The Boy Made It!

    One Sunday, Nicholas, a teenager, went skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. In the early afternoon, when he was planning to go home, a fierce snowstorm swept into the area. Unable to see far, he accidentally turned off the path. Before he knew it, Nicholas was lost, all alone! He didn't have food, water, a phone, or other supplies. He was getting colder by the minute.

    Nicholas had no idea where he was. He tried not to panic. He thought about all the survival shows he had watched on TV. It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.

    He decided to stop skiing. There was a better chance of someone finding him if he stayed put. The first thing he did was to find shelter from the freezing wind and snow. If he didn't, his body temperature would get very low, which could quickly kill him. Using his skis, Nicholas built a snow cave. He gathered a huge mass of snow and dug out a hole in the middle. Then he piled branches on top of himself, like a blanket, to stay as warm as he could.

    By that evening, Nicholas was really hungry. He ate snow and drank water from a nearby stream so that his body wouldn't lose too much water. Not knowing how much longer he could last, Nicholas did the only thing he could — he huddled (蜷缩) in his cave and slept.

    The next day, Nicholas went out to look for help, but he couldn't find anyone. He followed his tracks and returned to the snow cave, because without shelter, he could die that night. On Tuesday, Nicholas went out again to find help. He had walked for about a mile when a volunteer searcher found him. After two days stuck in the snow, Nicholaswas saved.

    Nicholas might not have survived this snowstorm had it not been for TV. He had often watched Grylls' survival show Man vs. Wild. That's where he learned the tips that saved his life. In each episode(一期节目) of Man vs. Wild, Grylls is abandoned in a wild area andhas to find his way out.

    When Grylls heard about Nicholas' amazing deeds, he was super impressed that Nicholas had made it since he knew better than anyone how hard Nicholas had to work to stay alive.

    Are you preparing for a big test? If so, you may want to go to play some basketball in between hitting the books. Doctors are starting to find more and more information that suggests a connection between exercise and brain development. Judy Cameron, a scientist at Oregon Health and Science University, studies brain development. According to her research, it seems that exercise can make blood vessels (血管), including those in the brain, stronger and more fully developed. Dr. Cameron is sure that this allows people who exercise to think better. As she says, “While we already know that exercise is good for the heart, exercise can actually cause physical changes in the brain.”

The effects of exercise on brain development can even be seen in babies. Babies who do activities that require a lot of movement show greater brain development than babies who are less physically active. Even a little movement can show big results. Margaret Barnes, a scientist, also believes in the importance of exercise. She thinks that many learning disabilities that children have in primary school or high school can result from a lack of movement as babies. Babies need movement that encourages and excites their five senses. They need to set up a connection between motion and memory. In this way, as they get older, children will begin to connect physical activity with higher learning,” says Margaret.

    Older people can develop their brains as well. Cornell University studied a group of seniors who have a short-term memory increase of up to 40 percent after exercising just three hours a week. The exercise does not have to be very difficult, but it does have to increase the heart rate. Also, just like the motion for babies, exercise for older people should not be too simple. Learning some new skills or actions, such as with yoga or tat- chi helps to open up memory paths in the brain that may not have been used for a long time. For most people, any type of physical activity that increases the heart rate is helpful. The main aim is to increase the brain's flow of blood. And your brain can benefit from as little as two to three hours of exercise a week.

    Sooner or later, many families will face the situation of moving. The experience can be very bad for kids, who may not be a part of the decision to move and may not understand it. You can take steps to make the entire process (过程) easier for everyone.

    Many kids like to stay in familiar places. So as you consider a move, weigh the benefits (好处) of that change against the comfort that neighborhood, school, and social life give your kids. If your family has recently dealt with a big life change, such as death, you may want to put off a move to give your children time to accept the fact.

    The decision to move may be out of your hands, perhaps because of a new job or money problems. Even if you're not happy about the move, try to keep a positive (积极的) attitude to it. During the move, a parent's attitude can greatly influence kids.

    No matter what the results are, the most important way to prepare kids to move is to talk about it. Try to give your children as much information about the move as possible. You can ask kids to join in the planning such as house-hunting or the search for a new school. This can make the change feel less like it's being forced on them. If you're moving across town, try to take your children to visit the new house and the new neighborhood.

