Modem zoos are different from those built fifty years ago.At that time zoos were places where people could go to see animals from many parts of the world.The animals lived in cages with iron bars（栅栏）.Although the zoo keepers took good care of them,many of the animals did not feel comfortable,and they often fell ill.

    In modern zoos,people can see animals in more natural conditions.The animals are given more freedom in larger places so that they can live as they would in nature.Even the appearance of zoos has changed.Trees and grass grow in cages,and water flows through the places the animals live in.There are few bars;instead,there is often a deep ditch（沟）,filled with water,which surrounds a space where several sorts of animals live together as they would naturally.In an American zoo,the visitors can walk through a special huge cage that is filled with trees,some small animals and many birds,and large enough for the birds to live naturally.In a zoo in New York,with the use of special nights,people can observe certain animals that are active only at night,when most zoos are dosed.Some zoos have special places for visitors to watch animals that live in the desert or under water.

    Modern zoos not only show animals to visitors,but also keep and save rare animals.For this reason,fifty years from now,the grandchildren of today's visitors will still be able to enjoy watching these animals.

    When my son, Bob, was in the third grade, he saved all his pocket money for over three months to buy Christmas presents. The third Saturday in December, Bob said he had made his list and had twenty dollars in his pocket.

    I drove him to a nearby supermarket. Bob picked up a basket and went in while I waited and watched in the car. It took Bob over 45 minutes to choose his presents. Finally he came to the checkout counter and reached into his pocket for his money. It was not there! There was a hole in his pocket, but no money. Bob stood there holding his basket, tears falling down his face.

    Then a surprising thing happened. A woman came up to Bob and took him in her arms. "You would help me a lot if you let me pay for you," said the woman. "It would be the most wonderful gift you could give me. I only ask that one day you will pass it on. When you grow up, I would like you to find someone you can help. When you help others, I know you will feel as good about it as I do now."

    Bob took the money, dried his tears and ran back to the checkout counter as fast as he could. That year we all enjoyed our gifts almost as much as Bob enjoyed giving them to us.

    I would like to say "thank you" to that very kind woman, and tell her that four years later, Bob went from house to house collecting blankets and clothes for the homeless people in the fire. And I want to promise her that Bob will never forget to keep passing it on.

    The researchers say a person loses two months for every kilogram overweight they are— and seven years for smoking a packet of cigarettes a day.

    Unusually, the Edinburgh university team found their answers by analysing differences in people's genetic code or DNA. Finally they think it will show new ways of helping us to live longer.

    The group used the genetic code of more than 600, 000 people who are taking part in a natural experiment. If someone smokes, drinks, drops out of school and is overweight, it can be difficult to identify the impact of one specific unhealthy behavior.

    Instead, the researchers turned to the natural experiment. Some people carry mutations(变异) in their DNA that increase(食欲) or make them more likely to put on weight, so researchers were able to compare those programmed to eat more with those who were not. The research team also found specific mutations in human DNA that alter lifespan (寿命).

    Mutations in a gene (a set of instructions in DNA) that is involved in running the immune system could add seven months of life on average.

    People with a mutation that increased levels of bad cholesterol knocked eight months off lifespan.

    A rare mutation in a gene—APOE—linked to dementia reduced lifespan by 11 months.

    And one that made smoking more appealing cut lives by five months.

    Dr Joshi says that while genes do influence lifespan, “you've got even more influence” through the choices you make. Dr Joshi said, “We hope to discover genes affecting lifespan to give us new information about ageing and construct treatment tor ageing.”

    There are also some disease mutations that clearly affect lifespan and to destructive effect, such as the Huntington's gene. People with Huntington's often die in their 20s.

    However, in order to follow people until the end of their lives, many of the people studied were born before 1940.

    "Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts," Marion Brando once said. But for scientists, working out what is going on in an actor's head has always been something of a puzzle.

    Now, researchers have said actors show different patterns of brain activity depending on whether they are in character or not.

