As is often the case, when your teacher asks a question, there is only one correct answer. But there is one question that has millions of current answers. That question is "What's your name?" Everyone gives a different answer, but everyone is correct.

    Have you ever thought about people's names? Where do they come from? What do they mean?

    People's first names, or given names, are chosen by their parents. Sometimes the name of a grandparent or other member of the family is used. Some parents choose the name of a well-known person. A boy could be named George Washington Smith; a girl could be named Helen Keller Jones.

    Some people give their children names that mean good things. Clara means "bright"; Beatrice means "one who gives happiness"; Donald means "world ruler"; Leonard means “as brave as a lion”.

    The earliest last names, or surnames, were taken from place names. A family with the name Brook or Brooks probably lived near brook(小溪); someone who was called Longstreet probably lived on a long, paved road. The Greenwood family lived in or near a leafy forest.

    Other early surnames came from people's occupations. The most common occupational name is Smith, which means a person who makes things with iron or other metals. In the past, smiths were very important workers in every town and village. Some other occupational names are: Carter — a person who owned or drove a cart; Potter — a person who made pots and pans.

    The ancestors of the Baker family probably baked bread for their neighbors in their native village. The Carpenter's great-great-great-grandfather probably built houses and furniture.

    Sometimes people were known for the color of their hair or skin, or their size, or their special abilities. When there were two men who were named John in the same village, the John with the gray hair probably became John Gray. Or the John was very tall could call himself John Tallman. John Fish was probably an excellent swimmer and John Lightfoot was probably a fast runner or a good dancer.

    Some family names were made by adding something to the father's name. English-speaking people added –s or –son. The Johnsons are descendants of John; the Roberts family's ancestor was Robert. Irish and Scottish people added Mac or Mc or O. Perhaps all of the MacDonnell's and the McDonnell's and the O'Donnell's are descendants of the same Donnell.

    Superfast double­decker (双层) trains will be taking passengers from London to six big cities in the UK by 2033. The first phase (阶段) linking London to the West Midlands with a connection to HS1 is expected to open in 2026, and the second  phase to Manchester and Leeds in 2032.

    The government set out a plan for the high­speed rail network in 2012. When the project is finished, it will take less time to get to London from major cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Traveling at a speed of up to 250 mph, passengers will be able to come and go from Birmingham to London in 49 minutes, reducing the journey time by almost half from one hour and 24 minutes.

    A journey from Birmingham to Leeds will be reduced from two hours to 57 minutes and a journey from Manchester to London will be reduced from two hours and 8 minutes to one hour and 8 minutes.

    “HS2  is an  important  part of transport's  low­carbon future,” Transport  Secretary Justine Greening said. Some people aren't happy about the plan, though. HS2 will cost around ￡33 billion. It will also be built near some towns and villages, disturbing the people that live there.

    But the Chancellor of the Exchequer (财政大臣) George Osborne thinks it will help build the future for Britain. “It's a long­term decision，” he said.

    HS2 is designed for everything around the needs of the passengers. It will provide a new and exciting travel experience. There will be plenty of room, intelligent ticketing, a good service and high quality comfort and access to trains. This is a transport network for the new century and beyond.

    Only two countries in the advanced world provide no guarantee for paid leave from work to care for a newborn child. Last spring one of the two, Australia, gave up the bad distinction by setting up paid family leave starting in 2011. I wasn't surprised when this didn't make the news here in the United States — we're now the only wealthy country without such a policy.

    The United States does have one explicit family policy, the Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993. It entitles workers to as much as 12 weeks' unpaid leave for care of a newborn or dealing with a family medical problem. Despite the modesty of the benefit, the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups fought it bitterly, describing it as “government-run personnel management” and a “dangerous precedent (先例).” In fact, every step of the way, as (usually) Democratic leaders have tried to introduce work-family balance measures into the law, business groups have been strongly opposed.

    As Yale law professor Anne Alstott argues, justifying parental support depends on defining(定义) the family as a social good that, in some sense, society must pay for. Parents are burdened in many ways in their lives: there is “no exit” when it comes to children. Society expects — and needs — parents to provide their children with continuity of care. And society expects — and needs — parents to persist in their roles for 18 years, or longer if needed.

