Everybody sleeps，but what people stay up late to catch or wake up early in order not to miss varies by culture.

From data collected，it seems the things that cause us to lose the most sleep，on average，are sporting events，time changes，and holidays.

Around the world，people change sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight-saving time（夏令时间）. Russians，for example，began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to“winter time”starting on October 26.

Russia's other late nights and early mornings generally correspond（相一致）to public holidays. On New Year's Eve，Russians have the world's latest bedtime，hitting the hay at around 3:30 a. m.

Russians also get up an hour later on International Women's Day，the day for treating and celebrating female relatives.

Similarly，Americans' late nights，late mornings，and longest sleep fall on three-day weekends.

Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey（冰球）final.

The World Cup is also chiefly responsible for sleep deprivation. The worst night for sleep in the U. K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14. Brits stayed up a half-hour later to watch it，and then they woke up earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights，the phenomenon in which the sun barely sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing，though，compared to Germans，Italians，and the French，who stayed up around an hour and a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch the World Cup.

It should be made clear that not everyone has a tool to record their sleep patterns；in some of these nations，it's likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that's the case，the above findings are still striking. If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings（明显改变）in our sleep levels throughout the year，how much sleep are the rest of us losing？

   "Which college are you going to？"Many high school students are often asked this question. For some，the answer is Harvard，Stanford，Princeton or another famous university. For others，it might be State U，a small liberal arts college or even a community college. Whether high school students' answer is a private top college or a large public university，it should be their best-fit choice.

Admission rates（录取率）of some of the country's top universities have been dropping for years up to now，with many admitting less than 10 percent of applicants. This makes these colleges all the more desirable to some applicants because they think being admitted to one of these highly selective colleges makes sure of success.

The truth is that the name brand doesn't make a college a good choice for you. Just ask one of the students who were admitted to all eight Ivy League colleges this year. He turned them all down to attend the University of Alabama，which best met his financial and academic needs.

Just like anything else in life，when something is a good fit，it works. Students that attend colleges that match their academic，social and financial needs，while still providing an academically challenging environment，are more likely to graduate on time. On the other hand，students who attend colleges that are not a good fit are more likely.to struggle，feel anxiety and stress，and fail to get out in four years. In fact，some of the colleges with the highest graduation rates aren't in the Ivy League.

It's a good fit that leads to good results — not the name of a school. Just look at some of the colleges with the highest starting salaries. Colleges like Montana Tech and Oregon Health & Science University are among the top 10 colleges with the highest early-career salaries-with Stanford and the Ivy Leagues only making the top 25.

No single college is going to be a great fit for every student，and this especially applies（适用）to the Ivy Leagues and other well-known colleges. That a college just has a famous name doesn't mean it's going to make sure of success in college or your career.

Selfie

Social media and the mobile web have given rise to a strange phenomenon called the selfie. But not everyone is familiar with the term, so here’s a brief definition. 【小题1】 Everyone takes selfies, but the younger crowd seems to be especially involved in the trend. Some selfies are extreme close-ups, other show part of an arm held straight outward and a few of the great ones even feature the subject standing in front of a bathroom mirror so that they can get a full body shot of their reflection. 【小题2】 Since social media is the driving force of most selfie activity, younger kids interested in staying connected to their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. are more active in sharing selfies on a regular basis.

Who knows what kind of psychological factors drive any specific person to take a selfies and upload it to a social networking site. 【小题3】

Here's one. Not only are young people plugged into the web at all times, but they also have more self-esteem issues—and many of these teens or college kids might upload selfies to deal with their own self-consciousness. 【小题4】 When you feel good or look good about yourself, it's far too easy to reach for you phone and document it all through one or several selfies. Kids who are connected on a social network to someone they admire may be more driven to upload attractive selfies as a way to seek attention, especially if they're too shy to do it in person.

Besides, there are people who are bored at work, bored at school, etc. So they will take selfies because they have nothing else better to do. Last but not least, social media is about being social! If that means uploading as many selfies as possible, then so be it. 【小题5】 They just do it because they like to do it, it's fun, and it’s a cool way to sort of document your own life.

   Thousands of Burbank students biked to school on Wednesday morning and the children at Community Day School were not going to miss out on the event.

With the help from two local bicycle enthusiast groups，the campus' 25 middle and high school students were able to pedal（骑）down the bikeway for a 10-mile morning bike ride.

Krohn, headmaster of the school，considered having her students participate in Walk/Bike to School Day. But when she found most of her students had no bicycles, she connected the Bike Angels, who donate （捐赠）bicycles to children in Burbank during the holidays.

“The bikes that the Bike Angels get are donated, but so many of them are broken,” said Ernie, one of Krohn's teachers, an eager cyclist with some knowledge of bike repairs. “So we made judgements about what needed to be done. ”

As word spread about their efforts, a member from the WalkBike volunteered to help Ernie, and some students also stepped up to help repair the bikes in time for the event.

One of Ernie's students, 16-year-old Jacob, volunteered on Saturdays to help fix bicycles for his classmates. “I had a bike with a broken tire that I wanted to use to come to school. I asked my teacher if he could help me fix bikes, he taught me everything, and later I started volunteering there. I just started loving fixing bikes. ” He added that he planned to continue volunteering with the Bike Angels to repair bicycles for the community.

Ernie said that the biking event ended up with more students participating in a nationwide event in the US.

   As is known to all, nowadays many students are interested in studying abroad.

Attending schools abroad has many advantages. First, by looking at our own country from outside, we can best see the strong points and weak points of our nation and therefore broaden our minds. Second, while studying in a foreign country, we can travel widely, visiting famous scenic spots and making friends with the local people. Third, we can use the foreign language in our daily life so that our ability in that language may be improved quickly. But the most important is to learn advanced(先进的) science and technology. For all these advantages, it is really worthwhile to go abroad for education.

However, as everything has two sides, there are also some disadvantages in attending a foreign university. The most serious problem is the language barrier(障碍). Most of the students who are ready to go abroad do not prepare themselves well for the new language environment. As a result, on arriving there, they will find it difficult to understand what the instructors are saying in class. Besides, for not knowing about the customs and way of life of the local people, they may run into trouble in dealing with various situations. Therefore, misunderstandings foten arise. Furthermore, the cost of living is much higher than that in our country, so most students have to find part-time jobs in order to help support themselves. Faced with these difficulties, many students find themselves unable to pay full attention to their studies and some students may even fail in their courses and learn little.

Therefore, given an opportunity to attend a school abroad, one must consider the factors carefully before making up his mind. On the one hand, it is a good thing to go and study abroad. But on the other hand, one must not neglect(忽视) the disadvantages.