Music for Humans and Humpback Whales   

    As researchers conclude in Science, the love of music is not only a universal feature of the human species, but is also deeply fixed in complex structures of the human brain, and is far more ancientthan previously suspected.

    In the articles that discuss the field of bio-musicology, the study of the biological basis for the creation and appreciation of music, researchers present various evidence to show that music-making is at once an original human "business", and an art form with skillful performers throughout the animal kingdom.

    The new reports stress that humans hold no copy right on sound wisdom, and that a number of nonhuman animals produce what can rightly be called music, rather than random sound. Recentin-depth analyses of the songs sung by humpback whales show that, even when their organ would allow them to do otherwise, the animals converge on the same choices relating to sounds and beauty, and accept the same laws ofsong composition as those preferred by human musicians, and human ears, everywhere.

    For example, male humpback whales, who spend six months of each year doing little else but singing, use rhythms (节奏) similar to those found in human music and musical phrases of similar length—a few seconds. Whales areable to make sounds over a range of at least seven octaves (八度音阶), yet they tend to move on through a song in beautiful musical intervals, rather than moving forwards madly. They mix thesounds like drums and pure tones in a ratio (比例) which agrees with that heard in much western music. They also usea favorite technique of human singers, the so-called A-B-A form, in which a theme is stated, then developed, and then returned to in slightly revised form.

    Perhaps most impressive, humpback songs contain tunes that rhyme. "This suggests that whales use rhyme in the same way we do: as a technique in poem tohelp them remember complex material," the researchers write.

    When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie,“ Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.

    Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.

    Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets. “What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, by understanding that there was a whole other way o f being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,” she wrote in her book Breaking Night.

    She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that “next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS.“I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time.”

    Liz wants moviegoers (who often see films) to come away with the idea that changing your life is “as simple as making a decision”.

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    The first summer job is often a signal that you're on your way to adulthood, and it's also a method for earning money to pay for what you dream of. It's never too early to start considering the future. Now, here are some good choices for you!

Retail (零售) Sales

    Retail offers plenty of opportunity for teens who are looking for a job. This type of work can pay from $10 to $15 an hour depending upon the duty you are expected to take on. It can also be great for teens who are friendly and enjoy talking to other people. For more information, call us at 111-222-3333.

Food Service

    A job in the food service industry is a natural fit for sociable teens who enjoy communicating with the public. It allows employees to work as part of a team while learning about following instructions. It also comes with the opportunity to earn between $8 and $10 per hour. Just call 111-222-3533 for more information.

Babysitter

    This job requires someone who is highly responsible. Though it pays generally between $6 and $8 hourly, it also requires a lot of patience. This is a great choice for teens who wish to make a career in teaching, child care, social work or any other field that makes use of social skills or requires interaction with kids. Got a question? Just call 111-222-3336.

Housekeeping

    This type of work can bring in about $5 an hour and it will allow teens to learn responsibility and develop their organizational skills. The summer sees an upswing in the tourism industry, so hotels are often looking for more housekeeping staff, and parks often need more people to assist with keeping public areas clean and organized as well. Telephone: 111-222-3330.

    If you want to convince the boss you deserve a pay rise or promotion, the solution could be simple — eat the same food as they do. Psychologists have discovered managers are much more likely to instantly trust us if we choose the same dishes as them.

    During experiments, discussions over wages and work conditions were much more successful if both sides chose to snack on the same treats. And shoppers were much more likely to buy a product advertised on TV by someone eating a similar food to them at the time.

    The reason is thought to be so-called similarity attraction theory — where people tend to like others who have similar tastes or habits to themselves. But this is believed to be one of the first studies highlighting the role of food in this relationship. Researchers at Chicago University in the US conducted a series of experiments to examine food's role in earning trust.

    In a test, participants were told to watch TV — where someone pretending to be a member of the public praised a certain product. The volunteers were given Kit Kat bars to nibble (咬), while the TV people ate either a Kit Kat or grapes as they talked.

    The results showed viewers were much more likely to express an interest in buying the product if the TV showed the other person eating a Kit Kat too.

    The researchers added, “Although similarity in food consumption is not a sign of whether two people will get along, we find consumers treat this as such. They feel more trusting of those who consume as they do. It means people can immediately begin to feel friendship and develop a bond, leading to smoother transactions (交易) from the start.”

    Harley Street psychologist Dr. Lucy Atcheson said it was already known that wearing similar clothes could instantly create trust. But this was the first report that food had the same effect. She said, “This is really interesting. It makes sense as people feel they have common ground and can trust the other person. That means negotiations are more likely to be successful.”

    I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles”(风格) of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office?”

    Foreign tourists are often confused(困惑) in Japan because most streets there don't have names; In Japan, people use landmarks(地标) in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”

    In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”

    People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it's about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don't know.

    It's true that a person doesn't know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don't know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don't know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!

    When I was a kid, I loved reading history, science fiction, detective stories, but especially comics. I had piles of them and kept talking my Dad into making more shelves for me. One day, I read about a 13-year-old boy who had actually written one of my favorite comics, Legion of Super-Heroes, and I said, “I can do that too.” That year, I was two years younger than the writer.

    Three years later, a friend and I started our own fan magazine about comics. It became the first place that regularly told people when their favorite comics were coming out and writers and artists were working on them. Because of the magazine, I won the awards for The Comic Reader, but more important, it got many of the people in the field to know who I was.

    One day when I was visiting DC Comics for news for my next issue, one of the editors a chance to write text for his comic. Suddenly, at 16, I was getting paid to write.

    I was able to pay for my college classes working as an assistant editor at DC Comics and learned how to write comics stories while I was there. I wrote hundreds of stories. Over the years, I worked as an editor and an executive (主管) for the company, eventually serving as a president and publisher, until earlier this year. Now I'm back to my first love, writing comics again.

    Every morning, I open my e-mail and find pages of art sent in by artists across the country who draw my stories. When I'm tired of working on the stories, I can go online and find my readers commenting on my stories or telling me when I make mistakes.

    Keep reading and writing, it's a wonderful way to live.