Black History Month is also known as the African-American History Month. It is celebrated all over the United States of America and Canada in the month of February, while in the United Kingdom it is celebrated in October. Each and every school and university conducts various activities to make the generation aware of the importance that African-American history holds in the nation. The electronic media is filled with themes inrelevance to the occasion, and many activities are carried out across the country to remember the contribution made by African-American citizens in the development of this nation.

    Black History Month was first started bya famous African-American historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson in the year 1926. February was chosen as the month to celebrate the African-American history because it was the birth month of two of the most highly valued people among African-Americans. These were President Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and Frederick Douglass, who was also the first vice presidential nominee (被任命者) amongAfrican-Americans. Initially, Black History Month was known as the “NegroHistory Week”. This was Dr. Woodson's attempt to encourage awareness amongcitizens about the contribution of African-Americans towards the building of the nation. It was only in the early 1970's that the name “Negro History Week”changed to “Black History Month”. And later, in the year 1976, the entire monthof February was declared to be the National African-American History Month, orthe Black History Month.

Every year, National African-AmericanHistory Month is celebrated by many activities with various ideas and themesfor the younger generation. In 2013, Black History Month celebrates the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington at which Martin Luther King, Jr. gavehis famous speech “I have a dream”. It also marks the 150^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation (解放黑奴宣言). The theme for Black History Month in 2014 is “Civil Rights in America” remembering the important milestones by African-Americans and others in the battle for civil rights and equaltreatment under the law.

    Welcome to the Old Royal Naval College (ORNC), one of London's most famous landmarks. It is open daily and is a wonderful place to visit — whether you have an hour or a day.

    The buildings and grounds of the ORNC were originally designed as a refuge(避难所)for old and injured sailors in the 1690s. Later the site became a training college for officers in the Royal Navy. Today they are free to visit and host an exciting range of events all year round.

Painted Hall

    View the impressive Painted Hall, known as the greatest piece of decorative painting in England. Sir James Thornhill spent 19 years painting it celebrating the royal family and maritime(海上的) power. Discover more interesting history through our daily talks and family activities.

Chapel(小教堂)

    Redecorated by James“Athenian”Stuart after a fire in 1779, the Chapel reflects Stuart's Greek influences, and is still an active place to show respect and love for God. Besides, it is a perfect place for concerts and recitals(演奏会).

Discover Greenwich

    Explore over 500 years of history and architecture at the Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre. There is an impressive central model of Maritime Greenwich World Heritage (遗产)Site.

Opening times

    Painted Hall, Chapel and Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre open from 10:00 to 17:00, Mon to Sun. (Chapel opens at 12:00 on Sun following service).

Grounds open daily 08:00-18:00.

Dear Rose,

    My brother is often in a bad mood, which makes me in a bad mood. What should I do?

Jenny,

    It can be hard to be around someone who is in a bad mood. Since you can't change another person's mood, try to focus on what you can control: your own mood and reaction.

    You might find it easier to stay in a good mood if you leave your brother alone when he feels grumpy (脾气暴躁的). The next time he is in a bad mood, go to a quiet place in your house. Read, exercise, draw, listen to music — do something that makes you feel happy.

    Your parents might have some good suggestions for you, too.

Dear Rose,

   I play soccer, but sometimes I play badly. How can I do better? Jarom,

    To be good at anything, determination and practice are important. Listen closely to your coach, watch other players, then practice, practice, practice! Professional athletes continue to practice their sports each day, knowing that if they start to get lazy, they won't keep or develop their skills.

    In addition to practicing with teammates, you can work on drills on your own.

    Learning more about the sport may help too. Your coach can likely direct you to some good resources on skills development.

Dear Rose,

    I was moved up a grade a few years ago. Now, almost everyone in my previous grade asks me why. It wouldn't be a problem, except some boys ask over and over just to be annoying. What do I do?

Allison (by email)

    If you're sure that they are trying to be annoying, you might respond with something humorous. For example, you could say something like "They told me that the lunch lines would be shorter." Use the situation to turn annoying questions into something to laugh about.

