Avatar has become the most successful movie in 2009. It is about a soldier whose mind is set into the body of a giant blue alien. He was sent to a dangerous planet called Pandora. His mission（使命） is to find a rare mineral（矿物质）. The mineral is the key to solve the earth's energy crisis(危机).

    According to the latest figures（数字）, Avatar has become the fastest film ever to make more than 1 billion dollars in ticket sales around the world. When it had been shown in cinemas for several days, it became the most popular film ever made.

    Avatar knocked the movie Titanic off the international release top spot. But Titanic's director James Cameron probably won't be too upset, because Avatar is directed by him as well! Before Avatar was filmed, the best selling film ever was Titanic.

    James Cameron decided to make Avatar in 1999. However, the means（方法）to realize his vision（影像画面） did not exist yet. In 2002, The Lord of the' Rings: The Two Towers made him believe that CGI (电脑影像合成) effects had progressed enough to make this film. After several years of production, the 3D spectacular Avatar successfully showed us a fully immersive experience.

    The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.

    He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day.

    They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.

    He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets—nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.

    At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.

    While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along it, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding－Dong－Dong”,“Ding－Dong－Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.

    Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you？”

    No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.

    Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you've got to work, hey？”

    Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing.”

     “Say—I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd rather work—wouldn't you? Of course you would.”

    Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said, “What do you call work？”

     “Why, isn't that work？”

    Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.

     “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

     “Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it？”

    The brush continued to move.

     “Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn't like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day？”

    Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said，“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

    Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree, but he changed his mind.

     “No—no—it won't do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don't think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”

     “No—is that so? Oh come, now—let me just try. Only just a little.”

“Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn't done right, I'm afraid Aunt Polly ”

     “Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say—I'll give you the core of my apple.”

     “Well, here—No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid …”

     “I'll give you all of it.”

    Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought it for a dead rat—and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.

    And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company, and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.

    He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.

    When Wu Jia, then aged 23, returned from Canada to work for her father's Hangzhou-based Zoland Animation (动画) in 2007, she found Chinese animation productions were just-so-so. Back then, Chinese animation shown at overseas events, received a poor response.

    But things soon changed following a boom in China's movie and television industries. By 2011, China developed into one of the world's largest animation producers, with animation and cartoon products reaching a record of 260,000 minutes.

    However, that figure has witnessed a fall in recent years. The latest statistics show that China made only 244 animated productions totaling 83,600 minutes in 2017. But Wu says: “Chinese animators are changing from quantity to quality and Chinese animators are now producing more quality works” at the 14th China International Cartoon & Animation Festival.

    Wu, now the chairman of Zoland Animation, is among those who are part of China's rapidly growing animation industry. She says the company has so far displayed more than 8,000 hours of animated content to 93 countries and regions, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, South Korea and Russia.

    Magic Eye, one of Zoland's most popular animated works, which was sold to just Singapore in 2006, is now reaching the screens of nearly 80 countries and regions worldwide. The 500-episode animated series about an alien boy's adventures on Earth also has a sequel (续集) series Magic Eye is Back, which has 104 episodes. Thanks to Magic Eye's popularity, the sequel quickly arouses interest in overseas markets and is being displayed in 38 countries and regions.

    Speaking about how to succeed abroad, Wu says: “First, the works should be good. And, you need an experienced team who knows international markets.”

    The impression you make at the beginning of an interview is very important. Employers often decide to hire someone in the first three minutes of the interview. They judge you by your appearance, attitude and manners.

    A friendly smile when you walk into the room is important. A smile shows a confident and positive attitude.

    When you introduce yourself, make eye contact with the interviewer. Some interviewers offer a handshake. Others don't.

    Try to be as natural as possible. But pay attention to your body language. The way you sit, walk, gesture, use your voice and show feelings on your face is all part of your body language. It makes the interviewer know how you feel about yourself and the situation you are in. Are you feeling positively about yourself? Your abilities? Your interest in the job?

    Speak clearly and loudly enough. Show interest and enthusiasm in your voice. When you speak, look at the interviewer. Also, don't say negative things about yourself, or former employer.

    Listen to questions carefully. If you don't understand a question, ask the interviewer to repeat or explain:

    "I'm sorry, but I didn't catch that."

    "I'm not sure exactly what you mean."

