Google is consistently rated the best place to work. So you need a degree from Harvard to in the door, right?

    Not really, according to Laszlo Bock, Google's Head of People Operations. When the company was small, Google cared a lot about getting kids from Harvard, Stanford, MIT and many other Ivy League schools.  But Bock said it was the "wrong" hiring strategy.  Experience has taught him there are exceptional kids at many other places, from state schools in California to New York.

    "What we find is the best people from places like that are just as good, if not better, as anybody you can get from any Ivy League school, "said Bock, who just authored a book titled "Work Rules!"

    Every year, 2 million people apply to get a job at Google.  Bock himself has seen some 25, 000 résumés.

    So what else does Google not care about:

    Grades: Google's data shows that grades predict performance for the first two years of a career, but do not matter after that.

    Brain-teasers: Gone are interview questions such as: Why are manhole covers（井盖)round? or How many golf balls can fit in a school bus? "Our research tells us those questions are a waste of time, "Bock said "They're a really coachable skill. The more you practice, you get better at it. "

    Here's what Google does care about:

    Problem solvers: Your cognitive ability(认知能力), or how well you solve problems.

    Leaders: The idea is not whether you were president of the student body or vice president of the bank, but rather:" When you see a problem do you step in, help solve it, "and then critically, "Are you willing to step out and let somebody else take over, and make room for somebody else? Are you willing to give up power?"

    Googleyness: That's what Google calls its cultural fit. It's not "Are you like us?" Bock said. "We actually look for people who are different, because diversity gives us great ideas."

    "What's most important is that people are intellectually humble, willing to admit when they're wrong, and care about the environment around them… because we want people who think like owners not employees, "Bock said.

    The least important thing? Knowing how to do the job.

    "We figure if you get the first three right you'll figure it out most of the time."

    Being able to land safely is a critically important skill for all flying animals. Whereas terrestrial animals face no particular challenge when they need to stop running or crawling, flying animals move at much higher speeds, and they must be careful about how they land. Hitting the ground, or even water, at full flight speed would be quite dangerous. Before touching down, they must decrease their speed in order to land safely. Both bats and birds have mastered the skill of landing, but these two types of flyers go about it quite differently.

    In the past it was believed that, in terms of flying mechanics, there was little difference between bats and birds. This belief was based only on assumption, however, because for years nobody had actually studied in detail how bats move their wings. In recent years, though, researchers have discovered a number of interesting facts about bat flight. Bats are built differently from birds, and their wings incorporate(结合) both their front and hind limbs (后肢). This makes their limbs working together more difficult for bats and, as a result, they are not very good at flying over longer distances. However, a bat can quickly change its direction of flight or completely reverse it, something a bird cannot easily do.

    Another interesting characteristic of bat flight is the way in which bats land—upside down! Unlike birds, which touch down on the ground or on tree branches, bats can be observed flying around and then suddenly hanging upside down from an object overhead. How do they do it? A group of researchers recently used video cameras to film bats landing on nets suspended from the ceiling of their laboratory and studied the recordings in slow motion. They painted spots on the bats' wings to see in detail what happens to the wings in flight and during touchdown. It turns out that the bats flew in a straight line up to the net and then quickly flipped over and attached themselves to it upside down. One disadvantage to this landing routine is that the bats often slam into their landing spot with some force, which probably causes pain. However, not all bats hit their landing spots with the same speed and force; these will vary depending on the area where a bat species makes its home. For example, a cave bat, which regularly rests on a hard stone ceiling, is more careful about its landing preparation than a bat more accustomed to landing in leafy treetops.

    Many youths want to learn how to drive cars. This year one sixth of undergraduates in Beijing have registered at driving school. The students, mostly from majors such as business management or imitational trade, will finish their driving courses within 20 days or so.

    Training costs have dropped to 4, 500 yuan for students, according to the Haidian Driving School in Beijing. The price is not really low, but students will accept it, seeing it as an investment (投资) in their future. Familiarity with the operation of computers and fluent English are the basic skills graduating students need to find a job. But a driver s permit has become another factor (因素).

    "In the job market, owning a driver's permit sometimes strengthens a graduating student's competitiveness for a good position," says Li Hua, an undergraduate at the China University of Political Science and law.

    Cars will become a necessary part of many people's lives in the coming years, and it is difficult to get a permit out of campus because of the pressures on working people's time. "Having a full-time job after graduation offers limited time to learn to drive. We senior students have plenty of spare time, plenty of oppurtunity to learn," says another undergraduate at the university.

