Whether you love happy endings or a dark reality in TV dramas,you could soon be able to decide what you get. Netflix,the TV-streaming company behind hit shows such as The Crown and House Of Cards,is working on ways to give viewers control of key plot decisions.

    Some of the storylines will be simple and linear,like the Choose Your Own Adventure books that many grew up with.For example,viewers might decide whether a prisoner in the drama Orange Is The New Black joins a gang (黑帮) or not.

    The technology could also potentially be used to allow Princess Margaret to marry Peter Townsend in The Crown,instead of having her relationship with the divorcee (离婚者) blocked by the Establishment.Other storylines will be much more complex,allowing viewers to connect plot points in a variety of ways using their TV remotes.

    A source said,"We're doing work on branch narratives (叙事) so you are actually making choices as you watch. All the content will be there,and then people will have to get through it in different ways.We'll see how it plays out. It's an experiment.We'll see if it gets much success.For creators,it's a new field."

    Actors would film numerous alternate plot segments (片段) in advance,letting viewers choose which route to take through the story.Netflix will run a trial with choose-your-own-adventure shows for children later this year, based on an established character.If they are successful,it will use the format for TV programmes aimed at adults. Netflix president Reed Hastings confirmed that the company is working on interactive shows,saying,"Once you have got interactivity,you can try anything."

    At least five million UK households are thought to be signed up to Netflix,and it is challenging traditional broadcasters.Earlier this year,BBC boss Lord Hall promised to reinvent the iPlayer so that it overtakes Netflix as a destination in its own right,rather than a catch-up service.

Guided Walking Week  April 2016

Dates: April 30th-May 7th 2016

Location: Abdet, Costa Blanca

    A week of guided walking in the mountains around Abdet. Highlights include the climbing of Valencia's highest summit (Sierra de Aitana), traveling completely around the impressive Puig Campana, and several explorations in the Sierra de Aitana. Ancient trails lead through spectacular canyons( 峡谷 ) to abandoned settlements situated high in the mountains. You will discover the snow trader routes which lead from the incredible snow holes high in the mountains down to the villages and towns on the coast. These years, golden eagles have made a return to this area, and you may also see other animals—wild goats, foxes, wild pigs and red squirrels.

    As part of the week you are invited to help clear some local walking paths. This involves clearing collapsed walls and rocks, cutting back fallen trees. This is of course optional and is just for half a day, it's actually great fun!

Price:$499

Includes:

● Accommodation in the beautiful mountain village of Abdet

● All food-good home cooking

● Beer, wine, soft drinks

● Snacks and post walk treats

● Packed lunches & drinks(except café/bar visits)

● Expert guiding

● Photos/Videos of your days in the mountains

● Airport pick-up/return $25 each way(fly to Alicante)

● Single room supplement $75

To book or get further information, please contact info@abdet.com.

    For most caffeine(咖啡因)consumers, its main benefit is that it helps you get more done. This is what makes it unusual, says Stephen Braun, author of Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine.

    “Its appeal is that it helps us earn more money,” he adds. “What makes it different from other drugs is that it's used as a productivity tool –– not for pleasure.”

    Many of history's creative minds have also been connected with a large amount of caffeine consumption (消耗).

    According to one biographer, the French novelist and playwright Balzac drank as many as 50 cups of coffee a day. “Were it not for coffee one could not write, which is to say one could not live,” he once insisted.

    For seven years, the film-maker David Lynch ate at the same Los Angeles diner every day, drinking up to seven sweetened cups of coffee “with lots of sugar” in one sitting, which he said would guarantee that “lots of ideas” arrived.

    Ludwig van Beethoven was said to have painstakingly counted out exactly 60 coffee beans per cup when he brewed(煮)coffee.

    Perhaps recent tales of caffeine excess (过量) featured the singer Robbie Williams, who reportedly consumed 36 cups of black coffee and 20 cans of Red Bull a day.

