Health experts are calling for action to increase cancer care and control in the developing world. A medical research paper says cancer was once thought of as a problem mostly in the developed world. But now cancer is a leading cause of death and disability in poor countries as well. Experts from Harvard University and other organizations urge the international community to fight cancer actively, saying it should be fought in the way HIV/AIDS has been fought in Africa.

    Cancer kills more than 7.5 million people a year worldwide. Almost two thirds are in low-income and middle-income countries.

They discover cancer kills more people in developing countries than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. But the world spends only 5% of its cancer resources in those countries.

    Felicia Knaul from Harvard Medical School was one of the writers of the paper. She was in Mexico when she was found to have breast cancer. She received treatment there and her experience showed her the sharp difference between the rich and the poor in treating breast cancer.

    Felicia Knaul says, “And we are seeing how this is attacking young women. It's the number two cause of death in Mexico of women thirty to fifty-four. All over the developing world, it's the number one cancer-related death among young women. I think we have to again say that there is much more we could do about it than we are doing about it. ”

    Professor Knaul met community health workers during her work in developing countries. They were an important part of efforts to reduce deaths from the cancer. They were able to persuade people to get tested to prevent the illness. The experts say cancer care does not have to be costly. For example, patients can be treated with lower-cost drugs.

    Can you imagine a world without music? Studies show that public schools across the country are cutting back on music classes to save money. Worse, some schools have never had music classes to begin with. But without them, students' academic growth and emotional health could suffer. In fact, music classes are necessary for all students in schools.

    Recent studies by Brown University have shown that students who received music education classes were better in math and reading skills than those without music classes. Another study by The College Board found that students taking music and art classes got higher points. Students' academic success seems to depend on their taking part in music education.

    Music programs in public schools also help to add to a student's sense of pride and self­confidence. Teens today have too many learning tasks. Besides, they have family problems, self­confidence problems, relationship troubles, and choices about drugs and alcohol. All of these can stop academic success, but music education can help. A study by The Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse found that students who took part in school music programs were less likely to turn to drugs. Music programs encourage students to work together to produce an excellent performance.

    Music crosses language, class, cultural and political boundaries (界限). Music allows students from different countries to connect. For example, at a school talent show, a new Japanese student played a piano duet (二重奏) with an American classmate. Although they could not communicate verbally (口头上), they were able to read the music in order to play the duet. Two students from different cultures worked as a team with self­confidence and common purpose through music.

    The gift of music is priceless. We need to be sure to have necessary music classes for all students. The world is losing its music, and putting music into schools is the first step to get it back.

    When it comes to climate change, there are always some new, terrifying consequences to worry about—like ancient viruses and bacteria coming from the ice as the earth warms. Unfortunately, researchers fear we may see more of this in the future.

    Some of these viruses and bacteria may have been trapped for thousands of years, and it's not even totally clear yet what they are, let alone what kind of damage they might have.

    Researchers have met complex “giant viruses” in the melting permafrost(永久冻土) of Siberia. One such virus, 30,000 years old, was still infectious when it was discovered in 2015, though it posed no danger to humans. It turns out that permafrost is excellent at preserving bacteria and viruses that are temporarily inactive, and then become reactivated with warming.

    Scientists have discovered Spanish flu viruses in dead bodies buried in 1918 in the Alaskan tundra (冻原). When close to half of the population of a Siberian town in the 1890s died of smallpox (天花), their bodies were buried in the permafrost along the Kolyma River. The banks of that river are now beginning to wear away amid global warming, the BBC reports.

    In Siberia in August 2016, some 100 people and 2,300 deer were infected with anthrax(炭疽) in the first outbreak in the area since 1941. One boy died from the disease. Scientist believed the anthrax had been trapped in the body of a long-frozen dead deer and became active during particularly hot summer of 2016, releasing the bacteria cells into the environment.

