A new international study shows that some people's biological clock plays a powerful role for their life expectancy, regardless of lifestyle choices.

    Published in the latest issue of Aging on Wednesday, the study has found the most definitive evidence to explain why some people keep healthy lifestyle but die younger than others.

    Geneticist Steve Horvath from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led a team of 65 scientists around the world to record age-related changes to human DNA, analyse blood samples collected from 13, 000 people and estimate their lifespan.

    A higher biological age, regardless of actual age, consistently predicts an earlier death, the study says.

    "You get people who are vegan, sleep 10 hours a day, have a low-stress job, and still end up dying young," Horvath said in a statement. "We have shown some people have a faster innate aging rate."

    The findings discovered that 5 percent of the population ages at a faster biological rate, which translated to a roughly 50 percent higher than average risk of death at any age.

    "The great hope is that we find anti-aging interventions that would slow your innate aging rate," Horvath said, adding that "this is an important milestone to realizing this dream."

    I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer(扫盲志愿者)last summer. The training I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student. When I began to discover what other people's lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.

    My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn't know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule, she told me it would not help because she could not read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket because she couldn't always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label(标识), she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.

    As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie's self-confidence, which encouraged her to continue her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping Marie to build herself-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.

    As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did.

    There's no doubt that our character has a profound effect on our future What we must remember, however, is not merely how powerful character is in influencing our fate, but how powerful we are in shaping our own character and, therefore, our own fate. Character may determine our fate, but character is not determined by fate.

    It's a common mistake to think of character as something that is fully formed and fixed very early in life. It calls to mind old proverbs like "A leopard can't change its spots." and "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."

    This perspective that our character is "etched in stone" is supported by a great deal of modern psychology emphasizing self-acceptance. As Popeye says, "I am what I am." The hidden message is: Don't expect me to be more, better, or different.

    Ultimately (最后), these views of humanity totally undervalue the lifelong potential for growth that comes with the power of reflection and choice.

    How depressing it would be to believe that we can't choose to be better, more honest, more respectful, more responsible, and more caring. None of us should give up the personal seeking to improve our character. Not because we're bad, we don't have to be sick to get better, but because were not as good as we could be.

    There are so many things in life we can't control, whether we' re beautiful or smart, whether we have good parents or bad, whether we grow up with affirmation (肯定) or negation. It's inspiring to remember that nothing but moral will power is needed to make us better.

    No it isn't easy. But if we make a great effort to become more aware of the habits of heart and mind that drive our behavior, we can begin to place new emphasis on our higher values so that we become what we want our children to think we are.

    A few months after Wu Xingu was congratulated by teachers for graduating from the university, the 23-year-old has been making his dream of relieving tens of thousands of teachers in China from drowning in marking papers(改卷) a reality.

    Yitiku, an online software system based on Wu's idea, eases the workload of teachers by doing many of the functions that they did, such as selecting the test questions, forming an exam paper, and preparing exercises for the students.

    The features of Yitiku may sound quite simple, but this idea won his company millions of dollars from China's Internet giant Tencent in January. The unexpectedly successful fund raising story became a popular conversation starter among the people in the education business.

    "I can say it's quite an achievement for me and our company. As far as I know, I'm the first CEO born after 1990s that Tencent has invested (投资) in, and we are the first online education company they have invested in." Wu Xingyu told China Daily.

Different from other online companies that treat students as clients (客户), Yitiku has chosen teachers as their focus. "We make the work of teachers easy. Usually it takes two to three hours for them to prepare a new exam paper. Now it's just three clicks." said Wu. He is quite satisfied with the major feature of the software.

    Sitting in his 10-square-meter office in Zhonguancun, a hub of innovation (创新) in Beijing, Wu looks confident and chatty when talking about his business. His fast-speed answers give people an impression that he has years of experience in the online education sector. The fact is that he had been putting most of attention in directing courses at an art college until about a year ago.

    Hawaii, 2nd Edition

    Original price: $ 22.95

    Sale price: $ 20. 95

    Summary: Hawaii is one of the world's premier(最著名的) vacation destinations, and this practical and fact- packed book shows why. Like other Traveler guides, it's a treasure of special features - walking and driving tours, in-depth Hawaiian history, a sample of the best of each island's activities, plus a selection of hotels and restaurants in every price range.

    Be the Pack Leader

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    Summary: Bestselling author Cesar Millan takes principles of dog psychology a step further, showing you how to develop the calm energy of a successful leader and use it to improve your dog's life and your own life. With practical tips and techniques, Cesar helps you understand and read your dog's energy as well as your own energy so that you can take your connection with your dog to the next level.

    Celebrate Hanukkah

    Original price: $ 15.85

    Sale price: $7.85

    Summary: The US astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman brought a menorah(烛台) and a dreidel(陀螺)on his Space Shuttle mission in 1993. Hoffman observed the traditional spinning of the dreidel, but wisely left the menorah unlit in several thousand liters of rocket fuel. Also included is the author's sure-to-please potato pancakes' recipe.

    A New Perspective(观点) of Earth

    Original price: $26.85

    Sale price: $ 20.85

    Summary: The author Benjamin Grant describes a unique collection of satellite images of the earth that offer an unexpected look at humanity. More than 200 images of industry, agriculture, architecture and nature highlight incredible patterns while also revealing a deeper story about human influence. This extraordinary photographic journey around our planet captures the sense of wonder gained from a new, aerial point and creates a perspective of the earth as it has never been seen before.

Grandma celebrated her fifty-third birthday just weeks before grandpa died of cancer in 1965. Although his passing was very difficult for her, I think their shared struggle to make his life longer taught grandma that good health was not to be taken for granted, and she made up her mind to live her rest of her own life as fully and as long as she could. One day, when she announced to attend lessons at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Portland, Oregon, where she lived, we rolled our eyes in embarrassment and helplessly wished she would just stay home and bake cookies as normal grandmothers did. Many years filled with countless dance lessons passed before we learned to appreciate the wonder of having a dancing grandma.

I suppose grandma's primary motivation for wanting to learn to dance was social. She had been a shy girl, always very tall and heavy, and had married into grandpa's quiet lifestyle before developing any elegance or confidence in her personal appearance. Dancing, on the other hand, filled her life with flash lights, wonderful parties, beautiful dresses, handsome young dance instructors, and the challenge of learning. Although the weekly dance lessons did not change her ample, two-hundred-pound figure, grandma surprised everyone with energetic performances on the dance floor, which soon gave her as much elegance and confidence as any Miss American competitor.

Having taken weekly dance lessons for years, my grandma learned various dances easily and was soon participating in dancing matches all over the Northwest. When I was fourteen, grandma proudly invited me to watch her compete in one of these matches to be held in the grand ballroom of the Red Lion Inn. My attitude was still unenthusiastic at that point, but to make her happy, my mother and I attended the match. As if to prove me wrong, grandma made a wonderful showing in every event she entered. I thought she was truly the queen of the ball during the dance, and my thoughts were shared by the judges a short time later when she was awarded a gold cup for her outstanding performance.