Like most people, I was brought up to look upon life as a process of getting. It was not until in my late thirties that I made this important discovery: giving away makes life much more exciting. You need not worry if you lack money.

    This is how I experimented with giving away. If an idea for improving the window display of a neighborhood store flashes to me, I step in and make the suggestion to the storekeeper. One discovery I made about giving away is that it is almost impossible to give away anything in this world without getting something back, though the return often comes in an unexpected form.

    One Sunday morning, the local post office delivered an important special delivery letter to my home, though it was addressed to me at my office. I wrote the postmaster a note of appreciation. More than a year later I needed a post office box for a new business I was starting. I was told at the window that there were no boxes left, and that my name would have to go on a long waiting list. As I was about to leave, the postmaster appeared in the doorway. He had overheard(无意中听到) our conversation. “Wasn't it you that wrote us that letter a year ago about delivering a special delivery to your home？” I said yes. “Well, you certainly are going to have a box in this post office if we have to make one for you. You don't know what a letter like that means to us. We usually get nothing but complaints.”

    Papa, as a son of a dirt-poor farmer, left school early and went to work in a factory, for education was for the rich then. So, the world became his school. With great interest, he read everything he could lay his hands on, listened to the town elders and learned about the world beyond his tiny hometown.“There's so much to learn,” he'd say. “Though we're born stupid, only the stupid remain that way.” He was determined that none of his children would be denied (拒绝) an education.

    Thus, Papa insisted that we learn at least one new thing each day. Though, as children, we thought this was crazy, it would never have occurred to us to deny Papa a request. And dinner time seemed perfect for sharing what we had learned. We would talk about the news of the day; no matter how insignificant, it was never taken lightly. Papa would listen carefully and was ready with some comment, always to the point.

    Then came the moment—the time to share the day's new learning. Papa, at the head of the table, would push back his chair and pour a glass of red wine, ready to listen.

     “Felice,” he'd say, “tell me what you learned today.”

     “I learned that the population of Nepal is ....”

    Silence.

    Papa was thinking about what was said, as if the salvation of the world would depend upon it. “The population of Nepal. Hmm. Well….” he'd say. “Get the map; let's see where Nepal is.” And the whole family went on a search for Nepal.

    This same experience was repeated until each family member had a turn. Dinner ended only after we had a clear understanding of at least half a dozen such facts.

    As children, we thought very little about these educational wonders. Our family, however, was growing together, sharing experiences and participating in one another's education. And by looking at us, listening to us, respecting our input, affirming our value, giving us a sense of dignity, Papa was unquestionably our most influential teacher.

    Later during my training as a future teacher, I studied with some of the most famous educators. They were imparting what Papa had known all along—the value of continual learning. His technique has served me well all my life. Not a single day has been wasted, though I can never tell when knowing the population of Nepal might prove useful.

    For those who are tired doing the laundry, Samsung has found an answer: a washing machine that can tell you when your laundry is done via a smartphone app(application).

    Strange though it may seem — “my wife already does that” was a common response among attendees viewing the device when it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week — Samsung is just one of many appliance makers racing to install (安装) a large number of internet-connected features in machines in an effort to make them “smart”.

    Last year, it was a refrigerator that tweeted. This year, it's Wi-Fi-enabled laundry machines and fridges that can tell you when your groceries are going bad.

    The washers and dryers, available starting in the spring, connect to any smartphone through a downloadable application. The phone can then be used as a remote control, so the machines can be turned on and off while their owners are at work or on the bus.

    Samsung says it's not just something new — the app connection actually has some practical uses.

     “If you started to dry clothes in the morning and forgot to take them out, you can go to your phone and restart your dryer for the time when come home, so your clothes are refreshed and ready to go,” said spokesperson Amy Schmidt.

    The company also says that with electricity rate(电价)varying depending on the time of day, more control over when the machines are used can help save money.

    Perhaps, but what they will probably really accomplish is what all good technologies do —enable laziness. Rather than getting up to check on whether the laundry is done, users will instead monitor it on their phones while watching TV.

C

    Are you looking for a different place to visit this summer? Why not take a magical trip to an Earth-size planet beyond our solar system with NASA's Planet Travel Center?

    We live in a universe full of planets outside our solar system. Unluckily, even the nearest of those planets are light-years away, so sending spaceships and humans to these attracting worlds remains a distant dream. But on NASA's Planet Exploration website, you can start a journey on an imagined globe of a new world through 360-degree visualization（可视化）. As you land onto each globe's ground, you'll discover amazing views, like the blood-red sky of TRAPPIST-1d, or stand on a moon of the huge planet Kepler-16b, which appears larger than either of the planet's two suns. The view from each planet's ground is an artist's impression based on the limited information that is reachable; no real photos of these planets exist.

    The newest planet with such 360-degree visualization is Kepler-186f, an Earth-size planet rounding a star much cooler and redder than the Sun. “Kepler-186f is also so distant, and it is till now impossible to recognize their atmospheres—if they exist at all—or characterize their atmospheric qualities,” said Martin Still, scientist for NASA's newest space-based planet-hunting program, wondering people's reaction to their creation. “Though with such challenges unsettled, using the NASA visualization tool, you can see how the existence and disappearing of an atmosphere would change the view of the sky from the planet's ground.” Still added.

    Aaron, head of Planet Travel Center, points out that their present and future schedules of the globe visualization will find the nearest planets to our solar system and characterize their atmospheres, bridging the gap between our imagination and what's really out there. In the near future, all the 360-degree visualizations are viewable on desktop and mobile devices, like smartphones, allowing all readers a wonderful enjoyment from the possibilities of a new world.

    You may be surprised to learn that English gets 30 to 45 percent of its words from French. The reason goes back to the year 1066, when Norman forces invaded（入侵）what is now Britain. The Normans were from northern France and spoke French. During the Norman occupation, French became the language of England's rulers and wealthy class. This lasted for more than 300 years. Other people in England continued to speak English during this period.

    Over time, the two languages combined and shared words. Some researchers believe that about 10,000 French words eventually entered the English language. However, although English took many French words, their meanings have not always stayed the same. Sometimes the differences in meanings can be very important, and lead to funny or strange situations if the words are used in the wrong way.

    Take, for example, the French word college. In English, college can often be used in place of the word university, or sometimes as a school within a university. However, in French, college actually means “middle school”, or the level of schooling for students in grades five or six through eight.

    There are many other similar words in the two languages with completely different meanings. In English, the word chat is a verb which means “to talk casually”; but in French, the word chat is the word for an animal: a cat.

    If an English speaker says someone is jolly, that means they are cheerful or friendly. But in French, jolie means someone is good-looking or pleasant to look at. In any case, both are nice things to say to someone.