Mark Twain has been called the inventor of the American novel.And he surely deserves additional praise：the man who popularized the clever literary attack on racism.

     I say clever because anti­slavery fiction had been the important part of the literature in the years before the Civil War.H.B.Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is only the most famous example.These early stories dealt directly with slavery.With minor exceptions，Twain planted his attacks on slavery and prejudice into tales that were on the surface about something else entirely.He drew his readers into the argument by drawing them into the story.

     Again and again，in the postwar years，Twain seemed forced to deal with the challenge of race.Consider the most controversial，at least today，of Twain's novels，Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.Only a few books have been kicked off the shelves as often as Huckleberry Finn，Twain's most widely read tale.Once upon a time，people hated the book because it struck them as rude.Twain himself wrote that those who banned the book considered the novel “trash and suitable only for the slums(贫民窟)．”More recently the book has been attacked because of the character Jim，the escaped slave，and many occurences of the word nigger.(The term Nigger Jim，for which the novel is often severely criticized，never appears in it.)

     But the attacks were and are silly—and miss the point.The novel is strongly anti­slavery.Jim's search through the slave states for the family from whom he has been forcibly parted is heroic.As J．Chadwick has pointed out，the character of Jim was a first in American fiction—a recognition that the slave had two personalities，“the voice of survival within a white slave culture and the voice of the individual：Jim，the father and the man.”

There is much more.Twain's mystery novel Pudd'nhead Wilson stood as a challenge to the racial beliefs of even many of the liberals of his day.Written at a time when the accepted wisdom held Negroes to be inferior(低等的)to whites，especially in intelligence，Twain's tale centered in part around two babies switched at birth.A slave gave birth to her master's baby and，for fear that the child should be sold South，switched him for the master's baby by his wife.The slave's lightskinned child was taken to be white and grew up with both the attitudes and the education of the slave­holding class.The master's wife's baby was taken for black and grew up with the attitudes and intonations of the slave.

     The point was difficult to miss：nurture(养育)，not nature，was the key to social status.The features of the black man that provided the stuff of prejudice—manner of speech，for example—were，to Twain，indicative of nothing other than the conditioning that slavery forced on its victims.

Twain's racial tone was not perfect.One is left uneasy，for example，by the lengthy passage in his autobiography(自传)about how much he loved what were called“nigger shows”in his youth—mostly with white men performing in black­face—and his delight in getting his mother to laugh at them.Yet there is no reason to think Twain saw the shows as representing reality.His frequent attacks on slavery and prejudice suggest his keen awareness that they did not.

     Was Twain a racist？Asking the question in the 21st century is as wise as asking the same of Lincoln.If we read the words and attitudes of the past through the“wisdom”of the considered moral judgments of the present，we will find nothing but error.Lincoln，who believed the black man the inferior of the white，fought and won a war to free him.And Twain，raised in a slave state，briefly a soldier，and inventor of Jim，may have done more to anger the nation over racial injustice and awaken its collective conscience than any other novelist in the past century.

    Program fools humans

    Have you ever been so bored that you started a conversation with a “chatbot (聊天机器人)”? You probably discovered quickly that it wasn't much fun, because the things it says hardly ever make any sense and chatting with it doesn't provide the same kind of back-and-forth as a human conversation.

    That might have made you wonder: will a computer ever be able to talk like a human?

    That day is certainly getting closer now. A computer program named “Eugene Goostman” has successfully passed the Turing test – by fooling people into thinking it was a 13-year-old boy, reported AFP on June 9.

    While you may have never heard of the Turing test, it means a lot in the world of artificial (人工的) intelligence.

    According to USA Today, the test was first invented in 1950 by Alan Turing, a British computer expert best known for his code-breaking work during World War II. In his test, a group of human judges take turns having keyboard conversations for five minutes with two subjects – a human and a piece of computer software. If up to 30 percent of the judges fail to tell the two apart, the program is considered to have passed the test.

“If a machine is indistinguishable (无法区分的) from a human, then it could be said to be ‘thinking',” wrote Turing in his paper Computing, Machinery & Intelligence back in 1950.

    No computer had ever passed the Turing test before. But this time, Eugene Goostman, developed by two Russian scientists to simulate (模拟) a 13-year-old boy, managed to convince 33 percent of judges that it was human.

    Machines are close to “reaching the milestone of communicating with us in a way that we are comfortable with”, Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, UK, told The Telegraph. “This brings closer the time in which robots start to play an active role in our daily lives.”

    Some people feel a bit disturbed by the news. They worry that computers will outsmart humans in the near future and take over the world. But Warwick said that it is unlikely that this will happen any time soon. After all, computers have only just learned to have a five-minute conversation, while we humans can do so much more than that.

    To eat only a vegan（素食的） diet might sound difficult, especially with many popular dishes containing meat or other animal products. Yet in 2017, veganism was described as “the fastest - growing lifestyle movement” in the UK, according to BBC news.

    A study by a UK market research organization, suggests that over 542,000 Brits went vegan during the previous decade, an increase of 360%. And the main force behind this increase was those aged 15-34 years old — 42% of recent vegans fall under that age range.

    So why exactly has veganism become so popular among young Brits?

    One reason could be that many young people want to protect the environment, as less meat consumption is known to be beneficial to the environment. Global meat manufacturing is believed to cause 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions（排放）, even more than that of all the world's cars, trains and planes combined. Another reason is that many of today's young people believe that it's wrong to kill animals to be used as food.

