In 2000, with little but a bar and a church left to make it a destination, tiny St. James Nebraska, was taken off state highway maps. Then the church closed, and the small farm village in the state’s northeast corner looked set to just disappear. Thanks to five devoted women, it didn’t.
        In May 2001, after meeting with staff from the Center for Rural Affairs, the friends—Louis Guy, Vicky Koch, Jeanette Pinkelman, Mary Rose Pinkelman and Violet Pinkelman—opened a weekend market for vendors(小商贩) to sell handcrafts and local food.
        “We felt like, what can we do to bring the community together?” says Mary Rose Pinkelman, “We decided to make a place to sell local goods.” They set up shop in the church school, which, though closed for nearly 40 years, had been well maintained. The first weekend, 16 vendors look over an old classroom. The result was an instant hit. Today, the market draws up to 70 vendors—who sell such items as homemade jellies, baked goods, hand-woven rugs, and farm-grown produce—and what Pinkelman calls an unexpected number of visitors. In the process, the market has made St. James a destination again, putting it back on the state road map.

        The environment affects the way people interact. To examine this conclusion, two researchers "decorated" three rooms. One room was refurnished to look ugly. The second room was intended to look average. The third room was designed to be beautiful. Individuals were then asked to sit in one of the three rooms and rate several pictures of people's faces. The results indicated that the environment has a significant effect on the way people rated the faces. Subjects in the beautiful room gave the pictures higher rates than did subjects in the ugly room. In addition, subjects in the ugly room found the task more unpleasant and boring than did subjects in the beautiful room. Subjects assigned to the ugly room attempted to leave sooner than did subjects assigned to the beautiful room. 

        Color is one environmental factor that can affect your mood and even your ability to concentrate. One researcher concluded that the most pleasant colors, listed in order of preference, were blue, green, purple, red and yellow. The colors listed from most to least arousing were red, orange, yellow, violet, blue and green.

        Lighting also affects behavior. Elegant restaurants with dim lighting create a mood of intimacy (亲密) that encourages conversation. The bright lights of an office or a classroom, on the other hand, arouse and stimulate thinking.

        Room decoration, color, lighting, and even music and temperature all influence communication with others; but there is no all-purpose environment. The ideal environment depends on the task that will be performed as well as on the needs and expectations of those present. The same environmental factors that encourage lively conversation and dancing at a New Year's Eve party cannot be expected to create a serene climate in which to study for final exams.

    We all love a hero, and rescue dogs are some of the biggest heroes of all. You will often find them going above and beyond duty to save someone, risking—and at times losing—their lives in the process.

    Rescue dogs are generally found in the Sporting and Hunting Groups, or from the traditional Herding Group. These types include the Bloodhound, Labrador Retriever, Newfoundland, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, and Belgian Malinois—all of which are chosen for search-and-rescue duty because of their amazing physical strength, loyalty, and their tendency for mental stability.
    These types also have a keen sense of hearing and smell—to better locate lost individuals—and are often able to access hard-to-reach areas. As highly trained animals, they serve in many different fields, including specialist search, snow slide rescue, dead body location, and tracking.
    To overcome obstacles and succeed when performing the demanding duties of a search-and-rescue worker, a dog must display certain qualities. In addition to intelligence and strength, the dog must be swift, confident, easily trainable, adaptable, and have a high level of stamina (耐力) and endurance. A strong sense of group cooperation and an ability to engage in friendly play during "down" time is also required of search-and-rescue dogs.
    A rescue dog goes through many, many hours of intensive training to be fit for duty. Training is not for the faint-hearted. Certification training can take from two to three years, working three to four hours a day, three to six days a week, often in group, team-oriented sessions.
    Each search-and-rescue field requires different types of training. Rescue training, for instance, includes "air scenting"—where dogs are trained to smell the air for the victim's scent (气味) and then follow the scent to the person. This ability is crucial to finding victims trapped under collapsed buildings and snow slide.

