The 2016 Rio Olympic Games have come to an end. Without doubt, many Chinese sports fans sat in front of the TV and cheered our athletes on, hoping that they would get as many gold medals as possible.

    But sometimes our desire for gold medals can result in the sadness of failure. When Liu Xiang, China's track hero, pulled out of the Beijing Olympics due to injury, he greatly disappointed many Chinese sports fans.

    But things are different now. In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, we saw a healthier and more lenient Chinese attitude toward the sports people, fully in line with the Olympic spirit.

    China didn't win any gold medals on the first day. But, instead of criticizing the athletes who failed to finish on top of the podium(领奖台), the majority of fans were happy with their efforts. “Reacting in the right way when an athlete misses out on gold shows the maturity of a person, and is also a challenge for a country to face up to in the process of development,” commented CRI.

    Swimmer Fu Yuanhui won fans' hearts, even if she only won a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke final. Her fans on her Sina Weibo micro blog have increased 100,000 to over 6 million. Many sports fans appreciated her straightforward character and attitude toward competition.

    “The warm support from Internet users shows that public attitude toward competitive sport and the Olympics have gotten to a higher level,” said an article in the People's Daily.

    Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface (界面) (BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.

    Recently, two researchers, Jose Milan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic schooling Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated(展示)a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.

    In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.

    "Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord(脊髓)to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles," Tavella says.  "Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices."

The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.

    Prof. Milan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. "The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair."

    He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.

    I had been in the city for some time and was coming home. I missed my boat and decided to travel on an old ship. I knew that it would not be a comfortable journey but I had no time to wait for another boat.

    Hardly had we left the port when I saw the dog Gulliver, the captain's favourite dog, for the first time. What a big dog it was! I had never seen one that could frighten me so much!

    On the third day the ship caught fire. Nobody tried to put it out. The ship began sinking and all the men rushed to the life-boats. I saw no chance of getting away in a boat. Suddenly I remembered there was a life-raft on the ship. I had no time to lose, so I immediately rushed towards the raft and pushed it overboard.

    In jumping down onto the raft I hurt myself badly and was unconscious for some time. When I came to, I found there was no sign of a life-boat. Every man who had been on board the ship must have gone down with her. I was the only one who was saved.

    The I saw Gulliver was coming fast towards the raft. He struggled a long time before he managed to get onto it. I wanted to push him back into the water but did not dare to move. The dog shook himself, went to the other end of the raft and lay down. I didn't dare to sleep that night. I must watch him. In the moonlight I could see his eyes were open. He was watching, too.

    Most teens can't wait to learn to drive. Not so with me. Driving made me nervous. I didn't get a license until I turned 24 years old. As a result, when I first married, we only had one car and car pooled to work. My husband's hours were different from mine by one hour. I worked earlier. So he dropped me off and went to the diner to drink coffee until work time.

    Then, in the afternoons, I leisurely walked the three miles to his work place where I waited in his car, reading a book.

    One day while waiting for him, I noticed the most beautiful Cadillac pull in the lot. It was powder blue and sleek looking. The kind of car you dream about. I was busily admiring the car, when I noticed the driver. Honestly, she was probably the prettiest woman I had ever seen off the movie screen.

    She pulled into the spot beside our car and it was all I could do not to stare. There was a striking resemblance to Liz Taylor. Jet black hair and alabaster skin. Our eyes made contact and she smiled at me. Her eyes were as blue as the sea, and teeth like an even row of pearls. She was wearing a light blue shirt that just matched her car. Peeking through her long, softly curled hair I could see gold hoop earrings. They had to be gold to shine like that. A couple of minutes later, a nice looking man came out of the building, entered her car, leaned over and kissed her and she drove away.

    Sitting there in my jeans, shirt and hair in a pony tail, I wanted to cry. How could some people have it all?

    Maybe I would have forgotten about her, but the following week, I saw her again. Then it became almost routine to see her about once a week. She seemed friendly and always waved, flashing a big smile. My envy lingered long after she drove away.

    Many nights when sleep evaded me, I would think about the beautiful lady. I wondered if she and her husband ate out, and where they dined, and what she was wearing. I wanted her to get out of the car and let me see her full length. Did she wear really high heeled shoes and pants, or a skirt.

    I would get my answers in a couple of weeks.

