One of the greatest soccer players of all time is Pelé. He was born in 1940 in Tres Coracoes, Brazil. His first soccer ball was a grapefruit. He also used an old sock and filled it with newspaper. Pelé left school at a young age to play soccer and work to help his family. Later in life, he finished high school and college.

    Pelé scored 1,281 goals—more goals than any other player in the world. He helped Brazil win three World Cup titles.

    Pelé retired from soccer in 1971. People all over the world admired Pelé. Presidents and world leaders invited him to their countries. Nigeria once stopped its war for three days to let Pelé play. His talent is very unusual. Doctors once tested Pelé to find out why he played soccer so well. They found that he had excellent eyesight. He is also very intelligent. Pelé liked to do math problems and play chess. He said these activities helped him play better.

    Pelé is married and has three children. He likes to be with his family. He also plays the guitar and writes songs. Pelé cares about people, especially children. He gives money to help poor children. He never advertises for tobacco or liquor companies. He knows that he has a great influence on young people. Pelé once said that he wants to “unite people, never to separate them.” He is loved and admired all over the world.

    Venom (毒液) from a local scorpion (蝎子) in Cuba is being used by Cuban scientists as an effective weapon to fight cancer. The venom, with stopping pain, anti-inflammatory (炎症) and anti-cancer properties, is the active ingredient in the medicine “Vidatox 30 CH,” which can be used to treat liver, brain, lung and other cancers. The treatment has been successfully used for more than four years in humans after being first tested in biological models. Labiofam, a Cuban laboratory, has breeding (繁殖) centers for both the Red Scorpion and Blue Scorpion. Each month, some 30,000 scorpions in Las Minas town, 270 km east of Havana are made to give the venom. After two years, the scorpions are released back into their natural habitat.

    Denyer Sanchez, a biologist from Labiofam, explained that the conditions are adjusted for reproduction, proved by the high number of breeding female scorpions. He said when the offspring (后代) becomes able to live in the environment, we release them because they do not have the necessary size yet to remove their venom, said Sanchez. Sanchez also said that there is still much to research on the exploitation process of scorpions, such as female death rate or the ability to survive of the released scorpions.

    Cuban research on the scorpion's venom began at the end of 1980s in Guantanamo province, the island's eastern tip, where a group of biologists and doctors became interested in the stories told by the peasants about the venom's benefits. However, the first discovery was made by Cuban biologist Misael Bordier. In 2001, Bordier visited Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM) and presented the research progress in a professional journal. Bordier died in 2005, one year before Cuba's Industrial Property Office gave Labiofam the rights to exploit the patent related to the venom.

    Naturally, parents praise their kids. They want to encourage their children every day. But when it comes to building self-esteem (自尊) in children, praise doesn't always have a positive effect, according to a special edition of the journal Child Development. The issue, edited by Eddie and Thomas, is focused on research into how children develop a sense of self and building your child's confidence takes different skills than you might think.

    Eddie points out that children are born without a sense of self, but it doesn't take long before some kids have a lot of confidence and may feel superior to peers, while others may carry more self-doubt and see themselves as inferior. Yet no one really understands what causes children to view themselves the way they do. Surprisingly little is known about the origins of children's self-concept,” Eddie said.

    Research has found that when kids have a warm, loving relationship with their parents, they develop higher self-esteem. However, when they are given endless praise that is inequal to their achievements, their self-esteem may drop.

    Instead of lavish praise, parents should focus on warmth to build self-esteem, researchers have found—specifically, parents should show interest in their kids' activities and share joy with them. This makes children feel noticed and valued. According to Eddie's own research, children may develop lower self-esteem when their parents give them lots of positive and overstated praises. Too much praise can make children worry about disappointing their parents, and may lead to an unhealthy attitude toward failure. Other studies suggest that parents can teach children that failure is beneficial by encouraging kids to ask themselves: “Why didn't I achieve the result I wanted, and what can I do to change the outcome in the future?”

