Under new rules posted by the Civil Aviation (航空) administration of China on Friday, pilots will have to pass a “level four” test of Mandarin Chinese, China's official language. Those who speak with an accent that “often impedes” comprehension will not pass. These rules take effect in January 2016.

    China's 56 ethnic groups speak more than 80 languages and dialects. Even native Mandarin speakers can have trouble communicating with each other depending on the strength of their accents, which can be mutually unintelligible (难理解的).

    One flight trainer illustrated the scope for linguistic confusion, especially when common English aviation terms are used. Asked if there is a problem on board, a Chinese pilot might answer in the negative with the words mei you, or “there isn't.” But someone speaking with a heavy Sichuan accent would pronounce mei you as “May day” — unconsciously parroting the universally recognized distress call (遇难信号).

    Like their international counterparts (对应物), Chinese aviators have developed codes to avoid confusion resulting from homonyms (同音异义字) or near-homonyms. They use the terms yao for one and guai for seven, which are otherwise pronounced yi and qi respectively and easily confused.

    The new rule could affect all pilots, who must renew their license every six years, and adds to a growing list of burdens for the profession.

    E-reading and e-books are slowly conquering the world. Compared to traditional paper books, e-books in some schools and universities attract more interest because the information flow seems much easier to manage and comes in a greatly higher quantity.

    Japan is known for the reform-minded attitude towards the gadget(精巧装置)world and for the fact that it is one of the first countries that encouraged in the educational system the emailing of homework.

    The digital textbook looks like the logical step in the world of learning. It is natural but it is also completely untraditional.

    The plan of the largest publishing companies to get in line with the trend is to save a large quantity of paper and make the kids become interested in learning using a cool gadget. Many USA universities and colleges have made students be used to the procedure of downloading the courses and of course the procedure involves interactive software and also the chance of using the computer.

    The traditional education system is still unwilling when it comes to giving up books. The standard approach of information taught out of a book and Shakespeare read out of an old school novel makes studying English as traditional as it can be.

    In a world where kids would rather see the movie than read a book, the digital age has brought along a completely different flavor to reading. Bringing that flavor in school will make teaching a greener and also a completely different matter.

    “To another little girl.”

    That's what 3-year-old Ariana of Winterport, Maine, said when her father Josh Smith asked where her donated (捐赠的) hair was going to go. It was then that the dad of two realized his young daughter had a heart that was too big for words.

    “I run a charity called Extra Life where I play video games to help raise money for kids,” he said. “Ariana happened to be sitting next to me when a video was playing, showing a little girl who was bald(秃顶的), lying in a hospital bed with tubes in her.” When their daughter got curious, Smith and his wife Crystal explained how medicine was what made the child in the video lose her hair.

    “Without a second thought, Ariana said, 'She can have some of my hair,'” Smith said. “That's when my wife told me that there are many organizations that we could donate it to.” The Smiths chose “Locks of Love” to send Ariana's generous gift to a child with medical hair loss.

    A week later, Ariana was taken to the family hairdresser where 10 inches was cut from her hair.

    “It was her first haircut,” Smith told ABC News. “She can be so selfless like that. Her first reaction is 'How about me giving up something that I have, so a little girl can feel pretty?'” Smith posted his daughter's moving gesture on his personal webpage, where it has received almost 645,000 views in just two days.

    “She'll take an adult-like approach and it's really amazing,” Smith said. “She is just a little kid, but if she sees somebody in need, she certainly cares for them. This made Ariana feel special and she'd definitely like to do it again.”

    TOASTMASTERS

    Toastmasters is an international organization, designed to develop effective speaking and listening skills. It was set up in 1924 by Ralph Smedley and it's headquartered in California. It has a double purpose: the personal growth and strong effective communication skills.

    Who is Toastmasters open to?

    Many people think Toastmasters is open only to those who wish to be professional speakers, but that is not true. Toastmasters is open to the public at large. Any person who wishes to improve his public speaking is welcome. And also, those who just want to increase their overall self-confidence are encouraged to attend.

How can Toastmasters help you?

    Joining Toastmasters, a person will learn different methods of communicating what he really wants to say, and equally important, he will learn what the audience expects so he can send that message to them in an organized way. Some people are comfortable around friends, but when they appear before a group they don't know, they get nervous. The organization helps its members to get calm and organize thoughts, and express them in an effective way.

    Most often, people assume that when one is listening, he is also paying attention. This is not always true. Many times people are waiting for their turn to speak and are not really listening at all. Toastmasters can develop a person overall in organizing their thoughts, getting information from others and receiving effective feedback（反馈）.

    How does Toastmasters train people?

    Toastmasters has a way of learning by doing. The Toastmasters International Organization provides a menu called the basic menu because it gives a guideline for the development of speeches. These speeches can meet different purposes. For example, one might need voice training; another might be to organize his thoughts or develop use of humor in speeches. There is an eight-week program for young people and also an eight-week speech course offered for adults. As a person continues to give speeches and improve, he progresses from the point of being fearful to stand before a group to the point where he can speak to any group of people with confidence.

    Most of us have looked up at the stars that fill the night sky and wondered whether we're alone in the universe. Indeed, the question of whether there's life out there has been something humankind's been asking itself for countless years. But thanks to China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the answer to this question may come a lot sooner than we expected.

    The telescope has a huge round reflector, which measures 500 meters across and has a perimeter(周长)of 1.6 kilometers. Because of its great size, it would have been both difficult and inefficient to get FAST to move like a regular telescope. Instead, FAST's designers came up with a great solution: its surface is made up of 4450 panels which can be individually adjusted. This clever design feature allows scientists to detect radio signals from any angle with a great degree of accuracy. "Panels can change their positions through connected wires and parallel (关联的) robots. We can control their position with an accuracy of 1mm," Zheng Yuanpeng, chief engineer of the telescope's panel project, told Xinhua News Agency.

    FAST's engineers also had the task of finding a suitable location. As any interference would affect its ability to detect distant radio waves, it needed to be built in a remote area. Luckily, the perfect spot was found in the beautiful mountains of Guizhou Province. "There are three hills about 500 meters away from one another, creating a valley that is perfect to support the telescope," Sun Caihong, chief engineer of FAST's construction, told Xinhua.

    And although it wasn't yet fully operated, FAST had already made great discoveries by October 2017. Since 1967, only around 2000 pulsars (脉冲星) have been discovered, yet FAST had detected six more by October 2017. Once FAST is fully up and running, we may finally have the answer to one of the biggest questions in history.

Your colleague's sharp comment keeps replaying in your mind. Two of your students are trapped in a" he said/she said" battle. When you reflect on your emotional reactions, you sometimes get caught up in cycles of negative feelings, which can make you feel even worse. If so, the answer may lie in a skill called" self-distancing", the ability to take a step back and view yourself more objectively. According to a research, when people adopt self-distancing while discussing a difficult event, they make better sense of their reactions, experience less emotional suffering, and display fewer signs of stress.

But what might self-distancing look like in action? Consider a typical "he said/she said" student conflict where they are each focusing on their own feelings. One is thinking, "I can't believe he did that to me" And another insists. "She really hurt my feelings" However, if you ask them to take the self-distancing, they might step outside of themselves and ask broader questions:" Why was he so hurt in this situation? "or" How did her anger affect him?"

Although this approach may sound too simple to be effective, studies indicate that a change in point of view can have a powerful effect on the way people think, feel, and behave. Here are several different techniques you can try.

First, consider how a thoughtful friend might respond after quietly observing their situation. Besides, avoid using the pronoun "I". Focus on using third-person pronouns, he, she, they, and they were able to see the stressful event as challenging rather than threatening. Finally, ask yourself, "How would I feel about this one week from now or ten years from now? "This form of mental time travel may be effective because our attention is directed away from our immediate, concrete circumstances.