Will you be playing some music at work?

    Music is particularly popular in the medical profession, especially among surgeons（外科医生）. A recent survey shows that 90% of surgeons in the UK put music on the sound system in the theatre during operations. Plastic surgeons（整形外科医生）play the most music; it appears that ear, nose, and throat specialists the least.

    But it isn't only in surgeries(外科手术) where music is popular. In another recent survey, one-third of the 1,613 people said they listen to music while working. And 79% of them said that humming（哼歌）along improves their job satisfaction or productivity.

    Is listening to music at work a good idea? Yes, say the experts. Many surgeons say that music helps to create a “calm atmosphere”, and a third of them added that it avoids getting bored! Also, listening to music raises the levels of a brain chemical that can help people focus. Office workers say it improves job satisfaction. Several studies suggest that it's also good for hospital patients. Those listening to music through headphones during surgery require less anesthetic（麻醉剂）, up to 50% less in some cases, and recover more quickly afterwards. “Sure, music reduces anxiety before surgery,” says Zeev Kain, an anesthetist at Yale University.

    So, what type of music should we be listening to? Surgeons from the previous survey preferred rock, pop music and classical. And hip-hop is popular too. However, whatever the kind, it appears that self-selected music is the best choice. Pennsylvania State University research showed that when people chose their own music there was more stress reduction(下降). And other researchers found that when listening to self-selected music, surgeons did the maths faster and more accurately than when they were listening to music chosen for them.

    On Saturday my Catalan friend invited me to come along to a Calotada. Being from the UK, I had no idea what this would need, but he promised me it was a fun Catalan (卡塔兰) tradition, and so I agreed to go. I wasn't disappointed!

    First, we took a train out to a Small town near Tarragona, about an hour away from Barcelona centre. I was already amazed by how different everything looked from the city as the train rushed through small towns, all sitting on the coastline.

    When we arrived, we were greeted by the sight of a small wind instrument band and about a dozen people dancing in a circle. While my friend later told me that it is a traditional Catalan dance called La Sardana, at the time I was totally confused at what I was seeing! It seemed so strange but yet so lovely that they were doing this dance completely for themselves.

    Once we had been fully entertained by the dancers, we finally went inside for the Calatada and it was soon revealed to me what it actually was. We sat down at the table and a huge plate of leeks (大葱) was placed in front of us. It was explained to us that you have to peel the leeks with your fingers, dip them in a (delicious!) sauce and eat them. This sounds easier than it was.

    My friend had been right in the end, it had been an extremely fun day and it felt great to get involved in a local tradition of a place I am temporarily calling home. It really inspired me to learn more about the Catalan culture, although hopefully next time it will be something less messy!

    Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experience? Strangely enough, the answer to these questions is yes. To some degree our intelligence is given to us at birth, and no amount of education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. Thus the limits of person's intelligence are fixed at birth, whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.

    It is easy to show that intelligence is to some degree something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be intelligent. Thus if we take two unrelated people at random from population, it is likely that their degree of intelligence will be completely different. If, on the other hand, we take two identical twins, they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth. Imagine now that we take two identical twins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory where the work is boring. We would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this indicates that environment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are not related at all are likely to have similar degree of intelligence.

    Time flies, but the tracks of time remain in books and museums. This is what made a recent tragedy in Brazil even more terrible.

    On Sept.2, a big fire ripped through the National Museum of Brazil. "Two hundred years of work, research and knowledge were lost," Brazilian President Michel Temer wrote on Twitter after the fire. "It's a sad day for all Brazilians."

    Most of the 20 million pieces of history are believed to have been destroyed. Only as little as 10 percent of the collection may have survived, Time reported. Among all the items, there were Egyptian mummies, the bones of uniquely Brazilian creatures such as the long－necked dinosaur Maxakalisaurus, and an 11,500－year－old skull called Luzia, which was considered one of South America's oldest human fossils.

    Besides these, Brazil's indigenous(本土的，土著的) knowledge also suffered. The museum housed world－famous collections of indigenous objects, as well as many audio recordings of local languages from all over Brazil. Some of these recordings, now lost, were of languages that are no longer spoken.

    "The tragedy this Sunday is a sort of national suicide, a crime against our past and future generations," Bernard Mello Franco, one of Brazil's best－known columnists, wrote on the O Globo newspaper site.

    The cause of the fire is still unknown, as BBC News reported on Sept. 3. After the fire burned out, crowds protested outside the museum to show their anger at the loss of the irreplaceable items of historical value.

    According to Emilio Bruna, an ecologist at the University of Florida, museums are living, breathing stores of who we are and where we've come from, and the world around us.

    Just as underwater grass floats on the surface if it loses its roots, a nation is lost without its memories. The fire at the National Museum of Brazil teaches the world an important lesson: We should never neglect history.

    It was dark. As John was walking on his way home, he suddenly found an ugly old man staring at him.

    The old man said, "Son, why don't you get a book? It will keep you company."

    John noticed all the books the old man had were related to the super nature (超自然界). Trying to act bravely, he found one and the old man said, "That's an interesting book. It's $25."

    The old man kept staring at John, which almost frightened him. He quickly searched his pockets and found $25.

    John quickly paid for it. Then the old man called out, "Whatever happens, don't turn to the last page. Do remember, or you will regret it!"

    Reaching home, John heard his parents talking about a strange old book seller that appeared only at night during a full moon and then disappeared. Nervously, he ran straight to his room.

    At midnight, as he was sound asleep in bed, a blast (股) of cold wind blew in through the window and woke him up. He looked at his table and saw the book. For a while, he was frozen in fear, but he was so curious. Slowly he got out of bed and carefully picked up the book.

As he took a look at the last page, he cried out and fainted (晕倒).

    This is what he read on the last page!

    Retail (零售) Price: $10.99

    Moscow city authorities have begun using comics (漫画) with characters from Russian fairy tales to explain to migrants (移民) how they should behave. They say a 100-page guide is needed to "keep a positive image" of the city and could help reduce "tensions" between natives and migrants. But critics have pointed out that foreign migrants and natives may be regarded as antagonists in the manual (手册).

    Russians and migrants have repeatedly flooded in Moscow recently. Many migrants from ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia, the Caucasus (高加索) and North Caucasus, arrive in Moscow every year, attracted by the capital's job opportunities and relatively high salaries. A significant number of them work in the Russian capital illegally.

    The new guide in Russian seeks to explain the "dos" and "don'ts" to migrants. They are urged not to cause trouble, by staring at women, or eating or talking loudly on the streets. They are also warned that the police may routinely (例行公事) stop them to check their documents.

    In the manual, Russia's famous "three warriors" are meant to represent the city's law enforcement agencies (执法机关), while Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (a historical character) is used for tours around Moscow. Meanwhile, Vasilisa the Wise and The Snow Maiden test the reader on Russia's language and history. A special section of the book explains the importance of following Moscow's strict residency and employment rules, stressing that migrants could otherwise be deported (驱逐出境) or banned from entry.

    The manual was written primarily for illegal migrants, Alexander Kalinin, who heads the group Support for Working Migrants in Moscow, told BBC Russian.

    "We want to raise their level of law awareness," he added.

    Migrant characters had initially (最初) been identified as representatives of different nationalities, but the book's authors later decided to drop this idea so as "not to offend anyone", said Mr. Kalinin.

    "The old conflict between Russian heroes and non-Slavic invaders is being revived," Yevgeny Varshaver, a migration expert told BBC Russian. He also suggested that the language used in the book would be "difficult" to understand for some migrants who were not native Russian speakers.