The American newspaper has been around for about three hundred years. In 1721, the printer James Franklin, Benjamin's older brother, started the New England Courant, and that was what we might recognize today as a real newspaper. He filled his paper with stories of adventure, articles on art, on famous people, and on all sorts of political subjects.

    Three centuries after the appearance of Franklin's Courant, few believe that newspapers in their present printed form will remain alive for long, Newspaper companies are losing advertisers, readers, market value, and in some cases, their sense of purpose at a speed that would not have been imaginable just several years ago. The chief editor of the Times said recently, “At places where they gather, editors ask one another, 'How are you?', as if they have just come out of the hospital or a lost law case.” An article about the newspaper appealed on the website of the Guardian, under the headline “NOT DEAD YET.”

    Perhaps not, but the rise of the Internet, which has made the daily newspaper look slow and out of step with the world, has brought about a real sense of death, Some American newspapers have lost 42% of their market value in the past three years. The New York Times Company has seen its stock（股票）drop by 54% since the end of 2004, with much of the loss coming in the past year. A manager at Deutsche Bank suggested that stock - holders sell off their Times stock. The Washington Post Company has prevented the trouble only by changing part of its business to education; its testing and test — preparation service now brings in at least half the company's income,

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    With the development of the television and the Internet, many people have changed their hobbies and the way that they enjoy their free time. Because of the television and the Internet, many people spend less time reading, so the aim of this article is to give reasons why people should read just for pleasure. The reasons that I give you are quite simple: to improve your knowledge, to have more fun, to make your imagination（想象）fly, to find new ways to express your ideas, and to have a better understanding of life.

    Firstly, you can improve your knowledge when you read. There are nil kinds of good books to choose from. People who read more usually have a better idea about life than those who do not read so often.

    Secondly, you can have fun and increase your imagination by reading books Children have very good imaginations, so parents need to read lots of stories that feed their imagination. Adults should try to develop their imagination by reading books that make them think amazing things.

    Finally, no matter how old you are, it can help you to have a better understanding of life and express your ideas to others in a simple and correct form.

    So I suggest that you read more. I know that many of us like to play on the Internet when we are free, but we must also not forget to read books. Try to choose good books in the beginning, and then I'm sure that you will never stop reading.

    As we age, our ability to think and remember starts to deteriorate. But not everyone. Some of us have brains that age more slowly. Enter the super-ager!

    Super-agers are people over the age of 80 who have the brain structures and abilities of much younger people. Eighty-seven-year-old Bill Gurolnick is a super-ager. “What do I feel like? If I was to give a number, I probably feel like I'm about my early 70s…”

    Scientists know that parts of the brain decrease in size with age. But in super-agers that process is much slower. Emily Rogalski is a neuroscientist at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, Illinois. In a recent study, she showed that super-agers have young brains. The area of the brain responsible for attention and memory—the cortex—was shown to be thicker in super-agers. “When we look at the cortex of their brain, we see that, on average, that it looks more like a 50-year-old brain that it looks like an average 80-year-old bran…”

    Not only do super-ages have thicker cortexes, they have more spindle neurons. These large brain cells appear to be involved with social-emotional communication. But their exact purpose is still a mystery. Scientists writing for Smithsonian magazine say they are “brain cells for socializing.”

    Several factors affect how our brains age. Scientists say super-agers have several things in common, including an active lifestyle. Many travel and play sports. They are often big readers. And they usually have healthy relationships and spend time with friends. Super-agers also seem to have certain common personality traits. Rogalski says they are, for the most part, known for their optimism, resilience and perseverance. Growing old, she adds, does not have to be depressing and sad. “Perhaps, if we expected a bit better from ourselves, then we would understand that not all aging is stressful!”

    Can we all be super-agers? The science behind super-aging is a relatively new, but growing field. Scientists involved in the research offer this advice as we age: Stay active. Learn new things. Challenge yourself. Surround yourself with healthy relationships.

    The European Union(EU) is an organization of European countries. The countries are independent and are governed in different ways. In the United Kingdom, for example, the head of state is a king or queen. In France, on the other hand, the head of state is a president. But each of them sends representatives to European Parliament, which has some control over what happens in each of the member countries.

    The idea of the EU began in the 1950s. The first members were France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy. Little by little, the number increased during second half of the twentieth century. By the year 2000, there were 15 member countries. The new countries were Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

    In 2004, the EU increased to 25 members. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, plus the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta all became members. The expanded EU has a population of more than half a billion people, twice as big as the population of the US.

    HANGZHOU-Chinese internet giant Alibaba on Tuesday opened a hotel loaded with artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, automating a series of procedures like check-in, lights control and room service.

    FlyZoo Hotel, opened in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, where Alibaba is headquartered, is known as the company's first "future hotel". Customers can check into the hotel by simply scanning their faces. The facial recognition system installed in the hotel also enables customers to use their faces as key cards to open doors and access another hotel service. Users can also control the lights, televisions and curtains in the room via Alibaba's voice-activated digital assistant, while robots are deployed to serve dishes, cocktails and coffee. Hotel bookings and check-out can also be done with a few clicks on mobile through an app. The Al-based solution can help customers save time and relieve hotel employees from repetitive work," said Wang Qun, CEO of FlyZoo Hotel. The hotel is the latest example of Chinese tech companies1 attempt into traditional industries such as the hotel industry.

    E-commerce giant JD.com announced in October its strategy to put smart home and electronic devices sold on its platform into hotels, in an effort to improve online sales.

    In July, Baidu teamed up with Intercontinental Hotels Group in Beijing to allow guests to use its voice-controlled assistant to adjust room temperature and order room service at ease.

    Before that, social media giant Tencent introduced QQ family, a similar tech solution for hotel operators, in the southern city of Zhuhai last year.

    "We want to install a 'smart brain' for hotels, " said Wang, "In the future, we will continue to make hotels smarter and more automated, as well as create more personalized experiences for consumers."

    When the company was small, Google cared a lot about getting kids from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. But Laszlo Bock, Google's former Senior Vice President of People Operations, said it was the "wrong" hiring strategy. Experience has taught him that there are exceptional kids at many other places, from state schools in California to those in New York. "What we find is that the best people from places like these are just as good if not better as anybody you can get from any Ivy League school," said Bock, who authored a book titled "Work Rules!"

    So what else does Google not care about:

    Grades: Google's data shows that grades predict performance for the first two years of a career, but do not matter after that.

    Brain-teasers: Gone are interview questions such as: Why are manhole covers (井盖) round? How many golf balls can fit in a school bus? "Our research tells us those questions are a waste of time," Bock said. "They're a really coachable skill. The more you practice, the better you get at it."

    Here's what Google does care about:

    Problem solvers: Your cognitive (认知的) ability, or how well you solve problems.

    Leaders: The idea is not whether you were president of the student body or vice president of a bank, but rather "When you see a problem, do you step in and help solve it?" and then critically, "Are you willing to let somebody else take over, and make room for somebody else? Are you willing to give up power?"

    Googleyness: That's what Google calls its cultural fit. It's not "Are you like us?" Bock said. "We actually look for people who are different, because diversity gives us great ideas."

    "What's most important is that people are intellectually humble, willing to admit when they're wrong, and care about the environment around them ...because we want people who think like owners not employees," Bock said.