    Additionally, it's important for parents to encourage the belief that kids can develop basic abilities through devotion and hard work. Kids who are praised for their effort instead of their ability are more likely to develop a growth mindset, which have a positive impact on their confidence.

    People with bigger brains tend to score higher on standardized tests of intelligence, according to new study findings.

    However, the study author Dr. Michael A.McDaniel of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond emphasized that these findings represent a general trend, and people with small heads should not automatically believe they are less intelligent. For instance, Albert Einstein's brain was "not particularly large", McDaniel noted." There's some relationship between brain size and intelligence on the average, but there's plenty of room for exceptions," he said.

    Interest in the relationship between brain size and intelligence grew in the1830s, when German anatomist(解剖学家) Frederich Tiedmann wrote that he believed there was "an unquestionable connection between the size of the brain and the mental energy displayed by the individual man". Since that statement, scientists have conducted numerous studies to determine if Tiedmann's assertion was correct. Most studies have looked into the link between head size and intelligence. More recently, however, researchers have published additional studies on brain size and intelligence, measured using MRI scan(核磁共振成像扫描).

    For his study, McDaniel analyzed more than 20 studies that looked into the relationship between brain size and intelligence in a total of 1,530 people. The studies showed that on the average, people with larger brain volume tended to be more intelligent. The relationship between brain volume and intelligence was stronger in women than men, and in adults than in children. McDaniel notes in the journal Intelligence.

    McDaniel is not sure why the relationship was stronger for adults and women. "Other research has shown that women, on the average, tend to have smaller brains than men, but score just as well—if not higher—in tests of intelligence," he said.

    McDaniel insisted that the relationship between brain size and intelligence is not a "perfect" one. "One can certainly find lots of examples of smaller-sized people who are highly intelligent," he said, "But, on the average, the relationship holds."

    How do you get a man to do his share of the housework? If you are like most women, you've faced this question the hard way.

    A man will enjoy a clean, orderly house, but he usually won't make the effort to clean or organise it. This doesn't mean that a woman has to do all the housework; she may have to manage many of the household duties, and request her partner's participation(参与). A woman can often say that men and women should take equal responsibility(责任) for housework.

    Very few men are raised to be fully responsible for housework, and many men look on housework as women's work. On the other hand, most men will readily work around the yard, make repairs and complete projects on weekends or evenings, and it's important that you give your man appreciation(欣赏) for those things, too. Most men will take on a little housework around the house if asked politely. They are even more likely to do housework if they can choose what they want to do, and do it without being monitored(监视).

    Here's the key: men want to feel that they are doing housework either because they want to do a task, or because they simply want to please their women. Men are much less likely to take on household tasks they consider uninteresting and unimportant. In other words, men are likely to do a household task just for the good of the house.

    My teacher, Mr. August J. Bachmann, was the most influential teacher I ever had.

    I had gotten into trouble in his class: Another student had pushed me for fun, and I became angry and began to hit him. Mr. Bachmann stopped the fight, but instead of sending me to the office, he sat me down and asked a simple question,“Penna, why are you wasting your life？ Why aren't you going to college？”

    I didn't know anything about colleges or scholarships. No one had ever considered that a fatherless boy from the poorest neighborhood had a future. That day, instead of rushing off for lunch, he stayed and explained possible education options to me. At the end of our talk, he sent me to see a secretary who had a child at a state college. This was in 1962 at Emerson High School in Union City, New Jersey.

    Well, 55 years have passed, and what have I done with the knowledge he gave me？I gained a PhD from Fordham University when I was only 29.I taught English and social studies and then moved up the chain of command from teacher to principal(校长).

    I've sat on the board for Magnet Schools of America and represented that organization at the United Nations. I've won a number of great educational awards. But where would I be if a truly caring teacher had not taken the time out of his lunch period to speak to me？ It was without question only his confidence in me that helped me forward.

    I have repaid his kindness hundreds of times by encouraging misguided youngsters to aim higher. If I have saved any children, it is because of him. If I have been a successful educator, it is because I had a great role model in Mr. Bachmann.