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    University graduates Mallorie Brodie and Lauren Hasegawa, who invented a smartphone app that tracks construction defects for commercial builders, had a tiger by the tail.

    Bridgit, which they founded in 2012, launched a cloud-based communications platform that helped manage defects on construction sites, which can delay projects and result in costly repairs if left unchecked. The smartphone application lets site supervisors take photos of cracks or damaged paint, share them with employees and track the problems to solution.

    More than 600 subcontractors used the pilot version in many building sites before the commercial version, called Closeout, officially launched.

    Feedback(反馈)was so good that they began to wonder: Why limit their invention to a specific industry? Why not turn it into some kind of a handy tool for consumers too? This became their dilemma. In other words, should they stay the course or look for wider applications of their app?

    The experts polled all agreed Bridgit should stay focused on its original goal. Ms. Hasegawa and Ms. Brodie took that advice.

    As more business customers signed on, it became clear that they made the right decision. Since then, the company's growth has been rapid.

    Earlier this year, Bridgit launched Closeout ,which is designed so that even the least tech-savvy can use it easily. Today, the app is being used on sites across Canada and the United States and even by top general contractors.

    In October, Bridgit was named to the Canadian Innovation Exchange's top 20 list of Canada's most innovative (创新的) companies working in digital media and information and communication technology .

    But Ms. Hasegawa and Ms. Brodie are not resting on their glories. They have also been collecting feedback on Closeout from customers, and they'll launch a new version in the spring. It will target not only general contractors but developers and building owners, too.

    Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.

    Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting（收缩）and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.

    Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: “Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart.”

    The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, “The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see and guide whether we see fear.”

    To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner（扫描仪）to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear.

    “We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak' to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear,” Dr Garfinkel said.

    “We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder.”

    Are children becoming addicted to the Internet?

    Children are becoming addicted to the Internet and for many it is one drug that can't be beaten. Not all children, but an alarming number of them are being swept up in this age of digital information.

    Websites like Myspace, Youtube, and Facebook, are becoming so popular that many kids can't help but to be addicted to them just in order to fit. Why not become part of a society where you judged by how many friends on a friend list ? What has become of the world , when instead of calling your best friend on the phone you send them a message electronically and wait around for hours to see if they get on and read it ?Often on the web there just aren't enough adults setting kids straight and too many teenagers causing trouble .

    However, it is biased to claim all kids are addicted, or even that all kids who are addicted to the web are negatively affected by it. While the web can be a large waste pool of negative influence, it is also a wealth of positive knowledge, friendly social networking, and even gateways to future employment. Perhaps it isn't so important whether or not a child is addicted to the web and more important that parents know exactly what the kids are doing there.

    Many computers have optional parent controls that allow parents to block the children from entering certain types of sites, or even individual ones. Such programs are unfortunately not used enough by today's parents, who in many cases are caught up on computers themselves. All one needs to do is google search parental controls and you will be provided with any number of companies that can help with programs for tracing child activity and, if necessary, limit time spent on the Internet .

    Mr.Bean is an internationally recognized comedy character on TV and in films. He constantly gets into awkward and absurd situations, which greatly amuses audiences regardless of their nationalities or culture. The humor is always made clear through a series of simple and funny acts that rely purely on body language, which is universal.

    One of the remarkable shows is that Mr.Bean has a meal in a fancy restaurant. After being seated at his table, Mr.Bean takes out a card, writes a few words on it, seals(密封) it in an envelope and places it on the table. After a moment, he looks back at the envelope but this time he looks surprised, as if he did not know it was there. He opens it to find a birthday card and delightedly puts it on the table for everyone to see.

    When he looks at the menu, an astonished look swiftly appears on his face. He takes all the money out of his wallet, counts it and puts it in a saucer(茶托)．He then looks from the menu to the money with concern until he finds one thing that makes him smile. Then he orders a dish called "steak tartare". When the dish arrives, he is shocked to discover that "steak tartare" is actually raw hamburger. He makes an attempt to eat it, but it is clear from the look on his face that he finds the taste truly disgusting. He cannot hide his feelings, except when the waiter asks if everything is all right. When this happens, he smiles and nods, indicating that everything is fine. When the waiter is not looking, however, he busies himself hiding the raw meat anywhere he can reach-the sugar bowl, the tiny flower vase, inside a bun(小圆面包) and under a plate. He becomes so desperate in the end that he even hides some inside the purse of a woman sitting near him and throws some down the trousers of the restaurant's violinist!

    Everything has a name. All people, places and things have names. For example, Jenny is the name of a student from England. England is the name of her country. Cities and towns have names, too. Schools and office building also have names. All things have names. Names are important.

    Names are different all over the world. In Jenny's class, Jenny must learn the names of students from all over the world. This is very difficult because the names are different.

    In the USA, most people have a first name, a middle name, and a last name. Parents choose the first and middle names for their baby. There are names for boys and names for girls. For example, John, Peter, Tom and Mike are all names for boys. Elizabeth, Betty, Susan, and Mary are all names for girls. The last name is the family name. Usually it is the father's family name. In a family, the mother, the father, and the children usually have the same last name.

    Names are different all over the world. They can be long or short, but they are always very important.

    Gardeners such as Prince Charles who claim that talking to plants encourages them to grow have long been seen as a little silly. But scientists have discovered evidence which suggests the Royal may actually be right and they could be listening to him. Biologists at Tel Aviv University in Israel have found that flowers can act as a plant's "ears" to help them detect the sound of approaching insects.

    When the researchers played recordings of flying bees to evening primrose flowers, within three minutes the sugar concentrations in the nectar (花蜜) of its flowers increased. The fluid, produced to attract pollinating (授粉) insects, was on average 20 percent higher in flowers exposed to the buzz compared to those left in silence or exposed to higher pitched sounds. Professor Lilach Hadany, who led the study, said: "Our results document for the first time that plants can rapidly respond to pollinator sounds in an ecologically relevant way."

    However, Prof Hadany said a plant's ability to respond to pollinators may be weakened in city environments or beside a busy road. While plants require water, sunlight and the right temperature to grow, it is widely believed they do not have senses in the way animals do.

    But the study, published on the open-science website BioRxiv, suggests the efforts of gardeners who talk to their plants may not be in vain. "Plants' ability to hear has implications well beyond pollination—plants could potentially hear and respond to herbivores, other animals, the elements, and possibly other plants," Prof Hadany added.

    A month-long experiment conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society in 2009 found female voices appear to speed up the growth of tomatoes. The research offers a possible explanation — women's voices were at the right frequency for the plants to hear.