Most kids go to school during the day and come home to their families or caregivers at night．Sometimes kids can't go home every night so they board or live at school during term-time．

    Whatever the reason for going to boarding school, living with a group of people is very different from living with your family．You have to learn to get on with others, be responsible for looking after your own stuff and follow the rules that are there to make everyone's life pleasant and safe.

The following are some tips from boarders.

    "Remember that the other new students are probably as shy as you are．If you don't talk first and try to make friends, it may not happen．"

    "Don't hold things back inside you．The more you talk, the easier it gets．You can talk to older boarders as well as adults．They understand what you are feeling—they've been through it too．"

    "Be respectful of others' space and give them privacy．Having people around all the time means you don't get much time to yourself."

    "Join in sports and other afterschool activities．You'll meet lots of new people who are interested in the same things as you．And keeping busy will help you get over feeling homesick．"

    "If you are a weekly boarder or go home most weekends it can be harder to make friends, so see if you can organize to stay in for a weekend."

    "Make friends with non-boarders too．It's good to visit someone's home sometimes."

    "Boarding has its ups and downs, you get homesick and sometimes the food is not that great but most of the time it is like being in one big family．You make friends that you know you'll keep for the rest of your life．"

    In some science-fiction movies, robots refuse to die no matter how people fight back (反击). Now, it has turned into a fact. For the first time, researchers have created a robot that can take a beating (挨打) and keep on working. Developed by scientists from Cornell University and the University of Vermont, the new robot looks like a spider with four legs.

    Until now, even the most advanced robot was almost certain to break down when damaged. That's because its computer doesn't know how to operate the machine after its shape has been changed.

    To solve this problem, the scientists put some sensors (传感器) into the machine. The sensors can read how the machine is working and send signals to the computer.

    Using this information, the system follows a new way to tell the machine's shape at any given moment. The computer considers a lot of possible next steps, and it calculates how best to move the robot forward the longest possible distance, before trying to move it again.

    The new technology is a major advance in robotics (机器人技术), scientists say. It may someday help researchers create better artificial arms and legs that give new freedom to people who lack them. The new knowledge might also help scientists understand how people and animals tell their own sense of place in space.

     “Designing robots that can fit changing environments has been a difficult problem,” says scientist Olaf Sporns of Indiana University. “This work provides a new way toward solving this important problem.”

    If all the food that's thrown away in three American cities could be saved, it would provide 68 million meals for people who don't have enough to eat, according to a recent study.

    The researchers found that, in the cities they surveyed（调查）, more than a kilogram of edible food per person is wasted each week. Edible food is food you can eat. It doesn't include things like apple cores（果核）, egg shells, or bones from meat. Fruits and vegetables were the most common edible foods found in the dustbin, followed by food leftover from meals. Eggs, bread and milk were also commonly thrown out.

    The people taking part in the survey gave several reasons for throwing edible food away. Most said the food went off. Some said they weren't interested in eating leftovers. A few said the food had passed the “Best Before” date printed on the label（标签）. When food is wasted—by families, restaurants or grocery stores—we are also wasting all of the resources that go into producing that food. That means we are wasting water, land, energy and labour, as well as the fuel needed to transport food.

    A lot of food is wasted before it even reaches the grocery store（食品杂货商）. Some food is damaged while it is being transported from the farm to the stores. Fruits and vegetables that don't look attractive enough don't even get put onto the shelves because most people won't buy them. Grocery stores, restaurants and hospitals also waste a large amount of food. The researchers suggest that grocery stores should donate any food that is still okay to eat to homeless shelters, instead of throwing it away. Prepared meals from hospitals or restaurants could also be donated to shelters.

    Over the past 10 years, developments in technology have moved the dream of personal fling vehicles closer to reality. The British company Malloy Aeronautics has developed a model of its flying bicycle. The company says its Hoverbike will be a truly personal flying vehicle.

    The company's marketing sales director Grant Stapleton says the Hoverbike is able to get in and out of small spaces very quickly and can be moved across continents very quickly because it can be folded and packed.

