Jeanne Calment, a French woman, became a record breaker on 17 October of 1995, when at the age of 120 years and 238 days, she became the longest-lived human being on record. A Japanese man died in 1986 at the age of 120 years and 237 days.

    Jeanne Calment lives in a small old people's home in the south of France; her husband, her only child and her grandson have all died. She is nearly blind and deaf and is always in a wheelchair, but her doctor describes her as being more like a 90-year-old in good health than someone of 120. She still has a lively sense of humor. When asked on her 120th birthday what she expected of the future, she replied: A very short one. She also remarked that she thought the good Lord had forgotten all about her.

    So what is the key to a long life? According to some doctors, diet, exercise and no smoking are the three important factors. Jeanne Calment has followed two of the tips. She has always eaten a healthy diet, and she used to do exercise every day until she broke her leg at the age of 115. However, until recently she drank two glasses of strong red wine a day, and she does smoke (now only a little). Besides, Jeanne Calment might have got very good genes from her parents. Her father lived to the age of 94 and her mother to 86.

    A local lawyer bought her house when she was 80 under an agreement that he would pay her some money every year until her death. It must have seemed a good move at the time, but so far the lawyer has paid her at least three times the value of the house. Every year on her birthday Jeanne Calment sends him a card saying: Sorry, I'm still alive!

    A sea turtle named Herman, an octopus called Octavia, and a seal named Lidia all spent this summer at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. But unlike the zoo's other residents, they are not real animals. These creatures are actually huge sculptures and they're made entirely out of plastic trash from the ocean.

    These giant artworks, along with 14 others, are part of a traveling exhibit called “Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea”. The Washed Ashore project, led by artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi, works to raise awareness about the problem of plastic pollution in Earth's oceans.

    More than 315 billion pounds of plastic litter the world's oceans today. Most of the plastic is garbage from towns and cities, as well as trash that people leave on beaches, rainwater, winds, and high tides bring the trash into the ocean or into rivers that lead to the ocean. Once it is under the waves, the plastic begins to break up into smaller and smaller pieces. It often collects in spots called garbage patches, which spread over large areas of the ocean.

    Thousands of marine animals--including whales, sea turtles, and fish--die each year from eating or getting stuck in plastic bags and other items. Plastic pieces can also injure coral and kill sea grass.

    Washed Ashore and other organizations are working to stop that from happening. Since 2010, Washed Ashore volunteers have collected 38,000 pounds of plastic trash from more than 3000 miles of beaches. They helped Pozzi create more than 60 sculptures of marine creatures that were harmed by plastic pollution.

    The artworks on display at the National Zoo include a 20-foot-long coral reef, a 12-foot-long shark, and a 16-foot-long parrot fish. Each one is made from hundreds of pieces of trash like water bottles and sunglasses.

    “These sculptures are a powerful reminder of our personal role and global responsibility in preserving biodiversity(生物多样性) on land and in the sea,” says Dennis Kelly, director of the National Zoo.

    With beautiful canals, top art museums, and cycling culture I Amsterdam is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. As the capital and most populous city in the Netherlands, it's often referred to as the “Venice of the North” because of its wide system of bridges and canals. Here are some key points for you to keep in mind while planning a trip there.

    Must-See Attractions

    Most visitors begin their Amsterdam adventure in the Old Centre, which is full of traditional architecture, shopping centers, and coffee shops. The top museums to visit are the Rijks museum, the Ann Frank House, and the Van Gogh Museum. As a World Heritage Site, the Canal Ring was originally built to attract wealthy home owners and an area for celebrity spotting and nightlife today.

    Transportation

    Travelers should be aware that Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is one of the busiest airports in the world. This airport is located about 15 kilometers southwest of the city center. You can catch a train from Schiphol to Amsterdam Central Station, which has many connecting routes. It's not a good idea to drive a car to the city center. Cycling is popular here, and it's easy to rent a cheap bike around the town. Amsterdam has a flat terrain (地形) and it's a good choice to explore the city on foot.

    Money-saving Tips

    Look for accommodations in Amsterdam's South District where rates are generally cheaper than in the city center.

    Buy train tickets at the machine instead of the counter to save a bit of money.

    Instead of hiring a tour guide, jump onto a canal boat. They're inexpensive and will give you a unique point of view of the city.

