Do you often feel lonely? What do you do when you feel that way? Hide yourself away and spend your time reading, watching TV or walking around?

You might think that feeling lonely is just like feeling happy, sad or scared — that it's just one of your various moods. That is true. However, if you let yourself be lonely for too long without dealing with it, you could be making a serious mistake.

    Doctors have known for some time that feeling lonely is bad for the mind. It can lead to mental health problems such as depression, stress and reduce confidence. “Being lonely means not feeling connected or cared for, but it's not about being mentally alone,” Lisa Jaremka, scientist from Ohio State University, US, told Live Science in January. And there's growing evidence that not having friends is connected with physical illness as well.

    In 2006, for example, scientists studied 2,800 women who had cancer. They found that those who had few friends or family were five times more likely to die of their disease than women with many social contacts. Also, even healthy people had a better chance of falling ill if they felt left out by others, according to the BBC.

    The results have scientists thinking that loneliness might hurt the immune system(免疫系统), which protects the body from diseases.

    Hoping to prove this theory, Jaremka and her research team put volunteers(志愿者) through a stress test. During the test, volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech in front of a group of stony-faced people. The researchers found that volunteers who said they were lonely in their daily lives felt more stress during the test. And their blood samples showed that all the stress had managed to cause harmful changes to their immune system.

     “Loneliness has been thought of in many ways as a chronic stressor(慢性增压器) — a socially painful situation that can last for quite a long time, ” explained Jaremka, who led the study.

    The number of people suffering from loneliness is increasing all over the world. However, solving the problem is easier said than done. It won't work to just “tell anyone to go out and find someone to love you”, said Jaremka. “We need to create support networks.”

New York City Tour Guide

CENTRAL PARK PHOTO TOUR $79

With Sam L.

    Come to shoot in the Central Park of New York that will allow you to take home digital postcards. This tour is a great introduction to Central Park and combines views of the bridges, lakes and skyline.

    At each stop of the photo tour, I will provide you with explanations around photography(摄影)，camera settings etc. You will be able to put these tips to good use immediately.

NEW YORK RUNMNG TOUR $50

With Sebastien B.

    Love running? Love New York? Do you want to see the sites of the city? Contact me and we'll take a special tour. All you'll need to do is to put on your sports shoes and we'll be off. I'll show you my favorite running spots along the Hudson River or north of Central Park and away from all the tourists.

    If you re thinking of training for something, I'll give you the explanations and tips to make the best of your time training!

GREENWICH VILLAGE FOOD TOUR $75

With Manhattan W.

    Discover unbelievable places to eat. This is the real Greenwich Village gastronomic(美食的) experience. Along the way, find out how the village has kept its unique character throughout the years, from the Dutch and English controlled periods to today.

Tour runs every day from 12:30 PM—2:30 PM.

NEW YORK BY NIGHT PHOTO TOUR $115

With Sam L.

    We have already prepared NYC for the most unique points for you. During the -hour walking tour, we share these special comers of NYC.

    The night tour teaches night photography techniques while discovering the “darker” side of the city that never sleeps： the UN headquarters, 42nd street, Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.

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    Some people surveyed tasted the sweet, salty and crunchy together with other tastes of food as they listen to different noises.It shows that louder noises reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness of food while incr eatasing the measure of crunchiness（松脆）.

    It may go some way to explain Why airline food is widely complained about by both the workers and paddengers.Andy Woods,a researcher,said,“It's a general opinion that plane foods aren't fantastic,but I'm sure airlines do their best,so we wondered if there were other reasons,One thought was that perhaps the background noise may have an effect.NASA gives their space explorers very strong -tassting foods,because for some reason,they can't taste food that Strongly-^again, it may have something ti do with the background noise.”

    In a study ,48 people were fed sweet foods or salty ones, while listening tonoting or noise through earphone. Meanwhile they rated(划分等级) the foods. In noisier settings,foods were rated less or sweet than they were when it was silent,but were rated crunchier.“The evidence shows that if the background noise is loud, your food, attention might be drawn to that, away from the food.” Dr. Woods said.

