First published in 2001, the book Life of Pi written by Canadian author Yann Martel won the Man Booker Prize and an Asian American Prize for Literature. It is the story of a young boy named Pi who spends 227 days at sea with a small group of animals after disaster strikes their ship and is an account of his journey of survival and hardship.

    Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel, on whom Life of Pi is based, is a young boy living in Pondicherry, India, where his father owns a zoo. The story starts when Patel's family decide to move to Canada, along with their zoo animals for their new home.

    However, because of the bad weather, the ship sinks. Pi along with an orangutan (猩猩), an injured zebra, a hyena (鬣狗) and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker are the only survivors who take shelter in a small lifeboat. Both the injured zebra and the orangutan are soon killed and eaten by the hyena. The tiger in turn kills and eats the hyena, leaving just the two of them alone on the boat now.

    In an effort to avoid being eaten by Richard Parker, Pi acts himself as the head of the group and remains safe from harm. Since he does not want the tiger to die for fear of going mad by being alone on the boat, he fishes and feeds the two of them in order to stay alive.

    The life of Pi then enters its third stage when their lifeboat washes up on the shores of Mexico and the tiger escapes into a nearby forest leaving Pi alone. After the Mexicans refuse to believe Pi's story, he changes his tale by replacing the animals with his mother, a cook and a sailor and asks the Mexicans which one they prefer. They prefer hearing the first story though they do not believe a word of it.

    In my view, Life of Pi is a must read book for all those who love reading.

    The state of Texas has not fully recovered from last year's hurricane, Harvey, as it prepares for a new season of storms. After a teleconference with President Trump and Federal Emergency Officials, Texas governor Greg Abbott said that they were taking steps on a daily basis to make sure they would be able to address any coming challenges.

    Hurricane Harvey brought record rainfall to a wide range of Texas and more rain fell over a five day period than at any time, since records have been kept in the United States beginning in the 1850s. Last year's deadly hurricanes including Harvey, Irma and Maria caused mass destruction in large parts of Texas, Louisiana, the South Atlantic states, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Trump praised what he called best recovery and response efforts to the disasters. They were gathering every accessible resource to ensure maximum preparation for rapid response. That's what they had last year. Disaster reaction and recovery is best achieved when it's nationally supported, state managed and locally performed.

    Abbott also mentioned that two new satellites and modem technology will help decide the path and strength of the storms. State and local governments are also planning routes, shelters, communication lines and supply chains to ensure efficient reaction to the storms. Scientists warn that, as the earth warms, storms are taking more moisture and are able to produce more rainfall. This year storms are also expected to be driven by extremely powerful winds.

    Emergency Officials say the nation has to be prepared for ever more active storms in the future. They've got to keep building the culture of preparedness in this state and in this nation. Meteorologists（气象学家）predict up to 16 storms this summer including 5 to 9 hurricanes, the most active storms will occur in the approaching Mid-August.

    Suppose you work in a big firm and find English very important for your job because you often deal with foreign businessmen. Now you are looking for a place where you can improve your English, especially your spoken English. Here are some advertisements(广告) about English language training from newspapers. You may find the information you need.

    Global English Centre

    General English in all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

    3-month (700 yuan), 6-month (1, 200 yuan) and one-year (2, 000 yuan) courses.

    Choice of morning or evening classes, 3 hours per day. Mon.~Fri.

    Experienced college English teachers.

    Close to city centre and bus stops.

    Tel: 67605272

    Add: 105 Zhongshan Road, 100082

    Modern Language School

    Special courses in English for business, travel, banking, hotel management and office skills.

    Small classes (12~16 students) on Sat. & Sun. from 2:00~5:00 p.m.

    Native English teachers from Canada and USA.

    Language lab and computers supplied.

    3-month course: 1,050 yuan; 6-month course: 1,850 yuan.

    Write or phone: Modern Language School, 675 Park Road, 100056

    Tel: 67353019

    The 21^st Century English Training Centre

    We specialize in effective teaching at all levels.

    We offer morning or afternoon classes, both of which last three months and a half at a cost of 800 yuan.

    We also have a six-week TOEFL preparation class during winter and summer holidays.

