As a Chinese saying goes, "Taste is actually a memory of childhood". Local specialty food may not be popular among all people, but it offers outsiders a glimpse of local culture and history.

    Gongcheng "oil tea" is such a kind of food that would be considered "weird" by many first-time visitors to the remote county in the north of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Many people dislike its bitter and astringent(涩的) flavor when they take a sip.

    "It felt like drinking Chinese herbal medicine. I never expected that I would gradually accept it afterwards, and even become addicted to it," said a traveler surnamed Zhang who comes from Shijiazhuang in northern China's Hebei province.

    Langshan village is said to be the birthplace of Gongcheng "oil tea" whose ideal ingredients are green tea and fermented tea. The village has preserved well its buildings and roads dating back to late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), as well as its traditional way of making the special tea.

    Lin Fengyou, 60, introduced the cooking process. She looks younger than her age, and attributes this to the benefits of drinking "oil tea" throughout the year.

    The first procedure is to use a wooden hammer to pound the tea while heating it in an iron pot, and then add edible oil and boiled water afterwards. She filters off the solid residues(余渣), and pours the glue-like green tea soup into bowls. Then, she adds salt, caraway seed, green onion, dried rice, fried groundnuts, sliced taro and fried beans.

    The taste of the "oil tea" is a mixture of the distinctive flavors of all its ingredients. Local people usually eat it together with glutinous rice(糯米) balls, rice dumplings and glutinous rice cake.

    The villagers consume "oil tea" three times a day. The tea soup is a healthy and refreshing food. "The tea soup to us is coffee to Westerners", said Lin. "But it is tastier."

    As a child, Alain Robert was afraid of heights. When he was 12, he returned home from school. At the front door of his building, he looked for his keys. he didn't have them. It was 3:30 and his parents worked until 6:00 pm. Alain looked at his apartment on the eighth floor. He saw an open window. He closed his eyes and imagined himself climbing the building. When he opened his eyes, he told himself ,"I can do it." Fifteen minutes later, he was in his house and his fear of heights was gone.

    Today, Alain still climbs buildings. In 2003 , he climbed a building in London dressed as Spiderman(蜘蛛人) to advertise the movie. In 2004, he climbed Taipei 101 (one of the tallest buildings in the world). To reach the top of a building, Alain uses only his hands and special shoes. He has no rope or other safety tools.

    Alain climbs as a hobby. He also does it to make money for charity. When he climbs, he wants to send a message to people. If you have a dream—something you really want to do—it can become real. But you must be brave and keep trying. If something bad happens, don't give up. Close your eyes and tell yourself, "I can do it."

    A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.

    Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality child-care center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.

    The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the child-care center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.

    Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child-care program did much better in tests.

    The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the child-care center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.

    A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.

    The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.

    The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.

    What is eBay? The simple answer is that it is a global trading platform(贸易平台) where nearly anyone can trade practically anything. People can sell and buy all kinds of products and goods, including cars, movies and DVDs, sporting goods, travel tickets, musical instruments, clothes and shoes—the list goes on and on.

    The idea came from Peter Omidyar, who was born in Paris and moved to Washington when he was still a child. At high school, he became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tufts University in 1988, he worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started eBay as a kind of hobby, at first offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the website that he had to upgrade(升级) and he began charging a fee to members. Joined by a friend, Peter Skill, and in 1998 by his capable CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. EBay has gone from strength to strength. It is now one of the ten most visited online shopping websites on the Internet.

    eBay sells connections, not goods, putting buyer and seller into contact with each other. All you have to do is make an e-photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you are in business: the world is your market place. Of course for each item sold eBay gets a percentage and that is great deal of money. Every day there are more than sixteen million items listed on eBay and eighty percent of the items are sold.

    On her first morning in America, last summer, my daughter went out to explore her new neighborhood alone.

    Of course we were worried; we had just moved from Berlin, and she was just 8. But when she came home, we realized we had no reason to worry. She told us with pride how she had discovered the little park around the corner, and had made friends with a few local dog owners.

    When this story comes up in conversations with American friends, we are usually met with polite disbelief.

    A study by the University of California has found that American kids spend 90 percent of their free time at home, often watching TV or playing video games. Even when kids are physically active, they are watched closely by adults, either in school, at home, at afternoon activities or in the car. It seems that America's middle class has taken overprotective parenting to a new level, with the government even acting as a super nanny.

    Just take the example of the case of 10-year-old Rafi and 6-year-old Dvora Meitiv in 2015, in Silver Spring, Maryland, who were picked up by the police because their parents had dared to allow them to walk home from the park alone. The state's Child Protective Services said their parents were guilty.

    In reality, child abductions (绑架) by strangers in Silver Spring park are as rare as tiger attacks. Children are overprotected, which encourages dependency and affects their abilities to care for themselves and weigh risks. Mark Hemingway writes in The Federalist, "You know what it's called when kids make mistakes without adult supervision (监督) and have to struggle with the possible results? Growing up."

    At least, parents who want to give their children more room to walk around shouldn't be punished. Children are not easily damaged objects to be protected at all times.

    Heard the Good News?

    Heavy TV headphones are now a thing of the past, thanks to Hearing Specialists who have developed new ultra-lightweight wireless rechargeable TV ear-buds, which enable the wearer to hear any TV show much more clearly. This unique speech clarification audio works for those with any level of hearing loss, and has been proven to outperform even the most advanced digital hearing aids for TV clarity.

    How is this Possible?

    Hearing specialist Don Hudson says the new TV Voice Pro Air ear-buds clarify TV dialogue automatically, based on the intelligence of over 100 hearing test results.

    Customers reported that traditional headphones were too heavy, only allowed them to view TV while sitting in one position, and made them feel cut off from their family and surroundings.

    "Our customers were wanting an ultra-lightweight TV listening experience, so that they could enjoy TV their way, sitting down, lying down or walking around, without discomfort."

    What's More?

    TV Voice Pro Air clarifies TV dialogue automatically. With just one click, the transmitter is guaranteed to connect to any TV, old or new, in under 2 minutes. The users can hear the TV at their preferred loudness of the sound from up to 35 feet from the TV, without affecting others in the room.

    As a special offer, Readers Digest readers can use Gift Voucher Code READERSDIGEST for $50 off the original retail price $299 and enjoy free shipping available only until December, 31st 2019. So reach us now by visiting www. TvVoicePro.com to order online or over the phone on 415 -277-2026.