Finding time to red is an important part of developing literacy skills for all kids. And there are many easy and convenient ways to make reading a part of each day-even when it's tough to find time to sit down with a book.

Reading opportunities are everywhere you go. While riding in the car, for example, encourage kids to spot words and letters (on billboards, store signs, etc.), turning it into a game (“Who'll be the first to find a letter B?”). While shopping, ask your preschooler to “read” pictures on boxes and tell you about them. Point out the difference between the words and the pictures on the boxes. Encourage older kids to tell you what's on the shopping list.

    Even daily tasks like cooking can provide reading moments. You can read recipes aloud to younger kids, and older kids can assist you as your cook by telling you how much flour to measure. Give your child a catalog to read while you sort through the mail. Ask relatives to send your child letters, e-mails, or text messages, and read them together. Help your child create letters or messages to send back to the relatives. These types of activities help kids see the purpose of reading and of print.

Even when you're trying to get things done, you can encourage reading. While cleaning, for instance, you might ask your child to read a favorite book to you while you work. Younger kids can talk to you about the pictures in the favorite books.

    Make sure kids get some time to spend quietly with books, even if it means cutting back on other activities, like watching TV or playing video games.

    Most importantly, be a reader yourself. Kids who see their parents reading are likely to resemble them and become readers, too!

    Reading may be fundamental, but how the brain gives meaning to letters on a page has been a mystery. Two new studies fill in some details on how the brains of efficient readers handle words. One of the studies, published in the April 30 Neuron, suggests that a visual-processing area of the brain recognizes common words as whole units. Another study, published online April 27 in PLOSONE, makes it known that the brain operates two fast parallel systems for reading, linking visual recognition of words to speech.

    Maximilian Riesenhuber, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. , wanted to know whether the brain reads words letter by letter or recognizes words as whole objects. He and his colleagues showed sets of real words or nonsense(无意义的词语)words to volunteers undergoing FMRI scans. The words differed in only one letter, such as “farm” and “form” or “soat” and “poat”, or were completely different, such as “farm” and “coat”or “poat” and “hime”.The researchers were particularly interested in what happens in the visual word form area, or VWFA, an area on the left side of the brain just behind the ear that is involved in recognizing words.

    Riesenhuber and his colleagues found that neurons(神经元)in the VWFA respond strongly to changes in real words. Changing “farm” to “form”, for example, produced as great a change in activity as changing “farm” to“coat”, the team reports in Neuron. The area responded slowly to single-letter changes in made-up words.

    The data suggests that readers grasp real words as whole objects, rather than focusing on letters or letter combinations. And as a reader's exposure to a word increases, the brain comes to recognize the shape of the word. “Meaning is passed on after recognition in the brain”, Riesenhuber says.

    The researchers don't yet know how longer and less familiar words are recognized, or if the brain can be trained to recognize nonsense words as a unit.

    Life in the summertime is often full of pests. Like most Long Island homeowners, I want to ensure my suburban life with pest-free living. So it was with wide-eyed wonder that I greeted the smiling exterminator (灭虫者) who rang my bell.

    “We'll be serving your neighbors, Mike and Sarah (I'm not familiar with either one by name),” he waved in the other direction. “Since we'll have a team here tomorrow, we're offering a discount.” He came out with numbers beginning from $299 then in seconds to $89.

    “You've probably been seeing the ant hills around.” he moved toward my front walkway and lawn. “And have you seen the bees that dig nests in the ground?” he continued with his head shaking up and down pushing me to do the same.

    “What we do is spray three feet out from your foundation and three feet up.” As he was talking, and without breaking eye contact, he opened his iPad cover and began operating at the screen to show me frightening images. “It also kills other pests, like spiders. It is the best pesticide (杀虫剂),” he said, pausing for effect.

    He then went into soft talk to close the deal, correctly foreseeing that I would be concerned about safety and the environmental impact on my vegetable garden, plants and our little patch of planet here on Long Island. “The products are environmentally responsible, safe with children and pets,” he said.

    I'm unkind when it comes to unwanted visitors entering on my out-of-doors moments. Any insect found in my house or on my deck is bound to be poisoned or pancaked.

    Unfortunately for the exterminator, just as I was considering making an appointment, Billy, my fearless husband, pulled into our driveway, which made me ask for a business card out of politeness instead.

    If you have come to Britain, there are some beautiful places you can't miss. Below are four that you can enjoy during your trip to Britain.