      When I started graduate school, I wanted to know how many hours a day I was expected to be in the lab. Not that I was planning to put in the least effort——instead, I was young and loved working, and I didn't have much else to do anyway.
      I don't remember who answered my question. But I do remember that they shrugged and said “It doesn't matter,as long as you get your work done.”
      That seemed reasonable. After all, I knew from my previous research experience that sometimes I'd end up staying in the lab until midnight. I also knew that sometimes I wouldn't get to the lab until noon because I was taking or teaching cases in the mornings. An “as long as you get your work done”policy seemed like a great way to say that graduate students are largely responsible workers who enjoy science.
      I never stopped to think about the most important word in that phrase：“done”. As long as I get my work done? Super! But come to think of it. I 've never met a scientist who has, even for a day, considered their work“done”. There are always more experiments to do, discoveries to make and questions to answer.
      There are always interesting new problems to research into and scientific truths to elucidate. But if there's no such thing as “done” in science, and you're supposed to work until you get your work done, working hours are not certain.
      Though it may seem like a wise opinion——responsibility in place of flexibility——the truth is that you can never really pull away from work. You can always do a little more, and a little more, but that extra effort doesn't ease tomorrow's workload.

     Pain is an emotional as well as physical response to injury or disease. Intense fear and anxiety are vital immediate responses that cause you to avoid sources of pain whenever possible. Sometimes, however, pain persists even when the injury or disease is no longer present. A painful feeling can become associated with constant stress, bad memories, or lasting fear.
     Medicine is often essential for controlling pain in the short term, but taking painkillers（止痛药） for an extended period can lead to addiction（上瘾）or serious physical side effects, including stomach and liver diseases. Your body may also build up a tolerance to a drug so that you get less benefit from it as time goes on.
     Although you should always seek medical advice if pain is severe or continues for a long time, you can also use techniques to control it. Mind-body techniques can reduce or help control pain-with no risk of side effects. Most people relax with deep, controlled breathing to reduce the tension that comes with pain. Try lying quietly in a dark room; breathe in deeply while counting to 10, hold the breath for a moment, and then exhale slowly for a count of 10. Continue this for 10-20 minutes.
     Shifting your attention often reduces pain's severity（严重程度）. Try turning your attention away from the painful area, focusing instead on a non-painful part of your body. Or, imagine the pain as a big hall of energy outside your body, and make it smaller in your mind. Train yourself to replace the thoughts like "I can't stop this pain," with positive ones such as "This pain is only temporary. "
     In this practice, you merely acknowledge the pain by actively fighting it, instead of allowing it to dominate your thoughts.  

      Mrs. Amatuli was my teacher in the fourth grade. One day at lunch time,I was getting ready to eat my same old tuna fish(金枪鱼)sandwich and suddenly Mrs. Amatuli asked me if she could buy my sandwich from me. She explained that I could use the money to buy a hot lunch from the cafeteria.
      I was thrilled. I never bought my lunch at the cafeteria. It was too expensive for my family,and I always carried my lunch and brought the bag back home to use again the next day. My sandwiches were either bologna(大香肠)or tuna fish. It rarely varied beyond that.

      You can understand my delight when I had the opportunity to buy a hot lunch.
      When we finished lunch that day. Mrs. Amatuli took me aside and said she wanted to explain why she had bought my sandwich. I really didn’t care why, but it gave me a few minutes of her precious attention so I was very quiet as she explained. You see，she was Catholic and she told me that Catholics didn’t eat red meat on Fridays—they ate fish on Fridays. 

      Oh,I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my mama that from now on 1 wanted tuna fish on Fridays. After my mama understood why，she gladly fixed tuna fish for me on Fridays. She even fixed it on brown bread because she knew Mrs. Amatuli liked brown bread. From then on. every Friday I could get in line with the rest of the kids for a hot lunch. I didn’t care how many of the kids complained about cafeteria food—it tasted divine to me!
      I realize now that Mrs. Amatuli could have fixed herself a tuna sandwich of Friday. But she bought my sandwich because she saw a little girl who was thrilled over the simple act of having a hot lunch.
      I will never forget her for her compassion and generosity and what I should do is to follow her example.

