Experiments under way in several labs aim to create beneficial types of genetically modified foods, including starchier potatoes and caffeine-free coffee beans. Genetic engineers are even trying to transfer genes from a cold-winter fish to make a frost-resistant tomato.

    A low-sugar GM strawberry now in the works might one day allow people with health problems such as diabetes (糖尿病) to enjoy the little delicious red fruits again. GM beans and grains rich in protein(蛋白质) might help people at risk of developing kwashiorkor. Kwashiorkor, a disease caused by severe lack of protein, is common in parts of the world where there are severe food shortages.

    Commenting on GM foods, Jonathon Jones, a British researcher, said: "The future benefits will be enormous（巨大的）, and the best is yet to come". To some people, GM foods are no different from unmodified foods. "A tomato is a tomato," said Brian Sansoni, an American food manufacturer.

    Critics of GM foods challenge Sansoni's opinion. They worry about the harm that GM crops might do to people, other animals, and plants.

    In a recent lab study conducted at Cornell University, scientists tested pollen(花粉) made by BT corn, which makes up one-fourth of the U.S. corn crop. The scientist dropped the pollen onto milkweed, a plant that is the only known food source of a butterfly caterpillar(毛虫). Within four days of feeding on the leaves, almost half of a test group of caterpillars died. "This is a warning bell." said Cornell researcher Linda Raynor.

    Some insects that are not killed by GM foods might find themselves made stronger. How so? The insecticides are used on the crops to kill the pests. But GM plants produce a continuous level of insecticide. Insects relying on those crops may develop resistance to the plants and they may also develop a resistance to the insecticide.

    At the forum on GM food held last year in Canada. GM crops that have been made resistant to the herbicide might crossbreed with wild plants, creating "superweeds" that could take over whole fields.

    So where do you stand? Should GM food be banned in the United States, as they are in parts of Europe? Or do their benefits outweigh（胜过） any of the risks they might carry?

    Twelve years ago, I was a 19 -year-old guy living in the French A1ps. In February 2004, while skiing the back - country in Val d'Isere, I fell off the mountain, resulting in a right leg broken in several pieces. I was helicoptered to hospital, operated on immediately—and there started my adult life.

    Before the accident, I was on a path to what I hoped would be a career in rugby. After-wards, and participation in collision sport was gone. I found a replacement in cycling. Unfortunately, by late 2012, I tried to cycle up Mount Ventoux, but it was halfway up when the pain hit me and I gave up.

    A decision needed to be made on a next step. I had to have my lower right leg cut off. Several months later, I had my first proper weight - bearing prosthetic (假肢). I jumped on a train with my bike to Mount Ventoux. Though it certainly wasn't my quickest, I did it.

    Two weeks later, I was lucky enough to be given a running blade; I bounced on it that day and then raced my triathlon (三项全能) on the Monday. So, that was me, up and running - almost 12 years since I had last run.

    Along with my running coach, I complete a “make every kilometre count” programme of four runs per week alongside a busy cycle, swim and gym schedule. So far this year, I have raced a 10k with an unexpected personal best in January of 38:04. I have my first speed triathlon in late March before heading to North Korea to compete in the Pyongyang Marathon on 10 April.

    If my lifetime allows, I will attempt to race in every country in the world. In the meantime, I'll keep on running — and, when it hurts and I'm low on motivation, I'll remember how far I've come and how much further I've got to go.

Like many Czechs (捷克人), Lukáš Berný, 38, enjoys going out to the pub with his friends for conversation and a few beers. "I don't drink every day," he says. "I think about three times a week. When I go out, I usually have five to six beers at a time, about the same as my friends." The beers are half-liters, or 500ml each.

    If a half-liter of four-percent beer contains 16g of pure alcohol（酒精）, Berný and his friends are drinking 80 to 96 grams of pure alcohol on each outing. The Czech Republic's National Institute of Public Health, however, suggests that men take in fewer than 24g of pure alcohol per day; women, fewer than 16g.

Medical experts in over 40 countries around the world have agreed that drinking "too much" can cause harm. What they can't seem to agree upon is just how much is "too much." National safety levels are quite different, from a limit of 10g a day in the Netherlands to Denmark's 60g.

There are a number of reasons for this. Dr. Larry Altshuler, a medicine expert for the Cancer Treatment Centers in Tulsa, explains that while everything is based on research, "Every group, race, and gender responds to alcohol differently."

Also, researchers aren't using the same models or methods. He adds, "It can be like apples and oranges. How do you measure alcohol? Units, drinks, bottles or cans? What's the alcohol content（含量）? Is it light or heavy?" While a half-liter of four percent beer contains 16g of pure alcohol, a half-liter of five percent lager contains 20g.