    Wu Dong, an official at the driving school, said undergraduates were very able and serious, and could grasp in an hour what ordinary people took four hours to learn. In this driving school, middle-aged people, young women and college students are the main customers.

    From March 1, 2018, to get a driver's permit, a beginner is now required to have at least 86 hours' practice before the final road test.

    You can relax if remembering everything isn't your strong suit. Recent research makes the case that being forgetful can be a strength—in fact, selective memory can even be a sign of stronger intelligence.

    Traditional research on memory has focused on the advantages of remembering everything. But looking through years of recent memory data, researchers found that the neurobiology of forgetting can be just as important to our decision-making as what our minds choose to remember.

    Making intelligent decisions doesn't mean you need to have all the information at hand. It just means you need to hold onto the most valuable information. And that means clearing up space in your memory palace for the most up-to-date information on clients and situations. Our brains do this by creating new neurons(神经元）in our  hippocampus, which have the power to overwrite(重写)existing memories that are influencing our decision-making.

    If you want to increase the number of new neurons in our brain's learning region, try exercising. Some aerobic exercise like jogging, power walking and swimming has been found to increase the number of neurons making important connections in our brains.

    When we forget the names of certain clients or details about old jobs，the brain is making a choice that these details don't matter. Although too much forgetfulness can be a cause for concern, the occasional lost detail can be a sign of a perfectly healthy memory system. The researchers found that our brains facilitate decision-making by stopping us from focusing too much on unimportant past details. Instead，the brain helps us remember the most important part of a conversation.

    We can get blamed for being absent-minded when we forget past events in perfect detail. These findings show us that total recall(记忆)can be overvalued. Our brains are working smarter when they aim to remember the right stories, not every story.

    Public Health England (PHE) is targeting pizzas, ready meals, ready meat and takeaways. The government has also required the food industry to start using healthier food and encourage the public to opt for lower calorie foods.

    It is all part of an effort to cut calorie (卡路里) intake by 20% by 2024. The target will point to 13 different food groups, which are equal to about a fifth of the calorie taken by children. If action is not taken, PHE said, it would be prepared to ask the government to pass laws.

    PHE would be strictly monitoring progress by looking at which products people were buying and would be prepared to punish companies which do not take their duties. The government is also organizing a program encouraging adults to consume (消耗) 400 calories at breakfast and 600 each at lunch and dinner.

    At present, adults consume between 200 and 300 calories more than they should each day. PHE chief nutritionist Dr Alison Redstone said the 400-600-600 tip would make it easier for "people to make healthier choices" by being able to judge what they should be eating in each sitting.

    How many calories should we eat? It is suggested that women eat no more than 2,000 calories a day, while men should limit their intake to 2,500. For children, it depends on age. A four-year-old should consume no more than 1,300, while for teens aged 17 and 18, it is about 3,000, but overweight children are eating up to 500 calories more than that.

    Prof Russell Viner, of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, said it was a necessary move. He said, "Over the past 40 years, there had been a slow growth in food sizes, with pizzas and hamburgers simply much bigger than they were in our parents' time." The convenience of fast food at pocket money prices and the advertisement of unhealthy food and drinks to children add to the problem.

Summer reading

Finding Junie Kim

by Ellen Oh

Middle schooler Junie Kim is facing bullying (欺凌) at school, but she keeps quiet. Then, for a school project, Junie interviews her grandparents, who grew up in Korea during wartime in the 1950s. In their story of struggle, Junie finds the courage to speak up. The book will encourage any kid who has ever been in Junie's shoes.

Simon B. Rhymin'

by Dwayne Reed

Simon is starting fifth grade and wants everyone to call him Notorious D. O. G. because he wants to be a famous rapper (说唱歌手). But he's shy about using his voice to express his thoughts. When a teacher asks the class to give a talk, Simon must face his fears. Simon B. Rhymin' is a great book that will give confidence to readers who are going through similar struggles.

A Shot in the Arm!

by Don Brown

A Shot in the Arm! is a novel about the history of vaccines (疫苗). Readers learn how vaccines have been used throughout history to fight disease. The author also introduces people around the world who helped with the development of vaccines. A Shot in the Arm! is an exciting read that uses colorful drawings to pull the reader in.

The One Thing You'd Save

by Linda Sue Park

If your house were on fire, what one thing would you save? Writer Linda Sue Park explores different answers to this question in poems that show the different voices of a middle school class. Some choose baseball cards or toy animals. One picks a sweater that was passed down for generations. The book is illustrated (给……作插图) with black-and-white art. Readers of all ages will like this book. It helps you realize what matters most.