The science fiction type of entertainment is considered by mot to be fathered by Jules Verne (A Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) and H. G. Wells (The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds). Sei-Fi, as it is commonly shortened, is a fictional story in which science and technology have a significant influence on the characters and plot. Many such works are guesswork about what the future holds and how scientific findings and technological advances will shape humankind.

    Writing in the late 1800s, Jules Verne was remarkably successful in his 10 guesses about future technologies of air conditioning, automobiles, the Internet, television, and underwater, air, and space travel. Unbelievably, of all places from which to choose, Jules Verne guessed Tampa, Florida, USA as the launching site of the first project to the Moon, which was only 200 kilometers away from the actual 1969 location at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

    One of the best-known science fiction books is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Published in 1949, it was not meant as a prediction, but as a warning: Orwell was describing what he saw as the outcome of the ideas, trends, and emerging technologies of his time. Many invented terms from this novel have become common in everyday use, such as “big brother” and “doublethink”. Even the author's name has been made into an adjective—Orwellian—and has become a warning descriptor for situations where privacy is lost and the individual has no power and is completely controlled by the government. Nineteen Eighty-Four was translated into sixty-five languages within five years of its publication, setting a record that still stands.

    What helps bring science fiction into being is usually a new discovery or innovation. The author creates an analysis of the potential influence and consequences and then wraps it in a pleasant story. For example, the beginning of space exploration was followed a few years later by the Star Trek television program and movie series. The science fiction author's self-determined role is search the world of future possibilities upon the road which we are traveling.

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    One of the most recent social changes taking place in the world is social networking. Social networking has been in existence for at least 150 years, and probably longer than that. In the times before the invention of the computer and the World Wide Web (WWW), social networking was done in person. People who had similar likes and interests would gather together to share experiences, make new friends, and improve their businesses.

    On the Internet, social networking websites made their first appearances during the late 1990s. The first major social networking website in the United States was MySpace. MySpace allowed its users to exchange messages, share pictures, and make new friends in a way that was never thought of in the past. With MySpace, people who did not go out much could reach out to others from their own homes.

    In 2004, Facebook was created. It was first a website created for use by Harvard University's students and teachers, but it soon expanded to include just about everyone. It is now larger than some of the largest companies in the world. It is a website that is changing all the time. Facebook has completely changed the way people stay connected with each other and the rest of the world. The way it works is simple. Users can set up a new account (账户) easily. All a new user needs is an email address to start. Once a person has created an account and his friend also has his own Facebook page, he can invite his friend by sending a request out to him. Once you get started, making new friends will come easily.

    Born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 10, 1928. Philip Levine was formally educated in the Detroit public school system. After graduation from university, Levine worked a number of industrial jobs, including the night work in factories, reading and writing poems in his off hours. In 1953, he studied at the University of Iowa. There, Levine met Robert Lowell and John Berryman, whom Levine called his "one great guide."

    About writing poems, Levine wrote: "I believed even then that if I could change my experience into poems I would give it the value and honor that it did not begin to have on its own. I thought too that if I could write about it, I could come to understand it: I believed that if I could understand my life-or at least the part my work played in it-I could write it with some degree of joy, something obviously missing from my life."

    Levine published (出版)his first collection of poems. On the Edge in 1961, followed by Not This Pig in 1968. Throughout his life. Levine published many books of poems, winning many prizes. A review said: "Levine writes poems about the bravery of men, physical labor, simple pleasures and strong feelings, often set in working-class Detroit or in central California, where he worked or lived."

    He taught for many years at California State University, Fresno, and served as Distinguished Poet in Residence for the Creative Writing Program at New York University. After retiring from teaching, Levine divided his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Fresno, California, until his death on February 14, 2015. His final poem collection, The Last Shift, as well as a collection of essays(短文)and other writings, My Lost Poets, A Life in Poetry, were published in 2016.

    From American Express, wedding guests will, on average, spend $673 on each wedding they attend this year. It includes airfare （$225）, hotel （$170）, dining out （$116）and dressing up （$95）and the gift. If you have weddings to attend this year, here are some tips for you to avoid breaking the bank.

    ⒈Book flights in advance

    The moment you decide to attend a wedding is the time to check flight prices at the best time. Plane fares are higher in the summer, especially in July and August. Booking in advance will save you money, as will watch for sales on lower﹣cost carriers like JetBlue and Frontier. You can check Google Flights for a calendar of prices showing the cheapest days to fly from apps like Hopper to get real﹣time alerts when a fare is at its lowest price point.

    ⒉Don't blow your budget on the gift

    If you've got the money, an expensive gift is lovely. But there's no need to take out loans to prove your love for the happy couple. Skip an expensive necklace by giving （an appropriate amount of） cash instead. To save on the gift, consider making one： A photo album or scrapbook of memories with the bride and groom shows how much you care. You could also share the gift with other guest(s) or even make gifts with DIY ideas by yourself to save money.

    ⒊Use old dresses and suits

    You don't always have to be on a new dress for a wedding. While men have the option of repeating their suits, women are more likely to spend money on new clothes for the special occasion. But before you take out your wallet, consider reinventing something already in your closet. Belts, colorful scarves, shoes can bring life to any outfit.

    On March 25, 2010, Kate and David heard the words every parent dreads: Their newborn wasn't going to make it. Their twins­a girl and a boy­were born two minutes apart and 14 weeks premature, weighing just over two pounds each. Doctors had tried to save the boy for 20 minutes but saw no improvement. His heartbeat was nearly gone, and he'd stopped breathing. The baby had just moments to live.

    "I saw him gasp (喘息), but the doctor said it was no use," Kate told the Daily Mail five years later. "I know it sounds stupid, but if he was still gasping, that was a sign of life. I wasn't going to give up easily."

    Still, the couple knew this was likely a goodbye. In an effort to cherish her last minutes with the tiny boy, Kate asked to hold him.

    "I wanted to meet him, and for him to know us," Kate told Today. "We'd resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to lose him, and we were just trying to make the most of those last, precious moments."

    Kate unwrapped the boy, whom the couple had already named Jamie, from his hospital blanket and asked David to take his shirt off and join them in bed. The first-time parents wanted their son to be as warm as possible and hoped the skin-to-skin contact would improve his condition. They also talked to him.

    "We were trying to persuade him to stay," Kate told the Daily Mail. "We explained his name and that he had a twin that he had to look out for and how hard we had tried to have him."

    Then something miraculous happened. Jamie gasped again­and then he started breathing. Finally, he reached for his father's finger.

    The couple's lost boy had made it.

    "We're the luckiest people in the world," David told Today.

    Eight years later, Jamie and his sister, Emily, are happy and healthy. The couple only recently told the kids the story of their birth. "Emily burst into tears," Kate said. "She was really upset, and she kept hugging Jamie. This whole experience makes you cherish them more."

Smoking is harmful.But as soon as you quit the habit, everything will be OK,right?Wrong.

New research has found that even if you give up smoking, the damage it has done to your genes will stay there for a much longer time.In the research, a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16,000 people.Among them, some were smokers, some used to smoke, and the rest were non-smokers.Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7,000 genes of smokers had changed--a number that is one-third of known human genes.

According to NBC News, both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes.Some people may have had the changes when they were born, but most people get them in their day-to-day lives while doing things like smoking.

When you stop smoking, a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years.

This means your body is trying to heal (治愈) itself of the harmful effects of smoking.But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer.They can stay for as long as 30 years.It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement (水泥)—it will always be there,even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry.

Although the study results may make people unhappy, there is a bright side:the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer risks.