    An interesting project called Blue Zones is recording the lifestyle secrets of the communities with the highest concentrations of centenarians in the world.
    The people in the five regions in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the US that live to be 100 have a lot going for them. Genes probably play a small role, but these folks also have strong social ties, tightly-knit families and lots of opportunities to exercise.
    As we were examining the dietary secrets of the Blue Zones, as described in author Dan Buettner's latest book, The Blue Zones Solution, we were struck by how essential tea drinking is in these regions. In fact, Buettner's Blue Zones Beverage Rule—a kind of guideline summarized from his 15 or so years of studying these places—is: "Drink coffee for breakfast, tea in the afternoon, wine at 5 p.m."
    Science has plenty to say about the healthful virtues of green tea. Researchers are most enthusiastic about the components in green tea, as well as foods like cocoa. Why might they help so many Okinawans in Japan break 100? Some components in green tea can lower the risk of stroke, heart disease and several cancers. One review study also found that drinking green tea can slightly improve metabolism (代谢).
    If you find yourself on the island of Ikaria, the Greek Blue Zone in the middle of the Aegean, you won't be offered any tea made with tea leaves. Instead, Ikarians typically make their daily cup of tea with just one fresh herb that they have picked themselves that day—either rosemary, wild sage, oregano, marjoram, mint or dandelion, all plants that may have anti-inflammatory (消炎的) properties, which may help lower blood pressure. This could explain Ikaria's very low dementia (痴呆) rate, since high blood pressure is a risk factor for the disease.

        Friends become a child’s chosen family. If his social life is going well, he gains confidence. If he has trouble connecting, it hurts and can make him feel sad and withdrawn and lonely.
        1.Help your child communicate. Naturally outgoing kids have an easier time expressing their interest in other children than shy ones do. But you can help build this skill through practice. Ask your child about his favorite games and toys. Praise him for specifics when he shows interest in other people:” You were so nice to let Roger talk about his little dog. I am proud of you.”
        2.Keep play short and sweet. Parents should keep early play date short, so no one gets too tired and everyone has fun. Schedule the next one soon after that, so kids can quickly build on their comfort foundation.
        3.Know your child. If your child is bossy, tale with him and agree beforehand on which toys will be shared and which ones should be put away because your child just can’t seem to share them. If you have a shy child, match him with a younger child so he has a chance to be the leader.
        4.Help your child help others. Encourage your child to be a better friend by helping him include others in play. If you see someone being excluded, don’t ignore it. This is an opportunity to work on your child’s ability to understand others. “Rachel is being left out. That must make her feel very sad. Can you think of a way to include her in the game?”
        5.Help your kids help themselves. If your child is the one who’s being ignored or treated badly, teach him to speak up.

     Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is essential to one's life. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have been told, and told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip. But for many people, the thought of food as the first thing in the morning is never a pleasure. So despite all the efforts, they still take no breakfast.
     Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures could be obtained, the number of people who didn't have breakfast increased by 33%—from 8.8 million to 11.7 million—according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America. For those who dislike eating breakfast, however, there is some good news.
     Several studies in the last few years have shown that, for adults especially, there may be nothing wrong with omitting breakfast. "Going without breakfast does not affect work," said Arnold E. Bender, former professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, "nor does giving people breakfast improve work." Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better work is surprisingly inadequate(不充分), and most of the recent work involves children, not adults. "The literature," says one researcher, Dr. Earnest Polite at the University of Texas, "is poor." 

      Mr.Smith was a wealthy industrialist, but he was not satisfied with life. He did not sleep well and his food did not agree with him. This situation lasted for some time. Finally, after several sleepless nights, he decided to consult his doctor. The doctor advised a change of surroundings. "Go abroad," he said. "But I’m not good at foreign language," said Mr.Smith. "It doesn’t matter," said the doctor. "It won’ t hurt you to talk a little less. Go on a voyage. Take plenty of exercise. Try to reduce your weight. Avoid rich food. "
      Mr. Smith went to Switzerland. He did not know French or German, and had to communicate through gestures. He attended a physical training course. The instructor made him bend his knees, swing his arms, stretch his neck and shake his head rapidly. He had to lie on the ground and raise his right and left legs alternately. After a time his muscles grew hard and firm. He forgot the financial crisis and the importance of raising the level of production. He even began to notice individual trees and individual birds.
      Finally he returned home. But unfortunately his improvement was only temporary. Soon he was a normal businessman again, worried about his property, his profits, his savings, his advancement in a technological society, and things in general.

