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It was a cold winter day. A woman drove up to the Rainbow Bridge tollbooth (收费站). “I’m paying for myself, and for the six cars behind me, “ she said with a smile, handing over seven tickets. One after another, the next six drivers arriving at the tollbooth were informed, “Some lady up a-head already paid your fare. “
It turned out that the woman, Natalie Smith, had read something on a friend’ s refrigerator: “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. “ The phrase impressed her so much that she copied it down.
Judy Foreman spotted the same phrase on a warehouse wall far away from home. When it stayed on her mind for days, she gave up and drove all the way back to copy it down. “ I thought it was beautiful, “ she said, explaining why she’ d taken to writing it at the bottom of all her letters, “ like a message from above. “ Her husband, Frank, liked the phrase so much that he put it up on the classroom wall for his students, one of whom was the daughter of Alice Johnson, a local news reporter. Alice put it in the newspaper, admitting that though she liked it, she didn’ t know where it came from or what it really meant.
Two days later, Alice got a call from Anne Herbert, a woman living in Marin. It was in a restaurant that Anne wrote the phrase down on a piece of paper, after turning it around in her mind for days.
“ Here’ s the idea, “ Anne says. “Anything you think there should be more of, do it randomly. “ Her fantasies include painting the classrooms of shabby schools, leaving hot meals on kitchen tables in the poor part of town, and giving money secretly to a proud old lady. Anne says, “ Kindness can build on itself as much as violence can. “
The acts of random kindness spread. If you were one of those drivers who found your fare paid, who knows what you might have been inspired to do for someone else later. Like all great events, kindness begins slowly, with every single act. Let it be yours!
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Is that 6a.m. workout getting in the way of good sleep? Don’ t think your fat cells won’ t notice. A new study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine (a medical journal) finds that inadequate shut-eye has a harmful effect on fat cells, reducing their ability to respond to insulin (胰岛素) by a-bout 30 percent. Over the long-term, this decreased response could set the stage for type-2 diabetes (a medical condition in which someone has too much sugar in his or her blood) , fatty liver disease and weight gain.
The study adds to a growing body of evidence that there’ s “an intimate relationship between the amount of sleep we get and our ability to maintain a good, healthy body weight, “ says sleep expert Helene Emsellem, director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Maryland. But Americans don’t seem to be getting the message that we need seven to nine hours per night. More than 1 in 5 of us, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is getting six or fewer hours of sleep per night, on average.
So how did researchers study fat cells in the Annals paper? Matthew Brady of the University of Chicago and a group of colleagues selected and persuaded seven volunteers to take part in the research project. They were all young, thin and healthy and agreed to sleep for eight nights in a sleep lab. “For four nights they were allowed to stay in bed for 8. 5 hours a night, “ says Brady. Then, a month later, they came back for four additional nights—but this time they were allowed just 4. 5 hours of sleep per night. And after each visit, researchers got a sample of their fat. Brady explains that the fat cells responded significantly to the loss of sleep. “I was very surprised to be honest, “ he says.
Bad things can happen when fat cells become less responsive to insulin. “Fat cells are actually your friend, “ he says. “They’ re there to store lipids (血脂). “ when lipids stay inside the cells, your body can utilize the fat when you’ re exercising or sleeping or going about your day. “ However, when fat cells start to become insulin resistant, the lipids start to leach out of the fat cells and rise in the bloodstream, “ Brady says.
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When the United States Congress created Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the goal was to set aside a place where Americans could enjoy the beauty of nature for years to come. Now, 142 years later, there are hundreds of national parks across the country, and technology is changing the way people experience them. Should park visitors be able to use cell phones, or should their use be restricted?
“Connectivity presents a real challenge to all of us. “ Al Nash says. He is a public affairs officer at Yellowstone National Park. He says cell phone service at Yellowstone is available in parts of the park with stores and campgrounds. This makes it easy for visitors to share photos of their trip on social networking sites and to stay in touch with friends and family members. If a park visitor is hurt or in danger, cell phones make it easier to get help. Some say the ability to download applications that provide information about plants and animals in the park can enrich a visitor’ s experience.
