If Confucius（孔子）were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He'd need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.

    While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It's nothing personal.  Most Americans don't even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.

    But this doesn't mean that Americans don't care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.

In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually included Chinese art, history and philosophy（哲学）. Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantages of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Westerners philosophy.  Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese.  So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States.

    Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers. 

    So the old thinker's ideas are still alive and well.

    Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.

    As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.

    A new study shows students who write notes by hand during lectures perform better on exams than those who use laptops(笔记本电脑)．

    Students are increasingly using laptops for note­taking because of speed and legibility(清晰度)．But the research has found laptop users are less able to remember and apply the concepts they have been taught.

    Researchers performed experiments that aimed to find out whether using a laptop increased the tendency to make notes “mindlessly” by taking down word for word what the professors said.

    In the first experiment，students were given either a laptop or pen and paper. They listened to the same lectures and were told to use their usual note­taking skills. Thirty minutes after the talk，they were examined on their ability to remember facts and on how well they understood concepts.

    The researchers found that laptop users took twice as many notes as those who wrote by hand. However，the typists performed worse at remembering and applying the concepts. Both groups scored similarly when it came to memorizing facts.

    The researchers' report said，“While more notes are beneficial，if the notes are taken mindlessly，as is more likely the case on a laptop，the benefit disappears.”

    In another experiment aimed at testing long­term memory，students took notes as before but were tested a week after the lecture. This time，the students who wrote notes by hand performed significantly better on the exam.

    These two experiments suggest that handwritten notes are not only better for immediate learning and understanding，but that they also lead to superior revision in the future.

    Native to America, the cane toad (癞蛤蟆) was introduced to Northern Queensland 70 years ago to control sugarcane beetles (甘蔗害虫). The toads failed in that duty but spread across Queensland and into neighboring northern areas.

    Now it calmly invades(侵略) the stats of Western Australia and New South Wales ( NSW). NSW wildlife experts fear the amphibians － which have poisonous backs that kill hungry predators (食肉动物) 一will have a terrible effect on native animals.

    Those fears may be about to be realized. Australia's leading government research body, the Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organization (CSIRO), forecasts that a rise in average temperatures will make NSW an ideal living place for the cane toads.

    Tony Robinson, head of CSIRO's Wildlife, Pests, and Diseases Program, said climate change is increasing the amount of suitable living place for the cane toads.

    “With climate change, the cane toads might go down as far as Sydney and some areas of Western Australia,” Robinson said.

Recent estimates put the pace of the toads' westward march at nearly 17 miles (27 kilometers) a year and slightly slower from north to south.

    “More southerly (南部的) cities, such as Melbourne and Adelaide, would likely remain too cold and dry to ever suit the toads,” Robinson noted, “but Perth could expect cane toads in five years' time.”

    Sydney could see their arrival in the next 20 years.

    Robinson said there is no method that will keep the toads under control.

    The cane toads already cover at least half of Queensland and most of the northern country. The toads are believed to number in the billions.

    A Venezuelan virus was tried in the 1990s but had to be given up after it was found to also kill native frog species. Scientists and governmental bodies believe a national approach is needed.

    The main threat the toads cause to species such as dingoes, and crocodiles is the poison contained in glands (腺) on each of their shoulders. The poison sprays out when the toads are threatened or handled roughly. The poison is made up of 14 different chemicals.

    Cane toads also compete, and usually win, the hunt for food and living space.

    "”If the government and other states combine resources, I believe we can achieve a very practical biological-control research program,” Bums said.

    Camping wild is a wonderful way to experience the natural world and, at its best, it makes little environmental influence. But with increasing numbers of people wanting to escape into the wilderness, it is becoming more and more important to camp unobtrusively (不引人注目地) and leave no mark.

    Wild camping is not permitted in many places, particularly in crowded low—land Britain. Wherever you are, find out about organizations responsible for managing wild spaces, and contact them to find out their policy on camping and shelter building. For example, it is fine to camp wild in remote parts of Scotland, but in England you must ask the landowner's permission, except in national parks.

