Scientists have found that human eyes are more likely to be damaged by UV rays (紫外线) while skiing in the snow-covered areas than sitting on the beach, according to a report by the UK newspaper The Telegraph.

    The researchers at Kanazawa Medical University, Japan and American company Johnson conducted the study together. They looked at the effects of light reflection on newly fallen snow on a ski trail (a rough path) in Ishikawa District, northern Japan. They compared the results with the levels of UV rays on a sand beach in southern Japan's Okinawa District They found that on the beach, eyes are exposed to a daily 260 kilojoules (千焦耳) of UV a square meter compared to 658 kilojoules in snow-covered areas. The findings are supported by the Japan Meteorological Agency. According to the agency, the reflection rate of UV light on beaches is often between 10 and 25 percent, compared to 80 percent in lie new snow areas. The amount of light increased 4 percent with a 300-meter rise in height.

    Most of us know that UV rays can harm the skin. That's why we wear sunscreen on our skin before we get out in the suit. But many of us may not realize that UV rays are also harmful to the eyes.

    If your eyes are exposed to large amounts of UV radiation over a short period of time. You may experience a kind of sunburn of the eye, which is harmful. Your eyes will become red and feel a strange feeling. They may be sensitive to light. Fortunately, this is usually temporary and seldom causes permanent damage to the eyes.

    Long-term exposure to UV radiation, however, can be more serious. Scientific studies and researches have shown that exposure to small amounts of UV radiation over a period of many years increases chance of eye damage, which could lead to total blindness.

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    You may have heard the term self-awareness, but what is it and why does it matter?

    Being self-aware can influence how you feel in your job and in your personal life. Daniel Goleman takes that connection much further, saying self-awareness is the key to success. He describes self-awareness as “knowing one's internal（内在的）states ,preference and resources”, and then monitoring that “inner world” information as it comes up. If you can be as aware of your feelings and thoughts, you'll be better able to deal with new situations. Because you know yourself better, you'll be more accepting of yourself, your thoughts and your feelings, Goleman says.

    But self-awareness doesn't stop at how you see yourself. It's also understanding and acknowledging how others see you. Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, explains that self-awareness has two parts — internal and external（外部的）. Internal self-awareness means we can clearly see our own values, thoughts, passions and feelings. External self-awareness is clearly seeing how others see us. People who are externally self-aware tend to be better leaders.

    So how do you know if you're self-aware or not? Eurich developed a short online quiz to help. You're not the only one who has to take it. Someone who knows you well also has to answer questions about you.

    In a recent TED Talk, Eurich refers to self-awareness unicorns. This group makes up only a small part of all the people she has studied. These are people who not only believe they are self-aware, but other people who know them would agree. Additionally, these unicorns would say they have improved their self-awareness in their lives and again, those who know them well would agree.

    Thankfully, anyone can become more self-aware, as long as they're willing to devote some time and effort to the cause.

    Most people who fly on passenger planes in the United States do not lose their luggage. Even if the luggage is lost, usually it is only delayed. Most "lost" luggage is found in a few days. Airlines search for the owners of unclaimed(未认领的) bags for up to three months. But when the owners cannot be found or the bags are not claimed, they are sold to a store in the small city of Scottsboro, in the southern state of Alabama.

    About one-half of one percent of all luggage passing through US airports is unclaimed. Many of the missing bags, and what is in them, are sold at the Unclaimed Baggage Center. Seven thousand items arrive at the store every day. Tom Barnes, who was shopping at the store said, "I can go into any of the large shopping centers, like the international malls. I can walk through there for an hour and come out with three items. But I come into this store, and then I come out with my car full of stuff."

    Brenda Cantrell, who works at the store, said, "The Unclaimed Baggage Center is the only store in America that buys and resells unclaimed baggage from the airline industry. You would be surprised at all the jackets, eyeglasses, neck pillows, blankets, laptops, Kindles, iPads, and you know, all kinds of expensive electronics."

    The store says it once sold a container for flowers for $80 that was found to be worth $18,000. And it says a painting it sold for $25 was later found to be worth $25,000.

    The store buys the luggage from the airlines. It does not examine the things inside them before buying them. Only about half of the items in the bags are suitable for sale at the store.

