Many parents have learned the hard way that what sounds like open communication is often the very thing that closes a youngster's ears and month. One common mistake is The Lecture, the long monologue that often starts with “When I was your age….” Eighteen-year-old Kelly calls lectures “long, one-side discussions in which I don't say much.”

    Kids reflexively（条件反射地） shut down in the face of a lecture. Their eyes glaze over(呆滞), and they don't register any incoming information. Listen to 13-year-old Sarah describe her least favorite times with her mom and dad. “First, they scream. Then comes the ‘We're so disappointed' speech. Then the ‘I never did that to my parents' lecture begins. After that, even if they realize how ridiculous they sound, they never take it back.”

    Lines like “When you have children of your own, you'll understand” have been seriously said by parents since time immemorial. But many of our expert parents, like Bobby, a registered nurse and mother of three, feel that by falling back on clichés（陈词滥调） to justify our actions, we weaken our position.

    Since kids are creatures of the here and now, the far-off future has no relevance to them. Therefore, good communicators like Bobby suggest, “Give specific reasons for your actions in present language: ‘I'm not letting you go to the party because I don't think there will be enough adult supervisions（监护）.'”

    Betty, who lives in Missiouri, uses an indirect approach. “I find that warnings are accepted more readily if I discuss a news article on a subject I am concerned about. My husband and I talk about it while our children absorb the information. Then they never think I'm preaching.”

    This really helped when Betty's kids began driving. Instead of constantly repeating “Don't drink; don't speed,” she would talk about articles in the paper and express sympathy for the victims of a car crash. Betty made no special effort to draw her kids into the conversation. She depended on a teen-ager's strong desire to put in his opinions-especially if he thinks he isn't being asked for them.

    There is no doubt that many parents want to mold (塑造)their child to be better, faster, smarter and more skilled. Even though human parents can't do that, a robot that builds its own children can. Scientists at the University of Cambridge in England have created a mother robot that not only creates its own children, but tests out their performance.

    The mother robot analyzes(分析)the performance of each of the “children” it creates, and passes down good characters to the next generation

    For example, as the mother creates them and puts them to work, she measures how they're behaving, and she uses data from this behavior to create the next generation of robots.

    The mother robot can actually build hundreds of child robots and see the performance of these child robots. And if their performance is good, keep their design for the next generation. And if bad, just let it go.

    “We program the robots based on some functions that define(规定)the reward the robots are going to get, depending on the construction that they make. They cannot change their own reward. For the child robot, the longer the distance the robot walks, the better the reward it receives,” said Fumiya Iida, the lead researcher.

    After several generations, the “children” were running twice as fast.

    “The mother robot produced 500 robots to see which one is good and which one is bad,” said Iida.

    The researchers believe that the machines can be used in a car factory, for example, where robot cameras examine each ear in production line, find out any mistakes, and then design a better car.

    Alexander John Jordan was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1914. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wisconsin. After about one year of college, Alex dropped out.

    Alex then went from job to job. He drove a taxi and worked for Royavac. He also worked for his father's construction company, where Alex got his basic knowledge of construction.

    In the 1940s, Alex discovered Deer Shelter Rock and began having small picnics on the top of the rock. He then started bringing his tent and camping out. One night, his tent got blown away and from that day, Alex decided he wanted to build something more stable. That was the beginning of his dreams. Alex started off by renting the rock and a bit of land around it from a local farmer. He first built a small studio with a fireplace. Then Alex, with his parents' help, bought 240 acres of land, so he could build as he pleased. What took shape on and around Deer Shelter Rock was truly a wonderful achievement. More wonderful still is the fact that he built much of the original house by himself, carrying the materials up the 75-foot-high rock.

    As curiosity grew surrounding his project, more and more people came to visit the House on the Rock. Alex decided to charge people 50 cents to visit, thinking that would drive them away; however, people gladly paid the fee. In 1960, Alex decided to open the House on the Rock to the public. This increased the interest and the crowds grew. All of the money taken in over the years was put directly back into the House. Alex was devoted to the House on the Rock. It was his life and dream.

    From roller coasters to adventure tours performances to experiments, there are plenty of exciting attractions in the UK. Here is our pick of the best attractions that children can visit.

