They may be teenagers, but 17-year-old Brittany Bull and 16-year-old Sesam Mngqengqiswa have grand ambitions(雄心) — to launch Africa's first private satellite (卫星) into space. They are part of a team of high school girls from Cape Town, South Africa, who have designed and built equipment for a satellite that will orbit over the earth's poles scanning Africa's surface.

    Once in space, the satellite will collect information on agriculture, and food security within the continent. Using the data/we can try to determine and predict (预测) the problems Africa will be facing in the future”, explains Bull, a student at Pelican Park High School.“Where our food is growing, where we can plant more trees and vegetation and also how we can monitor remote areas,” she says. “We have a lot of forest fires and floods but we don't always get out there in time.'' Information received twice a day will go towards disaster prevention.

    It's part of a project by South Africa's Meta Economic Development Organization (MEDO) working with Morehead State University in the US.

The girls (14 in total) are being trained by satellite engineers from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in an effort to encourage more African women into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

    Scheduled to launch in May 2017, if successful, it will make MEDO the first private company in Africa to build a satellite and send it into orbit.

    Mngqengqiswa comes from a single parent household. Her mother is a domestic worker. By becoming a space engineer or astronaut, the teenager hopes to make her mother proud. “Discovering space and seeing the Earth's atmosphere, it's not something many black Africans have been able to do, or get the opportunity to look at I want to see and experience these things for myself,” says Mngqengqiswa.

    Her team mate Bull agrees, “I want to show to fellow girls that we don't need to sit around or limit ourselves. Any career is possible-even aerospace.”

    Swiss researchers said Monday they have developed a wireless camera system to monitor vital signs in premature babies, a move that could replace uncomfortable and highly inaccurate skin sensors (传感器) which produce false alarms in up to 90 percent of cases, mainly set off by the baby's movement.

    “This is a cause of discomfort for the babies, because we have to check on them every time,” said Jean-Claude Fauchere, a doctor at University Hospital Zurich's newborn clinic.

    His hospital is preparing to begin tests of a new, contactless system created by researchers at the EPFL polytechnical university in Lausanne and at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology.

    The system designed in Switzerland should allow premature babies kept warm in incubators (恒温箱) to be medically monitored using highly sensitive cameras that detect the newborn's pulse by analyzing its skin color, which changes so slightly every time its heart beats.

    “Breathing is monitored by measuring movements of its chest and shoulders. At night, infrared (红外线的) cameras take over, and monitoring can be carried out non-stop,” the statement said.

    The visual system was designed by CSEM researchers, who chose cameras sensitive enough to detect minute changes in skin color, while the EPFL researchers designed algorithms (运算程序) to process the data in real time.

    “We ran an early study on adults, where we looked at a specific part of skin on their foreheads,” EPFL doctoral student Sibylle Fallet said. “With our algorithms we can track this area when the person moves, and use tiny changes in their color to determine the pulse,” she said. “The tests showed that the cameras produced practically the same results as conventional sensors.”

    Once the system has been widely tested on premature babies, it could one day replace skin sensors altogether, the schools said.

    We bet that on cold winter days, many of you love to stay in your warm home and, every now and then, come out into the kitchen for a snack. Unfortunately, plenty of small insects like to do the same thing! Winter is the time when small insects enter your house without an invitation. The season can be difficult for such creatures. In winter the air is cold, the ground is hard and many trees have no leaves. So small insects do what they have to do to survive.

    Monarch butterflies head south to warmer climates. Ants crowd in deep underground colonies and eat food they have been storing all year. Many insects go into a deep sleep called diapauses. There're different kinds of diapauses, but all are similar to hibernation, a time when bigger animals become inactive in the cold. Insects go into an inactive period, too, but it often isn't when the temperature drops.

    They rely on more dependable signals in the environment. For example, many insects can tell how much sunlight there's each day. They use that to tell themselves when to shut down. Insects are cold-blooded, meaning that their inside temperature is the same as the outside. They can't move much when it gets below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. So they search for any warm place.

    They're looking for protection. These guys have been doing this for 300 million years, so they don't really know they're coming into your house. The home is a recent event in terms of their evolutionary (进化的) behavior. They enter through tiny cracks or come in unnoticed on your clothes or shoes. Remember that they may be entering your homes for warmth and food, but they don't care about humans.

