Growing Up in Australia

    Since 2004, Australia has been holding its largest study of children's health ever. This project, “Growing Up in Australia,” is following two groups of children from early childhood until they become adults. The project is being supported by the Australian government and involves hundreds of researchers visiting the homes of 10,000 children. Researchers hope to find a relationship between the children's future behavior and their health, education, and family environments.

    When the study began, the first group of children was aged 0-1, while the second group was aged 4-5. In order to make sure that children from every kind of environment and background were chosen, the study found volunteers from each area. Some volunteers are in the countryside, while others are in big cities. The volunteers for both groups were chosen from a variety of different social and ethnic (种族) backgrounds.

    The researchers visit the participants' (参与者) homes every two years to gather information. They interview the parents about parenting styles and the child's daily activities. They also take measurements of the children's health and how well the children perform in school. The researchers also collect information such as the income of the child's family, the school the child attends, and the kind of community (社区) in which the child lives. They plan to use the information to improve children's lives.

    Researchers have already begun to publish some interesting results. For instance, after examining information from the second group of children when they were 10-11 years old, researchers found that children who spend a lot of time doing organized activities, such as music lessons or sports, have good control of their emotions and behavior. The study also found that they are able to complete their homework without their parents around. On the other hand, it found that children who watch a lot of television get upset easily and have worse behavior. The Australian government is now using this information to make better educational and health policies for Australian children.

    Today's post is almost about signs in English. You will see signs on the road while driving or when walking down a street. Now let's take a closer look at the signs in the picture below, so you can fully understand what they mean in case you come across one of them.

    Starting with the top row, we have a:

    Yield sign—This sign indicates (标示) that you need to slow down ,but you may not have to come to a full stop.

    Crosswalk—This is a sign that indicates people have the right of way to cross the street, so cars have to stop when they see a person waiting next to one of these signs.

    Second row:

    Do not enter—This sign indicates you are not allowed to enter a road at that point.

    Buckle up(系好安全带)!— There are often signs on roads in the United States reminding people that wearing seat belts(安全带) is mandatory (强制的) (seat belt laws differ depending on what state you are in ,but all US states have seat belt laws).

    Third row:

    Be alert (警惕的) for bears—This is another sign that is used to indicate to drivers and pedestrians (行人) that they should be alert for wildlife in the area.

Playground—This is the sign used to alert drivers that there is a playground nearby, so it is a good idea to slow down and watch for children.

    Most of us have quite good memories, but our memories are limited. For example, we cannot remember everyone we have ever met or what we did on every single day of our lives. However, there are some people who do have prodigious memories. These people have a rare condition known as savant syndrome（学者症候群）. Savants suffer from a developmental disorder, but they also exhibit great talents that contrast（显出差异）sharply with their physical and mental disabilities.

    Kim Peek (1951-2009) was a savant who lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. He was born with damage to parts of his brain, but it seemed that other parts of his brain, particularly those relating to memory, became over-developed.

    Peek's unique abilities appeared at a very early age. When he was just 20 months old, he could already remember every book that was read to him. Peek could read two pages of a book at the same time-one page with the right eye and one with the left-in less than 10 seconds and remember everything he read. By the time he died, Peek had memorized more than 9,000 books. He could remember all the names and numbers in a variety of telephone books. He could remember thousands of facts about history, literature, geography and sports.

    Dr. David Treffert, an expert on savant syndrome, once described Peek as “a living Google” because of his astonishing ability to memorize and connect facts. However, at the same time, Peek was unable to carry out simple tasks, such as brushing his hair or getting dressed, and he needed others to help him. In 1989, the movie Rain Man won the Oscar for best Picture. The main character in the movie, played by Dustin Hoffman, was based on Kim Peek's life. He started to appear on television, where he would amaze audiences by correctly answering difficult questions on different topics. Peek-became world famous, and he and his father began touring widely to talk about overcoming disabilities. He inspired a great many people with his words. “Recognizing and respecting differences in others, and treating everyone in the way you want them to treat you, will make our world a better place for everyone. Everyone is different.”

