Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 has set new nationwide and global box-office records for ticket sales in its opening weekend. The final part of the Harry Potter series is creating the perfect storm of record-breaking box-office sales. Before this movie, The Dark Knight held the opening weekend record. The Dark Knight actually sold a few more tickets. But with 3D and IMAX ticketing as well as the passion of fans who have waited for a long time to see the ending of J.K. Rowling's brilliant story, the final Harry Potter movie was going to be hugely successful, no matter what.

And as if film-makers were magically able to save the best for last, critics(评论家) completely agree that The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 is the best film of the entire series and there has been little negative(负面的) to say about the performances of the film's stars. When they were 10 or 11 years old, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have grown up on the big screen. They grew in their character as the story was told through the years.

    As the story draws to a close, the final Harry Potter film is set to break the $1 billion mark in worldwide sales. And even though the film series is finally over, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter will live on in different forms of merchandising (附带产品), including major theme parks, action figures and almost certainly, various versions of the story.

    Vacation is a time for refreshment. In work, we are often called to think. Sometimes, it's good to give our brains a rest. Without a break, we may not be able to perform up to our potential. This can be a problem, not only for the employee, but for the employer as well.

    “The main benefit of vacation is for the worker to come back energized,” says Weaver. “If they haven't had a break, then they're not coming back with new energy. They haven't had a chance to step back and get perspective (远景), and come back with renewed enthusiasm.”

    Long working hours without a break, insecurity (不安) about one's job, and other work-related worries can lead to burnout and stress. Humans can usually adapt to pressure, but not for a limitless amount of time.

    “It is a problem of relating good workers and having them loyal to the firm while they're there,” says David Maume, PhD, professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati. He says burnout can also affect employees' productivity, creativity, and effectiveness.

    In addition, high levels of stress are likely to be precursors (前兆) to depression, which can hit both the employer and employee's pocketbook. Even people who manage to remain productive at work can have problems. If they're always at work, then they're not with their family and friends. If they're working while on vacation, for the time that they're on the job, they're not really present.

    An unbalanced emphasis on work can strain family and social life. When you come up for air, you may see that you're alone, or that your relationships have gone on without you.

    Despite the general rule for quiet demanded by libraries, they've been the subject of some fairly significant noise__ Children's Laureate（儿童桂冠作家）,Chris Riddell, along with eight former Children's Laureates, has written an open letter to Justine Greening, the British Secretary of State for Education, demanding an investigation into school library service closures（关闭）.

    Why should parents or pupils be concerned whether or not school libraries close? Are they surely just mausoleums（陵墓）to the paper-bound past? Or are they rooms that are of little use to today's Internet-connected student population, who have access to a world of books and information through their digital devices?

    Quite simply, school libraries, as well as their librarians, are critical to our children's future.

    Research has proved this to be the case. The level of development of a school library is a highly accurate predictor of academic success, which means that parents should perhaps go so far as to compare the libraries of the schools they are considering, rather than look at league tables, when seeking the right schools for their children. Chris Riddell and his fellow former Laureates are absolutely right to emphasize the importance of librarians in introducing children to life-changing books and turning them into lifelong readers. Reading is a skill that needs to be developed.

    Librarians play the crucial role of introducing pupils to different genres or authors, as well as encouraging children of varying abilities to read—from the reluctant readers to those with higher than average reading ages.

    However, if libraries were to have a "job description", cultivating a love of reading and promoting literacy（误写能力）is just one of their essential roles. The other role is, to be at the very centre of learning, a resource, for students to use in acquiring knowledge. Ultimately, as students get older they need to become increasingly experienced readers for information, as well as, hopefully, for pleasure. They need to be able to find out and access, through reading and understanding, the answers to their questions themselves.

    Independent learning skills are very much in demand by pupils and parents, as well as universities and employers, because real education is about so much more than just academic success or grades on a piece of paper. As Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, pointed out," the simple truth is that we can't teach all that we would like them to know. "The emphasis therefore must now be on teaching children how to learn for themselves.

    Talking of libraries, we would always focus on the collection of books and the dissemination（传播）of knowledge to aid learning. Therefore surely, it makes sense that if libraries are given the right status and adequate resources, they will play a vital role in the development of these much-needed independent learning skills. This has never been more important than in today's information age, when everything we need to know is only a few clicks away.

Libraries and librarians should be central in helping pupils understand how to access data or knowledge for their studies or interests—regardless of whether this is from a book an online resource or a journal.

    It is equally important that libraries guide students on how to "read" the information that is available to them—a vitally important skill given that the Internet contains a large amount of mistakes and misinformation. But, of course, libraries can only offer this support and guidance if they are properly valued and resourced, which means that we need as many voices as possible to be "shouting" about the importance of libraries in the education of our children.

    Chris Riddell is encouraging children to ask their teachers where their school library is. Perhaps parents also need to be asking their current and prospective schools about the same question. Let's make the "noise" far louder—it needs to be uncomfortably deafening（震耳欲聋的）.

    Mom was a teacher most of her life. When she wasn't in the classroom, she was educating her children or grandchildren; correcting our grammar; starting us on collections of butterflies, flowers or rocks; or inspiring a discussion on her most recent “Book of the Month Club” topic. Mom made learning fun.

    It was sad for my three brothers and me to see her suffering in her later years. At eighty- five, she suffered a stroke and she went steadily downhill after that.

    Two days before she died, my brothers and I met at her nursing home and took her for a short ride in a wheelchair. While we waited for the staff to lift her limp body back into bed, Mom fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, we moved to the far end of the room and spoke softly.

    After several minutes our conversation was interrupted by a muffled sound coming from across the room. We stopped talking and looked at Mom. Her eyes were closed, but she was clearly trying to communicate with us. We went to her side.

    “Whirr,” she said weakly.

    “Where?” I asked. “Mom, is there something you want?” “Whirr,” she repeated a bit stronger. My brothers and I looked at each other and shook our heads sadly.

    Mom opened her eyes, sighed, and with all the energy she could gather said, “Not ...was. Say were!”

    We suddenly realized that Mom was correcting Brother Jim's last sentence. “if it was up to me…”

    Jim leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Mom,” he whispered. We smiled at each other and once again shook our heads.

If you want to convince the boss you deserve a pay rise or promotion, the solution could be simple — eat the same food as they do. Psychologists have discovered managers are much more likely to instantly trust us if we choose the same dishes as them.

    During experiments, discussions over wages and work conditions were much more successful if both sides chose to snack on the same treats. And shoppers were much more likely to buy a product advertised on TV by someone eating a similar food to them at the time.

The reason is thought to be the so–called similarity attraction theory — where people tend to like others who have similar tastes or habits to themselves. But this is believed to be one of the first studies highlighting the role of food in this relationship. Researchers at Chicago University in the US conducted a series of experiments to examine food's role in earning trust.

In a test, participants were told to watch TV — where someone pretending to be a member of the public praised a certain product. The volunteers were given Kit Kat bars to nibble, while the TV people ate either a Kit Kat or grapes as they talked.

    The results showed viewers were much more likely to express an interest in buying the product if the TV showed the other person eating a Kit Kat too. The researchers added, "Although similarity in food consumption is not a sign of whether two people will get along, we find consumers treat this as such. They feel more trusting of those who consume as they do. It means people can immediately begin to feel friendship and develop a bond, leading to smoother transactions from the start."

    Harley Street psychologist Dr. Lucy Atcheson said it was already known that wearing similar clothes could instantly create trust. But this was the first report that food had the same effect. She said, "This is really interesting. It makes sense as people feel they have common ground and can trust the other person. That means negotiations are more likely to be successful."