He was the baby with no name. Found and taken from the north Atlantic 6 days after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, his tiny body so moved the salvage (救援) workers that they called him “our baby.” In their home port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, people collected money for a headstone in front of the baby's grave (墓), carved with the words: “To the memory of an unknown child.” He has rested there ever since.

    But history has a way of uncovering its secrets. On Nov. 5, this year, three members of a family from Finland arrived at Halifax and laid fresh flowers at the grave. “This is our baby,” says Magda Schleifer, 68, a banker. She grew up hearing stories about a great-aunt named Maria Panula,42, who had sailed on the Titanic for America to be reunited with her husband. According to the information Mrs. Schleifer had gathered, Panula gave up her seat on a lifeboat to search for her five children -- including a 13-month-old boy named Eino from whom she had become separated during the final minutes of the crossing. "We thought they were all lost in the sea," says Schleifer.

    Now, using teeth and bone pieces taken from the baby's grave, scientists have compared the DNA from the Unknown Child with those collected from members of five families who lost relatives on the Titanic and never recovered the bodies. The result of the test points only to one possible person: young Eino. Now, the family sees no need for a new grave. "He belongs to the people of Halifax," says Schleifer, "They've taken care of him for 90 years."

    Adapted from People, November 25, 2002

    There's a curious thing about people.All of us are driven in some way or another to achieve—we want to run faster,be more creative,win more awards,and earn more money.But here's the thing: if you want to offer warm words of wisdom,constructive criticism or "360-degree feedback",then think again.Most of us would rather not hear it.

    Our easily-broken egos（自尊心）are partly to blame.We all want to meet our own expectations of ourselves,and so being critised can present a huge threat to our egos.Yet as decades of psychological theory and research have indicated,people have endless tricky strategies of remaining positive in the face of criticism.For this reason,rather than us welcoming feedback with open arms,our first response is often an automatic defense.These reactions serve to make us feel better about ourselves.

    Psychological research exposes this unhealthy appetite for ignorance.In one study,students watched a false educational film about a serious disease called "TAA Deficiency".In fact,TAA Deficiency is completely fictional,but the students were not told this information;instead,they were asked whether they wished to provide a cheek test for assessing（评估）their risk of developing the disease.Half of the students were told that if they ever developed TAA Deficiency,then the treatment would involve them taking a two-week course of pills.Of this group,52% agreed to provide the cheek test.The other half of students learned the treatment would involve taking the pills for the rest of their lives.Of this group,only 21% agreed to the test.

    These findings show a common pattern seen in other studies within and beyond the context of healthcare.That is,people are especially resistant to hearing feedback when they believe it could force them to do something difficult or unpleasant.

    A billionaire has recently made one of the biggest charitable（慈善的）donations to a university in China's history. Chen Tianqiao donated $115 million to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to help advanced brain research. The donation will be spent deepening the understanding of how the brain works. Chen has been interested in brain research, believing it can shape the industries such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. However, this huge donation has caused heated discussions among Chinese scholars and internet users alike.

    Many criticized him for choosing to give money to a foreign university rather than home institutes for brain research, which are developing fast and are on track to catch up with the US in just a few years. Rao Yi, a biologist at Peking University, even said the donation was a typical mistake.

    Others, however, support his choice. They believe Caltech is a more reasonable choice compared with Chinese research institutions. Caltech has a long history and has taken a leading position in biology, and therefore it produces more efficient results. In addition, the results of the research benefit not only the American people, but also the rest of the world.

    A similar controversial case started two years ago when Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, donated $15 million to Harvard University to help disadvantaged Chinese students.

    Many believe that China is still behind in the management and use of donated money, and that as a result, Chinese charity donators are looking abroad. In comparison, Western countries like the US, which have a long history of donating money, have well-developed systems that use money efficiently. They can also provide full access for donors who want to track the use of the money. To get more donations, Chinese universities should be braver and more honest. They need self-reflection, rather than envy.

    The Marches were a happy family. Poverty, hard work, and even the fact that Father March was away with the Union armies could not down the spirits of Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy, and Marmee, as the March girls called their mother.

