In the old days, children were familiar with birth and death as part of life. Now this is perhaps the first generation of American youngsters who have never been close by during of the birth a baby and have never experienced the death of a family member.

    Nowadays when people grow old, we often send them to nursing homes. When they get sick, we send them to a hospital, where children are forbidden to visit terminally （晚期的）in patients— even when those patients are their parents. This deprives（剥夺）the dying patient of family members during the last few days of his life and it deprives the children of an experience of death, which is an important learning experience.

    Some of my colleagues and I once interviewed and followed about 500 terminally in order to find out what they could teach us and how we could be of more benefit, not just to them but to the members of their families as well. We were most impressed by the fact that even those patients who were not told of their serious illness were quite aware of its potential（潜在的）outcome.

    It is important for family members, and doctors and nurses to understand these patients' communication in order to truly understand their needs, fears and fantasies （幻想）. Most of our patients welcomed another human being with whom they could talk openly, honestly, and frankly about their trouble. Many of them shared with us their great need to be informed, to be kept up —to —date on their medical condition and to be told when the end was near. We found out that patients who had been dealt with openly and frankly were better able to cope with the coming of detach and finally to reach a true stage of acceptance before death.

    When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet (图章) ring. They were the "in" thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials(姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.

    What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn't being "replaced". We'd been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the " new" stuff (东西) we got was really just to replace what we'd lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.

    Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took it off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.

    Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents' when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn't my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. " You'll recognize this one," she said, smiling.

    Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it, they realized who owned the ring. They'd had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.

    Modem zoos are different from those built fifty years ago.At that time zoos were places where people could go to see animals from many parts of the world.The animals lived in cages with iron bars（栅栏）.Although the zoo keepers took good care of them,many of the animals did not feel comfortable,and they often fell ill.

    In modern zoos,people can see animals in more natural conditions.The animals are given more freedom in larger places so that they can live as they would in nature.Even the appearance of zoos has changed.Trees and grass grow in cages,and water flows through the places the animals live in.There are few bars;instead,there is often a deep ditch（沟）,filled with water,which surrounds a space where several sorts of animals live together as they would naturally.In an American zoo,the visitors can walk through a special huge cage that is filled with trees,some small animals and many birds,and large enough for the birds to live naturally.In a zoo in New York,with the use of special nights,people can observe certain animals that are active only at night,when most zoos are dosed.Some zoos have special places for visitors to watch animals that live in the desert or under water.

    Modern zoos not only show animals to visitors,but also keep and save rare animals.For this reason,fifty years from now,the grandchildren of today's visitors will still be able to enjoy watching these animals.

    Everyone knows that if a dog's ears are up and its tail is wagging vigorously, it is definitely pleased to see you. but now scientists using a robot have found that the way dogs use their tails is more complicated than we thought, and that dogs which wag them to the left may he more friendly. The animal psychologists discovered that when real dogs approached a life-sized robot dog, they were less cautious about it when it was wagging its tail to the left, while if it was wagging its tail to the right, far fewer dogs approached it in a confident manner.

    In the first experiments, 56 percent of the animals approached the model without hesitation when the tail was wagged to the left, while only 21 percent did so in the other situation. When the researchers excluded (排除) owners from being present, the result were: 31 percent of the dogs approached continuously when the tail was wagging to the left, while only 18 percent did so when it was on the right.

    Animal psychologist Roger Mugford said it added to the growing evidence that does were even more complicated communicators than the animals more closely related to man such as monkeys. He said, “We know that dogs, in a sense, have languages, but it is more complicated because it is not just them wagging their tails, but also giving out chemical displays.”

    He adds, “The research confirms earlier studies suggesting that dogs, like humans, had a left-side preference. If you are going to present a signal to a dog, it is sensible to put it on your left-hand side because that is where dogs, unlike most other animals, tend to look. It is another example of the similarity between dogs and humans. They are a lot more human than we give them credit for.”

    Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona. He moved there a few years ago, and I was eager to see his new place and meet his friends.

    My earliest memories of my father are of a tall, handsome, successful man devoted to his work and family but uncomfortable with his children. As a child I loved him, as a school girl and young adult I feared him and felt bad about him. He seemed unhappy with me unless I got straight A's and unhappy with my boyfriends if their fathers were not as "successful" as he was. Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to struggle to think up things to say, feeling on guard.

    On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father's friends for lunch at an outdoor cafe. We walked along that afternoon, did some shopping, ate at the street table, and laughed over my son's funny facial expressions. Gone was my father's critical（挑剔的）air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around? What had held him back before?

    The next day my dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him at that moment. After so many years, I'm at last seeing another side of my father. And in so doing, I'm delighted with my new friend. My dad, in his new home in Arizona, is back to me from where he is.

    Traditionally, robots have been hard, made of metal and other rigid material. But a team of scientists at Harvard University in the US has managed to build an entirely soft robot-one that draws inspiration from an octopus (章鱼).

    Described in science journal Nature, the "Octobot" could pave the way for more effective autonomous robots that could be used in search，rescue and exploration. "The Octobot is minimal system which may serve as a foundation for a new generation of completely soft, autonomous robots" the study's authors wrote.

Robots built for precise, repetitive movements in a controlled environment don't do so well on rough terrains (地形) or in unpredictable conditions. And they aren't especially safe around humans, because they're made out of hard and heavy parts that could be potentially dangerous to their users.

    So researchers have been working on building soft robots for decades. They're taken inspiration from nature, looking to animals from jellyfish to cockroaches, which are often made up of more flexible matter.

    But creating a completely soft robot remains a challenge. Even if engineers build a silicone (硅酮) body, it's still a grand challenge to construct flexible versions of essential parts, such as a source of power.

    "Although soft robotics is still in its early stage, it holds great promise for several applications, such as search-rescue operations and exploration," Barbara Mazzolai and Virgilio Mattoli of the Italian Institute of Technology' Center for Micro-BioRobotics, wrote in a comment. "Soft robots might also open up new approaches to improving wellness and quality of life."