But even in warmer climates, rising temperatures can help grow and spread dangerous diseases. Over a decade ago, researcher Paul Epstein prophesied the possible spread of mosquito-born illnesses as a result of climate change. “Mosquitoes are sensitive to temperature changes,” he said. “Warming speeds up their rates of reproduction and the number of blood meals they take, makes their breeding (繁殖) season long, and shortens the maturation period for the germs they spread” — all of which makes them more efficient at spreading disease.

    An idea that started in Seattle's public library has spread throughout America and beyond. The concept is simple: help to build a sense of community in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time.

    In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all, the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus, as well as promoting reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched (发起)the "If All of Seattle Read the Same Book" project in 1998. Her original program used author visits, study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book, but the idea has since expanded to many other American cities, and even to Hong Kong.

    In Chicago, the mayor(市长)appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the "One Book, One Chicago" program. As a result, reading clubs and neighbourhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US, stories emerged of parents and children reading to each other at night and strangers chatting away on the bus about plot and character.

    The only problem arose in New York, where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns, where a greater sense of unity(一致)can be achieved. Or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point, putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself.

    Ultimately as Nancy points out, the level of success is not measured by how many people read a book, but by how many people are enriched by the process or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not otherwise have shared a word.

    Throughout much of human history, man has been the measure of many, if not all, things. Lengths were divided up into feet and smaller units from the human hand. Other measures were equally characteristic. Mediterranean traders for centuries used the weight of grains of wheat to define (定义) their units of mass. The Romans used libra, forerunner of the pound, by referring to the weight of a carob (角豆树) seed.

    The sizes of similarly named units could also differ. The king's foot, used in France for nearly 1, 000 years after its introduction by Charlemagne in around 790 AD, was, at 32.5cm, around a centimeter shorter than the Belgic foot, used in England until 1300.Greek, Egyptian and Babylonian versions of water in a fixed container varied from one another by a few kilos, Nor was there agreement on such things within countries. In France, where there was no unified (统一的) measurement system at the national level, the situation was particularly terrible. The lieue (former measure of distance), for example, varied from just over 3 km in the north to nearly 6 km in the south.

    Although John Wilkins, an Englishman, first put forward a decimal system (十进制) of measurement in 1668, it was the French who in 1799 made it law. The Système International d'Unités (SI, or the metric system, as it is better known) developed from it and became the official measurement in all countries except Myanmar, Liberia and the United States. Now the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris is set to give the metric system its biggest shake-up yet.

    At a meeting in Versailles, France, on November 16th, 2018, the world's measurement bodies are almost certain to approve a decision that will mean four out of the seven base SI units, including the kilogram, will follow the other three, including the metre, in being redefined in terms of the values of physical constants (物理常数).Each of the chosen constants has been measured incredibly precisely, which would mean that from May 20^th 2019 the constants will themselves be fixed at their current values for ever. Any laboratory in the world will then be able to measure, for example, the mass of an object as precisely as the accuracy of their equipment will allow.

    Free Online Drawing Classes

    Drawing is a skill you can learn at any age. When you are ready, you can learn the basics of drawing by taking one or more of the free online drawing classes offered here. The websites all offer helpful instruction for beginning artists, and many of them offer classes at intermediate (中级的) or high levels. When you use the websites as your art instructors, you can log on to learn whenever you please.

    Artyfactory

    The Artyfactory Art Lessons Gallery offers free online art lessons that include basic drawing classes for pencil, ink and colored pencil. For visitors who want to expand their knowledge of art, the site also offers an Art Appreciation Gallery and a Design Lessons Gallery.

    Academy of Art University

    This free video class from the Academy of Art University called "How to Draw a Head" teaches you how to draw a head from a photo or from memory. The instruction is mainly on facial proportion (比例), expression and drawing basics.

    How to Draw It

    The How to Draw It website offers a simple approach to drawing animals and people. The animal tutorials (教程) are super easy to do, while the people lessons are a bit more difficult. All are free to visitors and making fast progress in your drawing skills is possible.

    Free Online Art Classes

    This site covers a range of art classes, but there are several free drawing tutorials for online learners, including: Learn Basic Drawing, Draw with Pen and Ink, and Learn Colored Pencils. Some of the classes are downloadable and some are in video form.