills, you'll want to check out Student's Guide to Writing College Papers. It's available on Kindle or in hardback or paperback forms. Right now, this one is its fourth edition. The book covers writing your actual paper, citing sources(引用来源), and style. Even English majors can find a lot of helpful tips in this book.

On Course by Skip Downing

It is another book you'll want to check out. In its eighth edition, the book provides you with self-assessment tools to help you identify what you need to change for academic success. It contains guided journal entries（分录）to help you with responsibility, self-management, self-awareness, learning and self-esteem.

How to Become a Straight A Student by Cal Newport

The book will teach you different approaches and strategies to help you score better but spend less time on studying, with a focus on studying smarter, not harder. It's available on Kindle and in audiobook(有声读物)and paperback forms.