Many people go to school for an education. They learn languages, history, geography, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Others go to school to learn a skill so that they can make a living. School education is very important and useful. Yet no one can learn everything they want to know. The teacher's job is to show his students how to learn. He teaches them how to read and how to think. So, much more is to be learned outside school by the students themselves.

    It is always more important to know how to study by oneself than to memorize some facts or a formula (公式). It is usually quite easy to learn a certain fact in history or a formula in mathematics. But it is very difficult to use a formula in working out a maths problem. Great scientists, such as Einstein, Newton and Galileo didn't get anything from school. But they were all so successful. They invented so many things for mankind.

    The reason for their success is that they knew how to study. They read books that were not taught at school. They worked hard all their lives, wasting not a single moment. They would ask many questions as they read and they did thousands of experiments.

    Above all, they knew how to use their brains.

    With the development of our society, cell phones have become a common part in our lives. Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Maybe they were busy talking, texting or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new "species" of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name—phubbers (低头族).

    Recently a cartoon created by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities bury themselves in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes a selfie (自拍) in front of a car accident site, and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events finally leads to the destruction(毁灭) of the world.

    Although the ending of the film sounds unrealistic, the damage phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. "Always bending your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck," Guangming Daily quoted doctors' words. "The neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching." Also, staring at cell phones for a long time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report.

    But that's not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. When getting together with family or friends, many people prefer to play their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.

    It can also cost your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight.

    With about 100,000 sea animals being choked or injured by plastic every year, the danger produced by the billions of pieces of plastics in our oceans is well-known. However,    given that most of the micro-plastics measure less than 0.5mm, collecting them is a challenge.

    Now, some Dutch environmentalists have created a floating park to catch plastic waste before it reaches the open seas and breaks down. The large floating park is the result of a five-year effort of the Wageningen University and Research, WHIM Architecture, and etc. The team's leader said, "We began by developing a 'plastic fisher(渔船). Fitted with two folding arms with extension of several feet into the water, it uses a net to catch bottles, and any other garbage that floats past."

    The portable equipment took a year and a half to be perfect. It was then placed at the edge of the harbor to collect the urban garbage accumulated in the Meuse, a major European river, which rises in France and passes through Belgium and the Netherlands before it goes into the North Sea. Since Rotterdam's NieuweWaterweg canal links the river the North Sea, it's the ideal place to catch the "fresh" plastic waste before it disappears into the open waters and breaks down.

    The waste collected by the "plastic fisher" was then made into some hexagonal (六边的) floats which were connected to create the floating park. Some of the blocks are open to visitors, while others house various types of plants and even trees for nesting birds. The underside of the floats provides a suitable environment for sea creatures like fish. The environmentalists say the blocks can also be used to build sports areas and public walkways.

    The floating park has achieved great success. The team has launched a similar project in Indonesia to deal with local pollution. They worked with the local government and colleges which have given great support. And the team wants to spread their idea to some other places. When more and more people have better understanding of the project, more countries worldwide will know the advantages of the project and try similar outstanding approaches.

    It was already dark when an old man came to a small town. He found an inn and wanted to stay there for the night. After he had gone to his room, the owner said to his wife, "Look at his bag, dear. I'm sure there are lots of valuable things in it. I want to steal it when he is asleep."

    "No, no," said the woman. "He must look for his bag tomorrow morning. Then he'll take you before the judge." They thought and at last the woman had an idea. "We have forgetful grass," said the woman, "Why not put some into his food? If he has the food, he will forget to take his bag away." "How clever you are!" said the owner, "Don't forget it when you prepare supper for him."

    The old man had the food with the forgetful grass and went to bed. The next morning, when the owner got up, he found the door was open and the old man had left with his bag. He woke his wife up and said angrily, "What a fool! Your forgetful grass isn't useful at all."

    "No, no," said the woman. "I don't think so. He must forget something."

    "Oh, I've remembered!" The owner cried out suddenly, "He forgot…"

    A Canadian woman who lost her diamond ring 13 years ago while cleaning her garden on the family farm is wearing it proudly again after her daughter-in-law pulled it from the ground or a carrot.

    Mary Grams, 84, said she can't believe the lucky carrot actually grew through and around the diamond ring she had long given up hope of finding. She said she never told her husband, Norman, that she lost the ring, but only told her son. Her husband died five years ago.

    "I feel glad and happy," Grams said this week. "I grew into the carrot. I feel it amazing".

    Her daughter-in-law, Calleen Daley, found the ring while getting carrots in for supper with her dog Billy at the farm near Armena, Alberta, where Grams used to live. The farm has been in the family for 105 years. Daley said while she was pulling the carrots and noticed one of them looked strange. She almost fed it to her dog but decided to keep it when she was washing; the carrots she noticed the ring and spoke to her husband, Grams' son, about what she had found.

    They quickly called Grams. "I told her we found her ring in the garden She couldn't believe it," Daley said. "It was so strange that the carrot grew perfectly through that ring."

    Grams said she wanted to try the ring on again after so many years. With her family looking on, she washed the ring with a little soap to get the dirt off. It moved on her finger as easily as I did when her husband gave it to her.

    "We were laughing," she said. "It fits. After so many years it still fits perfectly."

    When I was a kid, I was the girl who kept the training wheels on my bike as long as possible. Even my younger sister had got rid of them much earlier than me. But as I began to grow older, this changed.

    All this happened on the Bike Safety Day. It is supposed to be a fun day at school when all of us kids bring our bikes to school and the school provides us with the opportunity to ride outside and learn proper bike safety. Sounds like fun, right? No. In fact, it caused me to panic. What was I going to say when my friends asked me about my training wheels?

    With the pressure of everyone seeing my training wheels, I determined to let them go. This was the first big change I'd ever made on my own.

    I went to my parents and told them all about my dilemma. They were more than happy to help. We went outside and got my bike. Instead of running away and hiding behind, I stood in front of my bike and took great pride in my decision as my dad removed the training wheels.

    I got on and steadied myself. My heart raced but my feet and hands were calm. My dad started to push before my feet even moved and suddenly I was off. The fear faded away and a relaxed mind came into its place. It was crazy to think how quickly I learned something that took so long for me to even try!

    My confidence soared. This was going to be the start of a brand new world for me. My accomplishment would carry me forth to new goals and wins. I realized that if I set my mind to something, I could achieve it.