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Fitting in fitness

    Do you find excuses not to exercise? Here are a few ways to get you going.

Do what you love.

    The easiest way to fall into the habit of doing exercise is to choose an activity you enjoy — one that doesn't feel like exercise, even though it is. If you play to your strengths, you'll find fitness activities you can enjoy for years.

Choose your hour.

    Studies have shown that people who work out in the morning are most likely to stick with a routine. By doing exercise before the day starts, they can avoid the last-minute scheduling conflicts. But if you' re not a morning person, choose whatever time works best for you.

Call it by another name.

    If it's something you have to do anyway — like washing the car or planting some bushes in the yard — you'll achieve two goals at once.

Partner up.

    Exercise is more fun when you do it with others. On days when your motivation is low, you' re more likely to stick with the programme to avoid disappointing your exercise partners. You can also train with an expert. A personal trainer will help you set goals, design a personalized fitness programme, and vary your routine to keep it challenging.

    It is said that if you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of our brains are not getting enough exercise — and as a result, we are growing old unnecessarily soon.

    Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why otherwise healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a relatively early age, and how the process of aging could be slowed down. With a team of colleagues at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain volumes of a thousand people of different ages and varying occupations. Computer technology enabled the researchers to obtain precise measurements of the volume of the front and side parts of the brain, which controls functions like eating and breathing, does not contract with age, and one can continue living without intellectual on economical faculties. Contraction of front and side parts — as cells die off — was observed in some subjects in their thirties, but it was still not evident in some sixty-and seventy-year-olds. Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple way to the contraction normally connected with age — using the head.

    The findings show in general terms that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the town. Those least at risk, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. White collar workers doing routine work in government offices are, however, as likely to have shrinking (萎缩) brains as the farm worker, bus driver and shop assistant.

    Matsuzawa's findings show that thinking can prevent the brain from shrinking. Blood must circulate properly in the head to supply the fresh oxygen the brain cells need. “The best way to maintain, good blood circulation is through using the brain.” he says. “Think hard and engage in conversation. Don't rely on pocket calculators.”

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    Friendship Day is celebrated every year on the first Sunday in the month of August. People give their loved ones or friends friendship bracelets (手镯) and other gifts to celebrate their friendship. The culture of friendship bracelets is as old as even thousands of years.

    After the World War II, the paracord (伞绳) bracelets became very popular. These were also known as survival bracelets. One of the main reasons is that it was often used for a rescue purpose. Paracord, used in the parachute, does not wear away easily and is strong and durable. Because of its light weight, people could carry it along easily. If required, it could be made a very long rope and be used as a rescue rope. Hunters used it to find their way that they could return without getting lost.

    Today there are all kinds of paracord bracelets, made of coloured strings. Girls like thinner and colourful bracelets. Many choose to make the bracelets by themselves for their dear friends. This not only appeals more to the feelings of people but also makes them know how much their friends mean to them. People keep the bracelets given by their friends long. Many people choose coloured strings keeping the depth of their friendship in mind. White, yellow, orange and red show the different levels of friendship. Pure friendship is shown in white; the red colour means love. An orange friendship bracelet is given to show strong friendship and yellow as simple friendship. Today, not only do the young people show these friendship bracelets, but even the old do.

    Does friendship have an age? Yes. Friendship is like the wine, and the older you get, the older and stronger your friendship is.

    You may laugh it off if someone told you that extreme weather disasters were actually a child's tricks. But El Nino, meaning “little boy” in Spanish, could be about to cause trouble

    A recent statement from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned ofa strong El Nino event that may be similar to the strongest in modern times. Scientists believe that evidence shows a more than 90 percent chance that it is coming — and it's going to be big. “If this lives up to its potential, this thing can bring a lot of floods, mudslides（泥石流）, and trouble,” said Bill Patzert, a NASA scientist.

