We are naturally drawn to friends and colleagues with familiar voices, scientists have found. People prefer those who have a similar accent, intonation and tone of voice to themselves, they discovered.

    Previous research has focused on how male or female a voice sounds. Men with deeper voices and women with slightly higher voices were thought to sound more attractive, because they suggest a bigger or a smaller body.

    But the new study, published by a linguistics expert in Canada, suggests there is a more complex mechanism (机制) at play. Dr Molly Babel, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, said, “The voice is an amazingly flexible tool that we use to construct our identity. Very few things in our voices are changeless, so we felt that our preferences had to be about more than a person's shape and size.”

    She recorded 30 volunteers' voices and asked each to rate the others' attractiveness on a range from one to nine. Each participant was from western America, with similar accents. The people we assessed were all in the same dialect group, but they showed that dialect to different degrees.

     “We seem to like people who sound like we sound, and we like people who fit within what we know,” Dr Babel said. She also found that breathy voices in women—typified by the famous American actress Marilyn Monroe-were seen as more attractive.

    The breathy tone, caused by younger and thinner vocal cords (声带), implied youthfulness and health. A creaky (咯吱作响的) voice, suggesting a person has a cold, is tired or smokes, was seen as unattractive. The participants preferred men who spoke with a shorter average word length and deeper voices.

"Mum, what does it mean when someone tells you that they have a skeleton(骨骼) in the closet?" Jessica asked. "A skeleton in the closet?" her mother paused thoughtfully. "Well, it's something that you would rather not have anyone else know about. For example, if in the past, someone in Dad's family had been arrested for stealing a horse, it would be ‘a skeleton in his family's closet'. He really wouldn't want any neighbor to know about it."

"Why pick on my family?" Jessica's father said with anger. "Your family history isn't so good. You know. Wasn't your great-great-grandfather a prisoner who was sent to Australia for his crimes?" "Yes, but people these days say that you are not a real Australian unless your ancestors arrived as prisoners." "Gosh, sorry I asked, I think I understand now," Jessica cut in before things grew worse.

    After dinner, the house was very quiet. Jessica's parents were still quite angry with each other. Her mother was ironing clothes and every now and then she glared at her husband, who hid behind his newspaper pretending to read. When she finished, she gathered the freshly pressed clothes in her arms and walked to Jessica's closet. Just as she opened the door and reached in to hang a skirt, a bony arm stuck out from the dark depths and a bundle of white bones fell to the floor. Jessica's mother sank into a faint(晕倒), waking only when Jessica put a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. She looked up to see the worried faces of her husband and daughter.

"What happened？Where am I?" she asked. "You just destroyed the school's skeleton, Mum," explained Jessica. "I brought it home to help me with my health project, I meant to tell you, but it seemed that as soon as I mentioned skeletons and closets, it caused a problem between you and Dad." Jessica looked in amazement as her parents began to laugh madly. "They're both crazy," she thought.

    Encouraging pupils to keep noise to a minimum should be a valuable part of all children's education, according to a new research.

    Dr. Helen Lees, from Stirling University's school of education, says that “enforced (强制的) silence” is seen as a punishment and often acts to suppress children's natural ability. But she says that teaching children about the benefits of “enforced silence” — deliberate stillness that gives them the opportunity to focus and reflect in a stress-free environment — can have a significant effect on pupils' concentration and behaviour.

    It is the latest in a string of researches to establish a link between the classroom environment and pupils' academic ability.

    A study almost a decade ago in London found that children's exam results were cut by as much as a third if they taught in noisy classrooms. Teaching unions have also called for a     limit of 26℃ to be put on classroom temperatures because teachers and pupils struggle to work in hot conditions and some educationalists claim that too much clutter(杂乱的东西) on classroom walls can prevent children from concentrating.

    Dr. Lees said: “When we take some research on school settings and put it all together, what we see is that education without silence does not make much sense. In areas of better learning outcomes, better self-confidence and well-being measures, enforced silence in a person's life and an individual's education is shown throughout the relevant research to be a benefit.”

    Dozens of schools across Britain already introduce periods of “reflective silence” into the timetable.

