Many parents may think that each new sibling (兄弟姐妹) offers their children the gift of companionship. But while we tend to think that siblings teach one another conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills, new research says they are no better off socially than children without siblings. "Most studies look at the negative consequences of having siblings in terms of educational outcome," said Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, lead author of Good for Nothing? Number of Siblings and Friendship Nominations Among Adolescents. "But we decided to look at social skills to see if there was any other possible benefit to having brothers or sisters." She and her co-author, Douglas Downey are sociologists at Ohio State's Marion campus, and neither is an only child. They presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in August.The paper is in large part a reply to a previous study, Playing Well With Others in Kindergarten: The Benefits of Siblings at Home, also co-authored by Dr. Downey, which found that kindergarten teachers rated children without siblings worse in interpersonal skills, self-control and problem behaviors. But an only child isn't necessarily a loner and misfit. First, the social advantages found in children with siblings in the kindergarten study were quite modest. Second, the study relied on teacher evaluations, and teachers may not be reliable judges of friendships among their charges. And now it seems that any benefits documented in kindergarten disappear altogether by middle school. Using a metric called "peer nomination (提名)," Dr. Downey and Dr. Bobbitt-Zeher found that children without siblings had just as many friends as children with siblings. "I see the two studies as a natural progression, showing what happens to the only children who didn't have much interaction before kindergarten," Dr. Downey said. Another study he is working on shows that the same only children evaluated in kindergarten had caught up by fifth grade. While the studies don't examine the cause for the disappearing social boost to kindergartners with siblings, Dr. Downey speculates that continuing school, youth clubs and other group activities—especially in an era of overscheduled children—provide sufficient opportunity for onlys to sharpen their skills.

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A proverb allegedly from ancient China was widely spread in the West: "If you want to be happy for a few hours, go to get drunk: if you want a lifetime happiness, take up gardening." The reason for the last option is this: Gardening is not only useful, but it helps you to identify yourself with nature, and thus brings you new joy each day besides improving your health. A research of a US university that I've read gives a definition of happiness as what makes a person feel comfortably pleased. To put it specifically, happiness is an active state of mind where one thinks one' s life is meaningful, satisfactory and comfortable. This should be something lasting rather than transitory. Lots of people regard it the happiest to be at leisure. But according to a study, it is not a person with plenty of leisure but one at work that feels happy, especially those busy with work having little time for leisure. Happiness does not spell gains one is after but a desire to harvest what one is seeking for. People often do not cherish what they already have but yearn for what they cannot get. That is somewhat like a man indulging in fond dreams of numerous lovers while reluctant to settle down with the woman beside him. Happiness is a game balancing between two ends—what one has and what one wishes for, e.g. one' s dream and the possibility to realize it. The study comes to this conclusion: A happy man is one who aims high but never forgets his actual situation: one who meets challenges that tap his ability and potentiality: one who is proud of his achievements and the recognition given to him. He has self-respect and self-confidence: treasures his own identity and loves freedom. He is sociable and enjoys wide-range communication with others: he is helpful and ready to accept assistance. He knows he is able to endure sufferings and frustrations: he is sensible enough to get fun from daily chores. He is a man capable of love and passion.

我们要加强校园安全工作。

清洁的空气对于健康是至关重要的。空气中含有杂质(impurities)，这些杂质会被我们的身体吸收，让我们生病。我们需要清洁的空气，但不幸的是，目前普遍存在着空气污染，尤其是在城市里。城市里有许多食品厂、服装厂和制造其他东西的工厂。每天这些工厂把千百万吨烟灰排入空气，大大污染了空气。现今，世界上还没有一个彻底摆脱了空气污染的地区。我们必须采取措施来控制空气污染。

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生活在移动互联网时代，大学生们已然离不开网络。一些颇具创新力的学生从微博(microblog)和微信(WeChat)中看到了商机。桂林一所大学的三名学生注册了一个微信送餐账号。现在他们每天处理2000多份订单，给同学们的生活带来了许多便利。更多的学生选择了网上开店，出售各种物品。通过创业，大学生们不仅可以挣到自己的学费，更重要的是培养了实践能力。

