Do you still remember the haze（雾霾）in the winter? So many people got terribly ill during or after the haze. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Here is advice for you to protect yourself in hazy weather.

    Spend less time outdoors.This is the most effective way for self-protection in such bad weather.With PM2.5 increasing 103mg per cubic meter,residents will risk a 2.29% increase of death,which experts found out in 2012.If you have to get out,avoid riding bicycles.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Close your windows.Experts advice residents to avoid opening windows at home.If you have to ,avoid the time when smog is at its densest（浓的）.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Besides,you can keep plants with broad leaves at home to absorb dust,and use air purifiers（清洁器）.

    Smoke less.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}In hazy weather,smoking would be even more harmful.Smokers are advised to keep their distance from cigarettes before the weather gets better.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}For example ,wear special masks outside to avoid breathing in PM2.5.Then take off your coat after getting indoors and keep it away from your other clean clothes,Don't forget to wash your face,rinse（漱）your mouth,and clean your nasal cavity（鼻腔）to clean the particulate matters（颗粒物）that fall on you.Last but not least,keep off stimulating（刺激性）foods.

A.Wear masks.

B.Pay attention to other daily things.

C.Also avoid rush hours,when pollutants will be denser.

D.That's because haze does harm to the health of people.

E.Cigarettes could cause more particulate matters,which are included in PM2.5 .

F.Take more fruits and vegetables instead,which are good for lung,spleen（脾）and kidney（肾）.

G.For residents who use air-conditioner,make sure your apartment has enough oxygen indoors.

    In 1975, George Carlin appeared on a popular TV show, Saturday Night Live, with his famous words about blue food. “Why is there no blue food? I can't find blue food—I can't find the flavor of blue! I mean yellow is lemon; orange is orange and red is cherry. Where is the blue food?”

    Well, Carlin pretty much has it right—there is not no blue food, but there's certainly not a lot of it. Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam. The blue in blueberries—like the purple in grapes and red in tomatoes—is found in nature. But it isn't a hot color for food. People don't seem to prefer blue food. Some diet programs even suggest that those determined to lose weight should make their food blue.

    Eating, in part, begins with our eyes. Chares Spence—an experimental psychologist from Oxford University—points out that color can change our taste experience. Commonly, we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour. Spence suggests: human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching—green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.

    But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we see these days is dyed blue artificially. Food producers argue that artificial color doesn't do much damage to health. A lot of research shows that some physical problems of kids are related to food dyes—while other studies show no effects at all. Blue birthday cake or even blue-dyed chicken can be served on the dinner table. So what?

    A British friend told me he couldn't understand why Chinese people love eating sunflower seeds as a snack so much. “I've met a lot of older Chinese and many have a crack in their front teeth; I believe that's from cracking the seeds, ” he said.

    I had never noticed the habit, but once he mentioned it, I suddenly became more aware. I realized that whenever I'm watching TV or typing a report, I always start mindlessly cracking sunflower seeds. My friend doesn't like sunflower seeds, and, to him, it seems unnecessary to work so much just to get one small seed.

    When we were young, the whole family would usually get together for Chinese New Year. Then, we all lived close to one another, usually in a small city, and sometimes even neighbors would go door-to-door on Chinese New Year's Eve to check out what every household was making.

    I remember my parents would be in the kitchen cooking. Out in the living room , a large table would already be laid out, complete with fancy tablecloth, ready-made dumpling fillings, and dishes full of candy, fruits and sunflower seeds. Some of the dishes were to be offered to our ancestors later, while others were for neighbors and children to eat before the evening feast. I must have learned how to crack sunflower seeds back then.

    I don't think it's right to criticize one's choice in food or eating habits, no matter how strange they may seem.

    It's not only in China. When I went abroad, I found people had all sorts of strange habits when it came to food. In Denmark, they put salted red fish on bread and eat it for dinner, no matter how much it ruins your breath. They think it's a delicacy, and it's connected to their culture. I think it's a wonderful tradition.

