Tom goes everywhere with Catherine Green, a 54-year-old secretary. He moves around her office at work and goes shopping with her. "Most people don't seem to mind Tom," says Catherine, who thinks he is wonderful. "He's my fourth child," she says. She may think of him and treat him that way as her son, buying his food, paying his health bills and his taxes, but in fact Tom is a dog.

    Catherine and Tom live in Sweden, a country where everyone is expected to lead an orderly life according to rules laid down by the government, which also provides a high level of care for its people. This level of care costs money.

    People in Sweden pay taxes on everything, so aren't surprised to find that owning a dog means yet more taxes. Some people are paying as much as 500 Swedish kronor in taxes a year for the right to keep their dog, money that is spent by the government on dog hospitals and sometimes medical treatment for a dog that falls ill. However, most such treatment is expensive, so owners often decide to offer health and even life premium for their dog.

    In Sweden dog owners must pay for any damage their dog does. A Swedish Kennel Club official explains what this means: if your dog runs out on the road and gets hit by a passing car you, as the owner, have to pay for any damage done to the car, even if your dog has been killed in the accident.

    It is commonly believed that all over the world,boys and girls attend a mixed school,where they study together. But boys' schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and involve them in activities such as arty,dance and music.

    Always boys at single-sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness,rather than feeling they had to correspond to（和…相符）the "boy code" of hiding their emotions to be a "real man".

    Surprisingly,the findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.

    George Car,headmaster of Eton,warned that boys were being failed by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls.He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.

    The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when girls do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.

    But in single-sex schools teachers can adjust lessons to boys' learning style,letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom,wrote the study's author,Abigail James,of the University of Virginia.

    Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with "boy-focused" approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them.Because boys generally have more acute vision,learn best through touch,and are physically more active,they need to be given"'hands-on" lessons where they are allowed to walk around."Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine（女性的）and prefer the modem genre（类型）in which violence and sexism are major themes,"James wrote.

    Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel that they had to be "masterful and in charge" in relationships."In mixed schools,boys feel forced to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means,"the study reported.

It is hardly surprising that clothing manufacturers(生产商) follow certain uniform standards for different features of clothes. What seems strange, however, is that the standard used for women is the opposite of the one for men. Take a look at the way your clothes button. Men's clothes tend to button from the right, and women's from the left. Considering most of the world's population—men and women—are right-handed, the men's standard would appear to make more sense（更有道理） for women. So why do women's clothes button from the left?

    History really seems to matter here. Buttons first appeared only on the clothes of the rich in the 17th century, when rich women were dressed by servants. For the mostly right-handed servants, having women's shirts button from the left would be easier. On the other hand, having men's shirts button from the right made sense, too. Most men dressed themselves, and a sword（剑） drawn from the left with the right hand would be less likely to get caught in the shirt.

    Today women are seldom dressed by servants, but buttoning from the left is still the standard for them. Is it interesting? Actually, a standard, once it is set, resists change. At a time when all women's shirts buttoned from the left, it would have been risky for any single manufacturer to offer women's shirts that buttoned from the right. After all, women had grown so used to shirts which buttoned from the left and would have to develop new habits and skills to switch. Besides, some women might have found it socially awkward to appear in public wearing shirts that buttoned from the right, since anyone who noticed that would believe they were wearing men's shirts.

                                                                       Balloon Volleyball

    It's a rainy, dark day and there's nothing to do. You don't feel like sitting quietly but you are not allowed to make a lot of noise. What can you do for fun? Try balloon volleyball.

    Items needed for this game: a balloon (or two, in case the first one bursts), some ropes, two chairs, at least two people and a room.

    Set up the room. If you're in the living room, or a family room, be sure to move all the furniture out of the way. Get two chairs and set them in the middle, outer edges(边缘)of the room. They should be at the same place where you put a volleyball net. Turn them so that the seat is facing the wall, not the “playing” space. Tie the rope onto the top of the chair, and run the rest of the rope to the other chair. Now tie it on this chair at the same place as the first chair. You can decide the “out-of-bounds”(出界) lines, if you want to have them, but they really are not necessary in this game.

    Blow up the balloon. Choose sides. You will play this game on your knees (at least until they start hurting and you want to stand). Each side must get the balloon over the rope in three hits. If it does not get over, the other side gets the balloon and a point. This game becomes more difficult because you must play without talking.

    You can also add other rules to make it more difficult; for example, you can only use your left hand or only your right hand to hit the balloon.

    Continue playing until one side gets 10 points. You can make your game longer or shorter by changing the number of points it takes to win.

    This is a fun way to get your energy out, have fun, and not make too much noise on a rainy, stay-in-the-house day.

    Rescue officials in Poland are working quickly to clear one of the country's highways. The roadway is covered with a sticky brown material. It is blocking cars from both directions.

    What is causing the mess? Milk chocolate. The problems began early Wednesday, after a huge truck carrying many tons of liquid chocolate overturned. Chocolate spilled out. It spread across six driveways of Poland's A2 highway.

    The liquid chocolate solidified（凝固）as it cooled, causing even more difficulties. The accident happened near the western Polish town of Slupca. Bogdan Kowalski is with the fire fighters of Slupca. He told the Associated Press that “the cooling chocolate is worse than snow”.

    Videos published on social media showed rescuers and cleaners were trying to move the sticky brown mess with a bulldozer（推土机）.

    The private Polish broadcaster TVN24 reported that the driver of the truck was taken to a hospital with a broken arm. The accident happened in the morning when there was little traffic. Nobody else was harmed.

    The sticky situation became a hot topic on social media. Some people offered to help the clean-up workers by eating the chocolate themselves.

    Marlene Kukawa is a media officer for Slupea police. She told the New York Times that rescue workers needed to remove the truck from the highway first. “The cleanup”, she said at the time, “will take a few hours or more.” She added that accidents are rare in this part of the A2 highway. And, she told the New York Times, she is sure the area has never experienced something quite like a huge chocolate spill.

    The Ice and Snow Festival Highlights

    It will fall upon January 1st, 2019 and last till the early March, 2019. Based on the theme of “Bright Pearl of the Crown of Ice and Snow”, a variety of activities about ice and snow, concerning tourism, culture, fashion and sport, will be open to all tourists.