Facebook is an Internet-based social network site that lets people get in touch with family and friends and reach out to people with common interests around the world, all through computer. It is very popular, with more than 900 million users. If Facebook were a country, it would have about three times the population of the United States.

    Documents filed with US. financial regulators say Facebook has hundreds of millions of active users who send billions of messages each day and upload 250 million photographs on their personal pages. Facebook users have registered 100 billion “friends.”

    On Facebook, “Friending” someone means you add the person to your list of people you can communicate with directly, which often allows the person to see more information about you than you share with the general public.

    Facebook was started by Mark Zuckerberg and other students at Harvard University in 2004, and has grown at an amazingly fast pace.

    Facebook makes money when advertisers pay to get access to hundreds of millions of Facebook users. Advertisers can often direct their messages to the people most interested in their products because Facebook computers keep track of information that users place on their pages. For example, a person interested in diving, planning a wedding, looking for work, or suffering from diabetes(糖尿病) may see advertisements related to those topics.

    Facebook has become so much a part of the culture of the United States and other nations that it has been the subject of a Hollywood movie. It is a key marketing tool for many businesses, and its users' content has been used as evidence in some divorce or criminal cases.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    This brief book is aimed at high school students, but speaks to anyone learning at any stage of life.

    Its formal, serious style closely matches its content, a school-masterly book on schooling. The author, W. H. Armstrong, starts with the basics: reading and writing. In his opinion, reading doesn't just mean recognizing each word on the page; it means taking in the information, digesting it and incorporating it into oneself just as one digests a sandwich and makes it a part of himself. The goal is to bring the information back to life, not just to treat it as dead facts on paper from dead trees. Reading and writing cannot be completely separated from each other; in fact, the aim of reading is to express the information you have got from the text. I've seen it again and again: some one who can't express an idea after reading a text is just as ineffective as someone who hasn't read it at all.

    Only a third of the book remains after that discussion, which Armstrong devotes to specific tips for studying languages, math, science and history. He generally handles these topics thoroughly and equally, except for some weakness in the science and math sections and a bit too much passion (激情) regarding history to his students, that was a hundred times more than my history teachers ever got across. To my disappointment, in this part of the book he ignores the arts. As a matter of fact, they demand all the concentration and study that math and science do, though the study differs slightly in kind. Although it's commonly believed that the arts can only be naturally acquired, actually, learning the arts is no more natural than learning French or mathematics.

    My other comment is that the text aged. The first edition apparently dates to the 1960s—none of the references(参考文献) seem newer than the late 1950s. As a result, the discussion misses the entire computer age.

    These are small points, though, and don't affect the main discussion. I recommend it to any student and any teacher, including the self-taught student.

    People who multitask all the time may be the worst at doing two things at once, a new research suggests. The findings, based on performances and self-evaluation by about 275 college students, indicate that many people multitask not out of a desire to increase productivity, but because they are easily distracted and can't focus on one activity. And “those people turn out to be the worst at handling different things,” said David Sanbonmatsu, a psychologist at the University of Utah.

    Sanbonmatsu and his colleagues gave the students a set of tests and asked them to report how often they multitasked, how good they thought they were at it, and how sensation-seeking (寻求刺激) or imperative (冲动) they were. They then evaluated the participants' multitasking ability with a tricky mental task that required the students to do simple mathematical calculations while remembering a set of letters.

    Not surprisingly, the scientists said, most people thought they were better than average at multitasking, and those who thought they were better at it were more likely to report using a cellphone while driving or viewing multiple kinds of media at once. But those who frequently deal with many things at the same time were found to perform the worst at the actual multitasking test. They also were more likely to admit to sensation-seeking and impulsive behavior, which connects with how easily people get bored and distracted.

     “People multitask not because it's going to lead to greater productivity, but because they're distractible, and they get sucked into things that are not as important.” Sanbonmatsu said.

    Adam Gazzaley, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not a member of the research group, said one limitation of the study was that it couldn't find out whether people who start out less focused tend toward multitasking or whether people's recognizing and understanding abilities change as a result of multitasking.

    The findings do suggest, however, why the sensation-seeker who multitask the most may enjoy risky distracted driving. “People who are multitasking are generally less sensitive to risky situations.” said Paul Atchley, another researcher not in the group. “This may partly explain why people go in for these situations even though they're dangerous.”

