Tone of voice is very important in human conversation. A person might use words that communicate one message and a tone that shows something very different. This possibility for confusion is one reason that businessmen encourage discussing things in person, rather than through email, as tone cannot be determined in the written form.

    The same rule is true with children. Children as young as a few months respond to a change in voice. It has been recorded that babies prefer to hear a story read by their own mother rather than another woman whom they do not know.

    Have you ever talked to someone who had little or no changes in their voice no matter what you were discussing? Think of the teacher or professor you had in the past that spoke in a monotone manner for the entirelecture. It is very boring and difficult to become interested in the topic.

    Parents should make an active effort to communicate with your child. If your child figures out how to open a box he or she has been struggling with and says “YES!” with pride in his or her voice, your response should be happy and excited (something encouraging, like “You did it!”). If you plainly said the same thing, you would not be matching the tone of your child.

    This applies to feelings that the child may express in everyday situations as well. If a child argues with a friend, your response should not be said in a high voice or with a smile. Seriously and sincerely you should say “You look sad” or “That must have been hard for you”.

    The tone of your voice expresses understanding, acknowledgement, connection and several other healthy things to your child. Although your words are very important, equally important is the tone with which you say those words.

Multitasking

    What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed (展示) at the entrance? Or the soft background music?

    But have you ever notice the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. But while a shop's scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is providing to be an increasing powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.

    A brand store has become famous for its distinctive scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, via scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers' intension to purchase increased by 80 percent.

    When it comes to the best shopping streets in Pairs, scent is just as important to a brand's success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sales. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.

    Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants' disproving attitude and don't touch what you can't afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores (实体店) can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this. Now a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut (椰子) scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store's windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent.

    "You'll be blind by the time you're twenty-five," a doctor at Children's Hospital predicted. "Your blood sugars are much too high." It consumed me. No matter where I was or what I was doing, it was overhead like a dark cloud, waiting for just the right opportunity to break open and destroy my world.

    I liked painting. Losing myself in painting filled me with peace. Painting provided me with the only place where I could escape from those threatening words.

    When I was twenty-one, my right eye went blind. Precisely three months after my twenty-fifth birthday, I had a massive hemorrhage (大出血) in my left eye because of an accident. For the next twenty years, vision came and went. I went through many eye operations in an attempt to keep my vision. But after one final operation, I lost the battle and all remaining vision. And I buried all dreams of painting.

    Desperate, I enrolled in (注册) a sixteen-week program for the blind and visually impaired (损伤的). I learned personal adjustment and the use of a computer with adaptive software. A whole new world opened up to me through this program.

    "Jaws and Window-Eyes are leading software for the blind," my instructor told me. "You can use the Internet, e-mail and Microsoft with all its tools and features." It's amazing! Hope went up for the first time in years. "By learning how to use hot keys to control the mouse, you can use Microsoft Access, Excel and Powerpoint," my instructor added.

    For the next several years, I learned that when one door closes, another door opens. There are plenty of choices available for the blind and visually impaired through the gift of technology. Not only do I have a speaking computer, but I have a speaking watch, alarm clock and calculator.

    Why should mankind explore space? Why should money, time and effort be spent exploring and researching something with so few apparent benefits? Why should resources be spent on space rather than on conditions and people on Earth? These are questions that, understandably, are very often asked.

    Perhaps the best answer lies in our genetic makeup as human beings. What drove our ancestors to move from the trees into the plains, and on into all possible areas and environments? The wider the spread of a species, the better its chance of survival. Perhaps the best reason for exploring space is this genetic tendency to expand wherever possible.

    Nearly every successful civilization has explored, because by doing so, any dangers in surrounding areas can be identified and prepared for. Without knowledge, we may be completely destroyed by the danger. With knowledge, we can lessen its effects.

    Exploration also allows minerals and other potential resources to be found. Even if we have no immediate need of them, they will perhaps be useful later. Resources may be more than physical possessions. Knowledge or techniques have been acquired through exploration. The techniques may have medical applications which can improve the length or quality of our lives. We have already benefited from other spin-offs including improvements in earthquake prediction, in satellites for weather forecasting and in communications systems. Even non-stick pans and mirrored sunglasses are by products(副产品) of technological developments in the space industry!

    While many resources are spent on what seems a small return, the exploration of space allows creative, brave and intelligent members of our species to focus on what may serve to save us. While space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers. The danger exists, but knowledge can help human beings to survive. Without the ability to reach out across space, the chance to save ourselves might not exist.

    While Earth is the only planet known to support life, surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow us to live on other planets. It is true that the lifestyle would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future.

    Some of the world's most famous musicians recently gathered in Paris and New Orleans to celebrate the first annual International Jazz Day. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) recently set

    April 30 as a day to raise awareness of jazz music, its significance, and its potential as a unifying voice across cultures.

    Despite the celebrations, though, in the U.S. the jazz audience continues to shrink and grow older, and the music has failed to connect with younger genera-tions. It's Jason Moran's job to help change that. As the Kennedy Center's artistic adviser for jazz, Moran hopes to widen the audience for jazz, make the music more accessible, and preserve its history and culture.

    “Jazz seems like it's not really a part of the American appetite.” Moran tells National Public Radio's reporter Neal Conan “What I'm hoping to accomplish is that my generation and younger start to reconsider and understand that jazz is not black and white anymore. It's actually color, and it's actually digital.”

    Moran says one of the problems with jazz today is that the entertainment aspect of the music has been lost. “The music can't be presented today the way it was in 1908 or 1958. It has to continue to move, because the way the world works is not the same.” says Moran.

    Last year, Moran worked on a project that arranged Fats Waller's music for a dance party. “just to kind of put it back in the mind that Waller is dance music as much as it is concert music.” says Moran. “For me, it's the recontextualization.

    In music, where does the emotion lie? Are we, as humans, gaining any insight (感悟) on how to talk about ourselves and how something as abstract as a Charlie Parker record gets us into a dialogue about our emotions and our thoughts? Sometimes we lose sight that the music has a wider context,” says Moran, “so I want to continue those dialogues. Those are the things I want to foster.”

    Guide dogs are going to be available for the children who are unable to see normally in the UK for the first time, as the age limit is to be removed. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is to begin training dogs to help blind people under the age of 16.

    The association says too many youngsters with impaired eyesight are lacking in independence. They have only a limited social life because of their disability. Giving some of them guide dogs at a younger age is intended to help them to widen their range of activities and to improve their sense of self-confidence and independence. Guide dogs for these teenagers will begin to be provided from next year. There has been an experimental project to test the use of guide dogs with younger people.

    Charlotte, aged 14, was among the youngest guide dog owners. She had been gradually losing her eyesight since the age of eight, and lost her eyesight completely this year. She has been assisted by a two-year-old guide dog. Charlotte used to have a long stick to help her move around, but having a guide dog allows her much more freedom and makes her feel safer.

    However, the association says there is a worryingly patchy supply of services for the young blind people across the UK, and it calls for a sharp increase in the number of guide dogs all over the country. As with adult blind people, only a small number of them are likely to be considered suitable for a guide dog. Most will continue to rely on extra help and training from education and social services.