It's late evening in the middle of the winter. The snow is deep, but off I go into the wild.
Suddenly, I hear it: the howl(嚎叫)of wolves. Excitedly, I walk faster in the direction of the howling.
I've been working as a volunteer wolf tracker in Yellowstone National Park for over a year It's my job to follow wolves to record information about them. Like wolves, however, I don't work alone. I'm one of a team of people who have been in a project to help reintroduce wolves to the park.
Humans have always feared wolves. From fairy tales to movies, the wolf is always the bad guy —a danger to humans and other animals. In the 1920s, the organizers of the park shared this view about wolves and made the decision to drive them away from the park. As a result, the number of elk (麋鹿)in the park increased. The elk started looking for food near river banks since they didn't have to worry about wolves. This, in turn, stopped trees from growing along the rivers, doing great harm to the environment there.
The return of wolves has already made a big difference. To begin with, the elk soon learned to stay away from the rivers, so new trees have been able to grow there. The trees become home to new wildlife, such as birds, and provide food for more animals.
The park is now becoming more and more popular with those who want to see wolves in their natural environment. It has also helped the local people make more money. Tourists visit the area, stay in the local hotels, and eat in the local restaurants.
Looking at the wild animals and the beautiful sceneries around me, I am amazed at the changes the wolf has made to Yellowstone. And happily, it is playing a good guy in this story.
For me, one of the greatest pleasures in life is going to watch a great film at the cinema. It's a chance for me to get away from real life. There's nothing better than being lost in a story unless, of course, someone decides to break down the moment.
Whether at a cinema or a huge theatre, someone usually decides to treat the place like their own home! There is an accepted way of behaving at the cinema which some people don t seem to understand.
To start with, some people always turn up late, causing you to rise from your seat to allow them to go past. Then, when you want to enjoy the surround-sound effects, someone begins to enjoy their drinks and popcorn and thus makes a lot of noises. And what I can't stand most is people who decide to chat to their friends, sometimes not even about the film.
I'm not alone in this situation. Simon Mayo, a film critic at the BBC, experienced a “new low" during a film. He says, "The woman in front of me got a mirror out, then her boyfriend got a phone out and used the light on it to allow her to do her make-up!”
Simon has helped to create a list of rules on how moviegoers should behave at the cinema. One of them is no use of mobile phones, and another is not to take your shoes off--a most serious offence(冒犯)!
Of course, when we have paid for a ticket, we feel it is our right to relax and enjoy the film in the way we want to, but we mustn't forget our fellow moviegoers who want to enjoy the cinematic experience, too.
The best choice for anyone wanting to break the rules of cinema manners is to get a DVD and watch it at home. But we all know that the best way to enjoy the art of cinematography is on the big screen. _______________
What about you? What annoys you about other people at the cinema?
Most people use their mouths to talk, but do you know some people use their hands to speak? Some people who cannot bear use their hands to communicate messages to others. This is called sign language. These people make shapes with their fingers, movements with their hands, as well as different faces in order to talk to other people.
One way people speak with their hands is by making shapes for letters with their fingers. For example, if you make an "OK" sign with your thumb and finger, that is the shape for the letter "f" in American sign language. Each letter has a hand shape. This way people can spell words using their hands. For example, if you want to spell "fun", you need to make three shapes. First you make the shape for the letter "f", then the shape for the letter "u", and then the shape for the letter "n".
___________. If you move your hand from your nose to your chin(下巴), you can say“mother” in American sign language. Of course, you have to use the correct hand shape, too. That shape is like holding your hand open with all five fingers showing. If you move your hand from the top of your head to your chin, you can say "father＂， Again, you have to use the same hand shape that you used for "mother".
Finally, people can change their faces to communicate in a sign language. For example, if you want to ask a question, you need to make your eyebrows (眉毛) go up. You also need to move your head forward a little.
If you want to say "I do not know", you need to make your eyes smaller and make your eyebrows go down.
Flamenco is very popular in southern Spain. It begins with guitar music and clapping（击掌）and then dancers join the performance. Sometimes a woman dances alone and sometimes she dances with a man. The woman always wears a long, colorful dress. She moves her arms and hands slowly but her feet move in fast difficult steps. The man often wears black. Both dancers click their shoes on the floor when they dance around each other.
Cossack dances are from Russia and Ukraine. They are very energetic — some are more like gymnastics than dancing! Dancers have to be very fit because they jump very high and kick their legs up and down. They often jump over swords（剑）, The movements are similar to traditional Cossack activities, for example, sword fighting and getting on and off horses.
Limbo dancing is first from West Africa but today it is an important part of celebrations in the Caribbean. Young people have to dance under a pole（杆）. The pole is often on fire and the dancer mustn't touch it! After a successful "limbo", they put the pole lower and do it again. Some dancers can dance under a pole just twenty centimeters off the ground!
Mask（面具）dances are important for the Dogon people in Mali. Each village makes different masks. They are often huge and colorful. There are masks of people, monsters or local animals like crocodiles and monkeys. Mask dancers are always men and they dance to the sound of drums for hours after the death of a person in the village. Today, Dogon villagers also perform the dances for tourists.
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Very often, when we see young people sitting there, looking at the screen of a mobile phone and smiling, we may think nothing is wrong. But when we come to the question "how much time do they actually spend on media(传播媒介) daily?", the answer is surprising: young people spend about nine hours every day using media, and this only includes media used for enjoyment.
