The Enigma（谜）of Beauty

    The search for beauty spans centuries and continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back over 4,000 years show both men and women painting their nails and wearing makeup. In 18th-century France, wealthy noblemen wore large wigs (假发) of long, white hair to make themselves attractive. Today, people continue to devote a lot of time and money to their appearance.

    There is at least one good reason for the desire to be attractive: beauty is power. Studies suggest that good-looking people make more money, get called on more often in class, and are regarded as friendlier.

    But what exactly is beauty? It's difficult to describe it clearly, and yet we know it when we see it. And our awareness of it may start at a very early age. In one set of studies, six-month-old babies were shown a series of photographs. The faces on the pictures had been rated for attractiveness by a group of college students. In the studies, the babies spent more time looking at the attractive faces than the unattractive ones.

    The idea that even babies can judge appearance makes perfect sense to many researchers. In studies by psychologists, men consistently showed a preference for women with larger eyes, fuller lips, and a smaller nose and chin while women prefer men with large shoulders and a narrow waist. According to scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and women that these traits——the full lips, clear skin, strong shoulders―equal health and genetic well-being.

    Not everyone thinks the same way, however. “Our hardwiredness can be changed by all sorts of expectations—mostly cultural,” says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. What is considered attractive in one culture might not be in another. Look at most Western fashion magazines: the women on the pages are thin. But is this “perfect” body type for women worldwide? Scientists' answer is no; what is considered beautiful is subjective and varies around the world. They found native peoples in southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded overweight in Western cultures.

    For better or worse, beauty plays a role in our lives. But it is extremely difficult to describe exactly what makes one person attractive to another. Although there do seem to be certain physical traits considered universally appealing, it is also true that beauty does not always keep to a single, uniform standard. Beauty really is, as the saying goes, in the eye of the beholder.

    Have you ever been to the world's smallest bookstore?

    The World's Smallest Bookstore, whose official name is just these three words, sits quietly about 100 miles northeast of Toronto.

    The bookstore is about 10 feet by 10 feet，so it is easy to imagine how tiny it really is. The bookstore is open 24 hours a day. Inside the bookstore are various books, especially literary books and classic authors' works. So if you are looking for something less popular, you may get a bit disappointed there.

Another special feature of this bookstore is that each book only costs three dollars. All the expenses are paid on the honor system, which means buyers should make a note of what they've bought and leave their money by themselves. So the tools of the trade in this bookstore are quite simple: pens, papers, light bulbs and a label-maker.

    In order to catch passers-by's attention, the billboards (广告牌) of the bookstore are several times bigger than the store itself. With these large eye-catchers, many people are willing to stop by and have a visit.

    Take Action for a Better World: Volunteers Needed

    Six months' preparation in Denmark: Africa studies, team work combined with social work with risk group teenagers.

    Six months' community work in Malawi in People to People Projects: Child Aid, HIV / AIDS. Fights and Teacher Training.

    Qualifications: 18 years, hard-working and social engagement.

    Please contact us by e-mail: takeaction@ betterworld.com.

    Part-time work with Exchange Students

    YOUTH International is a non-profit high school foreign exchange students organization. We welcome teenagers from over 80 countries worldwide and provide host families. The community Representative(社区代表) is a part-time position designed for people with a strong desire to do something rewarding in the community and earn some extra money.

    Applicants best suited for this work should enjoy teenagers, have a strong interest in cross-cultural communication and feel comfortable networking. Full training and support will be provided through branch offices throughout the US. Positions available in most states.

If interested, please email staff@youth.org or call 888—123—9872.

    International Summer Job

    Hi, I'm an ESL student in China. I'm 20, quiet and polite, and I speak reasonable English. I'm looking for a summer job in an English-speaking country. I can teach Chinese or do house and garden work and cook Chinese dishes. Can anybody offer me a job? I don't need to earn much, just enough in two months ( July --August) to pay for my return ticket to China. My goal is to improve my English and see a bit more of the world. My email is: ram3462@ hotmail.com.

    Call for Native Speaker of English

    I am looking for native speakers of English to join in an experiment. This experiment is carried out over the Internet. You don't need any specific knowledge other than understanding and speaking English at a native level. The first task will take you around 15 minutes. After this task, you can decide whether you want to continue the experiment. The tasks involve reading texts and designing questions and answers.

    If you are willing to help me, then please email us: club3864@ hotmail.com

    Teens naturally ask parents for money for material things and entertainment. But as the need becomes more frequent, why not get a job so you can earn your own money? Working for your own money will give you a sense of accomplishment and the satisfaction of a job well done.

    Babysitting is a suitable job for teens. They are best suited as a mother's helper while the mother is working in another part of the house. Babysitting is not a job for girls alone. Boy babysitters are popular with families of boys. Parents rely on friends and neighbors' recommendations. Word of mouth is your best form of advertising.

