Since 2008, hunters have illegally killed more than 3000 rhinos in South Africa. The International Union for Conservation of Nature warns that rhinos may die out by 2026. People who hunt and kill illegally are called poachers. The most effective way to watch for and prevent illegal hunting is from the air. However, piloted flights are too costly. Fortunately, some Spanish college students have invented a drone (无人机) that can observe more places than a plane.

    Arnau Garcia is an aeronautical (航空学的) engineering student at the Polytechnic Institute of Catalonia, in Spain. He says observers from the air have trouble finding poachers when they hide under the trees. Mr. Garcia and other students have worked with the drone manufacturer HEMAV to help find the hidden poachers. They make it by using the thermal camera, which is especially sensitive to body heat. Even when the poachers keep still, it can also keep track of them.

    The drone can fly in the wind up to 55 kilometers per hour. It has an autopilot system, so it memorizes the flight path. The drone also has a microphone, a video camera and a GPS system. These permit it to report accurately where a picture is taken. After each flight, the drone can bring back detailed information about where rhinos are found, the conditions of water and plants in the area, and the positions of suspected poachers.

    Experts say the drone can fly as far as 70 kilometers from the base. It means that it could quickly observe large areas for poachers. However, the same search operation would take days for human observers. Thanks to the drone, many poachers have been caught and the number of rhinos is on the increase. In addition, HEMAV has received an increasing number of orders for the drone. Even South African national park officials attempt to fill the air with drones.

    The cultures of the East and the West really distinguish each other a lot. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    The origin of the eastern cultures is mainly from two countries: China and India. Both of the two cultures are developed by rivers—the Yellow River in China and the Hindu River in India. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

When the two mother rivers gave birth to the Eastern culture, another famous culture was brought up on the Mesopotamian Plain-the Mesopotamian Civilization. This civilization later on developed into the cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Like the Chinese culture, the European culture also crossed waters. When the British settled down in America, their culture went with them over, the Atlantic Ocean. So the American culture doesn't distinguish from the European culture a lot.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Take the language system for example. In the East, most languages belong to the pictographic language while the Western languages are mostly based on the Latin system. Other causes like human race difference counts as well. But what's more, due to the far distance and the steep areas between the East and West, the two cultures seldom communicate until recent centuries. So they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no-interference (干扰)from the other.

The differences are everywhere. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} But different cultures make the world of 21st century more colorful. The cultural gap should not be the obstacle to the civilization of human being. It ought to be the motivation of our going farther.

    The popular TV program Readers has prompted more people in China to practice reading aloud in booths(亭) set up in big cities across the country．

    As the latest TV show to help people's love for literature recover, CCTV program Readers invites people from all walks of life to read aloud their favorite poems，essays and books，or even personal letters they wrote to their loved ones．Just as the weekly show has been well-received，its reading booths, equipped with professional recording devices and cameras，have become instant hits．

    A crowd of more than 200 people were pictured lining up outside the Shanghai Library at 11 a.m. on March 4 — the first day of the booth's opening to the public in Shanghai. The deadline for registrations was brought forward to 2 p.m. instead of the scheduled 5:30 p.m., as the number of waiting readers continued to grow. Some waited more than nine hours for a try-out in the booth, according to library management．

     “There is an old photo in the late 1970s capturing people lining up outside the Shanghai Library before it opens. If that was a spring of reading in Shanghai, now I think another spring has arrived again.” library manager Zhou Deming, told the Shanghai-based The Paper．

    The reading booth is the only one of its kind in the city of economic center at the moment, but more are expected to be put into use in the coming months, according to the library's website．

    The Readers program has also led to booths in other cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Xi'an to appeal to more people to read and share their life stories．

    With the recent boom of culture-themed TV shows such as Readers and Chinese Poetry Competition，some are optimistic that this will help the country love literature and reading again in general．

    From The 12 Days of Christmas to See You in the Cosmos, these children's books are ideal for holiday giving.