    El Nino is a climate event occurring in the Pacific Ocean. The wind usually blows strongly from east to west due to the rotation（旋转）of the Earth. This causes water to pile up in the Western Pacific and pulls up colder water from the boom in the eastern part. However, in El Nino years, the winds pushing the water get weaker and cause the warmer water to shift back toward the east. This warms the ocean as it travels before finally reaching the shores of North and South America. In an El Nino event, the waters of the eastern Pacific can be up to 4 degrees Celsius warmer than usual.

    Most El Ninos last from 9 to 12 months and their effects are felt around December. They don't happen every year though, usually between every two to seven years.

    Last seen in 1997-98, El Nino caused severe droughts in Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as deadly floods in Peru and Ecuador. The world also heats up during an ElNino-1998 became the warmest year on record at the time. If the current trend continues, 2015 is almost certainly to become the hottest year yet again.

    A strong El Nino also affects hurricane seasons around the planet. The warmer the Eastern Pacific is, the more hurricanes it gets. The Western Pacific, on the other hand, tends to see more and stronger typhoons.

    The weather isn't the only thing that's affected. Warmer surface waters in the Eastern Pacific make the cold-water fish swim away and damage the fishing industry in much of Latin America.

    Pizza is a pretty universal treat, but where did it start? Here are three things you probably didn't know about pizza.

    1: Pizza's Origins Are Half-Baked.

    The Neapolitans（那不勒斯人）in Italy are proud of saying they invented pizza, but it's probably more accurate to say, they perfected it. The idea of putting toppings on a flatbread and baking it started in the 6th century B. C. But the people of Naples were the first to put tomato on a flatbread in the 16th century. From its start, pizza was a food of the poor, as it was cheap, filling and easy to eat on the run. In Italian, the word “pizza” refers to anything that is made and then pressed flat.

    2: Pizza Margherita Is Not Exactly a Symbol of Italy.

It was said some day in 1889, a local baker named Raffaele Esposito created three pizzas for Queen Margherita when she was on a tour of Italy. The queen loved the version that had tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese— and just happened to match the colors of the Italian flag. So Esposito named the pizza after her.

    But Pizza historian Scott Wiener points out that Italy was unified in name only in 1889 so it was unlikely any Neapolitan baker would want to celebrate “the Northern conquerors.” Further, the letter of gratitude for the pizza from the royal household that Pizzeria Brandi displays appears to be a fake（赝品）and may just have been a marketing plan.

    3: Hawaliian Pizza Invented by a Canadian.

    Sam Panopoulos, from Greece originally moved to Canada at the age of 20. In 1962, he decided to put some ham and pineapple on a pizza at one of his restaurants in Ontario.

    “We just put it on for fun to see how it was going to taste,” he told the BBC in 2017. Panopoulos named it the Hawaiian pizza after the brand of canned pineapple he used. The mix of sweet and savory toppings caught on with a certain part of the pizza-loving public. The inventor died in 2017.

    Running seems easy enough: Just grab a pair of sneakers and put one foot in front of the other, right? Well, anyone who struggled to get through a mile knows it's not quite that simple. We've asked experienced runners to tell us something wrong they did when they started running. The following are some of their answers.

    I got excited and signed up for a half-marathon with a few more experienced runner friends, but I wasn't adequately prepared and didn't train efficiently. I ended up with blisters(水泡) on my feet. I couldn't wear shoes for two days!

—Cali Lavey

    I have always been athletic and I have never been badly injured, but one day I felt a slight pain in my knee. I ignored it for a month until I realized I was having a hard time putting weight on my right leg. I finally went to a doctor. It took four months of weekly physical therapy(治疗) to heal. I shouldn't have done that.

— Arnold

    My biggest mistake was treating running like soccer practice: If I wasn't exhausted by the end of practice, I felt as though I didn't work hard enough. I run all of my runs at 80 percent effort, or the equivalent of what I now call tempo runs (节奏跑). I wasn't warming up to the pace or cooling down effectively.

— Kate

    I decided to go out for a run during the hottest part of the day. At the time, I told myself that it would be refreshing to sweat a little, but I didn't bring adequate water. I returned feeling completely rundown, dehydrated (脱水的), and exhausted. If you must go out on a run during unfavorable weather, wear proper suits and bring enough water to keep you feeling strong.

