The Coolest Inventions

    An Oceans Vacuum(吸尘器)

    There's a collection of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's bigger than Texas and growing. The way to clean it up now is to catch it with nets. That is both costly and slow. Instead, the Ocean Cleanup Project proposes a 62-mile-long floating barrier that would use natural currents to trap trash. If next year's trials succeed, a full cleanup operation would aim to start in 2020. It could reduce the trash by 42% over 10 years.

    Easy-On Shoes

    In 2012, Matthew Walzer, a high school student with a disability, sent a note to Nike. “My dream is to go to college,” he wrote, “without having to worry about someone coming to tie my shoes every day.” Nike assigned a design team to the challenge. This year, they came out with their solution: the FlyEase. The basketball shoe can be fastened with one hand. A pair of Nike FlyEase shoes sells for $130.

    An Airport for Drones (无人机)

    As Amazon, Google, and others get ready for drone delivery service, there is one big question: What kinds of home bases will their drones have? Rwanda, in Africa, may have the answer. There, workers will soon start work on three “drone ports”. The goals is to make it easier to transport food, medical supplies, electronics, and other goods through the hilly countryside. Construction is set to be completed in 2020.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C  和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。

    George Bernard Shaw，the greatest and funniest British dramatist(剧作家)of the first half of the 20th century，was born in Dublin，Ireland，on July 26,1856.His early life was not happy. His father was a selfish man who drank too much and could not support his family properly. His mother was a disappointed，unhappy woman who found more pleasure in studying music than in her children. Bernard and his two sisters received little love and attention from their mother while they were young. At the age of ten Shaw entered school. At first he was the best student，but soon he was at or near the bottom of his class.

    Although he did not like school，Bernard was a good，bright，curious student. His lifelong interest in everything from music and art to machines and medicine began from school life. The interests of this tireless schoolboy were literature and music. He often entertained(使快乐)his classmates with stories he read.

    Early at the age of fifteen，he went to work in an office. He did well as an office clerk，but after five years he decided that he wanted to be a writer. He left Ireland and went to London，where he began to write seriously. Seventy-four years later the great dramatist died.

    The World Health Organization says that the disease polio is no longer widespread in India. In 2009，half of the world's cases of polio were there. But In 2011, there was only one new case of polio in the country.

    Polio is caused by a virus. It spreads very quickly from one person to another. Victims often lose the use of their arms and legs. In the most serious cases, polio can kill a person.

    Twenty-five years ago, polio affected about 200, 000 children in India each year. The United Nations children's organization, UNICEF, sent teams of health workers into local villages. Team members told families in their neighborhood about the importance of giving liquid medicine to children to protect them against polio.

    But it was not easy at first. A member said, “They used to think that our children will not be able to have children when they grow up if they get the drop. They used to think like this. But now they don't. Now they allow their kids to get the drops.” Now things have changed. Asma Khatun is a mother in the town of Ghaziabad in the northern state of Utter Pradesh. She said, “Whenever anyone comes, we get the children vaccinated(接种疫苗). Even if nobody came to our house, we would send our children to a clinic to get vaccinated.

    A local Muslim leader says the vaccination campaign has been successful because it is supported by religious leaders. He said, “The polio vaccination campaign has been successful here because our Muslim scholars are with us.

    With their support, we are able to make people understand that giving children the vaccine is beneficial and crucial.”

    The Indian government has now launched a new campaign to vaccinate 170 million children under the age of five. The campaign will target newborn babies, migrants and people living in poor, crowded areas where the disease spreads more quickly.

Music

    Opera at Music Hall: 1243 Elm Street. The season runs June through August, with additional performances in March and September. The Opera honors Enjoy the Arts membership discounts. Phone: 241-2742. http://www.cityopera.com.

    Chamber Orchestra: The Orchestra plays at Memorial Hall at 1406 Elm Street, which offers several concerts from March through June. Call 723-1182 for more information. http: //www.chamberorch.com.