    MOOC, a massive(大规模的) open online course, aims at providing interactive discussion and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums (论坛) that help build a community for the students, professors, and teaching assistants.

    MOOCs first made waves in the fall of 2011, when Professor Sebastian Thrun from Stanford University opened his graduate-level artificial intelligence course up to any student anywhere, and 160,000 students in more than 190 countries signed up. This new kind of online classes is shaking up the higher education world in many ways. Since the courses can be taken by hundreds of thousands of students at the same time, the number of universities might decrease greatly. Professor Thrun has even imagined a future in which there will only need to be 10 universities in the world. Perhaps the most impressive thing about MOOCs, many of which are being taught by professors at prestigious (声誉高的) universities, is that they're free. This is certainly good news for cash-strapped students.

    There is a lot of excitement and fear about MOOCs. While some say free online courses are a great way to increase the enrollment (注册) of students who are lack of resources, some critics (批评者) have said that MOOCs encourage an unrealistic one-size-fits-all model of higher education and that there is no replacement for true dialogues between professors and their students. After all, a brain is not a computer. We are not blank hard drives waiting to be filled with data. People learn from people they love and remember the things that arouse emotion. Some critics worry that online students will miss out on the social aspects of college.

    When first entered, Vanak Restaurant does not look like much of a restaurant, but once the pleasant smells of kabob (烤肉串) hit the senses, you are incapable of calling it anything less.

    Owned by a local couple, this Persian restaurant has an inviting, homelike atmosphere that many restaurants lack.

    The space is small with only a few dining tables and nearly no decoration, but the environment is truly charming.

    Lying in a hardly noticeable street corner, the restaurant still attracts all customers, especially those experienced in the delights of Middle Eastern cooking.

    A common sight is that of old Persian men sitting in the corner talking loudly about world topics, watching news events on TV, drinking a black tea known as Persian chai, and reading local Persian newspapers all the while trying to finish off their plates piled with food.

    The variety of food at the restaurant is limited, but the amount of each dish is fairly large. Most of the meals can serve two people and are under $10, so not only is it affordable but practical as well.

    The food especially appeals to health-conscious eaters because each dish is very healthy, made with limited fat and oil and served straight off the grill (烤肉架).

    The main dish that the restaurant is popular for is its kabobs, which are different styles of grilled meat.

    One delicious and extremely healthy dish is the Joojeh Kabob, which is made of grilled chicken pieces served with either rice or bread. Another great kabob is the Chelo Kabob, a kabob consisting of grilled beef.

    Although the restaurant is small, the atmosphere and the food is delicious. It is a place that should not be overlooked.

    Scientists say they discovered an earth­like planet orbiting the star closest to our planet other than the sun. It is the closest planet ever found outside our solar system that could support life as we know it. This planet is just 4.2 light years away from us. It is so close that space scientists have compared it to a next door neighbor. They say it could be reached by an unmanned spacecraft before the end of the century. The newly­discovered planet is a little larger than the earth. Scientists have named it Proxima b. It orbits its sun, Proxima Centauri, once every 11days.

    Alan Boss is the Chairman of NASA's advisory group for planet exploration. He told VOA that Proxima b not only confirms the discovery of a planet, but also increases the number of other possible "earths" by a huge amount. Boss said it is possible that most stars may have at least one earth­like planet orbiting them.

    This makes the possibility of living organisms increasingly likely. Boss said he believes human beings will prove that there is life in places other than the earth in his lifetime. "I am 65," he told VOA, "But I expect to still be alive when it happens."

    Paul Butler works at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He told VOA that finding Proxima b "makes the case concrete" that there are other planets where life could exist. Paul Butler said the researchers used two telescopes in different countries to look for possible planets like the earth. Discovering Proxima b, he believes, changes the world.

    "This work has resulted in the discovery of hundreds of planets around the nearest stars, and now a potentially habitable planet around the nearest star is in the sky," Butler said.