— Sarah

    Being crazy about perfection(完美) among young people has risen by more than 30 per-cent over the last three decades, a study has found.

    Many of them believe that their environment is very demanding and that others judge them strictly, according to analysis of data from more than 40,000 British, Canadian and American university students from 1989 t0 2018.

    The research, carried out by the University of Bath and York St John University, found that the extent to which young people attach an irrational importance on being perfect, hold unrealistic expectations of themselves and are highly self-critical has increased by 10 percent when compared to previous generations. The authors suggested their findings point to the impact of three decades of neoliberalism (新自由主义) forcing young people to compete against one another.

    Lead author Dr Thomas Curran from the University of Bath's Department for Health said he hoped organizations responsible for guarding the welfare of young people, such as schools, universities, and policymakers who shape the environments in which these organizations operate, would resist the promotion of competitiveness at the expense of young people's psycho-logical health.

    He said, "Rising rates of perfectionism highlighted in this study correspond to three decades of neoliberalism, which has forced young people to compete against each other in an in-creasingly demanding social and economic environment." The study also found the extent to which young people impose (迫使) unrealistic standards on those around them and evaluate others critically has increased by 16 percent.

    The researches defined perfectionism as a combination of extremely high personal standards and overly harsh self-criticism, leading to psychological difficulties.

    Co-author Dr Andrew Hill of York St John University added, "The increase in mental health difficulties among young people makes for a setting for our findings. The higher level of perfectionism may be a key contributing factor to such difficulties. Young people are trying to find ways to cope with increasing demands being placed on them and they are responding by becoming more perfect towards themselves and others."

    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 ask 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 separate 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.

    Your next car could have two seats, three wheels — two in front and one in the back and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. Elio Motors plans to make such a tiny car named the Elio. Its two seats sit front and back instead of side by side. The driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind.

    The starting price for the car is just $6,800. It has only one door, on the left side, which cuts a few hundred dollars off the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it cheaper. It has air conditioning, power windows and door locks and an AM/FM radio. More features can be ordered through Elio's long list of suppliers. Elio will also sell the cars directly through its own stores and not through franchised dealers (特约经销商).

    Paul Elio dreamed as a kid that he would one day own a car company called Elio Motors. In 2008, tired of high gas prices, he started working on a car that burns gas in a more effective way. Equally important to him was creating U.S. manufacturing jobs and making the car inexpensive enough to attract buyers who might otherwise be stuck in their old, unreliable cars. "Whatever matters to you, this can move the needle on it," he said.

    Already more than 27,000 people have reserved (预订) one. Paul hopes to make 250,000 cars a year by 2016. So far, reservation holders are those who will use the Elio as a second or third car for work. Finally, though, he believes the car will interest high school and college students as well as used-car drivers who want something newer and more reliable.

    Have you ever lost your car on a parking lot? It happens. You park and go shopping. When you get back，you have no idea where your car is. Then you start wandering around clicking on the panic button on your car keys so the alarm goes off. It can be frustrating, especially on a hot, sunny day.

    No, you don't need to install(安装)an expensive GPS system to keep track of your car. That's too expensive. But is there a way to track your car without spending too much? Yes, now there is!

    A California-based startup company was able to make this a reality. They created a tiny device that works with your smartphone，and it could be exactly what you're looking for.

    What is it? It's called TrackR Bravo. It is a tracking device the size of a coin. It's changing the way we keep track of the important things in our lives.

How does it work?

    It's easy! Install the free TrackR app on your smartphone, connect the app to your device and you're ready to go! Simply connect TrackR to whatever you want to track. The entire process of setting it up only takes 5 minutes or less.

    You can connect it to your keys, briefcase, wallet, your latest tech gadgets and anything else you don't want to lose. Then use the TrackR app to locate your missing item in seconds.

    "This device has saved me tons of time and money!" said Johnny Blaze.

If your fingers get chilly all year round—even in the peak of summer—you're not alone. Many people get cold hands during all of the seasons, due to a number of causes, from genetic to chronic illnesses.

