Ask any kid, and you'll likely hear that time spent with friends is the coolest and most important part of the school day. Educators, as well, acknowledge that making friends is one of the most valuable things children do as they learn and grow. But many parents are perplexed by their children's social lives, wondering how to help their kids cope with the challenges, heartbreaks, and the joys of making friends, losing them, and making friends again.

    “Friendships help children gradually learn to be independent, contributing members of a community and it's just as important as their academic growth” notes Diane Levin, Ph.D., author of “Remote Control Childhood.” However, it's a slow process. There are many social skills to learn, which advance with age and experience, trial and error, and experiencing the satisfaction that comes from contributing to an ongoing friendship.”

    “Friendship starts as soon as children can crawl off their parents' laps over to another child,” adds Michael Thompson, Ph.D., co-author of her life with you to her life with her friends. but who their friends are, how they interact with them, and how popular they are, is something parents have only limited control over.”

    Experts on children's behavior say that problems like jealousies, breakups, bullying and teasing account for a big part of what parents, kids and teachers talk about, and what parents worry about.

    Get insights into how children's friendships develop and how parents can help, if needed, and find ways to determine if your child is at risk for serious social problems or simply suffering from real (but common) social challenges.

    There are two factors (因素) which decide an individual's intelligence (智商). The first is the sort of brain he is born with. Human brains differ greatly, some being more capable (有能力) than others. But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, an individual (个体) will have a low order of intelligence unless he has opportunities to learn. So the second factor is what happens to the individual—the sort of environment in which he is brought up. If an individual has less chances environmentally, it is likely that his brain will fail to develop and he will never arrive at the level of intelligence of which he is capable.

    The importance of environment in deciding an individual's intelligence can be shown by the case history of the twins. When they were three months old, their parents died, and they were placed in different homes. Peter was brought up by parents of low intelligence in a separate community with poor educational opportunities. Mark was brought up in the home of well-to-do opportunity to be encouraged intellectually.

    This environmental difference continued until the twins were in their late teens, when they were given tests to measure their intelligence. Mark's IQ was 125, twenty-five points higher than the average and fully forty points higher than his twin brother. Given equal opportunities, the twins, having similar brains, would have tested at roughly the same level.

    A member of our class told us of a request made by his wife. She and a group of other women in her church were involved in a self-improvement program. She asked her husband to help her by listing six things he believed she could do to help her become a better wife. He reported to the class," I was surprised by such a request. Frankly, it would have been easy for me to list six things I would like to change about her—my heavens, she could have listed a thousand things she would like to change about me—but I didn't. I said to her, 'Let me think about it and give you an answer in the morning.'”

    “The next morning I got up very early and called the florist (花商) and had him send six red roses to my wife with a note saying, 'I can't think of six things I would like to change about you. I love you the way you are.”

    “When I arrived at home that evening, who do you think greeted me at the door? That's right. My wife! She was almost in tears. Needless to say, I was extremely glad I had not criticized her as she had requested. ”

    “The following Sunday at church, after she had reported the results of her assignment, several women with whom she had been studying came up to me and said, 'That is the most considerate thing I have ever heard.' It was then that I realized the power of appreciation.”

    Lincoln once began a letter saying, “Everybody likes a compliment (赞扬).” William James said, “The deepest principle in human nature is the desire to be appreciated.” So, let's give honest, sincere appreciation to others instead of criticizing them. This will make a great difference to your life as well as others' life.

    A new “smart bin” could spell the end of environment - conscious families spending hours sorting tins, cartons, bottles, and cardboard for recycling. The invention, which automatically sorts rubbish into recycling categories, is being trialed in Poland and is set to go on sale in the UK within a few years.

    The bin, designed by start - up company Bin. E, recognizes different types of waste via a system positioned inside the bin which uses sensors, image recognition and artificial intelligence. Once waste is placed inside, the camera and sensors identify its type and place it in one of the smaller bins. Then it compresses (压缩) the waste so it occupies less space.

    News of the launch showed that more than a million households are being forced to accept bin collections every three or four weeks, because councils are trying to force them to recycle more. Data collected by The Telegraph has showed at least 18 areas have moved or will shortly be moving to three - weekly rubbish collections, while a further three have adopted or are trialing four - weekly collections. While reducing general bin collections, councils are increasing the frequency of recycling collections in a bid to change people's behaviour. It is thought that the bin could be stocked by department stores such as John Lewis, which said it is introducing new hi - tech recycling bins to satisfy increasing customer appetite for them. Matt Thomas, a utility (家用设施) seller at John Lewis, said, “We've recently seen a jump in specialist bins sales, with a 25 percent increase in the last few months alone. We have noticed our customers are becoming more and more sustainability focused, choosing dual compartment (双格) recycling bins that make it far easier to recycle different types of waste. In response to this demand, we are really excited to introduce a new voice and sensor activated smart bin this autumn / winter season — designed to use new technology to make recycling more efficient and functional for the everyday home.”

    A Russian spacecraft traveling to the International Space Station Thursday had to make an emergency landing when a rocket engine failed to fire. It was the latest in a recent series of failures for the Russian space program, which is also used by the U.S. to carry its astronauts to the station.

    United States astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexei Ovchinin landed safely about 20 kilometers from Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. The city is about 450 kilometers from the Russia's Baikonur space center, which Russia operates through an agreement with the Republic of Kazakhstan.

    Both the U.S. space agency NASA and Russia's Roscosmos reported that the two were quickly recovered from the landing area by rescue crews. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "Thank God the crew is alive" after they had landed safely.

    About two minutes after launching, the three-stage Soyuz booster rocket suffered an unspecified failure of its second stage. Russia's TASS news agency said the capsule carrying the two men separated from the troubled rocket safely. This caused the capsule to drop very sharply into the Earth's atmosphere. Parachutes（降落伞）helped slow the returning capsule. Search and rescue teams were sent to recover the crew.

    Russia's RIA news agency reported that Russia has immediately put off all manned space launches after the failure. Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said he had ordered a state commission to carry out an investigation into what went wrong. He said Russia will share all relevant information with the U.S.

    The TASS news agency said that the ISS crew has enough supplies and that the failed launch will not affect operations.

    The U.S. and other nations have depended on Russia to carry astronauts to the ISS since the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. In coming years, American aerospace companies SpaceX, with its Dragon 2, and Boeing, with its Starliner, are expected to return to space.

    I started reading Shakespeare when I was nine, after my grandfather, an actor, sent me a copy of Romeo and Juliet. The story and the language attracted me. I found out about Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ) and started volunteering for them when I was about 10. When I was 13, I managed to run a film project with SGCNZ.

    I'm home-educated and a part-time correspondence student (函授生) as well. We have a drama group made up of quite a few people who are also home-educated .I've also joined Wellington Young Actors, a youth theatre company. There are many similarities and differences between being home-educated and attending a five-day programme. I love hearing other students' reactions when meeting them and share my different ways of experiencing the world with them. While explaining the way I learn can be a challenge, I love helping people to understand there isn't just one way of learning.

    Being home-educated has offered me the freedom to have an individualized education and to pursue my passions. My education has always been about making those focuses but I do lots of the same things as people who attend five-day programs do. Shakespeare is a great approach to lots of things around English, history and the arts. I think something you learn when you perform is connection. You have to have a connection with your fellow actors, with the audience and with Shakespeare. I learn this from actually being on stage and from taking part in different Shakespeare festival programs.

    I believe it's the emotion in Shakespeare that makes it relevant today. You can be reading something that was written 400 years ago and be able to see parts of your life in the work as it shows you how to understand the world and explore a lot of different ideas.