French surgeons have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world's first partial face transplant（移植）— giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman attacked by a dog.

    Specialists from two French hospitals carried out the operation on a 38-year-old woman on Sunday in the northern city of Amiens by taking the face from a brain-dead woman, who had hanged herself just hours before the operation. Her family agreed on the operation.

    “The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal,” the hospitals said in a brief statement after waiting three days to announce the pioneering surgery.

    The woman had been left without a nose and lips after the dog attacked her last May, and was unable to talk or chew properly. Such injuries are “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to repair using normal surgical techniques, the statement said.

    The statement did not say what the woman would look like when she had fully recovered, but medical experts said she was unlikely to resemble the woman who had been the source of her new face.

    The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a specialist from a hospital in Lyon who has also carried out hand transplants.

    Skin transplants have long been used to treat burns and other injuries, but operations around the mouth and nose have been considered very difficult because of the area's high sensitivity（敏感） to foreign tissue.

    Teams in France, the United States and Britain had been developing techniques to make face transplants a reality

    There was a short-term risk for the patient if blood vessels became blocked, a medium-term danger of her body rejecting the new skin and a long-term possibility that the drugs used could cause cancers.

    Experts say that although such medical advances should be celebrated, the transplant had thrown up moral（道德的）and ethical(伦理的)issues. Little is known about the psychological effect of three transplant.

    Why do Americans struggle with watching their weight, while the French, who consume（消耗） rich food, continue to stay thin? Now a research by Cornell University suggests how life style and decisions about eating may affect weight. Researchers concluded that the French tend to（往往，倾向于） stop eating when they feel full. However, Americans tend to stop when their plate is empty or their favorite TV show is over.

    According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, a health expert, the French see eating as an important part of their life style. They enjoy food and therefore spend a fairly long time at the table, while Americans see eating as something to be squeezed（挤出） between the other daily activities. Mercola believes Americans lose the ability to sense when they are actually full. So they keep eating long after the French would have stopped. In addition, he points out that Americans drive to huge supermarkets to buy canned and frozen foods for the week. The French, instead, tend to shop daily, walking to small shops and farmers' markets where they have a choice of fresh fruits, vegetables, and eggs as well as high-quality meats for each meal.

    After a visit to the United States, Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat, decided to write about the importance of knowing when to stop rather than suggesting how to avoid food. Today she continues to stay slim and rarely goes to the gym.

    In spite of（尽管） all these differences, evidence shows that recent life style changes may be affecting French eating habits. Today the rate of obesity — or extreme overweight — among adults is only 6%. However, as American fast food gains acceptance and the young reject（拒绝） older traditions, the obesity rate among French children has reached 17% — and is growing.

    Papa was a ranger. He worked with horses. He always wore clean clothes with a hat even when he worked. His hat was always the same kind of a cowboy hat—large black hat of heavy wool. He wore his hat full and high. I think he wanted to look taller than he really was.

    Mama was proud of the way he looked when he wore his hat and his best clothes. But in some way she got the idea that papa would lose his hair if he kept wearing a heavy wool cowboy hat in the hot weather. She began to talk about his hat.

    "Papa, "she said one day, "why don't you get a nice cool straw hat? That heavy wool cowboy hat may cause losing hair!" Papa laughed at her and explained that the horses wouldn't recognize him if he changed the hat. But she didn't believe him.

    Mama talked and talked about the hat all summer long. At last papa answered, a little angry, "It would not the cowboy hat but a wife's talking about the hat that makes me lose my hair."

    Mama had a very serious look on her face. She went straight out and later came home with a straw hat. It was a bad year for ranger and we didn't have much money. She thought that if she spent the money for a straw hat, papa would wear it. When papa saw the hat, his face got red. Without a word, he pulled the straw hat down over his head until it hid his eyes and went on to train the horses.

    He was a good ranger and gentle to his horses. But as papa got close to the horses this time, they jumped high into the air, raising their front feet. All of them ran around in the rounded field and then raced toward the barn. Papa began to shout "Woo boys. Steady boys, steady." But there was nothing equal to.

    Papa walked back straight to the stove in the kitchen, pushed the straw hat deep down into the fire then turned to mama, in a way that even frightened me. "Now listen to me, mama. Understand this I will never wear a straw hat or any other kind of hat my horses do not like. "Then he put on his wool cowboy hat and walked out of the house.

    I never heard mama talk any more about hats. Perhaps, that is why when papa died many years later, there was a round spot on the top of his head where there was no hair.

    There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people, and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom.

    But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of students. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools.

    You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want and need to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.

    Robots that can chat, find misplaced glasses, draw airplanes and play with your children are attracting thousands of visitors during an expo in Tokyo as Japan adapts to changes in society.

    Robots, such as the sound-sensitive Chapit, answer simple questions and even joke with people to help the solitary fight loneliness and stay alert (机警的) in old age. "Many old people in Japan live alone and have no one to talk to," said Kazuya Kitamura, a representative of the expo organizer. "Communication robots stay together with old people and don't mind listening to the same stories over and over again."

    While Chapit, a relatively simple robot, managed to attract a partner, many researchers, such as Kiyoshi Matsumoto, a professor at the University of Tokyo, struggle to attract sponsors for more expensive projects.

    Matsumoto's "Personal Mobility Robot", equipped with four cameras and a sensor to recognize the user's centre of gravity, is designed to help the elderly move around without pressing buttons as in traditional wheelchairs.

    The robot can also help find misplaced glasses by recognizing them with a sensor. "We have developed a robot that can assist many people, but because of the high cost, we still haven't found a sponsor," said Matsumoto, who added that the cost of the machine, if produced in large quantities, would be comparable to that of a small car. "In the current economic environment there are few companies willing to invest (投资) in such a costly project," he said.

    Other robots, such as the award-winning "DiGRO", can support busy parents who have little time to play with their children. The robot can use the Internet to find a simple image and then draw pictures, looking after children while parents work.

    Japan is one of the world's fastest-aging countries and the government predicts that by 2050 the population of people over 65 will reach 40 percent.

It was a typical weekend for Mitch White and his friends. They were out celebrating a bachelor party, sailing the peaceful waters of the Minnesota River. They never expected that this single party would transform from a relaxed canoe trip into a painful rescue mission. With the sun setting, an unexpected bark changed everything.

Led by Mitch White, the soon-to-be-married man, they searched for the source of the sound along the banks of the river. Suddenly, a weak cry for help came from the mud. They were surprised to find that the head of a 13-year-old St. Bernard named Ed was barely visible in the thick mud. Mitch said, "The dog wasn't moving on its own, so we should feed it and give it water. " The dog looked like i had used all its strength.

The men took up their oars（桨） and began digging, their festive mood giving way to a focused rescue mission. It took them more than half an hour to free the trapped dog as it was already breathing very feebly after possibly being trapped for 24 hours. When they got the poor fellow out of the mud, he couldn't walk, so they carried him back to the house. Back home with his owner, George Niskanen, Ed began his slow restoration-a happy ending to a dangerous adventure. George was thankful to the bachelor party heroes.

Now, the people of Carver, Minnesota, have new heroes to cheer for. Indeed, this incredible act of bravery and compassion redefined the meaning of a bachelor party. It became a heroic tale of humanity, friendship, and the instinct（本能）to do what's right.