    While most parents do this out of love, there are public punishments for not providing care. What parents do, in other words, is of deep concern to the state, for the obvious reason that caring for children is not only morally urgent but important to the future of society. To classify parenting as a personal choice for which there is no collective responsibility is not merely to ignore the social benefits of good parenting; really, it is to steal those benefits because they accrue (累积) to the whole of society as today's children become tomorrow's citizens. In fact, by some estimates, the value of parental investments in children, investments of time and money, is equal to 20-30% of GDP. If these investments bring huge social benefits — as they clearly do — the benefits of providing more social support for the family should be that much clearer.

    Kendrick Lamar hasn't had much luck when it comes to winning a Grammy. But that's OK： The US rapper(说唱歌手) has just won a Pulitzer Prize for his music.

    In 2014, in 2016, and again this year. Lamar was nominated (提名)for an album of the year Grammy. Each time, he was beaten out, first by Taylor Swift, next by Daft Punk, and most recently by Bruno Mars.

    But the Pulitzer Prize committee was inspired enough by Lamar's 2017 album, Damn, to award the 30-year-old its Pulitzer Prize in music on April 16. It's an amazing album that documents the real life of modem African-Americans in South Los Angeles with wildly accomplished beats and rhythms.

    Lamar's win is considered to be historical. 'The Pulitzers have long displayed their preference toward high art rather than the pop culture of the masses. So it's not just that no rapper has ever won a Pulitzer: no pop music maker has ever won one in the award's 75-year history.

    But Lamar is not just a singer—he's clever at using language. Like the best writers, his music describes small moments that illustrate (阐明) larger points. His songs are about his experience as a black man who grew up in California, struggled, got into trouble, and found his way out by working hard and making sense of the history and reality of racial problems in the US.

    “He's an artist who challenges idea,” said Ryan Coogler, director of the blockbuster(大片) hit Black Panther, for which Lamar created music. "One big theme in our film of,' What does it mean to be African?' Kendrick in his music is very exactly and directly challenging that question."

    Good artists entertain us, great artists make us think, and exceptional artists help us empathize (感同身受) .

    There are a lot of good, great, even exceptional artists in rock, pop, country, and hip-hop. But only Lamar has a Pulitzer Prize.

Dear Durhammers,

    Durham has been your home in the past three years. This is an appropriate moment in time to invite you as a group of "tourists" in this special exploration. We would also like to congratulate you on your forthcoming transition from being a Durhammer to a member of society. Please see information below on offers and activities to assist with planning your coming celebrations.

    View details of special offers for Winter Assembly at:

    http://www.dur.ac.uk/ceremonies/congregation/offers/

    ●Sign up to keep in touch with Durham University and get a goody bag sponsored by the ALUMNI team.

    ●20% discount on pre-ordered Durham University Merchandise with the ticket code WGRADUATE2019 (Or you have to pay the full price at the shop.)

    ●Pre-order your photographs and receive a discounted rate.

    ●Free entry to the exhibitions at Palace Green Library for you and your guests (with tickets).

    ●Purchase a diploma container to keep your degree certificate safe. Please check:

    https://www.dur.ac.uk/student.registry/qualifications/order/

    ●Details of celebration events being held in Departments and Colleges are published at:

    https://www.dur.ac.uk/ceremonies/congregation/celebrations/

    Information on the highlight of the celebration, including but not limited to the opportunity to go out for BBQ and camping at Botantic Garden is published at:

    https://www.dur.ac.uk/campusperks/whatsnewon/ceremonies/

    We also hope very much that you will come and meet us and colleagues at the ceremony, which is a traditional and magnificent public presentation of your diploma and award, and it is always memorable and fun. You will have already received a formal email invitation, but this is just to say that we hope to meet you there and congratulate you in person.

Yours sincerely,

Sir Thomas Allen

    A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.

    "It's extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件)," said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. "The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own," he said.

    They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. "The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it's connected to," said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.

    While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers' fields or on the battlefield. "Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around," he said.

    Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. "You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead," he said. "So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis."