It was New Year's Eve. Everyone in the city was getting ready for the three-day celebration, including the gardener of the king's garden.

    There was a large group of monkeys living in the garden. They always followed the advice of their leader, the monkey king.

    The gardener wanted to celebrate the New Year's holiday, just like everybody else, so he decided to hand over his duties to the monkeys.

    He went to the monkey king and said, "My honorable friend, would you do a little favor for me? New Year is coming. I wish to celebrate it. So I must be away for three days. Here in this lovely garden. There are plenty of fruits and berries and nuts to eat. You and your subjects may come and eat as much as you wish. In return, please water the young trees and plants while I'm gone."

The monkey king replied, "Don't worry, my friend! We will do a terrific job! Have a good time!"

    The gardener showed the monkeys where the buckets were kept. Feeling confident, he left to celebrate the holiday. The monkeys called after him, "Happy New Year!"

    The next day, the monkeys filled up the buckets, and began watering the young trees and plants. Then the king of the monkeys addressed them,"It is not good to waste water. Therefore, pull up each young tree or plant before watering. Inspect（检查）it to see how long the roots（根）are. Then give more water to the ones with long roots, and less water to the ones with short roots. That way we will not waste water, and the gardener will be pleased!"

    Without a second thought, the other monkeys followed their king's orders.

    Meanwhile, a wise man was walking by the garden. He saw the monkeys pulling up all the lovely young trees and plants, measuring their roots, and carefully pouring water into the holes in the ground. He said, "Oh foolish monkeys, what do you think you're doing to the king's beautiful garden?"

    They answered, "We are watering the trees and plants, without wasting water! We were commanded to do so by our king."

    The man said, "If this is the wisdom of the wisest among you — the king — what are the rest of you like? Intending to do a worthwhile deed, your foolishness turns it into disaster!"

    Bad news sells.If it bleeds,it leads.No news is good news,and good news is no news.Those are "the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers.But now that information is being spread amt monitored（监控）in different ways,researchers are discovering new rules.By tracking people's e-mails and online posts,scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.

    "The ‘if it bleeds 'rule works for mass media,"says Jonah Berger,a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "They want your eyeballs and don't care how you're feeling.But when you share a story with your friends,you care a lot more how they react.You don't want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer."

    Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication—e-mails,Web posts and reviews,face-to-face conversations—found that it tended to be more positive than negative,but that didn't necessarily mean people preferred positive news.Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things?To test for that possibility,Dr.Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times' website.He and a Penn colleague analyzed the "most e-mailed" list for six months.One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles.He found that science amazed Times' readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.

    Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny,or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety,but not articles that left them merely sad.They needed to be aroused（激发）one way or the other,and they preferred good news to bad.The more positive an article,the more likely it was to be shared as Dr.Berger explains in his new book,"Contagious: Why Things Catch On."

    If you thought pilots dimmed（调暗）the lights before takeoff to give you some shuteye, think again. Believe it or not, the dim lighting could actually help save your life in case of a plane emergency.

    The dimmed lights before taking off the runway and landing are a flight precaution used to help passengers' eyes adjust quicker during an emergency escape. “Going from a brightly lit environment to one that's completely dark would require some time for our eyes to focus and see the escape slide,” Alice Theriault, service director for Air Canada wrote in a press statement. “Since we need to have all the seconds on our side in the event of an emergency, dimming the lights is one of many steps we take to ensure the safety of our customers.”

    The phenomenon that your eyes see those strange speckles (小斑点) as your sight adjusts to a dark place after being in a light place is called dark adaptation. It normally takes our eyes about 20 to 30 seconds to see best in a dark room. The brighter the lights, the longer it takes for our eyes to adjust, which is why dimming the plane lights could shorten your “dark adaptation” time since you haven't been sitting under fluorescent bulbs (荧光灯) all flight.

    Not only does dimming lights add valuable time to the escape process, but it reduces the tension on your eyes if you need to look outside, or see the emergency lighting along the passage. “It helps keep you in the right direction.” Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of Cockpit Confidential told The Telegraph. “It also makes it easier for flight attendants to assess any outside risks, such as fire or debris, that might affect an escape.” So next time a pilot dims the lights, just know it's for your safety, even though it creates a gentle atmosphere for your takeoff into the sky.

