Blind people usually possess one advantage over other people who can see. Their sense of hearing is far more acute. Bats, whose sight is poor, use a sound location system to help them avoid blocks in the dark. They send out pulses of sound waves, pitched at 50,000 cycles per second, far above the limits of the human ear, which can hear sounds up to frequencies of about 20,000 cycles per second. As the echoes bounce back off obstacles such as trees and walls, the bats are able to take proper action.

    The first steps to help blind people to see with sound are based on exactly the same principle. The sound is given off by an ultrasonic (超声的) torch, whose shape is different from a normal electric torch. It is double-barreled. It works in a similar way to a sonar (声呐) unit on a warship or submarine. The unit's transmitter sends out pulses of ultrasonic waves at the same frequency as the bat and the receiver picks up the returning echoes. Because these are still above the frequency at which the human ear can pick them up. The echoes are filtered (过滤) through circuits that turn them into “bleeps” which can be clearly heard before passing them into headphones.

    This means that a person holding the torch can point it ahead of him and scan the area for obstacles over a range of about 25 feet. If there are no return echoes coming through the headphones, then there is nothing in the way. If echoes do come back, then the closer the obstruction the faster the succession of bleeps and the deeper the pitch of each bleep. With practice, the torch could help a blind person to lead a more normal life.

    At present, the experimental ultrasonic torch requires a shoulder bag to carry the batteries, cables for the power supplies and earphones, as well as the torch itself. Fortunately, reducing the size of the electronic equipment is progressing and it should not be long before the whole set-up can be reproduced in a form small enough to fit into a pair of glasses. The wearer would face in the direction he wanted to check, and lift or lower his head just as a sighted person would.

    Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word "diet" everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically.

    Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale(秤)instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word "diet" in food labels.

    On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don't have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.

    The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemicals that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.

    Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.

    GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE

    Come early, spend the day. Selected one of the top mazes in America. 16 acres of fun, new maze designs and surprises every year, miles of pathways, bridges, emergency exits, Kid Village, views, Barnyard Golf, 100 of underground tunnels, petting animals. Open Aug. I through early Oct. 1404 Wheelock Rd., N. Danville. TEL: 802 -748-1399.

    LINCOLN PEAK VINEYARD

    Named Vermont's star wine producer in American Wine, 2013.Comc taste our wines, enjoy a glass, and walk in the vineyard. We make something for everyone -dry to sweet- entirely with grapes we grow. 142 River Rd., New Haven; 3 miles north of Middlebury.802-388-7368.

    BENNINGTON MUSEUM

    Celebrating the creativity of Vermont across time with diverse art, rich history and innovation. The museum houses the largest public collection of paintings by folk artist Grandma Moses, 18th century paintings and furniture, a 1924Martin Wasp, motorcar, works by Bennington Modernists including Jules Olitski, Paul Feeley and others.75 Main St, Bennington. TEL: 802-447-1571.

    BENNINGTON POTTERS

    A Vermont tradition for 66 years! Take a free tour of the factory just behind our home style store at 324 County St., downtown Bennington. Shop from our full line of original design dinner ware, bake ware, mugs and more; furnishings for the home; everything for the table. Store and factory open. Mon.-Sat.9:30-6pm, Sun. 10-5 pm. TEL: 800-205- 8033.

    HIDDEN SPRINGS MAPLE

    Take a free, guided tour of our maple canning room, taste our different grades of maple sytud (枫糖)and shop for a variety of local products including maple syrup from a number of local farms, gift baskets, arts and crafts. 23 Westminster Rd. TEL: 802-387-5200.

Learning a second language

    Some people learn a second language easily. Other people have trouble learning a new language. How can you help yourself learn a new language, such as English? There are several ways to make learning English a little easier and more interesting.

    The first step is to feel confident about learning English. If you believe that you can learn, you will learn. Be patient. You don't have to understand everything all at once. It is natural to make mistakes when you learn something new. We can learn from our mistakes.

    The second step is to practise your English. For example, write in a diary every day. You will get used to writing in English, and you will feel comfortable expressing your ideas in English. After several weeks, you will see that your writing is improving. Besides, you must speak English every day. You can practise with your classmates after class. You will all make mistakes, but gradually you will become comfortable communicating in English.

    The third step is to keep a record of your language learning. You can write this in your diary. After each class, think about what you did. Did you answer a question correctly? Did you understand anything the teacher explained? Perhaps the lesson was difficult, but you tried to understand it. Write these achievements (成就) in your diary.

    You must be active in learning English and believe that you can do it. It is important to practise every day and make a record of your achievements. You will enjoy learning English, and you will have more confidence in yourself.

    Finland is the happiest place on Earth, according to the 2018 World Happiness Report of 156 nations.

    The report, released Wednesday by the United Nations'Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks the countries of the world based on six different categories of well-being: income, freedom, trust, life expectancy, generosity and social support. This year's report also pays special attention to the happiness of each country's immigrants.

    The U.S. dropped four spots from 2017 and landed in 18th place, and last year's winner, Norway, came in second place — followed by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland.

    “The top five countries all have almost equally high values for the six factors found to support happiness, and four of these countries—Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland — have been in first place in the six World Happiness Report rankings since the first report" in 2012, "co-editor John Helliwell told CNN. “In a division with such excellent teams, changes in the top spot are to be expected."

    Rounding out the top 10 happiest countries was Canada in sixth place, then New Zealand, Sweden and Australia. The order of the top 10 nations changed from the 2017 list but the countries did not, according to the report. They were also 10 of the 11 top spots in the immigrant happiness category (including Mexico — 24th overall, but 10th in immigration).

    "The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born," Helliwell said in a statement. "Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations resemble those of other residents in their new countries. Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose."

    Other major world powers placed in significantly low spots on the list. Germany came in 15th, the UK was 19th — followed by Japan in 54th place, Russia in 59th and China in 86th.

    The report, based on surveys completed by citizen volunteers, came just under a week before World Happiness Day on March 20, when the UN declared to recognize "the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives"

Father's Day is celebrated today in 75 countries around the world. In my personal world, it's a day I like to think of my father's father.

I learned a lot in my later life from my dad. But I learned something else, as a kid not even yet in school, from my grandfather. I learned to be curious. Little things fathers and grandfathers do can change the life of a child forever. In my case, this change came from necessity：My mom needed someone to look after little Allen, barely 4 years old, during the school day. My grandmother volunteered, and my grandfather came up with a way I could be watched while he worked in his clockmaker's shop.

He seated me on a chair every day while I was there, right in front of his big workbench.  He told me stories. He had a great sense of humor and a funny way of making a "buh﹣buh﹣buh" sound when he sensed my attention was weakening, and he encouraged me to ask questions about anything he was doing.

Naturally, I was usually asking questions about clocks﹣what made the hands move, what the pendulum (钟摆) did, why you had to stop winding just before the weight hit the stop.  Sometimes I just asked about which shiny parts went where.

Most of all, he showed me how clocks worked. He treated me as if I were a sort of small grown﹣up. He never talked down to me, never told me I was "too young to understand".

And so my grandfather granted me two things: A love of clocks, and an everlasting curiosity.

As a journalist, I turned that fascination into explanations of why computers and software do what they do﹣﹣and, perhaps even more importantly, why they fail at that task. I haven't been afraid of opening up the innards and looking for what is wrong with the computer.