    Jess Murray, 22, a student at University College London, said that he chose to become vegan after realizing that eating animals is a choice that people make, rather than something that we need to do to survive. “Becoming vegan was an ethical (道德的) decision,” he told the Guardian.

    Social media is also believed to have given rise to the increase in veganism. Platforms such as Facebook allow young vegans to connect with each other much easier, while others such as Instagram have led to the creation of “vegan celebrities (名人)”, who share lips on vegan lifestyles.

    Despite the rising of veganism, Laura Wyness, an expert in diet and nutrition, said that meat is very important for people's health. “A strict vegan diet makes it difficult to get some minerals and vitamins that your body needs,” Wyness told BBC news.

    However, the popularity of veganism doesn't seem to be fading. “It feels more like this is something that is sticking.” said an expert of the Vegan Society, a UK charity that promotes veganism.

    While both Europe and the United States of America are considered the Western world, it's good to know there are some differences in culture. If you are considering moving to a European country, you will find the information below helpful as you plan your move.

    One cultural difference is how the countries perceive（感知）time and space. For example, a house in the United States that is 200 years old would be considered ancient. This is probably because America is a fairly young country. However, in Europe, something would not be considered ancient unless it was at least 2,000 years old. However, perception of distance seems to be the opposite. While Europeans would consider 100 kilometers a long way to drive, Americans would think twice. This could be due to the fact that Europe is smaller and more heavily populated. In fact, the United States is over twice the size of Europe.

    Cars are another factor that differs greatly between Europe and the United States. American automobiles usually have automatic transmissions（传动）while European cars generally have manual gears（手动变速器）. European automobiles are smaller and more round-shaped, while American cars are larger and more square-shaped. Trucks and limousine are vehicles that American enjoy. In Europe, however, these types of vehicles are hardly seen, as they prefer smaller cars due to parking and traffic congestion.

    The view of education is another cultural difference between the European countries and the United States. In America, parents may save for many years and even go into debt to pay for their children to attend college. Most schools and universities in Europe, however, are free of tuition. In fact, it is just expected for children to attend college there and not a privilege（特权）, as in the United States.

    If you're looking at diving for the first time in Papua New Guinea, believe everything you have read about our world-class waters.

    Called the "underwater photographer's paradise", we've got many international awards for underwater photography taken here. In our oceans you'll see up to twice as many marine species as the waters of the Red Sea and up to five times as many as the Caribbean. Our waters enjoy a huge diversity of dive sites, including reefs, coral walls, seagrass beds, and wreck dive sites (ships, aircraft and submarines!).

    Must see

    Dive down to a fully complete Japanese fighter plane in Kimbe Bay, known also for soft coral and unusual creatures.

    Experience "Muck Diving", which puts Papua New Guinea on the map, in Milne Bay.

    Explore our surfing destinations from October to April. Relatively new to international surf enthusiasts, our breaks at Vanimo, Wewak, Madang and Kavieng are quickly becoming known for being uncrowded, challenging and entertaining for days!

    Want to book a "Muck Diving"? Call 00675-374.

    Want to dive to see fighter plane? Call 00675-325.

    Where to stay

    Papua New Guinea has accommodation to suit every budget and need. From privacy-protected hideaways to family-friendly escapes, book your business package or luxury resort knowing you'll be well looked after.

    Want to find a suitable hotel? Call 00677-366.

    Further information

    Dive coaches offer both land-based (one day, three dives) and live-aboard dive tours (7-10 days, up to five dives a day).

    The average water temperature varies from 25℃ along the edge of the Coral Sea to 29℃in the Bismarck Sea.

    You can dive in Papua New Guinea all year round, with the high season generally from May to November.

    Want to get yourself a professional dive coach? Call 00652-392.

    The latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that one in every 12 kids is living in homes where no one has worked for at least a year. That may be due to unemployment or issues such as sickness or disability that mean they can't work, and aren't required to. This is known as being in a "long term workless" family.

    The issues faced by children in workless families have very bad influence on their development and education, limiting their future employment prospects, and reducing their opportunities to succeed throughout their lives.

    Not only does worklessness reduce family income, it can also damage families' health and stability, and thus destroy children's development. This is because many workless families are held back by disadvantages such as debt, drug and alcohol dependency, and by homelessness. Suffering from the family problems, many children face a greater and greater possibility of repeating the poor outcomes of their parents. Government research has shown that children in workless families are almost twice as likely not to reach the expected level at all stages of their education. For example, three-quarters of children from families where no one works failed to reach the expected level at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), compared to around half of children in lower-income working families.

    So attention should be paid to children in out-of-work homes. Having working parents means a child is more likely to do better at school, to have better health, education and development, and also means they are less likely to fall into crime.

    But for some families, worklessness, or not employment, is the norm. They just choose not to work. These families often face huge barriers to getting on with their lives but they take the opportunities offered by the society. Parents' ability to work is frustrated by issues like low skills or poor mental or physical health, or drug and alcohol dependency, leaving children without the stability they need.

    We all want to help workless families with complex problems so that their children can take advantage of the opportunities in Britain. We all want parents to have the chance to go out to earn a living and to enjoy the pleasure of work, so that their children can benefit from the good examples of working parents. In doing so, we should know the need to understand the complex issues that some families face and to develop a new approach to deal with poverty. Because the root causes are not financial. It is about helping families overcome the problems they face so that they can go as far as their talents and hard work will take them. We shouldn't retreat from acting to deal with disadvantages, because we know the costs of inaction to individuals, communities and society.