My husband hasn't stopped laughing about a funny thing that happened to me. It's funny now but it wasn't at the time.

    Last Friday, after doing all the family shopping in town, I wanted a rest before catching the train, so I bought a newspaper and some chocolate and went into the station coffee shop — that was a cheap self-service place with long tables to sit at. I put my heavy bag down on the floor, put the newspaper and chocolate on the table to keep a place, and went to get a cup of coffee.

    When I went back with the coffee, there was someone in the next seat. It was one of those wild-looking youngsters, with dark glasses and worn clothes, and hair colored bright red at the front. Not so unusual these days. What did surprise me was that he'd started to eat my chocolate!

    Naturally, I was annoyed. However, to avoid trouble — and really I was rather uneasy about him — I just looked down at the front page of the newspaper, tasted my coffee and took a bit of chocolate. The boy looked at me closely. Then he took a second piece of my chocolate. I could hardly believe it. Still I didn't dare to start an argument. When he took a third piece, I felt more angry than uneasy. I thought, "Well, I shall have the last piece." And I got it.

    The boy gave me a strange look, and then stood up. As he left he shouted out. "This woman's crazy!" Everyone stared. That was embarrassing enough, but it was worse when I finished my coffee and got ready to leave. My face went red — as red as his hair — when I realized I'd made a mistake. It wasn't my chocolate that he'd been taking. There was mine, unopened, just under my newspaper.

    Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface (界面) (BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.

    Recently, two researchers, Jose Milan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic schooling Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated(展示)a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.

    In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.

    "Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord(脊髓)to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles," Tavella says.  "Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices."

The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.

    Prof. Milan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. "The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair."

    He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.

    Fort Scott High School English teacher Emily Rountree has been working this semester to raise money for Charity Water, a nonprofit organization that uses 100 percent public donations to help fund water projects in places without access to clean drinking water. Her goal was to motivate her students to use their writing in class to make a real-world difference. Twelve students got top grades for the project, and their articles will be published both in The Tribune and online. Here is one example:

    Did you know that there are many countries around the world that dont have access to safe drinking water? Just think: that could be you, or someone in your family. My name is Tanner Johnson, and I attend Fort Scott High School. In my English classes, we are trying to raise money for Charity Water. Charity Water is an organization that helps people get water in countries where there is no safe drinking water.

    In developing countries, 780 million people dont have access to clean drinking water. In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking to get water. Women and children are the ones that mainly do the walking. They could be attacked or get hurt while they travel to get water. When they do get home, the water that they have brought is unsafe water from swamps, ponds, or rivers. If they had safe drinking water, they wouldnt have to worry about these problems, and they wouldnt be wasting hours of their day. Unsafe drinking water causes many different kinds of diseases that could lead to death.

    You could help save someones life, by donating $20 so we can help get them some safe drinking water. You can easily donate online at mycharitywater.org/fshsenglish, or you can send a check to Emily Rountree, payable to Fort Scott High School. If we dont help these people, then who will?

    One morning, my newspaper wasn't delivered on time. Since I always brought it to work, it upset me that I would have to pick one up on my way to work. After breakfast, I was already running late, but figured I could make it if I hurried.

    As I pulled into the parking lot of the store, I noticed a young man in a wheelchair who seemed to be struggling. “Someone else will stop and help him,” I thought.

    However, no one stopped. I got out, and walked over to see what the trouble was.

    “Is there anything I can do?” I asked. It was then that I noticed he wasn't able to speak, and was still struggling with the chair.

    I looked down at the chair and noticed that the clamps (夹具) holding the electronic keyboard had apparently become loose causing the equipment to slip down, out of his reach.

    I pulled it back into place and then re-tightened the clamps. He hit a key on the keyboard. An electronic voice told me, “Thank you.” He then found the control that steered (操纵) the chair, turned and left.

    I got back in my car and headed off to work, completely forgetting my newspaper. As I drove, I felt a deep gratitude (感激). I was truly blessed to have the physical abilities that allow me to live a normal life. Here was this young man who relied on machines to get around and communicate. He probably dreamed about doing all the things that I thought were normal and simple.

    It's funny; fifteen minutes before that happened, I was whining because my morning paper hadn't arrived on time. I was glad I helped the young man, because he helped me gain a new viewpoint on everything I had in my life.

    Mandara seemed to know something big was about to happen. So she let out a yell, caught hold of her 2-year-old daughter Kibibi and climbed up into a tree. She lives at the National Zoo in Washington D.C.

    And on Tuesday, August 23rd, witnesses said she seemed to sense the big earthquake that shook much of the East Coast before any humans knew what was going on. And she's not the only one. In the moments before the quake, an orangutan (猩猩) let out a loud call and then climbed to the top of her shelter.

    “It's very different from their normal call,” said Brandie Smith, the zookeeper. “The lemurs (monkey like animals of Madagascar) will sound an alarm if they see or hear something highly unusual.”

    But you can't see or hear an earthquake 15 minutes before it happens, can you? Maybe you can——if you're an animal.

    “Animals can hear above and below our range of hearing,” said Brandie Smith. “That's part of their special abilities. They're more sensitive to the environment, which is how they survive.”

    Primates weren't the only animals that seemed to sense the quake before it happened. One of the elephants made a warning sound and a huge lizard (蜥蜴) ran quickly for cover. The flamingoes (a kind of birds) gathered before the quake and stayed together until the shaking stopped.

    So what kind of vibrations (震动) were the animals picking up in the moments before the quake? Scientist Susan Hough said earthquakes produce two types of waves——a weak “P” wave and then a much stronger “S” wave. The “P” stands for “primary”. And the “S” stands for “secondary”. She thinks the “P” wave might be what sets the animals off.

    Not all the animals behaved unusually before the quake. For example, Smith said the zoo's giant pandas didn't jump up until the shaking actually began. But many of the other animals seemed to know something was coming before it happened. “I'm not surprised at all,” Smith said.

Earthquakes are something that people fear.There are some places that have few or no earthquakes.Most places in the world,however,have them regularly (有规律地).Countries that have a lot of earthquakes are usually quite mountainous.

The most talked about earthquake in the United States was in San Francisco in 1906.Over 700 people died in it.The strongest one in North America was in 1964.It happened in Alaska.

Strong earthquakes are not always the ones that kill the most people.In 1755,one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded was felt in Portugal.Around 2,000 people died.

In 1923,a very strong earthquake hit Tokyo and the Yokohama areas of Japan.A hundred and forty thousand people died.Most of them died in fires which followed the earthquake.

One of the worst earthquakes ever was in China in 1976.It killed a large number of people.The worst earthquake ever reported was also in China,in which about 830,000 people were killed.This earthquake happened in 1556.

Earthquakes worry people a lot.The reason is that we often do not know when they are coming.People cannot prepare for it.