A survey has shown that what you do on a plane can be determined by which nationality is listed on your passport.

    According to the results of an international passenger survey, Australians are the biggest drinkers on board with 36 percent choosing to down the hatch, compared to 35 percent of Americans and 33 percent of Brits.

    The Airline Passenger Experience Association(APEX) spoke to around 1,500 people, aged 18 and older, who have travelled by plane at least once during the last three months and were living in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia and Brazil.

    The results found Chinese travelers are most likely to nod off once the seat-belt sign switches off. They are also the first to take out their credit card for some in-flight shopping and the biggest fans of gaming. Americans on the other hand like to use their time in the air more productively—when not drinking—choosing to work while flying at 35,000 feet.

    Meanwhile, Brits and Germans are the best at making chat with random strangers—spending 50 percent more time than any other nationality. Comparatively, Brazilians conduct their conversations online via email, messaging apps or social media.

    Despite plane food having a bad reputation, seven out of ten interviewees said they were happy to eat up on the selection of in-flight snacks and meals. In-flight magazines were also popular with four out of five passengers.

    The international flyers did however express their desire for better in-flight entertainment. “The industry has greatly improved the comfort, entertainment and on board service, and passengers are accepting those improvements” said Russell Lemieux, APEX executive director. “At the same time, passengers are demanding more from their air travel experiences which will drive more improvements touching all aspects of the journey. ” he added.

    Something's happening at the lowest point on our planet.

The Dead Sea, a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west, is shrinking(缩小) at an alarming rate—--about 3.3 feet per year, according to the environmentalist group EcoPeace Middle East. And human actions are largely to blame.

    “It's not just like one country is punishing the Dead Sea; it's more like the whole area,” said photographer Mortize Kustner, who visited the area in February to work on his series “The Dying Dead Sea”.

    The Dead Sea needs water from the other natural sources surrounding it, such as the Jordan River basin. But around the 1960s, some of the water sources it relied on were diverted(使改道).Israel, for instance, built a pipeline during that time so it could supply water throughout the country.

    Mineral extraction(开采) industries are another main reason the water levels are falling, experts say. The Dead Sea's minerals have been used as medicine and can often be found in cosmetics(化妆品) and other consumer products.

    And then, of course, there's the Middle East's hot, dry climate, which makes it difficult for the lake to replenish itself.

    Last year, Israel and Jordan signed a $900 million deal in an effort to keep the Dead Sea's water levels stable（稳定）. It includes building a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea which would be able to not only supply water to Israel and Jordan but also to pump water into the Dead Sea.

    But for now, Kustner shows us that the Dead Sea remains very much a place of interest, with people from all over the world going there to swim in its salty waters.

    The Dead Sea, known as the Salt Sea in the language of Hebrew, is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world. And because of what has been happening over the years, the salt is only getting saltier.

    What do you do when you need to look something up? Go to the library? Open an encyclopedia(百科全书)? Click onto the Internet? These days, most people go straight to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. But how reliable is it?

    There's no denying the popularity and usefulness of Wikipedia. It attracts as many as 78 million visitors every month, and the site is available in more than 270 different languages. It's one of the most comprehensive resources available, which includes almost all details, facts and information that may be concerned. It's got much more information than an ordinary encyclopedia. The site is updated on a daily basis by thousands of people around the world. Anyone with an Internet connection can log on and edit the contents or add a new page. And you don't need any formal training.

Of course, there are some controls. Wikipedia has a team of more than 1,500 administrators who check for false information. And main targets for harmful comments(such as politicians) are off-limits to public editing. But with more than 16 million articles to keep an eye on, it isn't easy. So, while Wikipedia benefits from being constantly updated with information from all over the world, it's also open to “vandals”（恣意破坏公共财物者）.

    Some of the damage is easy to notice. One person drew devil horns and a moustache on Microsoft chairman Bill Gate's photo, while another edited Greek philosopher Plato's biography to say he was a “Hawaiian weather man who is widely believed to have been a student of 'Barney the purple Dinosaur'.

    But other things are harder to spot. The most common form of vandalism (恣意破坏公共财物罪)involves adding tiny items of false information into the biography of a famous person. Unbelievably, some of this misinformation has appeared in newspapers, with The Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Independent all having fallen victim to the dirty tricks. For example, in an article about British comedian Sir Norman Wisdom, one newspaper claimed that he co-wrote Dame Vera Lynn's wartime hit There'll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover. He did no such thing. And in other article, it was reported that TV Theme tune composer Ronnie Hazlehurst had written the S Club 7's hit Reach again, not true. So, if you're going to use any information from Wikipedia, make sure you double-check it first.