    Camping is about having relaxation, sleeping outdoors, experiencing bad weather, and making do without modem conveniences. A busy, fully—equipped campsite (野营地) seems to go against this, so seek out smaller, more remote places with easy access to open spaces and perhaps beaches. Better still, find a campsite with no road access; walking in makes a real adventure.

    Finding the right spot to camp is the first step to guaranteeing a good night's sleep. Choose a campsite with privacy and minimum influence on others and the environment. Try to use an area where people have obviously camped before rather than creating a new spot. When camping in woodland, avoid standing dead trees, which may fall on a windy night. Avoid animal runs and caves, and possible homes of biting insects. Make sure you have most protection on the windward side. If you make a fire, do so downwind of your shelter. Always consider what influence you might have on the natural world. Avoid damaging plants. A good campsite is found, not made—changing it should be unnecessary.

    Audrey Hepburn(奥黛丽·赫本) won an Academy Award as Best Actress for her first major American movie, Roman Holiday, which was released in 1953. But she is remembered as much for her aid work as for her acting.

    Born in Belgium in 1929, Audrey's father was British and her mother was Dutch. Audrey was sent to live at a British school for part of her childhood. During World War II, she lived and studied in the Netherlands. Her mother thought it would be safe from German attacks. Audrey studied dance as a teenager and during college. But when she returned to London after the war she realized she wasn't going to be a ballerina (芭蕾舞女演员). So she began taking acting parts in stage shows. Late she began to get small parts in movies.

    But it was Audrey Hepburn's move to America in 1950s that brought her true fame. In 1951 she played the character “Gigi” in the Broadway play of the same name and received great critical praise. Two years later, Roman Holiday made her a star at the age of 24.

    Audrey Hepburn made more than 25 movies. Among her roles, the most popular one was Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961. Three years later she played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

    She was married two times and had one child with each husband. In 1989, the UN Children's Fund named Audrey a goodwill amassador. She travelled all over the world in support of UNICEF（联合国儿童基金会）projects. The UN agency said she was a tireless worker. She often gave 15 interviews a day to gain money and support for UNICEF projects.

    Audrey Hepburn often said her loyalty to UNICEF was the result of her experiences as a child during World War II. She said she knew what it was like to be starving and to be saved by international aid. She was a goodwill amassador until her death in 1993 from colon cancer.

New research into a long-lived tree has shown some of the tricks that have helped it survive for thousands of years. The ginkgo(银杏树) is a huge, slow-growing tree with fan-shaped leaves, native to China, but planted in parks and gardens across the world. Some of the largest ginkgoes are said to be more than 3, 000 years old.

In order to discover how these and other trees can live for so long, scientists from the US and China studied 34 healthy ginkgoes of different ages. The team studied growth rings in each tree's trunk(树干), as well as cells(细胞) from the bark, leaves and seeds. They found that 600-year-old trees were just as healthy as 2-year-olds.

To learn more, the team then looked in detail at the DNA of nine trees aged between three and 667 years old. DNA is the chemical in the cells of plants and animals that holds instructions that tell any living thing how to grow and develop-including what to do at different times in its life At the beginning of a tree's life, DNA instructs the cells in a seedling to divide quickly so the tree grows rapidly. The cells also make special chemicals to help the young plant survive difficult situations, such as disease. As most trees grow older, their DNA tells their cells to divide more slowly (so growth slows down) and to make fewer chemical defenses(防御).

Ginkgoes, however, do things differently. The team found that although their growth finally slows, both young and old trees make protective chemicals." The secret is keeping a really healthy defense system," said researcher Richard Dixon." As ginkgoes age, they show no sign of weakening their ability to defend themselves from things like disease. "Other trees that live for a long time may have the same ability.

For all their defenses, though, ginkgoes cannot live forever--they finally meet with deadly accidents such as fire, disease and storms. While they last, however, these leafy trees are some of the most beautiful trees in the world.