On a cloudless summer day, 13-year-old Charlie Finlayson was ready for a long hike with his father, David.

    Around noon, David was inching his way across a cliff 800 feet above the valley, searching for a line of cracks that would lead them to the top. Charlie stood on a rock a dozen yards to the right as he fed rope to his dad. Reaching up, David missed his step. In the next moment, he heard a sharp crack from above as something larger broke loose.

    When Charlie saw his father sailing through the air alongside the huge rocks that had struck him, he pulled the rope fiercely.

    “Tell me it's OK,” Charlie begged, struggling to control his fear.

    “I think I broke my leg,” David told him. “And we must get off this mountain.” He proposed a plan: Charlie would lower David half a rope length at a time, then lower himself to the same level, and at a new place, begin again.

    As hours passed, they came to the base of the cliff, and David was shaking with cold and exhaustion.

    Worried that David would die if he fell asleep, Charlie kept the conversation going; they talked about past travels. Eventually Charlie allowed himself to catnap, checking on his father each time he awoke. When the sun rose on their camp, Charlie was relieved to see that his father was awake.

    Just after dawn, Charlie headed off on the trail toward the volunteers' cabin 12 miles away, bringing back a helicopter that would carry his father to safety.

    “Charlie's as strong as anyone I know,” says his father, “I'm so proud of him.”

    The ability to speak more than one language certainly has its special benefits.It enables you to work in another country or interact with people whose language is different from your mother tongue.Cognitive（认知的）  psychologists have been interested in how bilingualism（双语能力）shapes the mind for almost a century.There are those who suggest that in order to speak one language,bilinguals have to suppress（抑制）the influence of the other.In the past three decades,research had argued that this unique form of language processing trains the brain in the use of abilities known as "executive（执行的）functions" such as ignoring irrelevant information or shifting attention. Bilinguals of different ages and cultural backgrounds have been shown to be faster and more accurate than their monolingual（单语的）peers when performing cognitive tasks demanding these abilities.Furthermore,it has been argued that bilingualism may lead to a delayed onset（发作）of symptoms associated with dementia（痴呆）.

    But the scientific community recently has become increasingly skeptical of the bilingual advantage.One of the main points of criticism is that differences between monolinguals and bilinguals when it comes to executive functions are not always apparent.It appears that research on bilingualism is at a turning point.We need to pursue a new approach to understand,beyond those individual examples of executive functions,how the bilingual mind works. We have attempted to address this challenge by testing whether bilinguals and monolinguals differ in terms of how accurately they can assess their own performances.This ability is called meta cognition and is associated with other areas where bilinguals have been shown to have an advantage.

    In our research,we presented participants with a situation in which they had to observe two circles on a screen and guess which one contained more dots.Sometimes the difference was obvious,making the decision easy,while at other times the decision was very difficult (for example,one circle contained 50 dots and the other 49).Participants were then asked to determine how confident they were in their decision on a scale from less to more confident than normal.

    During the course of two experiments,we found that bilinguals and monolinguals were equally likely to choose the circle containing the highest number of dots.However,monolinguals were better able than bilinguals to discriminate between when they were right and when they were wrong.In other words,bilinguals had less insight into their performance than monolinguals.This went against our initial predictions,as we expected to find a bilingual advantage in meta cognitive processing.These results indicate that bilingualism may be associated with cognitive disadvantages as well as benefits.

    Dr. Michael Prager, a leading Botox expert, said that a growing number of women are developing something called "computer face". He also mentioned that professionals who worked long hours in front of a screen were ending up with saggy jowls(颚骨下垂),"turkey neck" and deep-set wrinkles(皱纹)on their forehead and around their eyes.

    The Botox expert said that, of all his clients, office workers were most likely to show premature (过早的)signs of aging. " If you are one of the unfortunate people who frown(皱眉)while you are concentrating on the screen then, over time, you will inevitably(不可避免地)end up with frown lines.'' Dr. Prager said. "What is perhaps more surprising is the number of women with saggy jowls because they are sitting in one position for so long. If you spend most of the time looking down then the neck muscles shorten and go saggy, eventually giving you a second neck."

    Dr. Prager, who has a practice near Harley Street in London, said he encourages his clients to put a mirror next to their computer so they can see if they are frowning at the screen. "When people are stressed or thinking hard about something, then they will often put on a grumpy(脾气暴躁的)face' without even knowing what they are doing. When my clients put a mirror next to their desk, they are often shocked by the angry, frowning face which stares back at them."

    He said, "The women I am seeing at the moment have only been using computers at work for the last decade or so. But women in their 20s have grown up with them and use them for every single task. I think the problem is going to become much, much worse. In another ten years, they could be looking quite awful."

    Dr. Prager said there were several simple steps which could avoid "computer face" such as regular screen breaks and stretching the neck muscles. And, of course, there was always Botox(肉毒杆菌). He said that, after a couple of sessions of Botox, the habit of "grumpy face" could be broken.

    I began cycling in 2004 when I was a poor student. It was dangerous, sure, but cycling is the fastest, cheapest point-to-point form of transport in Melbourne. I own a car now, but that's just for transporting the baby or groceries.

    I hate driving. So it's been quite encouraging watching the growth in cyclist numbers over the past decade. It is said that over 10,000 cyclists enter the CBD (Central Business District) each day, taking pressure off public transport. But as more people take to cycling as a way of transport, the number of cyclists seriously injured or killed keeps increasing. And that is a sign that our infrastructure (基础设施) is still not good enough.

    Melbourne was once a dream for cyclists—flat, long, wide roads, with plenty of paths along rivers. Now, cycling can be deadly, with roads taken up by cars. I have a friend who broke her back and was lucky to escape death and others with broken bones. In my time riding, I've been forced off the road by a truck, cut off by four-wheel drives, and told to get off the road. Drivers are a particularly rude to cyclists. And that's a sign of exactly one thing: inadequate infrastructure.

    We shouldn't need to be taught how to coexist in the same narrow space. Drivers and cyclists should be kept apart. Designing bike paths so riders are channelled between moving cars and parked cars is deadly. All it takes is one daydreaming driver to fling open the door and you are gone. That's what happened to the young university student James.

    This year, there are to be new cycling lanes (车道) built on Glen Road, where James died in 2010. But these lanes are not safe. Cyclists must still pass between two rows of cars.

The ancient Chinese built two great engineering wonders: the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. Though the Great Wall's effect in military {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (defend) has worn off over time, the Grand Canal remains an important channel of cultural communication.

The Grand Canal, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} is made up of three parts (Suitang Grand Canal, Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal and Zhedong Grand Canal), is a {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (run) epic (史诗) of transformation. The man-made waterway runs more than 2,000 kilometres from north to south across the large eastern flatland of China. It is about 16 times {#blank#}4{#/blank#} size of the Suez Canal in Egypt and 33 times {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (long) than the Panama Canal, the world's second- and third-largest man-made waterways. "It sees the striking and early development of water engineering," the UNESCO website says {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (official).

In ancient times, the Grand Canal served {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the key waterway for grain transport and every kind of economic and cultural exchange. It also improved the time-consuming journeys of workers {#blank#}8{#/blank#} materials for the building of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the imperial city of the Yuan (1271-1368), Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Years ago, it {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (inspire) the name of Chenchen, one of the three mascots (吉祥物) of the Hangzhou Asian Games. Chenchen, from the Gongchen Bridge, which goes across the Hangzhou part of the Grand Canal, is coloured blue {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (suggest) science and technology.