Quicker and faster 3-D printers have allowed not just amazing objects to be created, but have started to affect how doctors treat patients.

    We've put together a list of some of the most amazingmedical break throughs made possible with 3-D printing.

Life-Saving Airway

    In 2013, doctors created a new airway for kaiba Gionfriddo, aboy born with an airway that kept collapsing (萎陷). To save his life doctors printed tiny tubes to join together in different shapes and sizes until one finally worked for Kaiba. It was placed in Kaiba's bronchus (支气管) so that it no longer collapsed. Even more remarkably, once the plant was placed it couldstay there. It's designed to eventually be absorbed into the body.

New “Bionic” Hands

    One of the most remarkable ways 3-D printing is now being used is as a way to create prosthetics (假肢). A boy born without an arm named Alex was able to get a new“bionic”hand thanks to it. Last year a college student spent 8 weeks coming up with a special prosthetic design that only cost a few hundred dollars in materials. He said he wanted to create a prosthetic far cheaper than other choices that can run tens of thousands of dollars.

A practice Heart

    In Seattle, doctors have been able to use 3-D printing technology to“practice”risky operations so that they will face fewer surprises in the operating room. Kami Sutton was born with her heart“in the wrong place”. For a recent operation her doctor was able to take many scans of Sutton's heart and print out a model. “Kami's heart is truly one-of-a-kind,”Dr. Stephan Seslar, a heart disease specialist said. “Operating on her without understanding the structure of her heart better could be very dangerous.”

A New Skull

    A U.K. man was able to have part of his skull rebuilt thanks toa 3-D printer. Stephen Power broke his cheek bones in a crash. To help Powerh is doctors instead created 3-D bones all carefully printed in the shape of his face. “This is really the first time we've taken it to this stage, where everything has been planned and modeled in advance — and worked sweetly,”said Adrian Sugar, a doctor.

    Susan was born as the ninth child in a Catholic family. She suffered from learning disabilities ever since her birth because of her mother's poor health.

    School was difficult for Susan and she was bullied because of her different behaviors. Her siblings, who were much older, had life experiences that were unknown to their little sister. From the time of her birth, Susan was a screamer. The only really safe place that she would use as a repeat was her bedroom. There she would hang posters of her musical idols on the wall and sing popular music into a hairbrush that she pretended was a microphone.

    One by one the siblings moved away from home and then Susan's father died. This left her alone with an aging mother and a cat. The siblings accused her mother of not expecting more out of Susan. She had seen many professionals and remembered hearing the word “borderline” but didn't know what it meant. She tried volunteer work. Her best state of mind, however, was found when she was singing and so she would regularly join others in karaoke or pubs where she could show her skills and receive appreciation from the crowd.

    When Susan announced at Christmas that she was planning to compete in the Britain's Got Talent contest, her siblings tried to discourage her. It was a wonder that she was even able to do the audition considering the troubles she faced just physically getting to the right place.

    “The Woman I Was Born to Be” is a beautiful story written in the simple but humorous voice of the author, Susan Boyle. She tells her story from birth to the present in an interesting and educational manner. The writing is supplemented by photos from her albums.

    I love this book! In fact, I read the whole thing in one day!

There is something in the stories that not only teaches the reader but also inspires us to reach for our dreams — no matter how impossible they may seem to be!

    Culture shock is the psychological（心理的）shock of having to adapt to new environment and new cultures which may be completely different from your own. To understand culture shock helps to understand what culture is.

    Culture shock is caused by the feelings that result from losing all familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse（交往）. Those signs include the ways with which we are familiar in daily life: When to shake hands and what to say when we meet people? When and how to give tips? How to go shopping? When to accept and when to refuse invitations? These signs, which may be words, gestures, facial expressions, customs or normals are gained by all of us in the course of growing up and are as much a part of our culture as the language we speak.

    During the first few weeks when a person enters a strange culture, most people are attracted by the new. But this “cooks tour” type of mentality（心态）does not normally last if the foreign visitor remain abroad and has to seriously deal with real conditions of life. He may feel anxious and frustrated（受挫的） People react to the frustration in the same way. During the first period, they reject the environment which causes the discomfort. “The ways of the host country are bad because they make us feel bad,” they complain about the host country and its people. The following period is homesickness. The home environment suddenly becomes so important that all difficulties and problems are forgotten and only the good things back home are remembered.