    A move can have many problems, but good things also come from this kind of change. Your family might grow closer and you may learn more about each other by going through it together.

    We all need to eat. So, meals could be a chance to stop what we're doing and spend time with the people in our lives. A recent study from a team of South Korea suggests that eating together has many good effects on children and teenagers while frequently eating alone may lead to poor eating habits and poor food choices. People who eat alone more than twice a week have a greater risk of developing high blood pressure.

    There are benefits of family dinners on children and teenagers.

    In 2014, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) looked at data from nearly three-quarters of the world's countries. Among its findings is the fact that students who share a main meal with their families are less likely to hate school. Children who eat a main meal with their families are also less likely to take drugs (毒品).

    In the report, titled "The Importance of Family Dinners (VIII)," researchers say that teens who have frequent family dinners are more likely to say their parents know a lot about what's going on in their lives.

    Another study from the University of Montreal finds that children who eat with their families experience long-term physical and mental health benefits. These children are physically in better shape and drink fewer sugary soft drinks. These children also seem to have better social skills and are less violent.

    One of the researchers, Pagane, involved in this study is a professor at the university. She says that mealtimes with parents possibly provide young children with firsthand social events, which helps them have better communication skills.

    Vinegar is great. It makes salad, fries and dumplings taste better, and you can even clean your windows with it. And now, according to scientists, it may even help the planet's population survive climate change.

    Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have found that growing plants in vinegar makes them more resistant to droughts. This could mean that in the future, worries about climate change affecting the world's supply of food will be much lower.

    The discovery was made after the researchers studied the Arabidopsis, a plant known for its ability to survive in dry weather. It was found that when the plant was placed in drought-like conditions, it produced a chemical called acetate(醋酸盐)—the main component of vinegar.

    After discovering this, the scientists experimented further by adding acetate to the soil of other plants, and they stopped giving them water completely. After leaving the plants for 14 days, they found that the ones treated with acetate had survived, while the untreated plants had dried up and died. It's hoped that this simple method of survival could soon be used to help farmers in dry countries keep their crops alive.

    Jong Myong Kim, co-author of the study, tells Popular Science magazine that he's already been in touch with people all over the world who are interested in trying this simple and cost-effective method out for themselves from flower growing companies to amateur gardeners. Although at this point keeping thirsty plants alive isn't as easy as just pouring vinegar over them, Kim says he and his team are working on making the process as simple as possible. "Now we are trying to cooperate with some farmers, and also some companies, to make a method to apply this system," he says.

    And for those of us who always forget to ask our neighbors to water our plants when we go away, hopefully this means the end of returning home from a trip to find our favorite flowers have died.

This year, the Music Educator Award, presented by the Recording Academy and Grammy Museum, went to Annie Ray, the performing arts department chair and orchestra director at Annandale High School in Fairfax County, Virginia. She attended the awards ceremony in Los Angeles and brought home both a $10,000 prize and matching grant （资助） for her school's music program.

Ray created the Crescendo Orchestra for students with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as a parent orchestra that teaches nearly 200 caregivers a year to play the same instrument as their children. She got the idea mostly from the Annandale community, which she says represents over 60 countries, including many refugees and immigrants. "There're many cultures that might typically clash, but they come together in this very beautiful harmony," Ray explained. "And that's really uniquely expressed in the orchestra classroom, where we're just all music-ing together."

Ray says the Crescendo Orchestra is focused on teaching students how to play an instrument, through one-on-one instruction tailored to their needs. The orchestra is about much more than just making music, however. "I really push my students to be brave and go outside of their comfort zone. We have to learn how to work together with others," she says.

Ray, who comes from a family of musicians and has played the harp （竖琴） since the age of five, knows firsthand the impact that a great teacher can make on their students. "Why I am where I am is because a teacher changed my life and made me want to be a music educator," she says.

Ray says her warm reception on the awards ceremony is especially meaningful because not many people understand what exactly music educators do in the classroom or how much their work matters. She says that lack of understanding is one of the biggest challenges facing the profession in general. Moreover, she says her school desperately needs new instruments, and adds that she'll use some of her grant money to buy more.