Cold weather can hard on pets, just like it can be hard on people. Sometimes owners forget that their cats are just as used to the warm shelter (住所) as they are. Some owners will leave their animals outside for a long period of time, thinking that all animals are used to living outdoors. This can put their pets in danger of serious illness. There are things you can do to keep your animal warm and safe.

Keep your pets inside as much as you can when the weather is bad. If you have to take them out, stay outside with them. When you’re cold enough to go inside, they probably are too. I you must leave them outside for a long time, make sure they have a warm, solid shelter against the wind, thick bedding, and plenty of non-frozen water.

If left alone outside, dogs and cats can be very smart in their search for warm shelter. They can dig into snow banks or hide somewhere. Watch them closely when they are left outdoors, and provide them with shelter of good quality. Keep an eye on your pet’s water. Sometimes owners don’t realize that a water bowl has frozen and their pet can’t get anything to drink. Animals that don’t have clean and unfrozen water may drink dirty water outside, which may contain something unhealthy for them.

     One of the biggest social issues in Japan is the increasingly low marriage rates among young people and the low birth rates, which lead to an aging and eventually shrinking (萎缩) population. Most young Japanese women simply don’t seem interested in having many children.

      Now what began in Japan is happening globally. As David Brooks wrote, birth rates are becoming lower in much of the world, from Iran－1，7 births per woman－to Russian, where low birth rates connected with high death rates mean the population is already shrinking. And this includes the US, which has long had higher birth rates than most developed nations. Aging countries will face the burden of caring for large elderly populations without a larger resource of young workers.

     It’s true that global aging is going to present some major challenges. Who will take care of the elderly? Will an older world be less active and slower to change and adapt? It’s all true. Sometimes I worry about a coming generational war over resources, just as I worry about how Iwill take care of my own parents in their old age, just as I worry about who might take care of me.

But here’s the thing: an older world may have less pressure on the environment. As we all know, the environment is the real victim of overpopulation.

     So maybe a world that grows slower and grows older will put less pressure on the environment, and buy us a few more years to ensure our energy use, along with our birth rates, reaches a sustainable (可持续的) level. After all, we’re supposed to get smarter as we get older. Hopefully that holds true for the planet as well.

John Sand was one of the most influential teachers I have ever met. During high school, he taught me more than any other teacher had been able to.

He developed unusual methods of teaching. He did not give us homework on the first day and have it due the next; instead, he gave us a homework schedule for the term and left it up to us to remember to do it. By doing so, he prepared us for life after high school, where it would be up to us to make our own work schedule.

Mr. Sand was a family man. He made use of whatever time we had left in class to show us his latest vacation videos or his children’s sports videos. It was nice to see a man who balanced his family and his career so nicely in a world where a broken home is the average home.

Mr. Sand always encouraged us to get out of our little close-minded society of Wethersfield and explore the cultures of the world. He would tell us stories of his travels across Europe and his adventures around the US. Many teachers just forced the idea of college and ignored our need to reach outside of what we know.

Many people may not ever have a teacher like Mr. Sand. I feel sorry for them. Mr. Sand taught me things that went beyond the curriculum(课程) and let me know how powerful a teacher’s influence could be.

Visiting Joshua Tree National Park, California

Joshua Tree National Park is nearly 800,000 acres large and surrounds parts of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts in South-central California. Although barren at first glance, the park is full of wildlife and provides a variety of entertainment activities from hiking to climbing. Within a three-hour drive, Joshua Tree National Park takes at least a full day to visit.

Things to do

l Hiking opportunities within the park include several choices, from 12 self-guided nature routines to all-day back-country hikes.

l Joshua Tree NP has nine camping grounds, and back-country camping is also allowed.

l Rock climbing is a popular activity in the park, which has 10 mountains greater than5,000 feet in height.

   When to visit

Joshua Tree NP is open 365 days a year, although the best time to visit is October through April, when temperature is milder. The peak season is when the wild flowers bloom, and the summer months are the least crowded.

What to bring

In addition to your camera and telescope, be sure to carry lots of water. Park and guiding maps can be picked up at any of the three visitor centers.

Fees

l Parking fees: You can buy a seven-day vehicle permit (周票) for $ 15, a single entry permit for $ 5, or Joshua Tree National Park annual（每年的）pass for $ 60.

l Camping fees: They vary（变化）by camping ground

 A store that sells husbands has just opened in Ottawa where a woman may go to choose a husband from many men.

   The store consisted of 6 floors and the men increase in positive attributes（品质，特点）as the shopper goes up the flights. There is, however, a catch（陷阱）. As you open the door to any floor you may choose a man from that floor, but if you go up a floor, you cannot go back down except to exit the building.