    As if 2016 hadn't been hard enough for China's workforce, a yearly survey has revealed that more than half of the country's white-collar employees got no year-end bonus ahead of the upcoming and costly lunar(农历的) New Year holiday. The survey of 11,500 workers by Chinese employment agency Zhaopin found that 50.9 per cent did not get an annual bonus at the end of 2016. Another 9.6 percent were told their bonuses had been delayed until after the New Year holiday.

    Before the slowdown that began in 2014, employers in China had been less ungenerous with cash bonuses, which can total well over a full month's pay and send employees back home for the holiday with plenty of cash for gifts to elders and other family members or to put away as savings. The impact of weak growth on year-end bonuses may have reached the highest point in 2015, however, when 66 per cent of white-collar workers received no year-end bonuses. And the 2016 level actually represents an improvement from 2014, when 61 per cent had to go without.

    But that recovery has also seen the size of bonuses drop: last year the average bonus was Rmb 12,821（$1,861）, about Rmb 2,000 more than that in 2015 but still about Rmb800 below the 2014 average. More than a quarter of those surveyed who saw their bonuses drop last year blamed the drop on poor company performance.

    Differences among the 34 cities surveyed were still greater, as the average bonus of over Rmb 15,800 in Beijing was more than three times than that in the lowest-paying city of Shenyang. Employees of state-owned firms also expressed more satisfaction with their bonuses than those at private companies — and little wonder, as the average bonus at the former was Rmb 17,318, or about Rmb 6,000 more than what private companies' employees could expect.

    But the impact of companies' stinginess(吝啬) can go beyond simply ruining employees' New Year holiday, possibly coming back to affect employers: 39 percent of respondents said they would look for work elsewhere if their year-end bonus was not returned to normal, an increase of 2.3 Percentage points from 2015.

    Although English is not as old as Chinese, it is spoken by many people around the world every day. English speakers are always creating new words, and we are often able to know where most words come from.

    Sometimes, however, no one may really know where a word comes from. Did you ever think about why hamburgers are called hamburgers, especially when they are not made with ham? About a hundred years ago, some men went to America from Europe. They came from a big city in Germany called Hamburger. They did not speak good English, but they ate good food. When some Americans saw them eating round pieces of beef, they asked the Germans what it was. The Germans did not understand the question and answered. "We came from Hamburger." One of these Americans owned a restaurant, and had an idea. He cooked some round pieces of beef like those which the men from Hamburger ate. Then he put each between two pieces of bread and started selling them. Such bread came to be called "hamburgers". Today "hamburgers" are sold in many countries around the world.

    Whether this story is true or not, it is certainly is interesting. Knowing why any word has a certain meaning is interesting, too. The reason, for most English words, can be found in any large English dictionary.

Plants may tell us when they're in trouble.Thirsty tomato and tobacco plants make clicking sounds,researchers have found.The sounds are ultrasonic (超声波的),meaning they are too high-pitched for human ears to hear.But when the sounds are transformed to lower pitches,they sound like popping bubbles (爆破的泡泡).Plants also make clicks when their stems (茎) are cut.

"It's not like the plants are screaming," says Lilach Hadany,an evolutionary biologist working at Tel Aviv University in Israel."Plants may not mean to make these noises.We've shown only that plants create informative sounds."

Hadany and her colleagues first heard the clicks when they set microphones next to plants on tables in a lab.The microphones caught some noises.But the researchers needed to make sure that the clicking was coming from the plants.So,the scientists placed plants inside soundproof boxes in the basement,far from the noise of the lab.There,microphones picked up ultrasonic pops from thirsty tomato plants.Though it was outside humans' hearing range,the clicking made by plants was about as loud as a normal conversation.

Cut tomato plants and dry or cut tobacco plants clicked,too.But plants that had enough water or hadn't been cut stayed mostly quiet.Wheat,corn and grapevines also made sounds when stressed out.

The researchers don't yet know why plants click.Bubbles forming and then popping inside plant tissues that transport water might make the noises.But however they happen,pops from crops could help farmers,the researchers suggest.Microphones,for example,could monitor fields or greenhouses to detect when plants need to be irrigated (灌溉).

Hadany wonders whether other plants and insects already tune into plant pops.Other studies have suggested that plants respond to sounds.And animals from pests (害虫),moths to mice can hear in the range of the ultrasonic clicks.Sounds made by plants could be heard from around five meters away.Hadany's team is now studying what the living things near the plants will do after hearing the sounds.