The more hours that young children spend in child care, the more likely they are to turn out aggressive and disobedient by the time they are in kindergarten, according to the largest study of child care and development ever conducted. Researchers said this correlation (相关性) held true regardless of whether the children came from rich or poor homes, were looked after by a relative or at a center, and whether they were girls or boys.

    What is uncertain, however, is whether the child care actually causes the problem or whether children likely to turn out aggressive happen to be those who spend more hours in child care. It also remains unclear whether reducing the amount of time in child care will reduce the risk that a child will turn into a mean person. What's more, quality child care is associated with increased skills in intellectual ability such as language and memory, leading some academics to suggest that child care turns out children who are “smart and naughty”.

    The government-sponsored research, which has tracked more than 1,300 children at 10 sites across the country since 1991, is bound to cause the debate over child care again: How should people balance work and family? And how should parents, especially mothers. Resolve the demands that are placed on them to be both breadwinners and supermoms?

    That debate was already on display at a news briefing yesterday, where researchers themselves had different opinions about the data and its implications (含义). “There is a constant relationship between time in care and problem behavior, especially those involving aggression and behavior,” said Jay Belsky of Birkbeck College in London, one of the lead investigators of the study who has previously annoyed women's groups because of his criticisms of child care. “On behalf of fathers or mothers?” interrupted Sarah Friedman, a developmental psychologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and one of the other lead scientists on the study. “On behalf of parents and families,” responded Belsky.

    “NICHD is not willing to get into policy recommendations.” said Friedman, contradicting her colleague. “There are other possibilities that can be entertained. Yes it is a quick solution—more hours in child care is associated with more problems. The easy solution is to cut the number of hours but that may have implications for the family that may not be beneficial for the development of the children in terms of economics.” In an interview after the briefing, Friedman said that asking parents to work fewer hours and spend more time with their children usually meant a loss of family income, which adversely(不利地) affects children.

    Scientists said that the study was highly reliable. But the researchers said they had no idea whether the behavioral difficulties persisted as the children moved to higher grades.

    Different people use different languages. We Chinese speak Chinese, and, most of us are learning a foreign language. But there is another kind of language we need to know — the language of the body.

    All over the world, people “talk with their hand, with their heads and with their eyes.” When Japanese people meet, they bow. When Indians meet, they put their hands together. What do American and British do? Americans are more informal (不拘小节的) than the British. They like to be friendly. They use first names, they ask questions and they talk easily about themselves. When they sit down, they like to relax in their chairs and make themselves comfortable. British people are more reserved (保守的). They take more time to make friends. They like to know you before they ask your name.

    When British or American people meet someone for the first time, they shake hands. They do not usually shake hands with people they know well. Women sometimes kiss their women friends, and men kiss women friends (on one cheek only). When a man meets a man, he just smiles, and says, “Hello.” Men do not kiss each other, or hold hands. Even fathers and sons do not often kiss each other.

    China's college graduates are leaving first-tier cities（一线城市）for second-tier ones, according to the annual College Graduates' Employment Report issued on Monday.

    The report said that 22.3 percent of college graduates last year chose to work in first-tier cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen—down 1.3 percentage points from 2016 and 5.9 percentage points from 2013. In 2017, 21.7 percent of college graduates chose to leave first-tier cities after working there for three years, up 2.5 percentage points from 2016 and 8 percentage points from 2015.

    The report also found that leading second-tier cities are attracting more recent graduates. Around 35.6 percent of college graduates who chose to work in the top 10 second-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan, were from other regions in 2017, up 3.6 percentage points from the previous year.

    The report was based on a survey of 306,000 graduates from 30 provinces and regions. It was released by MyCOS, an education consulting and research institute in Beijing.

    Wang Boqing, founder of MyCOS, said large populations, traffic jam, smog, increasing property prices and great difficulty in obtaining permanent residence（居住）, or hukou in Chinese, have brought high pressure to life in first-tier cities for college graduates, which gives second-tier cities an opportunity to attract talented workers.

    Second-tier cities have rolled out a series of policies to attract university graduates, which include favorable treatment to obtain hukou, as well as housing and government subsidies（津贴）, he said. Wuhan, Hubei Province, has planned to build affordable housing for university graduates, and allow graduates to buy or rent apartments at a discount of at least 20 percent of the market price.

    Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, however, said that the governments of such cities should notice that welfare（福利）, housing and money can attract people in a short time. “Professionals aim mainly at prospects（前景）for career development rather than just benefits,” Chu said, adding that those cities should maintain their advantages, such as low cost of living and nicer environments, to keep their appeal. The cities should provide more opportunities for employment that are similar to those in first-tier cities, he said.

    All over the world people enjoy sports, Sports help to keep people healthy and happy, and to live longer.

    Many people like to watch others play games. They buy tickets or turn on their TVs to watch the games. Often they get very excited when "their" player or team wins.

    Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for(参加) them. Football, for example, has spread(展开)around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers. What fun it is to jump into a pool or lake, whether in China, Egypt or Italy! And think of people in cold countries. Think how many love to skate or ski (滑雪) in Japan, Norway or Canada.

    Some sports or games go back thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese wushu, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet. People are inventing new sports or games all the time. Water-skiing is one of the newest in the family of sports.

    People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game together they often become good friends. Sports help to train(培养,训练) a person's character(性格,品格). One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace(胜不骄，败不馁).

    USING YOUR GOLDEN ARROW MULTIPURPOSE CALCULATOR TO DETERMINE THE DATE AND TIME AT YOUR LOCATION AS WELL AS LOCATIONS AROUND THE GLOBE SEETING THE DATE AND TIME FOR YOUR LOCATION

    Use the TIME ZONE chart below to locate code that corresponds with the time zone in which you live. Select the major city that shares your time zone. Press the code that corresponds to that city (e.g. ,if you live in Washington ,Oregon California, or Nevada, all of which are located in the Pacific time zone, you would choose Los Angeles and press the corresponding code which is the 1 key).

    ⒈Press TIME twice. The two digits representing hours will begin to flash.

    ⒉Depress and hold the ▲or▼ key until the desired hour flashes. Then release.

    ⒊Press SET. The two digits representing minutes will begin to flash.

    ⒋Depress and hold the ▲or▼ key until the desired minute fleshes. Then release.

    ⒌Press SET. The two digits representing seconds will begin to flash.

    ⒍Depress and hold the ▲or▼ key until 00 flashes. The release.

    ⒎Press SET. To set the year, month, and day press DATE three times. Then repeat steps 2 through 7.

    NOTE: At this point, hour, minutes and seconds will change to year, month, and day.

    DETERMINAING DATE AND TIME FOR THE WORLD'S16 TIME ZONES

    ⒈PRESS ZONE TWICE.

    ⒉Use the TIME ZONE chart below to locate the code that corresponds to the time zone for which you desire the date and time. Press that code (e.g., press = to determine the date and time in Hong Kong). The selected date and time will alternately display for 10 seconds and then return automatically to your home date and time.

The Trip to Alishan in Taiwan

    It was the fourth day of our trip to Taiwan, bright but cold. After a good breakfast we put on our jackets and gloves, pulled on our hats and got into a car. We travelled for about two hours, up, and up, and up the mountain road.

    We finally arrived at the top of the mountain. It was Christmas Day. So imagine my joy to see icicles(冰柱)hanging form branches and the whiteness of the scenery. Indeed, it was my first Christmas in the northern hemisphere(半球)and, guess what? It even started snowing too. How amazingly exciting for me to have Christmas in my grandmother's hometown, and to experience icicles and snow. Alishan is really beautiful, especially seen form this dizzy height. After Sun parked the car, we got out and looked down through the trees. It hadn't snowed hard enough so there was no snow on the ground, just loads of pine needles. There was a most wonderful smell of pine sap(松液)drifting up to us form the ground. It was very quiet, except for the twittering of birds, and the odd car passing along the road. Quietness in Taiwan is something to treasure.

    Over the road was a small stall so we went over to it. They were selling some drink steaming hot in paper cups, too hot to hold immediately. We jumped around to get warm. There was a cool wind blowing up the side of the mountain, and the clouds above us were moving along quickly. I could imagine there was quite a strong wind blowing up there, so I was glad we were down on the ground! The drink cooled down fairly rapidly. I picked up my share and, wow, what a lovely smell was coming from it. It was the smell of ginger(姜).I took a sip. How delicious, and so this was ginger tea, which I had never tried before. It warmed my body so quickly that I could feel the heat travel right down to my fingers and to my toes. This was very good stuff. And then it was time to leave as we were going down to Hualian to attend a Buddha bi-bi, eat hot pot, and drink some Shaoxing rice wine.