    Safety was the company's main concern when developing the Hoverbike. The designers solved this problem by using overlapping rotors(重叠旋翼) to power the vehicle. With adducted rotors(内转旋翼) the rider immediately not only protects people and belongings if he were to hit them, but if the rider ever were to crash into somebody or something, it's going to bring the flying vehicle out of the air. The company is testing two models of the Hoverbike.

    In New Zealand, the Martin Aircraft Company is also testing a full-size model of its personal flying device, called Jetpack. It can fly for more than 30 minutes, up to 1,000 meters high and reach a speed of 74 kilometers per hour.

    Peter Coker, one officer from the company said Jetpack “is built around safety from the start.” In his words, “Reliability(可靠性) is the most important part of it. We have safety built into the actual structure itself, very similar to a Formula One racing car.”

    Jetpack uses a petrol-powered engine. It also has a parachute(降落伞) that can be used if there should be an emergency(突发事件). It opens at very low altitude(纬度) and actually saves both the flying vehicle and the pilot in an emergency.

    Mr. Coker says Jetpack will be ready for sale to the public by the end of 2019. He adds it'll have a price of about $200,000.

    There's a new frontier (新领域) in 3D printing that's beginning to come into focus: food. Recent development has made possible machines that print, cook, and serve foods on a mass scale. And the industry isn't stopping there.

    Food production

    With a 3D printer, a cook can print complicated (复杂的) chocolate sculptures and beautiful pieces for decoration on a wedding cake. Not everybody can do that—it takes years of experience, but a printer makes it easy. A restaurant in Spain uses a Foodini to “re-create forms and pieces” of food that are “exactly the same,” freeing cooks to complete other tasks. In another restaurant, all of the dishes and desserts it serves are 3D-printed, rather than farm to table.

    Nutrition

    Future 3D food printers could make processed food healthier. Hod Lipson, a professor at Columbia University, said, “Food printing could allow consumers to print food to meet their own nutritional needs, like vitamins. So instead of eating a piece of yesterday's bread from the supermarket, you'd eat something baked just for you on demand.”

    Challenges

    Despite recent advancements in 3D food printing, the industry has many challenges to overcome. Currently, most ingredients must be changed to a paste (糊状物) before a printer can use them, and the printing process is quite time-consuming, because ingredients interact with each other in very complex ways. On top of that, most of the 3D food printers now are restricted to dry ingredients, because meat and milk products may easily go bad. Some experts are skeptical about 3D food printers, believing they are better suited for fast food restaurants than homes and high-end restaurants.

The Netherlands is the only country in the world with more bicycles than residents. By 2022, the Netherlands has had a total of about 23 million bicycles, with an ownership rate of 1.35 bikes per person. One study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that in the Netherlands cycling prevents about 6,500 early deaths each year, and that Dutch people have 1.5 years longer life expectancy (预期寿命) due to cycling. 

"The time spent cycling was about 74 minutes per week for Dutch adults aged 20 to 90 years old. The time was fairly stable over adulthood and reached its apex in the early days of retirement, in one's 60s. The death rate reduction, which was a direct result of the average time spent cycling for a certain age group, was therefore also the highest among the seniors who just retired," said Jeremy Smith, an expert from NIH.

What is it that makes cycling so beneficial? Obviously, cycling is a form of exercise. It is a great form of cardio (有氧的) exercise, which gets your heart pumping and helps strengthen the heart muscles. Doing cardio exercise may also help lower your blood pressure. 

Furthermore, solid evidence proves the link between cycling and better thinking skills. Even younger adults claim that a bike ride helps shift their thinking to a higher level — and research backs them up. In one small study, young men are required to cycle for 30 minutes every day for 3 weeks. They also completed a series of cognitive (认知的) tests before and afterward. After cycling, they scored higher on memory, reasoning and planning, and they were able to finish the tests more rapidly than before.

Besides all the benefits mentioned above, cycling, as many Dutch put it, is a way of life. In their simplest form, bikes are tools for travelling. But they're so much more. They are cognitive improvement, environmental protection, satisfaction and an expression of freedom. They bring people of the same passion together and connect them to a greater journey of life.