The next time you go grocery shopping, try speaking to other customers. One summer day, I took a smile and a warm heart into a small store in Oregon and got far more than groceries.

    I love fresh produce(农产品) in the store, and not just for the amazing colors provided by summer's bounty (慷慨) or the chance to joy over new choices from other countries. It's also because I just love watching people pick their produce.

    The day I was there I found a sale on amazing cherry tomatoes—along with a woman in her late 70s. Despite the fact that we were strangers, we began to discuss apples. She noted a problem with the Pink Ladies. "They tasted like I was eating an unripe green apple from the tree," she said, twisting her face as if still tasting the sour apple.

    I wondered if this is something most of my generation can even remember doing. I surely do. I mentioned that I often could not resist the green yet tempting fruit swinging from an apple tree. This was the start for a series of discussions as we shopped-covering such topics as nutrition, new foods and the quality of produce.

    By this time a third woman had joined in our conversation. The three of us continued along, unexpected friends, chatting about family size and the troubles a mom might have serving healthful foods that please the whole family.

    Eventually we all went our separate ways, but in the dairy(奶制品) section I heard a small voice say, "I finally caught up with you." It was the first woman I'd talked to, extending a bag of apricots(杏) to me. "I don't know if your family will eat these," she added, "but they have a super deal on them."

    Again I was brought back to my childhood, when I also ate apricots straight from the tree. My mouth watered at the remembered flavor.

    The old lady didn't realize that she'd given me far more than produce. With that offering came a sense of community, a flashback to days when it was OK to talk to a stranger. She brought back memories of summer fruits right from the tree—and a feeling that somehow those apricots were a thank-you for sharing my time with her in a very unlikely place.

    A European Union program is letting blind people experience famous paintings for the first time. It uses three dimensional(3-D) printing to re-create famous paintings so they can be touched.

    One painting printed with the new technology is Gustav Klimt's “The Kiss.” It is a popular attraction at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria. The painting shows a man and a woman standing in a field filled with flowers. They are wearing gold robes and have their arms around each other. The man leans down to kiss the woman.

    Klimt finished the painting in 1908. Until now, people who had trouble seeing could not appreciate the artwork. But thanks to the reproduction they can touch the piece and feel the ridges and depressions. Andreas Reichinger started making 3-D versions of artwork in 2010. He said this reproduction was his most difficult project because the couple's robes are so detailed.

    Dominika Raditsch is a blind museum visitor. She touched the reproduction. As she moved her hands around it she said, “Exactly, can you see these? There are so many details.” Raditsch said she can imagine what the original painting looks like when she touches the reproduction. “It's somehow round. You can feel it. You can feel it. It comes with it. And in many places it's so smooth. And then I think to myself: it probably shines too!” Raditsch said.

    The Belvedere is not the only museum to have 3-D versions of its artwork. Some of the pieces at the Prado, in Madrid, Spain, have reproductions that can be touched. But the piece in Vienna has one special part: It is made with widely available 3-D printing technology. That means one day, blind art fans anywhere in the world could download the source files and print the reproductions themselves.

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    Silence is unnatural to man.He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness.In between he does all he can to make a noise in the world,and he fears silence more than anything else.Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence.If he is introduced to another person,and a number of pauses occur in the conversation,he regards himself as a failure,a worthless person,and is full of envy of the emptiest-headed chatterbox（喋喋不休的人）. He knows that ninety nine percent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly,but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure（蜡塑人像）.

    The aim of conversation is not,for the most part,to communicate ideas;it is to keep up the buzzing sound.There are,it must be admitted,different qualities of buzz;there is even a buzz that is as annoying as the continuous noise made by a mosquito.But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito than a quiet person.Most buzzing, fortunately,is pleasant to the ear,and some of it is pleasant even to the mind.He would be a foolish man if he waited until he had a wise thought to take part in the buzzing with his neighbors.

