The year 2018 will mark the 100th anniversary of the deadliest influenza outbreak in history. It is estimated that the influenza pandemic(瘟疫) of 1918 killed more than 50 million people around the world. Other estimates go much higher. Because of a lack of medical record—keeping, we may never know the exact number.

    The influenza was a fast killer. Some victims died within hours of their first symptoms. Others died after a few days. “Their lungs filled with liquid and they choked to death. ”The 1918 flu pandemic was also different from other outbreaks. It struck many young, healthy people. Viruses usually affect sick or old people.

    Although modem medicine effectively controls many diseases, influenza remains difficult to protect against, The World Health Organization estimates that every year influenza kills 250, 000 to 500, 000 people around the world. Each year, medical scientists develop flu vaccines(疫苗) which offer immunity(免疫)from some influenza viruses. But they can only guess which form of the virus will spread.

    Health officials remain concerned about another flu pandemic. New forms of the flu virus appear regularly. One example was the “swine flu”or H1N1outbreak in 2009. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Infectious diseases in the United States says that virus caused a true pandemic.

    To stop the next pandemic, scientists are now researching how to create a universal influenza vaccine. In October 2017, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the U. S. announced the Universal Influenza Vaccine Initiative. The university said researchers are leading an international effort to develop a universal influenza vaccine that will protect everyone against all forms of the flu anywhere in the world. The university added that researchers will begin tests in early 2018, the Human Vaccines Project, a public—private partnership, is funding the project. However, until a universal influenza vaccine is available, today's seasonal flu vaccine remains important.

    Earlier this month, the University of Glasgow in Scotland launched a course entitled: The Simpsons Introduce Philosophy（哲学）. The course's aim is to ease students into the typically heavy topic by relating it to the popular cartoon family.

    “The Simpsons is one of the modem world's greatest cultural products, partly because it is so full of philosophy,” John Donaldson, creator of the course, told the BBC. “Aristotle, Kant, Marx, Camus and many other great thinkers' ideas are represented in what is arguably the purest of philosophical forms — the comic cartoon.”

    While this may seem like an unusual way to attract pupils to a traditionally dull topic, this class isn't the first of its kind. In 2009, Liverpool Hope University in the UK began offering a master's degree on the music of world-famous 60's group The Beatles, which still runs today. The following year, the UK's Durham University gave students the chance to enroll on a Harry Potter-themed module, covering contents such as “Gryffindor and Slytherin: prejudice and intolerance in the classroom,” and “muggles and magic”.

    To some, these courses may seem like a waste of a valuable education, but Donaldson believes that packaging certain topics into something more easy to relate to will enhance the learning experience, without distracting（分离）from the main subject. “Firstly, scholars want to be taken seriously by other scholars and ideas like this can be seen as not serious,” he tells iNews. “There are definitely ways to include popular culture into academic subjects that still remains their nature and doesn't take away from the quality of the ideas,”

    Already booked full, Donaldson's Simpsons class isn't meant to be taken as seriously, however. The lecturer says that his one-day course, which will pose philosophical questions around morality, free will, and religion by relating them to scenarios（情节）from The Simpsons, aims to introduce students to his area of expertise greatly while having a bit of fun.

    If it had not been for Fan Jinshi and her team, the world cultural heritage at Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in a remote Chinese desert might have long been destroyed by sand, weather or humans.

    Born and raised in Shanghai, Fan has spent half a century fighting an uphill battle to preserve the ancient Buddhist wall painting at Dunhuang, in Northwest China's Gansu Province. The 1,651-year-old Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes are a huge collection of Buddhist art—more than 2,000 buddha figures and 45,000 square meters of paintings spread among 735 caves. It is China's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    Archaeologist Fan was sent to Dunhuang after graduation from Peking University in 1963. While in Dunhuang, a remote village in the desert then, Fan lived in an abandoned temple. At first, she did not even dare to go out to the toilet at night. To protect the treasures from sand and dampness, Fan and other workers put doors on the caves, planted trees and started monitoring temperature and humidity in the caves. They also controlled the number of visitors.

    In the late 1990s, with tourism booming nationwide since national holidays were extended, the local government planned to go public with Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, but found Fan firmly in their way. “The heritage would have been destroyed if it had been listed,” she said.

    Dunhuang Academy has now photographed and cataloged online all the sculptures and paintings. “Despite our efforts to minimize damage, we can't completely stop them from being eroded. But the digital database will last.”

    Fan was grateful when her husband joined her in Dunhuang in 1986 after 19 years of separation. Her two sons grew up in Shanghai with their aunt.  “I have not been a good mother or wife. With regard to my family, I'm full of guilt,” she said. Fan, 79, retired two years ago as the director of Dunhuang Academy but continues her efforts as a national political adviser.

