Recently, a cartoon created by studentsfrom China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities bury themselves in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie in front of a car accident site, and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobilephone. A chain of similar events eventually leads to the destruction of theworld.

    Although the ending sounds overstated the damage phubbing can bring is real.

    Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. “Constantly bending your head to check your cellphone could damage your neck,” Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying. “the neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching.” Also, staring at cellphones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, accordingto the report.

    But that's not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people tend to stick to their cellphones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.

    It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight.

    Some people are pessimistic(悲观的) when they think about the future. They say that, a hundred years from now, we will have used up most of the earth's resources. We will have made our seas so dirty that we will not be able to eat fish from them. There will be so many people in the world that we will have to use all the countryside for housing; there will be no farmland left.

    Other people have a different idea about the future. In their view, the city of the future will be a huge pyramid-shaped(金字塔形的) building, which will be floating on the surface of the sea. About 5,000 families will live there, and there will also be schools, shops in it.

In a hundred years' time, people will not need to use oil. They will heat their homes with power from the sun.

    Think of space. Perhaps a station will be set up on the moon; people will be able to visit the moon as tourists. They may even spend their holidays in space, travelling from planet to planet.

What an interesting picture!

    Many people don't think about the future. “I don't care. I'll be dead. ”they say. But it is our duty to care because the world of a hundred years' time will be the world of our children's and their children after them.

    Regarded as one of the English language's most gifted poets, John Keats wrote poetry that concentrated on imagery, human nature, and philosophy. Although Keats didn't receive much formal literary education, his own studies and passion brought him much success. Additionally, his own life situation influenced his poetry greatly.

    Growing up as a young boy in London in a lower middle-class family, the young John didn't attend a private school, but went to a public one. His teachers and his family's friends regarded him as an optimistic boy who favored playing and fighting much more than minding his studies. After his father's death in the early 1800s, followed by his mother's passing due to tuberculosis (肺结核), he began viewing life differently. He wanted to escape the world and did so by reading anything he could get his hands on.

    At around the age of 16, the teenage John Keats began studying under a surgeon so that he too might become a doctor. However, his literary appetite had taken too much of his fancy, especially with his addiction to the poetry of Ehmund Spenser. He was able to have his first full poem published in the Examiner in 1816, entitledO Solitude!If I Must With Thee Dwell. Within two months in 1817, Keats had written an entire volume of poetry, but was sharply criticized by a magazine. However, the negative response didn't stop his pursuit of rhythm.

    John Keats' next work was Endymion, which was published in May 1818. The story involves a shepherd who falls in love with the moon goddess and leads him on an adventure of one boy's hope to overcome the limitations of being human. Following Engymion, however, he tried something more narrative-based and wrote Isabella. During this time, John Keats began seeing his limitations in poetry due to his own limit in life experiences. He would have to have the “knowledge” associated with his poems. His next work wasHyperionthat would attempt to combine all that he learned. However, a bout (发作) with tuberculosis while visiting Italy would keep him from his work and eventually take his life in 1821.

    I serve as an educator and health care provider as well, therefore, I have worked with numerous children infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The relationships that I have had with these special kids have been gifts in my life. They have taught me so many things, but I have especially learned that great courage can be found in the smallest of packages. Let me tell you about Tyler.

    Tyler was born infected with HIV: his mother was also infected.From the very beginning of his life, he was dependent on medications to enable him to survive.When he was five, he had a tube surgically inserted in a vein in his chest.This tube was connected to a pump, which he carried in a small backpack on his back. Medications were hooked up to this pump and were continuously supplied through this tube to his bloodstream.At times, he also needed supplemented oxygen to support his breathing.

    Tyler wasn't willing to give up one single moment of his childhood to this deadly disease.It was not unusual to find him playing and racing around his backyard, wearing his medicine-laden backpack and dragging his tank of oxygen behind him in his little wagon.All of us who knew Tyler marveled at his pure joy in being alive and the energy it gave him.Tyler's mom often teased him by telling him that he moved so fast that she needed to dress him in red.That way, when she peered through the window to check on him playing in the yard, she could quickly spot him.

    This dreaded disease eventually wore down even the likes of a little dynamo (精力充沛的人) like Tyler. He grew quite ill and, unfortunately, so did his HIV-infected mother.When it became apparent that he wasn't going to survive, Tyler's mom talked to him about death.She comforted him by telling Tyler that she was dying too, and that she would be with him soon in heaven.

    A few days before his death, Tyler beckoned me over to his hospital bed and whispered, “I might die soon.I'm not scared.When I die, please dress me in red.Mom promised she's coming to heaven, too.I'll be playing when she gets there, and I want to make sure she can find me.”

    Have you ever found yourself in this situation: You hear a song you used to sing when you were a child — a bit of nostalgia (怀旧) or “blast from the past,” as we say. But it is not a distant childhood memory. The words come back to you as clearly as when you sang them all those years ago.

    Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied the relationship between music and remembering a foreign language. They found that remembering words in a song was the best way to remember even one of the most difficult languages.

    Here is what they did. Researchers took 60 adults and randomly divided them into three groups of 20. Then they gave the groups three different types of “listen-and-repeat” learning conditions. Researchers had one group simply speak the words. They had the second group speak the words to a rhythm, or beat. And they asked the third group to sing the words.

    All three groups studied words from the Hungarian language for 15 minutes. Then they took part in a series of language tests to see what they remembered.

    Why Hungarian, you ask? Researchers said they chose Hungarian because not many people know the language. It does not share any roots with Germanic or Romance languages, such as Italian or Spanish. After the tests were over, the singers came out on top. The people who learned these new Hungarian words by singing them showed a higher overall performance. They did the best in four out of five of the tests. They also performed two times better than those who simply learned the words by speaking them.

    Dr. Katie Overy says singing could lead to new ways to learn a foreign language. The brain likes to remember things when they are contained in a catchy or memorable tune.

    Dr. Ludke said the findings could help those who struggle to learn foreign languages. On the University of Edinburgh's website Dr. Ludke writes, “This study provides the first experimental evidence that a listen-and-repeat singing method can support foreign language learning, and opens the door for future research in this area.”

The Kids' Farm

    While kids visit vegetable plots and animal contact areas, they will learn that most of the food we eat every day comes from farms, and that taking care of animals takes time, commitment and knowledge.

    Kids can see our cows, donkeys, goats, alpacas, pigs, etc. and learn all about looking after farm animals. At the Caring Corral, they will have a chance to touch cows and donkeys, under staff members' supervision.

    Please Note:

    ●Any time you touch an animal, there is a risk of spreading germs (细菌). Visitors to the Kids' Farm should wash their hands after touching the animals.

    ●The Caring Corral is open only when the staff are available; hours are limited.

    ●The Kids' Farm uses pizza to teach kids how many kinds of food grow. Hands-on exhibits show how pizza ingredients go from the farm to the pizza. The Pizza Garden has slice-shaped plots of growing ingredients, including tomatoes, wheat and herbs.

    ●The 22-foot-wide Giant Pizza gives kids a place to play with oversized toppings and each other.

    ● During the busier season (beginning in June), a free shuttle picks up visitors in need of a lift at the Kids' Farm and drops them off at the Panda Plaza/the Bus Lot from 11 a. m. to 6 p.m.