    “We ae still at an early stage of progressing and this is a rather small  study to really draw definitive(最完整可靠的）conclusions from,” Dr. Woods said,“but they suggest that restaurants could well their choice of food for a given environment.”

    Also in the group's findings there is the suggestion that the overall satisfaction with the food is also related to the degree to which people like what they are hearing .

    Once a group of 17-year-old schoolboys decided to break the world basketball marathon record ( 马拉松记录). They wanted to play for ninety hours and add six hours to the record. Each team had nine players, with five at a time. The boys decided each person would play 21.5 hours and then rest for 2 hours. Then it started between both of the sides at 6 o'clock in the evening.

    The first night was very hard for the players. When it was their turn to rest, they were too exited(兴奋的) to fall asleep at once. After sleeping for a short time, they had to play again.

    On the second night, they fell asleep as soon as they stopped. Some of them had trouble with their feet and hands, but the only serious problem was a psychological one. Each boy was thinking: Why am I doing this? How can I play any longer?

    After the third night, the players knew they could finish the ninety hours. The basketball on the fourth night was very slow. But in the final hours, the players got better. For the last few minutes, the players looked as fresh as when they started. How happy everyone was!

    A few weeks ago, I called an Uber to take me to the Boston airport for a flight home for the holidays. As I slid into the back seat of the car, the warm intonations(语调) of the driver's accent washed over me in a familiar way.

    I learned that he was a recent West African immigrant with a few young children, working hard to provide for his family. I could relate: I am the daughter of two Ethiopian immigrants who made their share of sacrifices to ensure my success. I told him I was on a college break and headed home to visit my parents. That's how he found out I go to Harvard. An approving eye glinted at me in the rearview window, and quickly, we crossed the boundaries of rider and driver. I became his daughter, all grown up — the product of his sacrifice.

    And then came the fateful question: "What do you study?" I answered "history and literature" and the pride in his voice faded, as I knew it might. I didn't even get to add "and African-American studies" before he cut in, his voice thick with disappointment, "All that work to get into Harvard, and you study history?"

    Here I was, his daughter, squandering the biggest opportunity of her life. He went on to deliver the age-old lecture that all immigrant kids know. We are to become doctors (or lawyers, if our parents are being generous) — to make money and send money back home. The unspoken demand, made across generations, which my Uber driver laid out plainly, is simple: Fulfill your role in the narrative(故事) of upward mobility so your children can do the same.

    I used to feel anxious and backed into a corner by the questioning, but now as a junior in college, I'm grateful for their support more than anything. This holiday season, I've promised myself I won't huff and get annoyed at their inquiries. I won't defensively respond with "but I plan to go to law school!" when I get unrequested advice. I'll just smile and nod, and enjoy the warmth of the occasion.

    After years of trying, our neighbors convinced my parents that ice fishing would be a fun winter getaway from our dairy farm. Before that, their idea of entertainment involved driving around the countryside to see how the neighbors' crops were doing.

My parents eventually built a fish house and set it up on Wood Lake. We excitedly headed for the lake on many January and February weekends. By the time we arrived at our favorite fishing spot across the lake each day, somebody had usually made a clear path across the ice. The fish houses were together at the best fishing spots, forming some kind of a neighborhood.

    Our house was large enough so all four of us could fish at the same time. Each corner had a square cut out of the floor. We sat in comfort. You'd think ice fishing would be cold, but we had a small woodstove (木炉) inside, and we put snow around the bottom of the house to keep the wind from blowing underneath.

    Besides the thrill of watching your bobber (钓鱼浮标) dip below the water, lunch was always the highlight of the day. Mom would fry pork or hamburgers in a pan. The smell of cooking meat was the envy of every other fish house in the neighborhood.

    Our days passed with a mix of quiet time and family chatter. We talked about the farm or school. And of course, we shared fishing advice. Part of the fun of ice fishing was learning to understand and trust the sounds of the frozen lake. Healthy ice "talks" as it freezes and shifts. You could often hear the sound of a crack traveling through the ice.

    People who have never tried ice fishing may not think it sounds very exciting, but it was for us. Fishing trips were an adventure. We didn't always catch fish, but we always brought home great memories of a day with family and friends.