Over the years, you've probably known a good number of people-some for only a short period and others for a much longer time. If you spend a moment thinking back on the people who have meant the very most to you, selflessness will be the same thing they share. There might have been a person who really believed in you. Someone taught you something important. Someone cared for you in his or her own way. Someone has simply always remained your friend.

Many years ago, I traveled through the beautiful, history-rich country of Greece. With only a small backpack, I stayed at youth hotels, visiting city after city. One day, a shoulder strap on my backpack broke. I didn't speak any Greek and the owner didn't speak any English. I went to the front desk of my hotel and tried to ask him if there might be a shop nearby where I could have it repaired. He was clearly very busy. But he asked someone to watch over the front desk and then signed to me to follow him. We walked together for a few blocks, arriving at a little shoe repair shop. Within ten minutes, my backpack was repaired, and then the hotel owner insisted on paying for it!

I was shocked by this powerful, unexpected kindness. More than any other thing, it's what I recall most often when I think about my trip to Greece. Sometimes, you may not have even realized how much your selflessness toward someone has mattered. As the saying goes, "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world."

    Shyness can have a huge effect on your life.  The tips below can help overcome your shyness and improve your life very much!

    Make eye contact with everyone you talk to. It is so easy to look at the floor, the ceiling, anywhere but into the other person's eyes. Looking directly at someone makes them see you in a different light. If they think you are confident, you will become more confident! If you find it really hard, look just above the eyes, and they will never know.

    Start a conversation with a new person every day. Think of four or five things you could start a conversation with and then find at least one opportunity each day to talk to a new person.  Just exchanging a few words will get you used to talking to new people and you can gradually deal with it well as your confidence grows. Asking people something about themselves is often a good opener as it encourages them to talk!

     Your body language has a huge effect on both how you feel and how other people think of you. Walk around your home or garden as if you are the most important person in the world. Then go out and continue that; you are really the most important person in the world.

    In a word, never give up, keep practising and soon you will be a different person.  You need to take action to increase your confidence and beat shyness.

A. Just reading tips will not help.

B. It will make you feel less nervous.

C. Pay attention to your body language.

D. It can stop you from making any progress.

E. Many young people are actually shy in public.

F. You don't need to have a deep conversation.

G. You can have a talk with your parents if necessary.

In a study recently published in the journal Neuron, researchers found that super memorizers don't have unusually large brain regions that allow them to remember a lot of information.  Here are a few of their favorite tricks that can help you to remember things in your everyday life.

To Remember: New words

Technique: Change routine

In a study, a group of students studied a list of words in two separate sessions. Some studied in a messy room ant some in a neat space. One group of students spent both sessions in the same room, while the other split the sessions between the two environments. During a test, the students who studied in multiple places remembered much more. That includes the time of day, the music in the background, whether you sit or stand, etc.

To Remember: Your PIN

Technique: Count it out

You could use your birthday, or your phone number, but identity thieves have a way of figuring those numbers out.  Write a four- wort sentence. Then count the number of letters in each word. For instance," This is my PIN" =4223.

To Remember: Faces

Technique: Focus on noses

White some super memorizes specialize in associating names with faces, the memory-palace technique doesn't work as well if the image of the face is changed in any way. Rather than focusing on eyes, as most people do, focus on the centre or to the left of a person's nose.

To Remember: Facts & figures

Technique:

To learn and remember statistics, reviewing the material repeatedly over a longer time is far more effective than repeating it in a shorter one. If your exam is in a week, study today and then again in a day or two. If it's a month away, study today and then wait a week before your second session.

A. value exams

B. Give yourself time

C. This allows you to take in their whole face.

D. Their brain structures are in fact the same as the rest of ours.

E. Instead, try this tip from Dominic, an eight-time World Memory Champion.

F. The theory is that your brain links the words to the environment around you.

G. Studies showed that varying other aspects of your environment can also help.

Recall(回忆) how you find a name in a telephone book? You don't read any more than necessary to find the name you look for. Notice that you go directly down a column of news. Maybe you use your finger to guide your eyes. This type of reading is usually called scanning. In scanning, you know what you are looking for. In skimming(略读) you don't.

