Students in many countries are learning English. Some of these students are little children. Others are teenagers. Many are adults. Some learn at school, others learn by themselves. A few learn English over the radio, on TV, or in films. One must work hard to learn another language.

    Why do all these people want to learn English? It's difficult to answer this question. Many boys and girls learn English at school because it is one of their subjects for study. They study their own language, math, English, and so on. Some people learn it because it is useful for their work. Many people learn English for their work and higher studies, because at colleges or universities some of their books are in English. Other people learn English because they want to read newspapers or magazines in English.

    Employers and managers must never ignore the need for an office or industrial first aid kit. The federal government says that every workplace should be equipped with first aid kits and that employees should be taught first aid.

    Good preparation can prevent unnecessary injury, lose of productivity(生产效率), or even law suits when a workplace emergency occurs.

    An employer must first provide the proper number of first aid kits for his workers. Many kits are available for sale online by industrial first aid kit suppliers. Kits designed for ten workers cost about $15 and kits designed for fifty workers cost about $80. There are kits also available for a small office，a vehicle，or work sites. Kits should be stored in a portable(轻便的), durable, watertight container. Fix the kit to the wall so that it is easily seen and reached in an emergency. Include a list of kit's contents to ensure it is always fully stocked.

    Show each worker where the kit is located and what tools it contains. Educate each worker about possible injuries and which ones will require immediate medical attention from professionals.

    The American Red Cross sells industrial first aid kits that meet the United States' Occupational Safety and Health Administration's requirements. Several types of kits are available. The Personal Protection Kit contains gloves, gowns, and masks to protect workers from dangers like blood and bodily fluids. It costs about $15. The American Red Cross also sells industrial first aid kits for 25 or 50 workers that are both very cheap.

    Do women make BETTER astronauts? Russia locks an all-female crew in space simulator (太空模拟器) for eight days to find out. Six Russian women have been sent into a spaceship to begin a unique experiment testing how an all- female crew would relate to others on a trip to the Moon and back.

    "It's interesting for us to see what is special about the way a female crew communicates," said Sergei Ponomaryov, the experiment's leader." it will be particularly interesting in terms of psychology," said the institute's director Igor Ushakov. "I'd like to wish you a lack of conflicts, even though they say that in one kitchen, two housewives find it hard to live together," he added.

    The volunteers include scientific researchers, a doctor and a psychologist. The test period simulates (模仿) a flight to the Moon and back, with the women carrying out 10 experiments covering psychology and human biology. Russia sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 but has fallen behind since. Last year, it sent its fourth female astronaut into space, Yelena Serova. Serava complained of a great deal of media interest in how she would wash her hair aboard the International Space Station, pointing out that male astronauts did not face the same line of questioning.

    The women found themselves fielding questions at a press conference about how they would act without men or makeup for eight days, "We are very beautiful without makeup," said participant Darya Komissarova. Her colleague Anna Kussmaul was more direct: "We are doing work. When you're doing your work, you don't think about men and women." They plan to spend their 11/2 hours per day of free time watching films, reading and playing board games. Team leader Yelena Luchnitskaya said she expected the women to deal with any conflict.

    Amazon.com has received a patent (专利) right to send its products to customers by drone planes. The company is the largest US-based online seller of products. It delivers those products to customers by mail and other services. Now, the company has received a patent for its planned drone delivery system.

    In March, federal officials allowed Amazon to test its drone delivery plan. But even with a patent and the ability of drones to make deliveries, it does not appear that the company will put its new delivery system in place any time soon.

    The US Patent Office published the document. It describes Amazon's plans to use GPS to deliver products to homes and to wherever people are. The drone will use a customer's mobile device—usually a smartphone—to avoid hitting people or buildings and to find a secure area to land. The company wants to deliver products within 30 minutes after people ordering them on its website.

    However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is worried about the safety. Although it allowed Amazon to test the system, the agency said the operators must be able to see the planes. That greatly limits (限制) the delivery area.

    Loretta Alkalay is a professor at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York. Although Amazon is not yet offering drone delivery, Professor Alkalay says it will not be long before it does. She says there are worries that the drones will hit buildings or people, or that the products and drones will be stolen or damaged by people on purpose. But she says that is because many people believe the drones would only deliver the products to the front door of a house. "However, it is possible that homes will one day have special areas on their roofs designed to receive product deliveries," she adds.

    Tiny microbes(微生物)are at the heart of a new agricultural technique to manage harmful greenhouse gas. Scientists have discovered how microbes can be used to turn carbon dioxide into soil-enriching limestone(石灰石), with the help of a type of tree that grows in tropical areas, such as West Africa.

    Researchers have found that when the Iroko tree is grown in dry, acidic soil and treated with a combination of natural fungi(霉菌)and other bacteria, not only does the tree grow well, it also produces the mineral limestone in the soil around its root.

    The Iroko tree makes a mineral by combining Ca from the earth with CO2 from the atmosphere. The bacteria then create the conditions under which this mineral turns into limestone. The discovery offers a new way to lock carbon into the soil, keeping it out of the atmosphere. In addition to storing carbon in the trees, leaves and in the form of limestone, the mineral in the soil makes it more suitable for agriculture.

    The discovery could lead to reforestation(重新造林)projects in tropical countries, and help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the developing world. It has already been used in West Africa and is being tested in Bolivia, Haiti and India.

    The findings were made in a three-year project involving researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Granada, Lausanne and Delft University of Technology. The project examined several microbiological methods of locking CO2 as limestone, and the Iroko-bacteria way showed best results. Work was funded by the European Commission under the Future Emerging Technologies (FET) scheme.

    Dr Bryne Ngwenya of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the research, said: "By taking advantage of this natural limestone-producing process, we have a low-tech, safe, readily employed and easily operating way to lock carbon out of the atmosphere, while improving farming conditions in tropical countries?

Last weekend I made my first visit to a remote village, home to one of our students, Tombe. Another teacher and I walked for two and a half hours to get there—first, up a mountain from where we had fantastic views, and then down a shaded path to the valley below. When we arrived at the village, Tombe's mother, Kiak, saw us coming and started crying "ieee ieee". We shook hands with all the villagers. Everyone seemed to be related to Tombe.

Tombe's father, Mukap, a man with a strong jaw and a wrinkled forehead, led us to his house, a low, round bamboo hut with no windows, with a door just big enough to get through, and with grass sticking out of the roof—this shows it is a man's house. Such housing is dark inside so it took time for our eyes to adjust. Fresh grass had been laid on the floor and there was a platform for Jenny and me to sleep on. There was a fireplace in the centre of the hut. The only possessions I could see were one broom, a few saucers, a kettle, cups, pans, and a couple of jars.

Mukap built a fire outside and laid stones on it to heat. He then placed the hot stones in an empty oil drum with kau kau（sweet potato）, ripe corn, and greens. He then covered the vegetables with banana leaves and left them to steam. It smelled delicious. We ate inside the hut sitting round the fire. I loved listening to the family talking softly to each other in their language, even though I could not participate much in the conversation. Luckily, Tombe interpreted for us.

Later. I noticed a can standing upside down on the grill（烤架）over the fire. After a while. Tombe threw it out of the doorway. Tombe told me that the can was heated to dry out the leftover food. His family believes that leftovers attract bad spirits in the night, so any leftover food is dried up in a can and the can is then thrown out of the hut.

We left the village the next morning after many goodbyes and firm handshakes. My muscles were aching and my knees shaking as we dragged ourselves down the mountain towards home. That evening I fell happily into bed. It was such a privilege to have spent a day with Tombe's family.