    The 12 Days of Christmas by Greg Pizzoli

    It's a classic Christmas reading material! It's a counting lesson! It's a crazy tale of elephant love. Have you ever wondered how all those calling birds, turtle doves and French hens fit in one room? Pizzoli, a Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner has your answer. ($ 15.99, ages 3—5) Amazon. com

   Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers

    Yes, this book by the illustrator (插画家) of the great hit “The Day the Crayons Quit” is for kids ages 3—7, but don't let that fool you.     Inspired by the birth of Jeffers1 first child, this is a father's “welcome to the earth” letter to his baby, filled with the heady wonder of parenthood .A great gift for new parents. ($ 19.99. ages 3—7) Amazon. com

    Wishtree by Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Charles Santoso.

     When a towering oak tree learns that she may be cut down, she starts getting extraordinarily involved in the lives of the humans below her, particularly a girl who is being escaped due to her ethnicity (种族). A lovely tale about common ground and the power of community. ($ 16.99, ages 8 —12) Amazon. com

     See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng

    Eleven-year-old Alex is too busy trying to communicate with space aliens to worry about his troubled family life. When Alex runs away from home to launch his homemade rocket, he finds himself sidetracked by new friends and hints of a family secret. ($ 16.99, ages 10 and up) Amazon. com

    The origin of “holiday” is easy to see, coming from “holy day”, a day of particular religious significance, often celebrating the life of a saint (圣徒), during which no work was to be done. As far back as the 11th century, “holidays”, especially the major feast days, were times of “celebration and amusement”, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it.

    The number of holidays steadily increased during the Middle Ages, until a medieval Englishman would have had the luxury of 40 to 50 days a year off work, depending on where he lived, in addition to a free day on Sundays.

    During the Reformation, Henry VIII abolished most of the holidays partly because of the Protestant (新教徒的) suspicion of saints, but more practically, because, according to historian Eamon Duffy, “A large number of holidays were making the people poor by limiting agriculture.” The people took a different view and organized a protest march—the Pilgrimage of Grace—partly to protect their days off.

    Though at first the religious and festive senses of holiday were combined, the word gradually came to be used for any kind of relaxing break from work. As the word was drawing away from a religious society, the number of authorized holidays was reduced, until by 1834 most workers had only four official days off a year, in addition to Sundays. Many factory workers amplified this time by staying home on “Saint Monday” to recover from what they had gotten up to the day before.

    By the late 19th century, employers were compromising and offering half-day Saturdays, the beginning of the “weekend”, a term first used in 1879. In 1908, an innovative mill in New England gave its employees all of Saturday off, and the practice spread widely during the Great Depression as a way to keep employment up. It took 400 years, but finally workers could enjoy as many holidays as they had in the 15th century.

    Hacking isn't just for computers and smart phones. According to a study, scientists have found a way to hack a plant's genes in order to make it use sunlight more quickly. Someday, the results could increase the number of food produced around the world.

    Scientists used tobacco plants in the study because it is easy to change the plants^' genes. Hacked plants are larger than normal plants.

    Photosynthesis is the word used to describe how plants use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make their own food. Scientists say this is a very slow process. Plants use less than 1 percent of the energy. But by hacking a plant's genes, the scientists were able to increase the amount of leaf growth on plants between 14 and 20 percent. Scientists hacked the plant's protective system. Normally, this system starts when a plant gets too much sunlight. When the plant senses the light, it creates more leaves. When the plant is in shade, the protective system is turned off. But the process is slow.

    The new study sped up the process by changing the plant's genes, the protective system turned on and off more quickly than normal. As a result, leaf growth on the plants scientists used in the study increased. Leaf growth on two plants increased by 20 percent, while leaf growth on a third plant increased by 14 percent. Scientists conducted the study on tobacco plants. But they think the genetic changes would produce the same results in corn and rice.

    Agriculture professor Tala Awanda said the study makes sense, but cautioned the yield（产量）might not be quite so high for conventional food crops. Still, she added in an email, "this study remains a breakthrough,"