Most of us have gone away from “mad men” in the street, only to realize that they are in fact using a Bluetooth headset. Now a new University of Pennsylvania study shows that muttering can actually help people find lost objects—in other words, saying the name of an object helps you find it more quickly.
Previous work has suggested that speaking aloud while performing step-by-step tasks, like tying shoelaces (鞋带), can help kids guide their behavior and let them focus on the job in hand. However, scientists were not sure if speaking aloud when performing tasks could help adults in the same way, especially when looking for particular objects. Professor Gary Lupan and Daniel Swingley, writing for the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, carried out some experiments. They hoped to give the fact that next time you lose your keys, muttering “keys, keys, keys” can in fact help you find them.
Inspired by viewing people muttering to themselves as they try to find things like peanut butter in a supermarket, the researchers conducted two experiments to see if this actually worked. In the first, participants were shown 20 pictures of various objects and were asked to find a certain one, with some seeing a text label (标签) telling them what they were looking for. These participants were then asked to search for the object again while saying the word to themselves, with results showing that saying it aloud helped people find the object more quickly.
The second experiment saw participants performing a shopping task, where they were shown photographs of items (物品) commonly found on supermarket shelves. They were asked to find all examples of a particular item, so if they were asked for apples they had to find all the bags of apples, as quickly as possible. The researchers found that there was also an advantage in saying the name of the product aloud when they were searching for something familiar.
The University of Pennsylvania study shows that muttering can actually help people reach the target object—in other words, muttering to oneself helps to focus the mind on something. It works more effectively than seeing a written description. Repeating the word over and over again helps even more.
Gold Coast family holidays are always great fun whether you are from Australia or from abroad. There are beautiful beaches, adventure parks, nature parks and so much more.
There are so many sights to see here. It is a pity to drive in a car and you'll miss a great part of it. Australia is home to many animals and birds that can only be seen when moving slowly and going into the areas that they live.
When you are on a bicycle, you have the advantage of being able to stop whenever you want to see an interesting animal or bird that you have never seen before. It is a quieter mode (方式) of transportation as well, so you might even be able to take a picture. When you are on the beach, you can breathe that clean air and view the beauty of the water and sand. It is a totally different experience from either simply sunbathing or passing it in a car.
There are many choices of hiring a bicycle to experience the Gold Coast attractions. There are stores that will fit a bike perfectly to your size. These bikes for both adults and children are in many styles and colors to please any taste. If you have ever wanted to try a tandem bike (双人单车), now is your chance, because they have those too.
A bicycle hire on Gold Coast is something that everyone should try at least once. This is a wonderful chance for anyone who likes to cycle and it is also a cheap way to travel with your family.
Is your school good for the environment?
Being green wasn't easy for Kermit the Frog(a famous cartoon character)—but it is for a growing number of schools around the country.A "green" school is an environmentally friendly building that uses less energy by depending on earth's natural resources for heat,light,and power.Green schools have clean air,a lot of natural light,and renewable power sources.
New studies show that green schools are not only good for the environment,but good for you too!Kids in classrooms with a lot of daylight scored 25 percent higher on reading and math tests than students who studied in rooms with less natural light.Students in schools with more natural light took three to four fewer sick days than students exposed to artificial classroom lighting.The further study found that those students had less dental decay（龋齿）because they were exposed to more of the vitamin D produced by the sun.
The Willow School in N.J. is a school that was built as a green building in 2002.Parts of the building are made wholly from recycled materials.To help trap heat,for example,building workers filled the walls with material from old blue jeans instead of the traditional insulation（绝缘物）made of chemicals.Every classroom has skylights to allow most sunlight,and solar panels（太阳能电池板）line the south end of the building.It uses about 70 percent less energy than a non-green school.This helps the school cut down on high energy costs.
Kate Burke Walsh,head of the Willow School,says,"Sunlight has an impact—you're happier."The clean,natural surroundings help both students and teachers "handle stress and stay relaxed and focused…it's a very calming atmosphere."