    Lucy, whose skeleton（骨骼） was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, died shortly after she fell out of a tree, according to a new study published Monday in the British journal Nature.

    For their research, Kappelman and Dr. Richard Ketcham used a CT scanner to create more than 35,000 "slices" of Lucy's skeleton. Scientists named her Lucy from the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which was played at the camp the night of her discovery.

    The following analysis of the slices showed sharp, clean breaks seen at the end of Lucy's right humerus （肱骨） are similar to bone breaks seen in victims of falls.

    The researchers concluded that these and other breaks in her skeleton show that Lucy, who is believed to have stood about 3 feet 6 inches and weighed about 60 pounds, fell feet first and used her arms to support herself﹣but that the injury was too severe to have been survivable.

    The researchers estimate that Lucy was going about 35 miles an hour when she hit the ground after falling from a height of roughly 40 feet, according to the statement.

    That sounds plausible. But other scientists are doubtful. "There are countless explanations for bone breaks," Dr, Donald C, Johanson, director of the Institute of Human Origins and one of the scientists who discovered Lucy, said, "The suggestion that she fell out of a tree is largely a just﹣so story and therefore unprovable." Johanson said it was more likely that Lucy's breaks occurred long after she died, saying that "elephant bones appear to have the same kind of breaks, It's unlikely they fell out of a tree.

    But the new research focused on "a small number of breaks" that are consistent with "high﹣energy bone﹣to﹣bone influences" and which differ from the sorts of breaks commonly seen in other collected bones. Kappelman responded in an email, "These appear to have occurred at or near the time of death."

    OK, so it's not a real war but the U. S. and China are at the beginning of a trade war thanks to President Trump's policy. The Chinese government raised $34 billion in new duties on goods exported from the U.S. last week in answer to President Trump's unwise tariffs(关税) of $34 billion on Chinese goods.

    Farm and seafood-producing states are going to be hit hardest by China's new tariffs on U. S. goods. States where cars are made and shipped to China are on the hook as well.

    In terms of value, some 38 percent of products on the tariff list are agricultural, including soybeans, sorghum, tobacco and meat. That's nothing like good news for farm-belt states, primarily in the Midwest like Iowa.

    A wide range of seafood is on China's tarifflist. That could hurt fishery workers in Alaska and lobster(龙虾) harvesters in Maine. Alaska, for example, exported nearly $lbillion worth of seafood to China. "China is a major market for Alaska seafood," said Alexa Tonkovich, Executive Director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. "The seafood industry directly employs nearly 60,000 workers in Alaska each year and directly employs more workers than any other private industry."

    And automaking States, particularly in the South, are also at risk. Some 24 percent ofproducts on the list- in terms of value-are cars, trucks and other vehicles. Michigan alone exported $1.7 billion worth of motor vehicles and vehicle parts to China in 2017. Other states being affected include South Carolina, where BMW makes SUVs for both the U.S. and export, and Alabama, home to Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai factories.

    This round of tariffs spares some industries, like commercial aircraft. Washington State could breathe a sigh of relief, which is home to Boeing. It also, for the moment, skips tariffs on chemical products.

    Alexa Tonkovich has warned the U.S. government that the trade war could risk jobs, reduce industry profits, and cause higher prices for consumers in the U.S!

The following are reviews of four films.

Happiness(Romance)★★★

Happiness tells the story of two people who work for different advertising companies. They talk on the phone all the time and don't like each other. But then they correspond by email and fall in love. This movie is very popular with teenagers and people who like romances. It also has beautiful music.

I Scream(Thriller)★★

In I Scream,Paul is a young man who joins a thriller club. Each of the members tries to frighten the others. Paul is told to stay in an old house for the night. Everyone who has tried to stay in the house before has died. This movie is very frightening but also quite silly. It doesn't make sense for Paul to stay in the house when things start to go wrong. It is only for people who like thrillers.

Paul's Heroes(Comedy)★★★

This is a very funny war movie set in World WarⅡ. Six soldiers have to get to Italy to take secret messages to the American army there. In the movie, they dress up as women and fight with Italian workers. You can guess the ending, but it's great fun getting there.

____ (Drama)★★★★

This is a very good drama with Jack Ross, who plays a hardworking truck driver. His wife becomes ill and he has to find a doctor who can help her. In his travels he meets Dr Lloyd (Phil Driver) who has found the cure for the illness, but Jack Ross has only twelve hours to get the medicine back to his wife on the other side of America. This is an excellent movie, which is very exciting.