One talented father created the tag “Dadfact” in an effort to persuade his child into eating their sandwiches using information that might not be completely reliable.

Flying is fine if you want to save time, but nothing beats the railway for a relaxing and down-to-earth journey. The Zhengzhou—Xuzhou and Xi'an—Fuzhou high-speed railways put into operation in September mark a connection of high-speed railways in China's eastern and middle-western regions, and they have brought out some of the country's best landscapes and cuisines.

    Here are four signature dishes(招牌菜) that you shouldn't miss as you travel along the railways.

Yangrou Paomo, Xi'an

    If one dish could represent Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi, locals would tell you without doubt that it's Yangrou Paomo. It is a bowl of lamb soup served with hard flour “bread”, which is broken up and added to the soup. The soup is topped with slices of mutton, scallion(葱) and coriander(香菜). Then it is usually eaten with picked sweet garlic.

Soup Dumpling, Kaifeng

    A popular snack in Kaifeng, Henan, the dish is made up of three things: skin, meat and soup. The skin is made from flour, while the filling is usually pork. And just as its name suggests, the soup dumplings are filled with tasty soup. But how does the steaming hot soup get into the dumplings? It's actually been cooled and cut into cubes, which fit easily into the dough(面团). Along with the pork, the cubes become liquid soup once they're steamed.

Smelly Mandarin Fish, Huangshan

    Despite its name, Smelly Mandarin Fish(臭鳜鱼) is known for its good taste. A lot of travelers who visit Huangshan in Anhui want to taste it because they have heard of its reputation. Once the skin has been removed, the fresh is preserved in salty water for six to seven days, then fried and cooked in soy sauce. Although salting gives the fish its special smell, the original tender flesh is preserved well and given a delicious and unique taste.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, Fuzhou

    The dish has enjoyed an over 100-year-long worldwide reputation since it was invented in Fuzhou, Fujian in the late Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). Fotiaoqiang, or Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, got its interesting name from a poem a customer wrote. The poem said the dish was so delicious that upon smelling it, monks in the neighboring temple would jump over the wall to come and get some. Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is made up of many ingredients, including sea cucumber(海参), chicken, pork and mushroom. Because of these ingredients, it tastes extremely delicious while being highly nutritious at the same time.

    Michael and I did not know when the waiter put the plates on our table. At the time we were sitting in a small restaurant, hidden from the busy Third Street, in New York City. Even the smell of fresh serving blintze did not interfered our conversation. In fact, we let the blintze soaked in the sour cream. We just enjoy the conversation too much that we forgot to eat. Our conversation was so delightful though we did not speak about important things. We laughed and spoke about the film which we have just watched.

    While our fun conversation continued, my eyes went across the room and stop on the corner. A couple of old folks sat in there. The woman wearing the flower dress with faded color, the same with the pillow where she laid her pallid handbag. The man's top head shined just like the boiled egg which he ate very slowly. The woman chewed her oatmeal(燕麦片) very slowly too, seemed with very much effort.

    But what made my mind thought about them was the silence around them. Michael and I paid our food and went on. When we passed the corner where the couple sat, my wallet fell. When I stopped to get it, I saw under the table, they were tenderly holding each other's hand. They were eating in silence while holding each other's hand! I was very touched to see the simple yet the very meaningful action reflecting the close relationship of the couple.

    Their silence was the pleasant and relaxing one, it was the expression of the tender love and it did not always need the words to express it. They might spend the hours holding each other's hand like this in the morning.

    When I and Michael went out of the restaurant, I thought, maybe it was nothing bad at all if some day we have something like that. Maybe, it will become the expression of the tender and complete love.

    In many countries, authority is seldom questioned, either because it is highly respected, or because it is feared. Because rank has been important in certain societies for a long time, people have been trained never to question those in authority. For example, children are not expected to question their teachers in school. It may be considered improper for young businessmen to suggest ideas that differ from those of older, more experienced members of the business.

    In other countries, including America, children are trained to question and search for answers. When a child asks a question, he will often be told to go to the library and find the answer for himself. By the time students reach the age of 14 or 15, they may be developing exciting new ideas in all fields of science and arts. To encourage such creativity, there are many national prizes offered to students every year for their scientific discoveries and artistic accomplishments.

    This interest in questioning and searching may be considered by some people as bad for young people's manners, that young people lack respect for authority. This impression may be created when visitors notice young Americans asking questions and arguing with older people. However, this is because many Americans have a different attitude toward authority than may exist in other areas of the world. In a work or business situation, ideas are freely and openly discussed and argued. It is important to remember that it is the person's ideas that are being questioned, not the individual himself. The two are quite separate. The purpose of the searching, questioning, and arguing is to find the facts in a particular situation, and therefore a solution, so that the work of the business can progress in the most effective manner possible.

    As was mentioned earlier, you may notice the same questioning in social conversations. Although some individual may think that Americans are rude because of the direct manner with people, they are merely trying to learn more about your ideas.

    In the years ahead, AI will raise three big questions for bosses and governments. One is the effect on jobs. Although bosses publicly praise the broad benefits AI will bring very much, their main interest lies in cutting costs. One European bank asked a technology company to find a way of reducing the staff in its operations department from 50,000 to 500. This special report has shown that AI-enhanced tools can help reduce staff in departments such as customer service and human resources by a large amount. The McKinsey Global Institute finds that by 2030 up to 375m people, or 14% of the global workers in companies or countries, could have their jobs automated away. Bosses will need to decide whether they are prepared to offer and pay for retraining, and whether they will give time off for it. Many companies say they are all for workers developing new skills, but not at the employer's expense.

    A second important question is how to protect privacy as AI spreads. The Internet has already made it possible to track people's digital（数字的）behaviour in extremely small detail. AT will offer even better tools for businesses to monitor consumers(客户) and workers, both online and in the physical world. Consumers are sometimes happy to go along with this if it results in personalised（个性化的）service. But AI probably brings privacy violations (侵犯) that are seen as shocking and morally unacceptable. In the wrong hands, useful technology could be against fair and equal treatment. Countries with a record of the careful watching of a person place, especially by the police or army and human-rights abuses already using AI to monitor political activity. The police around the world will use AI to spot criminals, but may also look on ordinary citizens secretly, in order to discover things or find out information about them. New rules will be needed to ensure agreement on what degree of monitoring is acceptable.

    The third question is about the effect of AI on competition in business. Today many firms are competing to provide AI-enhanced tools to companies. But a technology company that achieves artificial intelligence could race ahead of competitors, put others out of business and lessen competition. This is unlikely to happen in the near future, but if it did it would be of great concern.

    Grown-ups are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practiced ever since. A man who has not had a chance to go swimming for years can still swim as well as ever when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after many years and still ride away. He can play catch and hit a ball as well as his son. A mother who has not thought about the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” or remember the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

    One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, additional learning experiences increase the length of time we will remember it.

    In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.

    The multiplication tables (乘法口诀表) are an exception to the general rule that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood.

    The law of overlearning explains why cramming (突击学习) for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one's future development.

    The common cold is the world's most widespread illness, which is probably why there are more myths(神话) about it than any of the other illnesses.

    The most widespread mistake of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated Arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected(感染的) people from the outside world by way of packages and mails dropped from airplanes.

    At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be doused(浸入) with cold water, and then stood about dripping(滴干)wet in drafty(通风的) rooms. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.

    If cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter? In spite of the most painstaking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.

    No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors such as aspirin, but all they do is to relieve the symptoms.