Before birth, babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices. They can even distinguish their mother's voice from that of a female stranger. But when it comes to embryonic learning(胎教), birds could rule the roost. As recently reported in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)。New-born chicks can then imitate their mom's call within a few days of entering the world.

    This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kleindorfer, a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia, and her colleagues. Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs, When the eggs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that served as their regular “feed me!”call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds, the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren, another species of Australian songbird. First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queensland before and after hatching, Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes. A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks, ranking them by similarity.

    It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs, the more similar were the babies' begging calls. In addition, the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom's voice were rewarded with the most food.

    This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的) strengths of children to parents. An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.“As a parent, do you invest in quality children, or do you invest in children that are in need? ”Kleindorfer asks. “Our results suggest that they might be going for quality. ”

Finding the Real You

    Psychometric testing—personality testing—has been very popular nowadays as studies show their results to be three times more accurate in predicting your job performance. These tests are now included in almost all graduate recruitment (招聘) and are widely used in the selection of managers.

    The most popular of these personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It is based on the theory that we are born with a tendency to one personality type which stays more or less fixed throughout life. You answer 88 questions and are then given your “type”, such as Outgoing or Quiet, Feeling or Thinking.

    Critics of personality testing raise doubts about “social engineering”. Psychologist Dr. Colin Gill warns that the “popular” personality traits (特性) have their disadvantages. “People who are extremely open to new experiences can be butterflies, going from one idea to the next without mastering any of them.” However, the psychometric test is here to stay, which may be why a whole sub-industry on cheating personality tests has sprung up. “It's possible to cheat,” admits Gill, “but having to pretend to be the person you are at work will be tiring and unhappy and probably short-lived.”

    So can we change our personality? “Your basic personalities fixed by the time you're 21,”says Gill, “but it can be affected by motivation and intelligence. If you didn't have the personality type to be a doctor but desperately wanted to be one and were intelligent enough to master the skills, you could still go ahead. But trying to go too much against type for too long requires much energy and is actually to be suffered for long. I think it's why we're seeing this trend for downshifting—too many people trying to fit into a type that they aren't really suited for.”

    Our interest in personality now exists in every part of our lives. If you ask an expert for advice on anything, you'll probably be quizzed about your personality. But if personality tests have any value to us, perhaps it is to free us from the idea that all of us are full of potential, and remind us of what we are. As they say in one test when they ask for your age: pick the one you are, not the one you wish you were.

    The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand—a system of rapid handwriting, and now it's threatening to finish off handwriting as a whole. When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2012, just 15% of the most1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive(手写体). The rest? Block letters.

    And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of US students who no longer get much handwriting instructions in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.

    There are those who say the culture is at a crossing, turning from the written word to the typed one. If handwriting becomes a lost form of communication, does it matter?

    It was at University Virginia that researchers recently discovered a previously unknown poem by Robert, written in his unique script. Handwritten documents are more valuable to researchers, historians say, because their authenticity can be confirmed. Students also find them more fascinating.

    The loss of handwriting also may be  a cognitive(认知的) opportunity missed. Several academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can help children express their thoughts better—a lifelong benefit.

    It doesn't take much to teach better handwriting skills. At some schools in Prince George's County, elementary school students use a program called Handwriting Without Tears for 15 minutes a day. They learn the correct formation of manuscript (手写的)letters through second grade, and cursive letters in third grade.

    These days a green building means more than just the color of the paint. Green buildings can also refer to environmentally friendly houses，factories，and offices.

    Green building means "reducing the effect of the building on the land"，Taryn Holowka of the US Green Building Council (评议会) in Washington，D.C.，said. According to Holowka，building accounts for 65 percent of total US electricity use.

But green buildings can reduce energy and water use. Also，the buildings are often located near public transportation such as buses and subways，so that people can drive their cars less. That could be good for the environment，because cars use lots of gas and give off pollution. Green buildings are often built on developed land，so that the buildings don't destroy forests.