    Cotswolds

    The Cotswolds are a range of hills measuring about 2,000 square kilometers, designated as an area of outstanding beauty and shared by countries of Somerset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Sometimes known as "The Heart of England", the hills are small but perfectly formed and dotted with pleasant towns and well-preserved old villages inhabited mainly by well-preserved old English folk.

    Bath

    Bath is a historic Roman and Georgian spa city. It is a World Heritage (遗产) site, situated in 100 miles west of London and 15miles southeast of the nearest big city, Bristol. A unique city, Bath is famous for its hot springs, Roman period baths, medieval heritage and stately Georgain architecture. The famous English writer Jane Austen spent some time there, and her novel is a satire of the social life of the city at the time. Many of the sites she mentioned are still able to be visited in the city today.

    Much Wenlock

    The Shropshire town of Much Wenlock is a characteristically English town, off the beaten track, but well worth a visit. Not only is Much Wenlock a stunning beautiful medieval town, but it also played a part in the birth of the modern Olympic Games. Much Wenlock is the birthplace of William Penny Brookes, the inspiration for the modern Olympic Movement and founder of the Wenlock Olympian society. In recognition of its sporting heritage, the 2012 London Olympic Games named one of their mascots Wenlock.

    Castle Combe

    Nestled in a wooded Cotswold valley, with the ambling Bybrook River flowing through its heart, Castle Combe is a truly delightful example of the traditional English village. Architecturally, little has changed since the 15^th century. There are no street lights or TV aerials and you enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, and you will understand why it has won the "Prettiest Village in England" award so many times. Castle Combe is also a favored location for Hollywood film and television companies.

    Pablo Picasso was an amazing painter who experimented with colour and shape. Picasso wanted to find ways to paint emotions. His paintings opened people's minds and showed there were many ways to express ideas.

    Born in Spain in 1881, Picasso learned to paint at an early age because his father was a painter. At fourteen, Picasso began attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelnoa. Although Picasso did well, his teacher wouldn't let him develop his own style. So he change schools. Though his new teachers praised his work, they still criticized it as being too different. Picasso made up his mind to express himself in his own way.

    Disappointed with his career in Spain, nineteen-year-old Picasso moved to Pairs, where he learned about abstract art. He started copying famous paintings so he could paint in any style. However, an important development in his own style came along when his best friend committed suicide（自杀）. Picasso was so upset that he painted only in blue and gray. He painted the poor and the disabled. This is known as his "Blue Period".

    In 1904, his painting style changed again when he fall in love with an artist's model. He began painting everything with colors of rose, red and pink. He mainly painted artists during this time, called his "Rose Period."

    Picasso's style went through style change as he began to learn African art and geometry（几何学）. Instead of painting with different colors, he used different shapes. His paintings made people surprise because they looked like they had been broken and put back together incorrectly. Everything was geometric and abstract. Picasso's new style became known as "Cubism." Cubism was so unique it became very popular.

Pablo Picasso in most remembered for his Blue, Rose, and Cubist periods. But Picasso never stopped experimenting with painting. His painting styles kept changing until his death at the age of ninety-two.

All animals play. Runing, rolling and wrestling with each other is a way for them to have fun, of course. But it also seems to be how they communicate and strengthen bonds with each other.

When a dog comes up to another dog, front legs bowed and his tail high, his buddy knows he wants to play. But new research shows that this play behavior is surprisingly similar when horses and dogs play.

To study interspecies communication, Elisabetta Palagi and her colleagues from the University of Pisa found 20 YouTube videos of dogs and horses playing where their interactions lasted at least 30 seconds. They analyzed the videos, looking for specific pattern of play.

They found that while playing, both dogs and horses often had relaxed, open mouths-which is common playful facial expression in mammals. Some also copied each other's movements, like pretending to bite, playing with an object, or rolling on their backs on the ground. A 2,000-pound horse can play with a relatively tiny dog because the two are able to communicate their intentions.

"It's an important study because it shows how two animals who look and behave so differently can nevertheless manage to negotiate how to play in a way that's comfortable for both," Barbara Smuts, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Michigan, told National Geographic.

It's even more noteworthy given the large size difference between horses and dogs. The dog is vulnerable (易受伤的) to injury by the horse, and the horse has a deeply rooted tendency to fear animals that look like wolves."

Next up, the researchers write, is exploring the development and shaping of interspecies communication that “can be at the basis of a universal language of play".