Technology offers conveniences such as opening the garage door from your car or changing the television station without touching the TV.
Now one American company is offering its employees a new convenience: a microchip implanted in their hands. Employees who have these chips can do all kinds of things just by waving their hands. Three Square Market is offering to implant microchips in all of their employees for free. Each chip costs $300 and Three Square Market will pay for the chip. Employees can volunteer to have the chips implanted in their hands. About 50 out of 80 employees have chosen to do so. The president of the company, his wife and their children are also getting chips implanted in their hands.
The chip is about the size of a grain of rice. Implanting the chip only takes about a second and is said to hurt only very briefly. The chips go under the skin between the thumb and forefinger. With a chip in the hand, a person can enter the office building, buy food, sign into computers and more, simply by waving that hand near a scanner. The chips will be also used to identify employees. Employees who want convenience, but do not want to have a microchip implanted under their skin, can wear a wristband or a ring with a chip instead. They can perform the same tasks with a wave of their hands as if they had an implanted chip.
Three Square Market is the first company in the United States to offer to implant chips in its employees. Epicenter, a company in Sweden, has been implanting chips in its employees for a while.
Three Square Market says the chip cannot track the employees. The company says scanners can read the chips only when they are within a few inches of them. “The chips protect against identity theft, similar to credit cards.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the chips back in 2004, so they should be safe for humans, according to the company.
In the future, people with the chips may be able to do more with them, even outside the office. Todd Westby is Chief Executive Officer of Three Square Market. He says, “Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.”
From July to October every year, about a quarter of the world's blue whales feed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. But the whales currently face a major threat in their favorite feeding area. Ships carrying cargo (货物）sail in the same area at the same time. All too often, the whales' paths and the ships' travel lines overlap (重叠), and a ship will hit a whale.
According to a new study, these ship strikes have become a serious threat to the overall population of the world's blue whales. Only about 10,000 of the creatures still exist worldwide. Blue whales are the largest known animals ever to live on Earth. Even so, if hit by a container ship, a blue whale will likely die from its injuries.
In 2007 alone, large ships killed five blue whales in the waters off San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that because there are so few whales already, losing three to five from the California whale population every year is a significant loss. “The estimated population of blue whales in this part of the Pacific is 2,500”, says Sean Hastings, a NOAA analyst. “So every whale counts toward this species moving off the endangered-species list.”
Now, marine scientists must figure out how to protect the whales from the giant container ships. One very simple program is already under way in the Santa Barbara Channel, a waterway that separates mainland California from the nearby Channel Islands.
The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary has asked large container ships passing through the area to voluntarily slow down. Sailing slower will allow the ships‟ crew (船员）more time to change course before hitting a whale.
Several of the world's largest shipping lines are set to participate in the new program. For every ship that passes through the Santa Barbara Channel at or below the reduced speed of 12 knots (海里/小时）, the company that owns the ship will be paid $2,500.
People usually visit cafes to ease themselves of their tiredness and keep themselves from falling asleep, but Mr. Healing, a popular cafe chain in South Korea actually does the opposite. Customers can come in, order a drink, lie down in a comfortable massage chair, and take a nap.
Many Koreans suffer from a lack of sleep as a result of overworking, so any opportunity to relax and even take a nap is greatly appreciated. Mr. Healing is the perfect place to go when you're on a short work or school break and you need to catch up on sleep. The cafe offers massage periods in various modes, depending on how much time you have and how you choose to spend it.
The 20-minute session is priced at $3.5, the 30-minute massage costs $7, and the 50-minute session is $9, all of which also include a drink. Once you make your choice, you are taken to the “healing center”. You are asked to take off your shoes as well as any jewelry that might damage the chairs, after which you can choose a massage mode, from “stretch” or “sleep”. You can start with stretch for a few minutes, and then switch to sleep if you want to take a short nap. After it comes to an end, you are taken back to the cafe area to enjoy a coffee or one of the many other refreshing drinks on the menu.
