I remember my mother as a strong woman. She came to America when she was 12—old enough to remember her language, she achieved scores and grades high enough to be admitted to Duke University. With a degree in computer science, she finally became the manager of a company in New York. My mother could give fluent speeches, say “wolves” correctly.

    It was my mother who always stressed the importance of language. From the time I was born, I was read to. I would fall asleep to the sounds of my parents' voices, whether it was my dad's softly accented, or my mother's clear English. The flow of language was unbroken, and whether in Chinese or English, the stream of communication flowed through our house.

    One October morning in sixth grade, after my mother had left to catch the train to the city, I left the house for the bus stop. I was surprised when I saw our car, the door hanging open. As I drew closer, I saw my mother lying on the ground.

    In the hospital, it was hard to believe that the lady who lay before me was my mom. My mother could not remember my name. As the leaves changed colors, it became clear that the stroke had created a wall between my mothers mind and mouth: her mind was not any less dear, but the words she spoke were not what she meant.

    The battle my mother faced taught me the importance of language. Without it, identity does not exist; relationships cannot be formed; stories cannot be told; directions cannot be given, and knowing anything about anyone is impossible. Without language, communication cannot take place. Without language, one cannot express the beauty of a sunset or the kindness of a stranger. The world would pass us by in silence.

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Discovery's astronauts arrived to an exciting celebration Wednesday as nearly 700 people crowded an airplane storage place, waving flags and holding signs that read: “Welcome Home, Astronauts!”

    The seven-person team returned to Earth on Tuesday after being the first to take a space shuttle into orbit since the Columbia disaster（灾难）of 2003. 

    “In the last two and a half years, we have been through the very worst that manned space flight can bring us, and over the past two weeks we have seen the very best,” NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told the astronauts and their families and fans Wednesday. 

    The crowd waved American flags for the U.S. astronauts and Japanese flags for crew member Soichi Noguchi, one of the spacewalkers. 

    “As a rookie（新手）astronaut, I could not ask for more,” Noguchi said, “We had three spacewalks, two extra days in space and one great team.” 

    While the homecoming has been filled with excitement for what mission controllers declared a “truly spectacular test flight”, uncertainty remains for the future of the shuttle program. 

    Shortly after Discovery rose up into space July 26, a nearly 1-pound large piece of foam insulation（泡沫绝缘材料）fell from the fuel tank-the very thing that was supposed to have been fixed after Columbia exploded. The foam missed Discovery, but NASA grounded all shuttle flights until engineers fix the problem.

    NASA ground crews examined Discovery after its return from orbit and found it in good condition, an official said Wednesday at NASA‟s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. 

    Technicians counted 101 dings and divots, including 20 that were larger than 1 inch. Schaaf Dean, landing support group chief, said the numbers were similar to the results of other shuttle, post-landing examinations. 

A beginning examination of the shuttle's thermal（热的）blanket showed it remained undamaged during re-en-try into the Earth's air.(Agencies)

    Most people know that listening to music when they are feeling down or depressed can encourage their spirits.

    However studies have also shown that music, especially certain tones can reduce stress. Music can change brainwave patterns, deepen breathing, and bring on a totally stress-free and more open mindset（心态）. Using music to relax when considering a particular problem may not only raise your mood, but also could help you reach that "a-ha"moment and find a solution.

    Music has also been shown not only to make you feel good, but also, to be a great motivator. For example, during exercise, listening to music can keep you going, or get you to exercise more by helping you to ignore negative feelings of tiredness and focus on the pleasurable feelings you get from being absorbed in the music.

    Music is mainly used to record emotion. When we listen to a piece of music we share the artist's feelings on a visceral（本来的）level. That can be sad, and who among us hasn't put on a painful love song to share in the misery after a bad break-up? On the contrary, we can share in the delight of songs of joy and happiness, or any song or piece of music that reminds us of a particular happy time in our past.

    So next time you are feeling down, put on Beethoven' s Ode to Joy, I bet you will feel a lot better about whatever it was that was bothering you!

    I was working the overnight shift in a remote hospital in the Rocky Mountains. Late in the evening, a young African teenager was brought into the emergency department. He lived at sea level and had never been in the mountains. After skiing all day, he felt really ill. Everyone assumed it was altitude sickness.