    Some people say it is not fair to the owners of the lost passage to sell their goods. Customer Daniel Martin is not one of them, saying, "I feel the airport may try to find the people that lose the things. If they've tried and they can't get a hold of them, it's better than throwing them away or just letting them rot in a warehouse somewhere."

    Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists have long debated why. A new study finds that these big－winged birds carefully position their wingtips and flap(拍动) at the same rate, probably to catch the upward movement of air and save energy during flight.

    There are two reasons birds might fly in a V formation: It may make flight easier, or they're simply following the leader. Squadrons(中 队) of planes can save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same. Models that treated flapping birds like fixed－wing airplanes show that they probably save energy by drafting off each other, but currents created by airplanes are far more stable than those coming off of birds.

    Just as aerodynamic(气动力) calculations would predict, the birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to the side of the bird in front, timing their wing flaps to catch the uplifting eddies(涡流). When a bird flew directly behind another, the timing of the flapping reversed(相反) so that it could minimize the effects of the downdraft coming off the back of the bird's body. “We didn't think this was possible,” Usherwood says, considering that the difficult achievement requires careful flight and incredible awareness of one's neighbors. “Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and down.”

    The findings likely apply to other long－winged birds, such as pelicans and geese, Usherwood says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes(尾波) that would make drafting too difficult. The researchers did not attempt to calculate the birds' energy savings because the necessary physiological measurements would be too invasive for an endangered species. Previous studies show that birds can use 20% to 30% less energy while flying in a V.

    Scientists do not know how the birds find that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that the animals line themselves up either by sight or by sensing air currents through their feathers. In future studies, the researchers will switch to more common birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to investigate how the animals decide who sets the course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to cause traffic jams.

    Newborns begin to develop language skills long before they begin speaking. And, compared to adults, they develop these skills more quickly. People have a hard time learning new languages as they grow older, but babies have the ability to learn any language easily.

    For a long time, scientists have tried to explain how such young children can learn the complicated (复杂的) grammatical rules and sounds of a language. Now, researchers are getting a better idea of what's happening in the brains of the tiniest language learners. This new information might help kids with learning problems as well as adults who want to learn new languages. It might even help scientists who are trying to design computers that can communicate like people do.

    Most babies go "ma ma" by 6 months of age, and most children speak in full sentences by age 3. For many years, scientists have wondered how the brains of young children figure out how to communicate using language. With help from new technologies, scientists are now finding that babies begin life with the ability to learn any language. They get into contact (接触) with other people, listen to what they say and watch their movements very closely. That is why they quickly master the languages they hear most often.

    Studies show that, up to about 6 months of age, babies can recognize all the sounds that make up all the languages in the world. Starting at around 6 months old a baby's brain focuses on the most common sounds it hears. Then, children begin responding only to the sounds of the language they hear the most.

    In a similar way older babies start recognizing the patterns that make up the rules of their native language. For example, English children who are about 18 months old start to figure out that words ending in "-ing" or "-ed" are usually verbs, and that verbs are action words.

    We human beings haven't been good friends to animals. For thousands of years, we have been polluting the environment, making it hard for animals to live on the planet. We have been killing animals for their fur, feathers or meat, or simply because they are dangerous. As a result, many kinds of animals have disappeared forever. Hundreds more are on the endangered list today.

    Should we care about animals? Of course we should. If animals of a certain kind all disappear, they will never come back again. Animals are more than just resources of things we need. Every kind of animal has its place in the balance of nature. Destroying any kind of animal can lead to many problems. For example, when farmers killed large numbers of hawks(鹰), the corn and grain that the farmers stored were destroyed by rats and mice. Why？Because hawks eat rats and mice. With less and less hawks to keep down their numbers, rats and mice multiplied quickly. And if people kill too many birds, the fields will be bothered with insects. It is because birds eat insects. When there are less and less birds, more and more insects will eat the crops.

    Luckily, we've realized that we shouldn't kill animals any more. And people are working hard to save those animals that would disappear soon. The government also passed laws to protect the endangered animals. In fact, quite a few countries have passed such laws. These laws forbid the killing of any kind of animal on the endangered list. We should try our best to protect and save the endangered animals.