    Almost everyone is nervous in a job interview. Interviewers know that. They don't expect you to be totally calm and relaxed. But they expect you to try to control your nervousness. They expect you to show confidence in your ability to do the job.

    At the end of the interview, thank the interviewer for her or his time.

    It's a good idea to send a short thank-you letter right after the interview, or deliver it by hand.

    Phone the company if you have not heard anything after one week. Ask if they have made a decision about the job.

    Good luck!

    Researchers at the University of York in England published their findings on facial recognition that, on average, people can remember as many as 5,000 faces.

    There have been many studies recently on facial recognition technology. But the authors of this study say theirs is the first time that scientists have been able to put a number to the abilities of humans to recognize faces. Rob Jenkins, leader of the research, said the researchers' study centered on "the number of faces people actually know." and were not able to discover whether there is a "limit on how many faces the brain can handle."

    Jenkins said the ability to tell individual people apart is "clearly important." In today's modern world of big cities, we meet and deal with thousands of people. The study suggests our facial recognition abilities help us to deal with the many different faces we see on the screens, as well as those we know. The results of the study give a baseline for comparing the "facial vocabulary" of humans with facial recognition software.

    Today, facial recognition technology is used in many ways, including by law enforcement agencies to prevent crime and violence. Governments use it to keep secret areas secure and, in extreme cases, control populations. Some governments use the software to watch people and find out where they go and what they do. Even Facebook uses facial recognition. For example, when you name a friend, Facebook technology may recognize the person's face from a different picture you had shared before.

    For the human study, people spent one hour writing down as many faces from their personal lives as possible. At first, they found it easy to come up with many faces. But by the end of the hour, they found it harder to think of new ones. Their change in speed let the researchers estimate when they would have run out of faces completely. 1,000 to 10,000 faces remembered. People who took part in the study were also shown thousands of photographs of famous people. Researchers asked them which ones they recognized. To make sure they knew these people, researchers required them to recognize two different photos of each famous person. The results showed that the participants knew between 1,000 and 10,000 faces.

    How do they explain such a wide range? Jenkins said one explanation may be that some people have a natural ability for remembering faces. "There are differences in how much attention people pay to faces and how well they process the information." Also it could be because of different social environments. Some people may have grown up in more populated places. So, they may have had more social contact throughout their lives.

    Researchers think age may be an interesting area for further research. “It would be interesting to see whether there is a peak age for the number of faces we know”, Jenkins said. He said it is possible that we gather more faces throughout our lifetime. But, he added, there also may be an age at which we start to find it harder to remember all of those faces.

That night, when Aksionov was lying on his bed and just beginning to sleep, someone came quietly and sat down on his bed. He peered(看) through the darkness and recognized Makar.

"What more do you want of me?" asked Aksionov. "Why have you come here?"

Makar Semyonovich was silent. So Aksionov sat up and said, "What do you want? Go away, or I will call the guard!"

Makar Semyonovich bent close over Aksionov, and whispered, "Ivan Dmitrich forgive me!"

"What for?" asked Aksionov.

"It was I who killed the merchant and hid the knife among your things. I meant to kill you, too, but I heard a noise outside, so I hid the knife in your bag and escaped out of the window."

Aksionov was silent, and didn't know what to say. Makar Semyonovich slid off the bed-shelf and knelt upon the ground. "Ivan Dmitrich" he said, "forgive me! I will confess that it was I who killed the merchant, and you will be released and can go to your home."

"It is easy for you to talk," said Aksionov "but I have suffered for you these twenty-six years. Where could I go now?... My wife is dead, and my children have forgotten me. I have nowhere to go..."

Makar Semyonovich did not rise, but beat his head on the floor. "Ivan Dmitrich, forgive me!" he cried. "When they flogged(鞭打) me with the knot, it was not so hard to bear as it is to see you now... yet you had pity on me and did not tell. Forgive me, devil that I am!" And he began to sob.

When Aksionov heard him sobbing, he too, began to weep. "I will forgive you!" he said. "Maybe I am a hundred times worse than you." And at these words his heart grew light, and the longing for home left him. He no longer had any desire to leave the prison, but only hoped for his last hour to come.

In spite of what Aksionov had said, Makar Semyonovich confessed his guilt. But when the order for his release came, Aksionov was already dead.