The audiences of the UK will have an opportunity to enjoy a feast of Chinese culture when the China National Peking Opera Company returns to the country for the fourth time for a series of workshops and performances. Events will be held at the British Library, Oxford's Ashmolean Museum and the world-famous dance theater of Sadler's Wells, featuring artists including Lisa Lu, Yu Kuizhi and Li Shengsu.

    On Thursday at the British Library, Lisa Lu, who also played a role in recent cinema hit Crazy Rich Asians, will lead a group of artists from China, the US and the UK to discuss their experiences of working across a variety of artistic fields in different cultures over many decades.

    The series of activities also include interactive workshops, which explain the intricacies（错综复杂）of the attractive art of Peking Opera. The secrets behind a great opera, from music to instruments, from make-up to martial arts, will be revealed at the British Library workshops on Saturday and Sunday.

    Events end on Oct 19 and 20 at Sadler's Wells in North London, with two performances of The Emperor and the Concubine, one of the most celebrated operas, as well as The Crossroads Inn and The Monkey King and The Leopard.

    Li Shengsu, who led the cast of The Emperor and the Concubine, explained that the show is the beautiful love story championed by Peking Opera Master Mei Lanfang, and it is one of the very few works from the Master Mei's that had been handed down since 1920s.

    The productions are being presented in partnership with London-based Sinolink Productions, a company that promotes Chinese art, culture and performance to British audiences.

    Zhang Kewei, producer and director of Sinolink, said, “It is delightful to see that the China National Peking Opera Company returns to London for the fourth time with another two masterpieces this year. The performances so far have received very positive comments from audiences and the United Kingdom's media and we are looking forward to further expanding our program.”

    It happened to me recently. I was telling someone how much I had enjoyed reading Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father and how it had changed my views (观点）of our President. A friend I was talking to agreed with me that it was, in his words, "a brilliantly (精彩地) written book". However, he then went on to talk about Mr. Obama in a way which suggested he had no idea of his background at all. I sensed that I was talking to a book liar.

    And it seems that my friend is not the only one. Approximately two thirds of people have lied about reading a book which they haven't. In the World Book Day's “Report on Guilty Secrets”. Dreams From My Father is at number 9. The report lists ten books, and various author: which people have lied about reading, and as I'm not one to lie too often (I'd hate to be caught out), I'll admit (承认) here and now that I haven't read the entire (全部的) top ten. But I am pleased to say that, unlike 42 percent of people, I have read the book at number one, George Orwell's 1984.I think it's really brilliant.

    The World Book Day report also has some other interesting information in it. It says that many people lie about having read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky (I haven't read him, but haven't lied about it either) and Herman Melville.

    Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to "impress"（使留下深刻印象) someone they were speaking to. This could be tricky if the conversation became more in-depth!

    But when asked which authors they actually enjoy, people named J. K. Rowling, John Grisham, Sophie Kinsella (ah, the big sellers, in other words). Forty-two percent of people asked admitted they turned to the back of the book to read the end before finishing the story (I'll come clean: I do this and am astonished that 58 percent said they had never done so).

    Smoking is harmful. But as soon as you quit the habit, everything will be OK, right? Wrong.

    New research has found that even if you give up smoking, the damage it has done to your genes will stay there for a much longer time. In the research, a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16,000 people. Among them, some were smokers, some used to smoke, and the rest were non-smokers. Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7,000 genes of smokers had changed--a number that is one-third of known human genes.

    According to NBC News, both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes. Some people may have had the changes when they were born, but most people get them in their day-to-day lives while doing things like smoking.

    When you stop smoking, a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years.

This means your body is trying to heal (治愈) itself of the harmful effects of smoking. But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer. They can stay for as long as 30 years, It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement (水泥)—-it will always be there, even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry.

    Although the study results may make people unhappy, there is a bright side: the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer risks.

    A California family drives a car that could help protect the environment. When Jon and Sandy go to the store or to their daughters' soccer games, they drive in high-tech style. They drive a $1 million, fuel-cell-powered car. It may be the world's most expensive car and one of the most environmentally friendly cars. The FCX is the first fuel-cell-powered car to be used by a family anywhere in the world. The FCX uses hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Car makers have been working to develop vehicles that are better for the environment. They are developing cars that use fuel other than gasoline.

    And then what is fuel cell technology? Fuel cell technology works by changing the chemicals hydrogen and oxygen into water. This process produces electricity, and water vapor which comes out of the exhaust pipe. Most cars release dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Many scientists say these gases are major contributors to global warming. “The FCX is driven just like any other vehicle on the road, but without the gases which pollute the environment,” scientists say. Fuel cell technology has been around since the 1800s, but scientists have yet been to perfect it. They say it may take years before the technology is ready for widespread use. Another earth-friendly car is already on the market. Hybrid cars use both gasoline and an electric motor. They are becoming more popular with customers because they cut pollution and improve fuel efficiency.

    Most parents fear getting letters home from their children's school. They are usually informing them that their child is in big trouble. But ahead of the SATs exams next week, one school decided to send a letter of a different type.

    Bosses at Buckton Vale Primary School in Stalybridge sent letter to all pupils in the sixth grade to tell them how special and unique they are. The letter highlights all the natural skills and abilities the pupils have and everything that makes them "smart'' individuals.

    They are told how their laughter can brighten the darkest day and that the examiners do not know the pupils are kind, trustworthy and thoughtful.

    The letter, signed by the headmaster and two other teachers, has been put on the school's Facebook page and shared more than 9. 000 times with more than 7,000 likes.

    The letter reads, "Next week you will sit your SATs tests for maths, reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation. We know how hard you have worked, but there is something very important you must know. The SATs test does not assess all that makes each of you special and unique. The people who create these tests and score them do not know each of you in the way that we do and certainly not in the way your families do. "

    The letter goes on to say that the tests are not the most important thing in life, adding, "The scores you will get from this test will tell you something, but they will not tell you everything. There are many ways of being smart. You are smart!"

    The letter has been welcomed by many parents on Facebook. Lynn McPherson wrote, "That's great instilling (逐步灌输) hope, faith and belief. " And Mary Tilling said, "Every child school receive one of these. Brilliant. "

    Scientists are attempting to extract (提取) cells from a 40,000-year-old horse in hope of using the sample to clone the extinct (灭绝的) species back into existence. The male baby horse was discovered in 2018 in permafrost (永冻土) in northeastern Siberia of Russia.

    A team of scientists from South Korea and Russia believes the young horse, called the Lenskaya or Lena horse, was about 20 days old when it died. The species of horse, now extinct, is between 30,000 and 40,000 years old. Thanks to the terrible coldness, the animal's tissue was preserved enough for the scientists to obtain samples.

    Semyon Grigoriev, head of the lab at the Mammoth (猛犸象) Museum of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, said the horse was "well - preserved" and a "great find". There is no damage to the horse's body and even its hair is undamaged. The unfortunate animal, according to Gngo-riev, "could have drowned after falling into some kind of a natural trap."

    Hwang Woo-suk, a researcher from South Korea working on the project, said, "If researchers find a cell, they will do their best to clone the animal. If we get live cells from this ancient baby horse, it would be wonderful in terms of cloning."

    After that, they will make a cloned embryo (胚胎) and a female horse carry it as its mother. Hwang said modern-day horses are "very similar to the ancient one," so there would be no problem getting help from a modern-day female horse.

    The scientists are hoping the experiment on the baby horse will give them experience in progressing toward their ambitious goal-bringing back the extinct woolly mammoth.

    "If we manage to clone the horse-it will be the first step to cloning the mammoth." Hwang said.