For a long time, the traditional method of identifying liars was to watch their body language, including facial expressions.

    What if the person appears to be nervous? Is the person unable to look me in the eye? Is he or she look around the room? What about other nervous movements, such as fidgeting（坐立不安）or shifting from side to side? Many people—from parents to police officers and airport security personnel—depend on this method. But does a person's body and face reveal the truth? Not according to a new study.

    Talking, it seems, is the best way to smoke out a liar. That is what researchers in the United Kingdom found out recently. Their investigation took place at one place where lying can get you into big trouble—an airport.

    The researchers asked volunteers to pretend they were real passengers and then lie to airport security agents. Some of the agents used spoke conversation-based methods to question these make-believe passengers. Others depended instead on the person's body language, like lack of eye contact and showing signs of nervousness. The agents talking with the passengers were 20 times more likely to catch the liars. The study found that these conversation-based techniques can help you recognize when a person is lying to you. Like many methods, this conversation method has a name. It is called Controlled Cognitive Engagement or CCE, for short.

    The British government partly financed this study. The American Psychological (APA) published the findings. Body language cannot be trusted. Using body language and facial expressions to catch someone in a lie is really hard. And it only works, seemingly, by chance.

    Thomas Ormerod is the head of the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex in England. On the APA website, he reported that the “suspicious-signs method”—or using body language—“almost completely fails” in finding lies.

    People eat different things in different parts of the world.

    In south China we eat rice every day. Sometimes we eat it two or three times a day, for breakfast, lunch and supper. We usually eat it with fish, meat and vegetable.

    The Japanese eat rice, too. They also eat a lot of fish. They sometimes eat raw（生的）fish. In Africa, maize（玉米）is the most important food. People there make maize into flour（面粉）.From this flour they make different kinds of bread and cakes.

    In western（西方的）countries such as Britain, Australia and the U.S.A, the most important food is bread or potatoes. People there usually make their bread from wheat flour. They cook the potatoes in different ways. In England the most popular food is fish and chips. Sometimes people cook this food at home, but usually they buy it at the shop. They eat this food at home, in their work place, in the park or on the road. People call it "take-away" food.

    Holi, also called the Festival of Colors, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, Nepal, Bangladesh. It is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month.Holi originally was a festival to celebrate good harvests. It developed to honor a legend from the Hindu Mythology（神话）. The story focuses on a cruel king, who hated his son,Prahlada. He attempted to kill his son but failed each time. Finally, the king asked his sister Holika, who was said to be safe in fire, to get rid of his son. However, when the aunt tried to burn Prahlada, it was the prince who ended up being safe in fire while the aunt herself was burnt to death. Holi honors this event every year and huge bonfires（篝火）are burnt on the eve of Holi. The festival spreads over 16 days. During these days people often have fun and play with colored powder and water. Holi is also celebrated with exciting parades which are companied by folk songs and dances.

    The festival begins on the night of the full moon. Bonfires are lit on street corners to drive away the air of evil spirits and bad feelings, and to symbolize the destruction of bad Holika, after whom the festival was named. In the morning, the streets are filled with people running, shouting and laughing.

    At noon, the craziness comes to an end and everyone heads to either the river or the bathroom, then relaxes and enjoys candies. A tired and contented silence falls over India.

    Average humans can consume 15 or more drinks in plastic bottles a month. If you were born after 1978, and live until 80 years old, you will leave behind a minimum of 14,400 plastic bottles on this planet. These bottles take hundreds of years to break down into tiny pieces of plastic, never to completely disappear. Most of the waste is consumed by fish and birds, which has shortened their lifetime greatly.

The Plastic Bottle Village is just a great idea that might finally save us from being buried in plastic. It's a community in Panama that is going to be made of used bottles. The design process begins with building steel frames, which are then filled with these bottles. Once this step is complete, and electrical and plumbing (管道装置) lines are put inside, the plastic walls are covered by concrete—both inside and outside. So no one will actually be able to tell that the walls are made of plastic. Besides, the material will keep the house 17℃ cooler than the outside, which is the biggest benefit to people living inside.