Mr. Healing cafes are so popular in Korea that customers are advised to make reservations in advance to be sure that a massage chair is available. “I have to sit on a chair and stare at a computer monitor all day due to my job, the healing room was truly effective to relieve tiredness and stress from weekdays,” said Park Hye-sun, a 24-year-old officer.
Some have described Mr. Healing and other similar relaxation cafes in South Korea as simple fashions, but others see them as a sustainable business model, because they offer a service that Koreans really need.
You may have heard adults say they are uncomfortable in the morning without a cup of coffee. One reason they may feel that way is that coffee contains caffeine(咖啡因). Caffeine appears naturally in coffee, tea, and cocoa beans, which are used to make chocolate. But now food makers are adding it to many products, from potato chips to water.
The US government is especially worried about the problem. That's why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is studying the health effects of caffeine on young people. Studies show that too much caffeine can make people nervous and unable to sleep. What's more, caffeine is habit- forming. Those who consume it regularly and stop suddenly may experience headaches and feel tired.
One of the biggest concerns is the large amount of caffeine added to so-called energy drinks, like Red Bull. A 12-ounce can of cola has about 35 milligrams of caffeine. A similar serving of Red Bull contains more than three times that amount.
The Institute of Medicine is also working on caffeine-safety measures. "Teenagers should not drink beverages that contain caffeine. They should be aware of caffeine's effects on health and on how the brain works. Take, for example, teenagers who consume caffeine to stay awake and study for a test. They will remember less of what they just studied," said Stallings, a member of the institute.
Companies that make products with added caffeine claim they do not advertise them to kids. However, there is no law to stop children from buying them. So the FDA needs to set limits on caffeine, especially in energy drinks. As for added caffeine in foods, the government should just say no. If not, the amount of caffeine should be printed on food labels to remind consumers. The government must do that.
Doctors say kids should avoid caffeine. If you need extra energy, try these natural boosters: eat right, exercise, and get plenty of sleep.
Who's in control of your life? Who's pulling your strings? For the majority of us, it's other people-society, colleagues, friends, family or our community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it," Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug-we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix(成瘾物)we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.
But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom-the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. People have their own agenda, and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted (tired) and probably pleasing no one in the process.
So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way-make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values- not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic, effective, purposeful and happy life.
There's a word of wellness I've loved for years. It's HALT: the idea that if you want to be calm and content, never let yourself get too hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Researchers are increasingly looking more closely at the "L" in "HALT", with one report presented to the American Psychological Association finding that long-term loneliness might be a greater public health risk than obesity.
Loneliness is a problem with many faces. Some people are alone most of the time—data collected by the United Kingdom found that 200, 000 people over the age of 75 had not had a conversation with a friend or a relative in more than a month. But some people feel lonely even in a crowded room, disconnected from meaningful relationships even though their days are filled with people.
To me, walking a positive path means walking alongside others—people who lift our spirits, share our values, challenge us to grow and learn and bring us joy. But social satisfaction doesn't come automatically or even easily to too many people. And in our age of individualized electronic devices, social media and text-based communication, it can be harder than ever to feel truly connected to others.
I was so heartened to read that recently the British Parliament (议会) has created a "Minister for Loneliness" position to promote research, education and principles so as to cure what some researchers call "the loneliness disease". More and more doctors in America are also screening adult patients for loneliness at annual physical examinations, which is another promising sign.
With proper social support and community participation, loneliness can be prevented from happening. If you are feeling lonely, make a list of your daily routines and ask yourself how you could add more social interactions to each day. Try reaching out for volunteer opportunities, clubs and organizations to join and old friendships to renew. If you are struggling, ask a consultant to help you identify your social obstacles and overcome them.
