I grew up knowing I was different. and I hated it. I was born with a misshapen lip, crooked (弯曲的) nose and lopsided teeth. I couldn't even blow up a balloon without holding my nose, and when I bent to drink from a fountain, the water spilled out of my nose. When schoolmates asked, "What happened to your lip?" I'd tell them that I'd fallen as a baby and cut it on a piece of glass. It seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. By the age of seven I had been convinced that no one outside my own family could ever love me. Or even like me.
And then I entered second grade, and Mrs. Leonard's class. I never knew what her first name was — just Mrs. Leonard. She was round and pretty and fragrant, with chubby arms and shining brown hair and warm, dark eyes that smiled even on the rare occasions when her mouth didn't. Everyone adored her. But no one came to love her more than I did. And for a special reason.
The time came for the annual "hearing tests" given at our school. I was barely able to hear anything out of one ear, and was not about to show yet another problem that would single me out as different. So I cheated. Each child would go to the door of the classroom, turn sideways, close one ear with a finger, and the teacher would whisper something from her desk, which the child would repeat. Then the same thing was done for the other ear.
I had discovered that nobody checked to see how tightly the untested ear was being covered, so I merely pretended to block mine. As usual, I was last. I turned my bad ear to her, blocking the other solidly with my finger, then gently backed my finger out enough to be able to hear. I waited, and then came the words that God had surely put into her mouth, seven words that changed my life forever.
Mrs. Leonard, the pretty, fragrant teacher I adored, said softly, "I wish you were my little girl."
Traditional car-centered transport planning has not only increased greenhouse gas emissions, but also harmfully impacted air quality, road injuries and deaths, and traffic jams. As the world faces the climate crisis, as well as growing risks in road safety, a shift to sustainable transport is needed. Attaining and sustaining high rates of walking and cycling — also known as active mobility — are among the most powerful changes communities can make. It does bring numerous economic, environment, health and social benefits to the community.
First, high rates of active mobility lead to greater connectivity, reduced traffic and parking jam, more reliable travel times and increased public transit ridership. Cities in Southeast Asia lose 2% to 5% of their annual GDP to traffic jam, with Manila in the Philippines suffering the worst loss at $67 million per day. Improving walking and cycling systems can help to lessen the financial loss associated with it.
Second, active travel can help reduce emissions to achieve global targets. Cities contribute 70% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 21% of these come from urban transport alone. Shifting to walking and cycling is the quickest and most efficient way to minimize the carbon footprint of transport.
Third, positive effects on public health are also abundant with safe walking and cycling systems. For example, the World Health Organization found that enhancing sustainable mobility in Accra, Ghana, could save up to 5,500 deaths and an additional 33,000 lives from increased physical activity over a 35-year period — and a saving of $15 billion in health care costs.
Finally, traveling by foot or bike even improves justice and social unity. After Istanbul, Turkey, pedestrianized (步行化) its city, a survey showed that 68% of pedestrians interviewed felt more comfortable in the area. Many low-income populations also live with little transport access or unsafe and inconvenient routes to their destinations. Constructing safe active travel networks can improve access to opportunities and services for these disadvantaged groups.
In conclusion, people's physical, mental, social and economic health benefit from the ability to walk or bike in safe environments.
Some evidence that certain memory exercises make people smarter has stimulated the rise of online brain-training programs such as Lumosity. But at least one type of brain training may not work as advertised, a new study finds.
As expected, practicing improved volunteers' performance on tests of memory and the ability to locate items quickly in busy scenes, say psychologist Thomas Redick of Indiana University Purdue University Columbus and his colleagues. That improvement did not, however, translate into higher scores on tests of intelligence and multitasking, the researchers report in the May Journal of Experimental Psychology General.
Redick's investigation is part of a growing scientific debate about brain training, which is promoted by some companies as having a variety of mental benefits. Some researchers say that extensive instruction and training on memory tasks can indeed fortify reasoning and problem solving. Others are doubtful that active memory sessions may boost their working memory, the ability to keep in mind and compare several pieces of information.
Redick's team studied 73 young adults, aged 18 to 30, divided into three groups. One group completed 20 training sessions over about six weeks on a task aimed at boosting working memory, the ability to keep in mind and compare several pieces of information.
A second group in the new study received 20 training sessions aimed at improving the ability to pick out novel shapes from large arrays (阵列) of similar-looking shapes. This group provided a comparison to see whether the effects of memory training differed from training on a different mental skill. A third group received no training.
In the two training groups, volunteers improved with practice on the task they were learning but showed no increases in tests of intelligence and of the total amount of information that could be held in mind.
Participants in the new study didn't receive enough instruction and practice before memory sessions to benefit from the intervention (介入), Jaeggi says. Redick's group also gave volunteers limited time to complete a series of shortened versions of standard intelligence tests, which probably limited any potential for scoring increases, she asserts.
But until larger studies with longer follow-ups are completed, Redick cautions against assuming that memory training smartens people up.
Dealing with school stress is a must for students during the course of their education. To deal with school stress, try to employ the following strategies.