Since you don't know exactly what you are looking for while skimming, prepare yourself by reading the title, source, author and picture. Then you question yourself-who, what, when, where is this likely to be mainly about?Look for exact names of people, places, things, ideas, numbers and words like therefore, whenever, until, because and instead, to inform you of how and why.

You will soon be able to discover important facts and strange vocabularies by this important step. And you even can find words that are clues to important relationships.

It's a good practice to skim everything in mass media after reading the title and first paragraph. You may get all the information you want.

Skim everything you intend to read before you make a final decision to read or study the material. Skim all highlights and develop a read-skim pattern for rapid review.  Reviewing frequently and rapidly is the best way to remember information from notes and long texts.

A. And don't miss this!

B. It is quite necessary to learn scanning.

C. Soon you will note new or unusual vocabularies.

D. This keeps your skimming skills from becoming worse.

E. Skimming is a step you should always take before you read any article.

F. With a questioning mind, you direct your eyes down the column of print.

G. Skimming uses the same type of skill in form but a different skill mentally.

A study of 3, 884 students from primary schools to colleges found that examinations made 83. 1 percent of primary students anxious, and more than 40 percent of high school children were out of sorts (身体不适) because of stress and anxiety.

Moreover, 75 percent of the high school respondents admitted that they had problems talking to their parents and more than 55 percent of them found it hard to associate with other people, according to the study.

It is not difficult to conclude that our children are not happy.

Today's kids are coming home from school weighed down with backpacks full of books and worksheets. They are spending hours at a desk at night, seldom going outside to play and getting to bed late.

How can this be a good thing?

Homework is eating away children's time to play freely with neighborhood kids—and more importantly, their time to sleep.

Homework can enrich the education process. But like all things, too much of it may dampen (减少) a student's enthusiasm for learning. To raise cheerful, contented and well-mannered children, parents need to put in a lot of time and effort. Their eyes should go beyond their children's preparations for tests, Children need a break too. So let them be in control of parts of the day.

                                                                           Exhibitions in the British Museum

    Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave

    Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is widely regarded as one of Japan's most famous and influential artists. He produced works of astonishing quality right up until his death at the age of 90. This new exhibition will lead you on an artistic journey through the last 30 years of Hokusai's life — a time when he produced some of his most memorable masterpieces.

    25 July — 13 August 2018

    Room 35

    Adults￡12, Members/under-16s free

    Places of the mind: British watercolour landscapes 1850-1950

    Drawn from the British Museum's rich collection, this is the first exhibition devoted to landscape drawings and watercolours by British artists in the Victorian and modern eras — two halves of very different centuries.

    23 July — 27 August 2018

    Room 90

    Free, just drop in

    Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia

    This major exhibition explores the story of the Scythians — nomadic tribes and masters of mounted warfare, who flourished between 900 and 200 BC. Their encounters with the Greeks, Assyrians and Persians were written into history but for centuries all trace of their culture was lost — buried beneath the ice.

    14 September 2018 — 14 November 2018

    Room 30

    Adults￡16.50, Members/under-16s free

    Politics and paradise: Indian popular prints from the Moscatelli Gift

    This display is part of the Museum's contribution to the India-UK Year of Culture 2017. It looks at the popular print culture of India from the 1880s until the 1950s.

    19 July — 3 September 2018

    Room 90a

    Free, just drop in.

    Have you ever noticed what happens to an idea once you express it?Just talking about it or writing it down causes you to make it clear in your own mind.How can you use this to increase your brain power?Start writing.

    By putting thoughts into words,you are telling yourself the logic behind what you think,feel,or only partly understand.Often,explaining a thought is the process of understanding.In other words,you increase your brain power by exercising your “explain power”.

    Another benefit of writing is that it helps you remember.Many,if not most,highly productive people are always taking notes.You can try keeping it all in your head,but if you keep a journal of your ideas,the next time you're working on a big project,you'll probably have more success.

