Next time you raise an eyebrow at the views of your partner, friend, sibling (兄弟姐妹) or colleague, remember they could be helping to make you smarter.

    New research shows that intelligence is not fixed but can be boosted throughout adulthood by family members, bright mates and intellectually stretching (拉伸) careers.

    The study challenges the commonly held belief that intelligence is static by the age of about 18. Current scientific consensus suggests that intelligence is controlled by genes, with environmental factors such as schooling and nutrition playing a partial role up to this age. After this point, IQ scores stabilize (稳定).

    But James Flynn, professor of political studies and psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, argues that people can “upgrade” their own intelligence throughout their lives. He believes intellectual stimulation (刺激) from others is crucial as the “brain seems to be rather like a muscle – the more you use it, the stronger it gets”. However, the opposite is also true – so people sharing a home or workplace with those who are intellectually challenged risk seeing their IQ levels fall as a result.

    He found the “understanding quality” of a family changes the IQs of all members, especially children. It can “lift” or hold back, depending on the “gap between their brightness and that of their siblings and parents”. A bright ten-year-old with brothers and sisters of average intelligence will suffer a five to ten point IQ disadvantage, compared to a similar child with equally bright siblings. However, children with a low IQ could gain six to eight points by having brighter siblings and special educational treatment to help pull them up.

    Professor Flynn also concluded that although genetics and early life experiences determine about 80 percent of intelligence, the remaining 20 percent is linked to lifestyle. This means that people can raise their IQ, or allow it to fall, by ten points or more. Therefore, the best way to boost IQ level is to mix with bright friends, find an intellectually challenging job and marry someone cleverer.

    People tend to become more personal and hide less of themselves when using email. Researchers from Open University in Britain have found in a recent study that there are good reasons for this.

    The team of researchers asked 83 pairs of students, all strangers to each other, to solve a problem. They had to discuss this question: If only five people in the world could be saved from a world disaster, who should they be? The pairs of students had to talk over the problem either face to face or by computers. Dr. Johnson said, “They told their partners four times as much about themselves when they talked over the Internet as when they talked face to face. When the computers were fitted with cameras so that students could see each other, this limited the personal side of the conversation.”

    Generally the information was not extremely personal. It was mainly about things such as where they went to school, or where they used to live. But some students discussed their love stories, and personal childhood experiences.

    Dr Johnson believes that emailing encourages people to focus on themselves. And when they do this, they become more open, especially if there are no cameras. “If you cannot see the other person, it becomes easier to talk about yourself. This is because you are not thinking what the other person is thinking of you. So emailing has become the modern way of talking,” said Dr. Johnson. However, this style of talking is not entirely new. “In the 19th century people started to use the ‘telegraph' to communicate. Now the same kind of thing has happened and people ended up speaking more freely.”

    Dr. Johnson thinks that emailers need to know about these effects of emailing, especially when they start work in a company. “ If you don't know about them, you could find yourself saying more about yourself than you wanted to.”

    You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater．You listen to their conversation：

    “I can't believe it－Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find．Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome．”

    They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater．It's nice and the price is right．You've never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish．They must know．So, you buy it．You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency．They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes．

    Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating．If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too．This is the secret of undercover marketing．Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it．

    Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising．This is particularly true of the MTV generation－consumers between the age of 18 and （3）It's a golden group．They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads．

    So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go．Some people might call this practice misleading, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative．“Look at traditional advertising．Its effectiveness is decreasing．”It is true, because everyone knows an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something．However, you don't know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance．

    Movies are a great means of entertainment for many. There are some advantages of watching movies. Comedies, for example, help reduce your blood pressure. Laughter for 15 minutes during a film makes your blood vessels (血管) wider. Besides, when you watch a sad movie, you're more likely to come away from it thinking about loved ones and feeling happy about what you have.