    Pet-sitting involves caring for people's pets while the owners are on vacation or away for the day. A pet-sitter will be responsible for giving fresh food and water, walking dogs and cleaning out cat litter boxes. Although the pet-sitter does not spend the night, he is there often enough to bring in the mail, water plants and take the garbage out. Create a flyer with your name, prices and references, and pass it out to the families in your neighborhood.

    Yard work can be a seasonal job. Spring cleanup is needed for flower beds and preparing the yard for summer. Summer is the busiest time for yard work with lawn mowing (割草坪),edging and trimming(修剪) bushes. Fall is the time for sweeping leaves and planting seeds for spring. If you live in a northern climate, there may be snow that needs shoveling.

    Odd jobs can mean a variety of things, including painting, washing the pet, weeding the garden, cleaning out the basement, or helping to serve dinner at a party. Doing odd jobs may be a good match for someone with a busy schedule. Most odd jobs only take a few hours to complete.

For more information, please click here.

    The day will come when renewable energy such as wind, solar, geothermal and others replace fossil fuels as the major source of world energy. However, most analysts insist that this day will not arrive for many decades to come—certainly well past the middle of the century. Systems of fossil fuels have already been firmly set up, and it is too costly or impractical to replace the existing systems with renewables. But there are good reasons to believe that the transition (转变) to renewables will come much faster than previously thought.

    It is hardly surprising that many experts say we will see a relatively slow transition from fossil fuels to renewables, given what is known about previous energy changes of this sort. "Energy transitions take a long time," observed Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba in Scientific American. It took more than 50 years for coal to replace wood as the world's leading source of energy and another 50 years for oil to replace coal; the change from fossil fuels to renewables, he argued, is not likely to come any faster.

    Under ordinary circumstances, Smil's forecast would no doubt prove accurate. But these are not ordinary times. Growing concern over climate change is leading to increasingly strict controls on CO₂ and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (排放), while the development in renewables technology is lowering their price and speeding their installation.

    There are, of course, many difficulties in the effective control of carbon emissions, as demonstrated by coal companies to block the introduction of new rules by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Nevertheless, it is impossible to dismiss the progress being made at the local and international levels to promote the use of renewables. The European Union (E. U), for example, is well on the way to achieving a 20% reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 2020, along with a 20% increase in the use of renewable energy.

    The transition to renewables will be faster due to dramatic improvements in the pricing and performance of such systems. As a result of the steady increases in the efficiency of wind and solar systems, together with the savings achieved through large-scale manufacture, the price of renewables is falling globally. With prices dropping this fast, solar energy is now proving competitive with fossil fuels for generating electricity in many areas.

    The change from fossil fuels to renewable energy will not come overnight, and it will not escape many setbacks. Nevertheless, renewables are likely to replace fossil fuels as the main source of electrical power well before mid-century.

    Tens of thousands of ancient pictures carved into the rocks at one of France's most important tourist sites are being gradually destroyed. Scientists and researchers fear that the 36,000 drawings on rocks in Mont Bego in the French Alps are being damaged so rapidly that they will not survive for future generations.

    The mountain, believed to have once been a site for prayer, is scattered (散布) with 4,000-year-old drawings cut into bare rock. They include pictures of cows with horns, cultivated fields and various gods and goddesses. But as the popularity of the site increases, the pictures are being ruined by thoughtless graffiti (涂鸦).

    Jean Clottes is the chairman of the International Committee on Rock Art. He says, "People think that because the pictures have been there so long they will always continue to be there. But if the damage continues at this rate there will be nothing left in 50 years."

    He describes seeing tourists stamping on the drawings, wearing away the rock and definition (清晰) of the artwork as they do so. Some visitors, he says, even cut off parts to take home as souvenirs. "When people think they can't take a good enough photograph, they rub the drawings to get a clearer picture," he said. "The drawings are polished by the weather, and if the sun is shining and the visitors can't see them properly they simply rub them to make them look fresher." Other researchers describe how people arrive carrying long sticks with sharp ends to scratch (刮) their own drawings, or even their names, in the rocks.

    But experts are divided over the best way to preserve the drawings. Henry de Lumley, director of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, believes that the only way to save the site is to turn the whole mountain into a "no-go" area, preventing the public from going there except on guided tours. Otherwise, he says, not only will the site be completely destroyed but important research work will be reduced.

    Clottes disagrees, "The measure suggested by Henry de Lumley is the most severe, and while it is the most effective, it is also certain to bring about protests from people who live there," he said. "The site was classified as a historic monument years ago by the Ministry of Culture, and we must do as much as possible to save what is there."

    David Lavergne, the regional architect, also wants to avoid closing the site. "Henry de Lumley's idea isn't ideal," he said. "Our department feels that the best solution is to let people look at the site, but because the area is very big it is difficult to prevent visitors from damaging it. I would prefer that everyone was able to look at it, but the main problem is money. We do not have the funds to employ the necessary number of guards. We may have to consider charging a fee. It doesn't seem to be possible to get the government support."