Texting while walking is something that most of us are guilty of. We can't help replying to that message we just received. However, while it's fun to keep up with the latest gossip, we may actually be putting ourselves in danger.

    A team of researchers from two UK universities recently found that people who use their phones while on the move walk differently than usual.

    “Recently, a person in front of me was walking very slowly and weaving (迂回行进), and I thought, 'Is this person drunk?'” Matthew Timmis, co-author of the study, told the Guardian.

    It turned out that the person was just texting. Inspired by this, Timmis and his team set out to discover the effects of phone use on how we navigate streets.

    A group of 21 volunteers were asked to walk around a simulated (模拟的) street, complete with obstacles such as a step. The participants traveled the course a total of 12 times each, either writing or reading a message, making a call, or with no phone at all.

    It took the volunteers 118 percent longer to complete the course when using a phone. They also focused on the step obstacle 60 percent more and paid attention to the travel path 51 percent more when they weren't using a phone.

    Although there were no accidents, Timmis believes we should still be aware of what's going on around us.

    “The big risk here is suddenly-appearing hazards (危险), like a pedestrian (行人) suddenly walking in front of you,” he told the Guardian. “You are not going to be able to respond to that as efficiently, which increases the risk of injury.”

    To bring attention to the dangers of “text walking”, a temporary “texting lane” was set up in Antwerp, Belgium in 2015. And earlier this year, a special crosswalk featuring flashing red lights on the ground to get the attention of texters was set up in Wuhan, Hubei province.

    “Texting while walking can lead to collisions with poles or other pedestrians. You could even be endangering your own life when you cross the street without looking up,” a spokesperson for the company that made the Antwerp texting lane told Yahoo News.

    In this day and age,it may seem that getting two people with different views together to discuss them leads to a disaster.Just think about what would happen if you sat down and had an open and honest conversation with someone with completely opposing views.Could it bring you closer together?

    However,the Human Library Organization is counting on it.At a Human Library,people volunteer to become "books" and make their experiences open and available."Readers" are encouraged to ask them questions freely,and they'll get honest answers in return.There's no judgment,and no questions are off—limits.

    You won't find unpleasant comments,and you won't lose faith in humanity.At the Human Library,you actually feel letter about the world you live in.You might even make a new friend!

    "The human books consist of people who have been discriminated by society."said Ronni Abergel,the Human Library Organization's founder,who has set out to build a space for conversations that can challenge prejudices through dialogue."The most pleasantly surprising thing about it is how close all the human books become to one another."she said.

    Human Libraries help to remind us there really is more that unites us than divides us.And as events now spread throughout 82 countries,with Human Libraries even set to launch soon in Pakistan and Jordan,you can tell that is a shared feeling.

    "We can spend billions and billions in trying to build up homeland security and our safety,but real safety comes from having positive relations to other groups in your community."said Abergel,"Real safety is not going to come from building walls.It's going to come from reaching out and getting to know each other."

    When was the last time you used plastic plates? Next time, why not try some edible ones? You'll help the environment and your guests won't go hungry. "I used to work in school catering and saw a lot of money being thrown away. I thought that was criminal, so I decided to do something about it," said Italian school chef Tiziano Vicentini.

    Now, Vicentini has an amazing range of edible plates for schools. The plates are made out of bread dough, so you can eat them afterwards. "These dishes cost a few pennies each and are either eaten by the kids, or go into recycling bins for animal food," explained Vicentini, 50, of Milan. But now other companies are developing edible plates, too. The Edible-Plate Company offers edible plates, bowls, trays and cups. Their products are environmentally-friendly, 100% biodegradable and can be used for all types of catering and home use. And they're made from a natural plant. After use, they can be fed to animals or left to degrade naturally.

    They also have a range of cutlery（餐具） made from corn and potato starch（淀粉）. These plates will also help reduce the amount of plastic; we create. Waste from plastic causes a lot of damage to the environment, as well as costing governments millions m waste management. Plastic bags often end up in landfill sites or on the street. And the burning of plastic waste causes toxic gases that pollute the air. In response to this, governments around the world are introducing tough recycling regulations. And many shops are offering biodegradable plastic bags and eco-safe packaging on their products. To help matters, the International Organization for Standardization (the ISO) has also developed a system to evaluate the biodegradability of products, with a certification and logo scheme, Meanwhile, how about a nice plate for lunch?

