There are too few times in life that stand alone and above all others, days that will never be forgotten. This was one of those days, a day when on a hike, I became my children’s Hero. This event happened the first summer after moving to the mountains of Colorado.

Wanting to enjoy the beauty of the mountains, my wife and I planned a day hike to the Brown’s Creek waterfall. The kids were excited, a day hike, especially a day spent with Dad (not enough of those as I l look back).

Our hike would take us up the Brown’s Creek trail and after about three miles the waterfall would be on our left. Then the trail took us through a beautiful grass land and across the creek (小溪) a couple of times. We decided to turn back before reaching the waterfalls. While crossing the creek by walking on a downed tree trunk, our little Izzie fell into the creek and immediately started moving up and down in the water.

Immediately, I jumped into the river. I managed to grab her and push her to the river bank. But now, I was the one in need of being rescued. I thought this might be the end and I wasn’t sure if I could hold on. Then, I heard the familiar voice of the love of my life, my wife’s voice. She shouted something like- Stand Up! With the last bit of strength I could gather, I stood, and walked out of the raging river. The kids showed little concern for my well being, for they were attending Izzie, now safe in their arms. But I did hear one of the kids say: Thanks Dad, for saving Izzie. You are our Hero!

I like my close friends a lot, and yet, on an almost daily basis, they shocked me. I have a friend who thinks voting is a waste of time; I have another friend who never takes any arrangement to meet at a given time and place seriously.

It’s generally held that friends are people with whom we choose to develop relationships because we find their personalities agreeable, or similar to our own, but experience regularly is opposite to this. What is a friend, really? All that one can safely say is that a friend is someone one likes and wishes to see again.

The truth is that we don’t know our friends. Many studies show that we tend to think our friends agree with us more than they really do. The striking part is that the problem doesn’t appear to lessen as a friendship deepens. When the researchers Michael Gill and Bill Swann questioned students sharing rooms, they found that, as time passed, people became even more confident in the accuracy of their judgments about the other, and yet, in reality, the judgments grew no more accurate. Two people might become dear friends, yet possibly know little about many areas of each other’s inner lives.

This seems strange, until you consider, that many of the benefits that friendship provides don’t necessarily depend on perfect familiarity; they come from something closer to trust. Friendship may be less about being drawn to someone’s personality than about finding someone willing to keep you company, or lend an ear. A friend provides the “social-identity support” we desire. You needn’t be a close match with someone, nor deeply familiar with their mind. We don’t base friendships on what we learn about people; we decide what to learn about people, and what to ignore, based on having decided to be friends.

Perhaps there’s something moving about viewing friendship as an agreement to keep each other company, ignore each other’s faults and not probe (刨根问底) too deeply in ways that might weaken the friendship. Perhaps a true friend is someone who doesn’t ask many awkward questions.

It seems hard to watch someone yawn（打哈欠） and not to yawn ourselves. Even reading about yawning can make you do it. Now, a new study has found why yawning has such a powerful force.

    Yawning when others yawn, the study suggests, is a sign of pity and a form of social connection. Kids don’t develop this deeply rooted behavior until around age four, the study found. Kids with autism (自闭症) are less likely to catch yawns. In the most serious cases, they never do. Yawning might help doctors to see whether the children are developing rightly. The work could also lead to a better understanding of the ways that people communicate and connect.

   "Emotional infection seems to be a born thing that connects us together," said Molly Helt, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Connecticut. "Yawning may be part of that." Inspiration for her study came when she tried to get her own autistic son to clear his ears on an airplane. She repeatedly yawned at him, hoping he would yawn back. He never did.

     "The fact that autistic kids don’t do it might mean they’re really missing out on that emotional connection with people around them," she said. "The biggest thing people try to figure out after birth is how we become humans and understand that humans have minds that are different from others’," she added. "Autistic people never seem to understand that."

    Like infectious （有感染力的）laughter and crying, scientists have found that yawning is a shared experience that promotes social connection. Helt said it could fight stress after a period of being nervous and spread a feeling of calm through a group.

C

     Kara L. Miller writes a Washington Post advicecolumn (专栏) on finding your way around the modern workplace. Each week she will answer one or two questions from readers.