  So a woman goes to the shopping center to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1— These men have jobs. The woman reads the sign and says to herself, “Well, that’s better than my last boyfriend, but I wonder what’s further up?”

  So up she goes. The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 — These men have jobs and love kids. The woman remarks to herself, “That’s great, but I wonder what’s further up?”

  And up she goes again. The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 — These men have jobs, love kids and are extremely good-looking. “Hmm, better.” 

  The fourth floor sign reads: Floor 4 — These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good-looking and help with the housework. “Wow!” exclaims the woman, “Very tempting. But, there must be more, further up!”

  And again she heads up another flight. The fifth floor sign reads: Floor 5 —These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good-looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic character. “ Oh, mercy me! But just think…what must be awaiting me further on?”

  So up to the sixth floor she goes. The sixth floor sign reads: Floor 6 –You are visitor 3, 456, 789,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. Thank you for shopping Husband Mart and have a nice day.

Students who date in middle school have significantly worse study skills. They are four times more likely to drop out of school and report twice as much alcohol and tobacco use as their single classmates, according to new research from the UniversityofGeorgia.

"Romantic relationships are a trademark of adolescence, but very few studies have examined how adolescents differ in the development of these relationships," said Pamela Orpinas, study author and professor in the CollegeofPublic Health and head of the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior.

Orpinas followed a group of 624 students over a seven-year period from 6th to 12th grade.

Each year, the group of students completed a survey indicating whether they had dated and reported the frequency of different behaviors, including the use of drugs and alcohol. Their teachers completed questionnaires about the students’ academic efforts. He found some students never or hardly ever reported dating from middle to high school, and these students had consistently the best study skills according to their teachers. Other students dated infrequently in middle school but increased the frequency of dating in high school.

"At all points in time, teachers rated the students who reported the lowest frequency of dating as having the best study skills and the students with the highest dating as having the worst study skills,” according to the journal article. Study skills refer to behaviors that lead to academic success such as doing work for extra credit being well organized, finishing homework, working hard and reading assigned chapters.

"Dating a classmate may have the same emotional complications of dating a co-worker," Orpinas said, "When the couple break up, they have to continue to see each other in class and perhaps witness the ex-partner dating someone else. It is reasonable to think this could be linked to depression and divert attention from studying.”

“Dating should not be considered a ceremony of growth in middle school,” Orpinas concluded.

Bicycle Safety

Operation Always ride your bike in a safe, controlled manner on campus. Obey rules and regulations. Watch out for walkers and other bicyclists, and always use your lights in dark conditions.

Theft Prevention Always securely lock your bicycle to a bicycle rack---even if you are only away for a minute. Register your bike with the University Department of Public Safety. It’s fast, easy, and free. Registration permanently records your serial number, which is useful in the possible recovery of the bike stolen.

Equipment

 Brakes Make sure that they are in good working order and adjusted properly.

 Helmet A necessity, make sure your helmet meets current safety standards and fit properly.

 Lights Always have a front headlight---visible at least 500 feet in front of the bike. A taillight is a good idea.

Rules of the Road

Riding on Campus As a bicycle rider, you have a responsibility to ride only on streets and posted bicycle paths. Riding on sidewalks or other walkways can lead to a fine. The speed limit for bicycles on campus is 15mph, unless otherwise posted. Always give the right of ways to walkers. If you are involved in an accident, you are required to offer appropriate aid, call the Department of Public Safety and remain at the scene until the officer lets you go.

Bicycle Parking Only park in areas reserved for bikes. Trees, handrails, hallways, and sign posts are not for bicycle parking, and parking in such posts can result in a fine.

If Things Go Wrong

If you break the rules, you will be fined. Besides violating rules while riding bicycles on campus, you could be fined for:

No bicycle registration---------------------------------------------------$25

Bicycle parking banned--------------------------------------------------$30

Blocking path with bicycle ---------------------------------------------$40

Violation of bicycle equipment requirement -------------------------$35

Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?

 To see whether babies know objects are solid, T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion(视觉影像)of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could reach out and touch, and then to show them the illusion. If they knew that objects are solid and they reached out for the illusion and found empty air, they could be expected to show surprise in their faces and movements. All the 16-to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.
    Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?
    Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to reappear. If the experimenter took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The researcher substituted(替换)a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week-old babies did not seem to notice the switch(更换). Thus, the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of “something permanence,” while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.

D

You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars of even catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress (床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman’s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.

Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff (悬崖) a thousand feet high. His parachute (降落伞) failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too！