    In its early history, Chicago had floods frequently, especially in the spring, making the streets so muddy that people, horses, and carts got stuck. An old joke that was popular at the time went something like this：A man is stuck up to his waist in a muddy Chicago street. Asked if he needs help, he replies, "No, thanks. I've got a good horse under me."

    The city planner decided to build an underground drainage （排水） system, but there simply wasn't enough difference between the height of the ground level and the water level. The only two options were to lower the Chicago River or raise the city.

    An engineer named Ellis Chesbrough convinced the city that it had no choice but to build the pipes above ground and then cover them with dirt. This raised the level of the city's streets by as much as 12 feet.

    This of course created a new problem: dirt practically buried the first floors of every building in Chicago. Building owners were faced with a choice: either change the first floors of their buildings into basements, and the second stories into main floors, or hoist the entire buildings to meet the new street level. Small wood-frame buildings could be lifted fairly easily. But what about large, heavy structures like Tremont Hotel, which was a six-story brick building?

    That's where George Pullman came in. He had developed some house-moving skills successfully. To lift a big structure like the Tremont Hotel, Pullman would place thousands of jackscrews （螺旋千斤顶） beneath the building's foundation. One man was assigned to operate each section of roughly 10jackscrews.At Pullman's signal each man tured his jackscrew the same amount at the same time, thereby raising the building slowly and evenly. Astonishingly, the Tremont Hotel stay open during the entire operation, and many of its guests didn't even notice anything was happening.

    Some people like to say that every problem has a solution. But in Chicago's early history, every engineering solution seemed to create a new problem. Now that Chicago's waste water was draining efficiently into the Chicago River, the city's next step was to clean the polluted river.

    Humans' invention of zero was vital for modern mathematics and science, but we're not the only species to consider “nothing” a number. Parrots and monkeys understand the concept of zero, and now bees have joined the club, too.

    Honey bees are known to have some numerical skills such as the ability to count to four, which may come in handy when keeping track of landmarks in their environment. To see whether these abilities extended to understanding zero, researchers trained 10 bees to identify the smaller of two numbers. Across a series of trials, they showed the insects two different pictures displaying a few black shapes on a white background. If the bees flew to the picture with the smaller number of shapes, they were given delicious sugar water, but if they flew toward the larger number, they were punished with bitter-tasting food.

    Once the bees had learned to consistently make the correct choice, the researchers gave them a new choice: a white background containing no shapes at all. Even though the bees had never seen an empty picture before, 64% of the time they chose it rather than a picture containing two or three shapes, the authors report today in Science. This suggests that the insects understood that “zero” is less than two or three. And they weren't just going for the empty picture because it was new and interesting. Another group of bees trained to always choose the larger number tended to pick the nonzero image in this test.

    In further experiments, the researchers showed that bees' understanding of zero was even more complex: for example, they were able to distinguish between one and zero-a challenge even for some other members of the zero club. Advanced numerical abilities like this could give animals an evolutionary advantage, helping them keep track of predators（捕食者）and food sources. And if an insect can display such a thorough grasp of the number zero, write the researchers, then this ability may be more common in the animal kingdom than we think.

    Reality TV show has been charged with making the nation silly, but a study suggests part of the show could be good for children.

    Massey University PhD student Jacinta Hawkins looked at the influence of TV programs on kids' health knowledge, attitudes and behavior. She said programs which showed overweight people on TV is making children say "I don't want to grow up like that'."

    The research was part of Ms Hawkins' paper on how schools improve health. She spoke to 92 children, ages from 7 to 13, from six Auckland primary schools to find out how they received information on nutrition and physical activity. Some said they learnt from TV news programs, but most of them mentioned reality shows such as Fat Chance, Honey We're Killing the Kids and Downsize Me.

    "Earlier studies had looked at the effect junk-food advertising had on children," Ms Hawkins said, "but messages within TV programs had not been explored. Children from the six schools largely recognized program content, rather than advertising, as a source of food and physical activity messages. They are learning habits of eating and exercise from TV programs. "

    The children also recognized that their parents had a role to play in shaping health behavior. Talking about Honey We're Killing the Kids, which shows how people will look if they continue with good habits, children said they developed attitudes from their family's habits. MMs Hawkins said children remembered what they had seen and thought it was the parents' duty to lead by example.