      Animals have different ways of protecting themselves against wintertime weather. Some animals grow heavy coats of fur or feathers, while others dig into the ground to find a warm wintertime home.
      Some animals spend the winter in a deep sleep because by going to sleep they avoid the time of the year when food is scarce and the temperatures are low. Their sleep is known as hibernation.
      There is much about hibernation that puzzles scientists. For example, they are wondering how hibernation came into being. Some scientists have explored the possibility that animals release a chemical that starts them hibernating.
      One thing that scientists are certain about is that animals hibernate only when it is cold. Hibernation is a seasonal practice.
      Some animals that fall into a wintertime sleep are not true hibernators because they spend only a part of the cold season asleep. Bears, for example, can easily be awakened from their winter nap. They are not true hibernators.
      Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a particular animal is a true hibernator. For example, some mice hibernate, but others do not. The same is true of bats. Some of them hibernate. Others do not.

     Claude-Oscar Monet (1840-1926) was a French artist and a leading member of the Impressionist group of painters. Born in Paris, Monet spent his childhood in Le Havre. There he met a local artist, Eugène Boudin, who encouraged him to become a landscape painter.
     In 1859, Monet went to Paris to study at the Académie Suisse. Between 1860 and 1862, Monet served in the army in Algeria (阿尔及利亚). He returned to Paris where he met most of the major artists of the era.
     In 1870, Monet married Camille Doncieux. To escape the Franco-Prussian war, they moved to London. Back to France, they settled at Argenteuil, a boating centre on the Seine (塞纳河) which drew many other Impressionist painters. Working from nature was a particular symbol of the Impressionist movement, and one that Monet valued, reflecting in his paintings the ever-changing impact of light and weather conditions.
     In 1872, he visited Le Havre where he painted "An Impression, Sunrise". When exhibited in 1874, part of its title was used by a critic to label the whole movement "Impressionism".
     Monet's wife died in 1879, and he set up home with Alice Hoschedé, the wife of one of his most important sponsors. During the 1880s, Monet traveled through France painting a variety of landscapes. He gradually became better known and for the last 30 years of his life he was regarded as the greatest of the Impressionists.
     From 1890 he began to paint a series (系列) of pictures of one subject, including "Haystacks" "Rouen Cathedral" and "Waterlilies". The latter were painted in the fine garden Monet created at his house at Giverny, where he lived from 1883 on. He painted them over and over again, most significantly in a series especially for a museum in Paris. 

        Couples are restricting the size of their families in the UK because of cash worries brought on by the financial crisis and the subsequent decline. We’ re now up to nearly 3.7 million families where there is an only child, a rise from about 3.3 million in 2005. That means nearly half of all parents have only one child.
　　Financial worries aren’ t the only driver. The trend towards later motherhood has been mentioned as a cause, as have soaring costs of raising a child, which have been calculated as $222,500 from birth to 21 years of age. This is an increase of nearly 40% in 10 years.
　　The increasing availability of IVF(试管婴儿)is also a factor and an interesting one. Couples who might have remained childless in the past now invest in IVF and get pregnant. And because of the cost they stop after one child.
　　It may not be a bad thing; there are outstanding examples of talented only children. Some argue that being an only child promoted their success. These include actors Natalie Portman and AI Pacino, golfer Tiger Woods and even Queen Victoria. A study from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex also showed that the fewer brothers and sisters a child has, the happier they are. It seems fighting for parental attention and affection—which sometimes descends into physical fights—is more stressful than any adult had previously thought. And it’ s not compensated(弥补)by having a playmate.

