Both men and women are livinglonger these days in industrialized countries.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Ingeneral, they can expect to live six or seven years more than men. One reasonfor this is biological.

      One important biological factor thathelps women live longer is the difference in hormones between men and women.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Between the ages of about 12 and 50,women produce hormones that are involved in fertility(生育能力). These hormones also have a positive effect on the heartand blood flow. In fact, women are less likely to have high blood pressure orto die from heart attacks.

       {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Theyhelp the body defend itself against some kinds of infections. This means thatwomen generally ger sick less often and less seriously than men. The commoncold is a good example: women, on average, get fewer colds than men.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Scientists are still not exactly sure howinfluence aging, but they believe that they do. Some think that a woman's bodycells have a tendency(向) to age more slowly than a man's. Others think that a man's body cells have a tendency to age more quickly.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A．However,women, on average, live longer.

B .The biological factorplays an important part.

C. Women are also helped bytheir female genes.

D. The female hormones alsoprotect the body in another way.

E. Recent research seems tosupport both of these possibilities.

F. Therefore, women are morehealthy than men and can live a better life.

G. Hormones are chemicalswhich are produced by the body to control carious body functions.

    “Cleverness is a gift while kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy – they're given after all. Choices can be hard.” –– Jeff Bezos.

    I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that the Internet usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go to do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most start-ups don't, and I wasn't sure what to expect. MacKenzie told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

    I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all.

    After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice. For all of us, in the end, we are our choices.

    Aunt Karen always had a special place in my heart. When I was growing up, I knew I could count on her to have room for me on her lap and words of love and encouragement when I needed to hear them. When she died five years ago, I was devastated. The whole family was still in shock when her husband, Uncle Ronnie, died a week later. I longed to have a small item of Aunt Karen's to remember her by, but seeing her children and grandchildren overcome by the grief of this double loss made me shy away from asking.

    A few months after Aunt Karen's death, I was on my way to work when I saw Rescued Treasures, a local second-hand store. I only had a couple of dollars on me and didn't really intend to buy anything, but I stopped anyway just to look inside. I had been shopping around for a few minutes when a small, black handbag caught my eye. It wasn't fancy or special. I didn't really need a handbag and continued to look around the store, but something kept drawing me back to that handbag. Finally, I checked the price tag (标签). It was just one dollar.

    The handbag stayed in the back of my car for weeks until I came upon it during a car clean-up. I opened it up. I couldn't believe it. They hadn't even cleaned it out. It was still full of junk, old candy wrappers, old receipts (收据) and used paper. Usually the store emptied things inside, so there wouldn't be any surprises for a new owner.

    I threw away some wastes, and sorted through the receipts, when I found one item in the small inside pocket. It was an insurance card with the name “Karen Stair” written on it. I began to cry. My beloved Aunt Karen. This was her handbag.

Scholastic Art: What is your job?

Jayson Fann: I build human-sized nests all over the world.

SA: Can people sit in your nests?

JF: Yes! People have dinner parties in my nests. They read and relax in them. Some of my nests even have several rooms. My nests are even used as hotel rooms.

SA: How do you make a nest?

JF: First, I make a design for the nest. Then I review the design with my client（客户）. After the design is final, I collect wood and work with a team to build it.

SA: What do you use to make your nests?

JF：I use eucalyptus（按树）wood， which is soft and easy to bend when it is young and freshly cut. But when it dries, it becomes extremely hard. So it holds its shape and can support weight. But the structure's strength also comes from the engineering -- how I weave the wood, and how I join major sections by bolting（用螺栓固定）them together.

SA: What makes a great nest design?

JF: Placement is important. The lines of the branches（树枝） create movement and energy, resulting in a cleaner, simpler background -- such as smooth stone or the sky -- which really fits the nest. For me, it's all about balance.

SA: What skills do you need for your job?

JF: You have to be able to draw and use different artistic tools. But you also have to know how to speak to people -- your clients and the people who work for you.

SA: What inspires you?

IF: I love to see how other artists, like Andy Goldsworthy, take common and natural materials and make something special with them.

SA: What is the best part of your job?

JF: I get to be creative in a way that doesn't harm the environment!

    Here is a record of the discussion about AI (artificial intelligence) conducted by several scientists.

    Scientist A: I would say that we are quite a long way off developing the AI, though I do think it will happen within the next thirty or forty years. We will probably remain in control of technology and it will help us solve many of the world's problems. However, no one really knows what will happen if machines become more intelligent than humans. They may help us, ignore us or destroy us. I tend to believe AI will have a positive influence on our future lives, but whether that is true will be partly up to us.

    Scientists B: I have to admit that the potential consequences of creating something that can match or go beyond human intelligence frighten me. Even now, scientists are teaching computers how to learn on their own. At some point in the near future, their intelligence may well take off and develop at an ever-increasing speed. Human beings evolve biologically very slowly and we could be quickly substituted. In the short term, there is the danger that robots will take over millions of human jobs, creating a large underclass of unemployed people. This could mean large-scale poverty and social unrest. In the long term machines might decide the world would be better without humans.

    Scientists C: I'm a member of the campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Forget the movie image of a terrifying Terminator stamping on human skulls and think of what's happening right now: military machines like drones, gun turrets and sentry robots are already being used to kill with very little human input. The next step will be autonomous “murderbots” following orders but finally deciding who to kill on their own. It seems clear to me that this would be extremely dangerous for humans. We need to be very cautious indeed about what we ask machines to do.

What a Messy Desk Says About You

    For some time, psychologists have been studying how personality traits affect health and health-related choices. Not surprisingly, they have found that people blessed with innate conscientiousness, meaning that they are organized and predictable, typically eat better and live longer than people who are disorderly. They also tend to have immaculate offices.

    What has been less clear is whether neat environments can produce good habits even in those who aren't necessarily innately conscientious. To find out, researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted a series of experiments. In the first experiment, they randomly assigned a group of college-age students to spend time in two office spaces, one of which was very neat, the other wildly cluttered (乱堆) with papers and other work-related stuff. The students spent their time filling out questionnaires unrelated to the study. After 10 minutes, they were told they could leave with an apple or a chocolate bar. Those students who sat in the orderly office were twice as likely to choose the apple as those who sat among the mess.

    A second experiment, however, found that working in chaos has its advantages, too. In this one, college students were placed in a messy or a neat office and asked to dream up new uses for Ping-Pong balls. Those in messy spaces generated ideas that were significantly more creative, according to two independent judges, than those in offices where stacks of papers and other objects were neatly arranged.

    The results were something of a surprise, says Dr. Vohs, the leader of the study. Few previous studies found much virtue in disorder. The broken window theory, proposed decades ago, holds that even slight disorder and neglect can encourage indifference and poor discipline.

    But in the study by Dr. Vohs, disordered offices encouraged originality and a search for novelty. In the final portion of the study, adults were given the choice of adding a health "boost" to their lunchtime smoothie that was labeled either "new" or "classic." The volunteers in the messy space were far more likely to choose the new one; those in the tidy office generally chose the classic version. "Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition," Dr. Vohs and her co-authors conclude in the study, "which can produce fresh insights."

    The implications of these findings are also practical. "My advice would be, if you need to think outside the box for a future project", Dr. Vohs says, "then let the clutter rise and free your imagination. But if your primary goal is to eat well or to go to the gym, pick up around your office first. By doing this, the naturally messy can acquire some of the discipline of the conscientious."