    Dr Steven Brown, from McMaster University in Canada, said, "It looks like when you are acting, you are suppressing (压制) yourself; almost like the character is possessing you."

    Brown and colleagues report how 15 actors, mainly theatre students, were trained to take on a Shakespeare role — either Romeo or Juliet — in a theatre workshop. They were then invited into the laboratory, where their brains were scanned in a series of experiments.

    Once inside the MRI scanner, the actors were asked to answer a number of questions, such as: would they go to the party? And would they tell their parents that they had fallen in love?

    Each actor was asked to respond to different questions, based on two different premises (前提). In one, they were asked for their own perspective, while in the other, they were asked to respond as though they were either Romeo or Juliet.

    The results revealed that the brain activity differed depending on the situation being tested. The team found that when the actors were in character, they use some third-person knowledge or inferences about their character.

    The team said they also found additional reduction in activity in two regions of the prefrontal cortex (前额皮质) linked to the sense of self, compared with when the actors were responding as themselves.

    However, Philip Davis, a professor at the University of Liverpool, was unimpressed by the research, saying acting is about far more than "pretending" to be someone — it involves embodying (体现) the text and language.

New movies set holiday eve record

    Chinese moviegoers set a box office (票房) record for the eve of the week—long National Day holiday. By 9:30 p.m. September 30, new movies had brought in 630 million yuan.

    The major movies contributing to the box office record were My People, My Country, The Captain and The Climbers.

    My People, My Country ranked first by bringing in around 270 million yuan. It was made up of seven short stories which were set in historic moments to look back at New China's 70 years of existence. The movie was co-directed by Chen Kaige, Zhang Yibai, Guan Hu, Xue Xiaolu, Xu Zheng, Ning Hao and Wen Muye.

    Another well-received film, The Captain, earned 194 million yuan to occupy second place. Starring actor Zhang Hanyu, the film is based on heroic Sichuan Airlines pilot Liu Chuanjian, who completed one of the most miraculous (奇迹的) emergency landings in China's civil aviation (民航) history.

    Also adapted from real events, The Climbers earned 157 million yuan. With an excellent cast including Zhang Ziyi and Wu Jing, the film is about Chinese mountaineers' climbing to the top of Mount Qomolangma.

    Wu Jing said the film filled a gap in the market, with sports-themed titles quite rare in the world's second-largest movie market.

    Besides the three movies, eight other films will be on during the holiday ending on Oct 7.

By 11:00, Gopamma knew something was wrong. Her husband, Hanutha, should have returned from collecting firewood an hour before. Gopamma sent for her son, who gathered a search party and headed to Bandipur Tiger Reserve, a nearby national park in south-western India. Just inside the forest, they discovered Hanutha's half-eaten remains. The tiger that killed him was still sitting next to the body.

In the face of her husband's death, Gopamma struggled not only with grief but economic hardship. Her son had to drop out of university. "My life was much better when my husband was alive," she says. "My older son could have studied, but now both of my sons have to work. I feel insecure and dependent. "

Despite all this, Gopamma feels no hate toward the tiger that killed her husband. Like many Hindus in India, she views humans and creatures, each with an equal right to existence. Her husband's death, she says, has nothing to do with the fact that the government is trying to save tigers: "This was my fate."

Rural Indians are unique in the world for their high tolerance for co-existing with potentially deadly wildlife. "You don't find this in other cultures," says Ullas, a biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and a leading expert on tigers. "If this kind of thing happened in Montana or Brazil, they'd wipe out everything the next day. "

The country holds just 25% of total tiger habitat, but accounts for 70% of all remaining wild tigers, or around 3, 000 animals today. Success does not come without cost, however. They still have a lot of difficulties with tigers breaking into human-dominated places in certain parts of India, livestock(牲畜) are killed and sometimes so are people.

Some animal activists think that there are too few tigers left in the wild, so even one shouldn't be killed. Tigers are treasures, we'd better live with them together.