        Most people usually traveled by ship and train which are driven by steam engine. It played an important part in many kinds of vehicles several scores of years ago. Who invented steam engine and what units could be used to measure the power of engine?
　　The word “horse-power” was first used two hundred years ago. James Watt from a worker’s family made the world first widely used steam engine. At first, he couldn’t tell people how powerful it was, because there were no units at that time. Watt decided to find out how much work one strong horse could do in one minute. He named that unit one horse-power. In this way he could measure the work of his steam engine.
　　He discovered that a horse could lift a 3300-pound weight 10 feet into the air in one minute. His engine could lift a 3300-pound weight 100 feet in one minute. Because his engine did ten times as much work as the horse, Watt called it a ten horse-power engine.

      In ancient times wealth was measured and exchanged in things that could be touched: food, tools, and precious metals and stones. Then the barter system was replaced by coins, which still had real value since they were pieces of rare metal. Coins were followed by fiat money, paper notes that have value only because everyone agrees to accept them.
     Today electronic monetary systems are gradually being introduced that will transform money into even less tangible forms, reducing it to a series of "bits and bytes", or units of computerized information, going between machines at the speed of light. Already, electronic fund transfer allows money to be instantly sent and received by different banks, companies, and countries through computers and telecommunications devices.

        When you pat your pet dog, he wags(摆来摆去)his tail. That is his way of saying that he loves you. And, if you pay attention, you will see that he uses his tail to say so many things. Every movement of the tail means a different thing. If the dog is wagging its tail, it is a sign of friendliness; if his tail is straight, it means he is getting ready for a fight; and if his tail is tucked(塞)behind his legs, it means he is giving up the fight.
　　Unlike dogs, cats’ tail language is not so expressive. When a cat feels threatened, he puffs himself up to appear big and his tail shakes with tension. And when he is displeased with something, he lashes out(甩动)his tail.
　　The tail language of dogs and cats has a little story behind it. Earlier, when dogs and cats had not become friends with human beings, they were predators. They used to hunt other animals for their food. When dogs went out hunting with their friends, tail language came handy. When they were close to each other, dogs could use facial expressions to talk. But, for long-distance communication, they used their tails. Unlike dogs, cats liked to hunt alone. So, they did not need to use tail language too often. As a result, their vocabulary in tail language is much smaller than that of dogs’.

     Ideas about polite behaviour differ from one culture to another. Some societies, such as America and Australia, for example, are mobile and very open. People here change jobs and move house quite often. As a result, they have a lot of relationships that often last only a short time, and they need to get to know people quickly. So it's normal to have friendly conversations with people that they have just met, and you can talk about things that other cultures would regard as personal.
     On the other hand, there are more crowded and less mobile societies where long-term relationships are more important. A Malaysian or Mexican business person, for example, will want to get to know you very well before he or she feels happy to start business. But when you do get to know each other, the relationship becomes much deeper than it would in a mobile society.
     To Americans, both Europeans and Asians seem cool and formal at first. On the other hand, as a passenger from a less mobile society puts it, it's no fun spending several hours next to a stranger who wants to tell you all about his or her life and asks you all sorts of questions that you don't want to answer.
     Cross-cultural differences aren't just a problem for travelers, but also for people in daily life. Some societies have "universalist'' cultures. These societies strongly respect rules, and they treat every person and situation in basically the same way. "Particularist" (强调特性的) societies also have rules, but they are less important than the society's unwritten ideas about what is right or wrong for a particular situation or a particular person. So the normal rules are changed to fit the needs of the situation or the importance of the person. 

