WHAT can help you make a fortune in the future? Graduating from a top university might not be enough. A new study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more friends you have in school, the more money you'll earn later.

    The idea that popularity could have a serious influence on one's earning potential shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills and networking are easily as powerful as talent and hard work.

    “If a person has lots of friends, it means that he or she has the ability to get along with others in all kinds of different situations,” said Xu Yanchun, 17, from Nantou High School in Shenzhen, who totally agreed with the recent finding. “Also, friends always help each other. They not only create wider social circles for you but lift your mood when you are occasionally in low spirits,” said Xu. She believed that all this helps you “earn a higher salary.”

    Maybe that's why some people think the younger generations are in the age of Friendalholism (交友狂症). A woman even complained that the networking website Facebook's 5,000-friend limit was too low for her large reserve of social contacts.

    But what does a friend mean? Should friends be regarded as a form of currency?

    “Call me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing. It seems, however, that this is no longer the definition of friend”, said Meghan Daum, who works with The Los Angeles Times in the US.

    Daum dislikes the idea that quantity trumps quality in the age of Friendaholism. She thought the idea of friendship, at least among the growing population of Internet social networkers, was to get as many of not-really-friends as possible. For example, a friend might be someone you might know personally but who could just as easily be the friend of a friend of some other Facebook friend you don't actually know. Although she agreed that social ties grease (润滑) the wheels of life, she also warned. “Too bad one thing money can't buy is a real friend.”

    I can't think of a better way of appreciating a new culture than by taking part in one of its festivals. You'll find that some festivals are celebrated by an entire country, while others may be known only to a single city or region, but either way festivals play an important role in a certain culture. Just enjoy them!

★ Tomatina — Bunol, Spain

    Every last Wednesday in August, the town of Bunol is filled with tons of tomatoes in the world's biggest food flight. Many people wear goggles (护目镜) during this hour of great fun, as the town becomes a red river.

★ Boryeong Mud Festival — Boryeong, South Korea

    For two weeks in July, millions gather in Boryeong to experience the grey pools and slides. What began as a way to help sell the region's mineral-rich mud has turned into a festive party with music and fireworks. The mud is usually only available in cosmetic products (化妆品), but here you can cake yourself in grey as you want.

★ Holi — India

    Holi, the Festival of Colors, is a Hindu celebration full of joy and one of India's most important holidays. During the day of the last full moon of the lunar month, usually late February or early March, the air is full of brightly colored powder (粉末). The festival is celebrated differently throughout the country, with bonfires and music, but the cheerful spirit is common among Hindu people around the world.

★ International Pillow Fight Day — Worldwide

    Tens of thousands of people took part in the 4th annual International Pillow Fight Day on April 2, 2013. From London to Vancouver to many other cities, the festival is held in more than 100 countries. So just bring a soft pillow in early April, and watch feathers fly.

    The tallest building in the United States, the One World Trade Center, opened on November 3, 2014 in New York. The building is 1,776 feet tall, making it the 3rd tallest building in the world. It has 104 floors. The building stands in the area where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. On September 11, 2001, a group of terrorists destroyed these twin towers and killed nearly 3,000 people. It took 8 years to build the new One World Trade Center. Does the height of the building in feet reminds you of something in history? The number is the year when the United States declared(宣布) its independence(独立) from Great Britain.

    One problem with such a tall building is how to clean the windows. Well, a platform(平台) hangs from ropes, and workers on the platform clean windows. On November 12, while two men were busy cleaning windows, a rope of the platform broke near the 68th floor. The two men were saved by cutting a hole in the glass window.

The two tallest buildings in the world are the BurjKhalifa in Dubai, UAE and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

    Taking a shower is relaxing. You can hum a song, daydream or think about nothing, leaving the real world behind you. But did you know that showering can also benefit your mind?

    A research by Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist from Yale University in the US interviewed over 3,000 people around the world. It turned out that nearly two-thirds of the interviewees said they had experienced new ideas in the shower and were more likely to have them in the shower than at work.

    So why does a simple shower have such magic power? Science can explain it.