    Marty Dettling is project manager for a building that puts these ideas into action. The Solaire has been called the country's first green high-rise building. According to Dettling，"We've reduced our energy use by one-third and our water by 50 percent."

    The Solaire cuts energy in part by using solar power. "On the face of the building we have solar panels (光板) which change the sun's energy into electricity，" Dettling explained.

    The Solaire also has lights that automatically turn off when people leave the room. In addition，the building has lots of windows，allowing people to use the sun for light during the day. The Solaire cuts water by reusing it.

    Not everyone is eager to move into a green building，however. Some people think that things like solar panels cost more money than more traditional energy sources. Anyhow，Holowka said，"It's going to be big."

    We're reading a book or opening an envelope when, all of a sudden, there's a sharp pain on our finger. You see a little bit of blood and realize you've just gotten a paper cut.

    Dr. Hayley Goldbach, a resident dermatologist at UCLA Health, spoke about why paper cuts are so jagged, how the element of surprise leaves us in more pain and how to make sure they heal quickly.

    Dr. Goldbach explained that one reason paper cuts hurt so much is where they occur: primarily on the finger. We have nerve endings all over the body," she said. "In places where there is refined movement and sensation--like the lips or tips of the fingers-they have a high density of nerve endings." These nerve endings are known as nociceptors and they send signals to the brain about things that could cause a break in the skin, such as extreme hot or cold temperatures and chemicals.

    Another reason why paper cuts hurt so much is that you're using your hands throughout the day meaning that the wound is constantly getting opened. "You often get paper cuts on the pad or the tip of the finger, different from where you'd get a knife cut," said Dr. Goldbach. "It's hard not to use your hands, so there's constant pressure on the wound without u chanee for it to heal."

    "The paper itself is another reason why these superficial cuts leave us in so much pain. Paper might look and seem smooth but, if you study it under a microscope, the edge is actually jagged." Paper is quite sharp jagged-it's a bit of serrated edge," said Dr. Goldbach."It cuts you pretty quickly before you have the chance to realize it."

    Additionally, paper cuts are quite shallow, which makes them even more annoying to deal with.

    Dr. Goldbach added that there are mental and emotional elements that cause paper cuts to hurt more than other cuts. "There's the psychological element of surprise, and it happens so quickly that you don't have time to withdraw your hand "she said" With some other injuries, you feel pressure so you have time to react."

    She also added that because we don't expect to hurt ourselves while working with paper, the surprise of cuts leaves us in further pain. "We tend to be careful with a knife-you're being careful on purpose: because you know there: s a danger, "said Dr Goldbach. While we are careful with knives, we are not so careful with paper.

Having a great collection of books at home doesn't really mean that you are a person who has a passion for literature and reading. It can be a family inheritance (继承) or it can be just to impress people around you about the fact that you are a person of culture. On the other hand, there are many persons who cannot afford to buy books, because some of them are quite expensive, but they usually go to libraries and spend hours reading something that interests them a lot, or just borrow books to read at home.

From my point of view, literature is very important in our lives from several points of view. For example, reading is a means of gaining culture and enriching our knowledge in different areas of activities. It can help us have a great imagination and it makes things easier when it comes to making compositions on different themes. It gives you the possibility to speak about science, even if you don't work in this field, or you can express your opinion about a political aspect, just because you have read something connected to that.

Secondly, literature offers us the possibility to enter the world of imagination, and to leave apart the real one for a couple of hours. We come to meet kings and queens many years ago, dream in the world of the rich or imagine how life will be in the future. Sometimes, we identify ourselves with the characters in the stories we read and they can give us some clues to solve our problems and how to react in certain circumstances.

To conclude, I would like to say that literature is the perfect means to enrich our culture, to express correctly and have a rich vocabulary, to be able to interfere (干涉) in conversations in different fields of interest and to really be considered an erudite person.