A qualified doctor who rarely practiced but instead devoted his life to writing．He once said: “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my lover．” Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, was a great playwright and one of the masters of the modern short story．

    When Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School in 1879, he started to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support his family．After he graduated, he wrote regularly for a local daily newspaper．

    As a writer he was extremely fast, often producing a short story in an hour or less．Chekhov's medical and science experience can be seen through the indifference (冷漠) many of his characters show to tragic events．In 1892, he became a full time writer and published some of his most memorable stories．

    Chekhov often wrote about the sufferings of life in small town Russia．Tragic events control his characters who are filled with feelings of hopelessness and despair．

    It is often said that nothing happens in Chekhov's stories and plays．He made up for this with his exciting technique for developing drama within his characters．Chekhov's work combined the calm attitude of a scientist and doctor with the sensitivity(敏感) of an artist．

    Some of Chekhov's works were translated into Chinese as early as the 1940s．One of his famous stories, The Man in a Shell, about a school teacher's extraordinarily orderly life, was selected as a text for Chinese senior students．

    An autonomous vehicle designed for making local commerce deliveries was unveiled by Nuro. The vehicle is about the height of an SW but far narrower than a typical car. The electric car features four exterior compartments (暗格) — two on each side — to hold separate deliveries. Each compartment can be tailored to a specific use, such as cooking a pizza or refrigerating a package.

    “We can use self-driving technology to deliver anything, anytime, anywhere for basically all local goods and services,” Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson said. “Consumers used to be okay with two-week paid shipping. It became two-week free delivery, followed by one week, two days, and the same day. Now same-day delivery isn't fast enough for some customers.”

    Nuro isn't alone in building robots for local commerce deliveries. Earlier this month, Toyota, a Japanese car company, unveiled a concept vehicle that could be used for package delivery. A handful of startups — including Starship Technologies, Marble and Dispatch — are testing small robots for deliveries on sidewalks.

    Nuro's vehicle will likely face legal hurdles. Fully autonomous vehicles without a test driver aren't legal in California today, and many companies have shifted testing to states where regulators are more welcoming of autonomous vehicles, such as Arizona.

    Nuro expects to face fewer challenges because it doesn't carry passengers. Nuro's narrow size may also be helpful when navigating streets and avoiding pedestrians. The vehicle isn't equipped with any special features to communicate with pedestrians or other road users. Some companies have tested and patented solutions such as digital screens that signal the car's next move. Ferguson said his team conducted studies and found that such techniques could confuse people. Nuro believes it's better to make sure the car performs predictably, so that human drivers know what to expect from it.

    “We feel by creating this new technology that's going to enable this last mile delivery, we're going to be creating new markets and doing things that previously weren't possible,” Ferguson said. “This is not swapping out Jobs with robots. It's creating new markets. There will definitely be new employment opportunities.”

    Celeste Ng,a new writer,has gained recognition for her first novel,Everything I Never Told You.

    Ng's parents came from Hong Kong,China in the 1960s.Ng was born in America and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,and Shaker Heights,Ohio,in a family of scientists.Celeste went to Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan,where she won the Hopwood Award.

    Although her novel is not about race,the characters are Asian.The main character is Lydia,a teenage girl,who is the favorite of three children born to a white mother and a Chinese-American father.The story is about Lydia's disappearance,and the emotions the family goes through as the mystery unfolds.The whole family deals with sorrow, regret,and exposed secrets as they search for their lost daughter.

    Though the characters in this story are Asian,Ng says she didn't really want to include Asian characters.She was afraid people would think the story was about real people in her life.Because she grew up in America and doesn't speak Chinese,she was actually surprised that she included.Asian characters in the book.

    The book has taken off,especially on Amazon,where it won the Editor's Pick for No.1 Best Book of the Year in 2014.Ng is still getting used to the attention,saying she is still amazed when people tell her they have read her book. With so many readers,it's safe to say this is a book you should read.But if you're looking for a simple mystery,this book might not be for you.Most readers warn that you should not read this book unless you're prepared to cry.

    For twenty years, I saved all my college course notes and textbooks: that's a lot of paper.  Worse, it wasn't easy to carry them around—and trust me, they weren't light — on at least seven moves. Yet I never once looked at them. They sat in our basement, covered in a thick layer of dust. If books and papers could wonder, they'd wonder why they were still under our stairs after all those years. What were my plans for them? When would the Big Day come?