Create an organized workspace. If you're working on a computer, consider turning off your internet browser, or setting limits on yourself so that you don't end up spending your study time on other online activities.
If you have an assignment that feels overwhelming, divide it into several small ones that you know how to do. If you have a long paper, you might start by writing an outline. Then write 5-8 pages on each topic listed in your outline. Combine these short papers to make your long paper.
Don't wait until the last minute. If you are the kind of person who waits until the night before it is due, you know how stressful that can be. However, the best studying relies on information learned in the weeks beforehand.
It's great to be involved in a variety of activities, but if you don't have enough time to do them all, you'll end up stressed. Remember that saying no isn't always selfish, and saying yes isn't always healthy.
Ask for help. Another person can take a fresh look at your workspace. Consulting a professional organizer might also be an effective way to get a new system in place.
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A. Learn to say no. B. Set attainable short-term goals. C. Break large assignments into smaller parts. D. Find a workspace that's free from various distractions. E. Participating in colorful activities is highly recommended. F. You might ask a teacher or a peer for help, if you're at school. G. A burst of intense studying at the last minute can get you through exams. |
The beautiful gleaming sewing-machine sitting in the corner was one of my most1possessions. Every time I dust it, it2me of the lesson I learned from my grandpa and my dad.
The first time I saw it, I was3in home economics (家政学) at college and4my very own sewing machine. The local Sewing Machine center would sell those with flaws (瑕疵) for fifty cents to the first customer on a certain day of the month. The machines were5to work and it was a real6. One day, Grandpa called, so proud, saying he d gotten one and it was gorgeous. When grandpa7 the driveway, I8out to greet him, followed by my dad.9, I watched as Grandpa opened the back of his wagon. My heart10. The machine was dirty and marked with cracks on the surface. My dad grandpa kept admiring its beauty, saying what a steal it was. Thinking they were11, I still politely and thanked my grandpa,12my disappointment.
Weeks later, my dad said he had something special for me. I13him to the garage, and there sat the most stunning sewing machine I had14seen! The wood was a dark, rich walnut, smooth and shining. It looked15. Dad had cleaned and polished that old machine. Dad and Grandpa weren't crazy at all. They had seen beyond the dirt and16. From the very17, they knew what the machine could look like.
I can still see the18 in my mind like it was yesterday — the day I learned even when life looks hopeless we must look19 the negative, and see the potential20side.
Trees, plants and flowers are all around us and we enjoy their beauty every day. In fact, we are used to them that we may even take them for granted without realizing how much inspiration they have given us.
So far, nature (inspire) many of the most fascinating designs around us, (include) those in architecture. From Barcelona's forest-like Sagrada Familia to the modern style of Beijing's Water Cube, nature is presented in various architectural (design). Today, architects continue to explore ways (capture) the beauty of natural forms, to mimic the way nature works or even to make natural organisms part of a building. (shape) like a lotus flower, Singapore's Art Science Museum appears to float above the water that surrounds it. Visitors are often (amaze) to find themselves in an urban building that so truly captures the beauty of natural forms.
Creating buildings such as these enables us to live in (close) harmony with our environment than before. To meet the needs of today while protecting the world of tomorrow may be challenge, but even the simplest organisms can help teach us to achieve this.
As mountains go, 1,642-foot Squaw Peak isn't particularly impressive. But its inviting views of western Massachusetts have tricked hikers into becoming pleased among its steep, slippery cliffs, resulting in countless injuries and even deaths.
Henry Grant, aged 18, a freshman at Ithaca College, respected Squaw Peak's record. As such, he stayed a good ten feet from the edge while waiting for his mother to catch up to him one day in August 2019. He watched 15 or so other hikers enjoy the views; one hiker, around 60 and dressed in pink, was peeking (瞥见) over the lip of the cliff with her husband.
When Grant's mother rejoined him, the two turned to continue on their way. Suddenly, he heard a "tumbling, a thump, and another thump," he told the Cornell Daily Sun. Then he heard something chilling: "Paula! Paula!" a man yelled desperately. Grant wheeled around. The woman in pink was nowhere to be seen. She'd fallen off the side of the mountain.
Several hikers immediately started looking for her, but their view was blocked by trees. Grant told his mother, "I hate to say this, but they're probably going to find a body."
Uncertain they could help, Grant and his mother headed down the trail (小道). But when he saw hikers still searching, he decided to lend a hand. "My young brain was like, ‘I can do it,'" he says. After assuring his mother that he would be safe, he followed the trail alone, hoping he wasn't too late.
After 15 minutes of climbing over rocks, pushing past stinging brush, and slipping down pieces of loose dirt, Grant spotted a figure about 25 feet above him. She was dressed in pink and crumpled (摺皱的) in a kneeling position on a small rocky outcropping (露出地面的岩层). The woman had fallen about 75 feet. Unbelievably she was alive.
"Paula!" Grant shouted. "Paula. Is that you?" Barely responded, she was clearly hurt.
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She kept trying to move, and every time she moved, she slipped a little more.
Soon first hikers arrived on the top of the mountain and a helicopter came.