Being able to take advantage of truly unlimited data is a smartphone user's dream, but everyone I've talked to about 5G is more excited about the usage unlocked by next - generation wireless devices. From smart home security to self - driving cars, all the Internet - connected equipment in your life will be able to talk to each other at lightning - fast speed with reduced delay.
"5 G is one of those forerunners, along with artificial intelligence, of this coming data age," said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for the Consumer Technology Association. "Self - driving vehicles are emblematic in this data age - they show application of data completely. With one single task, driving, you have large amounts of data coming from the vehicle itself, and a variety of sensors (传感器)are collecting a lot of information to model its environment as it moves. It's pulling in data from other vehicles about conditions down the road. There's lots of data behind that task, which is why we need the speed and lower latency ((延迟).
AR glasses and virtual (虚拟的)reality headphones haven't yet been inside the mainstream, but tech companies are joyfully saying that such equipment will eventually replace our smartphones. With 5G, that could actually happen. This is notable because companies such as Apple are reportedly developing AR glasses to improve - or even replace - smartphones.
Ericsson showed at February's Mobile World Congress in 2019 how smart glasses could become faster and lighter with a 5G connection, because instead of being weighed down with components, the glasses could rely on outside equipment for processing power.
But don't get too excited. There's still a lot of work to be done in the meantime, including some necessary testing to make sure the radio plays nicely with basic systems and service construction so that 5G isn't concentrated only in big cities.
Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed new artificial intelligence(AI) software to recognize and follow up the faces of chimpanzees(黑猩猩)in the wild. The new software will allow researchers and wildlife conservationists to significantly cut back on time spent analyzing videos, according to the new paper published in Science Advances.
For species(物种)like chimpanzees which have complex social lives and live for many years, getting photos of their behavior taken from short-term field research can only tell us so much," says Dan Schofield, researcher and DPhil student at Oxford University's Private Models Lab, School of Anthropology. "By taking advantage of the power of machine learning to unlock large video files, it makes it possible to measure behavior over the long term."
The computer model was trained using over 10 million images(影像):from Kyoto University s Primate Research Institute(PRI) video files of wild chimpanzees in Guinea, West Africa. The new software is the first to continuously track and recognize individual a wide range of poses, performing with high accuracy in difficult conditions such as low lighting and poor image quality.
"Access to this large video file has allowed us to use deep neural networks to train models to a degree that was previously not possible," says Arsha Nagrad, co-auther of the study and DPhil student at the Department of Engineer Science, University of Oxford." Additionally, our new software differs from previous primate face recognition software in that it can be applied to videos with limited manual intervention(人工干预), saving hours of time."
The technology can be potentially used to monitor species for conservation Although the present application focuses on chimpanzees, the AI software provided will be applied to other species, and help drive the adoption of AI systems to solve(解决)a range of problems in the wildlife sciences.
About twenty years ago, I had the pleasure of teaching a disabled young woman. Not only was she good at maths and science, but she was also extremely talented in art. She could draw and paint beautifully. When Audrey graduated from university she got two degrees, one in fine arts and one in chemistry. Not too many people do well in two such different areas of study.
Just before her high school graduation, Audrey gave me a wonderful gift. It was a watercolour painting of a mother and her baby. A tear fell from the mother's eye as she looked lovingly at her child. Beneath the painting, Audrey had written these words, "The deep love from Mother, through me, touches another. " What a beautiful gift! I had the piece of art framed(给……做框)and hung in my office.
Years passed with many moves from one office to another and I lost the painting. Last year, after about eight years of not knowing where it was, I received a phone call from a former colleague who said she had something of mine. It was the picture Audrey had painted for me 18 years earlier. When cleaning out a storage room she had discovered my gift.
I was struck that the precious gift came back. I knew Audrey very well. When she was four years old, Audrey had a serious disease. What's worse, her father left the house. It was her mother who brought her up with much trouble. She survived the disease but was disabled.
