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    It is probably the strangest sport anyone has ever invented. And at first sight, it looks like the easiest. Competitors have to do two things. The first is to stand still. The second is to place their hands anywhere on the body of a car, and keep it there.   

    This is where things start getting difficult. Lots of people are doing the same thing. And the winner of the "handathon" contest is the person who can carry on doing it for the longest time. That person gets to own the car.

    It still seems to be an easy thing to do. At the beginning it is. Anyone can stand still. But when the contest has been going for four or five days, standing still seems like the most difficult job in the world. And keeping the hand in place over this time becomes an act of serious attention. After a few days, the hand seems to belong to someone else—someone who wants to go home and get some sleep.

    Competitors are allowed to take a five-minute break every hour to eat, drink or do whatever else is necessary. No one is allowed to lean on the car for support. Winners need to be able to show great powers of attention. They also need to be able to develop special skills.

    Maybe the popularity of the handathon is due to the fact that it is not necessary to be a trained athlete to enter. Competitors in the Longview handathon certainly don't seem to do much preparation. Most say they will prepare by "getting lots of sleep". Others say they will "eat healthy food" or "pray for success". The whole event gives ordinary people the chance to do something interesting and win something in the end.

    Handathons are competitions, but there is little rivalry(敌对) between competitors. They help each other out and keep each other's spirits up. People who drop out early return with food, drink and encouragement.

    China is the biggest market in the world, and many countries such as Germany, the USA, the UK and Russia do a lot of business in China. Let's have a look at some important tips to help you be successful when dealing with these nationalities.

    First, you must be punctual (准时的) with Germans. Even 5 minutes late makes a bad impression. Being punctual is also very important in the USA. In the UK, it's important to be punctual for business meetings, but nobody expects you to be on time for a social event. Half past seven really means a quarter to eight, or even eight o'clock! With Russians, you should always be on time, though it is not unusual for them to be one or even two hours late!

    It is best to dress formally and wear dark colours when you meet people from all the four countries. In Russia, designer clothes are very common. Don't be surpri if you go to an office in the UK on a Friday and find everyone wearing jeans. Many companies have “dress down Friday”, when people wear casual (随便的) clothes.

    In Germany, first names are only used by family members and close friends, so be prepared to use titles and last names. In the USA you will usually be invited to use first names almost immediately. The British are quite informal and using first names in business is more and more common, especially among younger people. In Russia, however, nobody uses first names, so use titles and last names.

    In conversation, the British and the Americans value humour, and both like to talk about sport. The weather is also a good topic of conversation with the British and the Americans, but avoid talking about politics. In Russia, say positive（肯定的） things about their country, but avoid making complaints. The Germans, however, prefer to get straight down to business!

    So, use these tips, and you will be on your way to a successful international business career!

    Twenty-five years ago, as a parent educator, I began reading about the dangers of praise. I was completely shocked by what I was learning: praise is not good for our kids. How could that be? So I spent years talking with experts, reading about the effects of praise, and finally decided to close the door on praise and focus on building an encouraging family.

    Even today, with many studies available to parents, I still hear people say, "How can that be? How can saying 'Good job' or 'You're smart' be bad?" I understand. It can be a difficult habit to break.

    If we tell a boy "You are so smart!" when he brings home an A in his math test, how does he feel when he comes home with a D? If we've told him that he is smart, then he will more likely feel a failure when he struggles with homework — "I'm supposed to be smart. Why can't I do this?"

    Praise trains children to depend on constant feedback on what a "great job" they are doing. This dependency shatters rather than builds children's confidence. Praise trains children to ask, "Do you like it?" "Did I do a good job?" "Are you proud of me?" They begin to believe that what others think is more important than what they think about their achievements and mistakes.

    Praise breaks the relationship between parents and children. Without even realizing it, parents may be using praise as a tool to direct the child's behavior. The message is clear — I approve of you when you … and I do not approve of you when you … Living with this kind of constant judgment can damage not only the child's confidence but also the relationship.

    The solution to the problem of praise is encouragement. Encouragement can be given at any time, to anyone, in any situation. It is a comment, an acknowledgment, a statement that focuses on effort, improvement or choice. Hearing "You are so smart!" can leave a child at a loss when they don't do well in a test. Using "That took a lot of work to come home with an A in your test …" gives a child the chance to be something else.