    Want to understand a topic?Write a book about it.That's an extreme example,but if you are learning something new,write a letter to a friend about it,and you will understand it better.Want to invent something?Write an explanation of the problem—why you want to solve it,and why it is worth solving,and you're halfway there.

    Writers don't always write because they clearly understand something beforehand.Often,they write about something because they want to understand it.You can do the same.Writing will help bring you to an understanding. Give it a try.

"Education" is generally defined as the process of learning and acquiring information. Formal learning in schools or universities (be) one of the most common types, though self-teaching and so-called" life experiences" can also qualify. Communities around the world place a high value on educating people of all ages,  formally or informally. It is widely believed that constant exposure  new ideas and skills makes people better workers, thinkers, and societal  (contribute).

Most people associate education with schools and classrooms  trained teachers present information to students. Classroom learning generally starts when a child is  (relative)young—around age five in most countries—and continues until the teenage years. The purpose of most classroom learning is not to prepare a child for a specific job, but rather  (help) him or her develop critical reasoning and thinking skills. Reading, writing, and math are very common lessons for young learners. As students progress in  (they) schooling, they often come into contact with more  (challenge) subjects like written composition, history, and advanced sciences.

Exposing students to new ideas and essential facts is only part of most educational goals. Also, students  (expect) to retain most if not all of the information that they learn in school. Teachers and professors commonly use exams and graded assignments to assess learning.

Daphne Soares, a biologist, makes an amazing discovery about alligators. The first time she got really close to an alligator (短吻鳄) was when she was helping to bold down an eight-foot American alligator. It was then that she noticed is face was covered with little black spots. This led to the discovery of the little black dots.

She started her study of the black dots. When she read the books and scientific journals, she learned that people had noticed the dots, but no one really knew what the dots were for.

To find out the secret she placed electrodes (电极) on nerves coming from some of the dots. When the nerves fired, they sent a message to the brain and created a tiny electric current. Just then she heard a small sound over a loudspeaker. She tired to see if the dots acted like eyes and temperature sensors, but nothing worked.

One day she was careless with dropping a tool into an alligator's tank. When she put her hand in the tank to get the tool out, she made small waves in the water. When they reached the alligator's face, she heard a noise over the speaker. She then realized that the dots must be sensitive to the changes in pressure when hit by waves of water.

After that, she is now studying blind cavefish. She is trying to learn whether they are blind from birth or lose their sight as they grow up. She is also doing more research on crocodilians (鳄目). She wants to find out how the genes of alligators with pressure sensors only on their faces differ from the genes of crocodilians that have pressure sensors all over their body.

    For thousands of years, people have tried to control water by building dams. Dams allow people to collect and store water for use at home, in industry, and in agriculture. For example, when people build a dam on a river, a reservoir(水库) collects water that can be channelled for human needs. In addition, the ability of dams to control water flow helps prevent floods. Dams can also be used to make electricity.

    As the human population grows, the need for water and electricity increases. So many new dams have been built in the past 50 years. Today, nearly half of the rivers in the world have at least one large dam. If managed well, dams can be a great benefit to people. Some dams, however, may do more harm than good.

    All dams cause changes in river ecosystem that has an impact on surrounding land and people. As river water collects behind a large dam, it may back up and form a large lake, flooding land and killing plants and animals. People living on land upstream of a dam may be forced to abandon their homes. Below the dam, water flow decreases. This changes the downstream ecosystem. Plants and animals may not have enough water. Some types of fish may be unable to move upstream to reproduce. Rare species of plants and animals may become endangered. Farmers living downstream from the dam may not be able to grow crops. People who fish for a living may have to find other work.

    An independent organization called World Commission on Dams worked during the late 1990s to suggest ways of reducing problems caused by some large dams. The commission recommended that the research, the group decision-making, and the creation of a plan all take place before the start of construction of a large dam. For a plan to be successful, it would need to demonstrate that the dam would contribute to the long-term improvement of human life. The likely impact of the dam on local people and the environment would be assessed and considered in the decision-making process.