Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.

    “I think we are knocking at the door of immortality(永生),” said Michael Zeya, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “I think by 2075 we will see it and that's a conservative estimate(保守的估计).”

    At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Luria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past. “There is a great push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”

    However, many scientists who study in ageing are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.

    Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. “It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?” said Leonard Pooh, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Centre. “At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all.”

Many Chinese words include directions or positions. What is the Chinese history and culture hidden behind these words?

When we go shopping, we say "mai dongxi" instead of "mai nanbei" in Chinese. Going back to the ancient city of Chang'an, the national capital in Tang dynasty, there were two large markets, one was in the east and the other was in the west, which were called "eastern market" and "western market". People went shopping either in the eastern market or the western one. As time went by, people started to describe shopping as "mai dongxi".

We use "shang cesuo" in Chinese to express "go to the bathroom" and "xia chufang" to mean "go to the kitchen". Why? In ancient times, houses were built in a certain way. The gate of the house would face south, with the bathroom in the north eastern part of the house and the kitchen in the south eastern part. On maps, north is usually at the top while south is at the bottom. In Chinese, we talk about "the north" as "shang" and "the south" as "xia". So people would say they were going "up" to the bathroom and "down" to the kitchen.

Ancient Chinese not only used "shang" and "xia" to refer to directions, but also social status. "Shang" was seen to be honorable, while "xia" stood for humility (谦卑). For example, people used "huangshang" to refer to the emperor and "dianxia" to refer to the son or daughter of the emperor, who had a lower status than the emperor.

After- school clubs

Do you want to make your after- school life more colorful? Here are some good choices for you.

English is very important to us. Here are two tips of learning English.

Read an English book, newspaper or magazine.

Reading is a necessary part of learning a new language, so don't forget to read! Find something you are really interested in whether that's a famous English novel, a copy of The New York Times, or a fashion magazine, and then start working your way through it. If you find the content(内容) boring, you will be less inclined(倾向于······的）to continue with it.

Again, make an active effort to actually understand what you're reading;don't just skim over it. Mark any words or phrases that you don't understand, and then look them up in the dictionary.

If you're alone, you could also try reading aloud. You will get the benefits of reading aloud.For example, this will allow you to improve your reading comprehension(理解力)as well as your pronunciation.

Keep a diary in English.

Besides reading and listening comprehension,you should also spend some time improving your written English skills. This may be one of the most difficult aspects of your language learning, but it is really important. Writing in English will help you to work on your sentence structure,grammar and spelling.

Try to keep an English diary in which you write down a few sentences every day. It doesn't have to be deeply personal. You could write about the weather,what you ate for dinner or what your plans are for the day.If you feel comfortable with it, get a native speaker to look over what you've written and check it for any mistakes. This will help you to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.

"Start of Winter", also known as Lidong, arrives in November each year. Most parts of China take Lidong {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. On this day, after a year of hard work, people have nothing to do but stay at home {#blank#}2{#/blank#} . They can have a break and do something {#blank#}3{#/blank#} . For example, Chinese in the north like Lidong and they usually celebrate Lidong as the"Small Spring Festival". People have dumplings and mutton soup because they {#blank#}4{#/blank#} to keep their {#blank#}5{#/blank#}warm during winter. 

Is Fresh Air Really Good for You?

 We all grew up hearing people tell us to"go out and get some fresh air. "{#blank#}1{#/blank#} According to recent studies, the answer is a big YES.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#} If the air you' re breathing is clean - which it would be if you' re away from the smog of cities-then it is filled with life - giving energizing oxygen. If you exercise out of doors, your body will learn to breathe more deeply, allowing even more oxygen to get to your muscles and your brain.

 Recently, people have begun studying the connection between the natural world and healing(治愈). {#blank#}3{#/blank#} In these places patients can go to be near nature during their recovery. It turns out that just looking at green, growing things can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and put people into a better mood. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} It gives us a great feeling of peace.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} While the sun's rays can age and harm our skin, they also give us beneficial Vitamin D. To make sure you get enough Vitamin D-but still protect your skin-put on sunscreen right as you head outside. It takes sunscreen about fifteen minutes to start working, and that's plenty of time for your skin to absorb a day's worth of Vitamin D.