Making and Keeping Friends Is More than Child's Play

    When 6-year­-old Rachel returned to school on a recent Monday morning, her eyes immediately scanned the playground for her friend Abbie. “Though they were only separated by a weekend, the girls ran right into each other's arms and hugged,” recalls Rachel's mother Kathryn Willis of Gilbert. “It was like a scene from a movie.”

    Most parents instinctively (本能地) know that having friends is good for their child. Experts agree that friendship isnot simply child's play, but a powerful predictor of social adjustment throughout life.

A Skill for Life

  “Childhood friendships serve as a very important training ground for adulthood,” says Dr. Robbie Adler­Tapia, psychologist with the Center for Children's Health & Life Development at the East Valley Family Resource Center.

    Researcher William Hartup states,“Peerrelations contribute significantly to both social and cognitive (认知的) development.” Hartup concludes that the single best childhood predictor of adult social adaptation is not school grades or classroom behavior, butrather, how well a child gets along with other children.

    The work of Arizona State University professor of Developmental Psychology Gary Ladd proves that just as being ableto make and keep friends is beneficial to kids while the lack of friends is detrimental.

Good Friendships Don't Just Happen

    Experts agree that it is essential forchildren to establish high­quality friendships. But, researchers warn, these friendships don't necessarily just happen. Often, a good friendship begins with involvedparents.

    Psychologist Dr. Lynne Kenney Markan believes kids should be taught social skills in much the same way they are taught math and reading.

Bad Company

Many parents worry about the quality aswell as the quantity of their child's friendships. “When she was in 1st grade, her supposed ‘best friend' began calling her names and threatening to hurt her,”says Mindy Miller. “My daughter wasn't allowed to talk to or even look at other girls in her class. It really crushed her spirit. I told my daughter she didn't need a ‘friend' like that.”

    “I'll bend over backwards(拼命) to help my son get together with a friend I think is good for him,” Adler­ Tapiasays. “I don't look at it as manipulation (操纵)，just positive parental involvement.”

A Guide to the University

Food

    The TWU Cafeteria is open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. It serves snacks, drinks, ice cream bars and meals. You can pay with cash or your ID cards. You can add meal money to your ID cards at the Front Desk. Even if you do not buy your food in the cafeteria, you can use the tables to eat your lunch, to have meetings and to study.

    If you are on campus in the evening or late at night, you can buy snacks, fast food, and drinks in the Lower Café located in the bottom level of the Gouglas Centre. This area is often used for entertainment such as concerts, games or TV watching.

Relaxation

    The Globe, located in the bottom level of McMillan Hall, is available for relaxing, studying, cooking and eating. Monthly activities are held here for all international students. Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m, closed on Sundays.

Health

    Located on the top floor of Douglas Hall, the Wellness Centre is committed to physical, emotional and social health. A doctor and nurse is available if you have health questions or need immediate medical help or personal advice. The cost of this is included in your medical insurance. Hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 4:30 p.m.

Academic Support

    All students have access to the Writing Centre on the upper floor of Douglas Hall. Here, qualified volunteers will work with you on written work, grammar, vocabulary, and other academic skills. You can sign up for an appointment on the sign-up sheet outside the door, two 30-minute appointments per week maximum. This service is free.

Transportation

    The TWU Express is a shuttle service. The shuttle transports students between campus and the shopping center, leaving from the Mattson Centre. Operation hours are between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturdays only. Round trip fare is $1.

People aren't walking any more—if they can figure out a way to avoid it.

    I felt superior about this matter until  the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn't in ay hurry, either, I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.

    It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune（免疫的）, for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day's walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced –and beat—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Stature of Liberty.

Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrhams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper…… is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And wlaking is an ideal form of exercise— the most familiar and natural of all.

    It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the  trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world, He cannot learn in a car.

    The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don't dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

    I say that the green of forests is the mind's best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.

