We'd arrived at Rockefeller Center station on the D train. As in many of New York's underground stations, trains pull in at both sides of the platform. Or rather, they seem to erupt into the station first on one side, then on the other.

    Abruptly, my wife stopped.

“Uh, what's this?” she said.

    I looked over her shoulder. There at our feet lay a young woman of about 20. She was on her stomach with the top half of her body on the platform, while her legs hung over the tracks kicking powerlessly.

    She was stuck. She had also, clearly, been down on the tracks and discovered that climbing back up is really hard.

But unlike in our imaginings, this woman was not in panic, expecting her approaching death by the F train which would be screaming into the station in the next few minutes, if not seconds.

    She was laughing! So was her friend who half-heartedly leant down to assist. The assistance was somewhat weakened by the fact that the friend was holding her smartphone. Was she hoping to capture this moment with a picture? Or composing a text?

It's well known that people's compulsive checking of their phones can be deadly. Among young people in America, texting is now the number one cause of car crashes. Maybe it's also a leading cause of leaving friends to die when they fall in the river or on to the train tracks.

    I stepped forward, leant out as far as I could, got hold of her leg somewhere near the knee and, together with her finally-engaged friend, dragged the young woman on to the platform.

    And you can guess why she'd been on the tracks. Still laughing, but maybe chastened (内疚）by my look of horror she said, “Thanks. Sorry. My phone fell down there. ”

    While I turned to hold my daughter's hand and head upstairs, the young woman and her friend walked away. I wonder when she'll be scared.

Authors (作者)

    Alexandru Micu: Author

    ZME Science author profile | e-mail: alex@zmescience.com

    Main focus: technology, biology

    Curiosity (好奇心) is what drives Alex forward-his interest in learning more about the planet being matched only by his ability to discuss things with a light heart. Alex tries to make others more interested in special science and technology. He does things in his own way.

    Dragos Mitrica: Author

    ZME Science author profile | e-mail: dragos@zmescience.com

    Main focus: wheather

    Dragos loves nature, and does everything he can to understand it. This interest led him to many unexpected places in his life, and now, he mainly studies and understands how ancient (古代的) weather changed, and what this means for the future.

    Henry Conrad: Author

    ZME Science author profile | e-mail: henrykconrad@gmail.com

    Main focus: technology

    Henry Conrad is a game developer from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Whenever he's not working or reading the latest tech news, he enjoys writing about the latest inventions and technology, which benefits (有益) him a lot. It helps him find rich writing materials (材料).

    Mihai Andrei: Editor-in-chief

    ZME Science author profile | e-mail: andrei@zmescience.com

    Main focus: geophysics, environment

    Andrei has put a lot of sweat and tears into ZME Science ever since he was a student. He is always looking for the most interesting subjects, presenting them in a way that everybody can understand. He believes that education is the key towards a better future and he tries to persuade people to become better persons of the planet. His background is in Geology and Geophysics, but now, he focuses more on environmental studies.

    The Exterminating Angel

    Director: Luis Bunuel

    Country/Date : Mexico/1962 （black and white)

    Introduction : A party is organized in a high class society house. Many people are

    drinking and eating．It's getting late, but nobody is leaving．Even though the door is open, people seem to be locked in the house．They can't leave either the day or on

    the following days．So a rescue began．

    The Net

    Director: Irwin Winkler

    Country/Date: U．S．A．/1995

    Introduction: Angela Bennettt is a computer programmer who has devoted her life to

    computers and the Internet．She spends hours and hours in front of the screen．She does everything over the Internet, and she has some close friends in a chat room,

    though she has never talked to her neighbors．

    Kung Fu Panda

    Director : Mark Osborne & John Stevenson

    Country/Date : U．S．A．/2008

    Introduction: The leading character is a panda whose name is Po．He is lazy first but he has a great dream—to be a kung fu master．To make his dream come true, he goes to a faraway temple to learn kung fu from a master．However, one of his brothers,

    Tai Long wants to become the kung fu master, killing many of his brothers even the

    master．So Po fights against Tai Long and defeats him, The film is good especially

    for kids．

    Life is Beautiful

    Director: Roberto Benigni

    Country/Date : Italy/1998

    Introduction: In 1939, during World WarⅡ in Italy, Guido, a hopeful man, the main character fell in love with Dora, and they got married．Five years later, their lives changed．Guido and Joshua were taken by the Nazis（纳粹）to a concentration camp and Dora also went there with her husband and son．At that place, Guido tried his best to save his son's life in a special way．

    The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I'm sorry, I can't sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”

    “If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”

    “I can't write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”

    I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all your people do?”

    “We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”

    “So when it goes down, you go down with it.”

    “That's good, sir.”

    “How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.

    “I have no idea. Sometimes it's down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There's no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it's down it won't answer us.”

    After the girl told me they had no backup(备用) computer, I said. “Let's forget the computer. What about your planes? They're still flying, aren't they?”

    “I couldn't tell without asking the computer.”

    “Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he's flying to Washington, ” I suggested.

    “I wouldn't know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn't't take you if you didn't't have a ticket.”

    “Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”

    “I wouldn't know,” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only 'IT' knows. 'IT' can't tell me.

    By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.

    The Independent Project at the Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is attracting huge interest in the education field. The program is a new concept that has developed a wide variety of students' abilities and excited their interest in education and self-directed learning. They are a group of students that, instead of being educated through the normal school courses, have created their own subjects and project-based interactive learning.

    The students are almost completely independent. They choose a goal that they want to accomplish and work on for the whole year. These goals have included some impressive attempts such as writing a novel, writing a play, learning the piano and more. Along with these larger attempts, the students meet every day to ask questions about other subjects like natural sciences, social sciences, etc. Although most of them say that they don't like math, they did eventually develop an interest in math through this independent learning technique.

    The education program, which has attracted a huge variety of students, allows the students to learn and develop research skills and questioning techniques and allows them to truly be interested in the subjects they are diving into. They also teach each other what they have learned, which allows them to develop different way of presenting and gathering material that they have researched.

    I wish that I could have participated in such a project during my high school career, like writing a novel. I am currently studying English as well as education to pursue a teaching degree. I would love to adapt independent driven projects into a classroom in the future.

    This project also raises some crucial questions. Do we need to rethink the structure of the education system itself? Are too many students being simply fed through a conveyor belt(传送带) that we blindly see as working toward their education? I think that the education system needs some improvements, and different learning styles need to be addressed immediately.

    Individual differences in learning are huge keys to the functioning of a classroom. This project takes the idea to a whole new level. This is an extremely important event in the development of the American education system and I think everyone needs to keep an eye out for more programs like this.

The world has been extremely impressed by China's high-speed trains that cross the country by the hundreds in all directions every day, but in one corner of this vast land is a gentle reminder that life was not always this fast.

Those fortunate enough to travel to Jiayang in Sichuan province will find railway carriages dragged by steam locomotives(火车头), among the last steam trains operating in China and still running every day. First used to transport coal from Jiayang Coal Mine 62 years ago, today they transport local farmers and their produce to market and serve as a tourist attraction.

"In the early days of the railway, farmers headed for the farm produce market sitting beside coal," said Liu Chengxi, the Jiayang official in charge of the trains. "As coal production has stopped, the trains are now exclusively(专门地)for farmers and tourists."

The narrow railway, only 76.2 cm instead of the standard 144 cm, stretches for 19. 84 km, with the trains reaching a top speed of 20 km/h.

A one-way ticket costs 5 yuan for seated passengers and 3 yuan for standing passengers on the ordinary trains regardless of whether they are travelling empty-handed or with animals or vegetables. But Li Cuirong, who has worked as a train dispatcher(调度员)for more than 20 years, recommends tourists pay 80 yuan for a sightseeing train, as the carriages, which have 37 seats, are more comfortable and air-conditioned. A one-way trip takes about one and a half hours.

The scenery is dramatic as the train winds through the mountain, passengers can view chickens and geese wandering among the orange trees and butterflies dancing over the fields and ponds.

Rob Dickinson, a steam train lover from the United Kingdom, has ridden the trains twice. He hopes the narrow line can last long enough for him to find the time to get back again.