“...This season is all I have left togive. My heart can take the pounding(重击). My mind can han-dle the grind(苦差事) but my body knows it's time to say goodbye"

  “Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players in the history of our game. Whether competing in the Fi-nals orhoisting jump shots after midnight in an empty gym,  Kobe has an unconditional love for the game.

    I join Kobe's millions of fans aroundthe world in congratulating him on an outstanding NBA career and thank him forso many thrilling memories.”

——Adam Silver, NBA commissioner(总裁)

“We're all sad. This era of Lakers basketball has been one of the most fun, exciting prosperous eras we could imagine. We're in full support of him. But it's still very sad.”

——Jeanie Buss, Lakers president

“I know his purpose is to finish outthis season and play. It's always sad when greatness decides to hang it up" "I thought he had at least another year in him.”

——Byron Scott, Lakers coach, andBryant's teammate during the 1996-97 season

¨He pushed me to be better more than any player I've faced. Kobe is the greatest competitor I have ever faced. I am glad he has found peace. I don't know if we'll see another one like him.”

——Shane Battier, of the Miami Heat

“Hard to believe @ kobe bryant isfinally going to hang it up. One of the NBA's great champions. En-joy the restof this season, my friend.”

——Scottie Pippen, retired NBA All-Star

    If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest traditions of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunely, you really have to see it.

    Men and women wearing old-fashioned, shabby clothing dance in the streets of towns and villages across the country during the holiday periods. Women wear long, frilly(有褶皱边的) skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.

    Some groups carry heavy black sticks which they beat against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air while they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when it's over, the dancers and audience can sing some traditional folk songs over a pint of beer. The celebrations will often continue long into the night, by which point most people are too drunk to think about performing again.

    Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis. As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually, if nothing is done to change this trends, the tradition will die out within the next few decades.

    If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Putting it to the point, it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to be doing. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going clubbing? Or playing sport? Or doing anything else?

    However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and lively part of England's history and culture. It's important to look after some traditions and customs especially when it's something as harmless and happy as morris dancing. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.

    Shenzhen is a shopping paradise for visitors. Following is a list of the most popular shopping areas in the city.

    North Huaqiang Area

    The most prosperous shopping area in Shenzhen, it is home to dozens of market places for electronic products, home appliances, timepieces, clothing and jewelry. Some market places each house hundreds of shops, from flagship stores selling big brands to small boutiques where you can bargain.

    It is also a great place to dine, with plenty of restaurants offering various Chinese cuisines and foreign brands like Pizza Hut, Hagen Dazs and AijiSen.

    Dongmen Area

    One of the oldest commercial centers in Shenzhen, this area highlights a walking street flanked by humming stores. It is a good place to buy clothes, handbags, fashion accessories, jewelry, handicrafts, toys and small electronic gadgets.

    MixC Shopping Mall

    It is the city's largest shopping mall and one of the most luxurious, selling clothes, cosmetics and fashion accessories.  There is a large indoor ice skating rink, a movie theater and a super market selling many imported goods. You can also find quite a few foreign restaurant brands here, including Pizza Hut, Starbucks and a Japanese noodle house.

    Shekou

    Sitting by a beautiful cove in western Nanshan District, this quiet place is frequented by many expatriates living in Shenzhen. There are stores selling antiques, collectibles, handicrafts and souvenirs, as well as bars and restaurants offering Western food.

    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 soil­enriching 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 three­year 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 Iroko­bacteria 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 limestone­producing process, we have a low­tech, safe, readily employed and easily operating way to lock carbon out of the atmosphere, while improving farming conditions in tropical countries."

    The Frick Collection (5th Avenue and E. 70th Street)

    Many art lovers would rather visit this small art gallery than any other in New York. Henry Clay Frick, a rich New Yorker, died in 1919, leaving his house, furniture and art collections to American people. Frick had a preference for pre­twentieth century Western paintings, and these are well­represented in this excellent collection. You can also explore Frick's beautiful house and garden which are well worth a visit

    Guggenheim Museum (5th Avenue and 88th Street)

    This museum owns 5,000 excellent modern paintings, sculptures and drawings. These art works are not all displayed at the same time. The exhibition is always changing. It will appeal to those who love Impressionist and Post­Impressionist paintings. The Guggenheim Museum building is also world­famous. The best way to see the paintings is to start from the top floor and walk down to the bottom. There are no stairs, just a circular(环形的) path.

    Metropolitan Museum of Art (5th Avenue and 82nd Street)

    The reputation of this museum lies in the variety of its art collection. This covers more than 5,000 years of civilization from many parts of the world. The museum displays more than just the visual delights of art. It introduces you in ancient ways of living. You can visit an Egyptian temple, a fragrant Ming garden, a typical room in an 18th century French house and many other special exhibitions.

    Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madsion Avenue, near 75th Street)

    The Whitney holds an excellent collection or contemporary American paintings and sculptures. There are no permanent displays in this museum and exhibitions change all the time. Every two years, the Whitney holds a special exhibition of new art by living artists. The museum also shows videos and films by contemporary video artists.

    A scientist working at her lab bench and a six-old baby playing with his food might seem to have little in common. After all, the scientist is engaged in serious research to uncover the very nature of the physical world, and the baby is, well, just playing…right? Perhaps, but some developmental psychologists have argued that this "play" is more like a scientific investigation than one might think.

Take a closer look at the baby playing at the table. Each time the bowl of rice is pushed over the table edge, it falls in the ground—and, in the process, it belongs out important evidence about how physical objects interact; bowls of rice do not flood in mid-sit, but require support to remain stable. It is likely that babies are not born knowing the basic fact of the universe; nor are they ever clearly taught it. Instead, babies may form an understanding of object support through repeated experiments and then build on this knowledge to learn even more about how objects interact. Though their ranges and tools differ, the baby's investigation and the scientist's experiment appear to share the same aim(to learn about the natural world ), overall approach (gathering direct evidence from the world), and logic (are my observations what I expected?).

Some psychologists suggest that young children learn about more than just the physical world in this way—that they investigate human psychology and the rules of language using similar means. For example, it may only be through repeated experiments, evidence gathering, and finally overturning a theory, that a baby will come to accept the idea that other people can have different views and desires from what he or she has, for example, unlike the child, Mommy actually doesn't like Dove chocolate.

Viewing childhood development as a scientific investigation throws on how children learn, but it also offers an inspiring look at science and scientists. Why do young children and scientists seem to be so much alike? Psychologists have suggested that science as an effort —the desire to explore, explain, and understand our world—is simply something that comes from our babyhood. Perhaps evolution provided human babies with curiosity and a natural drive to explain their worlds, and adult scientists simply make use of the same drive that served them as children. The same cognitive systems that make young children feel good about feel good about figuring something out may have been adopted by adult scientists. As some psychologists put it, "It is not that children are little scientists but that scientists are big children."