    On October 17, 2016 the Shenzhou-11 manned spaceship was sent into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu. Two days later the spaceship successfully connected with the space laboratory Tiangong-2. It meant China got closer to its plan of building a space station in 2020.

    The spaceship took two Chinese astronauts to space this time. Jing Haipeng was an experienced astronaut who flew on Shenzhou-7 in 2008 and Shenzhou-9 in 2012. But it was Chen Dong's first space flight.

    Jing and Chen were given a 30-day task on Tiangong-2. They tested new technology and did experiments to prepare for future space station tasks. The astronauts themselves were also the subject (对象) of those experiments. The life support devices (设备) they used and how they lived inside the space laboratory were studied. No Chinese astronaut had stayed in space for that long before.

A month-long space task was not easy, so Chinese scientists and engineers had come up with lots of new technologies to allow astronauts to stay more safely and more comfortably in space. One of the new technologies tested during this task was a device called "space hospital". The space hospital was two little silver boxes tied around the two astronauts, legs. Through the "space hospital", scientists and doctors on the Earth could watch the astronauts, heart rate and temperature. When the astronauts felt tired, the "space hospital" could even massage (为…按摩) them.

    After this task, China was expected to send an unmanned cargo spaceship (无人货运飞船) in mid-April the next year. It docked with Tiangong-2 and took new fuel to the space laboratory.

    Teenagers' fitness is now a major concern, to which physical exercise is very important. It reduces stress and improves fitness. Exercise makes your body strong, and helps you to keep the right body weight. Sports scientists Dr. Helen Lopez offers the following advice to teenagers: “First, you need to find out your present level of fitness. Then you can design a programme that will help you become healthier.”

    Dr. Lopez suggests that there are three levels of fitness that need a change of lifestyle. “Overweight” means that the person gets very little exercise and often has a serious weight problem. “Inactive” mean that the person does not join in many physical activities, but is not seriously overweight. “Active” refers to people who take part in sports and other physical activities, but do not have a high fitness level.

    According to Dr. Lopez, overweight teenagers should keep active to keep healthy. “Ride a bike, play volleyball or basketball for a while, and go for a twenty-minute walk each day. All these will help to burn calories.” Inactive teenagers should do similar activities, but add some bending and stretching exercises, such as push-ups and sit-ups, starting with twenty of each a day. “Inactive people can take a little more exercise than overweight people because their bodies are stronger,” said Dr. Lopez. The same principle applies to active teenagers.

    Dr. Lopez suggests one hour a week or more on running and other forms of intensive exercise, together with fifteen minutes a day spent on stretching and bending activities. “These are really important in order to prevent injuries,” Dr. Lopez said. Some weight-training and other body-strengthening exercises could also be planned in the programme in order to increase the person's strength.

Scientists have discovered a bit of hand-made string (线绳) that's around 50,000 years old in Neanderthal remains. The first Neanderthal remains were found in the Neander Valley in Germany, which is where the name comes from. Neanderthals may have lived mainly in caves and made stone tools, but recent discoveries have given hints that Neanderthals developed some advanced skills that people used to think impossible. For example, Neanderthals knew how to make glue from the bark (树皮) of a tree.

Now, scientists report they've found a piece of string on a stone tool made by Neanderthals. Before this, the oldest known piece of string was one made by humans about 19,000 years ago. The string is about a quarter of an inch long. Almost all things made from plants during that time have broken down and disappeared, so it's very special to find this bit of string.

The scientists don't know whether the string was attached to the tool. But that doesn't interest them as much as the fact that Neanderthals knew how to make string. Bruce Hardy, the lead scientist on the project, says that knowing how to make string was meaningful for humans. "We wouldn't really be here today without that technology," he says.

Making string is a very arduous process. This string was made from the inside bark of an evergreen tree. To make string that is strong enough, the string must be made of several smaller fibers twisted (缠绕) together in a special way. For the Neanderthal string, several fibers needed to be twisted together into something like yarn. Then three pieces of yam needed to be twisted together in the opposite direction to make the final string.

The scientists aren't sure what the string was used for, but they say that string like. the bit that was found could be used to make bags, baskets, traps, or other things. The researchers also suggest that because Neanderthals needed to make pairs and count fibers to make the string, the bit of string may also tell us something about the kinds of math that Neanderthals could do.