    Those who hate to pick up the weather as a conversational opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk.Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new.Some of them are content if they are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears,though they have nothing to tell them except that they have seen two or three new plays or that they had food in a Swiss hotel.At the end of an evening,during which they have said nothing meaningful for a long time.They just prove themselves to be successful conservationists.

    Thousands of persons in Peru are suffering from the disease cholera. Medical experts say it is the first time in their century that cholera has reached the western part of the world. The Untied States Centers for disease Control says the kind of cholera has been spreading throughout the world since 1961. It was discovered that year in Indonesia. Since the first case in Peru, more than sixteen thousand people have been affected and about one hundred have died.

    Cholera is caused by polluted food and water. People become infected (传染 ) when they eat the polluted food or drink the polluted water. If untreated immediately, they may die within hours. Most victims however , can be saved. treatment includes drugs and replacement of body fluids ( 液体) directly into the blood.

    Medical researchers have developed a vaccine ( 菌苗) medicines to protect against cholera. But the vaccine is only about 50% effective. And it protects against cholera for only about six months. Medical experts say the best way to fight cholera is to prevent it. They also say people should not eat uncooked food or food that has not been cooked long enough. People who live in areas where cholera has been found should wash their hands before eating and cooking. They should drink only water that has been boiled or made pure with chemicals.

    Earthquake rescue robots have experienced their final tests in Beijing. Their designers say that with these robots, rescue workers will be able to have more time to save more lives during an earthquake.

    This robot looking like a helicopter（直升机）, is called the detector-bot . It's about 4 meters long, and it took about 4 years to develop the model. Its main functions（作用）are to collect information from the air, and send goods of up to 30kilos, to people stuck in an earthquake.

    This robot has a high quality 360 degree panoramic camera. It can work day and night and will also be able to send the latest pictures from the quake area. Dr. Qi Juntong, Chinese Academy of Science, said, "Unlike other automatic machines, the most important feature of this robot is that it doesn't need a distant control. We just set the information of the earthquake-struck area on it, and then it takes off, and lands by itself. It flies as high as 3,000 meters, and as fast as 100 kilometers per hour. "

This robot has a different function — it can change as the environment changes. Its main job is to search for any signs of life in places where human rescuers are unable to go.

    As well as a detector（探测器）that finds victims（遇难者）and detects poisonous gas, a camera is placed in the 40 centimeter long robot, which can work in the dark.

    Another use for the rescuers is the supply bot, with its 10-meter-long pipe. People who are caught in the ruins will be able to get supplies including oxygen and liquids.

    Experts have said that the robots will enter production, and serve as part of the national earth- quake rescue team as soon as next year.

    I attended a party one night. During the dinner a man told a humorous story based on the quotation: "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will."

    The storyteller mentioned that the quotation was from the Bible. I knew he was wrong. There couldn't be the slightest doubt about it. To get a feeling of importance and display my superiority, I appointed myself as an unwelcome committee member to correct him. He stuck to his guns. "What? From Shakespeare? Impossible! Absurd! That quotation was from the Bible." And he knew it.

    The storyteller was sitting on my right; and Frank Gammond, an old friend of mine, was seated on my left. Mr. Gammond had devoted years to the study of Shakespeare. So the storyteller and I agreed to submit the question to Mr. Gammond. Mr. Gammond listened, kicked me under the table, and then said, "Dale, you are wrong. The gentleman is right. It is from the Bible."

    On our way home that night, I said to Mr. Gammond, "Frank, you knew that quotation was from Shakespeare. "Yes, of course," he replied, "Hamlet, Act Five, Scene Two. But we were guests at a happy time, my dear Dale. Why argue with the storyteller? Why prove to him he is wrong? Why not let him save his face? Always avoid your sharp angle." I learned a lesson I'll never forget. I not only had made the storyteller uncomfortable, but also had put my friend in an embarrassing situation. How much better it would have been had I not become argumentative.

    Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right. You can't win an argument. You can't because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it