The Trans-Siberian Railway is a single train line that crosses nearly the complete length of Russia, from Moscow to Vladivostok. It covers a total of 5,772 miles, running from Europe to Asia. Unlike the longest flight in the world, which just began transporting passengers in 2018, the Trans-Siberian Railway started its business in 1916.

    Anyone who has taken this long journey, or even just part of it, will tell you that it travels at a rather slow speed, passing through some amazing, remote areas of Russia. You don't have to make the full journey without stopping. Instead, you're suggested to get off where there are attractive views, since it stops in some pretty fantastic places. But you certainly can take the full journey non-stop. If you do, the trip will take about 144 hours—six full days!

    You can book tickets with travel agencies. You can also make the booking online and tickets will be sent to your hotel or personal address. Children under 4 years old accompanied by adults can travel free, but cannot take up a seat. A child ticket needs to be bought if you want to get a seat for the child.

    There are longer railway services in the transportation world, but only one of them is a passenger line as some longer routes transport goods, not travelers. This railway may not be the fastest or the most modern, but it's clearly still an important player in the transportation world!

    Two Chinese sisters have landed a dream trip to Buckingham Palace and the Peppa Pig World theme park in the UK. Lately, their mother helped them express their wish online to meet Queen Elizabeth II, which not only caught millions of social media users' attention but also the attention of the British ambassador (大使) to China.

    Five-year-old twins Mi Ai and Mi Ni, who live in Beijing, appeared in a video on social media platform Weibo last week, where they spoke of their love of British cartoon Peppa Pig and their keen interest to visit the Buckingham Palace. Mi Ni said she and her sister wanted to visit the gardens at Buckingham Palace, just like Peppa Pig and her friends did in the cartoon program.

    The British Ambassador answered their call with her own video, inviting the twins to her house in Beijing. "Hello Mi Ni and Mi Ai," she said. "I'm the British ambassador. I'd like you to come and visit me in my house in Beijing and we can perhaps have tea and cookies in a British style." The twins accepted the ambassador's invitation and joined her for a traditional afternoon tea on Monday, when they ate cake and drew pictures of their favorite characters from Peppa Pig.

    The ambassador has made arrangements for the girls and their parents to tour the UK. They are going to tour the studios where Peppa Pig is made, take a trip to Peppa Pig World in Hampshire and visit Buckingham Palace. The queen has not yet said if she will have time to welcome the girls.

    The Peppa Pig series, introduced in the mid-2000s in China, has become extremely popular among Chinese children and adults. As this year is the Year of the Pig according to Chinese tradition, the country has set to mark the Chinese New Year with a film starring Peppa Pig, where audiences can see a number of Chinese cultural elements (元素).

    Katherine Johnson, a brilliant mathematician at NASA (美国宇航局), began working on the space program in the 1950s. Many of NASA's first missions were made possible by her amazing calculations (计算).

    As a child, she loved to count. Her father placed great importance on education and insisted all four of his children go to college, working overtime to pay for it. Johnson said this atmosphere was important to her success. "I was always around people who were learning something. I liked to learn." She said.

    Johnson graduated from high school at 14 and college at 18. In 1953, Johnson started to work for NASA, doing the math that powered engineers' work. Then, because of her outstanding talent, she was moved to work on rockets with an all-male flight research team. As for Johnson, her calculations contributed to many of NASA's most important projects. In 1961, with the help of Johnson's work, Alan Shepherd became the first American to go into space. Johnson also lent her unbelievable talent to the success of the Apollo 13, which had trouble getting back to earth. She worked hard to calculate a safe path back to Earth for the astronauts.

    Johnson retired in 1986, but her huge contribution to the space program has only been reaching the public attention for the past few years. Part of that is because, as she is the first to admit, science is based on collaboration. "I never took any credit because we always worked as a team, it was never just one person," she said in a 2010 interview.

    Earlier this year, NASA named a new data center after her. She was also given a Silver Snoopy award, which recognizes "outstanding performance, contributing to flight safety and mission success."

