While dog keepers realize their dogs can read their moods accurately, scientists have always been a little doubtful. Now thanks to some researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, we finally have some convincing evidence.

    For their study, biologist Corson Miller and his team exposed eleven selected dogs to digital images of women that were either angry or happy. Half the dogs were rewarded for touching the screen when shown a happy face, while the other half got their treat for selecting those that appeared angry.

    Interestingly, the dogs were not provided with the entire face. Some dogs were shown only upper halves while the others observed lower halves. That's because the scientists believe humans show their emotions on their entire face.

    After some training like how to recognize small differences like the wrinkles between the eyes or the changes in their shape that accompany the happy or angry expressions, the dogs were mostly able to identify the correct expression not only on a familiar face but on a strange face. The researchers concluded the dogs were smart enough to read human emotions.

    They also found those being trained to read angry expressions took a longer time to learn. They guess it may be because dogs find angry faces disgusting, causing them to withdraw quickly. However, once the smart dogs realized they were getting rewarded, the trepidation seemed to disappear. In fact, the dogs had such a good time playing the computer "game" that scientists had a hard time keeping them away from the touch screens after the study was completed.

    The researchers also noticed only dogs with a male owner had a harder time understanding the expressions correctly. Since the touchscreen models were all females, this confirmed what has been observed in previous studies—dogs are more efficient at reading facial expressions of people that are the same gender as their owner.

    I have never forgotten the firm belief I had in the arrival through the chimney (烟囱) of the little Santa Claus (圣诞老人), the kind, white-bearded old man who at midnight left in my tiny shoe a present I found the next morning.

    Midnight! It's the perfect hour children don't know. What great efforts I made not to go to sleep before the little old man appeared!

    I had both a great desire and great fear of seeing him, but could never stay awake until then, and the next day my first look was for my shoe. He never failed to carefully wrap (包装) every present for me. I would run barefoot to get my treasure. It never was a very expensive present, for we were not rich. It was a cookie, an orange, or very simply a fine red apple. But it felt so precious that I barely dared to eat it. What a great role imagination plays in a child's life!

    I do not at all agree with the idea that the lies about Santa Claus should be stopped. Doubts and truth come all too soon on their own. I very well remember the first year, when I was five or six, I doubted that it was not Santa Claus who put the cookie in my shoe. Since then, it has never tasted as good as the first few years of my life.

    I noted that my son believed in him longer; boys are more naïve (天真的) than little girls. Like me, he made great efforts to stay awake until midnight. Like me, he loved the cookie baked in Heaven's kitchens. And like me, the first year of his doubts was the last year of the visit of the good old man.

    A man was going to open a shop selling hats. He wanted a good sign to put over his shop. He wrote:

    JOHN BROWN HATTER

    Makes and Sells Hats for Ready Money

    The first friend gave him the advice that the word "hatter" wasn't needed. So John crossed out the hatter. Then he came to another friend for advice. This friend said that it was not polite to say "for ready money". So he crossed out "for ready money'.

    The sign now said:

    JOHN BROWN

    Makes and Sells Hats

    One day a friend was passing his shop. He saw this sign and said that when a man bought a hat, he didn't ask who made it. So John crossed out "makes".

    But when another friend saw "John Brown sells hats", he said "Of course you sell hats. No one thinks you give them away."

    So, at last the sign read:

    JOHN BROWN

    Saving money is a golden rule in everyday life. And in the western countries it is especially obvious. As prices and building costs keep rising, the "do-it-yourself" (DIY) trend in the US continues to grow.

    "We need furniture for our living room", says John Rose, "and we just didn't have enough money to buy it. So we decided to try to making a few tables and chairs."

    John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Roses took a 2-week course for $ 280 at a night school. Now they make all their furniture and repairs around the house.

    Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe-making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $420. "I was deeply upset about it. Now I've finished a car repair course, I should be able to fix the car by myself."

    John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can do to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you want to become a DIY, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who didn't have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.

    Ask any group of teenagers in the UK what they most like to eat, and foods like pizzas, curries, pasta, burgers and chips are bound to get mentioned and many young people would probably also list hanging out at the local fast food restaurant as one of their favorite pastimes (消遣).

    But what teenagers like to eat is not necessarily what they should be eating. According to the National and Nutrition Survey, far too many young people in the UK between the ages of 14 and 18 consume too much fat sugar and salt in their diet and take in too many calories. Meanwhile their intake of starchy carbohydrates (含大淀粉的碳水化合物), fibre, iron, vitamins and calcium is too low.

    For a growing body, eating foods containing plenty of calcium, such as milk, yoghurt and cheese, is particularly important as calcium is essential for the development of healthy, strong bones. Similarly, foods that are rich in iron are good for young, rapidly developing bodies, so red meat. bread, green vegetables, dried fruit and tonified(使增强体质的) breakfast cereals are also recommended.

    It is during our teenage years that habits of lifestyle can become entrenched (根深蒂固的),so it is crucial (全关重要的)that young people are educated about what foods arc good for them. In 2005, in an attempt 10 change eating habits and open teenagers' minds to new flavours and new tastes, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver launched a "Feed Me Better" campaign. As part of a television series Jamel School drivers, he worked with teachers and cooks in a number of schools across the UK to provide more healthy, nutritious school meal opt ions. Although there was initial resistance from sonic teenagers and parents. the campaign was generally hailed (把...... 誉为)as a huge success and helped to influence governmental policy on nutritional standards for school meals.

    No one expects to end the teenage love affair with fast and junk food but. hopefully, if projects "Feed Me Better" and the government's own "Change for Life" campaign continue to give out the right messages, more young people will understand the importance of balancing occasional treats with healthier food options.

Christmas in the United States is traditionally a time of gift-giving and family gatherings. But small towns across the country have their own traditions.

Middleburg, a small town in the state of Virginia, is known for its horses. For more than 50 years, Middleburg has organized a yearly Christmas parade. Men and women ride horses through the woods and fields. They follow hunting dogs as they search for a wild fox. But first, these hunters ride in the yearly parade, wearing their bright red hunting clothes and hats.

John Hale, a citizen of Middleburg says many city people visit his town." We have a lot of people from an urban area that come to visit, but it incorporates a lot of the old traditions." The night-time hayride is one such tradition. Small groups gather under the moonlight on an open wagon (四轮马车) filled with hay (干草). The passengers sing as farm horses pull the wagon slowly across the fields.

There are some newer traditions, too. Trey Matheu works at the nearby Salamander Resort. He says a visit to Middleburg is a chance to slow down for a day. He says Middleburg can be a calming, peaceful place without tension.

"Middleburg is an opportunity to take a step back, to take a deep breath, and understand that even though life is moving on at a very fast pace, there's really an opportunity where you're allowed to step off for a little bit."

Parade organizers say more than 13, 000 people attend even in below freezing weather. But if you ask, you will hear many different reasons why people come to watch the parade:

"I come here because I'm from a small town. I like how everybody comes together."

"I live right down that street, right there. And that's my dog."

Middleburg looks its best at Christmastime. That may be why so many people return each year.