Astronauts on shorter shuttle missions (使命) often work very long days. Tasks are scheduled so tightly that break times are often used to finish the tightly that break times are often used to finish the day's work. This type of scheduled is far too demanding for long missions on the International Space Station (ISS). ISS crewmembers usually live in space for at least a quarter of a year. They work five days on and two days off to mimic the normal way they do things on Earth as much as possible. Weekends give the crew valuable time to rest and do a few hours of housework. They can communicate with family and friends by email, internet phone and through private video conferences.

    While astronauts cannot go to a baseball game or a movie in orbit, there are many familiar activities that they can still enjoy. Before a mission, the family and friends of each ISS crewmember put together a collection of family photos, messages, videos and reading material for the astronauts to look at when they will be floating 370 kilometers above the Earth.

    During their mission, the crew also receives care packages with CDs, books, magazines, photos and letters. And as from early 2010, the internet became available on the ISS, giving astronauts the chance to do some “web surfing(冲浪)”in their personal time. Besides relaxing with these more common entertainments, astronauts can simply enjoy the experience of living in space.

    Many astronauts say that one of the most relaxing things to do in space is to look out the window and stare at the universe and the Earth. Both the shuttle and the ISS circle the planet several times each day, and every moment offers a new view of the Earth's vast land mass and oceans.

    Publishers of books for beginning readers are in the business of doing whatever they can to make children develop a love of reading. At times, that means they'll produce books that are more colorful and more packed with pictures. But it turns out that when it comes to learning to read books, more pictures aren't always better.

    In fact, simply having more than one picture on a page can negatively(消极地) affect the ability of preschoolers to learn words from that page, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Sussex. “Storybook reading is a great activity to help children increase their vocabularies,” writes co-author Zoe M. Flack in the University's School of Psychology blog.

    But the illustrations(插图) can affect how well children will learn new words. “For example,” Flack writes, “We know that children learn words better if illustrations are realistic.” Also, studies have shown that adding bells and whistles(哨声) to storybooks may negatively affect learning, according to Jessica S. Horst, Flack's co-author for the study. “We also know that children look within illustrations for the things they hear in the story, so if the story mentions a girl dropping an ice cream, children will look at the ice cream in the illustration.”

    With that in mind, Dr. Horst and Ms. Flack began to wonder what would happen when picture books show many illustrations on a page and how young children who haven't yet learned to read know which illustration to look at while listening to a story. To find out, they read storybooks that displayed either one or two illustrations per page to 36 three-year-old children. As it turns out, children who listened to stories with only one illustration at a time learned twice as many words as children who listened with two or more illustrations.

    If you need to spend time on the road，it's important to find ways to keep safe on your feet．Don't suppose it's your right of way. Yes，you might be crossing at the right place，at the right time，within the crosswalk area，but you are still exposed to danger. It could be a distracted driver，or a cyclist with a loose sense of traffic rules，so you could still get hurt．You can be in the right legally，but that won't be much help when you're in the hospital.

    Follow pedestrian(行人) signals. Just as drivers aren't supposed to speed up to beat a light when crossing through an intersection，pedestrians need to take the same care when obeying their own signals．If the hand is flashing and the countdown is into single digits (数字), stay where you are．Trying to outrun the flashing hand is unsafe，especially as cars try to clear the intersection before the light turns red．

    Give drivers enough time to stop when crossing. Don't suppose that drivers will jam on their brakes when you hit the crosswalk signals. Some provinces，such as Alberta, issue （发出）a ticket if you don't give drivers enough time to brake.

    Cross quickly. Once you've followed all of the other rules，and it is safe to cross the street，don't then just wander along in front of six lanes (车道) of traffic. There's no need to run or jog，but respect the drivers who respected you enough to stop for you.

    Many of us live with a roommate at some stage. Sometimes, there can be problems. Who hasn't had an argument about whose turn it is to take out the rubbish or who should be the one to clear up after dinner? However, living with another person also comes with many benefits.

    You know that there's always someone else around, which can help you feel safer. There is always someone to talk to, so you never feel lonely. Besides these obvious benefits, there are some you may not notice. For example, we're actually more likely to eat healthier food when living with others.

    To examine the effect of living alone, Australian university researchers did much research and found that people living alone tended to eat less fresh food, which can have a significant negative effect on long-term health. However, those living with others generally benefited from a more varied diet compared to those living alone.

    What could explain these findings? The researchers believe the social and cultural roles played by cooking, food preparation and eating may be important considerations. For example, those living with friends have someone else to go shopping with, and thus are likely to buy higher-quality fresh food regularly.

    Cooking skills may be another factor. If people living alone find they do not have the knowledge required to prepare a particular dish or cook a certain food, they may fall back on ready-made, less healthy food. However, if they live with at least one other person, they may be able to ask for help.

    In addition, people living alone can eat whatever they want at any time of the day or night. However, it's helpful to have someone around who questions your decision to eat frozen pizza at 3 am. In other words, roommates can draw your attention to unhealthy routines.

    So, if you now live alone and find yourself fighting a losing battle against poor eating habits, why not consider sharing a home with someone else? You could encourage one another on to greater health and well-being.

    Many people go to school for an education. They learn languages, history, geography, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Others go to school to learn a skill so that they can make a living. School education is very important and useful. Yet no one can learn everything from school. A teacher, no matter how much he knows, cannot teach his students everything they want to know. The teacher's job is to show his students how to learn. He teaches them how to read and how to think. So, much more is to be learned outside school by the students themselves.

    It is always more important to know how to study by oneself than to memorize some facts or a formula （公式）. It is usually quite easy to learn a certain fact in history or a formula in mathematics. But it is very difficult to use a formula in working out a maths problem. Great scientists, such as Einstein, Newton and Galileo didn't get everything from school. But they were all so successful. They invented so many things for mankind.

Above all, they knew how to use their brains.

    The most popular martial arts (武术)today came from Asia, especially China. Some Chinese fighting styles were invented more than 3, 000 years ago. Many martial arts were invented because people needed to defend themselves or protect others. Nowadays, people learn martial arts as a way of keeping fit or as a competitive sport, but they are still very useful for selfdefence (防卫).

     Martial arts are often referred to as either soft or hard. These terms imply a way of dealing with your opponent's (对手的)force. Soft martial arts, such as tai chi, teach you to use your opponent's own force to defend yourself. Soft styles use movements and timing to avoid, deflect and redirect their opponent's attacks (攻击). These martial arts are soft for the defender but not for the attacker! On the other hand, hard styles, such as kung fu, teach you to defend yourself using force. Techniques involve blocking, posturing and powerful punching and kicking. Hard martial arts techniques are more effective(有效的)if you are more skillful, more powerful and faster than your opponent.

    Perhaps one of the best known Japanese martial arts today is karate. But did you know that it came from Fujian Province? in the century, a community of Chinese migrants(移民)from Fujian settled (定居)in what was then the kingdom of Okinawa. The Chinese migrants used to gather in a park to .enjoy cultural activities — one of which was kung fu. This soon caught the attention of local youths, who started learning kung fu from their Chinese neighbours.

    In fact, Chinese influence in martial arts was not only kung fu. The very first Korean military (军事)training manual was based on a Chinese version. During the Japanese invasion (侵略)of Korea in the 16th century, the Korean army needed an effective way to train a large number of soldiers. They used a training methodology from a Chinese military manual called ji xiao xin shu, written by the famous Chinese general, Qi Jiguang, who had himself defeated Japanese army.