    Scientists have found an unexpected use for virtual reality headsets (耳机). The devices (装置), widely used by computer gamers, show pictures that can be used to test the navigational (导航的) skills of people, who were thought to be at risk of dementia (痴呆). Those who do worse in the tests will be the ones more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease later in life, scientists now believe.

    The discovery that the loss of navigational skills was associated with Alzheimer's was made several years ago by Dennis Chan and his colleagues based at several centers in the UK. These studies used computers to test navigational tasks. But now scientists plan to take their tests to a new level with the use of the virtual reality headsets in which wearers are placed in man-made environments through which they must navigate.

    Around 300 people, aged between 40 and 60, will be arranged to participate in the study. Some will have a gene that puts them at risk of the condition or will come from a family with a history of Alzheimer's. Not all will certainly be affected by the disease, however. Chan's project aims to find out who will. Wearing the headsets, participants will be asked to navigate their way through a series of different environments and then remember the details.

    Researchers recently pointed out the significance of a tiny area of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex (an important memory center in the brain). It acts as a center in a widespread brain network that controls navigation. This now appears to be the first part of the brain that seems to be easily harmed by Alzheimer's.

    The goal of the work is to help people as they develop the disease. "So far, drug trials for Alzheimer's have been applied when people have already got dementia, by which time considerable damage to the brain has already occurred," Chan told the Obsenver. "If we can develop drugs and use them earlier, for example, before the disease has spread beyong the entorhinal cortex, then this would have the potential to prevent the dementia."

    Once again DC Comics and Warner Bros. have divided fans and critics over their latest superhero film.

    There had been worrying news about Justice League in the months before its release, with a lot of reshoots of scenes, a new director being brought in to finish the film after original director Zack Snyder's tragic loss of his daughter and, of course, a lot of talk about Ben Affleck's future in the role of Batman.

    Some people are saying that Justice League is another big disappointment, that it could have been incredible and instead fails to really entertain. Others say that Warner Bros. have finally got it right and that the future for the League looks bright.

    My opinion lies somewhere in the middle. The film was by no means a disappointment: it was exciting, funny and a lot of fun to watch. There's something special about watching the heroes from your childhood brought to life on the big screen and maybe that is affecting my opinion.

    However, I will say that a lot of work needs to be done if the producer wants to make a great success. Although the film was good, it was obvious which scenes had been reshot and how the characters had been changed. I also have to mention the several scenes in which the special effects were very badly done; these are the kinds of problems that you don't expect to see in a film with such a big budget.

    Another point to add is that it is good to see the producer making Superman slightly a brighter character and adding some jokes to the plot to keep things fun. But the producer must be careful not to make the mistake that another film producer—here, not mentioning the name—is coming very close to doing: turning all of the films into bright and colorful shows and losing a lot of seriously good stories.

    In the end, Justice League is not a perfect film but it is definitely not a terrible one. A lot of work is still to be done but I hope that DC does not completely lose its darker side.

Dear Students,

    I am delighted to be your guest.

    I would like to tell you about myself. I have been a news reporter for the past fifteen years. I chose this job so I could travel the world, but the job has taught me many unforgettable lessons. The work is sometimes difficult. I have seen famines, wars, earthquakes, poverty and death. But I have also seen courage, hope and happiness.

    In India, I visited a city where there were many homeless children. Some were as young as four years old. They lived in the streets and survived by begging or stealing. But then a wonderful lady called Rosa opened a home for them. Within one year, she was looking after two hundred children. She clothed them, fed them, and taught them. She gave them hope.

    Another time, I was in Turkey after a terrible earthquake, in one place. I found an old lady whose house was in ruins, her son was missing and rescuer workers said there was no chance that he was still alive. But the old lady did not give up hope. For four days, she moved heavy stones one at a time by herself. She did not stop until she found her son. He was alive.

    Here in China, I met a young boy with a serious condition. He had undergone twenty operations and spent nearly his whole life in hospital. I thought he would be sad, but when I met him, his smile was so warm and welcoming.

    In life, we need role models that we can admire and learn from. When my life is difficult, I try to remember the courage and goodness of these three people.