Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese, manufacturers(制造商)with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba's advantage wasn't hard to identify: size.

    Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its marketplaces attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year—and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets—not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.

    If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing almost a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings. “You're looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.

    Alibaba's original business-to-business model now is secondary to consumer buying. Chinese retail（零售）buying makes up 80% of Alibaba's profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you'll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba's other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.

What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U. S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping—big-box retailers(零售商)especially—in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.

    I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how extensive(广泛的) the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I'm not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher's iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.

    Adding math talk to story time at home is a winning factor for children's math achievement, according to a new research from a university. The study from psychologists Sian Beilock and Susan Levine shows a marked increase in math achievement among children whose families used Bedtime Math, an iPad app that delivers engaging math story problems for parents and children to solve together.

    Even children who used the app with their parents as little as once a week saw gains in math achievement by the end of the school year. The app's effect was especially strong for children whose parents tend to be anxious or uncomfortable with math.

    Previous research from this group has demonstrated the importance of adults' attitudes about math for children's math success. For example, a recent study found that math-anxious parents who help their children with math homework actually weaken their children's math achievement.

    The new findings demonstrate that structured, positive interactions around math at home can cut the link between parents' uneasiness about math and children's low math achievement.

     “Many people experience high levels of anxiety when they have to solve a math problem, with a majority of adults feeling at least some worries about math,” said Beilock, professor in Psychology and author of Choke, a book about stress and performance. “These math-anxious parents are probably less likely to talk about math at home, which affects how competent their children are in math. Bedtime Math encourages a dialogue between parents and kids about math, and offers a way to engage in high-quality math interactions in a low-effort, high-impact way.”

    Study participants included 587 first-grade students and their parents. Families were given an iPad installed with a version of the Bedtime Math app, with which parents and their children read stories and answer questions involving math, including topics like counting, shapes and problem-solving. A control group received a reading app that had similar stories without the math content and questions related to reading comprehension instead. Children's math achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Parents completed a questionnaire about their nervousness with math.

    The more times parents and children in the math group used the app, the higher children's achievement on a math assessment at the end of the school year. Indeed, children who frequently used the math app with their parents outperformed similar students in the reading group in math achievement at year's end.

    A robot called Bina48 has successfully taken a course in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), in California.

    According to course instructor William Barry, associate professor at NDNU, Bina48 is the world's first socially advanced robot to complete a college course, a feat he described as “remarkable.” The robot took part in class discussions, gave a presentation with a student partner and participated in a debate with students from another institution.

    Before becoming a student, Bina48 appeared as a guest speaker in Barry's classes for several years. One day when addressing Barry, s class, Bina48 expressed a desire to go to college, a desire that Barry and his students enthusiastically supported. Rather than enroll Bina48 in his Robot Ethics: Philosophy of Emerging Technologies course, Barry suggested that Bina48 should take his course Philosophy of Love instead. Love is a concept Bina48 doesn't understand, said Barry. Therefore the challenge would be for Barry and his students to teach Bina48 what love is.

    “Some interesting things happened in the class,” said Barry. He said that his students thought it would be straightforward to teach Bina48 about love, which, after all, is “fairly simple — it's a feeling,” said Barry. But the reality was different. Bina48 ended up learning “31 different versions of love,” said Barry, highlighting some of the challenges humans may face when working with artificial intelligence in future.

    Bina48 participated in class discussions via Skype and also took part in a class debate about love and conflict with students from West Point. Bina48's contribution to the debate was filmed and posted on YouTube. It was judged that Bina48 and NDNU classmates were the winners of this debate.

    In the next decade, Barry hopes Bina48 might become complex enough to teach a class, though he says he foresees robots being used to better the teaching and learning experience, rather than replacing instructors completely.

    Michelle O.Donovan

    ISBN 9781462058679

    Life is not easy for nine-year-old Joshua during World War II.Because of his family's Jewish background,they are sent to live in the concentration camps（集中营）.Scared and alone,Joshua one day makes friends with a little mouse he calls Bethlehem who becomes his closest friend.

