What makes people happier: money or having happy friends and neighbors? Researchers from Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego, have found an answer as part of a study.

Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler based the study on the emotional health of almost five thousand people. They used information gathered over a period of twenty years, until 2003, in the Framingham Heart Study. That study began sixty years ago in Framingham, Massachusetts, to learn more about the risks of heart attack and stroke.

The new study found that friends of happy people had a greater chance of being happy themselves. And the smaller the physical distance between friends, the larger the effect they had on each other’s happiness.

For example, a person was twenty percent more likely to feel happy if a friend living within one and a half kilometers was also happy. Having a happy neighbor who lived next door increased an individual’s chance of being happy by thirty-four percent. The effects of friends’ happiness lasted for up to a year.

The researchers found that happiness really is contagious（可蔓延的，传染的）. Sadness also spread among friends, but not as much as happiness.

People removed by as much as three degrees of separation still had an effect on a person’s happiness. Three degrees of separation means the friend of a friend of a friend.

The study showed that having an extra five thousand dollars increased a person’s chances of becoming happier by about two percent. But the researchers found that the influence of a friend of a friend of a friend can be greater than that. 

Another finding is that people who are married or work together do not have as much of an effect on happiness as friends do.

The findings appeared in the British Medical Journal. The National Institute on Aging in the United States helped pay for the study.

The study is described as the first to demonstrate the indirect spread of happiness. In other words, that your emotions can be affected by someone you do not directly know.

Earlier studies by the two researchers described the effects of social networks on obesity and efforts to stop smoking. The new study shows that happiness spreads through social networks like an emotional virus — a virus people would be happy to catch. 

Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!

The fast day would be a busy one. I should call to me all my dear friends and look long into their faces, imprinting(刻上) upon my mind the outward evidences of the beauty that is within them, I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a baby, so that I could catch a vision of the eager, innocent beauty which precedes the individual's consciousness of the conflicts which life develops.

And I should like to look into the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs--the serious, clever little Scottie, Darkie, and the strong, understanding Great Dane, Helga, whose warm, tender, and playful friendships are so comforting to me.

On that busy first day I should also view the small simple things of my home. I want to see the warm colors in the carpets under my feet, the pictures on the walls, the lovely small furniture that transforms a house into home. My eyes would rest respectfully on the books in dot-raised type which I have read, but they would be more eagerly interested in the printed books which seeing people can read, for during the long night of my life the books I have read and those which have been read to me have built themselves into a great shining lighthouse, showing me the deepest channels of human life and the human spirit.

In the afternoon of that first seeing day, I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate (使陶醉) my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature trying desperately to absorb in a few hours the vast brilliance which is presenting itself to those who can see. On the way home from my woodland trip, my path would lie close to a farm so that I might see the patient horses ploughing in the field and the peaceful content of men living close to the soil. And I should pray for the glory of a colorful sunset.

When dusk had fallen, I should experience the double delight of being able to see by artificial light which the genius of man has created to extend the power of his sight when Nature brings darkness.

In the night of that first day of sight, I should not be able to sleep, so full would be my mind of the memories of the day!                                  (by Helen Keller)

Everyone needs a break, and vacations are not meant for serious study. Instead, they’re a great way to take a break and enjoy a good book. The Spring Festival is coming up so this is the perfect time to discuss some great English language literature to take on a long train journey or while you’re hanging out with the family.

Before getting into the recommendations, we need to determine your English reading comprehension level so you don’t pick a book which is so challenging that it’s stressful or so simple that it’s boring.

If you’re at the beginner level, there are two options: reading a children’s book or reading a book that you’ve read in Chinese translation. This will help you get over any unfamiliar words or phrases, since you’re already familiar with the story. If you’re at the intermediate level, popular books like pop fiction, mysteries and thrillers are good options, as they’ll be guaranteed page turners and that will increase the possibility of your getting all the way through the book. For advanced readers, science fiction, classic works of literature or contemporary prize winners （Booker, Nobel, Pulitzer） are good options.

The most important thing is to pick a book that you’re really interested in. When I pick up a new book in Chinese, the first few chapters are always really hard to get through, as I have to get accustomed to the way the individual author uses the language. But after the first few chapters, things get a lot easier, especially if I get involved in the story. Some of my favorite Chinese-language eye candy are books that are series like Brothers by Yu Hua or The Dancer by Hai Yan. I like them because there’s always a lot of action and story development to keep me involved, which helps me make it through those first few chapters.

Another great way to keep yourself motivated over the holiday is to find a friend who’s interested in reading the same book. You can make goals that you both want to achieve and discuss plot lines or vocabulary issues with each other by SMS or e-mail. I’m currently doing that with my friend Laura. We’ve been doing this since we were classmates in Chinese at college.

Some quick recommendations: Harry Potter, start with the first book and go on from there; the Narnia series; anything by US writer Michael Crichton or British writer Agatha Christie; and if you like horror, US writer Stephen King is always unusual and fun. But really you should just find a topic or author that you’re interested in, and the rest will go from there. Happy reading!

－from 21st Century （January 21, 2009）

Educating girls quite possibly harvests a higher rate of return than any other investment (投资) available in the developing world．Women’s education may be an unusual field for economists (经济学家), but increasing women’s contribution to the development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And economics, with its focus on incentives (刺激), provides an explanation for why so many girls are deprived of (剥夺) an education.

       Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else’s family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school —trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环) of neglect (忽视).

      An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a virtuous circle (良性循环).

       Few will argue that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling.

Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.

Topic: The significance of female education in（71）?▲   countries

Celebrating sleep

World Sleep Day, observed on 21 March, was created to bring attention to the growing number of sleep problems worldwide. Sleep is a natural part of human life, but many people in the modern world ignore its importance. As a result, sleep problems are increasingly common.

In 2002, scientists at the University of Athens in Greece conducted a survey of over 35,000 people in 10 countries around the world, including China, Belgium and South Africa. Of the people that responded to the survey, 24 percent said that they did not sleep well, and based on their responses, 31.6 percent were diagnosed(诊断) with insomnia(失眠) and another 17.5 percent were diagnosed with borderline insomnia. In addition, 30.7 percent of survey respondents reported visiting a doctor for help with sleep problems and 11.6 per cent said that they felt very sleepy during the day.

Overall, the survey found that many people suffer the effects of poor quality sleep, some examples of which are being unable to fall asleep and waking up in the middle of the night. The main factors causing these problems are pressure from school or work and a fast pace of life, but noise pollution and light pollution also interfere with sleep and contribute to poor quality sleep. The survey’s findings are particularly troubling because large numbers of people were found to have difficulty sleeping at night. The short-term effects of this are tiredness and trouble concentrating. If this happens for a long time, the risk of gaining weight and having a heart attack may increase.

There are many things you can do to improve the quality of your sleep. First, you should have regular sleep habits. Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day. You also need to make your bedroom a cool, dark, quiet place to sleep so that heat, light and noise do not disturb you. At night, you should also avoid things that contain caffeine, such as chocolate, coffee, tea and many soft drinks, as caffeine may keep you from sleeping.

Getting a good night’s sleep is important for everyone. By following the advice above, you can rest better at night and work better during the day.

Title: Celebrating Sleep

Most people feel lonely sometimes, but it usually only lasts between a few minutes and a few hours.

This kind of loneliness is not serious. In fact, it is quite normal. For some people, though, loneliness can last for years. Now researchers say there are three different types of loneliness.

The first kind of loneliness is temporary. This is the most common type. It usually disappears quickly

and does not require any special attention. The second kind, situation—for example, family problem, the death of a loved one, or moving to a new place. Although this kind of loneliness can cause physical problems, such as headaches and sleeplessness, it usually does not last for more than a year.

The third kind of loneliness is the most severe. Unlike the second type, chronic（the opposite of

“temporary”）usually lasts more than two years and has no specific cause. People who experience habitual loneliness have problems socializing and becoming close to others. Unfortunately, many chronically lonely people think there is little or nothing they can do to improve their condition.

Psychologists agree that one important factor in loneliness is a person’s social contacts, for example,

friends, family members, co-workers, etc. we depend on various people for different reasons. For instance, our families give us emotional support, our parents and teachers give us guidance, and our friends share similar interests and activities. However, psychologists have found that, though lonely people may have many social contacts, they sometimes feel they should have more. They question their popularity.

Psychologists are trying to find ways to help habitually lonely people for two reasons: they are unhappy and unable to socialize and there is a connection between chronic loneliness and serious illness as heart disease, while temporary and situational loneliness can be a sad, and sometimes dangerous condition.

Loneliness and Diseases

Every year there are hundreds of earthquakes in different parts of the world. In Sept.1923, Tokyo and Yokohama were both destroyed by an earthquake and the fires that followed it. They had to be completely rebuilt. One of the most serious earthquakes was in China’s Shanxi Province in 1556. It killed almost one million people.

   We measure an earthquake’s strength on the Richter scale. The Richter scale was introduced in 1935 in Southern California in the USA. It measures earthquakes on a scale of one to ten. Any earthquake measuring five or more is usually serious.

   The earth’s crust (地壳) is made up of layers of rock called plates. As these plates move, they sometimes crash against each other, causing the crust to quake. In cities such as Tokyo, where small quakes happen quite often, many modern buildings are designed to be flexible so when the earth moves, they move with it.

   Earthquakes can also break up gas or oil pipes. This can cause fires to break out, which can do as much damage as the earthquake itself.