    The first week of my summer campaign has been quite an experience! I'm learning the ups and downs of guiding this new journey,and I'm soon finding my footing in the wonderful world of support raising.

    Some may ask: Why do you choose a job where support raising is necessary? Why not just find a ministry that will support you without having to do any extra work?

    I had a wonderful support meeting this week where I was able to have some very good conversations with the lady I was sharing with.It blessed my soul to see her eyes light up with the same passion（热情）I felt in my heart about the ministry I was sharing with her.I kept thinking in my head "I've shared my passions with her,and she gets it."At the end of our meeting she decided to become a donor,but she gave me something extra that I haven't received from anyone else.She gave me a handmade wooden cross,small enough to carry with me.

    As soon as she handed it to me,I knew it was a gift sent from God,through an act of friendship.It's a symbol of a partnership that is developing through this journey,a symbol of how God can send us messages and a symbol of new friendships to come throughout the summer and my time in the middle east.Finally,it's a symbol of the example of what it looks like to build relationships with people who will join you in sharing with the world.It's something I'll treasure through the rest of my summer campaign,through my service in the middle east,and the rest of my life.

    When we talk about famous UK writer Agatha Christie, it seems that her famous detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are must-reads. So, of course, are her best-selling novels Murder on the Orient Express (1934) and Death on the Nile (1937).

But when the readers around the world were asked to name their favorite Christie novel to mark her 125th birthday on Sept 15, And Then There Were None (1939) topped the list, reported The Guardian.

    It may surprise you to learn that it is a crime novel without a detective. What it does have is suspense (n.悬念) and a very sinister (adj.邪恶的) atmosphere. It is “on a knife edge”, as Mathew Prichard, Christie's grandson, told the newspaper.

    Ten people get an invitation to come to a house on a small island near Devon in South West England. Nobody refuses these invitations since each one promises something the person wants: a job, a holiday, a chance to meet up again with an old friend.

    These people are all responsible for deaths. Some are directly responsible, others are responsible because of what they did not do. Anthony James Marston, for instance, killed two children while driving dangerously. He did not feel guilty and actually complained when he was banned from driving. Another, Emily Caroline Brent, is a harsh person who threw out a young servant for becoming pregnant while unmarried. The servant later killed herself.

    When they arrive at the house they are played a recording. The voice gives details of the wrongdoing of each of the guests. Starting with Marston, each is killed in a way that fits their crime. The series of deaths is completed with a hanging, “and then there were none”, as the title suggests.

    Christie can be quite a predictable writer. Some of her stories are a little unoriginal. But this book is full of clever writing. Look it up to find out what this hugely successful mystery writer, the “Queen of Crime” as she was called, could do at her best.

Feeling achy and feverish? Your misery has plenty of company. By the end of December, the tally(记录) of flu-like illnesses in the state exceeded the peaks in the two previous seasons, when the biggest number of cases occurred in February and March. This time, the flu virus seems to be hitting even harder.

Flu is unique among human diseases. It circulates constantly in cool and dry areas. Because it spreads from person to person and can be picked up easily, nearly everyone is exposed. While it's unclear whether the annual flu epidemic(流行病) will worsen this year, or just arrived earlier, fears have been increased by the severity of flu in Australia during its most recent season and the fact that the vaccine may protect against the predominant(盛行的) kind of the flu only 30 percent of the time.

Despite the worries, doctors and public health officials say there is no evidence that people are getting sicker than usual. Flu cases in Massachusetts started rising around Thanksgiving and increased steadily, with an especially steep climb in the last week of the year. "This is a bad flu season but not a horrible one," said Dr Andrew G. Villanueva, a lung specialist and chief quality officer at the Lahey Hospital & Medical Centre in Burlington.

"The flu season, while clearly in full swing, doesn't ‘feel different' from previous years," Villanueva said. "We're not seeing a lot of people being hospitalised because of flu," he said. "Most people with the flu recover on their own without medical care."