Best sellers in children's activities ＆ crafts books

    This may be music to your ears. Researchers P. Jason Rentfrow and Samuel Gosling gave 3,500 people a personality（人格、个性）quiz. "We found that the musical styles people like are closely linked to their personalities," Gosling says.

    RAP/HIP-HOP

    Known for their quick speech, some rappers can say more than 700 syllables（音节）a minute! If you like rap/hip-hop, you are energetic and have a way with words. You put a fresh spin on things, whether it's new moves on the dance floor or your hip style.

    CLASSICAL

    In the 18th century, classical musicians were like rock stars. Beethoven and Mozart, for example, played in crowded concert halls. If you like classical, you are open to new ideas and like debating with friends. Creative and imaginative, you can easily spend many hours scrapbooking（剪贴）, writing or painting.

    COUNTRY

    Country music came from the folk songs of English, Scottish, and Irish settlers of the southeastern United States. If you like country, you express your opinions well, which makes you the ideal class president or team captain. Traditional and loyal, you enjoy spending time with your family.

    POP

    Pop music is designed to attract almost everyone, and it does. Each year, the industry brings in about 30 billion dollars! If you like pop, you are attractive to your friends. You can make big things happen, like planning for a huge party or inspiring your team to victory.

    ROCK/ALTERNATIVE

    In the 1950s, rock music created a brand-new culture. Teenagers, for the first time, had an identity separate from adults and children. If you like rock/alternative, you are a risk-taker who never accepts no for an answer. You rise to any challenge, like doing very well in a big exam or landing the lead in the school play.

    If these personality profiles（人格剖析）don't match you, that's OK. These are just for fun.

Blameless

    I was a freshman in college when I met the Whites. They were completely different from my own family, yet I felt at home with them immediately. Jane White and I became friends at school, and her family welcomed me like a long-lost cousin.

    In my family, it was always important to place blame when anything bad happened.

    "Who did this?" my mother would scream about a dirty kitchen.

    "This is all your fault, Katharine," my father would insist when the cat got out or the dishwasher broke.

    From the time we were little, my sister, brothers and I told on each other. We set a place for blame at the dinner table.

    But the Whites didn't worry about who had done what. They picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives. The beauty of this was driven home to me the summer Jane died.

    In July, the White sisters and I decided to take a car trip from their home in Florida to New York. The two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, were college students, and the youngest, Amy, had recently turned sixteen. Proud of having a new driver's license, Amy was excited about practicing her driving on the trip. She showed off her license to everyone she met.

    The big sisters shared the driving of Sarah's new car during the first part of the trip, but when they reached less crowded areas, they let Amy take over. Somewhere in South Carolina, we pulled off the highway to eat. After lunch, Amy got behind the wheel. She came to a crossroads with a stop sign. Whether she was nervous or just didn't see the sign no one would ever know, but Amy continued into the crossroads without stopping. The driver of a large truck, unable to stop in time, ran into our car.

    Jane was killed immediately.

    I was slightly injured. The most difficult thing that I've ever done was to call the Whites to tell them about the accident and that Jane had died. Painful as it was for me to lose a good friend, I knew that it was far worse for them to lose a child.

    When Mr. and Mrs. White arrived at the hospital, they found their two daughters sharing a room. Sarah had a few cuts on the head; Amy's leg was broken. They hugged us all and cried tears of sadness and of joy at seeing their daughters. They wiped away the girls' tears and made a few jokes at Amy as she learned to use her crutches(拐杖).

    To both of their daughters, and especially to Amy, over and over they simply said, "We're so glad that you're alive."

    I was astonished. No blame. No accusations.

    Later, I asked the Whites why they never talked about the fact that Amy was driving and had run a stop sign.

    Mrs. White said, "Jane's gone, and we miss her terribly. Nothing we say or do will ever bring her back. But Amy has her whole life ahead of her. How can she lead a full and happy life if she feels we blame her for her sister's death? "

    They were right. Amy graduated from the University of California and got married several years ago. She works as a teacher of learning-disabled students. She's also a mother of two little girls of her own, the oldest named Jane.

Growing up, we are constantly reminded that young people are heavily affected by technology. We are the "antisocial club", those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them. And even though never-ending studies reveal to us the extent of our social media addiction, we should at least consider that it's not only our young people's problem any more.

There's the rise of the Instagram mums, who like to post an abundance of cute baby pictures, share their mom feelings along the way and show their wonderful lifestyles. They are the so-called "Facebook mum generation", a growing group of parents that like to overshare.

While all of this might be fine, and even a little humorous, new research suggests that parents' technology addiction is negatively affecting their children's behavior. According to the study, 40% of mothers and 32% of fathers have admitted having some sort of phone addiction. This has led to a significant fall in verbal interactions within families and even a decline in mothers' encouraging their children.

There is no denying that I get annoyed when receiving the words "I'll be with you soon" from a parent, when all I want to do is ask one question. But, at the same time, every day leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his "serious business" (Farmville), has now become the norm. Whether you want to escape your disturbing children for a bit, or want to stay up late flicking through Twitter, know that wanting to do all of these is normal. We, your children, know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to switch off. But before telling us to put our phones away at the table or even worse, listing statistics of how damaging social media can be for us, maybe lead by example, considering how much time you spend on the phone and how this is impacting your children and your relationship with us. Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.

Journalists are the major group of people who make their living from writing. Many young people who see themselves as future novelists choose journalism as a way of earning a living while developing their writing skills. Although writing for newspapers and writing for books require different qualities, the aspiration (志向) to be a great writer is not one to be discouraged in a would-be journalist.

Most people want their work to be recognized by others. This helps to give it value. Some people also want themselves to be recognized, so that they have status (地位) in the eyes of society. It is not a bad motive to wish to be famous, but this must never become your main reason for being a journalist. You will not be a good journalist if you care more for impressing your audience than for serving their needs.

Knowing the power of the printed or spoken word or image, some people enter journalism for the power it will give them to influence people. There is a strong belief that journalists control the mass media but the best journalists recognize their role as servants of the people. There is a difference between the desire to influence events for your own sake, and the desire to do it for other people. You should never use journalism for selfish ends, but you can use it to improve the life of other people.

Curiosity is a natural part of most people's characters and an important ingredient for any journalist. Lots of young men and women enter the profession with the desire to know more about the world without needing to specialize in limited fields of study. Most journalists tend to know a little bit about a lot of things, rather than a lot about one subject. Knowledge has many uses. It can simply help to make you a fuller and more interesting person. It can also give you power over people, especially people who do not have that particular knowledge. Always bear in mind that power can be used in a positive way to improve people's lives.