    When athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics collect their medals, they'll not only be wearing something that celebrates their sporting performance, but something that symbolizes lastingness. For both the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, organizers aim to make all of the gold, silver, and bronze medals out of used electronics. This strong message about how to make use of e-waste has gotten a lot of Japan involved.

    Starting in April 2017, the Japanese Olympic Committee began collecting old laptops, digital cameras, smartphones, and other abandoned electronics. The initiative(倡议)has achieved great  success. Already, the quantity needed for bronze medals has been met, and they're in the homestretch for silver and gold medals, meaning the collection process can pack up at the end of March.

    When looking just at the number of cell phones collected, the amount of waste is shocking. In a period of about 18 months, a little over 5 million smartphones were collected thanks to cooperation with NTT DOCOMO.

Japan's largest mobile phone operator allowed the public to turn in phones at their shops, which counted a lot in the project's success.

    After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics underwent a smelting process to extract(提炼)all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. Thanks to this initiative, the worldwide struggle with e-waste will have a global platform. According to a study published by the United Nations University—44.7 million metric tons of e-waste were made in 2016. Only 20% of that was actually recycled. Unfortunately, this figure is set to rise significantly in the coming years, moving to 52.2 million metric tons by 2021. So while the Tokyo Olympics initiative might be just a drop in the bucket, it's a good start in showing what the public can do if they're made more aware of the issue.

    I have three kids and a great husband and I'm enjoying a career that I find challenging and fun. To the outside world, this feels like" Success." But there is still a voice in my heart asking if this is who I truly am. Only in silence do I hear the self and wonder who that person might be.

    So I booked a trip to find out. I travelled, for the first time, without my husband or kids. I went to Iceland with a friend, who shares an appreciation for wilderness and silence.

    For six days, we were immersed(沉浸)in wild, raw scenery and real weather—a11 kinds of weather. Climbing a mountain against rain and returning to a tent for a simple meal reminds you how little you actually need. And how strong it feels to be uncomfortable sometimes.

    I found silence in Iceland, and time to consider the me outside of career and the me out—side of kids as I shared stories with strangers.

    When I stopped talking and just 1istened, I became more generous. I 1earned that choosing to be generous can create more space, more food and more warmth.

But I didn't really gain any better appreciation of what I want from life or my job. I suspect the anxiety that drove me to seek silence in Iceland was losing sight of my ability to choose gratitude and joy, and to be present in the challenges I set in my career and my family.

    I came home to noise, rush and love; with no less confusion on who I want to be. I know the answer isn't waiting out there on the top of a mountain in Iceland. The answer is in front of me with every step on my own life's path, and in every choice I make.

    They hide in trees, hang from helicopters, even follow people down on motorcycles—all so that they can snap a shot of a celebrity. They are paparazzi—photographers who make a living by taking pictures of the rich and famous.

    This September, California, a state with plenty of celebrities, passed a law aimed at taking action against paparazzi. The law forbids photographers from entering private property to take pictures, from using high-tech devices to take pictures of people on private property, and from "persistently following in order to take a picture." Violators can be fined or spend time in prison. The United State Congress is considering passing a similar law.

    Supporters of the California law say it will protect the privacy of celebrities, whom paparazzi have been bothering for years. Opponents (反对者) say the law restricts photojournalists from doing their job.

    Most celebrities seem to like having their pictures taken when they are in public at award shows or other events. After all, it's free publicity. But when they're not in public, they say, photographers should leave them alone. Yet paparazzi have been known to secretly look in windows and worse. Actor Michael J. Fox said that paparazzi have even "tried to pretend to be medical personnel at the hospital where my wife was giving birth to our son."

    Celebrities have as much right to their privacy as anyone else, supporters of the law state. Supporters further argue that the California law is a fair way to keep the press at bay, because the law still allows photographers to do their job. It only punishes them, supporters say, when they violate celebrities' privacy.

    Opponents of the law say it violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (美国宪法第一修正案), which guarantees that no laws will be made to limit "the freedom of speech, or of the press." Although some people might not consider paparazzi a part of the legal press, the California law does not single out paparazzi. It applies to photographers working for any publication.

    Opponents of the law are also concerned about its wording. "Does 'persistently' mean following someone for six minutes, six seconds, or six days?" asked lawyer Douglas Mirell. The wording of the law is too vague, critics complain, and could be used to punish almost any news photographer.

    The United States needs a free press to keep the public informed about important news, paparazzi law opponents say. Limiting the press in any way, they argue, limits the freedom of all.