    Kevin Hogston, head of Sheringdale Primary, south London, has just introduced a minute's silence at the start of twice-weekly meetings in which children are taught breathing techniques and encouraged to reflect. The school plans to introduce it into classrooms every day.

    Next time you make yourself a hot cup of tea or coffee, you might want to let it cool down a bit before drinking.

    Researchers say letting your hot drinks cool off could help you avoid some kinds of cancer. Researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) found evidence that drinks at temperatures above 65℃, when swallowed, can cause cancer of the esophagus (食道). The researchers examined findings from other studies where tea and coffee were often served at 70℃ or above. Those studies were completed in Iran, China and South America.

    In developed countries, health experts have linked esophageal cancer to smoking and alcoholic（酒精）drinks. However, this form of cancer is more common in areas where people drink beverages（饮料；酒水）at very high temperatures.

    In Europe and the United States, many people drink coffee and tea at temperatures around 60℃.And they often add milk which lowers the temperature greatly. However, tea-drinkers in Iran and mate-drinkers in South America often enjoy their beverages at closer to 70℃.

    The researchers find that South Americans not only drink their mate very hot, they also drink it through a metal straw(吸管). This sends the scalding liquid directly into the throat.

    The findings, however, are good news for coffee drinkers. In 1991, the World Health Organization listed coffee as possibly carcinogenic (致癌的).” The WHO officials have since changed their position on that listing. They now suggest that the temperature of your hot drink is a greater risk factor than the actual drink itself.

    The results suggest that drinking very hot beverages is one probable cause of esophageal cancer and that it is the temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, that appears to be responsible.

    It's common knowledge that some countries have higher life expectancies than others, but the city you live in can also affect your health.

    Some cities are hard on their residents. In places with poor city planning, for example Lagos, which was called out recently by the Economist Intelligence Unit, public spaces are few, making outdoor activities hard. Lack of infrastructure (基础建设) blocks the streets with cars and the air with pollutants, and residents work long hours for little money.

    These are just some of the factors added up by Spotahome, a rental agency. They've analyzed data from a range of sources, including the World Health Organization, TripAdvisor and the CIA World Factbook to score each city on health, gym availability and quality, life expectancy, obesity, green space and other elements to make a list to work out which are the world's healthiest cities.

    The list is certainly Euro-centric and sunshine is seen as a positive factor. It does go some way towards suggesting which cities are getting it right in providing a good life for their residents. It may not be surprising to learn that most of the healthiest cities are in northern Europe, known for its people-first approach to city planning. The cities of Australia and Canada also do well. However, the first American city is only in 34th place. The UK doesn't fare too well either-its only city in the top 50 list is London, in 40th.

    Whether you're planning a wholesome holiday, or simply wondering what your city can do better in its quest for happy citizens, the list of the 50 healthiest cities will give you pause for thought about the future of city planning. Here are the slender, healthy-eating, clean-aired cities that are getting it right.

An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away

    Dr. Tim Johnson discusses evidence of a daily dose of aspirin's benefits. That's not the saying, but doctors have agreed, for about a generation, that an aspirin a day is good for you. It may reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes by 20 percent or more.

    The US Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group convened by the Department of Health and Human Services, has published guidelines that it says should end the confusion.

    The key points:

    ⒈Men should start a daily aspirin at age 45, mainly to protect against heart attacks.

    ⒉Women should start at 55, mainly to protect against stroke.

    ⒊For both sexes, a baby aspirin-typically 81 milligram a day-will do the job. There is no evidence that a large dose makes a difference.

    ⒋And both sexes should stop by age 80, unless their doctors say otherwise. As you get older, there's a greater risk of bleeding in the brain or the digestive system, a risk that is small but can be deadly in some cases.

    If people start taking aspirin as the guidelines, doctors say their risk of heart attacks will drop by about 20 percent. "People may ask themselves 'Am I at risk for a heart attack or a stroke?'" said Dr. Randal Thomas, director of cardiovas-cular health at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota "If you are age 45 and male, if you're above age 55 and female, the answer is most likely yes, and you will most likely benefit from taking a small dose of aspirin a day.