A beautiful and very successful actress (女演员) was the star for a new musical show. Her home was in the countryside, but she did not want to go back there every night, so she bought an expensive house in the centre of the city, got some beautiful furniture and got a man to paint the rooms in new colours.

    It was very difficult to get tickets for her show, because everybody wanted to see it. So she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, when she got the painter's bill (帐单). At the bottom of it were these words: “ Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance : 3 pounds,” with this note: “ After 5 p.m. I get 15 shillings (先令) an hour instead of 10 shillings.”

    Some time ago, I discovered a whole lot of antique(古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the char that had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

    The second shop, although slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth — so I thought that my approach must be wrong.

    I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, “Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said, “Yes. How much do you want do it, sir?” “Twenty pounds,” I said. “Ok,” he said, “I'll give you twenty pounds.” “It has a slightly broken leg,” I said. “Yes, I saw that; it's nothing.”

    Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?” I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.” “I'll buy it,” I said. “What do you mean? You've just sold it to me.” he said. “Yes, I know but I've changed my mind. I'm sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.” “You must be crazy,” he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.” “You're right.” I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, ‘Would you mend this chair for me?'” “I wouldn't have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don't do repairs, not enough in it and too much trouble. But I'll mend this for you, shall we say for five pounds?” He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.

    At first, muffled (听不太清的)conversations made researchers at a San Diego aquarium puzzled, but when a diver thought he was being told to get “out” of the water they realized the conversations were coming from a white whale.

    Noc was about one year old when he was caught off the Pacific coast of Canada. He was kept in an open-ocean pen (围栏) at the US National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego, California. After seven years at the Foundation, he began, automatically, to make unusual sounds, a report in the latest issue of the journal, Current Biology, said.

    “We thought of the whale' s vocalizations(发出的声音) as an attempt to imitate humans. Whale vocalizations often sounded as if two people were talking just out of the range of our understanding,” the authors said. “ 'These conversations' were heard several times before we finally realized the whale was the source.” The researchers realized it was Noc when a diver surfaced and asked, “Who told me to get out?” It was then that they realized the word “out”, which was repeated several times, had come from Noc. Later, his speech-like sounds were recorded in the air and underwater.

    Noc started making the sounds after seven years in the open-ocean pen, and continued making them for another four years. He died five years ago. Researchers have now analyzed the sound recordings. It was the first time that sound recordings had shown how such sounds imitated speech and were different from the usual calls of the species.

    The speech-like sounds were lower than normal whale sounds and much closer to those of the human voice. Also, whales talk to each other by blowing air through their noses, rather than using a larynx(喉), as people do.

    “We don't claim that our whale was a good imitator compared to such well-known imitators as parrots,” the researchers said. “However, the behavior we observed is an example of vocal learning by the white whale. It seems that Noc's close association with humans played a role in how often and how well he employed his human voice.”

    Summer Science Class registration begins on March 8 ! If you are interested in science，the environment，or conservation and you are in grades 7 －12 ，sign up soon for Black Rock Forest Consortium's Summer Science Class program. You can download the Summer Science Classes 2013 brochure here. It is easy to register；just call 845-534-4517 or click here.

    Twelve-week-long courses in the natural sciences and the arts are offered at Black Rock Forest in Cornwall from July 15 through August 9.Two more classes are offered with site partners，including “The Art of Scientific Observation，” hosted jointly by Black Rock Forest Consortium and Storm King Art Center ，one of the world's leading sculpture parks ，and “A Nautical   Expedition” hosted jointly by the Consortium and the Constitution Marsh Audubon Center.

    We are delighted to announce two special “away” classes that are part of the Summer Science Class program this year: an“Adirondack Eco-Adventure” beginning August 11，and “Conservation Biology in Florida，” beginning June 23 and featuring field work on the Gulf Coast in cooperation with the University of Florida's Seahorse Key Marine Biological Laboratory. For more information on the Summer Science Class program，please read our press release. Black Rock Forest Consortium is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 to advance scientific understanding of the natural world through research，education and conservation programs.

    On average, primary school children in England have at least three sugary snacks a day, Public Health England (PHE) found. This means that the sugar they consume is three times more than the recommended maximum.

    Children between the ages of 4 and 10 consume 51.2% of sugar from unhealthy snacks. PHE has launched a campaign, Change4Life, to encourage parents to look for healthier snacks of no more than 100 calories, and to limit them to two a day. The campaign advises parents to give their children a maximum of two snacks a day, with each containing no more than 100 calories. The campaign will also offer parents special suggestions on a range of healthier snacks—ones with 100 calories or fewer—at selected supermarkets, PHE said.

    PHE said it had also improved its app so that it could mark the content of sugar, salt and fat in food and drinks. Dr Alison Tedstone told the BBC she hoped the campaign would help parents to choose healthier snacks for their children. “If you wander through a supermarket, you can see much more goods being sold as snacks than ever before,” she said, “It's a common phenomenon that kids' lunchboxes are full of snacks, leading to a lot of calories for lunch. Our research shows that parents usually appreciate a rule of thumb (经验法则). However, they are surprised to know how much sugar their children are consuming in snacks now.”

    Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet, said, “The intake (摄入量) of sugar that kids are getting from snacks and sugary drinks alone is pretty astonishing, and it can often be difficult to distinguish which snacks are healthy and which are not. The rule of thumb from Change4Life can help parents make their decision correctly and wisely. ”

    What exactly is intelligence? There aren't any easy answers. Despite the progress that has been made in genetics and psychology, human intelligence has remained one of the most controversial areas of modern science, until now, that is, for the discovery of a gene(基因) linked to intelligence has made the experts think again.

    Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London and his colleagues in the US have been looking into genetic make-up. From their research, they have discovered that a slightly different gene is more common in those with a high IQ. Plomin analyzed DNA from two groups of 51 children aged between 6 and 15. What he found was that the first group had an IQ of 136, putting them in the top 5% of the population, while the other group had an average IQ of 103. An analysis of their genes showed that 32% of children in the higher group had the gene in question, while only 16% in the second group did. However, there is a lot more research to be done, and Plomin himself is cautious at this early stage. He suggests that there are probably many genes that contribute to intelligence, rather than just one.

    Several studies have shown a strong link between IQ and career success, although some psychologists remain unconvinced about this. Professor Michael Rowe, who has written a book called Genius Explained, is one of these. "The people with the highest IQs are not usually the ones who do best in their careers."

    Many psychologists now believe that when it comes to intelligence, IQ isn't everything. Many alternative views have been put forward recently. One example is the idea of multiple intelligences, which was developed in the 1980s by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. This offers a much broader view than the IQ theory, including creativity and communication skills as relevant factors(因素) in intelligence.

    Tony Buzan, brain expert and author of Master your Memory, is enthusiastic about this belief, arguing that true geniuses(天才) do indeed appear to combine high levels of each type of intelligence. He lists Alexander the Great, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein as examples. At the same time, Buzan believes that everyone can develop their intelligence, only if they take the trouble to exercise their brain. Perhaps there's hope for us all!