      Question:I’m Sam. I work part-time, paid hourly. There are only two employees: me and my boss. I receive no paid holidays or sick time, no health insurance, and one week’s paid vacation. For me, this job is just a job, and the salary I earn doesn’t guarantee a 24/7 on-call mentality.

     From almost the beginning, my boss has freely called me at home, called my personal cellphone, and emailed my personal account during my off-hours and vacation.

      Five years later, it’s still happening despite my having politely asked her several times not to contact me during my non-working hours.

     Each time I ask, she apologizes and stops for a while, but always goes back to the behavior. I never take her phone calls on my cell, but she hasn’t got my point.

     The point is, it is never anything that can’t wait until the next business day! I am ready to lose it!

      Answer:If it won’t cost you your job, call block and email filter (过滤器) are one easy path to inner peace.

     It puzzles me that your boss seems to agree she’s out of bounds, but then continues to contact you.

      Either she occasionally gets enough response from you to make it worth trying, or she can’t help firing off questions on impulse (一时冲动).

      You could ask her, once and for all, whether she’s OK with waiting for responses—in which case her after-hours calls and emails will be answered the next business day—or whether she wants instant answers—in which case, you will be tracking the time you spend responding so you can be paid for it.

A

                             Winners Club

                      You choose to be a winner!

The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account（交易账户）where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7 – that’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

It’s a club with impressive features for teenagers:

No account keeping fees!

You’re no millionaire so we don’t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!

Excellent interest rates!

You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits（储蓄）without taking them out in a month.

Convenient

Teenagers are busy – we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all.  With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet···You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!

Mega magazine included

Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.

The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You can’t wait to hear from you. It’s the best way to choose to be a winner!

A

      Your local grocery store is a psychological minefield(布雷区), where even the bananas are ripe with mystery.

      1   Southpaw (左撇子) have an invisible advantage.

        You’ve probably seen that stores keep go-to-items—produce, meats, dairy—on the outer edge. But did you notice that most of them are set up to make you run counterclockwise(逆时针)? Ninety percent of us are right-handed, so we buy more when it’s counterclockwise. You’ll also find the dairy section in the back left corner: Because dairy is likely on your list, stores make sure you take the longest route to get there. In fairness, it’s also a more convenient place to put a fridge.

      2   Everything is in its place

       It’s safe to say that nothing you see on a shelf is there by chance. The cookies on sale at the end of a passage are likely the result of smart product placement. More expensive items are usually placed at an adult’s eye level, while colorful treats and other products for kids are positioned lower—to catch the attention of children.

      3   Time goes by so slowly

       Stores rarely have windows or clocks. With no reference to the outside world, customers can easily lose track of how long they’ve been there so that they can buy more. Grocery stores may use another trick to control your sense of time: small floor tiles (瓷砖).

       4    Goods are an art form

        Grocers know exactly what shade of banana you’re most likely to buy. To ensure the bananas on display are the closest to this shade, stores use a ripeness scale the ranges from one (all green) to seven (yellow with brown spots). Some stores even use special lighting to make bananas look more appealing. As for the water sprayed on the other produce? It makes veggies look fresh, but keeping them wet actually makes them rot faster. It also makes produce heavier—and therefore pricier.

You can find wineries(酿酒厂)all across the state of Missouri,America，but the small town of Hermann in Gasconade County is truly the heart of Missouri wine culture．Hermann is home to many of the state’s award-winning wineries and it’s a great place for a trip．One of the best ways to experience the variety of wineries in the area is by attending an event hosted by the Hermann Wine Trail．

What is the Wine Trail?

    The Hermann Wine Trailis collaboration(合作)between seven wineries in the Hermarm area．They work together to host special events forvisitors throughout the year．

What are the Events?

    The events are all wine tastings accompanied by food．Each winery selects one of its wines and makes a special dish to go along with it．Visitors travel from one winery to the next tasting the wine and eating the food．Each wine trail event also has a theme，for example，chocolate in February,  berries in July，and cheese in December．

How much will you pay?

    Tickets are $30 a person and can be purchased online．

How Does it Work?

    Once you get your ticket，you can start your wine trail adventure at any of the participating wineries．At the first wincry you visit．you’11 get a glass to take with you for tastings and food samples along the way．You can visit as few or as many of the participating wineries as you choose．Whatever your final destination．plan to spend a little extra time there taking in the scenery and enjoying the atmosphere．It really is a fun way to spend the day．

What is the time?

