What do Tom Sawyer and jumping frogs have in common? Stories about both of them were created by one man：Mark Twain. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain was his pen name. When Twain was 4, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, lying on the west bank of the Mississippi. Twain grew up there and was attracted greatly with life along the river - the steamboats, the big wooden boats, and the people who worked on them.

    The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country is one of Twain's best-loved short stories, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of his most famous novels. Both these works are celebrated by events held during National Tom Sawyer Days. There's also a fence-painting competition to see who can paint the fastest. The idea for this competition comes from a scene in Tom Sawyer, in which Tom has been told to paint the fence in front of the house he lives in. It's a beautiful day, and he would rather be doing anything else. As his friends walk by, he persuades them to paint with him for fun, and they all join in the "fun". By the end of the day, the fence has three coats of paint!

    Although the story of Tom Sawyer is not true, it's based on fact. If you go to Hannibal,, you'll see the white fence, which still stands at Twain's boyhood home.

    The team I work in just has 2 new interns（实习生）, and I happen to be their supervisor.

    After today's lunch break, I saw that one of them was reading things on her smart-phone, maybe on some social network, I guessed. I went to her and said “There's another document here needing translation. Do you have time to finish it for me?”

    That document was not in her assigned workload. But I thought I could let her challenge herself a little bit with it, seeing that she seemed to have time.

    “Yes, I do have time.” She said, “But I'm just an intern.”

    I didn't quite know what to say back then. After a while I mumbled（咕哝） “Right. Yes.” And I turned around and left.

    I recalled the time when I was an intern for the first time. I, too, managed to finish my workload so fast, just like her. So I asked my supervisor “Is there anything else that I can help?” And she happened to have a plan to make. But she didn't have time. So she let me do the research and make a draft for her.

    I was not very familiar with the job but still tried to carry it out based on my understanding and make it as professional as possible. And my supervisor was really satisfied with the draft. Later, she told me “You saved me a lot of time. I didn't need to create it from scratch.” And she told me in details how I should have done the plan differently. I learned a lot about the operation in the process. After that, she had come to trust me completely. I got my current job all because of her recommendation.

    Yes, I was just an intern with a low salary. But I bought a better future with my extra labor.

    There's a kind of poverty called shortsightedness.

    Chinese researchers say they have come up with a simple way to find out a person's biological age —how much the body has aged physically – through a urine (尿) test.

    Their findings will help researchers conduct numbers of ageing studies and even predict a person's risk of age-related diseases, according to a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience.

    Another paper by researchers at the Beijing Hospital and the West China Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, said on Tuesday that people aged at different rates due to changes in their genetic make-up and their environment.

    Chronological age – which is based on one's birth date —was not an exact measure of biological age so a more exact method was needed, the team said.

    Ageing is driven by the lifelong gradual accumulation(积累) of a broad variety of molecular (分子) faults in the body's cells. The team said they had identified a matter 8-oxoGsn that indicated increases in oxidative (氧化性) damage in urine as people's bodies aged.

    Cai Jianping, a co-author at the Beijing Hospital, said: “As we age, we suffer increasing oxidative damage and so the levels of oxidative matters increase in our body.” The team tested the levels of 8-oxoGsn in urine samples from 1,228 Chinese people aged two to 90 and concluded the marker helped accurately determine the stage of biological ageing in adults.

    They had previously found that 8-oxoGsn levels also increased with age in the urine of animals such as mice.

    The team has also developed a rapid analysis technique called ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography(层析法), which can process up to 10 urine samples an hour, according to the study.

    Clothes can make phone calls, play music, dial your pal's number, keep you warm during cold weather and operate your computer?

    This is not a fantasy. A British company, called Electrotextiles, has created a wide range of clothes—clothes that have minds of their own! Scientists, working for the company, have invented a kind of cloth that can be mixed with flexible (有弹性的) electronic materials to create intelligent clothing. The results are electronic garments (衣服).

    If you think the wearer has to be wired to different devices, think again. These designer clothes are wire-free, soft to touch and washable! Like any electronic device, these high-tech clothes have to be powered. Currently, a tiny nine-volt battery serves the purpose. But the researchers hope that in the near future the clothes will produce electricity by using body heat. These clothes are 100 percent shock proof, they say.

    The Electrotextiles team has also created the world's first cloth keyboard. This keyboard can be sewn into your trousers or skirt. To use this device, you will have to sit down and tap on your lap! These 'lap-tap' gadgets (器具), are all set to take over laptop computers!

    Another useful garment is the shirt-cum-mobile phone. This handy invention enables drivers to chat comfortably with others at the wheel! Other popular electronic wear include the denim (牛仔布) jacket with flexible earphones sewn into the hood and the electronic ski jacket with a built-in heater. The ski jacket is also programmed to send signals to a satellite. This technology is known as global positioning system and can be used to track lost skiers and wandering kids.

    Having completed the cloth keyboard, scientists have already started to work on a new project—a necktie that can be used as a computer mouse. What is the next? Do you have any idea?

Something Fun

    A person is on trial for murder in a court room in Oklahoma. There is strong evidence indicating that he is guilty（有罪的）. However, the body is not found.

    In the defense's (辩护方) closing speech, the lawyer, knowing that his client (委托人) is guilty and that it looks like he'll probably be seriously punished, decided to play a clever trick.

    "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury (陪审团), I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer says as he looks at his watch. "Within one minute, the person assumed dead in this case will walk into this court room," he says and he looks towards the court-room door. The jury, somewhat surprised, looks at the door eagerly. A minute passes. Nothing happens.

    Finally the lawyer says, "Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all waited with expectation. I, therefore, put it to you that there is a reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you pass a judgment of not guilty."

    The jury, clearly confused, back off to discuss.

    A very few minutes later, the jury returned and one of them pronounces a verdict (裁决) of guilty.

    "But how?" asks the lawyer in surprise  "You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door."

    Answers the jury member, "Oh, we did look. But your client didn't."

    It is every kid's worst nightmare(噩梦) and six-year-old Jaden Hayes has lived it twice. First he lost his dad when he was only at the age of four and then last month his mom died unexpectedly in her deep sleep.

    "I tried and I tried and I tried to get her awake, but... I just couldn't," said Jaden.

    No one could imagine how heartbroken Jaden was.

    But there's another side to his sadness. A side he first made public a few weeks ago when he told his aunt, Barbara DiCola, and now his guardian(监护人)after both his parents died, that he was sick and tired of seeing everyone sad all the time. And he had a plan to fix it.

    "And that was the beginning of it," said Barbara. "That's where the adventure began."

    Jaden asked his aunt Barbara to buy a bunch of little toys and bring him to downtown Savannah, Georgia near where he lives, so he could give them away to anyone who will smile to him. "I'm trying to make people smile," said Jaden.

    Jaden targets people who aren't already smiling and then turns their day around. He's gone out on four different occasions now and he is always successful. Even if sometimes he doesn't get exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

    It is just so overwhelming to some people that a six-year-old orphan would give away a toy -- expecting nothing in return -- except a smile.

    "I'm depending on it to be 33, 000," said Jaden. When asked if he thinks he can make that goal, he answered: "I think I can."