When asked to point out one or two things that are most important to themselves, many put friends ahead of homes, jobs, clothes and cars.

    A true friendship carries a long history of experience that determines who we are and keeps us connected. It is a treasure we should protect. Unfortunately, the better friends you are, the more probably you'll have disagreements. And the result can be what you don't want—an end to the relationship.

    The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended. First, don't let your pride get in your way. Most of us can forgive each other when differences are brought out in the open. Second, apologize when you're wrong — even if you've been wronged. Over the course of a friendship, even the best people make mistakes. Sometimes, it may be best if the wronged person takes the lead and apologizes. When you apologize, give your friend a chance to admit(承认) that he has been wrong. Third, see things from your friend's point of view. And finally, accept that friendships change as our needs and lifestyle change. Making friends can sometimes seem easy. The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that have an effect on all relationships. My suggestion: consider friendship as an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and nurture(培养).

    Last summer I got a real taste of Swiss life when I spent six weeks with a host family in the Bernese Alps.

    On arriving in Erlenbach where my host family live,I knew I couldn't have asked for a better setting: it was such a beautiful mountain village.

    And I couldn't have asked for a better host family,either.They made me feel like part of their family,rather than a tourist—I joined in my host family's day-to-day activities,whether helping pick berries in the garden or going to friends' houses.I wasn't only traveling around Europe seeing the major sights,but I lost myself in a different culture.

    While many Swiss cultures are similar to America's,there are lots of differences,too.For example,most Swiss leave their windows open—without screens—all the time.At first I thought all the bugs（虫子）were going to get in and eat me alive,and wondered why they didn't close the windows and turn on the air conditioner.But then I realized there weren't many bugs and I really enjoyed the fresh air.

    Probably my biggest shock was the language.I expected the Swiss to speak German,but they spoke a dialect called Swiss German,which has hardly anything in common with German.At times I was very frustrated（受挫的）because my three years of German did not help,but my bad mood did not last.Anyhow,many people knew English and were extremely willing to speak it.

    Signing up for a cultural exchange was probably the biggest risk I ever took,but it was also the most rewarding. When I left,I promised I would return to Erlenbach.There is more to Switzerland than cheese and watches.

    The world has lost one of its brightest stars. British physicist Stephen dies on March 14, at the age of 76.

    Hawking is probably the world's most famous scientists after Albert Einstein. He is an expert on black holes. He has devoted his whole life to digging into the beginning (and the end) of the universe. “My goal is simple,” Hawking once said. “It is to completely understand the universe, why it is as it is and why it is there at all.”

    Hawking's achievements are even greater if you think about his disability. When he was 21, Hawking caught a bad illness that slowly stopped him form moving or talking. For a period of time, he had no way to communicate except by blinking（眨眼）. Later he sat on a wheelchair with a computer by his side. To communicate, he moved two fingers to control the computer's mouse. He selected his words from the screen, which were then spoken by a voice synthesizer（音响合成器）.

    “I have had the disease for most of my life,” Hawking once said. “Yet it has not stopped me from being successful at my work.”

    Though Hawking was a disabled man, he made great achievements. He received many awards and prizes for his work during his lifetime. This included winning the Albert Einstein Award, which stands for the highest achievement in theoretical physics.

    Despite the fact that he's no longer with us, his legacy will surely live on. As Sajid Javid, a UK government minister, put it, “A brief history on Earth; an eternity in the stars.”

    My two- and four-year-old boys love to win, whether they're racing their bikes down the sidewalk or just finishing their snacks. It's true that those with high status, from world leaders and prize winners to athletes and movie stars, are people we like and respect. A recent study published in Nature Human Behaviour showed that we seem to have an innate (天生的) preference for high-ranking peoples—but only if those people aren't hurtful toward others.

    Researchers showed toddlers (aged 21 to 31 months) a scene where two puppets (木偶) approached one another from opposite sides of a stage and one bowed to let the other pass first. Asked which puppet they liked better, 18 of the 21 toddlers in the experiment reached for the puppet who had been allowed to pass. Because respect from others is a marker of status, this suggests that children have a preference for those with a higher status—even before age three.

    However, the results were quite different when two puppets approached one another and one used force to knock the other down before continuing to the other side. In this case, 18 of the 21 toddlers reached for the one who was knocked down. As the researchers concluded, "When approaching others, very young children care not only who wins, but also how." The previous experiment has shown that toddlers know about social status, but this experiment went one step further by proving they have an obvious preference for high status. Since the participants were so young, this might even be an innate human preference.

    In a word, this new research suggests that young children appreciate people who do well while at the same time doing good to others. So, when my four-year-old thinks that he has to get his shoes on first, I'll keep reminding him that helping his brother so they both finish faster is what winning is all about.

    Climate change, pollution, overuse of water and development are killing some of the world's most famous rivers including China's Yangtze. India's Ganges and Africa's Nile. WWF said on Tuesday. At the global launch of its report "World's Top 10 Rivers at Risk", the group said many rivers could dry out. affecting hundreds of millions of people and killing unique aquatic (水生的) life.

    "If these rivers die, millions will lose their livelihoods, biodiversity (生物多样性) will be destroyed on a massive scale, there will be less fresh water and agriculture, resulting in less food security, "said. Rayi Singh, secretary—general of WWF—India. The report, launched ahead of "World Water Day" today, also cited the Rio Grande in. the United States, the Mekong and Indus in Asia, Europe's Danube, La Plata in South America and Australia's Murray—Darling as in need of greater protection.

    Rivers are the world's main source of fresh water and WWF says about half of the available supply is already being used up. Dams have destroyed habitats and cut rivers off from their flood plains, while climate change could affect the seasonal water flows that feed them, the report said. Fish populations, the top source of protein and overall life support for hundreds of thousands of communities worldwide, are also being threatened, it found. The Yangtze basin is one of the most polluted rivers in the world because of decades of heavy industrialization, damming and huge influxes (流入) of sediment (积淀) from land conversion.

    Climate change, including higher temperatures, also means serious consequences for fishery productivity, water supply and political security in Africa's arid Nile basin. Tributaries (支流) flowing into the Ganges are drying up because of irrigation, WWF said.

    On Sunday, November 3, 2019, most North Americans will mark the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) by moving their clocks back an hour. This simple action will not only add an extra 60 minutes to their weekend, but also shift (变换，变动) daylight back into the morning hours, making it a little less painful to wake up for school and work during the shorter winter days.

    Operating the clocks was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. He mentioned the idea in a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris and advised it should be a way to save candles, but it was not taken seriously. George Hudson from New Zealand also recommended moving the clocks back two hours in 1895 to get extra daylight time to study insects. Unfortunately, neither he nor British people William Willett, who suggested it in 1907 as a way to save electricity costs, got their wish.

    It was the German Empire that began the clock shifting tradition on April 30, 1916, to save fuel needed to produce weapons and bombs for World War I. Though a few others, including the US and Britain, adopted the tradition shortly after, all the countries returned to Standard Time once the war ended, only to start DST again during World War II. Once the battle ended in 1945, the US government ended DST nationally but allowed states and districts to continue the tradition and even allowed them to establish their own start and stop dates.

    However, though there have been many attempts to persuade lawmakers to end DST, both in the US and Europe, they have not been successful. Therefore, unless you live in places like Hawaii and Arizona, you have little choice but to "Fall Back" and enjoy the extra hour this weekend! Health experts suggest the best way to adjust is going to bed at your regular time, even if the day is an hour longer.