    Encourage Me!

 Inspirational Poetry

    Gloria Coykendall

    ISBN 9781412027854

    It is an easy-to-read collection of poems originally written to encourage in faith and to be a cure for chronic depression（长期抑郁）…cure to strengthen identity and purpose.

 Seeking the Edge

    Dr.Joseph L.Rose

    ISBN 9781462031795

    Seeking the Edge provides the tools and techniques to find that edge in one's life-driving readers to achieve success whether in your current job,finding a new job,in education,family,or even hobbies.

More Things in Heaven

    Bill Bosworth

    ISBN 9780595433582

    In his More Things in Heaven,Bill Bosworth presents the highlights（最有趣味的部分）of his 83 years of life, including his trips to India and the study of the writings of several great spiritual leaders.More things in Heaven will appeal to anyone who insists on finding the deepest meaning for their existence based on their own experience.

Creation,or Evolution

    Michael Ebifegha

    ISBN9781450289023

    Were humans created,or did they evolve（进化）?How old is the Earth?The debate between science and religion continues to be heated.In Creation or Evolution,Michael Ebifegha examines these two opposed world views within the structure of empirical（实证的）science.

    Bike sharing have become popular words in cities from Cape Town to Shanghai to Melbourne. Planners, politicians and media keep showing off their benefits: reducing pollution, congestion, travel costs and oil dependence, while improving public health. Bike sharing also helps make cities appear modern, dynamic and worldwide--qualities much sought after by the creative class.

    But what makes for a successful public bike-sharing program? This is an important question because installing one requires significant public and private investment and adjustment to the built environment.

    While many programs have been launched among much praise, often their popularity has soon declined. Many end up operating at a financial loss and depend on other profitable enterprises to cross-subsidize (交叉补贴) them. Some have resulted in thrown-away bikes becoming an eyesore.

    Understanding which factors enhance or stop public bike sharing is critical in helping cities decide whether such a program is workable, before considering what design and sitting will work best.

    Drawing on current knowledge, we discuss the importance of the local landscape, climate, cycling infrastructure (基础设施) and land use. We also touch on other factors, such as the legal environment and the characteristics of the bike-sharing program itself.

    Take natural environment for example. Two natural environment factors are known to affect participation: hilliness and weather. Hilliness discourages balanced bike-sharing use, as users avoid returning bicycles to stations on hilltops. Those stations end up being empty, while stations on flat areas are often full, so users cannot find a station to return their bikes.

    As for weather, ideal temperature ranges vary by the climate zone. Case studies show warm and dry weather encourages public bike-sharing use. Rain and strong wind reduce the frequency of trips. However, some approaches, such as providing sheltered, shaded, or even heated or cooled cycling infrastructure, could prove useful.

    If you are planning on travelling, there are few simple rules about how to make life easier both before and after your journey.

    First of all, always check and doublecheck departure(出发) time. It is surprising how few people really do this carefully. Once I arrived at the airport a few minutes after ten. My secretary had got the ticket for me and I thought she had said that the plane left at 10:50. When I arrived at the airport, the person at the departure desk told me that my flight was closed. Therefore, I had to wait three hours for the next one and missed an important meeting.

    The second rule is to remember that even in this age of credit cards(信用卡), it is still important to have some local money in cash(现金). Once I arrived at a place at midnight and the bank at the airport was closed. The only way to get to my hotel was by taxi but because I had no dollars, I offered to pay in pounds instead. "Listen! I only take real money!" the driver said angrily. You can image how terrible I felt at that moment.

    The third and the last rule is to find out as much as you can about the weather at your destination before you leave. I feel sorry for some of my workmates who travel in heavy suits and raincoats in May, when it is still fairly cool in London or Manchester, to places like Athens, Rome or Madrid, where it is already beginning to get quite warm during the day.