Books at Amazon: Best sellers of the month—Feb, 2018
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi—February 6, 2018
Hardcover: $15.91 Audio book: $29.99
An extraordinary novel. Freshwater explores the amazing experience of having another self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Freshwater is a sharp call of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that shows how we all construct our identities.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur—February 16, 2018
Hardcover: $18. 00 Paperback: $8.99 Audio book: $8.99
A collection of poetry and prose (散文) about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity (女性). It is split into four chapters，and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere; if you are just willing to look.
Educated by Tara Westover—February 13, 2018
Hardcover: $16.80 Paperback: $28.00 Audio book: $6.00
An unforgettable biography about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the sadness that comes from severing one's closest ties.
Force of Nature by Jane Harper—February 20, 2018
Hardcover: $17.10 Paperback: $23.41 Audio book: Free
An attractive novel from the author of the Sunday Times top 10 best seller. Five women go on a hike. Only four return. When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path. But one of the women doesn't come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.
It's a classic story: Kids are forced to learn an instrument from a young age, they play it throughout their childhood, and they develop a bittersweet relationship with it. Is the constant battle between the love for the music and the hate for the constant challenge worth the fight? For me, it was.
I started playing the piano when I was four—that was 15 years ago! This was huge commitment, so there must have been something worth holding on to, right?
The easy guess is that I was purely in love with music and piano. Although that's the sweeter tale, it's a bit more complicated. I struggled a lot with piano. Family and peers were, at least in my own head, constantly placed beside me in competition. I felt stressful to be the best in order to prove something to others—and more devastatingly (破坏性地) to prove something to myself. The seed of my musical interest was grown in the sunlight of competition and doubt. Hate sprouted (滋生) when my self-criticism hit too hard.
It's difficult to learn to love something that didn't originate from love. For a while, piano was more of an annoyance than a hobby. But somehow, love grew. It was deeply buried. But it was there, and by high school, it was strong enough that when I was truly on the edge of quitting any kind of formal training. I found the strength to hold on tighter, and dig further. I switched teachers, and got incredibly lucky with one who helped me tunnel into what I loved. I learned pieces for myself, I composed for myself, and I found confidence not because I got "good enough," but because I learned that anything I had was good enough.
The love and hate I've had for the piano were both planted and grown. If you too have learned to hate something, remember that with commitment, it can be uprooted, and love can make a home in its place. There is always time. There is always room.
It's a struggle to learn a second language at any age. Now, in a new study, scientist have found out the exact age after which your chances of reaching fluency in a second language seem to plummet: 10.
The study published in the journal Cognition, found that it's "nearly impossible" for language learners to reach native-level fluency if they start learning a second language after age 10. "It turns out you're still learning fast," says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne. "It's just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old," People who start a few years after age 10 may still become quite good at a language, the authors say, but they are unlikely to become fluent.
Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for sound reasons. Children's brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they're better able to adapt and respond to new information. Kids may also be more willing to try new things than adults are. Their comparatively new understanding of their native language may also be advantageous.
These findings may seem discouraging, but it was inspiring for scientists to learn that the key period for fluent language learning might be longer than previously thought. Some scientists believed that the window begins to close shortly after birth, while others made it longer to very early childhood. Compared with those judgments, age 17 or 18—when language learning ability starts to drop off—seems relatively old.
For this study, the researchers created an online test promising to guess people's native language and home country based on their responses to English grammar questions. Almost 670,000 people took it, giving the researchers huge amounts of data from English speakers of many ages and backgrounds. Examining the responses and grammar mistakes allowed them to made unusually exact judgments about language learning.
This summer, the interview teams at the North Pole were witnessed wearing short sleeve shirts due to the warm weather. A study published on Aug 29 revealed more concerning issues in the supposedly coldest area of the world. Zombie ice from a massive Greenland ice sheet was confirmed to be melting, which would eventually raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches (27 centimeters) on its own, reported Associated Press (AP).
Zombie ice is the kind of ice that is still attached to thicker areas of ice, but is no longer getting fed by larger glaciers. Since glaciers are getting less snow to complement (补充) the amount of ice melted, once the zombie ice is melted, it cannot be re-formed.
Scientists decided to look at the balance of the ice. In perfect balance, snow in the mountains of Greenland flows down and thickens the sides of glaciers, offsetting what's melting on the edges, according to AP. But in the last few decades, there has been less refill and more melting, creating an imbalance.
Study co-author William Colgan at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland told AP that 3.3 percent of Greenland's total ice volume would melt eventually. "Starving would be a good phrase" for what's happening to the ice, Colgan added.
With a great number of natural resources buried under the earth, areas of melted ice revealed treasures that attracted the world's richest men. According to CNN, in early August, there was a "treasure hunt" in Greenland. Billionaires, including Bill Gates and others, financially backed KoBold Metals, a US-based mineral exploration company, to explore the rare metals under the glaciers in Greenland. The company told CNN that since there were enough minerals to power hundreds of millions of electric vehicles, the critical resource was capable of powering the green energy transition.
Ways to get your laughter back
Through all my school years, laughter was part of my life. My best friend and I came up with a name for the "really good" laughs. We called them Belly Rolls. That may sound silly, but it is the truth. However, after I realized I had "lost" my laughter, the first thing I thought of was how silly I was going to look and sound. . This is how you do it.
. It will be a forced laugh. I know it sounds silly, but trust me, if you can't laugh by yourself and be comfortable, it's even harder to laugh in a social situation when you think people are judging you.
Watch only funny programs on TV and at the movies. Be very selective about what you watch. . If you cannot give up those programs absolutely, then watch only half an hour of them a day. Give yourself a fighting chance and make it a point to bring laughter into your life.
Invite your friends and family to make it funny! Don't wait too long before you start laughing socially. Ask someone close to you to point out the fun in life. Maybe they can promise to tell a joke to you every day or sit with you during a half-hour situation comedy. .
While driving, go over your day and remember everything funny. . Not only will this help you laugh more, but it will keep you feeling happy. If you are spending all your time remembering the good times you had for the day, it doesn't leave much time to think negatively！
A. In our busy world, laughter seems to have been lost along the way.
B. Look in a mirror and laugh.
C. Laughter is so much more fun when you're with someone else.
D. If you're a heavy watcher of news programs and political stations, it's hard to feel happy.
E. One easy way to find laughter is to watch funny movies on TV.
F. Use this time in a positive way.
G. If you haven't truly laughed for a long time, you have to fake it till you make it.
A soldier returned to his castle at dawn. He was in a mess. His face was bloody; his horse was lame. His 1 met him at the gate, asking, "What has happened to you?"
2 himself up as best he could, he replied, "Oh, Sir, I have been 3 in your service, robbing and burning and killing your enemies to the west."
"You have been what?" cried the 4 king, "But I haven't any enemies to the west!"
"Oh!" said the soldier. And then, after a(n) 5, he continued to say, "Well, I think you do now."
What about you? Do you have enemies to the west? Or in some other directions? None of us will calmly sail through our lives in perfect 6 with everyone we meet. And though most struggles can be settled along the way, and most of our damaged 7 can eventually be healed, some issues may threaten to drive a 8wedge(楔) between people. Sincere morals and political ideas, especially, can divide folks who just hold different positions.
One person said, "I don't have a personal enemy 9. They've all died off. I miss them terribly because they helped define me."
So-called "enemies" can 10 a valuable purpose. If we let them, they can teach us about ourselves. By11 a mirror before us, they can help us 12 what we may have missed. By disagreeing with our ideas, they can 13 our points of view. And, if we allow them, they can 14 help us practice strength and sympathy in the face of criticism.
If enemies cannot become friends, they can become 15. If we listen, they will teach us what our friends cannot.
Computer games represent the first digital media technology is applied to socialization of a generation on large scale and often most of the teenagers in other countries are using these games. But on the other hand, (play) these games excessively (过度地) has caused some worries about the possible side-effects they have on the players. Major (concern) about these games are due to two main factors. First, the amount of time children spend and second, the nature of these games. Some children spend most of (they) time on computer games and ignore other educational-social activities. They are potentially (harm) to children, because computer games may be replaced by other activitites such as homework, free reading or exercising. It has been observed that children (addict) to computer games tend to play more and avoid social contact. A recent study (success) indicates the important statistics about the excessive use and addiction to games. However, the figures are various. For example, in the United States, one out of five (be) addicted to computer games. They may also be used means to satisfy psychological needs of players who play games in an excessive way.
As a college student majoring in engineering, Tom was in bad need of an advanced computer, which would cost him an arm and a leg. Tom chose not to upset his parents with this issue because he didn't want to be dependent on them all the time. After careful consideration, Tom decided that a second-hand computer of high quality would also do and he could afford one with the money he had earned by taking part-time jobs.
One Saturday morning, Tom went into a second-hand computer shop. Luckily for him, he came across a computer of the exact model he wanted. Better still, it was nearly brand new and was sold at just a third of its original price. It meant that if Tom bought it, he would still have 300 dollars left. It seemed too good to be true! Out of curiosity, Tom asked the shop owner why the computer was sold at such a low price. "Oh, it's a sad story," replied the owner, adding that it was from a college student called Steven who was diagnosed with some type of cancer last month and now was badly in need of money for his treatment.
Hearing this, Tom felt truly sorry for the young man who was supposed to have a promising future. But at the same time, he also felt lucky to have this ideal computer for his college life. Without hesitation, he paid the shop keeper, took the computer and went back to his dorm. He couldn't wait to show his computer to his roommates. Everyone in the dorm thought Tom was lucky to have got the computer.
But deep in his heart, he knew something was not going right.
……
With the phone number given by the shop owner, Tom contacted Steven and paid him a visit.
