When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie, “ Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.

    Liz Murray，a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that loss became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.

    Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets. “ What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,” she wrote in her book Breaking Night.

    She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself  that “next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS. “I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they loved me all the time.”

    Liz wants moviegoers to come away with the idea that changing your life is “as simple as making a decision”.

    Why are certain people so memorable, while some fade from our memories over time? This question crosses my mind often; there are many possible answers. When you are raising children, you realize that some people become very important to them, draw them in, accept and respect them. These people change them.

    Several examples come to mind with my youngest son. He was always more comfortable around his dad's friends than his own. He loved to spend time with them, fish with them, listen to their stories and just be with them.

    He has experienced the loss of several really meaningful friendships over the past few years, and it has been very painful for him. One, Dr. George, was a neighbor and fishing buddy who would call to see if Ken could go fishing with him. Dr. George always said Ken was the son he never had and that it meant everything to him. He died very suddenly while fishing with all of his best buddies a few years ago. The huge hole that left in so many lives simply cannot be filled — for Ken it was immensely painful.

    There was another fishing buddy of his dad's, Frank, who was always fun to be around. Ken was very young then, but he really enjoyed getting along with ＂the guy＂ when they were fishing. Frank and his family went to the Keys in the same week as we did one year ago and the memory remains to this day. Cheerful and happy, he was able to laugh at himself and accept everyone's abilities or lack of them, all qualities that impressed Ken so much.

    When he became deadly ill, Ken drove from his home in North Carolina to Florida for an overnight visit with him. He died a short time later. The day after his funeral (葬礼), Frank came to Ken in a dream and asked if he would take care of his wife, Carol. To Ken this was very meaningful, and today they share a special bond that Frank somehow knew would be important for them both.

    Mirroring China's Past: Emperors and Their Bronzes

    Chinese bronzes (青铜) of the second and first millennia BC are some of the most distinctive achievements in the history of art. These vessels (容器) were made to carry sacrificial offerings, to use in burial or to honor noble families in public ceremonies. When they were found by emperors centuries later, these spiritually significant objects were seen as signs of heavenly messages about a ruler or a dynasty and became prized items in royal collections. This exhibition —the first to explore these ancient objects throughout Chinese history — presents a rare opportunity to experience a large number of these works together in the United States.

    Unlike Greek and Roman bronze sculptures of human and animal forms, most objects from Bronze Age China (about 2000 - 221 BC) were vessels for ceremonial use. Beginning with the Song dynasty (960 - 1279), emperors unearthed these symbolic works and began collecting them, considering them to be evidence of their own authority as rulers. In addition to impressive collections, the royal fascination with bronzes led to the creation of numerous reproductions and the comprehensive cataloguing of palace holdings. These catalogues are works of art themselves, featuring beautiful drawings and detailed descriptions of each object.

    From the 12th century onward, scholars and artists also engaged in collecting and understanding ancient bronzes. Unlike emperors, scholars regarded bronzes as material evidence of their efforts to recover and reconstruct the past, and they occasionally exchanged them as tokens (象征) of friendship. Today ancient bronzes still occupy a primary position in Chinese culture — as historical objects and as signifiers of an important cultural heritage that inspires new generations, as seen in the works of contemporary artists on view in this presentation.

    Mirroring China's Past brings together approximately 180 works from the An Institute of Chicago's strong holdings and from the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Shanghai Museum, and important museums and private collections in the United States. By providing viewers with a new understanding of ancient bronzes and their significance through time, the exhibition demonstrates China's fascinating history and its developing present.

    This may be music to your ears. Researchers P. Jason Rentfrow and Samuel Gosling gave 3,500 people a personality（人格、个性）quiz. "We found that the musical styles people like are closely linked to their personalities," Gosling says.

    RAP/HIP-HOP

    Known for their quick speech, some rappers can say more than 700 syllables（音节）a minute! If you like rap/hip-hop, you are energetic and have a way with words. You put a fresh spin on things, whether it's new moves on the dance floor or your hip style.

    CLASSICAL

    In the 18th century, classical musicians were like rock stars. Beethoven and Mozart, for example, played in crowded concert halls. If you like classical, you are open to new ideas and like debating with friends. Creative and imaginative, you can easily spend many hours scrapbooking（剪贴）, writing or painting.

    COUNTRY

    Country music came from the folk songs of English, Scottish, and Irish settlers of the southeastern United States. If you like country, you express your opinions well, which makes you the ideal class president or team captain. Traditional and loyal, you enjoy spending time with your family.

    POP

    Pop music is designed to attract almost everyone, and it does. Each year, the industry brings in about 30 billion dollars! If you like pop, you are attractive to your friends. You can make big things happen, like planning for a huge party or inspiring your team to victory.

    ROCK/ALTERNATIVE

    In the 1950s, rock music created a brand-new culture. Teenagers, for the first time, had an identity separate from adults and children. If you like rock/alternative, you are a risk-taker who never accepts no for an answer. You rise to any challenge, like doing very well in a big exam or landing the lead in the school play.

    If these personality profiles（人格剖析）don't match you, that's OK. These are just for fun.

    I always felt sorry for the people in wheelchairs. Some people, old and weak, cannot get around by themselves. Others seem perfectly healthy, dressed in business suits. But whenever I saw someone in a wheelchair, I only saw a disability，not a person.

    Then I fainted(昏倒) at Euro Disney due to low blood pressure. This was the first time I had ever fainted, and my parents said that I must rest for a while after first aid. I agreed to take it easy, but as I stepped toward the door, I saw my dad pushing a wheelchair in my direction! Feeling the colour burn my cheeks, I asked him to wheel that thing right back to where he found it.

    I could not believe this was happening to me. Wheelchairs were fine for other people but not for me. As my father wheeled me out into the main street, people immediately began to treat me differently.

    Little kids ran in front of me, forcing my father to stop the wheelchair suddenly. Bitterness set in as I was thrown back and forth.

    "Stupid kids! They have perfectly good legs. Why can't they watch where they are going？"I thought. People stared down at me，pity in their eyes. Then they would look away, maybe because they thought the sooner they forgot me the better. "I'm just like you!" I wanted to scream "The only difference is that you've got legs，and I have wheels."

    People in wheelchairs are not stupid. They see every look and hear each word. Looking out at the faces, I finally understood: I was once just like them. I treated people in wheelchairs exactly the way they did not want to be treated. I realized it is some of us with two healthy legs who are truly disabled.

Teenagers who spend more than six hours online on school days are more likely to be lonely and skip school,according to an international study.

The study examined the home Internet use,well-being(幸福) and behaviour of 296,000 15-year-olds in 41 countries.More than one in four spent more than four hours per day online outside of school.The study found lower levels of well-being among students who spent more than six hours per day online.They were twice as likely as teenagers spending one and two hours per day online to report that they felt lonely at school.These extreme Internet users were also especially at risk of "behaving in problematic ways at school,such as arriving late or skipping class".

The report said,"Lower levels of engagement(密切关系) with school may be connected to less sense of belonging at school.It is also possible that skipping class and arriving late for school are the consequence of lack of sleep among extreme Internet users."It adds,"Parents,schools and health professionals can work together to watch and plan children's use of new media."

The study also found that countries that invest(投资) heavily in Information and Communication Technology(ICT) in schools have seen no considerable difference in 15-year-olds' achievement in reading,maths or science tests.The study results suggest limited use of computers at school may be better than not using them at all.However,students who use computers very frequently at school do a lot worse in most learning outcomes.The report says,"In the end,technology can strengthen great teaching,but great technology cannot replace poor teaching."