WHAT can help you make a fortune in the future? Graduating from a top university might not be enough. A new study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more friends you have in school, the more money you'll earn later.

    The idea that popularity could have a serious influence on one's earning potential shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills and networking are easily as powerful as talent and hard work.

    “If a person has lots of friends, it means that he or she has the ability to get along with others in all kinds of different situations,” said Xu Yanchun, 17, from Nantou High School in Shenzhen, who totally agreed with the recent finding. “Also, friends always help each other. They not only create wider social circles for you but lift your mood when you are occasionally in low spirits,” said Xu. She believed that all this helps you “earn a higher salary.”

    Maybe that's why some people think the younger generations are in the age of Friendalholism (交友狂症). A woman even complained that the networking website Facebook's 5,000-friend limit was too low for her large reserve of social contacts.

    But what does a friend mean? Should friends be regarded as a form of currency?

    “Call me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing. It seems, however, that this is no longer the definition of friend”, said Meghan Daum, who works with The Los Angeles Times in the US.

    Daum dislikes the idea that quantity trumps quality in the age of Friendaholism. She thought the idea of friendship, at least among the growing population of Internet social networkers, was to get as many of not-really-friends as possible. For example, a friend might be someone you might know personally but who could just as easily be the friend of a friend of some other Facebook friend you don't actually know. Although she agreed that social ties grease (润滑) the wheels of life, she also warned. “Too bad one thing money can't buy is a real friend.”

    Trip 1 Black Bear Count

    There have been fires in this area in the last few years and the Office of the National Park is not sure how many black bears are still living. Some bears have been seen since the fires, and the office has asked for young people to help count them. The entire trip will last three hours. Booking is necessary.

    Cost: Free                   When: May 8

    Trip 2 Garland Valley

    Bring your drink and lunch for this walk in a beautiful area of the Blue Mountains. Garland Valley is close to the town of Garland but is part of the National Park. Many wild animals live in this area, including many rare birds. This is a great walk for bird-lovers. The trip lasts four hours. Booking is necessary.

    Cost: $ 15                  When: May 8, May 15

    Trip 3 Flashlight Adventure

    Put on your warm clothes, bring a flashlight and a pair of glasses, and come for a night walk along the Dungog Valley. A guide will lead the tour. You will see many of the animals on this trip. The guide will tell you about the lives of the animals you see. Numbers are strictly limited on night trips, so be sure to book early. This walk lasts two and a half hours.

    Cost: $ 12                  When: May 8, May 15, May 22

    Equipment to be needed:

    Please bring enough water and food for all walks

Wear good walking shoes—no high heels.

    Wear a hat for day walks.

    Dress warmly for night walks.

    Children must be with an adult.

    Make sure your flashlight works well and bring extra batteries for night walks.

    Follow all instructions from guides during the walks. The mountains are a dangerous place.

    Bookings:

Booking for the above trips can be made by telephone (893—4847) or on the Internet at www.Bluemountaintour.com.

    Humans make mistakes. Even surgeons with years of experience are not infallible. But what if these doctors could pool their knowledge and experience together and create a surgical standard of care, to be carried out by machines?

    That's the idea behind surgical robots, which may soon perform most surgeries, from sewing up tiny wounds to performing heart procedures. Many of these operations are, in fact, already completed with the assistance of robots. But a recent test suggests that robots in the operating room may soon go a step further, performing on soft tissue completely on their own, from start to finish.

    The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot（STAR）, successfully completed surgeries on pigs. "We're the first group to develop autonomous robotic surgery with soft-tissue surgery, and when compared to standard operation, it's better, "says Peter Kim, professor of surgery. "The idea is not to replace surgeons；it will make the surgeons better and make the procedures safer. "

    A recent Mayo Clinic study found that major surgical errors-including operating on the wrong site or side of the body, or even leaving tools or objects inside the patient-occur every one out of 22, 000 procedures. That's rare, but robots like STAR would aim to lower the number even further.

    In the da Vinci surgical system, surgeons place their arms inside instruments and use their hands to control the movement of robotic tools on the operating table from afar. The robot's every major move is controlled by surgeons, and thus its results may vary based on the surgeon's training or experience.

    STAR, on the other hand, is entirely autonomous. It's not only able to work on its own and perform surgeries with a more flexible "hand", but it's able to react to the unexpected incidents. Cutting into hard tissue like bones is one thing, but operating on moving soft tissue is far more complex. STAR reacts to a changing environment, similar to how self-driving cars are programmed to not only drive on the highway, but also react to another driver making a mistake and getting in your way.