    Well, the Big Day eventually did arrive; only it was different than expected. My wife, always more accepting changes than I am, finally convinced me to clear out the entire mess.

    The pain I experienced was also unexpected. I didn't feel nostalgia(怀旧的), or suffer pains for long-lost magical moments of my education. No, what hurt me was to come across those terrible papers I'd written, reminders of poor study habits, immaturity(不成熟), and an embarrassing lack of comprehension. It was great to get rid of them. I won't have to carry those dusty, filthy(脏兮兮的) things on our next move. But it was also a clearing of personal history. Initially, I struggled with this. My books, my notes, and my papers were primary source materials, documenting an important time in my life. To clear them out was to clear out the truth. What I've learned since taking this leap is that the lesson is more important than the truth. I feel as if much of my real education during my college years isn't in the documents but now in me. So I am glad to free myself of this physical burden of carrying them around. And what's better is that I don't need to look back on those painful moments. They belong to the past.

    You might want to consider doing something similar, either under the stairs of your basement or in your mind. Not so long ago, a very smart person created a new holiday—Discardia!—to be celebrated four times a year. It's a great idea, and every time I clear things out, I feel better physically and psychologically. Discardia's slogan is “Let go of everything that doesn't make your life awesome!” What is the personal rubbish piling in your life? Clear it out and make your life awesome.

    The largest-ever study of the link between city walkability and high blood pressure has been considered as evidence of the "invisible value of urban design" in improving long-term health outcomes, say researchers. The study of around 430,000 people aged between 38 and 73 and living in 22 UK cities found significant connections between the increased walkability of a neighborhood and reduced risk of high blood pressure among its residents (居民).

    The results remained the same even after lifestyles and physical environment were changed, though the protective effects were particularly pronounced among participants aged between 50 and 60, women, and those living in heavily populated areas and poor neighborhoods.

    The paper was published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. With high blood pressure a major risk factor for chronic (慢性的) and particularly heart diseases, researchers at the University of Hong Kong and Oxford University said the findings showed the need to take notice of the health-influencing factor in urban design.

    "We are spending billions of pounds in preventing and curing heart diseases — if we are able to invest in creating healthy cities through small changes in the design of our neighborhoods to make them more activity-friendly and walkable, then probably, we will have significant savings in future healthcare expenses."

    Poorly designed spaces generally reduced walking and physical activity, promoting the lifestyles of long time sitting down and not moving, and were harmful to social communication, and as such related to poorer mental and physical health.

    Because walkability was “based on the potential (潜在的) design of the city", said Dr. Chinmoy Sarkar, cities could be adapted or designed to encourage it. “Such investments in healthy design are likely to bring in long-term gains as they are lasting and common."

China' Forbidden City—-traditionally off-limit at night for anyone except emperors and visiting dignitaries (显要人物)—- was decorated with lanterns as China celebrated the end of the Chinese New Year holiday. The complex, home to Chinese emperors for five centuries, was opened at night for the first time since it was reopened as the Palace Museum 94 years ago.

    The complex and palace walls were illuminated with red lanterns and a light show, designed to recreate the feelings of the royal court, while the China National Traditional Orchestra and the Peking Opera performed. An image of a treasured scroll called A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains was cast onto the palace roof.

    Most of China's 1.3 billion people, however, had to watch the show on television. Only 3,000 people were allowed in: 2,500 invited guests and 500 people who booked their tickets online. "The 3,000 visitors can show off for the whole year," one person said on Weibo. When booking for the second day opened at midnight, the booking system crashed for more than an hour due to great demand. The free tickets were quickly taken when it reopened. A lively secondary market soon appeared. Scalpers were selling tickets for as much as 9,999 yuan on online trading sites.

    The Palace Museum is now on a campaign to attract more visitors, with its former curator Shan Jixiang saying he wants to make traditional Chinese culture more accessible to the general public. More than 80 percent of the palace is now accessible to visitors, up from 30 percent in 2012. Shan has set a target of 85 percent by 2020 to mark the palace's 600^th anniversary. Creativity today has made the Palace Museum younger and drawn traditional culture closer to the public.