A report says older adults who test their minds with increasingly difficult projects have better mental ability than those who do less demanding activities.

    To keep our brains sharp as we age, we are often told to keep our minds active. As the old saying goes, “Use it or lose it.” But, there is very little scientific evidence to support than.

Denise Park is head of the university's Center for ? Vital Longevity. She designed a study in which she and her tern placed 221 healthy aging and older adults into one of three groups.

    “We asked people to learn new things, like quilting or photography. We asked other people to just do fun things like being in a social group function but were not likely to have a very large effect.”

    The subjects took part in their assigned activities for 15 hours a week over three months. At the end of that time, the researchers found that the adults who learned new skills, such as digital photography, showed the greatest improvements on memory tests.

    No improvements were seen in the results of those in the social group that did activities together like going on field trips. There were also no improvements among the third group that listened to classical music or did crossword puzzles.

    Denise Park believes one reason for improved memory in the active learning group is that its members were being pushed to learn new skills. The other groups took part in what she call receptive activities. Learning new skills may not cure age-related mental decline. But, Ms. Park thinks being mentally active slows down the process.

Denise Park says the latest information shows that the improvements lasted for at least a year. She and her team plan to do longer follow-up studies with all three groups. She also is interested in learning whether taking part in demanding mental activities delays the development of conditions like Alzheimer's disease.

    The TED speaker series features “ideas worth spreading”. With over 1,400 to choose from, we've selected a few that are perfect for students.

    ⒈Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career

    We humans may have an unfavorable habit of making excuses for ourselves or being too confident about ourselves. Accordingly, Larry Smith, a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, tells us why most of us will fail to have a great career. Luckily, as he puts it, there is a way out—follow your heart, as long as it is good for your career.

    ⒉Andy Puddicombe: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes

    Between dance team, volunteering and –oh, right—lectures, your life's crazy factor（因素）is about to go way up. In this entertaining and informative talk, Mindfulness, expert Andy Puddicombe teaches us how to be “more healthy, more mindful and less distracted” by taking just 10 minutes out of the day to be “more present”.

    ⒊Shane Koyczan: To this day…for the bullied（欺凌）and beautiful

    This talk is sure to stay with you. Shane Koyczan's “To This Day” is an affecting spoken-word poem about bullying and being different that gained over 10 million views on YouTube. In this talk, Koyczan gives a live reading of the poem, along with some stories about his background.

    ⒋Susan Cain: The power of introverts（性格内向者）

    Does a cup of tea and a good book sound like a perfect Friday night? In this personal talk, Susan Cain argues that introverts have talents and abilities. Our culture may value being outgoing, but the world needs all kinds.

    Mark was a great kid from a tough neighborhood. Crime, drugs, fighting and poverty: You name the problem and his neighborhood had it. A scholarship fund provided his tuition to Catholic High, where he was a great baseball player.

    Mark struggled in the classroom, though. He was bright, just behind, due to a more than difficult home environment. But there were problems finding the time for all he needed to do. After-school tutoring seemed impossible because of baseball practice. Some suggested Mark abandon sports and concentrate on “schooling”. But, in reality, if he was going to attend college he would need his sports; so to miss practice and then perform any less than at his best on the field was not wise.

    A fellow teacher, Mrs. Jones, offered to tutor Mark in math at her home. I asked Mark to come to my house for other areas of work. No one paid us. Mrs. Jones summed it up this way: “Pay day doesn't always come on Mondays”.

    When we were not working with Mark to improve his skills for the ACT, the coach and Mark's dad took him to various colleges to talk with both baseball and football program coaches. He settled on the college that offered him scholarships to play both sports. But he needed a good ACT score.

    It takes months to receive the results of college entrance exams. One afternoon after school, while I was grading papers in my room, there was a noise outside the door.

    Mark came in, lifted me out of the seat behind my desk, spun(旋转) me around in the air, and yelled over and over: “I'm going to college! I'm going to college!”

    “I guess you got your scores!” I asked.

    “Well, yeah!” he laughed. “And guess what? I got one point more than I need to be admitted. One point extra. Thank you! Now, where's Mrs. Jones? I've got to tell her too!”

    Until that moment, I had never quite understood what the expression “Pay day doesn't always come on Mondays” meant. But it was clear to me the instant Mark ran into the room to announce his news. No amount of money could ever replace my spin in the air at the hands of a boy who finally had a chance at a better life.

