Pakistani youth activist Malala Yousafzai was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, October 10th. She is the youngest Nobel winner in history. Malala shares the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a 60-year-old man from India who has helped lead a movement to end child slavery around the world.

    Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997 in Mingora, the SwatDistrict of northwest Pakistan to a Sunni Muslim family. When she was just 11 years old, she started blogging about the Taliban take over of her hometown. Taliban members believe young girls should not go to school. Classroom sthrough out the Swat district were closed for several months. Malala spoke publicly about her desire to go back to school. “All I want is an education,”she told one television broad caster.

    When the Pakistani government regained control, Malala was able to return to class. She continued to blog and speak out about girls' right to education. But on October 9, 2012, the Taliban tried to silence her. Agunman boarded her school bus and shot her on the left side of her forehead. Malala survived, and showed great courage and optimism during her long recovery. Then she became a symbol of the struggle for girls' rights all over the world.

    Malala's mission for peace is unstoppable. Nine months after shewas shot, she gave a now-famous speech at the United Nations. “They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed,” she said. “And then, outof that silence came thousands of voice. Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.”

Easy Ways to Keep Your Brain Sharp

    Everyone is forgetful, but as we age, we start to feel like our brains are slowing down a bit — and that can be a very annoying thing. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Read on for some techniques worth trying.

    ⒈ {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    People who regularly made plans and looked forward to upcoming events had a 50 percent reduced chance of Alzheimer's disease (早老性痴呆症), according to a recent study. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Something as simple as setting a goal to have a weekly coffee date with a friend will do. There's evidence that people who have a purpose in life or who are working on long or short-term goals appear to do better. In other words, keep your brain looking forward.

    ⒉ Go for a walk.

    Mildly raised glucose (葡萄糖) levels can harm the area of the brain that helps you form memories and physical activity can help get blood glucose down to normal levels. In fact, exercise produces chemicals that are good for your brain. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    ⒊ Learn something new.

    Take a Spanish class online, join a drawing club, or learn to play cards. A study found that mental stimulation (刺激) limits the weakening effects of aging on memory and the mind. But the best thing for your brain is when you learn something new and are physically active at the same time. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Or go dancing with your friends.

A. Focus on the future.

B. This can be especially harmful to the aged.

C. It should be something like learning gardening.

D. So take a few minutes each day to do some reading.

E. But don't worry if your schedule isn't filled with life-changing events.

F. Luckily, research shows there is a lot you can do to avoid those moments.

G. In other words, when you take care of your body, you take care of your brain.

On Christmas Eve, 1944, my grandmother urged my uncle, then 12 years old, to slip out of the concentration camp where they were imprisoned near 15 miles east of Vienna to go to Deutsch-Wagram. “People are charitable around Christmastime,” Grandma Lili said to her son, Gyuri. “Ask for some food. Anything they can spare. Tell them that we're on the edge of starvation. Tell them that your 3-year-old sister can not get off the bed because she's outgrown her shoes.”

    In the dark of that night, Gyuri secretly left the camp and walked nearly four miles to Deutsch-Wagram, the closest town. He happened upon a house and knocked on the front door. A woman opened that door. She was probably alone, her man far away, fighting in the war, her children asleep in their beds. The 12-year-old pieced together in German exactly what his mother had told him to say.

     “Come back tomorrow," whispered the woman. The next day, my uncle returned. The woman opened the door with a smile. She piled his hands with bread, clothing, a pair of shoes that her child had outgrown and a pair of socks. The woman had knitted warm socks for my mother. After putting on the socks and shoes that fit, my mother got off the bed in delight. Her ragged shoes were passed on to a younger child who was also living in the camp. They shared their unexpected harvest with the entire camp. It was a quiet celebration of human kindness around Christmastime.

    In April 1945, my mother, uncle and grandmother were liberated. And it was those very socks and shoes that my mother wore as she walked some 28 miles over two days to Bratislava on her walk to a new life.

