While it may be unlikely for a computer to write a best seller, a technology expert has created a computer program that writes its own fiction stories with minimal user input. The program, called MEXICA, is the first to generate original stories based on computerized representations of emotions and tensions between characters.

    An Internet survey was carried out to see the popularity of the computer-generated stories, other computerized stories and stories written solely by a human. The result was that readers ranked MEXICA stories highest for flow and coherence, structure, content, suspense and overall quality. Rafael Pérezy Pérez, the creator of MEXICA, explained that a story might begin with something as basic as, “The enemy wounded the knight. The princess cured the knight. The knight killed the enemy. The knight rewarded the princess. The end.”

    The program reads characters as variables (变量) and assigns a numerical value, between a continuum (连续体) from -3 to +3, to emotional connections that are defined as either amorous or non-amorous. The numerical value is equivalent to the degree of emotion, with -3 being intense hate and +3 being intense love. The program also understands story tension, such as linking the word “wounded” with tension. This too is assigned a numerical value.

    Once these clusters of emotional links and tensions are established, the program begins what is called an “engagement reflection cycle”. Basically this involves searching a database of story actions and other happenings, which are called “atoms”, and determines the best match for the characters and contexts for that moment.

    The process repeats itself again and again until the system can no longer make any matches. At this point, the computer analyzes the story for coherence and “interestingness”. The program views a story as interesting when tension levels increase and fall throughout the piece. If the program finds that the story is boring or incoherent in places, it will replace or insert atoms until a version is thought to be satisfactory.

    Today's Flight Time Table

（Departure＝leave）

    Tu Youyou, an 84-year-old female scientist, became the first Chinese to win a Nobel Prize in science on Oct 5. Before that, she ever won the 2011 Lasker Award for finding out artemisinin (Qinghaosu), which saved millions of lives. She was thankful for the Lasker prize, but said, “It is just a scientist' duty. I will go on fighting for the health of all humans.”

    Tu kept her work in the 1960s and 1970s. In that age, Malaria could took away people's health. Scientists all over the world had already tried over 240 000 times but failed. Tu Youyou, a member of the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, began to study Chinese herbs.

    Before 2011, people didn't know Tu very much. Many friends played jokes with her “the Professor of Three None's” : no degree, no study experience abroad, not a member of any Chinese national colleges. But she is hard-working. She read a lot of traditional Chinese medicine books and did a lot of researches on the disease.

    In February, 2012, Tu was named National Outstanding Females (One of the Ten) Tu is now a model of Chinese medical workers.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    In the tenth grade，I began working for free at a vet's that was run by a friend. I wanted to get experience for what I thought would be my future job. However，on one particular Saturday morning I learnt something perhaps more important.

    The hospital was in the middle of one of the poorer sections of the city and some people could only pay for the most basic treatments. On this Saturday，a man and his young son，who was probably about 7 years old，walked in with a small cat in a cardboard box. There was something wrong with the cat's left eye. But the man could not afford to pay for the cost of the medicine. He kept quiet for a while，and then he asked where the nearest animal shelter was. Hearing this，his son cried and started to argue with him. All of a sudden，an older woman who was sitting in the waiting room stood up，walked up to the counter，and told the man that she would pay for the cost. The man thanked her and the son got to keep a healthy cat.

    I always thought it was the right thing to help out a needy person，but I only saw people do acts of kindness on TV or in movies. What the woman did made me believe that these things do happen in real life，and quite often.

Now，when I can't decide whether to help someone who is in need，I remember this woman，and then I have the courage to step up to the plate. Sometimes other people follow.

    “Freelance retail consultant” refers to daigou in Chinese, or overseas people who buy goods for customers in the Chinese mainland.

     It's estimated that there are 40,000 daigou in Australia, most of whom are young migrants or international students looking for ways to help cover their rent and university cost.

    These freelance retail consultants have created thousands of trading routes, both small and big, into China.

    Shops in Australia sold out of instant formula （婴儿配方奶粉）, leaving many Australian parents unable to buy their preferred brands. The Sydney Morning Herald reported last year that half of Australia's infant formula sold went to China through customers selling to other customers.

    Because of this, daigou have received criticism from Australian media. The Sydney Morning Post even suggested that the Australian government should put a limit on instant formula exports.

    However, not everyone dislikes daigou. “We think daigou are good for the local economy and they are very good for our business,” Peter Nathan, the chief executive of A2 Milk, a New Zealand infant formula maker, told Reuters. “We clearly believe they are a positive force.”

    Others agree that nothing is wrong with the practice. “People are buying these products legally on the Australian market… they're not illegally being exported to China,” Tim Foulds, head of research at Euro monitor Australia and New Zealand, told The Washington Post.

Babies made from three people approved in UK

    Babies made from two women and one man have been approved by the UK's fertility regulator. The historic and controversial move is to prevent children from being born with deadly genetic diseases.

    Doctors in Newcastle—who developed the advanced form of In Vitro Fertilization or IVF (人工授精)—are expected to be the first to offer the procedure and have already appealed for donor eggs. The first such child could be born, at the earliest, by the end of 2017.

    Some families have lost multiple children to incurable mitochondrial (线粒体的) diseases, which can leave people with insufficient energy to keep their heart beating.

    The diseases are passed down from only the mother, so a technique using a donor egg as well as the mother's egg and father's sperm has been developed.

    The resulting child has a tiny amount of their DNA from the donor, but the procedure is legal and reviews say it is ethical (伦理的) and scientifically ready.

    "It is a decision of historic importance," said Sally Cheshire, chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). "I'm sure patients will be really pleased by what we've decided today."

    But some scientists have questioned the ethics of the technique, saying it could open the door to genetically-modified (转基因) 'designer' babies.

    The HFEA must approve every clinic and every patient before the procedure can take place. Three-person babies have been allowed only in cases where the risk of a child developing mitochondrial disease is very high.

    Prof Mary Herbert, from the Newcastle Fertility Centre, said, "It is enormously pleasing that our many years of research in this area can finally be applied to help families affected by these devastating diseases".

    "Now that we are moving forward towards clinical treatments, we will also need donors to donate eggs for use in treatment to prevent affected women transmitting disease to their children."

    Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, the director of the Welcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research at Newcastle University, said, "We are delighted by today's decision. We will also provide long-term follow up of any children born."

    NHS England has agreed to fund the treatment costs of the first trial of three-person IVF for those women who meet the HFEA criteria, as long as they agree to long-term follow up of their children after they are born.