Our life has become easier and more colorful because of mobile phones and the Internet. However, a number of worrying problems have come along with them.

Many car accidents are caused by mobile phones. Some drivers use mobile phones to get on the Internet while driving. Looking at their mobile phones and not at the road, these drivers have become a danger to us all.

Many of the dangers of the Internet are well known. Children who visit websites without their parents‘' permission sometimes talk to elder people they don't know and put themselves in great danger. People with blogs sometimes post information of people they don't know on their websites without permission. Some people even use the Internet to get personal information that we do not want them to have.

    Mobile phone and the Internet safety tips：

Use a ‘hands-free' phone if you need to use a mobile phone when you drive.

     In difficult driving situations such as in rain or snow, do not use your phone at all.

     Do not make very important phone calls while driving. They take your attention (注意力) off the road.

     Tell your children not to talk with anyone they do not know on the Internet.

     In an embarrassing situation (尴尬场合), be careful with people around you.

Don't give out any personal information on the Internet.

    A study of sleep in sparrows suggests the relationship between sleep and the ability to learn may be more complicated (复杂) than realized．

    Niels C. Rattenborg of the University of Wisconsin—Madison wanted to find out how the sparrows were able to deal with getting so much less sleep．He and his team brought eight wild birds into a lab and watched them for one year．They invented a game to check how well the birds could learn．In the game, the sparrows had to peck (啄) three buttons (按钮) in a certain order to get a food treat．The scientists discovered that the birds' ability to learn the right button order depended on (依靠) two things, the time of year and the

amount of sleep the birds had．

    During the migration (迁徙) season, the sparrows were restless at night and got much less sleep than usual．Even so, they were able to understand how to get the food quickly as if they'd had a regular night of sleep．Outside the migration season, they found the sparrows that got less sleep than usual had much more difficulty learning how to get the food treats than birds that had a regular sleep．

    The results show that the sparrows can deal with much less sleep during the migration season than usual．If scientists can find out why, they may learn from sparrows and find ways of helping people deal with getting much less sleep．Until scientists fully understand the relationship between sleep and learning, it's better to get plenty of sleep when preparing for an exam．

    Many animals do strange things before an earthquake. This news may be important. Earthquakes can kill people and knock down homes. The animals may help to save lives.

    Some animals make a lot of noise before an earthquake. Farmers have told about this. Dogs that are usually quiet have started to bark (吠). Horses on farms have run around in circles. Mice have left their holes and run away. Cows have given less milk.

    In a town in Italy, cats raced down the street in a group. That happened only a few hours before an earthquake. In San Francisco, a man kept tiny pet frogs. One Sunday, the frogs jumped around more than ever. They made loud noises, like bigger frogs. That night, an earthquake struck the city.

    People want to know when an earthquake is coming. Then they could get away safely. Right now, there is no sure way to know ahead of time. Maybe the best idea is watching the animals.

    No one knows when the first kite was made. The first record of a kite was more than 2,000 years ago in China. Han Xin, the leader of an army, wanted to bring down a king. He decided to dig a tunnel(隧道) into the king's palace. He flew a kite over the wall of the palace to make sure the length(长度) of its string(线). In this way, he could determine how long the tunnel should be. His men in the tunnel took the kite string with them. When they reached the end of the string, they started to dig up.

    Kites have been flown in Japan for hundreds of years. In the 1700s, kites were flown in autumn to give thanks for a good harvest. They were also flown to send good wishes to couples who had their first son. Today in Japan, kites are often flown as part of a celebration, such as the beginning of a new year. And kite festivals are held each year in many parts of the country.

    Kites have been used for scientific purposes in the Western world. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin tied a key to a kite and flew it in a storm to find out that lightening was a form of electricity. In the 1890s, Lawrence Hargrave invented box kites to test ideas about flight. From 1898 until 1933, the United States Weather Bureau (气象局) used box kites to collect weather data. The Wright brothers also experimented (试验) with kites. What they learnt helped them make the first airplane flight in 1903.

    It's every parent's worst nightmare: there's a fire in the house the alarms are beeping, but the children are sleeping on. Now scientists have found a better way to rouse slumbering youngsters. Researchers in the US have discovered that playing a child a recording of his mother's voice is about three times more likely to wake him up than a traditional alarm.

    Writing in the Journal of Pediatrics, Smith and colleagues report how they compared the effects of four different smoke alarms on 176 children aged between 5 and 12 years old, none of whom had hearing difficulties or were taking any medication that affected their sleep. While one alarm featured a high pitched beeps he sort of commonly found in households the other three featured the voice of the child's mother calling either the child's name, giving instructions such as: "Wake up! Leave the room or both. Each child slept in a lab-based room that resembled a real bedroom.

    The results show that vocal alarms appear to be more effective than high-pitched beeps. About 90% of children woke for a voice alarm compared with just over 53% for the traditional alarm

    "High pitched beeping alarms don't wake up children well at all under about 12 years of age." Said Dr Gary Smith, a co-author of the research from the Nationwide Children's hospital in Ohio, although he said at present it is not known why He said it was important to look at developing better alarms

    Prof Niamh Nic Daeid, director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee, said the research found a human voice combined with a low frequency pulsing tone was far more effective in waking up children than a traditional high-pitched alarm. She also noted that more work was needed to explore whether other familiar sounds, such as a dog barking, might also prove effective in rousing children.