    It is the routine task itself, as much as the stimulating(刺激的)effects of caffeine, that makes the process so important, says Mason Currey, author of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. “A lot of artists use the process of making coffee as a gateway to the creative process,” he adds. “You need to get into the right mindset to do that sort of work, and the preparation process provides a focus.”

    One problem with attempting to control caffeine, says Braun, is that it affects everyone differently –– it is impossible to work out a “safe” limit that works for everyone. “Eventually, you have to become your own scientist –– there isn't an alternative to careful self-experimentation,” he says.

    There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people, and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom.

    But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of students. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools.

    You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want and need to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.

    Depression(抑郁) can be a destructive illness, plaguing millions of people worldwide with feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and fatigue. Despite numerous antidepressant drugs, as many as a third of patients don't respond to medication. This has forced doctors to be more creative in finding different treatments for the condition.

    In the past two decades, researchers have tied depression to a seemingly unrelated condition: inflammation(炎症), the body's natural response to stress. It could rise from injury or inflection, or even emotional issues like an unhappy marriage or problems at work. Some amount of inflammation is generally beneficial, as it increases production of cytokines(致癌因子)，proteins that help us heal and protect us from the effects of overwork.

    But excessive cytokine levels, and the inflammation they bring on, could come at a cost—a number of studies suggests that high levels of cytokines could contribute to depression.

    Cytokines can reach the brain several ways: directly through the blood-brain barrier or indirectly by binding to nerve fibers elsewhere, which send signals to the brain to produce the inflammation molecules. In the brain, cytokines can disturb the production and release of several important signaling chemicals, including serotonin, dopamine and glutamate, which help control emotion, appetite, sleep, learning and memory. It's though that a lack of serotonin activity in the brain causes depression; most antidepressants increase the activity. But cytokines also have been shown to activate stress hormone signaling in the brain, which man also serve to develop depression.

    With all the evidence implicating inflammation in depression, doctors have been anxious to test anti-inflammatory drugs as a potential treatment. Four small studies published between 2006 and 2017 by research groups in Europe and Iran found that adults diagnosed with depression who took aspirin or another anti-inflammatory drug called Celecoxib, along with an antidepressant, got more relief from feelings of sadness, hopelessness, guilt and fatigue compared with those taking an antidepressant alone. However, Andrew Miller, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University, thought something was wrong in these small, limited studies. None of them looked at whether the participants had to have high levels of cytokines before they'd see a benefit from anti-inflammatory drugs.  "Unfortunately, much of the field has fallen into the trap of viewing inflammation as the be-all, end-all," Miller says. He and his colleagues wanted to see whether the effect of these drugs was limited to the depression patients with high cytokine levels, or if it helped all people diagnosed with depression.

Every year on April 1,April Fools' Day is celebrated in many countries around the world.In France,it's called "Poisson d' Avril"or"Fish of April".In Scotland, the holiday is often called "Gowkie Day".In Iraq, the holiday is called "Kithbet Neesan" or "April Lie".

History experts say people have celebrated April Fools ' Day for a long time.Some believe April Fools' Day comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago, which was a day of playing games and pretending to be someone else.

Others say the day for fooling began in France in 1564.when King Charles changed the yearly calendar.He moved New Year's Day from April 1 to January I Many people did not know about the change because of communication problems then.Some people continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1.Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them.

In the United State, April Fools' Day is just a day of joking and playing tricks on friends.These kinds of jokes are also called pranks(恶作剧).These jokes typically end in the prankster shouting "April Fools"!

Simple pranks, like telling a friend a funny lie or making prank phone calls, are still common.But major companies also get in on April Fools' Day in a much bigger way.A few years ago,on April 1,Starbucks announced it was introducing new coffee cup sizes-plenta and Micra.The very large cups,bigger than a human head,remained useful for customers even after finishing all that coffee.According to Starbucks,the cups could be used as a rain hat,a pot for plants,or a lampshade.

It did not take long for customers to catch on to the prank.More and more people use media or smartphone apps to play pranks on their friends on April Fools' Day.One very annoying smartphone app,Cat Facts,sends funny facts about cats to your friends 5 phones every day.