    The March sisters tried to be good but had their share of faults. Pretty Meg was often displeased with the schoolchildren she taught; boyish Jo was easy to become angry; golden-haired schoolgirl Amy liked to show up; but Beth, who kept the house, was loving and gentle always.

    The happy days passed and darkness came when a telegram arrived for Mrs. March. “Your husband is very ill,” it said, “come at once.” The girl tried to be brave when their mother left for the front. They waited and prayed. Little Beth got scarlet fever（猩红热）when she was taking care of the sick neighbor. She became very ill but began to recover by the time Marmee was back. When Father came home from the front and at that joyful Christmas dinner they were once more all together.

    Three years later the March girls had grown into young womanhood. Meg became Mrs. Brooke, and after a few family troubles got used to her new state happily. Jo had found pleasure in her literary efforts. Amy had grown into a young lady with a talent for design and an even greater one for society. But Beth had never fully regained her health, and her family watched her with love and anxiety.

    Amy was asked to go and stay in Europe with a relative of the Marches'. Jo went to New York and became successful in her writing and had the satisfaction of seeing her work published there. But at home the bitterest blow was yet to fall. Beth had known for some time that she couldn't live much longer to be with the family and in the spring time she died.

    News came from Europe that Amy and Laurie, the grandson of a wealthy neighbor, had planned to be married soon. Now Jo became ever more successful in her writing and got married to Professor Bhaer and soon afterwards founded a school for boys.

    And so the little women had grown up and lived happily with their children, enjoying the harvest of love and goodness that they had devoted all their lives to.

    Have you ever pressed the pedestrian button at a crosswalk and wondered if it really worked? They're called “placebo(安慰剂）buttons” 一buttons that mechanically sound and can be pushed，but provide no functionality.

In New York City, only about 100 of the 1, 000 crosswalk buttons actually function. Crosswalk signals were generally installed before traffic jam had reached today's levels.

    But while their function was taken over by more advanced systems—such as automated lights or traffic sensors — the physical buttons were often kept, rather than being replaced at further expense. Other cities，such as Boston， Dallas and Seattle， have gone through a similar process, leaving them with their own placebo pedestrian buttons. In London, which has 6, 000 traffic signals， pressing the pedestrian button results in a reliable “Wait” light. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the “green man”— or “pedestrian stage” in traffic signal design profession — will appear any sooner.

    “We do have some crossings where the green light comes on automatically, but we still ask people to press the button because that enables accessible features,'' said Glynn Barton, director of network management at Transport for London.

    These features, such as blind tracks and hearable traffic signals, help people with visual disorder cross the road and only function when the button is pressed. As for the lights, a growing number of them are now combined and become a part of an electronic system that detects traffic and adjusts time frequency accordingly (giving priority to buses if they're running late, for example), which means that pressing the button has no effect.

    According to Langer, a Harvard psychologist, placebo buttons give us the illusion (错觉)of control — and something to do in situations where the alternative would be doing nothing. In the case of pedestrian crossings, they may even make us safer by forcing us to pay attention to our surroundings. “They serve a psychological purpose at the very least,” she added.

At a snow park in Zhangiakou, Hebei, Chinese teenage snowboarder Su Yiming won a silver in the men's snowboarding competition on February 7, 2022. It was the first time that a Chinese snow boarder had ever competed in this event at any Olympics. 

Su was introduced to snowboarding at the age of 4 by his parents who were both snowboarding fans. Su fell in love with the sport the first time they took him to a ski center. Later he kept on practicing after class. To save up more time for snowboarding, he would get up at 5 a. m. and finish his homework early. Su just saw snowboarding as a hobby in the beginning. However, on July 31, 2015, when he knew that 2022 Winter Olympics would be held in Beijing, his mind tuned to professional (职业性的) competition. He dreamed of joining in the Winter Olympics. And he decided to go professional. 

In 2018. Su became a member of China's national snowboarding team. In 2020 and 2021, he took home gold medals (奖牌) in all national competitions. In January 2021, he became the first Chinese male snowboarder to finish the Cab 1800-one of the most difficult snowboarding skills. 

Behind his success is Su's hard work. He has made full use of every chance to train more. Usually he arrived at the training center earlier than his teammates. In that way, he could practice more. He even broke several snowboards in one week because of heavy training.