Take a look at the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 7, 9, 6. Read them loud. Now look away and spend 20 seconds memorizing them in order before saying them out loud again. If you speak English, you have about a 50% chance of remembering those perfectly. If you are Chinese, though, you're almost certain to get it right every time. Why is that? Because we most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within a two-second period. And unlike English, the Chinese language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.

    That example comes from Stanislas Dahaene's book The Number Sense. As Dahaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be spoken out in less than one-quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is “si” and 7 “qi”). Their English pronunciations are longer. The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.

    It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number-naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed. In English, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, so one might expect that we would also say oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, and fiveteen.  But we don't. We use a different form: eleven, twelve, thirteen and fifteen. For numbers above 20, we put the “decade” first and the unit number second (twenty-one, twenty-two), while for the teens, we do it the other way around (fourteen, seventeen, eighteen). The number system in English is highly irregular. Not so in China, Japan, and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten-one. Twelve is ten-two. Twenty-four is two-tens-four and so on.

    That difference means that Asian children learn to count much faster than American children. Four-year-old Chinese children can count, on average, to 40. American children at that age can count only to 15. By the age of five, in other words, American children are already a year behind their Asian friends in the most fundamental of math skills.

    The regularity of their number system also means that Asian children can perform basic functions, such as addition, far more easily. Ask an English-speaking seven-year-old to add thirty-seven plus twenty-two in her head, and she has to change the words to numbers (37+22). Only then can she do the math: 2 plus 7 is 9 and 30 and 20 is 50, which makes 59. Ask an Asian child to add three-tens-seven and two-tens-two, and then the necessary equation(等式) is right there, in the sentence. No number translation is necessary: it's five-tens-nine.

When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have a built-in advantage. For years, students from China, South Korea, and Japan — outperformed their Western classmates at mathematics, and the typical assumption is that it has something to do with a kind of Asian talent for math. The differences between the number systems in the East and the West suggest something very different — that being good at math may also be rooted in a group's culture.

We thought we had it all—a beautiful house, three healthy children and one more on the way, two cars — and we loved it. We spent money like it was going out of style. Then, the market turned and my husband's job as a bigwig(大人物) at a construction company was gone. The company was closing down for ever.

    We both started looking for jobs right away, but there weren't any to be found. With each passing day our panic increased and we continued to work together in order to pull our family through. The more we pulled together, the closer we got. I felt feelings of great love for my husband that I hadn't felt in years.①

    That's why it was so hard for me to watch him blame himself for our present situation. I knew that he had no control over the economy, however, he constantly degraded (降低…身份)himself and his spirit sunk lower with each unkind comment. I continually asked him to stop, but he seemed to want to punish himself for not having a job.②

    Finally one afternoon I pulled him aside and said, “We have four healthy children. That's what's important. That makes you a rich man.”

    “But what if we lose the house? They'll hate me—you'll hate me.” he replied.

    I smiled at him and put my hands on both sides of his face to make him look me in the eye.③

    “If we live in a cardboard box on the empty place across the street I will be happy—as long as I have you.” I smiled again as I realized that I wasn't saying it. Somehow, in all the struggling together I had found that deep love for him that I had on the day we said “I do.”

    I could see relief wash through him as his shoulders and neck relaxed and the tension left his body. He held me close and we were able to talk and plan and dream together in a way that we hadn't in quite some time. ④

    We are still struggling financially, but I consider us well-off because we have something that money can't buy and no one can take away from us.

    The Chinese word "Shanzhai" means a small mountain village, but now it becomes an accepted name for fakes (假货), after "Shanzhai Cell-phones" produced by small workshops in southern China became popular in the mainland market over the past two years. Besides (除……之外，还有)"Shanzhai" electronic products, there are "Shanzhai" movies, "Shanzhai" stars and even a "Shanzhai" Spring Festival Gala, a copy of the 25-year-old traditional show presented by CCTV on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve.

    "Shanzhai" has become a culture of its own, meaning anything that imitates something famous. In Chongqing, "Shanzhai" version "Bird's Nest（鸟巢）" and "Water Cube（水立方）" woven by farmers with bamboo attract(吸引) wide attention from tourists. Both are copies of the famous Olympic buildings in Beijing.