    Sitting in our usual parking lot, I was holding my book, watching her over the top of it. She was waiting and when her husband came to the car, she called to him. They spoke a few words and he opened the car door for her to step out. He took her arm and helped her out of the car. I could see very well as she moved to get out. She was wearing a skirt.

    She haltingly walked around to the passenger side very slowly, leaning on a walking cane. Sitting sideways in the car, she lifted one leg with her hands and then the other one. The beautiful lady had a prosthesis on the left leg and a brace on the right leg. I couldn't watch them drive away as the tears were blinding me. For weeks I had envied this woman and her way of life, while I had been able to walk three miles to our car!

    When my husband arrived and found me crying, he immediately asked what was wrong. Through my tears, I told him about the beautiful lady. He said he knew her husband and also knew the story. The beautiful lady and her parents were in a car that either stalled or got caught on the railroad tracks and was hit by a train. Both parents were killed and she was severely injured. She was only 12 years old. The railroad made a large settlement with her because the crossing had no signals. He explained her car was specially built for her needs as well as the home.

    I prayed for forgiveness all the way home. The lady I thought had everything I didn't. I realized how lucky I was to have my parents, the ability to walk, run or dance through life and many wonderful things money can't buy. I would not have traded places with the beautiful lady for anything.

    When you meet a person who seems to be much better off than you, don't be fooled.

    Whenever we see a button, we are eager to press it because we know something will happen. This is true in most cases, for example on a doorbell and on the "on/off" button on the TV. But some buttons are actually fake, like the "close" button on a lift.

    Many people are in the habit of pressing the "close" button because they don't have the patience to wait for the lift doors to shut. But lifts' "close" buttons are a complete scam (骗局), at least in the US-the doors will not close any faster no matter how hard you press.

    It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in the US, making sure that all lifts stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only US firefighters and repairmen can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys.

    But to normal lift riders, the buttons aren't completely useless. According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control.

    "Perceived (能够感知的) control is very important. It reduces stress and increases well-being," Ellen J. Langer, a psychology professor, said, "having a lack of control is associated with depression（沮丧）."

    Experts have revealed that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose. For example, many offices in the US have fake thermostats (温度调节器) because people tend to feel better when they think they can control the temperature in their workplace.

    Pedestrian(行人) crosswalk buttons don't live up to their names either. Pressing them used to help make the traffic signals change faster, but that was before computer-controlled traffic signals were introduced.

    But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little "white lies", they still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.

    "That habit is here to stay," John Kounios, a psychology professor, said. "Even though I have real doubts about the traffic light buttons, I always press them. After all, I've got nothing else to do while waiting. So why not press the button in the hope that this one will work?"

    The popular wisdom for years has been that drinking in moderation (适度)—that's one “standard” drink a day for women and two for men-is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular (心血管的) disease. But recent studies are casting some doubt on that long-held learning. Science now says it depends on your age and drinking habits.

    A 2017 study of nearly 2 million British with no cardiovascular risk found that there was still a modest benefit in moderate drinking, especially for women over 55 who drank five drinks a week. Why that age? Alcohol can influence the substance in the blood in positive ways, experts say, and that's about the age when heart problems begin to occur.

    Also, a 2018 study found that drinking more than 100 grams of alcohol per week—equal to roughly seven standard drinks in the United States or five to six glasses of wine in the UK—increases your risk of death from all causes and in turn lowers your life expectancy. Links were found with different forms of cardiovascular disease, with people who drank more than 100 grams per week having a higher risk of stroke, heart failure.

    Another 2018 study found that consistently drinking a moderate amount of alcohol, within recommended guidelines, had a protective effect on the heart over time. Unstable drinking habits were associated with a higher risk of heart disease, which the authors reflected might indicate broader lifestyle changes, such as poor health or stress. Former drinkers were also at greater risk.

    Overall, however, the latest thinking is that any heart benefit may be outweighed by other health risks, such as high blood pressure, certain cancers and liver damage.

Women who drink are at a higher risk for breast cancer; alcohol contributes about 6% of the overall risk, possibly because it raises certain dangerous hormones in the blood. Drinking can also increase the chance you might develop liver, mouth and oral cancers. One potential reason: Alcohol weakens our immune systems, making us more likely to inflame (发炎)—a driving force behind cancer.