    The events are held on Saturdays from 10a.m．to 5p.m．and Sundays from 11a.m．to 5p.m．，so there is plenty of time to make it from one location to the next．

One day Kavya and I were playing with a ball and the ball went into Takku’s house. We went to his house and asked him if he could give us our ball. He said “No”.

   Suddenly, I had an idea. There was a water tank(箱) behind Takku’s house. I told Kavya, “We can climb the water tank and jump over the gate.” Kavya agreed, but we were both wearing skirts. We couldn’t climb with that. So we decided to do that the next day. The next day I went to Kavya’s house early. We were both wearing pants. “Best of luck,” said Kavya’s brother Vijay. He said, “Shout loudly if you need me. If Takku’s back, I will shout‘Mother is calling you’.” We went to the water tank. Kavya climbed first and then she climbed down into Takku’s house. I followed her and we were looking under a bed for the ball when we heard a voice. It was Vijay. “Mother is calling you,” he shouted.

We hurried and took out the lost ball. But along with the ball was a …gold bar（金条）！ We  were surprised and we quickly took the ball and climbed up the water tank again. When we reached Kavya’s house the TV was on. It was news time. I couldn’t believe my ears when it said that 20 gold bars were stolen from a gold shop. It showed a picture of the gold bars which were exactly like the one we had seen in Takku’s home.

We quickly told the story to Kavya’s mother and she called the police. The police came at once and caught Takku. They found all the gold bars in the Takku’s house. A policeman praised us and gave us a gift-some detective books.

This man won the French-language Scrabble(拼字)world championship recently，despite not being able to speak any French．Nigel Richards，who is from Christchurch in New Zealand，defeated the contestant(竞争对手)who actually speaks French at the final in Belgium on Monday this month．

    While he doesn’t speak the language,Nigel Richards took up a French dictionary eight weeksago and just started filling all the words into his head．He had stayed in his bedroom all the day since he got the dictionary．He didn’t go out of his house until he went to aRend the world championship．

    Liz Fagerlund，a good friend of Nigel Richards．said：“He doesn’t speak French at all；he just learnt the words and remembered them．He doesn’t know what they mean,and he couldn’t be able to carry out a conversation in French with anyone．It was amazing when I leamed that he won the world championship．”

    As any experienced Scrabble player knows，the game of Scrabble has as much to do with tactics(战术)as it does with having a large vocabulary，but to not know the language you are victorious in is pretty impressive．

    Something simple like dialect obviously can’t hold Nigel Richal．ds back．and he has won five US National Scrabble titles and也e world Scrabble Championship three times．Despite being known as the finest Scrabble player alive，Ms Fagerlund，who is also the former Dresident of the New Zealand Scrabble Association，said igel Richards’win in Belgium was“quite remarkable”．

    One of the contestants who Nigel Richards beat during the French-language Scrabble world championship reportedly joked  “What are you made from?Are you an extra-terrestrial(外星人)or something?You really made me mad!”when witnessing his amazing ability．

D

An advance in electronic publishing could make the book you are reading seem as out-of-date as a silent film. Publishers hope to exploit the growing success of e-books by releasing versions with added soundtracks (配音) and musical accompaniment.

The noise in the first multimedia books — released in Britain — include rain hitting a window in a Sherlock Holmes tale. Works by Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling are also available. When the plot of a book reaches a climax, background music will create tension.

Caroline Michel, chief executive of the literary agency PFD, said the new generation of computer-literate readers was used to multiple sensory input (多感官输入). She said: “Concentration now is such that people have split computer screens where they may be watching television and replying to an email at the same time.”

Book-track’s sound effects work by estimating the user’s reading speed. Each time you “turn” a page, the software reassesses where you have reached in the text and times the sounds to switch on accordingly. If the soundtrack becomes out of synch (同步), a click on any word will re-set it.

Some authors fear a soundtrack could destroy the peace of libraries and ruin the pleasure of reading. David Nicholls said: “This sounds like the opposite of reading. It would be a distraction. I have enough trouble reading an e-book because I’m constantly disturbed by emails and so I’ve given up on it for the time being.” Stuart MacBride, a crime writer, said: “If I’m reading, I will do the noises in my head. I don’t need someone to tell me what a crash sounds like. That would annoy me.”