Six people are about to find out what it would be like to live on Mars—without ever leaving the Earth.

Three men and three women will spend eight months living in a special habitat on the side of a volcano in Hawaii. They are part of an experiment being done by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that is designed to mimic (模仿) life on Mars.

Some people may become unhappy or bored living under those conditions. Certain personality types may not get along, and living together for a long time could cause them to argue.

By studying people living in similar conditions here on Earth, NASA hopes to learn how to choose the best people for a space mission, and how to help them get along.

The crew (全体工作人员) will live in a two-story dome-shaped (圆顶形) building. The dome is located in an area about 2,400 metres up the side of Mauna Loa, the second biggest volcano in the world. Mauna Loa is an active volcano, but it has not erupted since 1984. It is monitored all the time for signs of volcanic activity. NASA chose the location because the environment there looks very similar to Mars.

During the experiment, the crew will only be able to communicate by email. To make it more like being on Mars, there will be a 20-minute waiting time between the time a message is sent and when it is received. That means it will take 40 minutes to get a reply to an email.

The crew will be performing scientific work while they are there, including some trips outside the dome. When they go outside, they will have to wear spacesuits, just as if they were on Mars.

The commander of the crew is Martha Lenio, a 34-year-old Canadian. Lenio studied engineering and is interested in space exploration and environmental problems. During the mission, she will run experiments on growing food and making compost (堆肥) inside the dome.

The other crewmembers have backgrounds in physics and astronomy. They were chosen from about 150 people who applied to take part in the experiment. None of them are astronauts.

The Pygmalion fleet refers to a possible influence that people’s expectations can have on other people’s performance. Therefore, it directly links the initial expectations we have about a person’s abilities and the performance that this same person ends up having.

High expectations lead to better performance and low expectations lead to worse; both effects are called the self-fulfilling prophecy (自我实现预言). It is interesting to analyze the self-fulfilling prophecy because it can affect us both positively and negatively. The positive effect is referred to by the term “Pygmalion effect”, which strengthens the characteristic you want to influence, and it produces an increase in self-esteem (自尊). We call the adverse effect “Golem effect”, which produces a decrease in people’s self-esteem and their performance.

The Pygmalion effect can also be called the Rosenthal effect. Rosenthal was a professor of social psychology at Harvard University who, together with Lenore Jacobson, carried out a famous experiment to see the effects of the self-fulfilling prophecy in education.

Rosenthal and Jacobson gave a non-verbal (非语言的) intelligence test to the students at the beginning of the course, informing the teachers that the analysis predicted the intelligence level of the students. Then, they selected, without any regular plan, a sample of 20% of the students in each class, thus creating the experimental group. The teachers were informed that the selected “good students” had greater potential for progress, while for the rest they did not say anything, the latter becoming the control group.

After eight months, an intelligence test was passed on to all the students and the conclusion Was that those students who had been rated as more intelligent had improved more than the rest. This experiment allowed scientists to show that the positive expectations of those around us have a direct good effect on our performance and our results. They create a better atmosphere and are more open to giving information and encouragement. A person is not “still” and permanent, but is changing and developing through their experiences. Educators have a role that can be vital in making up for socioeconomic differences among students, and are able to strengthen those that can have added difficulties to reach their greatest potential.

Campuses should be safe places for children to learn and develop. However, the movie, Better Days, released on Oct 25 , highlights a serious issue—school bullying. Some experts say people should treat bullying seriously and not regard it as a joke. School bullying involves hurtful words, physical attacks, even sexual violence.

【小题1】In quite a few cases, a child is bullied merely because another sees him/her as being weak in strength or character, and he or she is singled out for violence.

That the offenders are just children does not mean bullying is simply high spirits or that the children are just being naughty. 【小题2】and it does not matter how old the perpetrator（施暴者）of the violence is or what form it takes.

It is not helpful for parents and teachers to ignore the matter by saying it is a private affair between the children and they can solve it by themselves. 【小题3】All violence should be prevented, and the most effective way of preventing bullying on campus is to call the police and let the professionals deal with it. 【小题4】

Bullying is a serious offense. While there may be no visible harm, it can leave invisible scars and wounds that can prove fatal over time. According to data from the United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization, over 32 percent of male pupils and 28 per-cent of female pupils suffer from campus violence with many suffering serious emotional and psychological problems as a result. 【小题5】