    The British are known for their sense of humor. However, it is often difficult for foreigners to understand their jokes. The main point to remember is that the British often use understatement.

     Understatement means saying less than you think or feel. For example, if someone gets very wet in a shower of rain, he might say, “It's a little damp (潮湿的) outside.” Or, if someone is very impolite and shouts at another person, someone else might say, “She isn't exactly friendly.” Understatement is often used in unpleasant situation or to make another person look silly. Understatement plays an important part in British humor.

    Another key to understanding British humor is that the British like to make fun of themselves as well as others. They often laugh about the silly and unpleasant things that happen to our everyday life when someone accidently falls over in the street. They also like to make jokes about people from different classes of society. They like to make jokes about their accents, the way they dress and the way they behave. What's more, the British love to watch comedies (喜剧) about people who do not know how to behave in society. The comedies series Mr. Bean is a good example of this kind of humor.

    Mr. Bean is the character created by British actor Rowan Atkinson in 1990. Mr. Bean doesn't talk often, and instead he uses his body movement and facial expressions to make people laugh. Perhaps what makes Mr. Bean so funny is that he does things that adults in the real world cannot do. Mr. Bean is popular in many countries around the world because you do not have to speak English to understand the humor. Because of this, many people have become familiar with the British sense of humor.

Things to Do in Atlanta

    Need a run-down of the top things to do this weekend? Here is what's on in Atlanta.

    In the Mood

    Date: May 22 through May 26, 2018

    Time: 2:00 pm—5:30

    Phone: 770-916-2800

    If you love the music of the 1940s, then here's what you need to do this Sunday. Go to a 1940s musical show at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. The music of Glenn Millet has a distinctive sound. No need to ask me twice. Are you "In the Mood"?

    Party With the Penguins(企鹅)

    Date: May 20 through May 25, 2018

    Time: 11:30 am—2:00 pm

    Phone: 404-581-4000

    Celebrate Penguin Awareness Day at Georgia Aquarium's annual Party with the Penguins. The party will feature fun activities, including the chance to see an African penguin up close and team how to help protect this in-danger species.

    Callanwolde Arts Festival

    Date: May 21 to May 22, 2018

    Time: 10:30am—5:30pm

    Phone: 404-872-5338

    Located at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, this event is a festival for artists and by artists, letting them have a voice in the creation and operations of the festival. If you are of the artistic persuasion or enjoy a creative scene, don't miss out.

    Foollio's Hoodilly Storytime

    Date: May 21 through May 27, 2018

    Time: 1:00 pm—4:30 pm

    Phone: 404-523-3141

    We make up a brand-new story every week. Come and enjoy a new story each tithe at Dad's Garage Theatre. Little ones will get to help provide key parts of the story and even add in their own jokes. Interactive and out-of-the-ordinary fun for kids and parents!

When we meet someone for the first time, we usually get a vague sense of what kind of person they are by the way they shake hands, talk, or walk. In the age of social networking, however, first impressions are sometimes made even before we actually meet someone in person—that is, by looking at their profile photo.

    According to a recent study, these social images say a lot about our personality. In the study, presented in a paper at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in the US used software to analyze the profile pictures of 66,000 users of US social platform Twitter and 3,200 of their tweets. At the same time, about 434 participants were asked to complete a survey about their personality type. The researchers wanted to find out if there was a connection between personality traits—like openness, extroversion, and neuroticism(神经质)—and a person's profile picture.

    According to the results, open people are more likely to pose in an unusual way and use objects such as glasses or a guitar in their profile photo because they enjoy new and exciting experiences. Meanwhile, neurotic people often hold back their negative emotions. They try to avoid showing their face；Instead, they use an image of something like a pet, a car or a building.

    Apart from the objects in profile pictures, the colors used in them also give us some hints about the photo's owner. For example, extraverts were found to have the most colorful profile images, as they want to emphasize their personality and show themselves off, the researchers wrote.

    Although social media photos "usually represent an extension of one's self, they also allow a user to shape his or her own personality and idealized view," according to the researchers. So, when choosing a profile photo, maybe we should ask ourselves first what kind of image we'd like to convey. After all, first impressions always last.