Some people surveyed tasted the sweet, salty and crunchy together with other tastes of food as they listen to different noises.It shows that louder noises reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness of food while incr eatasing the measure of crunchiness（松脆）.

    It may go some way to explain Why airline food is widely complained about by both the workers and paddengers.Andy Woods,a researcher,said,“It's a general opinion that plane foods aren't fantastic,but I'm sure airlines do their best,so we wondered if there were other reasons,One thought was that perhaps the background noise may have an effect.NASA gives their space explorers very strong -tassting foods,because for some reason,they can't taste food that Strongly-^again, it may have something ti do with the background noise.”

    In a study ,48 people were fed sweet foods or salty ones, while listening tonoting or noise through earphone. Meanwhile they rated(划分等级) the foods. In noisier settings,foods were rated less or sweet than they were when it was silent,but were rated crunchier.“The evidence shows that if the background noise is loud, your food, attention might be drawn to that, away from the food.” Dr. Woods said.

    “We ae still at an early stage of progressing and this is a rather small  study to really draw definitive(最完整可靠的）conclusions from,” Dr. Woods said,“but they suggest that restaurants could well their choice of food for a given environment.”

    Also in the group's findings there is the suggestion that the overall satisfaction with the food is also related to the degree to which people like what they are hearing .

    Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime“business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant（不相关的）. A half century ago in the United States, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear.

    The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?

    These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years — but unless we meet the truant officer (学监), we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents' demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes（构成）“overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight-saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law — as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.

    There are two great trends on parents bringing up children today．First，children are now praised to an unbelievable degree．As Dorothy Parker once joked，American children aren't raised；they are motivated．Children are constantly told how special they are．The second is that children are honed(磨砺) to an unimaginable degree．Parents spend much more time than in past generations on their children's development．

    These two great trends—greater praise and greater honing—combine in close ways. Parents shower their kids with affection，but it is intermingled with the desire to help their children achieve success．Parents are happy when their child studies hard，practices hard，wins first place，gets into a famous college．

The wolf of conditional love is hidden in these homes．The parents feel they love their children in all circumstances．But the children often think differently．They feel that childhood is a performance—on the athletic field，in school and beyond．The shadowy presence of conditional love produces a fear，the fear that there is no completely safe love．

    Meanwhile，children who are uncertain of their parents' love develop a great hunger for it. This conditional love is1ike an acid that affects children's criteria to make their own decisions about their own colleges，majors and careers．At key decision-points，they unconsciously imagine how their parents will react．

    These children tell their parents those things that will bring praise and hide the parts of their lives that won't. Studies suggest that children who receive conditional love often do better in the short run．They can be model students．But they suffer in the long run. They come to hate their parents．They are so influenced by fear that they become afraid of risk．

    Parents today are less likely to demand obedience(顺从) with explicit rules and lectures．But they are more likely to use love as a tool to exercise control. But parental love is supposed to ignore achievement. It's meant to be an unconditional support -a gift that can not be bought and cannot be earned．

    Everybody hates rats (big mice). But in the earthquake capitals of the world — Japan, Los Angeles, Turkey — rats will soon be man's best friends.

    What happens after an earthquake? We send in rescue dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can't get into small spaces. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.

    How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat's brain gives a signal (信号)．This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat's brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.

    Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. Christian Linster at Cornell University, New York, says, "Robots' noses don't work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that." Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don't need electricity!

    The "rat project" is not finished, but Julie Ryan of International Rescue Organization in Scotland says, "It would be wonderful. A rat could get into spaces we couldn't get to, and a rat would get out if it wasn't safe." Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building (but only after an earthquake, of course).

    The effects of coffee consumption on health have long been a subject of conflict and uncertainty. Since the 1980s, some have spoken out against coffee as harmful to health, while others have welcomed coffee for its supposed benefits to health.

    According to a scientific report, mild coffee consumption, three to five cups per day, can be taken as a healthy dietary pattern, along with other healthful behaviors. The report also says that coffee consumption helps reduce the risk of heart disease and it protects against Parkinson's disease.

    According to Dr. Donald Hensrud of Mayo Clinic, high consumption of coffee has health risks. Dr. Hensrud mentions the dangers of high coffee consumption for people with a certain illness that slows the breakdown of caffeine in the body. Some studies said that drinking two or more cups of coffee daily can actually increase the risk of heart disease in these people.

    According to conclusions from a recent study led by Dr. Gregory Marcus, a doctor from the University of California San Francisco, daily moderate consumption of caffeine, less than 4 cups, is not associated with these issues.

    Until the scientific community reaches a general agreement on the effects of coffee consumption on human health, it will be up to the individual to decide whether the benefits of drinking coffee are greater than the risks.

    When informed of these possible health benefits and harms of drinking coffee, Harwood, a high school student stated, "Even though there might be some negative effects of drinking coffee, for the most part, coffee drinking sounds good for health. Not to mention I need coffee to stay awake."

First aid is a simple medical treatment that gives a person who suddenly becomes ill before a doctor can be found. It's believed that four hundred and eighty seconds after an accident can make a difference between life and death. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are some different situations where you can learn, how to give first aid.

Burns

{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It's the best to place burns under softly running water for about 10 minutes. Remember that don't use ice!

Nosebleed

Ask the person to lean forward and pinch the nose for five to six minutes. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If so, the blood may run into the mouth.

Dog Bites

Wash the bite with plenty of water at a comfortable temperature. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Then, go to see the doctor at once and follow their suggestions carefully.

Chocking (窒息)

Stand behind the chocking person put your arms around his body and lean him or her forward slowly. Press his or her stomach. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You can also hit his back with your hand.