Today's young people seem to have become crazy multitaskers, They often use media when doing other activities. Some watch TV when doing homework, some text (发短信), and some others listen to music. But what do young people think of this? A research showed that two thirds of them believed watching TV or texting had no influence schoolwork. Half of them thought using social media made no difference. However, researches have given a different answer:" media multitaskers" did worse in tests.
Scientists did a research among more than 400 students. It shows that those who text a lot have more trouble sleeping and do worse in their study. In another research, students who didn't text during a lesson took down a lot more notes than those who were texting. A similar research also found that students who texted when doing schoolwork had lower overall(总体的) grades.
According to a research, if a kid uses social media a lot, especially at night, he or she will sleep worse and feel more nervous and depressed (消沉的). On the one hand, young people stay up late to check messages and information. They may also be woken up by messages they receive. On the other hand, even the light from a screen could influence their sleep. Some other researches also show that children who use media at night go to bed later, get fewer hours of sleep each week, and become sleepy more easily during the daytime
Imagine this. There's an apple and a piece of cake on a table. Which one would you like? The delicious cake or the healthy apple? A bestseller, Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength, suggests that willpower(意志力)is the ability to make decisions that are better for us in the long term, rather than in the short term.
Here is a famous experiment in the book: The Marshmallow Test. In 1972, Professor Walter Mischel tested the willpower of 600 four-year-olds to six-year-olds. In the experiment, each child was left alone in a room for fifteen minutes with a marshmallow(棉花软糖）on a table in front of them. They were given two choices: they could either eat it or, if they waited fifteen minutes, they'd be given a second one(and then they could eat both).
So, what did the kids do? Well, as you can imagine, 70% ate the first marshmallow within the fifteen minutes. But the other 30% showed willpower—they controlled themselves and waited for the second marshmallow. But then Mischel discovered something really interesting. Twenty years later, he got in touch with the children, who, by then, were in their early twenties. And he found that those who'd shown strong willpower were getting better marks at university and were more popular.
Willpower is like a muscle (肌肉), and the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
So, if you do daily "self-control exercises", such as making your bed or brushing your teeth, you'll improve your overall willpower. And daily willpower exercises will help you with those bigger goals, such as studying for an exam or training for a marathon.
Be careful though. Just like any muscle, your "willpower muscle" can get tired. If you've had to do lots of things that require willpower, take a break or give yourself a treat.
That way, you'll build up your willpower again.
And one last thing, the writer mentions people who learn foreign languages usually have a lot of willpower. So, congratulations!
Mark Zuckerberg, who starts the social network Facebook, often wears jeans and a T-shirt to work, including to important business meetings. Not everyone agrees with him. Some people say he doesn't look serious this way.
Harvard Business School researcher, Francesca Gino, has a different idea. While most people seem to think that dressing differently from those around you generally has a bad influence, she believes it can actually have a positive (积极的) effect. And she's done experiments to support her idea. When her researchers, wearing sportswear, visited the expensive shops in Italy, they were usually viewed as wealthier and more important people than those who were well-dressed in designer clothes.
Do people always view less formal (正式的) clothing more positively? Researchers in France took their research out into the street, to the general public. The video they made shows an actor dressed in a well-cut suit and shiny shoes. While walking along the road, he begins to cough badly, stops to catch his breath and falls down. Before he even calls for help, people rush to help him. In another video, the actor appears at the same crowded place and repeats the actions in exactly the same way. But this time, no one comes to help. What's the difference? He's wearing untidy clothes and looks like a homeless person. In a situation like this, the clothes you're wearing could mean the difference between life and death.
It seems that our clothing doesn't only change the way others view us, but also the way we see ourselves. In an experiment testing students' ability to pay attention to details (细节), the group wearing white lab coats did the best. Why? Researchers told them that they were wearing the doctors' coats. The experiment didn't show whether such influences would last long. More experiments are needed in the future before we decide to make the doctors' coats a must of fashion.
Every 14 days, another language dies. There are many reasons for this. Some people think more common languages have more economic(经济的) if power. Because of this, young people choose to learn a common language as they think it is more useful. Another reason is that some languages aren't written down. Guujaaw is a leader of the Haida Nation, whose people have lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada, for more than 10,000 years. Their language is endangered. Traditionally, it wasn't written down, and, as a result, some people are worried that it will die one day. Guujaaw replies to this, "We talk to each other, listen, visit and believe in the spoken word. Expressing yourself without writing is natural. However, if Guujaaw's language and others like it are going to stay alive, writing may have to become part of their lives.
When a language dies, a lot of knowledge dies with it. To begin with, language is a huge part of the culture of the people who speak it. Language allows speakers to say certain things: words that describe a cultural idea may not translate exactly into another language. Furthermore, many endangered languages have rich spoken cultures. Stories, songs and histories are passed on from older people to younger generations(一代). Elizabeth Lindsey, an expert in languages, emphasizes(强调) this. "When an elder dies, a library is burned," she says.
Also, language death affects our knowledge about nature. Local people often have a deep understanding of plants, animals, and the relationship between them. David Harrison, a researcher on endangered languages, reflects, "80% of plant and animal species(物种)have been undiscovered by science. But that doesn't mean they're unknown to humans."
Many languages are endangered. However, it's not too late. Children often grow up speaking two languages．“ No one… becomes richer by giving up… one language to learn another，” Harrison said. If children feel both languages are important, they will use both. So, it is necessary that children realize how useful their local language is.