Others say cell phones disturb people’ s enjoyment of our national parks. In their view, cell phone towers are an eyesore, and they would rather hear the sound of birds than the ring of an incoming call. Can you imagine looking out a peaceful lake or field of grass only to be disturbed by a person shouting into their phone, “Can you hear me now?“
Nash says Yellowstone tries to strike a balance. “Ultimately, our job is to let visitors understand and enjoy nature better while protecting what people find special about Yellowstone, and one of those things that’ s special is the ability to get away from the hustle and bustle of one’ s daily life. “
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A hundred years ago it was assumed and scientifically “proved“ by economists that the laws of society make it necessary to have a vast army of poor and jobless people in order to keep the economy going. Today, hardly anybody would dare to voice the principle. It is generally accepted that nobody should be excluded from the wealth of the nation, either by the law of nature or by those of society. The opinions are outdated, which were current a hundred years ago, that the poor owed their conditions to their ignorance, lack of responsibility. In all western industrialized countries, a system of insurance has been introduced which guarantees everyone a minimum of subsistence in case of unemployment, sickness and old age. I would go one step further and argue that, even if these conditions are not present, in other words, one can claim this subsistence minimum without having to have any “reason“. I would suggest, however, that it should be limited to a definite period of time, let’ s say two years, so as to avoid the encouragement of an abnormal attitude which refuses any kind of social obligation.
This may sound like a fantastic proposal, but so, I think, our insurance system would have sounded to people a hundred years ago. The main objection to such a scheme would be that if each person were entitled to receive minimum support, people would not work. This assumption rests on the fallacy of the inherent laziness. In human nature, actually, aside from abnormally lazy people, there would be very few who would not want to earn more than the minimum, and who would prefer to do nothing rather than work. However, the suspicions against a system of guaranteed subsistence minimum are not groundless from the standpoint of those who want to use ownership capital for the purpose of forcing others to accept the work conditions they offer. If nobody were forced to accept work in order not to starve, work would be sufficiently interesting and attractive in order to induce one to accept it. Freedom of contract is possible only if both parties are free to accept and reject it in the present capitalist system this is not the case.
But such a system would not only be the beginning of real freedom of contract between employers and employees: its principal advantage would be the improvement of freedom in interpersonal relationships in every sphere of daily life.
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The meeting will begin at 9: 00 according to the______. calendar column schedule diagram
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The notice was written in several languages______foreign tourists should misunderstand it. so that if lest otherwise
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I’d rather you______anything about this matter this evening. say didn’ t say don’t say not say
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He didn’t fear new ideas, ______the future. nor feared he nor he did fear nor did he fear nor did fear he
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______is well known to all, China will be an advanced and powerful country in the near future. As That This It
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______a good thing they didn’t catch you. That’s There’s It’s What’s
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Christmas is a holiday usually celebrated on December 25 th ______ the birth of Jesus Christ. in accordance with in terms of in favor of in honor of
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Hospital doctors don’t go out very often as their work______all their time. takes away takes in takes over takes up
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______your homework and make sure that you don’t______any mistakes. Do: do Make: make Make: do Do: make
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The flat where we live______three rooms only. is comprised of is made of contain is composed of
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The search was______when the fog got thicker. called off called on called in called for
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From then on, a sound system of Party Committee meetings was ______ in all leading bodies. constructed instituted confirmed given up
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This kind of work is______me. unfamiliar with unfamiliar by unfamiliar to not unfamiliar of
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—“What’ s in your hand?“ —“ It is a______bill. “ two-thousand dollar two thousand dollars two-thousand-dollar two-thousand-dollars
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By the time the war______, most of the people had already left. broke out broke up intervened happen
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The earthquake happened in______. late 1960s the late of 1960s late of 1960s late of the 1960s
