There are good reasons to value our friendships.Some years ago a public-opinion research firm,Roper Starch Worldwide,asked 2007 people to name one or two things that said the most about themselves.Friends far outranked homes jobs, clothes and cars.

    “Ironically,” says Brant R.Burleson, professor of communication at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., “the better friends you are, the more likely you'll face conflicts.” And the outcome can be what you don't want—an end to the relationship.

    The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended.

    Swallow your pride. It wasn't easy, but that's what Denise Moreland of Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii did when a friendship turned sour.For nearly four months,Moreland,45,had watched over Nora Huizenga's two young daughters, who were living with their father on the base,while Huizenga,40,completed training as a dental hygienist in Nevada.“I felt honored to be asked to step in,” Moreland says.

    “When Huizenga returned at Christmas,” Moreland recalls,“I had so much to tell her, but she never called.”

    One daughter had a birthday party, but Moreland wasn't invited. “I felt like I'd been used,” she says.At first, Moreland swore to avoid Huizenga.Then she decided to swallow her pride and let her friend know how she felt. Huizenga admitted that she'd been so worried about being separated from her family that she'd been blind to what her friend had done to help her. Today she says, “I would never have figured out what happened if Denise hadn't called me on it.”

    When a friend hurts you, your instinct is to protect yourself.But that makes it harder to solve problems,explains William Wilmot,author of Relational Communication.“Most of us are relieved when differences are brought out in the open.”

    Apologize when you're wrong—even if you've also been wronged.But over the course of a friendship, even the best people make mistakes. “We don't think clearly when we're arguing,” says Michael Lang,a professional mediator (调解人) in Pittsburgh. Instead, says Lang, ask: “What's going on? This doesn't make sense.”

    See things from your friend's point of view. Sociologists Rebecca Adams Rosemary and Blieszner interviewed 53 adults who each had many friendships lasting decades. “We were curious how these people managed to sustain strong friendships for so long,” says Blieszner. Tolerance is key, the researchers learned.” It's surprising how often a dispute results from a simple misunderstanding,” adds psychotherapist Anne Frenkel.

    Accept that friendships change. “Friendships change as our needs and lifestyles change,” Wilmot observes.

    Making friends can sometimes seem easy,says Yager.The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that affect all relationships.Her suggestion: Consider friendship an honor and a gift,and worth the effort to treasure and nurture.

    The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on well with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.

    An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it had ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today's young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They're expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There's more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don't want to rock the boat.”

    So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I'm going out clubbing. As long as they know what I'm doing, they're fine with me.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I'd done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”

    Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion(反抗) is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over. ”

    When a child is told he is "uncool", it can be very painful. He may say he doesn't care, and even act in ways that are different from cool on purpose(故意地）. But these are simple ways to deal with sadness by pretending it's not there.

    Helping a child feel better in school had to be careful. If you say, "Why are you worried about what other children think about you? It doesn't matter!" Children know that it does matter. Instead, an active way may be best. You could say, "I'm going to do a couple of things for you to help you feel better in school."

    If a boy is having trouble making friends, the teacher can help him. The teacher can arrange things so that he has chances to use his abilities to contribute to class things. This is how the other children learn how to value his good qualities and to like him. A teacher can also raise a child's popularity in the group by showing that he values that child. It even helps to put him in a seat next to a very popular child, or let him be a partner with that child in activities, etc.

    There are things that parents can do at home, too. Be friendly when your child brings others home to play. Encourage him to invite friends to meals and then serve the dishes they consider "super" .When you plan trips, picnics, movies, and other shows, invite another child with whom your child wants to be friends.

    What you can do is to give him a chance to join a group that may be shutting him out. Then, if he has good qualities, he can start to build real friendship of his own.

    A new study, conducted by British company Mindlab International, has found that listening to music at work increases accuracy (精确) and speed, The Telegraph reported.

    Perhaps, some parents disagree with this idea, saying, "Switch off the music and concentrate!" Well, if that's the case with your parents, you might now be able to convince them that you have science on your side.