    The Natural History Museum

Why go: This really is the grandfather of all London museums—the beauty of the building and the amazing exhibits. Look out for the whale skeleton(骨架) occupying the entry hall, but don't miss the largest piece of gold (or a model of it) in the minerals gallery. You can easily spend a day here—tasty steaks, sandwiches and pizzas. Try to avoid weekends, because the crowds are larger

    Best for: Children aged 5 and over. If time is limited, families should go quickly and directly towards the dinosaur gallery, because it's really wonderful.

    Details: Entry is free, although there is a charge for some temporary exhibitions

    Legoland

    Why go: Some 80 million Lego bricks have gone into the creation of this colourful park. There are thrilling rides and countless ways to spend money in shops. Yes, the queues can be long (unless you pay extra for the queue-jumping equipment, which is useful though it does not cover all rides)

    Best for: Legoland is aimed at children under10s, with pre-schoolers particularly well catered for in Duplo Valley

    Details: ￡32 per person; under 3s go free. 25 per cent discount for booking online more than seven days in advance.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London —The Making of Harry Potter

    Why go: You've read the books, you've watched the films, but no Harry Potter fan will want to miss the chance to go behind the scenes at the film studios where all eight of the movies were made. Sharing the secrets behind the most successful film series of all time and yet still managing to keep the sense of magic alive, this studio tour gives visitors access to two locations filled with original sets and costumes

    Best for: Children aged 7 and over, and anyone with an interest in filmmaking

    Details: ￡39 adults; ￡31 children; under 4s go free

Guide to Stockholm University Library

    Our library offers different types of studying places and provides a good studying environment.

Zones

    The library is divided into different zones. The upper floor is a quiet zone with over a thousand places for silent reading, and places where you can sit and work with your own computer. The reading places consist mostly of tables and chairs. The ground floor is the zone where you can talk. Here you can find sofas and armchairs for group work.

Computers

    You can use your own computer to connect to the wi-fi specially prepared for notebook computers; you can also use library computers, which contain the most commonly used applications, such as Microsoft Office. They are situated in the area known as the Experimental Field on the ground floor.

Group-study places

    If you want to discuss freely without disturbing others, you can book a study room or sit at a table on the ground floor. Some study rooms are for 2～3 people and others can hold up to 6～8 people. All rooms are marked on the library maps.

    There are 40 group-study rooms that must be booked via the website. To book, you need an active University account and a valid University card. You can use a room three hours per day, nine hours at most per week.

    Storage of Study Material

    The library has lockers for students to store course literature. When you have obtained at least 40 credits, you may rent a locker and pay 400 SEK for a year's rental period.

    Rules to be Followed

    Mobile phone conversations are not permitted anywhere in the library. Keep your phone on silent as if you were in a lecture and exit the library if you need to receive calls.

    Please note that food and fruit are forbidden in the library, but you are allowed to have drinks and sweets with you.

    In 2019, a big revolutionary technology shift will finally occur, which is called 5g. It is a once-in a-decade upgrade(升级)to our wireless systems that will start reaching mobile phone users in a matter of months. This new times will leap ahead of current wireless known as 4g by offering mobile internet speeds that will let people download an entire 120-minute movie within a second

    But this is not only about faster smart phones, but also will affect many other kinds of devices, including industrial robots, security cameras, drones(无人机), automatic cars, video games, sports, shopping and traffic data. With 5g technology, a clearer and truer 3D images will be formed and it can be off-loaded to other machines wirelessly, freeing users to move and making it easier to develop goggles(目镜)the size of eyeglasses. People can point a smart phone camera to a football game and see both live video on the display and player statistics or other data. Moreover 5g powerful effects extend to remote medical surgery and other fields that increasingly rely on high-speed connections.

    Officials in the United States and China regard 5g networks as a heated competitive edge. It can help spread the use of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. Meanwhile, to get the benefits of 5g, users will have to buy new phones, while carriers will need to install new communication services, which will create a huge future market. In order to occupy it first, the famous world wireless service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, Samsung, Huawei have already declared that they will enter 5g business and showed their 5g new smart phones.

    However, in the United States, Verizon and AT&T will offer their 5g service with first use of high frequencies known as millimeter waves that can pump data at high speeds, but their signals don't travel as far. Instead Sprint and T-Mobile plan to start with lower frequencies, whose result may be somewhat slower initial speed, but wider range, although they all claim that they have mastered 5g technology. Thus they only first target the areas with large population. So 5g's full benefit to all are not expected until the main US key carriers upgrade their key switching equipment, which may happen in late 2019 or early 2020.