    Entrance exams: June 1 and Dec. 1.

    Only 15-minute walk from city centre.

    Call 67801642 for more information.

    The International House of English

    Three/Six-month English courses for students of all levels at a very low cost: 60 yuan for 12 hours per week, convenient (方便的) class hours:

    9:00~12:00 a.m. and 2:00~5:00 p.m.

    A four-month evening programme for developing speaking skills (same cost as day classes).

    Well-trained Chinese and foreign teachers with experience in teaching English as a second foreign language.

    Free sightseeing and social activities.

    Very close to the Central Park.

    For further information call 674322308.

    Parallel worlds exist and interact with our world, say physicists.

    Quantum mechanics (量子力学), though firmly tested, is so weird and anti-intuitive that physicist Richard Feynman once remarked, “I think I can safely say nobody understands quantum mechanics.” Attempts to explain some of the bizarre (奇异的) consequences of quantum theory have led to some mind-bending ideas, such as the Copenhagen interpretation and the many-worlds interpretation.

    Now there's a new theory on the block, called the “many interacting worlds” hypothesis (假设) (MIW), and the idea is just as profound as it sounds. The theory suggests not only parallel worlds exist, but that they interact with our world on the quantum level and are thus detectable. Though still speculative (推测的), the theory may help to finally explain some of the bizarre consequences inherent in quantum mechanics.

    The theory is a spinoff of the many-worlds interpretation in quantum mechanics—an assumption that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an actual, though parallel, world. One problem with the many-worlds interpretation, however, has been that it is fundamentally untestable, since observations can only be made in our world. Happenings in these proposed “parallel” worlds can thus only be imagined.

    MIW, however, says otherwise. It suggests that parallel worlds can interact on the quantum level, and in fact that they do.

    “The idea of parallel universes in quantum mechanics has been around since 1957,” explained Howard Wiseman, a physicist at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and one of the physicists to come up with MIW. “In the well-known 'Many-Worlds Interpretation', each universe branches into a bunch of new universes every time a quantum measurement is made. All possibilities are therefore realized — in some universes the dinosaur-killing asteroid (小行星) missed Earth. In others, Australia was colonized by the Portuguese.”

    “But critics question the reality of these other universes, since they do not influence our universe at all,” he added. “On this score, our 'Many Interacting Worlds' approach is completely different, as its name implies.”

    Wiseman and colleagues have proposed that there exists “a universal force of repulsion between 'nearby'(i.e. similar) worlds, which tends to make them more dissimilar.” Quantum effects can be explained by factoring in this force, they propose.

    When asked about whether their theory might imply that humans could someday interact with other worlds, Wiseman said: “It's not part of our theory. But the idea of human interactions with other universes is no longer pure fantasy.”

    What might your life look like if you made different choices? Maybe one day you'll be able to look into one of these alternative worlds and find out.

Both humans and animals have enemies. It is easy for us to know the difference between our friends and our enemies. But can other animals do the same? Elephants can! They can use their sense of vision and smell to tell the difference between people who mean a threat and those who do not. In Kenya, researchers find that elephants react differently to clothing worn by men of the Maasai and Kamba ethnic groups. Young Maasai men hunt animals and thus mean a threat to elephants; Kamba men are mainly farmers and are not a danger to elephants.

In an experiment conducted by animal scientists, elephants were first presented with clean clothing or clothing that had been worn for five days by either a Maasai or a Kamba man. When the elephants noticed the smell of clothing worn by a Maasai man, they moved away from the smell faster and took longer to relax than when they noticed the smells of either clean clothing or clothing worn by a Kamba man.

Clothing color also plays a role. In the same study, when the elephants saw red clothing not worn before, they reacted angrily, as red is typically worn by Maasai men. Rather than running away as they did with the smell, the elephants acted angrily toward the red clothing.

The researchers believe that the elephants' emotional reactions are due to their different senses of smell and sight. Smelling a possible danger means that a threat is nearby and the best thing to do is run away and hide. Seeing a potential threat without its smell means that risk is low. Therefore, instead of showing fear and running away, the elephants express their anger and become aggressive.