    Symphony Orchestra: At Music Hall and Riverbend. For ticket sales, call 381-3300. Regular season runs September through May at Music Hall in summer at Riverbend. http://www.symphony.org/home.asp.

    College Conservatory of Music (CCM): Performances are on the main campus(校园) of the university, usually at Patricia Cobbett Theater. CCM organizes a variety of events, including performances by the well-known LaSalle Quartet, CCM's Philharmonic Orchestra, and various groups of musicians presenting Baroque through modern music. Students with I.D. cards can attend the events for free. A free schedule of events for each term is available by calling the box office at 556-4183. http://www.ccm.uc.edu/events/calendar.

    Riverbend Music Theater: 6295 Kellogg Ave. Large outdoor theater with the closest seats under cover (price difference). Big name shows all summer long! Phone: 232-6220. http://www.riverbendmusic.com.

    A study showed that the experiences children have in their first few years are important. These experiences affect the development of the brain. When children receive more attention, they often have higher IQs. Babies receive information when they see, hear and feel things, which makes connections between different parts of the brain. There are a hundred trillion (万亿) connections in the brain of a three-year-old child.

    Researcher Judit Gervain tested how good newborns are at distinguishing different sound patterns. Her researchers produced images of the brains of babies as they heard different sound patterns. For example, one order was mu-ba-ba. This is the pattern "A-B-B". Another order was mu-ba-ge. This is the pattern "A-B-C". The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during the "A-B-B" pattern. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. They also were sensitive to where it occurred in the order.

    Gervain is excited by these findings because the order of sounds is the building block of words and grammar. "Position is key to language," she says. "If something is at the beginning or at the end, it makes a big difference: 'John caught the bear.' is very different from 'The bear caught John.' "

    Researchers led by scientist Patricia Kuhl have found that language delivered by televisions, audio books, the Internet, or smartphones－no matter how educational－doesn't appear to be enough for children's brain development. They carried out a study of nine-month-old American babies. They expected the first group who'd watched videos in Chinese to show the same kind of learning as the second group who were brought face-to-face with the same sounds. Instead they found a huge difference. The babies in the second group were able to distinguish between similar Chinese sounds as well as native listeners. But the other babies－regardless of whether they had watched the video or listened to the audio－learned nothing.

For the past 60 years,the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has protected animals,restored lost habitats and advocated for policy changes that benefit wildlife.Now,the conservation organization is trying a new approach.

This year,AWF launched the inaugural Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards.The contest aims to reach a different audience.While photography competitions are nothing new,AWF hopes that the exhibition of winning entries will encourage African people to take a more active role in conservation.Its CEO Kaddu Sebunya said,"Africans need to take responsibility for the conservation of their heritage."

Photographers of all ages and backgrounds,professional and amateur,were invited to submit to the competition.A judging panel,comprised of photographers,conservationists,activists and safari guides,selected photos from 12 categories including "Art in Nature" "Coexistence and Conflict" and "Conservation Heroes".

 The "Conservation Heroes" category had special appeal for Kenyan conservation photographer Anthony Ochieng Onyango."I realized there was a communication gap because most of what was being communicated was data in scientific publications," said Onyango,adding that images are a simple way for people to connect to complex issues.

While there were many entries in the AWF competition,there's only one 19-year-old Cathan Moore from South Africa among the category winners.There's a lack of opportunity for young aspiring photographers on the continent.AWF is seeking grants and partnerships to enable more African people to participate next year,and to make nature photography competitions more accessible to those unable to pay or buy expensive camera equipment,allowing people to use whatever camera they have and photograph wildlife in urban environments.

Sebunya hopes that the competition can open up a dialogue about conservation and why it's so important for Africa's future.Many people in Africa look at conservation as a thing done by and for foreigners,said Sebunya.While he praised the work of international NGOs,he emphasized that it's vital that African voices are heard and for local people to lead conservation efforts.