    Watching movies can make you creative. A study shows that young children, who watched the use of magic in Harry Potter, score significantly higher in a creative thinking test than children who watched something else. Moreover, movies are very useful for strengthening people's mental health. They enable people to take time to really relax and temporarily forget about their daily concerns and problems.

    However, watching movies aren't always beneficial. Studies have shown that some people get real pleasure out of being scared by horror movies, but in various ways they may be risking their physical and mental health without even knowing it. When you watch a tense scene in a movie, your heart rate and blood pressure increase. Meanwhile this change in your brain chemistry reminds you of times when you were in a similar state, even if you have no idea you even had those memories. So if something horrible happens to you, being scared again by a movie can unintentionally make you experience it once more.

    Scientists, politicians and parents have debated for decades if being exposed to movie violence leads to actual real-life violence. Overall the answer to that is probably still up in the air, but a new study seems to prove that watching aggression on screen can contribute to being a bully (土霸) in real life, even if it is just in the short term.

    In conclusion, certain movies play a positive role, but not all movies do. It depends completely on the subject of the movie. So it's always advisable to choose the movies concerning something positive.

    Every man dreams of having agood car. With luxury cars, like Bentley, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, going intothe world of SUVs, if you have deep pockets, you will be spoilt for choice.

    ◆Lamborghini Aventador SVJ

    Using a new aerodynamic system allows it toset a car lap record of 6: 44 97 at Nurburgring, one of the longest and most challengingcircuits in the world. Plus, carbon fiber can be seen everywhere, which makes thecar strong and lightweight. There're only 900 being built and you'llneed to coughup $517, 770 to buy one.

    ◆Aston Martin DBX

    The DBX is Aston Martin's maiden SUVproduct. It features a choice of two gas engines—a 4.0-liter V8 from Mercedes anda 5.2-liter V12 from its own. The price is predicted to be around $250, 000.

    ◆Audi E-tron

    Being an eco-friendly motoring, it is an all-electricSUV that makes up for its rather ordinary appearance with design, luxury and technology.At the front and back are electric motors which insure progress is rapid. In additionto plenty of storage space, the Audi E-tron provides side cameras instead of sidemirrors and air suspension that adapts to the terrain (地形). Hand over $74, 800 and it's yours.

    ◆Tesla Roadster

    Tesla Roadster will turn most heads, Zero to60 in 1.9 seconds means it will leave most cars for dust. The top speed is 250 mph,which is also unheard of for most cars—let alone an all-electric one. Having advancedautonomous driving systems and a huge touchscreen for surfing the Internet, it won'tmake you regret for paying $200, 000.

    Finland is the happiest place on Earth, according to the 2018 World Happiness Report of 156 nations.

    The report, released Wednesday by the United Nations'Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks the countries of the world based on six different categories of well-being: income, freedom, trust, life expectancy, generosity and social support. This year's report also pays special attention to the happiness of each country's immigrants.

    The U.S. dropped four spots from 2017 and landed in 18th place, and last year's winner, Norway, came in second place — followed by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland.

    “The top five countries all have almost equally high values for the six factors found to support happiness, and four of these countries—Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland — have been in first place in the six World Happiness Report rankings since the first report" in 2012, "co-editor John Helliwell told CNN. “In a division with such excellent teams, changes in the top spot are to be expected."

    Rounding out the top 10 happiest countries was Canada in sixth place, then New Zealand, Sweden and Australia. The order of the top 10 nations changed from the 2017 list but the countries did not, according to the report. They were also 10 of the 11 top spots in the immigrant happiness category (including Mexico — 24th overall, but 10th in immigration).

    "The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born," Helliwell said in a statement. "Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations resemble those of other residents in their new countries. Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose."

    Other major world powers placed in significantly low spots on the list. Germany came in 15th, the UK was 19th — followed by Japan in 54th place, Russia in 59th and China in 86th.

    The report, based on surveys completed by citizen volunteers, came just under a week before World Happiness Day on March 20, when the UN declared to recognize "the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives"