One fine afternoon I was walking along Fifth Avenue when I remembered that it was necessary to buy a pair of socks. I turned into the first sock shop that caught my eye, and a boy clerk who could not have been more than 17 years old came forward.

    “What can I do for you, sir?”

    “I wish to buy a pair of socks.”

    His eyes glowed. “Did you know that you had come into the best place in the world to buy socks?” I had not been aware of that.

    “Come with me,” said the boy happily. He began to haul (用力拖) down from the shelves box after box.

    “Hold on, boy, I am going to buy only one pair!”

    “I know that,” said he, “but I want you to see how beautiful these are. Aren't they wonderful?” There was on his face an expression of joy, as if he were showing to me the mysteries of his religion.

    “My friend,” said I, “if this is not just the enthusiasm (热情) that comes from novelty (新鲜), if you can keep up this day after day, in ten years you will own every sock in the United States.”

    In many shops the customer has to wait for someone to serve him. And when finally some clerk does notice you, you are made to feel as if you were disturbing him. He displays no interest either in you or in the goods he is paid to sell.

    Yet possibly that very clerk who is now so cold began his career with enthusiasm. As time goes by, the enthusiasm is gradually gone; his only pleasures were found outside of working hours. He became a mechanical (机械的), not inspired, salesman.

    I have observed such change in the lives of so many people in so many occupations that I have come to the conclusion that the fastest road to failure is to do things mechanically.

                                                                              Learning a Second Language

    Some people learn a second language easily. Others have trouble learning a new language. How can you help yourself learn a new language, such as English? There are several ways to make learning English a little easier and more interesting.

    The first step is to feel positive about learning English. If you believe that you can learn, you will learn. Be patient. You do not have to understand everything all at once. It is natural to make mistakes when you learn something new. We can learn from our mistakes. In other words, do not worry about taking risks.

    The second step is to practice your English. For example, write a diary every day. You will get used to writing it in English, and you will feel comfortable expressing your ideas in English. Several weeks later, you will see that your writing is improving. In addition, you must speak English every day. You can practice with your classmates outside class. You will all make mistakes, but gradually you will become comfortable communicating in English.

    The third step is to keep a record of your language learning. You can write this in your journal. After each class, think about what you did. Did you answer a question correctly? Did you understand something the teacher explained? Perhaps the lesson was difficult, but you tried to understand it.

    You must be positive about learning English and believe that you can do it. It is important to practice every day and make a record of your achievements. You will enjoy learning English, and you will feel more confident in yourself.

    It's common knowledge that sleep problems can be caused by things such as stress, anxiety, or even using a smartphone before bedtime. But recently, a team of researchers discovered that genes could also be a cause of sleepless nights.

    The scientists, from Rockefeller University in New York, US, found that delayed sleep phase disorder（DSPD，睡眠相位后移综合症）, a condition that affects one's sleeping patterns, is passed down via a mutated（突变的）gene. DSPD sufferers wake up later and go to bed later than the average person. To come to their conclusion, the team studied a 46-year-old woman who is only usually able to fall asleep at 2 or 3 in the morning. It was discovered that the woman's body produces the hormone that helps her sleep at night up to 7 hours later than regular sleepers. The scientists found this was caused by a mutation in one of the woman's genes, one that helps regulate the “body clock”.

    Some of the woman's family members were also found to share the same mutation—and the same sleeping problems –leading the scientists to believe that sleep troubles are passed down through the generations.

    However, having this mutation doesn't mean you automatically have sleep problems. The team also found two people who had the mutation but reported no problems with their sleep.

    But while this is an interesting discovery, it offers no help to those who can't fall asleep at night—although there are a few things you could try to help you sleep earlier.

    BBC journalist Michael Mosley produced a TV documentary in May in which he talked about his battle with insomnia（失眠）and the techniques he used. “I avoid social media for at least an hour before bed, I do mindfulness exercises, and if I wake up in the middle of the night, I read a book for an hour or so,” he wrote in an article for the Radio Times.

    （I）It was a surprising announcement: SpaceX, a private company（私人公司）, said it would fly two people to the moon next year (2019). This has not been attempted since NASA's Apollo moon landings about 45 years ago. In the news conference, Elon Musk. SpaceX founder said two people have already paid SpaceX a “wonderful” amount of money to send them on a weeklong flight just beyond the moon.

    （II）Exercise reduces the risks of dying from all causes, including cancer and heart disease. But many people who work all week have little time for exercise. They try to take exercise or do chores to increase their heart rates over the weekend. A new study suggests that it is healthy to do that, which can reduce their risk of cancer and cardiovascular（心血管疾病）disease.

    （III）Scientists in London have found a possible way to solve the problem of plastic bottle waste. They have made a water bottle you can eat. The product is called Ooho, made of seaweed, a plant that grows in the ocean. Oohos are tasteless and look like bubbles or balls. They can hold water or any other liquid（液体）inside. When people drink Oohos, the outside bursts in the mouth and can be eaten. Even if you throw it away, it will degrade in about four weeks. It is good for the environment.

    My students entered the art room with their usual eagerness to see what they would be learning in today's class. Little did they know they were going to be students for a new teaching method that is spreading the nation.

    I often use videos as previews and supplements (补充) to our art lessons providing students with a variety of artists showing their skills in real-life situations outside the classroom. Finding a new painting technique called glue batik(胶水蜡染),  I thought of something new I hadn't tried before!  How awesome would it be to learn a new technique together with artists? The lesson was planned, presented to the students without any introduction or set objectives. I also asked the students to watch and pause the video as often as they needed to.

    They watched as the artist explained and showed her skills, taking notes on her steps and results. After the video, they shared what they felt the artist's objectives were, her end result using art vocabulary as well as the steps they would need to know to present their own examples. Then they began creating their works using the glue batik technique.

    Surfing the Internet a couple of weeks later, I found that the teaching method I used sounded very familiar to a new movement in education called flipped teaching, which was developed by Jonathan Bergmann. He asked his students to watch video lectures at home and do exercises (homework) in class under supervision (监督). He found that grades went up and he also found time for other types of activities, which Bergmann states are more important than the videos.

    Back to my art class, the students were learning to get ideas, make predictions, and explain reasoning to their classmates. Together they compared, asked questions and made discoveries as they presented the technique.

    A six-wheeled robot travels underground in Hefei to discover warning signs of faults inside the pipeline network, "It looks like a toy car at first, but it's much more complicated than that," said Xu Mao, the robot's operator.

    The pipeline robot, developed by Wuhan Easy-Sight Technology, is made up of four parts — crawler, camera, cable reel, and controller. A full charge can enable the robot to work for four to five hours, covering a distance between 800 and 1,000 meters in the underground p ipeline.

    The robot made its appearance last month in Shushan District. It will carry out inspections of the underground pipeline network stretching 150 kilometers." Whether the pipe is leaking, damaged or blocked, we can clearly see its situation through high-definition(高清晰度的)cameras fixed into the robot, " said Qi Chuanshuai from the provincial construction engineering and testing institute.

    The real-time data including video images of the pipe will be up loaded and displayed on a computer. "If we find any problems, we stop the robot and record the flaws," Xu said. "We report the faults to local government, who will arrange the repair as soon as possible."

    With the rapid develop merit of cities, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage underground pipelines. Among all the difficulties, discovering faults in the sewage (污水)and rainwater pipelines comes first. Many other cities such as Wuhan, Nanjing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai are using the robots to inspect their pipelines, the robot's developer said.

    Equipped with environmental detection sensors, the robots can monitor temperature and damp, poisonous gases, oxygen levels and smoke density, while providing color diagram in real time. "Compared with human workers, robots are able to enter smaller pipes and are immune (有免疫力的)to poisonous gases in sewage pipes," said Ge Shengli from Shushan District' s city management company." No digging is required and there is no need to interrupt traffic," Ge added.