    He was sweating and had abdominal (腹部的) pain. His heart rate increased. We sent off his lab work, and his blood sugar came back at almost 600 — normal is less than 100. His platelets (血小板), necessary for stopping bleeding, came in at 10,000; they should have been over 150,000. I did an ultrasound of his abdomen, and it looked like his belly was full of blood. This wasn't altitude sickness. And in the short time I'd been trying to figure out what was wrong, he was getting sicker. The friends he was traveling with were terrified, and rightly so.

    The mystery was finally solved with an old-fashioned microscope. When we looked at his blood, we saw some sickled (镰形的) red blood cells. That's how we were able to diagnose sickle cell trait. If you have sickle cell trait — which means you got the sickle cell gene from just one parent instead of two — you have no symptoms at low altitude, but high altitude can sometimes cause the red blood cells to turn into sickle shapes and take oxygen from vital organs. This teenager didn't know he had it, but the effect of the altitude on his blood cells was so extreme that after just a short time in the mountains, he suffered great pain.

    He needed platelets immediately, but we didn't have enough at the remote hospital. And there was a snowstorm, so the medical helicopters couldn't fly. It was a scary night. Just as we were abandoning all hope, we met an ambulance that drove halfway up from the city with blood products and transferred him to the city hospital for emergency surgery. The story has a happy ending: He recovered fully.

    Riverside presents

    Sharp Short Theatre

    This competition offers students a rare experience of working in a professional theatre.

    Now in its fourth year of providing an opportunity for new writers, directors and performers to exercise their creative ability, Sharp Short Theatre has fast become one of the most exciting parts of the Riverside year. All entries（参赛作品）perform in a heat and then the best pieces are invited to perform in the final, where students can be awarded prizes in four types including writing, performing, directing and overall.

    Entries must be written and directed by students (18 years old and under) and can be up to at most 10 minutes in time length. Entries must be handed in by a producer, for example a parent, teacher or responsible adult 18 years old or over.

    Sharp Short Theatre is a youth arts pioneer focusing on encouraging the works of students in theatre. Its aim is to unearth and develop the young to be Australian theatre professionals.

    So what are you waiting for? Get into the spirit and register（注册）now.

    Advisory Service:

    Students may hand in their plays for review by a professional playwright（剧作家）in the lead-up to this event.

    Price: ＄30 per play.

    Deadline（截止日期）: 21 March, at 5 pm, 2018.

    Registration:

    To register, click here to complete our online form （one form per entry）.

    Entries Close: 11 April, at 5 pm.

    Price:＄15 per entry.

    Dates & Times:

    Heats: 21-24 May, at 7:30 pm.

    Final: 8 June, at 7:30 pm.

    Price:

    Heats: Adult ＄18, kids under 18 ＄12.

    Final: All tickets ＄20.

PhoneSoap: Charge and Clean Your Phone

    You may charge your phone every day, but do you clean your phone as much? Whatever your hands touch, your phones touch. It has been discovered that some phones have 18 times more bacteria and viruses than any surface in a public restroom. So it probably won't surprise you that a 2011 University of London study found that one in six of our phones have bacteria and viruses on them—specifically, the bacteria called E.coli.

    The research on bacteria and viruses led to the invention of PhoneSoap. It is not actually liquid like dishwasher soap. It is a phone charger that uses the electromagnetic radiation used in hospitals to kill 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses, cleaning your phone while it charges.

    "There are really certain types of bacteria and viruses that we should not be in touch with, and they are really on our phones," says Wes Barnes, the PhoneSoap co-founder. It all started while his cousin and co-founder, Dan LaPorte, was in his cancer research lab at college. "He realized he got the idea of getting rid of bacteria and viruses on the phones," said Barnes. "In the lab they used UV-C light for destroying them. He realized this would be the fastest, most powerful way to kill any bacteria and viruses living on electronic machines."

    PhoneSoap looks like a little metal suitcase. Your phone rests in to charge and get cleaned at the same time. Instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you'd plug it into the PhoneSoap charger box. The process only takes a few minutes but, Barnes says, "The idea is that you can leave it in there overnight if you want to keep charging. Reflective paint keeps the light completely around the phone so it cleans the phone fully."

    The co-founders spent 2013 finding the right companies and they started shipping the product in late November. By last week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, PhoneSoap was all grown-up. Both co-founders have left their previous jobs and are selling PhoneSoap nonstop. "We're shipping almost more than we can handle each day," Barnes says. "It's been a great adventure."