Since his students began using Quizlet, English teacher Tristan Thorne has noticed an improvement in their ability to learn and use new words. Quizlet is a learning App, a computer program you use on your mobile phone. It can help users build and test their knowledge of English words. Quizlet has word sets for millions of subjects. And, it is quickly becoming a useful mobile tool for language learners.

    Thorne teachers at Columbia University in New York City. Thanks to learning Apps, Jeff Strack, another English teacher, has also notice improvement in his students' ability to remember information. He teaches at Hostos Community College, also in New York. He and Thorne are part of a growing number of language educators adding mobile Apps to their classes.

    Strack and Thorne seem to agree that the days when teachers would not permit the use of mobile phones are gone. When they use Apps, language learners communicate more differently than in a traditional classroom. Users act on or respond to something, instead of just listening to new information.

    Thorne believes that Apps can help learners become more active in learning. For example, each week, his students are required to add vocabulary words into Quizlet for others to use. He says some Apps also make it easy for students to know their language strengths and weaknesses.

    The biggest improvement Strack has seen in his students is that they are much more active in whole-class or small-group discussions. “Apps let all students take part in the activity, whether it's a game, quiz or practice activity.” he says.

    Many existing learning Apps are designed for students of all ages and levels. Some are designed for group activities. some support independent learning. Still some are good for homework. Thorne says he especially likes Quizlet and three other Apps: QR Codes, Socrative and Evernote.

    Six million people visit Grand Canyon in the US every year. For the purpose of helping project Grand Canyon for your fellow visitors and future generations, please follow the guidelines below.

    Camping

    To protect the park, camping is allowed only within permitted campgrounds. Permits are required for overnight camping at the North Rim. Advance booking can be received by mail. Please write: Information Center, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023.

    Fires

    Because of the extreme fire danger, campfires are not allowed except at Mather and Desert View campgrounds. Collection of firewood is not allowed either.

    Hiking（远足）

    Please stay on permitted paths. Otherwise you may destroy desert plants. Pack out what you pack in, so you leave no signs of your visit. It is important to keep in mind that you are in a national park where wildlife exists.

    Weather

    The weather at Grand Canyon can change very quickly. With so much rock, lightning(闪电) causes a particular danger during sudden summer storms These storms also frequently bring floods inside valleys, a danger to hikers. Watch the skies and check daily weather reports.

    Wildlife

    Do not feed park wildlife. There have been a few cases at Grand Canyon National Park where deer(鹿) were purposely shot because there are plastic bags that left them sick and weak. Hungry deer car be danger and have kicked and bitten visitors at Grand Canyon. Some other animals will also beg and bite. For your own safety and the well-being of the animals, please do not feed wildlife, no matter how gentle they may appear.

    At the end of August this year I moved from London, UK, to a small town in Quebec, Canada, called Matane to work as an English language assistant. Patience is a word that has appeared in many forms over the past two months.

    I don't see myself as being the most patient person in the world but there was something that struck me on my first week of work. I had just finished a session with two students and just as they were leaving the classroom, one of the students turned back and said, “Thank you for your patience.” That was an early reminder of the importance of being patient as a teacher. It also made me reflect on the language teachers that I have had over the years, ones that demonstrated a high level of patience and understanding that has shaped my language learning path. Moreover, it helped me to realize the importance of demonstrating patience in the classroom as it can be the difference between building someone's confidence in a language or breaking down their confidence entirely.

    Living my life constantly in French is not easy but the people of Quebec are very patient. They repeat things several times and they are more than happy to wait while I find the correct words to express myself and find the correct word order. It's a learning process but with the patience of others, the process is slightly less nervous. At the end of the day, making mistakes shows you are trying and I think that is greatly appreciated by Quebecers.

    When I first arrived in Matane I kept getting headaches from having to concentrate all the time due to the language and even overhearing other people's conversations was hard work! I had to keep reminding myself that it would take time, and two months later the headaches are a distant memory and my ears have become more tuned to their accent. The key is to be patient with yourself.

    One of the best-loved American writers was William Sydney Porter, or O. Henry. From 1893 he lived with his family in a house in Austin, Texas, which is now a museum. Visitors to Austin can see the house. It was saved from destruction (破坏) and turned into a museum in1934. The museum is a good way to learn about the interesting life of the American writer.