    Learning any language is hard, but learning English can be especially challenging. Why? Because native speakers use the language in ways that textbooks could never describe. In particular, words that British people use cause many language students to scratch(JT) their heads.

    Here's an example: You happen to hear a Briton calling someone a “wazzock”. But what exactly is a wazzock? This word, in fact, means a foolish person, although there's nothing about it that would help you guess that. There are many strange terms like this in British English - the Oxford English Dictionary would be much smaller without these strange usages filling its pages.

    How can these odd words be explained? Part of the answer is the British sense of humor. Britons don't like to take things too seriously, and this is evident through many British words and phrases. For example, to spend a penny means to use the bathroom. It refers to the days when people had to pay a penny to use a public toilet.

    In an interview for the BBC's website, British linguist David Crystal suggested there may be historical reasons for the sheer number of odd words and phrases in British English. He thinks that they began in the late 16th and. early 17th centuries. This was a great age for the theatre, when Shakespeare and other writers worked hard to keep up with the demand for new plays. The theatre's popularity also created an incentive (刺激) to invent new words.

    With this in mind, perhaps Shakespeare and his peers are to blame for unusual British words such as “codswallop” and “balderdash”—which both, ironically, mean nonsense.

    While these strange words may be confusing to non-native speakers, they certainly make studying English a lot more interesting.

    Traveling can be a fun way to gain life experiences, especially during Spring Break-a week-long school vacation in the United States. But what if you're a student and don't have enough money for a trip？Don't worry. Here are some useful suggestions.

    Save：This probably is the most important preparation for traveling. Cut expenses to fatten your wallet so you'll have more choices about where to go and how to get there.

    Plan ahead：Don't wait until the last minute to plan your trip. Tickets may cost more when bought on short notice. Giving yourself several months to get ready can mean security and savings.

    Do your homework：No matter where you go, research the places you will visit. Decide what to see. Travel books will provide information on the cheapest hotels and restaurants.

    Plan sensibly：Write down how much you expect to spend for food and hotels. Stick to your plan or you may not have enough money to cover everything.

    Travel in groups：Find someone who is interested in visiting the same places. By traveling with others you can share costs and experiences.

    Work as you go：Need more money to support your trip？Look for work in the places you visit.

    Go off the beaten path：Tourist sites may be expensive. You may want to rethink your trip and go to a less﹣known area. Smaller towns can have many interesting activities and sights.

    Pack necessary things：The most important things to take are not always clothes.

Remember medicine in case you get sick, and snacks in case you cannot find a cheap restaurant.

    Use the Internet：The net can help to save money. Some useful websites include www.travelcity.corn, www.bargainslowestfare.corn and www.economictravelcity.com.

    By planning sensibly, even students can enjoy the travel. Your travel experiences will be remembered for a lifetime.

A great poem makes you want to get out of your chair and pace around the room. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. But if you haven't developed your. poetry taste in a while, that feeling might be a little hard to tap into. Here are four tips that can help you get there.

Read aloud and out loud

When reading a poem, it is important to remember that it is not just words on a page, but is meant to be heard or read aloud. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. It will enhance the appreciation of the piece.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

Approaching poetry with a perspective of finding connections between the poem and one's own life can be a valuable tool for appreciating the poem more. Connecting to the emotions, memories and even the same life experiences can help to relate more to the poem and in turn, truly appreciate it. Through this connection to the poem, we can better understand the feelings, actions and words of the poem.

Create a dialogue

More often than not, a lot of hidden or "unsaid" messages are delivered in poetry. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. A fruitful discussion about a poem can help readers to understand the poem more, through their different interpretations and opinions.

Write your own poem

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. As you write your own poem, think about the structure you want to create, the literary devices you want to employ and the emotion you want to arouse. As you write your own poem, you will see your appreciation of the original poem rise, as you gain a sense of the effort that goes into crafting a poem. In this way, it can become much easier to appreciate the poem being read.

A. Find connections

B. Pair poetry with other art forms

C. Writing can be a great way to start your appreciation of a poem

D. It makes you want to throw your hands up and show it to somebody

E. Reading the poem aloud helps you understand the emotion of the poet fully

F. Having a discussion around a poem allows readers to bring out these messages

G. Possessing a critical eye allows readers to appreciate the art of poetry in a meaningful way