The US Congress A) The US congress is the legislative branch of the federal government. It is a bicameral (两院制的) law-making body of more than 500 members. Its two chambers are respectively called the House of Representatives and the Senate. The American two-house legislature, a product of the compromise between big states and small ones, embodies the American principle of balances and checks. All bills must carry both houses before becoming laws. B) The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Congress. The membership of the House is distributed among the states according to their different populations. Since 1910, the House has had a permanent membership of 435, with each Representative representing about half a million Americans. Under the principle that each state is guaranteed at least one representative, Nevada, a state with a small population, sends only one Representative to the House. California has more than 40 Representatives in the House because of its large population. C) The election of Representatives is organized by the state legislature which divides the state into a number of districts known as Congressional districts. Each district, with a population of nearly half a million, elects one Representative to the House. A Representative's term of office is set at two years, but there is no limit to the number of his terms. A new Representative can hardly feel easy about his position. Hardly has he begun his work in the Congress when he finds it's time for him to seek re-election. D) The Senate is the upper house of the US Congress. Representation in the Senate is based on the principle of state equality. The Senate is comprised of 100 Senators, two from each of the fifty states. Senators have been directly elected by voters of their respective states since 1913. Their term of office is six years. With one-third of the Senate seats up for election every two years. A Senator must be at least thirty years old and a citizen for nine years. E) Generally speaking, Senators are accorded greater prestige than their colleagues in the lower house. Many Representatives aspire to win the election to the Senate. Senators derive their prestige from the following facts. They are less numerous, for there are fewer than one fourth as many Senators as Representatives, or Congressmen. Elected by the whole state instead of a single congressional district, most Senators represent more constituents (选民) than do House members. They are less worried by the problem of seeking re-electives. What's more, the Senate has special powers which it does not share with the House. It has the power to approve or deny proposed treaties, nominations proposed by the President. In line with the tradition of "senatorial courtesy (礼貌)", the Senate always rejects a nominee who is objected to by a Senator of the state from which he comes. F) It won't do to neglect the importance of the Senate in foreign affairs. Without its cooperation and support, the President can hardly take any significant action in foreign relations. A Secretary of State on good terms with the Senators is always important for the President. Foreign countries must try to establish good relations with the US Senate if they intend to make a bargain with the United States. G) The presiding (主持的) officer of the Senate is the Vice President who functions as a kind chairman when the Senate is in session (开会). The chief spokesman of the House is known as the Speaker who is the leader of the majority party in the House. The Speaker is the most influential figure in the House because he directs his party's forces in legislative battles. H) The Congress is a legislative body, but it relies on its various committees to do preparatory work. The Senate and the House have several dozen standing and special committees to deal with problems of different natures. The seats of the committees are divided between the two parties in proportion to their respective membership in the Congress. But the committee chairman is always a member of the majority party who has been in the Senate or the House without interruption for longer than anybody else on the committee. The custom is known as "seniority rule". I) Most proposed laws in the Congress are known as bills. All bills introduced during a two-year congressional term are designated "HR" in the House and "S" in the Senate, with consecutive (连续的) numbers assigned in order in which they are introduced in each house. After this, the bills are referred to the relevant committees for further study. J) To assess the bill at its true worth, the relevant committee usually organizes its sub-committee to conduct detailed study. There is no doubt that the sub-committee will study the literal sense of the bill. But it also holds meetings with the citizens who want to state their opinions about the bill. These meetings are commonly known as hearings. The purpose of the sub-committee in holding these hearings is to obtain information on the bill before it. The sub-committee may summon people to appear at the hearings and to testify. After finishing study of the bill, the sub-committee will report the result to the full committee. The committee chairman then has a choice between two things. He can send the bill to the house for further consideration. He can also postpone, or kill it by putting it aside and not reporting it. For this reason, a committee chairman is regarded as an important person in the Congress. It won't do to neglect them.

Which Low Carbon Technology Is Now a Reality? A)With fossil fuels expected to supply over 70% of the world's energy needs by 2040, we face some urgent questions: where should efforts be focused in reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Which technologies hold the most promise? There are a range of low-carbon solutions and given the challenge, we will need them all. We hear a lot about the advances being made by refreshable sources of energy such as solar, wind and hydro-electricity and these are certainly valuable technologies in combating climate change. But how can we really make a major impact in reducing carbon emissions from large power plants and industrial facilities? Enter carbon capture and storage—or CCS—a technology that captures CO 2 from fossil fuel production and permanently stores it underground. B)The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO 2 into the atmosphere(from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries). It is a potential means of relieving the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification(酸化). Although CO 2 has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes, including enhanced oil recovery, the long term storage of CO 2 is a relatively new concept. The first commercial example was Weyburn in 2000. CCS can also be used to describe the scrubbing(涤气)of CO 2 from environmental air as a climate engineering technique. C)In November 2014 the Global CCS Institute released its flagship(核心的)publication—the annual Global Status of CCS report. This comprehensive annual update is the prominent source of information on the development of CCS around the world. A lot of work went into updating information in the report, in cooperation with the CCS industry, as there had been quite significant changes to the CCS landscape in the preceding 12 months. This included the launch of a large-scale CCS project in the power sector and the beginning of construction of the world's first large-scale CCS project in the iron and steel sector. D)Large-scale CCS is now a reality in the power sector with the October 2014 launch of the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Project in Saskatchewan, Canada. Boundary Dam is the first commercial CCS plant in the power sector, removing 90 per cent of the CO 2 produced by electricity generation from lignite(褐煤)coal at Production Unit No. 3 of the SaskPower facility. The captured CO 2 is primarily used for enhanced oil recovery(EOR)at the nearby Weyburn oil field, although amounts are also to be stored in deep geological formations at the Aquistore site. The success of the Boundary Dam project and the progression of additional projects through planning and construction, indicates that CCS technologies for application in the power sector are "market ready". E)The next 18 - 24 months will see CCS be applied across a range of industries and storage types. A further two large-scale CCS power projects are in construction in the US—the Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi and the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project in Texas. Both projects are expected to be operational in 2016. Also in the US, the Illinois Industrial CCS project planned for launch later this year will capture CO 2 from the Archer Daniels Midland corn-to-ethanol(乙醇)plant in Decatur, Illinois for storage in an onshore deep saline formation. The Abu Dhabi CCS project in the United Arab Emirates is under construction and from 2016 will provide the world's first large-scale demonstration of CO 2 capture from iron and steel production. F)In addition to the 22 large-scale CCS projects currently in operation or construction around the world, 14 projects are in advanced stages of planning, many of which are likely to be in a position to make a final investment decision over the coming year. Together this group of projects covers a range of applications for CCS and could extend to around ten in the number of large-scale CCS projects operating in the power sector by the end of the decade. Their progression to operation would add experience in the dedicated geological storage of CO 2 and see operational large-scale CCS activity extend to China for the first time. G)2014 saw commercial application in the power sector become a reality and we can look forward to a further expansion across a diverse range of industries in the coming years. The Global CCS Institute continues to cover developments in CCS with up-to-date information, expert insights, workshops, media releases and online seminars. We struggle to make CCS industry information easily accessible and encourage you to engage with us via our website and regular publications. H)For detailed information on large-scale CCS projects please visit our online Projects page, which you can browse or search for projects based on stage, region, industry or capture, transport and storage type. For the first time the Institute's website contains project descriptions for around 40 lesser scale "remarkable" CCS projects, of which four Japanese "remarkable" CCS projects were the key focus of a chapter in the Global Status of CCS report. For ongoing expert information visit our Insights page, which is regularly updated with articles from experts in carbon capture and storage, public engagement, legal issues and policy developments. I)To join in the discussion you can attend meetings and workshops around the world, and participate in online seminars where you will have the opportunity to listen to and ask questions of a range of experts. Visit our Events page to see upcoming meetings, conferences, workshops and seminars. Finally, for a range of up-to-date news and more detailed information, visit our news and publications sections. We look forward to covering this exciting period in the development of CCS and providing you with the latest information and important issues for the sector.

2013年10月30日，中国第一所 网络文学大学 (online literature university)成立。 诺贝尔文学奖得主 (Nobel Literature Prize Laureate)莫言担任 名誉校长 (honorary principal).该大学由多家网络文学网站共同创建，邀请各大文学网站的作家和编辑担任教员。网络文学大学的建立旨在为文学爱好者提供免费的培训，帮助他们尽快走上职业道路。学员足不出户就能通过网络在家接受文学知识培训。预计每年将约有10万名学员从中受益。

家庭是社会的基本单位，其结构随着社会的发展而变化。在中国几千年的 封建社会 (feudal society)里，绝大部分家庭是几世同堂，家里的大事由男人做主。近百年来，中国的家庭观念发生了很大的变化，中国家庭的结构也随之改变了许多。人口众多的大家庭开始分成较小的家庭和 主干家庭 (stem family)，也出现了众多的由一对夫妇和未婚子女组成的 核心家庭 (nuclear family)。

If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky. If you say to your children "I'm sorry I got angry with you, but..." what follows that "but" can render the apology ineffective: "I had a bad day" or "your noise was giving me a headache" leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology. Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say "I'm sorry you're upset": this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done. Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying "I' m useless as a parent" does not commit a person to any specific improvement. These pseudo-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness, Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies. But even when presented with examples of genuine contrition, children still need help to become aware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old might need reminding that spoiling other children' s expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that raiding the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent' s clothes without permission is not.

{{B}}Part III Reading Comprehension{{/B}}

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