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    According to a new study ,a smiley face emoji（笑脸符）in work-related e-mails may not create a positive impression and could even weaken information sharing. In formal business emails, a smiley is not a smile.

    In one of the experiments, people were asked to read a work-related e-mail from an unknown person and then tell about both the ability and warmth of that person. Before that, they all received similar messages. But some included smileys while others did not. The results suggested that contrary to face-to-face smiles, which increase both ability and warmth, the smileys in a business e-mail had no effect on the perception（感知）of warmth, and in fact had a bad effect on the perception of ability. The perceptions of low ability in turn weakened information sharing.

    In another experiment, the use of a smiley was compared to a smiling or neutral photograph. The findings showed that in the case（情况）of a photograph, a smiling sender was judged to be more able and friendly than a neutral one. However, when an e-mail on formal work-related maters included a smiley, the sender was thought to be less able. The smiley did not influence the opinion on the sender's friendliness.

    “People are easy to accept that a smiley equals a real smile, but the findings of this study show that in the workplace, this seems not the case, especially when first communications are concerned.” Dr. Glikson says. “In such a situation, it is better not to use smileys to people at whatever age. Smileys could hardly be a wise choice to a person you are not familiar with.”

    Chinese people are, quite rightly, proud of their food. However, when foreigners like Britons and Americans think of Chinese food, their impression of it is different to what you might think.

    Growing up in the UK, the Chinese food I was used to eating was food I now recognize as being from Guangdong. For example, a typical dish I would order would be pork in sweet and sour sauce, probably with some rice and spring rolls on the side. This is the type of food we generally eat because most Chinese immigrants(移民) to the UK have come from Guangdong. You can tell, because when most British people try to copy the sound of Chinese, they actually copy the sound of Guangdong people—hearing the real Putonghua is sometimes a shock to British people who have grown up thinking it sounds completely different!

    British attitudes to Chinese food may be changing, though. Chinese-American chef Ken Hom has been on British TV for 30 years, and he told BBC Food: "Chinese food at the beginning of the 80s (in the UK) was sweet and sour pork, mainly. Most Brits had the unchangeable view of Chinese food… Now you are seeing more local Chinese food from Sichuan, Hunan and other areas of China. It is no longer just Guangdong food." Similarly, to most Americans, Chinese food doesn't go too far past orange chicken and fortune cookies, but more Chinese local dishes are becoming successful, especially in big cities like New York.

    Attitudes have not quite changed completely, though. Many foreigners who live in China will be familiar with this question from a relative back at home: "Have they given you dog yet?" Yes, perhaps because people still know too little about Chinese culture, many people believe that Chinese people love to eat dog meat. And of course, some people do eat dogs, which to Americans is like "eating a member of one's family" according to Vision Times. Also, Chinese people eat many other things people in the West do not—chicken claws, duck heads and some animals' organs.

    But what do foreigners think when they come to China and taste real Chinese food? You'll be glad to know that in my experience, the impressions have been very good.

    Children who do better than their companions at school tend to go on to enjoy better health as adults, research suggests. The study was based on a 30-year follow-up of more than 14.000 children born in Sweden in 1953.

    The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health study found the least popular children had a nine times higher risk of heart disease. They were also more at risk of diabetes (糖尿病),drugs, alcohol and mental health problems.

    The degree of popularity, power and status enjoyed by each child, was evaluated when the children reached sixth grade in 1966 by asking them who they most preferred to work with at school. Individual children were classified into five status bands depending on how many nominations (提名) they have received.

    The leader researcher Ylva Almquist, from the Center for Health Equity Studies at the University of Stockholm, said children with a low status might lack social support and information, this will lead to a more negative self-image, which could lead to lower expectations and poor choices in life.

    "For example, children in lower peer status may adopt a more health-damaging lifestyle, including behaviors such as heavy smoking and drinking. These behaviors are known to be major risk for heart disease." she said.

    She said the study shows that schools should work to promote social equality in the classroom, and to improve children's self-image.

    Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said, "Children who feel undervalued or are bullied (欺凌) at school often grow up lacking self-confidence. They then seek comfort in overeating, smoking or drinking, and all too often find themselves in poor health. It is important to do whatever we can to help children and young people feel valued."

    Earthquakes are something that people fear. There are some places that have few or no earthquakes. Most places in the world, however, have them regularly. Countries that have a lot of earthquakes are usually quite mountainous.

    The most talked about earthquake in the United States was in San Francisco in 1906. Over 700 people died in it. The strongest one in North America was in 1964. It happened in Alaska.

    Strong earthquakes are not always the ones that kill the most people. In 1755, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded was felt in Portugal. Around 2,000 people died.

    In 1923, a very strong earthquake hit Tokyo, Yokohama area of Japan. A hundred and forty thousand people died. Most of them died in fires which followed the earthquake.

    One of the worst earthquakes ever was in China in 2008. It killed a large number of people. The worst earthquake ever reported was also in China, in which 400,000 people were killed or injured. This earthquake happened in 1556.

    Earthquakes worry people a lot. The reason is that we often do not know when they are coming. People cannot prepare for earthquakes.

    Teachers say the digital age has had a good influence and a not-so-good influence on this generation of American teenagers. More than 2,000 middle and high school teachers took an online survey. Researchers also spoke with teachers in focus groups.

    Three-quarters of the teachers said the Internet and digital search tools have had a "mostly positive" effect on their students' research habits and skills. But 87 percent agreed that these technologies are creating an "easily distracted generation with short attention spans (持续时间)". And 64 percent said the technologies "do more to distract students than to help them academically(学业上)". Many students think "doing research" now means just doing a quick search on Google.

    The Pew Internet Project did the survey with the College Board and the. National Writing Project. Most of the teachers came from Advanced Placement classes, which provide college-level work for high school students.

    Judy Buchanan is director of the National Writing Project and a co-author of the report. Ms. Buchanan says digital research tools are helping students learn more, and learn faster. Teachers really welcome these tools because they are ways to make some of learning exciting and engaging. Young people welcome these tools. And the goal is to really help them become creators of content, and meaningful content, and not just sort of consumers.

    But one problem the survey found is that many students are lacking in digital literacy. In other words, they trust too much of the information they find on the Internet. Another problem the survey found is blamed on something that might not seem like a problem at all: being able to quickly find information online.

    Teachers say the result is a reduction in the desire and ability of their students to work hard to find answers. They say students are depending too much on search engines and do not make enough use of printed books or libraries. Many teachers are also concerned that the Internet makes it easy for students to copy work done by others instead of using their own abilities.

    Humans and many other mammals have unusually efficient internal temperature regulating systems that automatically maintain stable core body temperatures in cold winters and warm summers. In addition, people have developed cultural patterns and technologies that help them adjust to extremes of temperature and humidity (湿度).

    In very cold climates, there is a constant danger of developing hypothermia, which is a life-threatening drop in core body temperature to below normal levels. The normal temperature for humans is about 37.0℃. However, differences in persons and even the time of day can cause it to be as much as 6℃ higher or lower in healthy individuals. It is also normal for core body temperature to be lower in elderly people. Hypothermia begins to occur when the core body temperature drops to 34.4℃. Below 29.4℃, the body cools more rapidly because its natural temperature regulating system usually fails. The rapid decline in core body temperature is likely to result in death. However, there have been rare cases in which people have been saved after their temperatures had dropped to 13.9-15.6℃. This happened in 1999 to a Swedish woman who was trapped under an ice sheet in freezing water for 80 minutes. She was found unconscious, not breathing, and her heart had stopped beating, yet she was eventually saved despite the fact that her temperature had dropped to 13.7℃.

    In extremely hot climates or as a result of uncontrollable infections, core body temperatures can rise to equally dangerous levels. This is hyperthermia. Life-threatening hyperthermia typically starts in humans when their temperatures rise to 40.6-41.7℃. Only a few days at this extraordinarily high temperature level is likely to result in the worsening of internal organs and death.