Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.

    Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting(收缩) and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.

    Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: “Our Study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart.”

The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, “The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see一and guide whether we see fear.”

To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner(扫描仪) to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear.

“We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak' to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear,” Dr Garfinkel said.

    “We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder.”

    If you have spent any time living in or visiting a big city in China, you have most likely used the service that Didi provides. The convenient ride-sharing company, now known as Didi Chuxing, was praised last month by Fortune magazine. According to the magazine, it is changing the world with its environmentally friendly solution to getting around in major cities. As the magazine reported: “Didi concluded that last year its car-pooling services helped reduce total car trips in the country by 1 million a day, which saved 500 million liters of gas, cutting 13.5 million tons of carbon emissions (排放) per day.” The transport service was the only Chinese company to make the important magazine's list, and its influence can be felt in many parts of Chinese society.

    Didi is just one example of what is being called the “sharing economy”. The sharing economy is one in which regular people exchange goods and services, usually using an online marketplace. Other similar companies include companies that allow people to rent out their homes to strangers like Airbnb and Couchsurfing, and similar ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

    All of these services are possible partly because many people are realizing that they have underused assets in their lives. Millions of people around the world have started renting them out online to earn extra money. They rent their apartments while they are away for the weekend, lend people their cars for money and even sell their spare time.

    The sharing economy is the latest example of the Internet's value to customers. This model is now big enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its great potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.

    Arriving in Sydney on his own from India, my husband, Rashid, stayed in a hotel for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children.

    During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone. He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport.

    He reported the case to the police and then sat there，lost and lonely in strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one.

    Late in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to pronounce my husband's name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can（垃圾桶）that had been left out on the footpath.

    My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers. Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend.

    That family not only restored the important documents to us that day but also restored our faith and trust in people. We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way.

    Most Europeans want small cars. Many Americans prefer large cars. As a result, European automakers produce a large number of economical, light weight cars, while American automakers build bigger, heavier cars.

    The price of gas has much to do with this. The petrol is expensive in Europe, so Europeans naturally prefer cars that will go a long way on a small amount of fuel. There are other reasons. Many European cities have very narrow streets. In these cities a small car is more practical and easier to handle than a large one.

    Some Americans like powerful engines in their cars. They enjoy having wider cars that are comfortable for large families and long trips. They are prepared to pay higher costs to get these advantages. Other Americans, however, have learned to like the small and smart cars. Many visitors to Europe during and after World War I discovered that small cars were fun to drive and easy to park in small spaces. They were delighted to learn how far small cars could go on a few gallons of gasoline.

    In the 1950s many Americans began buying European cars. In 1957, for the first time, the United States imported more cars than it exported. The best seller among these imported cars was a cool-looking but small car from Germany. Americans immediately gave it another name “ the bug”.

    Today, American car buyers have a wider choice. There are big cars for people who want large room, comfort, and power. And there are small cars, mostly imported but some American-made, for people who want easy parking and economical operation.

Fourteen-year-old Harini Logan won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last Thursday, defeating 12-year-old Vikram Raju in a tie-breaker. It's the first time the con test has ever been decided by a tie-breaking round of spelling.

A spelling bee is a contest where players take turns spelling words. Players who spell a word wrong are out of the contest. As the con test goes on, the words get more difficult. Normally, the contest ends when there's only one player left who hasn't made a mistake. Though the bee is mainly about spelling, since 2021 it has changed slightly to also focus on the meaning of the words. During parts of the contest, students were asked to choose the correct meaning of a word.

That caused trouble for Harini. She was asked about the meaning of the word "pullulation". She said the word described the nesting of birds. The con test organizers had expected the answer the "swarming of bees". Harini was removed from the contest. But soon she was back in—the judges double checked and learned that Harini's definition was also correct. One by one, the other students spelled a word wrong and got out. Finally, only Harini and Vikram were left.

The Scripps bee has been running for over 90 years. Many times it ended in a tie. As a result, the contest organizers changed the rules. They added a "spell-off" to the contest to make future ties much less likely. In the spell-off, Vikram and Harini each took turns trying to spell the words they were asked, but both made mistakes. At one point, Harini could have won by spelling the word "drimys"（a kind of plant）correctly. But she missed It.

That put the two into a super tie-breaking event, where they were each given 10 second s to correctly spell as many words as they could. In 90 seconds, Vikram had spelled 13 words correctly. Harini had 21 correct spellings, making her the new winner.

Last year I moved to a new city with my husband and daughter. So during the first months we were busy getting 1 . This place is very different from where I lived before and we had a lot of 2 .

Then things were running 3 due to our efforts. So we decided to conduct a small ceremony at home in 4 of our success in adjusting to the new life. After the simple ceremony, we still had some food 5 . Our daughter suggested that she go with her father and look for someone who 6 all these food.

Hearing the 7 of my daughter, my husband offered to take her in his car to the nearby areas. But after a long time, they 8 to find a suitable one. They were about to return home suddenly when my daughter 9 an old man sitting under a tree. He looked 10 , tired and anxious.

My husband stopped the car and my daughter 11 the man and handed him the food packets. The surprised person looked at my daughter and asked if those item s were for him. When he listened to the 12 answer, he smiled, thanked my daughter a lot and started eating. After a short chat with the man, they went back home happily. The 13 on my daughter's face made me feel 14 a hungry human was a correct thing. It added to our happiness — I had the 15 to conduct an act of kindness.