    To the unknown giver, I thank you. In the desperation of a cold and snowy land, when many hearts were closed and death was more likely than life, especially for Jews, you gave them hope and comfort.

    In most languages, a greeting is usually followed by "small talk". Small talk means the little things we talk about at the start of a conversation. In English-speaking countries people often make small talk about the weather: "Nice day isn't it?" "Terrible weather, isn't it?" But there is something special about small talk. It must be about something that both people have the same opinion about. The purpose of small talk is to let both people agree on something. This makes meeting people easier and more comfortable. People usually agree about the weather, so it is a safe topic for small talk. But people often disagree about religion or politics so these are not suitable topics for small talk in English. The topics for small talk also depend on where the conversation is taking place. At football matches, people make small talk about the game they are watching, "Great game, isn't it?" At bus-stops, people may comment about the transport system, "The bus service is terrible, isn't it?"

    Greetings and small talk are an important part of conversation in any language. The way people greet each other and the things they talk about, however, may be different from one language to another. This shows that there is much more to learn when we learn a language than just the vocabulary and the grammar of the language. We also have to learn the social behavior of the people who speak it.

    Scottish pupils recently were part of a new scheme that allowed them to take their exams online. Those examinations provided a glimpse of the future in May when 120 candidates in 10 centers in Scotland sat in front of computers to take a multiple-choice online exam. Although candidates were using a computer mouse instead of a pen, in all other ways the exam was the same as normal.

    Exam rooms were set out to ensure that only the candidates and the teachers were able to see the individual screens. The online answers were sent directly to a safe area. According to the students at St Ninian's in East Renfrewshire who took an online French exam, it was definitely the most motivated they had ever felt when taking an exam.

    “I could go as fast as I wanted to, rather than as slow as everyone else wanted to,” said one. “It was better than looking back and forth between the questions,” said another. One pupil even described it as fun.

    Their head teacher, Dorothy Graham, was not so surprised, “They are so used to doing things on computers that it seems natural for them. The boys liked it because they didn't have to worry about how neat their work was.” The only things that worried her were power cuts and systems' crashing.

    It's thought that online exams could be the norm (常态) in about five years. However, last year there were warnings about computerizing exams in England and Wales. It's thought that it could be unfair to some students if they come from homes without access to a computer.

    In recent years, terms like "going green" and "eco-friendly" have become buzz words on talk shows, commercials and product packaging. The term "eco-friendly" has been used for so many different products and practices.

    Eco-friendly Car Race

    Can you imagine a car racer is so eco-friendly that its tyres are made from potatoes, its body is created from hemp (大麻) and rapeseed oil and it runs on fuel made from wheat and sugar beet (甜菜)? The one-seater racing car called Eco One is built by experts from Warwick University, who hope that Eco One will be adopted by the automotive industry. It is sold at $ 51,000.

    Pollution-sensitive Dress

    Don't be caught outside unaware of pollution levels in the air. The pollution-sensitive EPA Dress by Stephanie Sandstrom notices pollution in the air accordingly. This dress ­ which is actually quite pretty ­ looks like you pull it from the bottom of the dirty laundry pile when the air is dirty. It might protect your health by advising you to stay indoors for the day, but it won't do you any favor if you're meeting with clients.

    Eco-friendly Umbrella

    Traditional umbrellas come with a fixed surface. Although it is changeable, you cannot replace it easily. This eco-friendly design is more flexible. It is actually only an umbrella skeleton(骨架)without any surface, which can be folded, so you can put anything such as newspapers, plastic bags or whatever you want to serve as the protecting surface.

    Eco-friendly Moss (苔藓) Carpet

    It is said that walking on fresh grass increases your blood circulation. The Moss Carpet, created by Nguyen La Chanh, looks at getting the grass to your feet. The mat includes ball moss, island moss and forest moss. The humidity (湿度) of the bathroom ensures that it grows well. And that's why you need to place it there and not anywhere else.