    A literature critic said that taking the "Shanzhai" Gala as an example, when the traditional CCTV program becomes less and less attractive to the audience, the "Shanzhai" version appears timely to attract people. "Although it is often connected with poor techniques and operation, 'Shanzhai' culture meets the psychological needs of common people and could be a comfort to their minds," he said.

    To the mainstream（主流） culture, the rise of "Shanzhai" culture is a challenge and a motivation（推动）. People believe different kinds of cultures developing together is a perfect way and it is for the public to choose.

    When we think of a generation gap we usually think of conflicting tastes in music, or pastimes. But now the generation gap is handwriting. After one teacher in Tennessee discovered that she had students who couldn't read the assignments she was writing on the board, she posted it on the Internet saying handwriting should be taught in schools.

    Opponents claim that handwriting has become out of time in our modern world. Typed words have become a primary form of communication. Once a practical kill handwriting is no longer used by the vast majority of Americans. It is no longer taught in schools, and some claim that the time that it would take to teach it could be put to better use, for instance, by teaching the technical skills.

    But even in today's world there are still plenty of reasons to pick up a pen and apply it to paper. Many American institutions still require original signatures, for instance, signing for a registered letter and buying a house. And original signatures are much more difficult to forge(伪造) than their digital counterparts. There is also strong evidence that writing by hand is good for the mind. It activates a different part of the brain, and improves fine moving skills in young children. People also tend to remember what they write by hand more than what they type, and the process of writing by hand has been shown to stimulate ideas. Besides, studies have shown that kids who write by hand learn to read and spell earlier than those who don't. Not to mention, handwriting is pleasing, as is evidenced by the fact that no one has ever typed a love letter. And handwriting remains popular as an art form.

    Yes, we live in a modern world, but we live in a modern world that is based on fundamental values.

    I was with a group of businessmen, and we were dealing with a question — what is a good person?

    At a certain point during the discussion, one of the students, a young man of about 30, described an event that happened at Christmas. He and his five-year-old son were decorating the Christmas tree, and a little boy came to the front door begging. If you ever visit Mexico, you will see that the people there take begging as nothing to get upset about and nothing to get embarrassed by.

    So, this little boy came to the door, a boy about the same age as my student's son. The father and the son went to the front door, and the father went back with his five-year-old son and said to him, “Give him one of your toys.” At the words, the little boy quickly picked up one toy, and his father said to him, “No, no, give him your favorite toy.”

    And the little boy, like a little tiger, said, “No way!” He cried; he refused. But the father, like a big tiger in a way, insisted gently, “No, you must give him one of your favorite toys.”

    And finally the boy, with his head down, picked up a toy he had just gotten. The father waited in the living room, and the boy walked to the front door with the toy in his hand. The father waited and waited.

    What do you think happened?

    After a couple of minutes, his son came running back into the living room, his face lighted up. “Daddy,” he said, “can I do that again?” I think I have got the answer to the question.

More and more teenagers are becoming unwilling to exercise worldwide. Australia, a nation that prides itself on its outdoor culture, is doing particularly poorly. It is currently ranked (排名) 140th out of 146 countries for teenage exercise levels. The data shows that 85%of girls are physically inactive compared to 78% of boys. In Australia, less than 1 in 10 teenagers aged 12 to 18 are meeting the recommended levels of physical activity. 

The current guidelines and evidence show that teenagers should be doing at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day. This should include muscle and bone strengthening activities on at least three days per week, meanwhile limiting recreational screen time to a maximum of 2 hours per day. 

Not being active can cause a range of health conditions leading to early adulthood and beyond. Adolescents may have decreased bone and cardio-metabolic (心脏代谢的) health which leaves them facing an increased risk of chronic disease (慢性病) in later life, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, and decreased fitness. If you're not moving enough you're also at an increased risk of being overweight or obese, with data already showing that 29.8% of teenagers (14-17) are classified as overweight or obese. 

So how can we get teenagers to exercise more? Firstly, high schools should place more importance on lunchtime and allow 1-hour breaks that increase physical activity. We should also encourage teenagers to be active on their lunch break. Parents and guardians also have an important role to play and should aim to devote 1 hour a day to moving more. This does not need to be 1 full hour and can be broken down into two 30-minute parts. The most important factor is to identify your teenager's interests and needs surrounding their physical activity.

Don't be afraid to ask for help in finding a safe and fun exercise program. A qualified exercise physiologist or exercise scientist can help your child find a way to be more active that is suited to their needs, age of development, and interests.