    Showering can help to raise our level of dopamine, a hormone (荷尔蒙) closely related to our creativity. “People vary in terms of their level of creativity according to the activity of dopamine”, explained Alice Flaherty, a famous American neuroscientist. “Taking a warm shower can make us feel relaxed and therefore make the dopamine level rise and bring ‘Aha!' moment to us.”

    Besides the chemical changes, showering may give you a break from what you feel you have been stuck with. Especially when you have thought hard all day about a problem, jumping into the shower can keep you from the outside world so that you can focus on your inner feelings and memories. In this way, according to American psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author ofYour Creative Brain, “a showering hour may turn into an ‘incubation (孵化) period' for your ideas.”

    Compared with sitting in front of a computer, taking a shower is something we do less frequently in our daily life. When showering, we get a fresh experience with the change of location, temperature and humidity. “New and unexpected experiences can lead to positive changes in thinking,” explained Kaufman. “Getting off the couch and jumping in the shower may create a distance and force you to think from a new point of view.”

    Showering allows us to enjoy the creative juices of our minds, but it needn't just be the bathroom where you get your inspiration. For instance, Gertrude Stein, a female American writer and poet, got new ideas by driving around a farm and stopping at different cows until she found the one that most inspired her. So try to create your own way to free your mind, whether it's a walk near the ocean, a country drive or reading a book at home.

    If you like texting and are trying to lose weight, a new study found that using texting to track(追踪) diet and exercise habits may help you lose weight.

    Previous research has shown that keeping food and exercise diaries improves the likelihood of success when you are trying to lose weight. Using a computer or a pen and paper to record information, however, can be a burden and cause some people to give up.

    Duke University researchers said using text messages to track eating and exercise habits can save time, and increase the chances that people will stick with their weight-loss rules.

    The study included 26 obese women with an average age of 38. The women used daily texting as part of their weight-loss program. The text messages focused on tracking personalized goals, such as avoiding sugary drinks or walking 10,000 steps a day. Messages also provided brief feedback (回复) and tips.

    Every morning, the women received a text from an automated(自动的)system that said, "Please text yesterday's personal information of steps you walked and how many sugary drinks you had." Based on the women's responses to the text message, the system sent another text with personalized feedback and tips.

    After six months, the women who used daily texting lost an average of nearly 3 pounds, while another group of women who used traditional methods to keep food and exercise diaries gained an average of 2.5 pounds, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

    "Text messaging has become popular and may be an effective method to simplify tracking of diet and exercise behavior," Dori Steinberg, who was responsible for this research, said.

    Steinberg said, "Text messaging offers several advantages compared to other self-monitoring methods. Unlike web-based diet and exercise diaries, data in a text message can be entered quickly on nearly all cellphone platforms so it is very convenient to receive feedback. Besides, because of the limited number of words used in text messages, it saves time."

    "You know, the soft subjects," says the boy in maths. "The easy ones: the stupid girls at the bottom take them. Like dance. It shouldn't even be a subject." We're choosing subjects for our A-level taster day at school. I see the raised eyebrows (眉毛) when I explain two of my GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) choices are dance and drama(戏剧).

    I was told by advisers that dance and drama wouldn't help me to get a suitable career. My friends told me I'd get bored of dance and switch to science within the first month.

    But taking GCSE dance was the best decision I ever made. Dance gives me something to pour my head and heart into. It gives me a feeling of belonging, creativity, security and freedom.

    The education secretary Nicky Morgan has put emphasis on (强调) science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), saying that students who focus on the arts risk their careers. Stopping young people from expressing themselves at such a young age is not doing them any favours. Perhaps Nicky Morgan has forgotten to open the door of having a drive to study that subject day in, day out. It shouldn't matter what that subject is.

    I don't doubt the influence that STEM subjects can have on the people that love them. But to force children into one field is cruel. As much as I try, I'm not good at and don't love physics, biology or maths. I don't want a career in these areas.

    There has been a decrease in the number of state schools offering arts subjects taught by specialist teachers. I can't even imagine how it feels to be told that you don't teach a "real subject" by an 8-year-old boy.

    To the teachers, the parents, the government I say: Let children make their own decisions. Let them live in the present. Let them have a real, unlimited education.