    The company gave 26 participants （参与者）a series of different tasks for five days in a row, including spell checking, mathematical word problems, data entry, and abstract reasoning. The participants completed these tasks while listening to music or no music at all.

    The results showed that while music was playing, 88% of participants produced their most accurate test results and 81% completed their fastest work. David Lewis, chairman of Mindlab International, told The Telegraph, "Music is a very powerful management tool if you want to increase not only the efficiency of your workforce but also their emotional state, they are going to become more positive about the work."

    However, you may have a list of your favorite songs, but not all kinds of music match all homework. For maths or other subjects involving numbers or attention to detail, you should listen to classical music, the study found. In the study, pop music enabled participants to complete their tasks 58% faster than when listening to no music at all. If you are reviewing your English writing, pop music is the best choice, as it is the best kind for spell checking. It cut mistakes by 14%, compared to listening to no music. After finishing your homework, do you often take time to check your answers? Maybe, some dance music is suitable for you.

    You're probably used to the regular upgrades in our cell-phone networks. There was 2G, which came along in 199l, replaced with 3G in 2001, followed by 4G in 2009. Now we're hearing about the coming of 5G.

    But 5G is a much bigger leap than before. 5G, of course, is much faster than 4G in the real world and a 5G phone in a 5G city will enjoy Internet speeds between 9 and 20 times as fast. The arrival of 5G also means enormous leaps forward in capacity－so much that every cell-phone plan will offer cheap, truly unlimited Internet access. "The consequences of that are huge," says Sherif Hanna, Qualcomm's director of 5G marketing. For example, apps will no longer degrade (降低) your video quality or postpone downloading when you're out of Wi-Fi range. In fact, you'll probably prefer to do your downloads when you're on cellular (使用流量) because 5G will be much faster than whatever service you've got at home or work.

    "However, not everyone is excited by the 5G development. The new standard gets its speed partly by using existing transmission(传输) frequencies more efficiently and partly by using the millimeter wave range. That's a big, juicy line of radio frequencies that are currently underused because millimeter wave is really hard to use," Hanna says.

    These frequencies are much higher than anything we've used for the cellular, which means they can offer unbelievable speed－but at the cost of range. Millimeter wave cellular towers have to be about 500 feet apart. Cell carriers not only will have to upgrade all their cell transceivers (called small cells) but will install(安装) a lot more of them as well.

    That's why the millimeter wave flavor of 5G, the superfast coverage, will be available only in densely populated cities such as New York and San Francisco. In suburban and rural areas, 5G will bring a speedup of "only" nine times faster.

    One day a poor man was begging with an old wallet in his hand. As he felt sad at his own bad luck, he kept wondering why some wealthy people were never satisfied and were always wanting more.

    "Here," said he, "is the master of this house—I know him well. He is a wealthy businessman. He should have turned over his business to others, and then he could have spent the rest of his life happily, but he didn't. Instead, he sent his ships to sea to trade with foreign lands. However, there were great storms on the water, so his ships were destroyed and his treasure disappeared in the sea. As for me, if I had only enough to eat and to buy clothing, I would not want anything more."

    Just at that moment, Fortune came down the street. She saw the poor man and stopped. She said to him, "Listen! I want to help you. Hold your wallet, and I will pour this gold into it, but only on this condition: all that falls into the wallet shall be pure gold, but every piece that falls upon the ground shall become dust. Do you understand?"

    "Oh, yes," said the poor man.

    "Then be careful," said Fortune. "Your wallet is old, so do not load it too heavily."

    The beggar was so glad that he quickly opened his wallet, and a stream of yellow dollars poured into it. The wallet grew heavy.

    "Is that enough?" asked Fortune.

    "Not yet."

    "Isn't the wallet cracking (裂开)?"

    "Never fear."

    The beggar's hands began to tremble. Ah, if the gold would only pour forever!

    "You are the richest man in the world now!"

    "Just a little more, add just a handful or two."

    Another piece was added, and the wallet cracked. The treasure fell upon the ground and turned to dust. The beggar had nothing now but his empty wallet. He was as poor as before.