Common reasons include being elderly and thin. If your hands are regularly cold or numb, however, it's a good idea to see a doctor to rule out more serious causes. Cold hands are one of the symptoms of both anemia (贫血症) and hypothyroidism (甲状腺机能减退). Diabetes, which reduces blood circulation, can also trigger it. And if your heart is weak from heart disease, your body may prioritize sending blood to your core over your limbs.

For many others, cold hands are a sign they have a largely harmless condition called Raynaud's disease. When any of us goes out in the cold, our bodies activate the muscles in our smallest blood vessels to make them even smaller—a survival mechanism to keep blood, and thus warmer temperatures, in our core. For people with Raynaud's, this reaction is too strong, and instead of just a bit less blood going to their fingers, far too little gets there.

Raynaud's is more common in women, and it most often develops before the age of 30. In fact, if you develop Raynaud's when you're older—usually after 40—it can be a sign of another underlying issue. That could be a smaller problem—a previous incident of frostbite (冻伤) or a sign of a more serious autoimmune condition, like lupus (狼疮).

For the majority of people living with Raynaud's, medication won't be necessary. However, a rare, more severe form of Raynaud's affects less than one in 1,000 people. In these cases, blood can become completely blocked, causing sores on the hands. If they go untreated, it can lead to gangrene (坏疽) and, very rarely, amputation (截肢).

People used to think that wetlands were wasted land. Developers would drain them with ditches (水沟), fill them in with tons of soil, and build houses, schools, and parking areas on them. Then scientists began to realize the important role wetlands played in the environment.

Wetlands act like giant sponges (海绵) during storms. They soak up extra storm water and afterward release it slowly back into the water cycle. This helps prevent flooding. Towns where people have drained wetlands have found that in a big storm, their streets and homes are often flooded because there are no wetlands to soak up the excess water.

Wetlands also act as giant filters where pollutants are absorbed and dissolved over time. Though wetlands can become polluted from dumping, wastewater, and fertilizer run­off from farm fields, they are able to process some pollutants over time because of all the microorganisms and plants living there.

Wetlands are especially important for providing homes and breeding grounds to millions of birds, fish, and amphibians worldwide. Many wetlands have become national wildlife refuges (避难所), where you can go to take pictures and look at birds and animals.

The Everglades are a huge wetland that once covered more than four million acres of southern Florida. Sometimes called the "river of grass", the Everglades are a shallow sheet of water that slowly flowed across a grassy plain. In the late 1800s people began draining parts of the Everglades for development. Roads were built and towns sprang up. The Everglades shrank to half its original size. Cities like Miami grew up where once there was a thriving wetland. Sewage and waste from the cities were pumped into the remaining wetlands. Over time scientists began to see the importance of the Everglades. Even with its smaller size, the Everglades filtered the pollutants coming from the cities, absorbing the worst of it like a sewage treatment plant. During storms the Everglades protected the cities from storm surge flooding. They also are just a great place to visit and see wildlife.

Can trees talk? Yes, but not in words. Scientists have reason to believe that trees do communicate with each other. Not long ago, researchers learned some surprising things. First a willow tree attacked in the woods by caterpillars changed the chemistry of its leaves and made them taste so terrible that they got tired of the leaves and stopped eating them. Then even more astonishing, the tree sent out a special smell—a signal causing its neighbors to change the chemistry of their own leaves and make them less tasty.

Communication, of course, doesn't need to be in words. We can talk to each other by smiling, raising our shoulders and moving our hands. We know that birds and animals use a whole vocabulary of songs, sounds, and movements. Bees dance their signals, flying in certain patterns that tell other bees where to find nectar for honey. So why shouldn't trees have ways of sending message?

Each year, about 250 billion to-go cups that serve coffee and tea from places like Starbucks and McDonald's are produced to satisfy the world's love for hot drinks on the run. These paper-based cups have the inside surface covered with plastic to prevent water from escaping, and keep water from being absorbed into the material, but that also removes any opportunity for the cups to be biodegradable (可生物降解的).