        At first glance, there hardly seems to be any comparison between Ravenna and Rome, but back in the 5th century, it was Ravenna that served as capital of the Western Roman Empire. In this city. Roman rulers built monuments which are famous, then and now, for their sweeping mosaics(镶嵌图案). Seven of Ravenna’s eight buildings from the 5th and 6th centuries are spectacularly decorated with examples of this ancient art. “in the past, many people couldn’t read or write.”says tour guide and Ravenna native Silvia Giogoli. “Mosaics were a way to explain the religion and the political situation to the people.”
　　Visitors to Ravenna can look at pieces of art by ancient artists, listen to musicians, and learn to make their own masterpieces.
　　Travel Tips
　　When to Go: June—October; weather is pleasant in April and May but historic sites can get crowded with school groups.
　　Where to Stay: Walk through historic district sites from Albergo Cappello and stay at a modern Hotel Centrale Byron.
　　How to Get Around: Take the train from Bologna, and then walk, bike, or use taxis within the city.
　　Where to Eat or Drink: Housed in a former movie theater, two-story Ristorante Cinema Alexander blends 1940s Hollywood flavor with homemade Emilia Romagna courses and attentive service(helpful in translating the menu). For fresh seafood, try Osteria L’Accigua and Da Buco.
　　What to Buy: Watch the next generation of Emilia Romagna mosaic artists create contemporary and traditional pieces in local studios where modern artists use the same methods as their Byzantine forefathers.
　　What to Read Before you Go: Ravenna in Late Antiquity, by Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis(2010), provides a wide-ranging look at the city’s art, architecture, and history.

      There was a river with a small town on either side of it. The towns were linked by a bridge.
      One day, a hole appeared in the bridge. Both towns agreed that the hole should be mended. However, disagreement came up as to who should mend it. Each town thought that it had a better reason for the other to mend the hole. The town on the right bank said that it was at the end of the road, so the left-bank town should mend the hole. The town on the left bank, on the other hand, insisted that all the traffic came to the right-bank town, so it was in their interest to mend the bridge.
      The quarrel went on and on, and so did the hole. The more it went on, the more the hostility between the two towns grew.
      One day a man fell into the hole and broke his leg. People from both towns questioned him closely about whether he was walking from the right bank to the left or from the left bank to the right, in order to decide which town should be blamed for the accident. But he could not remember, since he got drunk that night.
      Some time later, a ear was crossing the bridge and broke an axle (轴) because of the hole. Neither town paid any attention to the accident, as the traveler was not going from one to the other, but was merely passing through. The angry traveler got out of the car and asked why the hole was not mended.
      On hearing the reason, he declared, "I’ll buy this hole. Who’s the owner?"
      Both towns at once declared that they owned the hole.
      "One or the other, whoever owns the hole must prove it. "
      "How shall we prove it?" asked both sides.
      "That’s simple. Only the owner of the hole has the right to mend it. I’ll buy the hole from whoever mends the bridge. "
      People from both towns rushed to do the job while the traveler smoked a cigar and his driver changed the axle. They mended the bridge in no time and asked for the money for the hole.
      "What hole?" The traveler looked surprised. "I can’t see any hole. I’ve been looking for a hole for several years now. I’m prepared to pay a good price for it, but there’s no hole here. Are you pulling my leg or what"
     He got into his car and drove off.

        Tom was aged four but he was talking like a two-year-old baby. He was saying such things as “kick ball” and “want car”, and using lots of one-word sentences. He should have been saying some really long sentences and telling stories with them. He wasn’t. Something had gone terribly wrong.
        Quite a few children have what is called a “language delay”. For some reason they don’t learn to speak as quickly as they should. Their friends shoot ahead and they’re left behind. As a result, they get very lonely. Nobody wants to talk to you if you can’t talk back.
        Can anything be done to help these children? Yes. They can go to see a speech therapist—a person who’s specially trained to work out what’s wrong and who knows how to teach language to children. This is what happened to Tom. The speech therapist played some games with him and heard how he talked. She made a recording of his speech, and chatted to his mom and dad about his background. They’d taken Tom to see a doctor, but the doctor hadn’t found anything wrong with him. He seemed perfectly normal in every way—except he just wasn’t talking.
        After Tom and his parents had gone home, the therapist listened carefully to the recording she’d made. Then she looked at a chart which showed how language developed in children aged two, three, and four. She could see Tom was a long way behind.
        The next step, she decided, was to teach Tom how to say some new sentences like “kick a red ball,” and “the clown is kicking a ball.” Tom didn’t get the new sentences right straight away. But the therapist was very patient, and after a few more visits he started to make some progress.