A report by the US' Open Syllabus Project found that the most read books among US college students in the past year were books like The Republic by ancient Greek philosopher Plato and The Clash of Civilizations by US political scientist Samuel Huntington.And according to reports by Chinese college libraries,the most popular books among Chinese students are novels like Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Chinese author Jin Yong.

    This is considered by many to be one of the reasons why Chinese students are sometimes not as good at critical thinking or observing global perspectives (视野) as US students—they read too many bestseller novels.

    "By reading texts in history/social studies,science,and other subjects,students build a foundation of knowledge in these fields that will also give them the background to be better readers in all areas,"Robert Pondiscio,vice president of the Core Knowledge Foundation in the US told Th.e Washington Post.

    According to China Youth.Daily,there are usually five stages when it comes to reading,with popular novels at the bottom.More advanced readers normally go on to read classic fictional literature,history and philosophy,or books with critical ideas.

    We spend hours,days or even weeks on a book,so it's only natural that we want to learn something useful in return for our efforts.Many see reading as an investment (投资) in themselves.But this practical view of literature and the thought that history and philosophy books are superior to novels are not agreed by everyone.After all,what they offer are two different kinds of satisfaction.While the former provides knowledge,the latter brings emotional experiences."Fiction and poetry are medicines,"UK writer Jeanette Winterson once wrote."What they heal is the rupture (裂痕) reality makes on the imagination."

    If you want to slow aging, you might want to eat less. This finding is good news—if you were a mouse. The researchers studied mice, not people.

    John Price and other researchers studied two groups of mice. One group was able to eat as much as it wanted. The researchers limited what the mice in the other group ate. Their diet had 35 percent fewer calories than the first group of mice.

    Price says the mice with the diet restrictions were “more energetic and suffered fewer diseases.” They were not just living longer but seemed to stay younger for a longer period of time.

    The researchers found that fewer calories slow down a natural mechanism in cells called ribosomes. Price explains that ribosomes are responsible for making important proteins in the cells. But with fewer calories, they slow down. This gives the cells more time to repair themselves.

    The researchers say ribosomes use from 10 to 20 percent of the cell's energy to make those proteins. Price wrote that “because of this, it is impractical to destroy an entire ribosome” when it starts to break down. However, “repairing individual parts of the ribosome on a regular basis enables ribosomes to continue producing high quality proteins for longer than they would otherwise. This top quality production, in turn, keeps cells and the entire body functioning well.”

    Price said, “ribosome is a very complex machine, like a car.” They need “maintenance to replace the parts that wear out the fastest. When tires wear out,” he explained, “you don't throw the whole car away and buy a new one. It costs less to replace the old tires.”

    “Food,” he said, “isn't just material to be burned—it's a signal that tells our body and cells how to respond.” Price said the findings help to explain how exactly our bodies age. And this may “help us make more educated decisions about what we eat.”

    Alexa is a form of artificial intelligence, or AI for short. Many people start their mornings by asking Alexa for the weather forecast or the latest news. A device(设备) that houses Alexa can also play music from your favorite playlists, keep a shopping list, order takeout food, answer questions, send messages and even run “smart” home controls.

    Training AI systems to respond to problems with human-like intelligence and learn from their mistakes can take months, or even years. Consider Alexa and similar software, such as Apple's Siri. To do the tasks its human owners ask, these systems must make sense of and then respond to sentences such as, “Alexa, play my Ed Sheeran playlist” or “Siri, what is the capital of India?”

    Computers can't understand language as it is spoken by people. So AI researchers must find a way to help humans communicate with computers. The technology used to get computers to “understand” human speech or text is known as natural language processing. By natural language, computer scientists refer to the way people naturally talk or write. To teach an AI system a task like comprehending(理解) a sentence or responding to a person 's last move in a board game, scientists need to feed it lots of examples.

AlphaGo is an AI system designed by Google that has beaten a human champion, Lee Sedol, at the strategy(策略) board game Go. To train AlphaGo, Google had to show it 30 million Go moves that people had made while playing the game. Then AlphaGo used what it learned to analyze those plays as it played against different versions (版本) of itself. During this practice, the program came up with new moves—ones never seen in games between people.

    If feels like every time my mother and I start to have a conversation, it turns into an argument. We talk about something as simple as dinner plans and suddenly, my mother will push the conversation into World War？She'll talk about my lack of a bright future because I don't plan to be a doctor. And much to her disappointment, I don't want to do any job related to science, either. In fact, when I was pushed to say that I planned to major （主修） in English and communications, she nearly had a heart attack.

    "Why can't you be like my coworker's son？"she bemoans all the time. Her coworker's son received a four year scholarship and is now earning 70, 000 dollars a year as an engineer. I don't know what to answer except that I simply can't be like Mr Perfect as I've called the unnamed coworker's son. I can't be like him. I'm the type of person who loves to help out in the community, write until the sun goes down, and most of all, wants to achieve a career because I love it, not because of fame （名声） or salary.

    I understand why my mother is worried about my future major. I've seen my mother struggle to raise me on her small salary and work long hours. She leaves the house around 6：30 am and usually comes home around 5 pm or even 6 pm. However, I want her to know that by becoming a doctor, it doesn't mean I'll be successful. I'd rather follow my dreams and create my own future.

    The booking notes of the play “The Age of Innocence”:

    Price:$10

    BOOKING

    There are four easy ways to book seats for performance:

--in person

    The Box Office is open from Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m.—8 p.m.

--by telephone

    Ring 01324976 to reserve your tickets or to pay by credit card(Visa, MasterCard and Amex accepted)

--by post

    Simply complete the booking form and return it to Global Theatre Box Office.

--on line

    Complete the on-line booking form at www.Satan-fiedtheatre.com

    DISCOUNTS:

    Saver: $ 2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday. Savers are available for children up to 16 years old, over 60s and full-time students.

    Supersaver: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and one wheelchair space will be held until an hour before the show.

    Standby: best available seats are on sale for $ 6 from one hour before the performance for people eligible (suitable) for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other customers.

Group Bookings: there is a ten percent discount for parties of twelve or more.

    School: school parties of ten or more can book $6 standby tickets in advance and will get every tenth ticket free.

    Please note: we are unable to exchange tickets or refund money unless a performance is canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.

    I was in the seventh grade, and we had moved to New Jersey in November. By then, everyone already had had their own friends, and no one wanted to talk to a new girl. To make things worse, they put me in "Section L". I found out later that everyone called Section L "Loserville". It was sort of an open secret that it was the section for troublemakers and not-so-smart kids. When I found out, I wanted to scream. I had always been a good student and had amazing friends, and now everyone thought I was a loser!

    I did text my friends in Illinois almost every night, especially my best friend, Ana. At first my friends wanted to hear all about it. But then some stopped texting back once I said something about how miserable I was. One night when I was texting with Ana, I complained about another friend who had just done that.

    Ana's texts came really fast for the next few minutes and they surprised me. She said that she was tired of hearing about how bad everything was in New Jersey, too. She said she did not want to hurt my feelings but that I needed to stop feeling so sorry for myself all the time, I had to try to make things better.

    The next day, I thought a lot about what Ana had said. She was right!

    I wish I could say that everything changed overnight after that, but it didn't. I was still stuck in "Loserville", and some people were still mean to me, even though I tried to just stay out of their way.

    But what did change was me—I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and did something about making friends. I signed up to make sets for the school play. I met a lot of new people there, and suddenly I had friends to say hi to in the halls!

    I still miss Illinois sometimes  but life in New Jersey isn't so hard anymore. Even though I couldn't change my situation, I could change my attitude—and that made all the difference.