    In beautiful rural Montana lies the town of Livingston. Around half the students in the Livingston School District qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to local educator Rachael Jones, known as "Farmer Jones". She is the director of the Livingston Farm to School program, which uses the district's two greenhouses and four gardens to grow food that supplements school meals while offering kids hands-on lessons. Jones said, "In many places around the country, if you can't pay for your school meal, you don't eat. Well, here, we don't turn anyone away."

    The town's school district and community members started the program eight years ago. It's part of the National Farm to School Network, which aims to increase access to local food and nutrition education across the country. Jones, who attended public school in Livingston as a kid, has headed up the local program since 2014. Farm to School enriches curriculums in all of the schools through garden lessons, cafeteria and kitchen lessons, and classroom lessons.

    Research has shown that healthy school meals can enhance academic performance, including improved test scores. Though the Farm to School program is not aimed solely at lower-income students, Jones said, "Such kids are more likely to eat lunch provided by the school. Eventually she wants to get healthy, affordable meals on the plate of every child in Livingston.

    It is important for kids to understand where their food comes from. That's a life changing experience for them. Jones said," When I grew up a big force in my life was my grandma Ethel. She taught me from a really early age the value of growing my own food. I worked in her gardens with her and somehow, through all of those experiences —eating her tomatoes and canning pickles with her —it really built up my trust and knowledge in food systems. I'm so thankful for her!"

    "I really wrote it for me. It was what I found funny and what I liked". Those are the words of J K Rowling, author of the enormously popular "Harry Potter" books. The quote refers to the first in a series of novels featuring a young character who has carved out a permanent place for his creator in the world of children's literature.

    Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in England in 1965, and wrote her first story at the age of six. She was in her mid-20s when the idea for the Harry Potter novels came to her, during a long train ride. By the end of that journey, she says, the character of Harry and the school for wizards which he attends were more or less fully formed in her mind.

    It would be several years, however, before the novel was completed. By that time, Rowling had been through a failed marriage. Living on welfare as a single parent, she wrote about Harry Potter while sitting in an Edinburgh café with her daughter asleep beside her. She could not have dreamed of the fame and success which Harry would bring her in the years to come.

    Harry Potter is not your average superhero. He is 12 years old, skinny, wears glasses, and tends to worry a lot. Yet, he has captured the imagination of children and adults the world over, and has introduced millions to the joys of reading.

    Harry's appeal stems from his role as a very ordinary boy who finds himself in extraordinary situations. Orphaned as a baby, Harry spends the next 10 years being mistreated by the awful relatives with whom he lives. On his 11th birthday, he learns that he possesses magical powers and is admitted for training at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

    The adventures of Harry and his friends at the school are superbly narrated by J. K. Rowling. She manages to lead her millions of readers deep into the world of the supernatural, while at the same time dealing with the fears and emotions of the ordinary human world. Many feel that this is the real magic of Harry Potter.

They talk about the straw that broke the camel's back, but really it should be the password that wiped out my memory bank. 

I was going along fine -with instant recall of my bank PIN (密码)，my mobile phone number and the date of my cousin's birthday before I downloaded a gas station payment app for its new customer discount. It asked me to create a password. When I typed in "gas 1", it was rejected for not being complex enough. I tried again: "IHateHearlessOilCompanies@". But that was too long and didn't include "at least one number". But here is the thing: as soon as 1 added the fresh password into my memory, I instantly forgot all the others. My brain had hit its limit for passwords. I now know nothing. 

I had entered some passwords in a notebook. Of course, I didn't write down the actual passwords, in case it fell into the wrong hands. Instead, I masked them in a way that only a family member could figure them out. For example, I combined my bank PIN with our postal code, then added it to a list of phone numbers. It would fool even Albert Einstein.

Maybe we need a system like the one we use to remember people's names. You know, you form an association between a person's characteristics and their name by whispering "Skinny George, Skinny George" in heart after meeting them. The risk is that, upon seeing him, you'll burst out the phrase. "Skinny George" might not mind, but it's possible "Boring Betty" will. As for remembering passwords as you change them, you could simply use the first and last letters of your favorite singer's greatest hits, together with the year of their release.

Maybe I'll try that one out- -but only after describing the system in the notebook. Then I'll hide it in a place so secret that I'll never remember where it is.