    The village is the brainchild (主意) of Robert Bezeau with the intention of setting up several environmental projects. Having started a recycling program four years ago, during which a number of plastic bottles were collected, he started to think of how they could be put to use. Soon enough, he decided to use them to build houses, and came up with a basic idea for the construction process.

    The project hopes to make people conscious of the waste that these bottles create so that they can do more to protect the environment. The village will also create an education center that will teach individuals from the world how to reuse plastic bottles as construction materials for shelter. Recycled bottles could neutralize the negative effect of your passage on this planet, and move closer to leaving only your “footprints”.

    A primary school in UK has banned Valentine's Day cards because of concerns that young pupils spend too much time talking about boyfriends and girlfriends.

    Ashcombe Primary School in Weston Super Mare, Somerset, has told parents that cards declaring love can be "confusing" for children under the age of 11, who are still emotionally and socially developing. In this month 's newsletter(通讯), Peter Turner, the head teacher, warned that any cards found in school would be confiscated(没收). He wrote: "We do not wish to see any Valentine's Day cards in school this year. Some children and parents encourage a lot of talk about boyfriends and girlfriends. We believe that such ideas should wait until children are mature enough emotionally and socially to understand the commitment involved in having or being a boyfriend or girlfriend." Mr. Turner said any family wanting to support the Valentine's Day idea should send cards in the post or deliver them to home addresses by hand.

    His views were endorsed by Ruth Rice, 46, who has twins Harriet and Olivia at the school. She said, "Children at that age shouldn't really be thinking about Valentine's Day, they should be concentrating on their schoolwork." They are at an age when they are impressionable(易受影响的)and most parents including myself are with Mr. Turner." She added that "the cards cause too much competition. If someone gets a card and another doesn't, then someone will be disappointed."

    However, Rajeev Takyar, 40, who has two children Jai, 11, and Aryan, five, at the school, said he was "very angry". He said, "There are schools that have banned computer games and snowballs, and now Valentine's Cards." I think banning the cards stops children from having social skills. How are they going to learn about relationships otherwise? It's ridiculous. Alec Suttenwood, father of three children, said of the ban: "It's totally ridiculous. Young children just send the cards to each other as friends and to their parents. It's just a bit of harmless fun. There is no difference between this and Mother's or Father's Day."

    My six-year-old son, Stephen, was in front of the TV and smiled. His favorite show was about to begin-a Phoenix Suns basketball game.

    "Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer's voice was heard, "here is your starting lineup (首发阵容)." The arena (球场) darkened and the lights flashed when the players ran into the court to sing their team song. Stephen clapped and danced around. My wife Lorrie and I laughed. Stephen had been performing this for months. "One day I'm going to take you to a game, son," I promised.

    About a year later, the construction company where I worked finished a project for a Suns player. One afternoon my boss called me. "The player has two extra tickets for tonight's game! Just pick them up at my office," he said. I picked up the tickets, but felt a little disappointed when I looked at the clock. Even if I had had a helicopter, we would never have gone to the arena in time for the player introductions. Stephen would miss his favorite part! I grabbed my key, got Stephen in my car and hit the road. "Lord," I prayed, "I'd love to see the joy on Stephen's face. Help us make it on time."

    When I drove, it began to rain heavily. Suddenly, lightning flashed right near the arena! I turned on the radio to listen to the game. The announcer said there'd been a power failure at America West Arena. Everyone was fine, but there would be a delay until they got everything running. Finally, I parked the car and we walked in hurriedly to take our seats. I hoped that we hadn't missed the introductions.

    The very moment we entered the arena, the lights darkened. The music started. "Ladies and gentlemen, here's your starting lineup!" Stephen's eyes grew wide. There wasn't enough space for him to dance around, but I could tell that his heart was leaping more than his body was able to. Thank heaven, he hadn't missed a thing. And neither had I.