    You've got your fancy new suitcase and you're ready to take it with you on your travels across the globe.

    You get to the airport, quickly moving through the crowds on the uneven pavement, rushing to check in. Then, your heart sinks when you realize your new suitcase has got a serious case of the wobbles (摇晃).

    Why does this happen?

    Scientists from the Universite Paris-Diderot in France investigated this matter and published their findings in the science journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. They also suggested some solutions to overcome this modern-day problem.

    To learn more about the issue, they put a suitcase on a treadmill (跑步机) and observed what happened.

    It was soon noted that the "wobble" was actually a result of repeated actions that caused the suitcase to sway from side to side. They discovered that if one of the wheels encountered an obstacle such as a small bump, it jumped into the air for just a moment and then banged back down to the ground. That second action caused the opposite wheel to lift off the ground and then to bang back down, causing the first to lift again and so on. This swaying increased as the luggage was pulled along.

    "The suitcase is a fun way to tackle the problem, but the study would be the same for any trolley with two wheels or blades (桨叶)," Sylvain Courrech du Pont, lead author of the study, told BBC News. "So it will be the same for a caravan (大篷车) or maybe also for airplanes."

    Instead of slowing down when we see a rocky part of the path, the scientists recommended doing the exact opposite and speeding up. This is because going faster gives the wheels less time to rise and fall, preventing the case from swaying. They also said that reducing the angle of the suitcase by lowering its handle to the ground would help keep it steady.

    "These findings could help researchers simulate and design better rolling suitcases and other pulled trolleys, such as towed trailers," Courrech du Pont added.

With these masterminds (智者) working on perfecting our suitcase problems, wobbly luggage may soon be a thing of history, leaving us to enjoy our travels.

    A telescope, called Gaia, is being designed by astronomers in Europe, and it couldn't be more different from Pan-STARRS, which is another telescope being designed. While Pan-STARRS will be looking for asteroids (小行星) and comets headed for Earth, Gaia will be looking at our entire galaxy (银河系).

    Gaia is designed to draw a map of the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Just as a map of your town gives you a picture of where things are located, Gaia's map of the galaxy will tell astronomers where the stars are. Over five years, Gaia will observe (观察) about a billion stars and other objects in our galaxy. Each object will be observed about 70 times.

    Gaia will be sent into space connected to a rocket. It contains two telescopes, each focused at a different angle (角度). These two telescopes act like Gaia's “eyes”. The reason why humans can see things in 3D is that we have two eyes focused on the same object, at slightly different angles. By using two telescopes like eyes, Gaia can produce the first 3D map of the positions of the stars it views.

    Gaia, which is to be sent into space, will be a powerful telescope. If you were to use it on Earth, for example, you could stand 600 miles away from your best friends and still get a clear picture of their hair.

    Gaia is one of more than a dozen telescopes being designed by scientists right now. The next generation of telescopes will reveal new parts of our universe that will seem surprising. The universe, with all its planets, stars and other strange objects, is a puzzle with pieces that we can see by using powerful telescopes.

World War Ⅱ lasted from 1939 to 1945.Life changed for everybody,including women and children because of the war.Millions of people lost their lives during the war.The Diary of a Young Girl was a record of that time.The book was written by a girl named Anne Frank.

Anne Frank was born in Germany in June 1929.Because the German Nazis hated the Jews and warned to kill them,her family had to move to another country.In July 1942,they went into hiding in a secret place in her father's office.During that difficult time,Anne kept writing diaries until she and her family were discovered by the Nazis in August 1944.They were caught and sent to a Nazi camp.The next year,her mother died.In the same year,she and her elder sister died of illness,before the war ended.

After the war,her father collected her diaries and the book The Diary of a Young Girl came out in 1947.It has been put into over 30 languages since then.The book has been read by people all over the world.In her diary,Anne wrote down her thoughts,her feelings,her hopes and her dreams for the future,"I want this diary itself to be my friend,and I shall call my friend Kitty." "I can't spend all day complaining because it's impossible to have any fun!...Every day,I feel the beauty of nature and the goodness of the people around me.With all that,why should I be sad?"

The Diary of a Young Girl has also become a symbol of the greatness of the human spirit.It is called one of the wisest and most moving records on war.