Well-known for historic architecture and chocolates, Lviv, Ukraine's official capital of culture, looks, smells, and tastes like the best of Europe. Indeed, its western flavor has earned it the title "Little Paris of Ukraine".

    For centuries Lviv, located 50 kilometers from the Poland-Ukraine border, was an important stopping point on the main trade routes between the east and west. During the Renaissance, the city could afford Italy's finest architects because every merchant passing through was forced to stay and sell their goods for at least two weeks. "It was a very smart move to collect money from them," said Yaroslav Hrytsak, a local historian, adding, "It kept the wealth in the city, and that wealth has been transformed into architectural richness."

    Many historic buildings remain but Lviv's prosperity didn't survive its bloody history. Over the centuries, the city fell under the rule of Poland, Austria, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Nazi Germany. In addition, both Sweden and Turkey tried unsuccessfully to conquer the city. Then for almost half a century Lviv was ruled by the Soviet Union (苏联). With that, the city was condemned to relative obscurity(无闻). But recently things have started to change. Lviv experienced a sudden 40% increase in tourism in early2010, which was the highest rate in Europe. Just last month, its gates opened even wider, when Lviv became a host city for the Euro 2012 football championships.

    So how has this happened? With the Soviet collapse, some saw new opportunities for reviving Lviv's former wealth and fame.

    Limelight networks is a US-founded company. It's one of many digital tech firms to have opened offices in Lviv over the past few years. "It had good growth and experience in the US, however, the company needs more talent to do the new cool projects and products for our customers. This is why we're here in Ukraine." said CEO of Limelight networks.

    Lviv's unexpected abundance of I.T. talent is in fact a legacy(遗产) of the former Soviet Union. To help the military, many Soviet universities focused on turning out world-class engineers and Lviv's university is still producing them. Now, the city is home to 23 higher education institutions. It's clear that the city of Lviv does not intend to remain a hidden jewel for much longer.

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    Scientists around the world are striving for effective detection of cancer in the early stages,which is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body,and a Chinese scientist may have found a quick way of knowing whether malignant tumors（恶性肿瘤）exist in a patient's body,with just one drop of blood.

    Malignant tumors in early phases can be cured.However,it's extremely difficult to be aware of cancer in its early stages,as patients don't show obvious symptoms and thus it can only be found in its later stages,which is already too late,so to detect cancer early remains a global challenge for scientists.

    Back in 1989,scientists have found a kind of heat shock proteins (HSP),named Hsp90α,which existed in human bodies and can be used as a cancer biomarker detection kit.Scientists around the globe have been working on it since then,and more than 10,000 journals have been published on accredited magazines,yet no one has actually turned their research results into medical products.

    However,Luo Yongzhang and his team in Tsinghua University's School of Life Sciences in Beijing seemed to have cracked the code,after working on the problem since 2009.The team has produced an artificial Hsp90α protein for clinical use that gains structural stability by regrouping proteins.The test kit can diagnose multiple kinds of cancer by analyzing a drop of human blood.This means they are able to "create" the protein,in any quantity,and at any time they wish to.

    The kit has since been used in clinical trials involving 2,347 patients at eight hospitals in China.It was the first clinical trial in the world to test if the protein could be a useful tumor biomarker for lung cancer,and it succeeded. Now,the kit has been approved to enter the Chinese and European markets,24 years after Hsp90α was discovered.

    Researchers found that walking around with a forced smile and fake happiness simply leads to people feeling unhappier. So, putting a brave face on your sadness could be harmful. The research also found that women suffered more than men when pretending to be happy.

    Dr. Brent Scott, who led the study, said employers should take note because forcing workers to smile when dealing with the public can result in bad outcomes. He said, “Smiling for the sake of smiling can lead to emotional tiredness, and that's bad for the organization.” He also said the research showed customer-service workers who had “fake smiles” throughout the day didn't want to work, so their productivity dropped.

    The study is one of the first of its kind to examine emotional expressions over a period of time and compare the different effects on men and women. Dr. Scott's team examined the effects of “surface acting”, or fake smiling, compared to “deep acting”, or making people smile by thinking of pleasant memories.

    Dr. Scott said, “Women were harmed more by surface acting, meaning their moods worsened even more than men's. However, they were helped more by deep acting, which means their moods improved more by thinking of pleasant memories.”

    According to Dr. Scott women tend to suffer more when pretending to be happy because they are expected to be more emotionally expressive than men. Therefore, forcing a smile while feeling down is more likely to go against their normal behavior and cause more harmful feelings.

    Although deep acting can improve moods a little in the short term, Dr. Scott says it's not a long-term solution to feeling unhappy. There have been some suggestions that if you do this over a long period you start to feel unreal. You're trying to develop positive emotions, but at the end of the day you may not feel like yourself any more.

    “Why do birds sing?” I asked a group of children. “To attract metes(配偶)!” answered a boy. A 4-year-old girl added shyly, “birds sing because they are happy, and they want to make us happy, too.” I think both answers are probably true in a way. If birds sing happily, it shows all is well in the forest: no predators (捕食者) are present, and the birds can feed, sing and do other bird things. The sound of a relaxed robin(知更鸟) singing is easy to understand because it makes us feel this way too—it's a sound that lifts our own hearts when we hear it.

    What happens when a predator comes into their areas? The nearby birds quickly give an alarm call, a short sound that warns, “Danger is coming!” On hearing the sound, the other birds stop singing and fly for cover, the deer lift their heads and stop moving and the rabbits run into the bushes. Suddenly, the forest becomes silent.

    When humans walk through the woods in a hurry or while talking with a friend, we don't see much wildlife. We may think that there aren't many animals living there, but more likely, they know we are coming and hide minutes before our arrival. But if we learn to avoid setting off alarms, we can see many more wild animals without frightening them. To practice, find a place in a park and sit quietly for an hour. Take note as the birds begin to relax and sing again. When I do this, I am always surprised at the wonderful thing animals will do when humans simply stay still long enough.

    Some insects, such as butterflies and ladybugs, are quite beautiful. But, did you know that many bugs are also edible and are filled with protein?

    Aletheia Price knows this—and a lot more—about bugs. She also thinks you should try eating some. If you visit the website www.eatbug.com, you will find all kinds of information about edible insects. Most of it was written by Aletheia Price when she was fifteen years old. Aletheia started eating bugs at the age of thirteen. Before long, she found that she really enjoyed some of them. She also became interested in finding out more about which kinds of bugs could be eaten and how to cook them.

    According to Aletheia, there are at least 1,462 kinds of edible insects. (Doesn't that make you wonder who tried all of them and decided they were edible?) Some of her favorite dishes include mealworm chocolate chip cookies, ant tacos(玉米卷), and chocolate-covered crickets(蟋蟀). On her website she has recipes for insect entrees(开胃菜) and some helpful tips. For example, when preparing crickets, it is best to remove their legs before cooking, for the legs tend to get stuck in your teeth. She also offers information for anyone who wants to raise bugs for food.

    Aletheia realizes that eating bugs is not for everyone. But, if you think about it, you have to admit that eating bugs might be a good idea. There are billions and billions of bugs in this world. If we could get used to eating them, we would have plenty of food for everyone.

    The love story between John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, was far from perfect and was tragically cut short in 1963 by a sniper's(狙击手) bullet.

    On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was seated beside his smartly dressed wife, who was wearing a pink Chanel-like suit and matching pillbox hat and holding an armful of red roses that had been presented to her by fans. They were seated in the back seat of a dark blue 1961 Lincoln with John Connally, the Governor of Texas and his wife, Nellie.

    And then came the dark moment. As the motorcade(车队) passed the Texas School Book Depository on Elm Street, a loud noise—like the sound of a firecracker—cracked the air. President Kennedy slumped(耷拉) forward, Jackie putting her arms around him.

    The look on her husband's face after he was shot would haunt Jackie for the rest of her life. The last words she ever got to say to him were, "I love you, Jack. I love you," according to Anderson, although Jackie herself recalled it slightly differently in a 1963 interview. All the way to Parkland Hospital, where President Kennedy would eventually be pronounced dead, as she recalled it, she was bent over him, asking "Jack, Jack, can you hear me? I love you."

    Jack Kennedy's final words to his wife of 10 years were far more mundane, of course. He had no way of knowing what was about to happen. It's been reported that Jack's final words were, "My God, I've been hit," but physicians have said this was impossible given Jack's injuries. Well, historians have now clarified that the last words Jack spoke before the fatal shot were, "No, you certainly can't."

    No, you certainly can't?

    He was making small talk in the car. "You certainly can't say that the people of Dallas haven't given you a nice welcome," the Texas Governor's wife had just remarked to Jack, referring to the huge, adoring crowd. "No, you certainly can't," Jack replied, milliseconds before the bullet from Lee Harvey Oswald gun struck.

    John F. Kennedy never spoke another word after that fateful day, but many things he said during his lifetime are incredibly inspiring.