    Students perform less well in final exams if smartphones are allowed in class, for non-academic (非学业的) purposes in lectures, a new study in Educational Psychology finds. Students who don't use smartphones themselves but attend lectures where their use is acceptable also do worse, suggesting that smartphone use damages the group learning environment.

    Researchers from Rutgers University in the US performed an in-class experiment to lest whether dividing attention between smartphones and the lecturer during the class affected students' performance in within-lecture tests and a final exam. 118 students at Rutgers University took part in the experiment during one term of their course. Smartphones were not allowed in half of the lectures and allowed in the other half. When smartphones were allowed, students were asked to record whether they had used them for non-academic purposes during the lecture.

    The study found that having a smartphone didn't lower students' scores in comprehension tests within lectures, but it did lower scores in the final exam by at least 5%, or half a grade. This finding shows for the first time that the main effect of divided attention in the classroom is on the length of time in keeping memory, with fewer things of a study task later remembered. In addition, when the use of smartphones was allowed in class, performance was also poorer for students who did not use them as well as for those who did.

    The study's lead author, Professor Arnold Glass, added: "These findings should alarm students and teachers that dividing attention is having a not obvious but harmful effect that is damaging their exam performance and final grade. To help manage the use of smartphones in the classroom, teachers should explain to students the alarming effect—not only for themselves, but for the whole class."

    This is the first-ever study in an actual classroom showing a relationship between losing attention from smartphones and exam performance. However, more researches are required to see how students are affected by using smartphones after school.

    HSC, mid-terms, finals, no matter how you describe them, exams have something in common—including how to study well.

    Plan a study timetable

    Make sure you will cover your material in time with a realistic study timetable. . With a plan in place, you'll be less likely to put off your work as knowing how you will use your time will also mean you make best use of it.

    Give yourself the best environment by choosing somewhere with enough light, a comfortable chair, and little to no distractions. Sit down with all that you need — and only the things you'll need — like any books, notes or pens, as well as some water and healthy snacks on hand. Also ask what you don't need. A rule of thumb is if it doesn't help you study, it shouldn't be on your desk. It may look so simple but is really effective to help you focus on your study.

    Keep healthy: sleep, eat and move

    When exams come around somehow there never seems enough time for the basic things like sleep and exercise. Taking care of your health and wellbeing will really help you study at your best by improving your memory, mood and energy levels, and keeping those stress levels down. . Eating three meals and sticking to healthy snacks throughout the day will give you the energy you need to focus. A good aim is 20-30 minutes of exercise but even a walk nearby during study breaks will do you good!

    My mom is the most positive person I know. She has a/an 1 spirit, sees the good in all people, and always sees 2 in any situation. I grew up in a 3, positive home environment, where there were always family 4 and lots of laughter.

    I have fond memories of my mom taking us to 5 every Saturday morning. While my brother and I would have rather stayed home on our day off from school, she had us 6 her to help people in Roanoke, Virginia who needed groceries (食品杂货) to feed their families. While she did her service role, we helped to prepare bags of food. 7, this got to be something we looked forward to and we always left feeling 8 about what we did.

    My sweet mom 9 made doing housework enjoyable. The best 10 I learned from her that sticks with me today is "O-H-I-O". Growing up, my mom would 11 me a pile of clean clothes and I would 12 set them on the floor, 13 to put them away later. My mom would say, "Kids, you've got to 14: OHIO! That means Only Handle It Once. When I give you clothes, put them away in your 15 as soon as I give them to you so they are only in your hands 16."

    Today, as a forty-two-year-old wife and stepmom, when I pick up my mail or bring clean, 17 clothes to my room, I hear my 18 mom's voice in my head: "Remember, OHIO!" Most of the time, I take those extra two minutes to handle things only once and put them in their 19 place. Who knew that this girl from Virginia would learn such a/an 20 lesson about OHIO that stays with me still today? Thanks, Mom!