    English nowadays is widely used in science, business, the media and popular culture. Every time we turn on the news to see what's going on in East Asia, or Africa, or South America, or elsewhere, local people are being interviewed and telling us about it in English.

    Indeed, if one looks at the facts about the amazing reach of the English language, he or she would be surprised. English is used in over 90 countries as an official or semi-official language. English is the working language of many international colleges as well as of most international research scientists. It is believed that over one billion people worldwide are learning English now.

    One of the most remarkable sides of the spread of English around the world has been the extent (程度) to which Europeans are accepting it as their language. English is spreading from northern Europe to the south and is now firmly set up as a second language in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark. If one visits any of them, it would seem that almost everyone there can communicate with ease in English.

    Recently, a special survey of Europeans' use of languages has just been published. The report said that English is the most widely known foreign language now, with 43% of Europeans saying they speak it and that Sweden now holds the most of English speakers, with over 89% of the population. What's more, English is the language rated as the most useful language to know, with over 77% of Europeans who do not speak English as their first language considering it useful.

English has without doubt become the global language.

    Crown shyness(树冠羞避) is a mysterious natural phenomenon in which the crowns of some tree species do not touch each other, but get separated by a gap clearly visible from ground level. The effect usually occurs between trees of the same species, but has also been observed between trees of different species.

    There are many theories going around, most of which make sense, but no one has been able to prove without the shadow of a doubt why some trees avoid touching each other.

    In his 1955 book Growth Habits of the Eucalypts, Australian forester M.R. Jacobs writes that the growing tips of the trees are sensitive to abrasion(擦伤), which results in crown shyness phenomenon. This theory was also supported by Dr. Miguel Franco. Some experiments have shown that if trees displaying crown shyness are artificially prevented from swinging in the wind and touching each other, they gradually fill up the gaps between them.

    But while the above theory is arguably the most widespread, it's certainly not the only one. Some scientists have suggested that crown shyness is a mechanism to stop the spreading of leaf-eating insects. These pests have been known to work together and create structures that extend up to 10 cm off of tree branches in order to reach other plants, so the gaps are the trees' natural defense method.

    One Malaysian scholar studied many trees, but found no traces of abrasions, despite their clear crown shyness. Instead, he suggests that the growing tips of the trees were sensitive to light levels and stopped growing when they got too close to other trees. Plants are able to sense how close they are to other plants and in order to get more light, they give off some chemical element to stop other trees from growing too close.

    Whatever the reason, one thing is for sure: plants are more intelligent than people used to think.

Can you imagine there being a community where boys and girls growing up together can finally speak different languages? In Ubang Nigeria, it really happens. It's not exactly clear what percentage of the words in the men's and women's languages are different, but there are enough examples to make sentences sound different when spoken by the opposite sex. For "clothing", men use the word "nki", while women say "ariga"; "kitchi" means tree for men, while women say "okweng". These are not just some slight pronunciation differences, but totally different words. "It's almost like two different lexicons (词汇集)," a language expert, Chi Chi Undle said. "There are a lot of words that men and women share in common, but there are others which are totally different depending on your sex. They don't sound alike, and don't have the same letters. They are completely different words."

Interestingly, both men and women are able to understand each other perfectly in Ubang, as both boys and girls grow up around their parents and get to learn both languages, but by the age of 10, boys are expected to speak in the male tongue. It seems that there is a stage the male will reach and he discovers he is not using the rightful language. When he starts speaking the men's language, you know the maturity is coming into him.

No one really knows how or why the double-language tradition of Ubang began. Chi Chi Undie believes the two languages are the result of a "double-sex culture" where men and women operate in two separate spheres (范围) and live in separate worlds that rarely come together. However, she admits this is a weak theory, as the double-sex culture is present in many parts of Africa, where there are no different languages for men and women.

Today, with English words constantly entering the lexicon of young Nigerians, Ubang's two languages are in danger of being lost forever. Worse still, neither the male nor female language is written down, so they both rely on young people passing them down to the next generation.