    William Porter rented this house in Austin and lived there with his wife Athol and daughter Margaret for about two years. Many objects in the museum belonged to the Porters. Others did not. An important piece in the room is the original photograph over here. It was taken there in the house about 1895. The piano there goes back to the 1860s. His wife took lessons on it when she first moved to Austin.

    Porter did not start his career as a successful writer. He worked at a farm, land office and bank. He also loved words and writing. The museumm has a special proof of Porter's love of language—his dictionary. It is said that he had read every word in that dictionary.

    Later William Porter was forced to leave Austin because he was charged with financial wrongdoing at the bank and lost his job. Because he was afraid of a trail (审判), he left the country secretly. But he returned because his wife was dying. After her death, he faced the trial and became a criminal. He served three and a half years in a prison in Ohio.

    William Porter would keep his time in prison a secret. But there was one good thing about it. It provided him with time to write. By the time he was freed, he had published 14 stories and became well known as O. Henry.

    Porter later moved to New York City and found great success there. He published over 180 stories in the last eight years of his life.

    Arthur Dubois isn't your typical grandfather. That's because at 72 years old, the Chicago resident is a newly discovered hip-hop artist.

    This week, Dubois walked into Haven Studios, a music program on the South Side of Chicago that supports young ambitious artists. The owner of Haven Studios, Andre "Add-2" Daniels, said Dubois claimed he was "young at heart." So, Daniels decided to listen to Dubois' music. He was completely floored. Daniels quickly took videos showcasing Dubois' talents and posted them to Twitter. His tweet went viral, receiving thousands of reactions within a matter of days. Now, Dubois' talents have even caught the attention of some famous hip-hop producers.

    "It's not what you would expect, right?" Daniels says in one of the videos. Dubois music is playing in the background, giving a steady beat that easily invites listeners to dance.

    Dubois said his style was entirely self-taught. He first started teaching himself to produce hip-hop beats about six years ago, after he retired. "I found something to do," he told NPR's Scott Simon. "I had to learn how to do the computer and music at the same time." Dubois taught himself by using the audio editing software. Now he's learning another new skill-social media. Dubois' newfound social media fame has been a little overwhelming for him. "I was shocked," he said. "I broke down and cried because I didn't know that many people liked me." Daniels has helped Dubois set up accounts on Twitter and Instagram for his fans to follow, "I'd never used Instargram, Twitter and all that other stuff," Dubois said. "Because I didn't believe in that stuff myself. But now I've got to have it." The attention doesn't seem to have gone to Dubois' head though-he doesn't really care about getting famous or making money. "I just want to put it out there and let other people hear my music."

As the pandemic makes clear, cities are possibly humanity's greatest invention, but cities with huge populations also make us easily suffer from the rapid spread of disease. Yet humans aren't the only species that face this problem. Honeybees have lived social lives for tens of millions of years, making them some of the most experienced in the battle against infection. And over time, natural selection has given them quite a few impressive strategies for reducing transmission within bee groups.

However, these strategies are not enough to prevent every threat. Honeybees are battling their own global disease, for which they were totally not prepared. A parasitic mite (寄生螨) originally existed only in the groups of Asian honeybees, but later jumped to infect Western honey bees. Today, it has spread to every region where honeybees are kept except Australia and a handful of remote islands, quickly becoming a global disease of the bees.

If left untreated, a group of bees will typically die from the mites within two years. These infections, plus farm chemicals and poor nutrition, have forced beekeepers to struggle to keep their bees alive. Of the 2.6 million honeybee groups in the US, over half of them have parasitic mite.

And that's only the count of those bees that are tested and reported; the actual numbers are likely much higher. Beekeepers have still managed to slowly increase the number of groups they keep, on average, but at a much higher cost.

Western honeybees did not grow with parasitic mite, and the Western bees lack the behavioral features those Asian honeybees have, like permanently burying the members infested by parasitic mite and, perhaps the most extreme strategy, where the bees are so sensitive to parasitic mite that they completely die as soon as infected, sacrificing themselves to prevent the mite from reproducing.