The materials that created these cups of goodness and convenience are recyclable, but only if separated. In addition, the demand for such resources is low, so they are worth next to nothing.

In response to this great challenge, NextGen Consortium, a multi-year partnership led by Starbucks and McDonald's launched their first big initiative (倡议)—NextGen Cup. The first step in NextGen Cup was an open competition where participants presented ideas for sleeves, cups, lids and other parts of the hot-cold paper-based takeaway coffee cup that would make it reusable, recyclable, or biodegradable, to finally be widely used. 12 winners, announced in 2019, shared a prize of $ 1 million, as well as personalized growth, and support from members of NextGen Consortium.

Later, they launched two pilot programs at independent coffee shops in California. In one case, customers were given "smart" reusable cups made mostly from recyclable plastic. They then could drop their empties into collection containers at key locations, for washing and reuse. These cups were printed with RFID chips or QR codes, through which coffee shops can know where there is the greatest need for collection containers and how many are not using them.

To reduce coffee cup waste, Cup Club is already replacing millions of takeaway cups in the UK, while Recup in Germany, has performed a deposit system (押金系统) that simply adds a small extra fee to any coffee cup which is returned to the buyer after the cup is deposited in any registered collection point.

Women Whose Inventions Changed Life

Rachel Zimmerman- Blissymbol Printer (1984)

At the age of 12, Zimmerman invented the Blissymbol Printer, which helps people with physical disabilities communicate via symbols that get translated into written language. What began as a project for a school science fair ended up competing at the World Exhibition of Achievement of Young Inventors. Zimmerman now works at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she develops innovations combining space technology and assistive intelligence.

Olga D. Gonzalez-Sanabria - Long Cycle-Life Nickel-Hydrogen Batteries (1987)

Director of the Systems Management Office and the highest ranking Hispanic at NASA Glenn Research Center, Gonzalez-Sanabria played a critical role in the development of the"Long Cycle-Life Nickel-Hydrogen Batteries" which help enable the International Space Station power system. She has since won the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.

Ann Tsukamoto- Stem Cell Isolation (1991)

Tsukamoto and her colleagues were the first scientists to identify and separate blood-forming stem cells. Patented in 1991— the first of 12 patents related to her research Tsukamoto has furthered her research and thanks to her, bone marrow transplants(骨髓移植) have saved the thousands of people battling blood cancer.

Donna Strickland- Chirped Pulse Amplification (2018)

The third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, Strickland, along with Dr. Gerard Mourou of France, has significantly advanced the science of lasers (激光). They developed a technology for creating short, powerful laser pulses. The technique, called Chirped Pulse Amplification, has been used in corrective eye surgeries.

The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown, Ohio, for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another, employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.

The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse, even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they're short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. ＂We're thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,＂explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.

One of his latest projects has been to make plants glow(发光)in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano's team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light, about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by, is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps.

In the future, the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant's lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off＂switch＂where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight.

Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source(电源)-such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway-a lot of energy is lost during transmission(传输).Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.

Football T-shirts are more commonly connected with boys than girls. This can often cause a problem when you want to find a cool shirt for a girl. That is not to say that there are no cool shirts out there for girls to wear. The problem is that they are often harder to find than the ones for boys.

You can get custom (订制的) shirt printed for girls from a number of custom print stores. Of course you have to make sure that they are legally allowed to use the logos (商标) and colours of the team you want to support.

You can also go through official channels to get the shirt you want. The official channels will generally be the large sportswear stores or the official stores of the teams. These stores will be able to use the colours of the teams and even put the name of the person who the shirt is for on it.

If you do not feel like you have to try the T-shirts on, then an online store may be your best choice. The reason for this is that you can visit various stores and find the best ones.

If you want to see what the T-shirt looks like in real life, then going to a store is the best choice. Large sportswear stores often have football shirts. These are the best places to go if you do not live close to an official store. And these stores usually have lower prices than the official stores.

In Judgement Day, one of the hit film series Terminator, a cyborg (生化人) played by Schwarzenegger could heal his skin wound magically, that is, he makes the skin repair itself in less than a second. Recently, according to Mirror, a smart electronic skin like it has been developed, which is as strong, stretchy and sensitive as humans'.