Constance Scharff, a director of Addiction Research at Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center in California, says she believes the reason "is largely cultural." "But the evidence is clear that the more you drink, the more likely you are to develop alcohol-related health problems."

    Welcome to the pumpkin weigh-off at Half Moon Bay (半月湾), California. The event has always been very popular among most pumpkin growers. Thousands of people line up along the city's High Street and watch the proud pumpkin owners from across the country. Each pumpkin is carefully picked up by forklifts (叉式升降机) and placed on a digital weighing scale.

    Organizers are offering $30,000 in total prize money for a new record pumpkin entering Half Moon Bay. But in order to receive the “New Record Prize”, the grower will have to bring a pumpkin heavier than the 2,624-pound one grown by Mathias Willemijns in 2017. If the heaviest pumpkin in the contest is unable to surpass (超过) the record, its owner will receive $6 for every pound it weighs.

    When: Monday, October 9, 2018. Weighing will begin at 7 am and will end at 11 am. Growers will start lining the street as daylight breaks by 7 am.

    Where: I.D.E.S. Grounds, 735 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, California.

    Prize Money:

    New Record Pumpkin: $30,000 (in total)

    1st Place: $6 per pound

    2nd Place: $2,000

    3rd Place: $1,500

    4th Place: $1,000

    5th~10th Place: $500 each

    11th~20th Place: $100 each

    Special Prizes: $500 for the most beautiful pumpkin, judged by the audience (color, shape and size).

    The top five pumpkins will be on display for the thousands of visitors to Half Moon Bay's famous Art and Pumpkin Festival that will take place on October 14-15, 2018.

    The Lumière Brothers had their film shows, taken over 100 years ago, to 100 paying customers on December 8, 1985. One of their earliest films was a 30-second piece which showed a section of a railway platform. As the train approached, panic started in the theatre: people jumped and ran away. In their confusion, the audiences feared that a real train was about to crush them. That was the moment when cinema was born.

    Early cinema audiences often experienced the same confusion. In time, the idea of films became familiar, the magic was accepted — but it never stopped being magic. Film has never lost its unique power to embrace its audience and transport them to a different world.

    One effect of this realism was to educate the world about itself. Cinema makes the world smaller. Long before people travelled to America or anywhere else, they knew what other places looked like and how other people worked and lived. Undoubtedly, in the lives recorded in film people knew more about American life. Hollywood has dominated the world film market. American imagery — the cars, the cities, the cowboys became the primary imagery of film. Film carried American life and values around the globe.

    And, thanks to film, future generations will know the 20th century more familiarly than any other period. We can only imagine what life was like in the 14th century or in classical Rome. But the life of the modern world has been recorded on films. We shall be known better than any preceding generations.

    The “star” was another natural consequence of cinema. The cinema star was effectively born in 1910. Because everybody in the world seems to know who they are, they appear more real to us than we do ourselves. The star as magnified human self is one of cinema's most strange and enduring legacies(遗产).

    Cinema films originally were planned as short stories, because early producers doubted the ability of audiences to concentrate for more than the length of a reel. Then, in 1912, an Italian 2-hour film was hugely successful, and Hollywood settled upon the novel-length narrative that remains the dominant cinematic convention of today.

    And it has all happened so quickly. Almost unbelievably, it is only 100 years since that train arrived and the audience screamed and fled, perhaps, suddenly aware that the world could never be the same again — that, maybe, it could be better, brighter, more astonishing and more real than reality.

    Shukri Noor, 12, arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, one year ago. The sixth grader and her family are refugees (难民) from Kenya. "Since I didn't speak English, it was hard to communicate with others," Shukri said. "I had no friends."

    "Anchorage receives about 130 refugees every year. Most are from Somalia. The rest come from Iraq, Sudan, Cuba, Central America, and other places. Like Shukri, many of the kids feel alone. They're dealing with a lot of adjustments (适应)," Katie Bisson says. She manages to support for newcomer students in the Anchorage School District (ASD).

    At the Newcomers' Center, the ASD offers a special program for students who are new to the US. The kids spend part of each day at the center and part of the day at their neighborhood school. At the center, the students study English and other subjects.

    The main goal is to help newcomers reach the point where they attend their neighborhood schools all day. "Until then," Bisson says, "they have the support of being with kids like them, who are facing the same challenges (挑战)."

    Anchorage has a population of 300, 000.Among the ASD's 48, 000 students, 98 languages are spoken. According to Bisson, the ASD's newcomers program helps students understand a new culture so they can "start off on the right foot".

    The Newcomers' Center gives attention to middle school and high school students. For younger kids, the ASD offers a six-week summer program, which Shukri attended. "It helped me learn the language," she says. "I played sports with kids after class, and I played math games with my classmates. I feel very comfortable now."