    Experiencing culture shock can be very difficult. There is a risk of sickness or emotional problems. However, culture shock can be part of a positive learning experience. Be patient! It is a process of adaptation to new situations. If you do like this, you will be a much stronger person, and you will be a citizen of the world.

    Some of the people who created many popular apps are telling kids to put their phones away — at least, a bit more often. The Center for Humane Technology is made up of people who used to work for big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Now they want kids to stop using those apps and websites so much.

    In early February, the center started a campaign called The Truth About Tech. Its goal is to teach students, parents and teachers about the dangers of spending too much time on smart phones and computers.

    According to studies about kids and technology, more than 95 percent of elementary school-aged children spend at least part of every day using a computer or smart phone. About 78 percent of teens check their phones every hour, and more than half of them sleep with their phones in case they get a call or message during the night.

    The Center for Humane Technology says that the apps and websites we use every day are purposely designed to keep us chatting, playing or watching online as much as possible. That includes social media like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, websites like YouTube and online games. It also says that the tech companies talk only about the good aspects of their products and don't mention the side effects.

    Some physical problems, like headaches, eyestrain (眼疲劳), and neck pain are caused by using phones or computers too much. Students spending too much time online may find it hard to be focused on school work. Children and teenagers are more likely to have these problems because their brains, bodies and social skills are still developing.

    One goal of The Truth About Tech campaign is to make sure that kids understand how technology affects them so they can make better decisions. The people behind the campaign also want governments and the tech companies themselves to take steps to protect children. When the leaders of the big technology companies are designing tech tools for kids, they should think about what they would want for their own children.

    Cooperation at work is generally seen as a good thing. The latest survey by the Financial Times of what employers want from MBA graduates found that the ability to work with a wide variety of people was what managers wanted most. But managers always have to balance the benefits of teamwork, which help ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal, with the dangers of “groupthink” when critics are reluctant to point out a plan's drawbacks for fear of being kept out of the group. The disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 was a classic case of groupthink. Skeptics were reluctant to challenge John F. Kennedy, the newly elected American president.

    Modern communication methods mean that cooperation is more frequent. Workers are constantly in touch with each other via e-mail messaging groups or mobile calls. But does that improve, or lower performance? A new study by three American academics, tried to answer this question. They set a logical problem (designing the shortest route for a travelling salesman visiting various cities). Three groups were involved: one where subjects acted independently; another where they saw the solutions posted by team members at every stage; and a third where they were kept informed of each other's views only intermittently.

    The survey found that members of the individualist group reached the premier solution more often than the constant cooperators but had a poorer average result. The intermittent cooperators found the right result as often as the individualists, and got a better average solution. When it comes to ideal generation, giving people a bit of space to a solution seems to be a good idea. Occasional cooperation can be a big help: most people have benefited from a colleague's brainwave or (just as often) wise advice to avoid a particular course of action.

    Further clues come from a book, Superminds, by Thomas Malone of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He says that three factors determine the collective intelligence of cooperating groups: social intelligence (how good people were at rating the emotional states of others); the extent to which members took part equally in conversation (the more equal, the better); and the cooperation of women in the group (the higher, the better). Groups ranked highly in these areas cooperated far better than others.

    In short, cooperation may be a useful tool but it doesn't work in every situation.

    The Winter Olympics is also called the White Olympics. At this time, many colorful stamps are published to mark the great Games. The first stamps marking the opening came out on January 25, 1932 in the United States for the 3rd White Olympics. From then on, publishing stamps during the White Olympics became a rule.

    During the 4th Winter Olympic Games a group of stamps were published in Germany in November 1936. The five rings of Olympics were drawn on the front of the sportswear. It was the first time that the rings appeared on the stamps of the White Olympics.

    In the 1950's, the stamps of this kind became more colorful. When the White Olympics came, the host countries (东道国) as well as the non-host countries published stamps to mark those games.

    China also published four stamps in February 1980, when the Chinese sports men began to take part in the White Olympics. Japan is the only Asian country that has ever held the White Olympics. Altogether 14, 500 million stamps were sold to raise money for this sports meet. Different kinds of sports were drawn on these small stamps. People can enjoy the beauty of the wonderful movements of some sportsmen.