Zebra crossings－the alternating dark and light stripes on the road surface－are meant to remind drivers that pedestrians may be trying to get across. Unfortunately, they are not very effective. A 1998 study done by the Department of Traffic Planning and Engineering at Sweden's Lund University revealed that three out of four drivers maintained the same speed or even speeded up as they were approaching a crossing. Even worse, only 5% stopped even when they saw someone trying to get across.

    Now a mother-daughter team in Ahmedabad, India has come up with a clever way to get drivers to pay more attention－a 3-D zebra crossing with an optical illusion (视错觉).

    Artists Saumya Pandya Thakkar and Shakuntala Pandya were asked to paint the crosswalks by IL&FS, an Indian company that manages the highways in Ahmedabad. The corporation was looking for a creative solution to help the city's residents to cross the busy accident-prone  (易出事故的) roads safely. Thakkar and Pandya, who had previously seen images of 3-D zebra crossings that gave drivers the illusion of logs(原木)of wood on the streets in Taizhou, China, decided to test if a similar way would work in India.

    Sure enough, in the six months that the 3-D crosswalks have been painted across four of the city's most dangerous highways, there have been no accidents reported! The artists say that while it may appear that the zebra crossing could cause the drivers to brake suddenly and endanger the vehicles behind, such is not the case. Because of the way the human eye works, the illusion is only visible from a distance. As they get closer, the painting looks just like any other ordinary zebra crossing. The creators hope that their smart design will become increasingly common throughout India and perhaps even the world. So let's look forward to it.

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    It is good to get in touch with your inner child from time to time，and obviously some people are willing to pay big money for the chance to do so in a proper environment．A Brooklyn-based adult preschool is charging customers between $333 and $999 for the chance to act like a kid again．

    At Preschool Mastermind in New York adults get to participate in show—and—tell，arts—and—crafts such as finger paint，games like musical chairs and even take naps．The month-long course also has class picture day where the adults are expected to have a field trip and a parent day．

    30-year-old Michelle Joni Lapidos， the brain behind the adult preschool，studied childhood education and has always wanted to be a preschool teacher．She's always on the lookout for new ways to get people in touch with the freedom of childhood．A friend encouraged her to start the mastermind course instead．

    According to Candice，her blogger friend，Preschool Mastermind gives adults a chance to relearn and master the things that they failed to understand as children．“I realized all the significances of what we learn in preschool，”said founder Michelle Joni，“People come here and get in touch with their inner child．It's magical．We are bringing ourselves back to another place，another time with ourselves when we are more believing in ourselves，more confident and ready to take on the world.”

    “One person's here because they want to learn not to be so serious．”Michelle said．“Another's here to learn to be more confident.” She explained that most of the classes were planned．However，Joni added that while the planned activities were fun，it was often the spontaneous(自发的)moments that attracted students．“It's the things you don't plan for，the sharing between friends and learning from each other.''

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     Stephen Hawking is perhaps the world's most famous living physicist. To the public, he's best known as an author of bestsellers such as The Universe in a Nutshell and A Brief History of Time, which have brought an appreciation of theoretical (理论上的)  physics to millions. He is regarded as having one of the brightest minds on the planet. But outstanding astrophysicist (天体物理学家) Stephen Hawking has admitted that he did not learn to read until he was eight years old.

    In a public lecture at the Royal Albert Hall, Professor Hawking also admitted that he was not active in studying while at Oxford University, where he studied physics, and that only the news that he might die young from motor neurone (运动神经元) disease made him focus on his work.

    Professor Hawking said, “My sister Philippa could read by the age of 4 but then she was brighter than me.” He said that he was common at school and was never further than halfway up his class. “My classwork was very untidy, and my handwriting was very bad in the teachers' eyes,” he said. “But my classmates gave me the name Einstein, so probably they saw signs of something better.”

    But he said that it was when doctors told him that he probably only had a few years to live at the age of 21 that he began to focus on his work, which resulted in some of his early achievements. He said, “When you are faced with the possibility of an early death, it makes you realize that life is worth living and there are lots of things you want to do.” Hawking serves as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where he continues to contribute to both high-level physics and the popular understanding of our universe.

    Spending as little as $ 5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia found.

    Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others—even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.

    "We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn，" said Elizabeth Dunn，a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness，report their annual income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity.

    "No matter how much income each person made，those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not，" Dunn said in a statement.

    Dunn's team also surveyed 16 employees at a company in Boston before and after they received an annual profit sharing bonus of between $ 3, 000 and $ 8, 000. "Employees who devoted more of their bonus to pro­social spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus, and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself，" they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

    They gave their volunteers $ 5 or $ 20 and half got clear instructions on how to spend it. Those who spent the money on someone or something else reported feeling happier about it.

    "These findings suggest that very minor changes in spending allocations—as little as $ 5—may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day，" Dunn said.

    A strange object was found in a small city called Carlos Spegazzini, just a short drive from the capital city of Buenos Aires.

    When farmer Jose first found an odd scene in his farmland, he began to dig at the object. However, he quickly found himself running to tell his wife. Jose needed more support if he was going to investigate this strange thing.

    Even the dog was hesitant to investigate. Unfamiliar with the object, man's best friend was not about to jump at it with little concern. Therefore, they chose to call in somebody who has a better idea of what to do.

    When the police first showed up, they were just as stumped as Jose. They knew this object was something out of the ordinary. It might even be something extraordinary, so more questions appeared.

    It quickly became apparent, it was time to call in the big guys. That's right; when you find something that appears to be out-of-this-world, it's time to call in those who study the mysteries of the old world.

    Authorities called in archaeologists who jumped at the chance to study the object. They quickly determined one thing was for certain: the ancient big one that left this behind was absolutely massive! The group was unable to move the shell, as it weighed nearly two tons!

    Clearly, this massive beast was not the only of its kind existing in the modem-day world. Similar fossils had been found in the surrounding areas and had even made their way to museums. But what was the ancient beast?

Surviving Hurricane Sandy (飓风桑迪)

    Natalie Doan, 14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the wave from her house. "It's the ocean that makes Rockaway so special," she says.

    On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned fierce. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie's family escaped to Brooklyn shortly before the city's bridge closed.

    When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood in ruins. Many of Natalie's friends had lost their homes and were living far away. All around her, people were suffering, especially the elderly. Natalie's school was so damaged that she had to temporarily attend a school in Brooklyn.

    In the following few days, the men and women helping Rockaway recover inspired Natalie. Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others rebuild. Teenagers climbed dozens of flights of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings.

    "My mom tells me that I can't control what happens to me," Natalie says. "but I can always choose how I deal with it."

    Natalie's choice was to help.

    She created a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to help. Natalie posted introduction about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collecting when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick's collection was replaced.

    In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids: Christopher, who received a new basketball; Charlie, who got a new keyboard. Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-need supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts made her a famous person. Last April, she was invited to the White House and honored as a Hurricane Sandy Champion of Change.

    Today, the scars (创痕) of destruction are still seen in Rockaway, but hope is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt. "I can't imagine living anywhere but Rockaway," Natalie declares. "My neighborhood will be back, even stronger than before."