To any other it is just a painting, but to me it shows how a mother's love has helped develop a talent and how its power pushes me ahead.
A first-year undergraduate student in Chengdu, recently complained online that her mother refused to raise her monthly allowance to 4,500 yuan ( $ 633) even when she said her current allowance 2, 000 yuan was not enough to cover her expenses, sparking a debate on how much money a college student needs per month. One expert shares his views on the issue with China Daily: Students should pursue education, not comfort.
Even for a college student studying in a first-tier city in China, 2,000 yuan is enough to cover all his or her monthly expenses. In fact, for a college student in Chengdu a monthly allowance of 2,000 yuan is more than enough. According to a survey conducted by a bookkeeping platform, the average monthly expense for an undergraduate in cities other than Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou was less than 2,000 yuan in 2019； for Chengdu, it was 1,900 yuan.
Claiming that she can hardly afford new clothing and cosmetics with her 2,000 yuan monthly allowance, the undergraduate student in Chengdu criticized her mother for refusing to raise her pocket money. Her "meager" allowance, she said, prevented her from buying branded goods that her hostel-mates enjoyed.
By the time a person enters a college, she or he should have developed a healthy consumption habit. And a youth should adjust her or his consumption according to her or his family income. On a deeper level, the money they spend in college should depend on how much they value their parents' hard work. Besides, some college students could take UP part-time jobs to meet their monetary needs if they feel their parents don't or can't send them enough money. In this way they can also learn to meet the requirements of life in the future and develop healthy consumption habits. More importantly, they should always bear in mind that education is their top priority in college
Robots are one step closer to gaining a human sense: touch. Scientists published an artificial skin that makes robots feel and respond to physical contact, a skill that will be needed as they come in increasingly close contact with people.
In 2017, robot-makers worldwide used over 85 industrial robots every 10,000 workers, according to a report. The report predicts the global supply of industrial robots to grow 14% every year until 2021. But if robots end up working more closely with their co-workers, one worry is how they will work together safely.
"Nowadays, robots do not have any sense of touch," says Professor Gordon Cheng, who developed the special skin with his team at the Technical University of Munich.
To develop the artificial skin, the researchers began by studying humans. Each person has about 5 million skin receptors (接受器) that sense what's happening on the body's surface and send signals to the brain. But the brain can't deal with information from each one at the same time. Instead, the nervous system deals with new senses at first. Copying this, the team covered a human-size autonomous (自动的) robot with more than 13,000 sensors, which are able to test temperature and pressure.
Some scientists doubted it. The high cost of each sensor and its fragility (易碎性) is a main problem for lots of production of robots, says Etienne Burdet, a professor of human robotics.
"Technology like this could open opportunities where robots could work much more closely with humans, such as the caregiving jobs," says Bob Doyle, president of the Robotic Industries Association. "They could help someone get out of bed, or help them around the house," he adds. However, Doyle says that these technologies are still a long way from actual uses in the field, and that making sure of the safety of humans will come first.
In a new study published on the Journal of Auian Biology, researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico tracked the behavior of house finches(雀) on the main campus of the university, in Mexico City.
The team created an artificial nest lining(内衬), which includes feathers, cotton, hair and cigarette ends. Then, after the birds 'eggs had hatched, they replaced the original lining with the new one, to make sure the nests were pest free. The researchers then added live ticks to the mix, while dead ticks were added to other linings.
It seems that urban house finches use more cigarette ends to line their nests when they've been invaded by ticks. And, those whose nests were given live ticks increased their cigarette end weight by about 40 percent more than those where dead ticks had been used, according to New Scientist. The technique is likely a form of self-medication, the experts explain, as it's thought that the chemicals in cigarette ends can help to keep off the pests.
While this behavior may have its benefits, the researchers say it's also possible that the use of cigarette ends in the nests could have negative effects. "It is a matter of concern that cigarette ends, being poisonous, are part of house finch nests in Mexico City," the authors explain in the paper," but we have not come across evidence of long-term costs of using this material."