Previous attempts to "electronically" copy human skin have fallen short. Making suitably flexible electronics that can perform delicate tasks while also enduring the bumps and scrapes of everyday life is challenging, and each material involved must be carefully engineered. The previous sensor layer was too weak or too strong, reducing its durability, sensitivity or flexibility, which makes it more likely to break.

With the development of 2D sensors and hydrogel (水凝胶), scientists' efforts paid off, linking sensor layer with skin functionally and durably. Study author Dr Jie Shen said, "Hydrogels are more than 70 percent water, making them very compatible (相容的) with human skin tissues. By prestretching the hydrogel in all directions, applying a layer of nano (纳米) wires, and then carefully controlling its release, we created conductive pathways to the sensor layer that remained complete even when the material was stretched to 28 times its original size. Meanwhile, skin electronics kept changing at a spectacular pace."

This e-skin can sense temperature and touch from up to 8 inches away, react to things in under one tenth of a second and repair itself more than 5,000 times. The new invention could help monitor a range of biological information, including changes in blood pressure. While the first port of call is medical, the e-skin could benefit a wide range of products one day, such as monitoring the structural condition of furniture and planes.

Pingyao, in the centre of Shanxi Province, is a famous historic cultural city of China and a world cultural heritage site. It's 90 kilometres south of Taiyuan on the Fen River.

People lived in Pingyao during the New Stone Age. Its long period as the seat of a county government has left Pingyao with lots of historic buildings and sites, with a 2,700-year history. Ninety-nine of them are under government protection, including Zhengguo Temple, Shuanglin Temple and Ancient City of Pingyao.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, businessmen organised commercial(商业的) groups that did business nationwide. Shanxi Province had some of the most important ones and Pingyao was their centre. In 1823, a store, known as Rishengchang (Sunrise Prosperity), traded in bank cheques rather than in silver or gold coins. It was the beginning of modern Chinese banking. Branches(分行) were soon set up in major cities in China and other parts of Asia, leading to great development in Pingyao. Its lacquerware(漆器) became well known.

In Pingyao Ancient City are many traditional houses and commercial buildings, 3,797 of which are protected and more than 400 of which are in good condition. Not only do the houses in Pingyao show Shanxi's history and culture, but they are also valuable to the study of its history, customs, ancient buildings and art. Most of these houses are still used as homes and shops of local people.

In 1997, Pingyao Ancient City was listed in the World Heritage List as a "World Cultural Heritage Site".

Forgiveness is important in children and adults for restoring relationships and limiting future conflicts. A recent study suggests that teaching children to understand other people's perspectives could make it easier for them to learn how to forgive other people. The study also found that teaching children to make sincere apologies can help them receive forgiveness from others.

Mulvey, an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, led the study. Her team enlisted 185 children, aged between 5 and 14 , in the study. Researchers conducted in an interview with each child that collected background information and assessed the child's "theory of mind" skills. Theory of mind is your ability to understand that someone else's beliefs, intentions and desires are different from your own.

Researchers then led each child through a series of scenarios (设想情况) involving other children who are "in group" and "out group." Specifically, each participant was told they were part of a group, such as the green team. During interviews, researchers described some children as also being on the green team (making them in-group), while other children were on the yellow team (making them out-group). In each scenario, interviewers asked study participants whether they were willing to forgive a group that left them out of a game or activity.

There were three main findings. First, children are more likely to forgive someone if he / she has apologized. Second, children are more likely to forgive people who are "in group." Third, the more advanced a child's theory of mind skills are, the more likely they are to forgive others.

The researchers identified two things that parents and teachers may want to focus on related to forgiveness. One is helping kids understand how important it is to apologize in a meaningful way. The second focus area is helping kids understand the perspectives of other people, even if they are different from you.

Mulvey says, "One of the biggest implications of our study is that teachers and parents need to actively help children cultivate theory of mind skills, which will aid them in navigating a diverse and complex world in the future."