Welcome to your future life!

    You get up in the morning and look into the mirror. Your face is firm and young-looking. In 2035, medical technology is better than ever. Many people at your age could live to be 150, so at 40, you're not old at all. And your parents just had an anti-aging(抗衰老的) treatment. Now, all three of you look the same age!

    You say to your shirt, "Turn red." It changes from blue to red. In 2035, "smart clothes" contain particles(粒子) much smaller than the cells in your body. The particles can be programmed to change clothes' color or pattern.

    You walk into the kitchen. You pick up the milk, but a voice says," You shouldn't drink that!" Your fridge has read the chip (芯片) that contains information about the milk, and it Knows the milk is old. In 2035, every article of food in the grocery store has such a chip.

    It's time to go to work. In 2035, cars drive themselves. Just tell your "smart car" where to go. On the way, you can call a friend using your jacket sleeve. Such "smart technology" is all around you.

    So will all these things come true? "For new technology to succeed," says scientist Andrew Zolli," it has to be so much better that it replaces what we have already." The Internet is one example what will be the next.

    The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th of the first month of the lunar calendar. This day is always the first full moon in the new year. Ancient people also called it Shangyuan Festival. Celebrations and traditions on this day began from the Han Dynasty and became popular in the Tang Dynasty.

    Watching the red lanterns is one of the main traditions. Lanterns of different shapes and sizes are usually put on trees, or along river banks on show. It is said that sky lanterns were first used by Zhuge Kongming to ask for help when he was in trouble. Today, when the lanterns slowly rise into the air, people make wishes. Another tradition is guessing lantern riddles. The riddles are usually short, wise, and sometimes humorous. The answer to a riddle can be a Chinese character, a famous person's name, or a place name.

    The most important thing is to eat sweet dumplings with different tastes. In northern China, they are called yuanxiao while in southern part they're named tangyuan. Because making sweet dumplings is like a game or an activity, they are usually done happily by a group of friends or family members.

    In old times, the Lantern Festival was also a good time for young people to find love. Watching lanterns gave young people a chance to meet each other. And there were many romantic stories about this festival. A line from Xin Qiji, a poet during the Song Dynasty, shows this, "Hundreds and thousands of times I searched for her in the crowd. Suddenly I turned, and there she stood in the dim light. "

    In a word, the Lantern Festival has brought us Chinese so much fun and joy over the years. We hope the young people can carry on these traditions and take pride in Chinese culture.

You've probably heard it a dozen times by now. But here it goes again: Sleep is important. Your mental health and immune (免疫时)system are connected to your sleeping habits. So are your grades, a new study finds. Sleep accounts for nearly one-fourth of the difference among students' grades in a class. So even if you spend hours studying for a test but get too little sleep, you might still do poorly.

Typically, people's sleep schedules are messy and can not be known in advance. Professor Jeffrey Grossman of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge wanted to see if sleep links to people's learning performance even when a study was done with people who kept such true-to-life schedules at home. So he turned to Fitbits, which can check how long people sleep and how frequently they wake up. And the researchers looked for 100 students. They focused on these students' sleep patterns in the days and weeks before exams and then compared them to these students' test scores.

"How much time a person sleeps the night. before an exam doesn't affect that person's grade," Grossman says. "A student who sleeps 7 hours every night will do better than a student who sleeps 7.5 hours one night and 6.5 hours another night."

"It's important for people to know that if their Fitbits tell them that they have terrible sleep, that may not actually be so," Michael Scullin, a sleep scientist at Baylor University says. Grossman also raises this point. Fitbit, Inc. makes this advanced tool. But it doesn't share how its tool works. This leaves a question about whether the tool is really correct when checking a student's sleep. Even so, Scullin emphasizes that there are enough data supporting ties between sleep and how well someone performs.

"Students need more sleep and less late evening use of phones and other screens. Even with after-school activities and schoolwork, they need to get enough sleep," Grossman says.