According to the researchers, a thorough evaluation will be necessary to determine the real effects of using cigarette ends, whether they are positive or not. But they explain, the findings do suggest that the cigarette ends are linked to the presence of ticks and likely play a role in keeping them away.
If you cannot afford to travel in any class above economy, flying generally sucks (恶心), either a little or a lot, depending on your tolerance level. But it especially sucks if you are too wide for the airlines design.
Just getting to your seat can be a challenge, as your hips (臀部) bounce from seat to seat on each side of the aisle(过道). If someone is standing up to put things in the overhead locker, there is a decision to be made about whether it's worth trying to squeeze past. Everything is just slightly too small: the seats, the overhead lockers, even the bathrooms—and those, it seems, are getting even smaller.
The Washington Post recently reported that, on some newer planes flown by American, Delta and United airlines, the bathrooms in economy class are just 61 cm wide: about 25 cm narrower than the average portable toilet, and roughly the width of the average dishwasher. Your face might be the only thing you can poke in there comfortably—which makes it a poor design, considering what a passenger is likely to need the bathroom for.
According to the manufacturer, these "Advanced Spacewell" bathrooms make space for six additional passengers, which is great for the airlines' financial bottom line. But what about the other bottom line? Concerning, well, bottoms(臀部) that can't fit into their planes' bathrooms?
As bodies get bigger and aeroplane spaces get smaller, fat people among us have come up with solutions. Armrests that turn us into sausages (香肠) can be pulled up, or slowly encased (围住; 包起) into the soft flesh of our sides until we go numb(麻木的). We can ask the flight attendant to get us a seat-belt extender, if security has confiscated the one we brought with us, as can sometimes happen. But squeezing into a tiny toilet and closing the door behind us? Not workable.
Unlike the impossible task of squeezing down the aisle to your seat, or the side-to-side dance necessary to get big hips past the armrests, fitting into a space just 61 cm wide is not just a challenge—it is almost impossible. It is not like missing out on an option for the in-flight meal—a bathroom is as essential as a safety-compliant seat belt, or the air that is pumped into the cabin(飞机舱). If airlines are not willing to make space for us, bigger passengers may have no option but to reconsider booking a flight at all.
The ancient Herculaneum scrolls (卷轴)are thought to contain works of important thinkers in ancient Greece. But the scrolls can't be unrolled (打开). Even a light wind threatens to reduce them to dust. The reason is that they were turned into carbon by a natural disaster in A.D. 79.
But now researchers from the University of Kentucky have found a way to look inside the scrolls without having to touch them. They first create a light that is 10 billion times brighter than the sun by taking advantage of a machine. Then they will use the light to go through the Herculaneum scrolls to study and finally read the words recorded on the scrolls. Researchers think it might take them six months to read the scrolls.
This isn't the first time researchers have tried to read the Herculaneum scrolls. Several years ago, scientists from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) worked on uncovering the mystery using an X-ray beam 100 billion times brighter than anything used in a hospital, This didn't allow scientists to actually read the scrolls, but it allowed them to make one surprising discovery. The scrolls were written in metallic (金属的) ink, a writing technology that scientists didn't know existed at the time the scrolls were penned.
"For a long time, we thought our studies have let us know everything about the ancient ink used to write on scrolls. Now we find it's not the case. This shows that we should tell ourselves it may not be true when thinking we fully know something once some research is done," said Daniel Delattre, one of the study's authors.
The finding wasn't just a historical curiosity. To learn just how special these scrolls are, consider that the thinker Chrysippus in ancient Greece is said to have written over 700 works; but all are lost, with the exception of a few works found in the Herculaneum scrolls. In other words, it's possible that these scrolls represent the only existing complete works left by this great thinker. And who knows what other great works could exist in the scrolls?