   Another effect of earthquakes is tsunamis (海啸). These are huge waves created by earthquakes beneath the sea. They can be many metres high and cause great damage to coastal towns and cities.

   China, Japan, Russia and the USA have the highest occurrence (发生) of earthquakes in the world.

When we think about giving help to developing countries, we often think about giving money so that these countries can build schools and hospitals, buy food and medicine, or find clean water supplies. These seem to be the most important basic needs of the people we are trying to help. However, it’s far from enough. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to come up with some better ideas to help them.

I was very surprised, then, when I read about a plan to make cheap laptop computers for children in developing countries. A man called Nicholas Negroponte invented a cheap laptop computer, which can run without electricity. He decided to invent this computer after he visited a school in Cambodia.

The laptop which Mr. Negroponte has designed is a little different from the normal laptop computers you can buy in the shops. One difference is that it will be covered in rubber so that it is very strong and won’t be damaged easily. As an electricity supply can be a problem in developing countries, the computer also has a special handle（把手）so that children can wind（摇）the computer up to give it extra power when needed.

These special laptop computers will cost less than 100 US dollars and Mr. Negroponte wants to build as many as 15 million machines in the first year of production. The idea is that these computers will help the children’s education as they will be able to access the Internet. These computers might not help the people in developing countries immediately, but by improving children’s education they should help people to find their own solutions to their problems in the long term.

Another idea to help children in developing countries is to recycle old mobile phones so that they can be used again. In the UK, and, probably in many other countries too, millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year. The waste created by throwing away these old phones is very bad for the environment, so it seems to be an excellent idea to recycle them. In this way we will be able to achieve two important goals at the same time. We will reduce the waste we produce and help others. In other words, we will be able to “kill two birds with one stone”, and that is always a good thing.

(71) ________: Some new and better ways to help developing countries

Most people who travel from China to the US find that，despite having studied English for years，they have to “re—learn” it upon arriving．

    Words that we learned in English classes are not pronounced the same way here．To truly be part of the “melting pot”，fluency（流利）in English is not enough．You need an accent to stand out．

    When I first came to the US for graduate school，1 was a nervous foreigner．I felt so out of place that I wanted to hide everything about me that was “different”．To talk like an American became one of my goals．

    During my first term as a teaching assistant(TA)，my students complained（抱怨） they could not understand me．I learned later from a study that this complaint was common among US students with an international TA．It is called the “Oh, no!” syndrome (情绪、举动)：“Oh，no! Not another international TA，and not that accent again!’’

   So I imitated（模仿）the way native speakers talk and，over time，I made such good progress that American friends started to praise my English as having “almost no accent’’．I took this as a sign of my success．Ever since．people have often mistaken me for someone from many places：the Midwest，the West Coast，China，Japan，South Korea．Most frequently，people think I am from California．

    Suddenly，conformity (一致) was no longer a praise：If I talk like an American，am I still Chinese? If I lose my Chinese accent，do I also lose my cultural identity? Am I denying（否认）my past by being absorbed into（沉浸于）a new culture?

    Now I realize that a person’s accent is a permanent（永久的）record of their past cultural experience and it is a mark of one’s experience and exposure to different cultures．

As a fourth-year student in the US，I am no longer a nervous foreigner．My nervousness has been replaced by a desire to hold on to my cultural origins．Now I consciously（有意识地）add some Chinese “accent” when I speak．I do not wish to speak “perfect” English because I am proud of who I am．

Chinese, unlike many other languages, has a large family of dialects and written forms. Spoken Chinese is specially complex with more than five recognized dialect groups, even the written language with two recognized characters.

The written forms of Chinese include a traditional system of characters and a simplified one. The simplified version of characters came into use in 1949.

Traditional Chinese characters are still widely used throughout Asia and among Chinese people around the world, while the simplified characters are only found in the People’s Republic of China.

It is usually accepted that there are five major dialect groups within the Chinese language group. These are Mandarin, Wu, Min, Cantonese and Hakka.

Mandarin is the official language on the Chinese mainland and Chinese Taiwan. It  is also one of the four official languages of Singapore.

Wu is spoken around the lower Yangtze River and its tributaies(支流). Shanghai is a well-known dialect of Wu.

Min is commonly spoken by people in Taiwan, Fujian and Hainan. Cantonese is mainly spoken in the province of Guangdong. Cantonese is also spoken in many parts of the Chinese Diaspra(移居地), particularly Hong Kong and overseas Chinese settlements in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia. Hakka is the least well-known dialect group inside China compared to the above four. Most of the Hakka dialect group is scattered(散居) throughout southeastern China in Guangxi Province. Historically, the Hakka people were northerners who moved south over several hundred years. Their name Hakka means “guest” indicaing their immigrant(移民) status in the southern areas to which they moved.