The Bridegroom's Oak, a 500-year-old tree just outside of Eutin, in Germany, has its own postal address and receives around 40 letters every day. They're sent by love seekers from around the world, in the hope that someone will read them and write back.
With so many dating apps and services available nowadays, sending letters to a tree hardly sounds like the best way to find love. However, there's something charming about sending a letter and allowing fate to work its magic, so the Bridegroom's Oak remains popular even now.
In 1890, a local girl named Minna fell in love with a young chocolate maker named Wilhelm, but her father didn't allow her to see the boy. Instead of giving up on each other, the two started exchanging love letters secretly, by leaving them in a knothole (节孔) of an oak tree. After about one year, Minna's father found out about their continued relation ship, but instead of punishing them, he gave them permission to marry. The two lovers got married on June 2, 1891, under the oak tree that helped keep their romance alive.
The couple's story spread around Eutin, and soon, people unable to find love started writing romantic letters and leaving them in the tree's knothole. By 1927, it was already known as Bridegroom's Oak and was so popular that it had its own address and postal code, allowing people from all over Germany and even abroad to send in their letters.
Love seekers visiting the Bridegroom's Oak need respect only one simple rule. They can check all the letters in its knothole, and take with them the one they wish to reply to, but they have to put the others back for other people to find.
So far the Bridegroom's Oak has been responsible for at least 100 marriages and many other romantic relationships.
Have you ever been faced with trying to stay positive when others around you are negative? A negative person can bring you down and throw your positive plans out of the window. Whether you deal with a family member, friend or co-worker who is negative, there are things you can do to remain positive in the face of negativity?
Whatever you do, don't argue with a negative person. Arguing only adds fuel to the fire. I have noticed when my children are crabby, it is best to avoid trying to convince them to analyze and adjust their attitude. As soon as I take the approach of being in opposition to them, the situation gets worse before it gets better. Sometimes the best thing to do is remain silent and let negativity pass.
You know how difficult it can be to give love and positive attention to negative people. Unfortunately, that is often exactly what they need. A negative person is usually afraid he is unlovable. How do you show love when someone is negative? You must listen to what he is trying to tell you. Acknowledge the feelings he has by saying something like, "You sound very angry right now." How might you help a negative person? Offer a hug even if you get rejected. A negative person often has difficulty accepting love from others.
If you have negative people on your life who are affecting your mental and physical health, you need to decide whether or not you want these people in your life. Some people are so negative that you have no other choice but to remove them from your life. However, some people, such as your children, are difficult to remove from your life, in this case, professional counseling(咨询) may be the answer.
Today we will explore effective and ineffective ways to study for tests. You might learn that some study habits you used in the past might not be the best methods.
Rereading and highlighting (划重点) are common strategies that you will see in schools around the world. Students look at information they have already read in an effort to remember what is important. Students often combine (结合) rereading with highlighting. They underline important information in what they read.
Both rereading and highlighting are ineffective study tools. While better than not studying at all, they are not as useful as other habits. For example, with rereading, it's maybe not that effective because you are not trying to actively get the information back. With rereading, what is going to happen is that it is going to feel like you already know the information because you've already read it. So, you have this sense of fluency that is leading you to think “OK, yes, I know the information.”
The problem with highlighting is that students have a false sense of understanding-similar to when they reread information. Also, there is a second problem that comes with highlighting. Students aren't always aware of what the most important information is. So it's possible that they are maybe highlighting details that aren't as important as the higher level concepts.
So what should you do if rereading and highlighting are not the best ways to study for a test? One idea is to test yourself. Simple flashcards and practice exams can be helpful when you want to make sure that you have learned something.
Another strategy is to practice remembering the new information over time, instead of doing everything all at once. Regardless of which strategy you choose, you should know that effective learning takes time and it takes effort.
The next time you have a test coming, try to plan for the big day so that you can give yourself time to develop different study habits. And remember, rereading and highlighting are better than not studying at all, but there are better methods out there!
