Dec.11 marked the 15th anniversary of China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). On that day in 2001, China formally became a member of the WTO. Now the country has grown into the world's second-largest economy and the largest trading country, while millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty. And 15 years on, it's evident that being a WTO member has transformed the nation's everyday lives for the better.

    Imports are now a common sight in Chinese stores and supermarkets, while they were previously rarely seen on shelves. The Chinese now have access to many imports varying from luxury goods like high-end cars and famous brand watches, to daily necessities. China's WTO membership has also made imports less expensive for the Chinese public.

    For instance, since 2005, no tariffs (关税) have been imposed (施加) on Chinese imports of digital cameras and other devices.

    Our education industry has also benefited from China's WTO membership. Many top global universities have joined forces with Chinese ones to establish cooperative education institutions, bringing foreign teaching concepts to Chinese students. For example, New York University Shanghai was jointly founded by New York University and East China Normal University. In addition, an increasing number of Chinese students are furthering their studies abroad, while many foreign students are coming to China to carry out their higher education. According to the Ministry of Education, 523,700 students studied overseas last year, and the number is expected to keep growing this year.

    China's WTO entry has brought benefit not only to the country's people, but also for the rest of the world.

    London has many beautiful parks and gardens, but Kew Gardens and Richmond Park are your best choices.

    Kew Gardens is a Botanical Research Center and it possesses the largest plant collection in the world. With its beautiful lawns（草坪）, formal gardens and greenhouses, it is such a tourist attraction for anybody visiting the capital. Probably the Chinese Pagoda is the most recognizable structure, but the Alpine house, Chokushi-Mon, Kew Palace, Queen Charlotte's Cottage or Shirley Sherwood Gallery are beautiful and interesting attractions as well. Richmond Park is an area of natural beauty and wild life. Like Kew Gardens（just 2 miles away）, Richmond Park has a wonderful variety of plant and animal life.

    If you are planning to visit either of the two parks, you will be thrilled to know that the area has six main car parks, all costing small fees. The disabled, providing a disabled badge（残疾证）, though, can park for free.

    Kew Gardens is open 9:30 am to 3:45 pm during the winter months, and 9:30 to 5:00 pm in the summer months. Richmond Park, however, is open from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm in summer while 7:30 am to 4:00 pm in winter.

    Richmond Park is free of charge, while you need to pay to get into Kew Gardens. The price is fairly small though, with children under the age of 17（when accompanied by an adult）visiting for free.

    More information about Kew Gardens:

    Address: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Rd, London

    E-mail: info@kew.org

    Phone: +44 020 8332 5655

    Website: http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/

    Price: £11.50

    Note: Kew Gardens is one of the most popular visitor attractions in London area and can therefore be extremely crowded during summer months, particularly on summer weekends.

    Whenever we see a button on a doorbell or on a remote, we may press it. This is true in most cases. But some buttons are actually fake(假的), like the "close" button on an elevator.

    Many people are in the habit of pressing the "close" button because they don't have the patience to wait for the elevator doors to shut. But according to experts, the buttons are a complete trick—the doors will not close any faster however hard you press.

    It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, making sure that all elevators stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only firefighters and maintenance workers(维修工) can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys. But to normal elevator riders, the buttons aren't completely useless.

    According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control. Experts have showed that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose. For example, pedestrian crosswalk buttons don't live up to their names. Pressing them used to help make the traffic signals change faster, but that was before computer-controlled traffic signals were introduced.

    But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little "white lies". They still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.

    That habit is here to stay, John Kounios, a psychology professor at Drexel University in the US, told The New York Times. "After all, I've got nothing else to do while waiting. So why not try the chance?"

    As the days get shorter and the chilly weather rolls in, we all want to curl up in a blanket and hibernate until spring rolls around. But making time to get outside in the sun, even when it's cold out, could have bigger mood benefits than you might realize.

    While the link between sunshine and mental health is nothing new, new research from Brigham Young University (BYU) has shown that the association may be even stronger than previously realized. It finds that sunlight exposure is by far the greatest weather-related factor determining mental health outcomes. In other words: more sunshine, more happiness.

    For the study, a psychologist, a physicist and a statistician from BYU teamed up to compare daily environmental data from the university's Physics and Astronomy Weather Station with emotional health data archived by day for 16,452 adult therapy patients who were being treated at the BYU Counseling and Psychological Services Center.

    Exposure to sunlight is a significant factor in seasonal affective disorder. Research has shown that the brain produces more of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin on sunny days than it does on darker days. What's more, lack of sunlight is linked with lower vitamin D levels, which in turn has been correlated with depression and low energy.

    If you're getting enough sun, your emotions should remain relatively stable, the researchers found. But as the amount of sunlight in the day is reduced, levels of emotional pain can soar. Other weather variables including temperature, pollution and rain were not found to have an impact on mental health.

    “We were surprised that many of the weather and pollution variables we included in the study were not significantly correlated with clients' scores on the distress measure once we had accounted for suntime," Dr. Mark Beecher, a professor of psychology at the university and the study's lead author, told The Huffington Post. “People tend to associate rainy days, pollution, and other meteorological phenomena with sadness or depression, but we did not find that.”

    Humans and elephants don't always get along. In Africa and Asia, elephants damage equipment, farmers' crops, and natural habitat for other species. If an elephant becomes a problem, humans may kill it. So local people and animal protectionists are trying to find better ways to keep elephants away from sensitive places. Now, researchers think they have a good tool to prevent elephants: honeybee pheromones (信息素).

    “Elephants dislike being stung(叮咬) in the trunk, because it's an extremely sensitive organ. Imagine being stung in your nose by a bee, and multiply that a few thousand times.” said Mark Wright, a professor at the University of Hawaii.

    Kenyan farmers have long known that if they hang live beehives (蜂箱) around their farms, they will drive elephants away. The problem is how to manage hundreds of thousands of hives, if you have a huge area to protect. And then the idea came up to look at the alarm pheromones, which are chemicals that the bees release to launch an attack on something that's damaging the hive.

    So the researchers tested out an artificial mixture of chemicals that imitates (模仿) honey bees' alarm pheromones. The researchers hung white socks treated with the artificial mixture as well as untreated control socks around an elephant watering hole, and then observed the animals' behavior. “Elephants are really curious creatures. They'll walk along and see something like a sock hanging on a branch. If it's not treated with the alarm pheromones, they'll pick it up, throw it around, and try to taste it, things like that. And in the case of the treated ones, they would show immediate signs of unease or uncertainty, and they'd eventually back off from them.”

    In order to avoid the elephants more effectively, the researchers plan to make the pheromone mixture purer. That way, elephants will stay far away from wherever they should not be going-and both elephants and humans can coexist a bit more peacefully.

It is amazing how many of the things in science fiction and movies have become reality.For instance,in the movie Star Trek,the workers could go to a replicator(复制器) and order food,drinks or anything they could program into the computer.Before long,the item would appear.This is possible today,in a way,with technology we have had for years.

Several manufacturers(制造商) have created 3D printers.One company,MakerBot,has created a printer that the average person can afford.It is called The Replicator.You can download a lot of design software from the Internet for use with The Replicator.In the near future,rather than going to a store to buy what you need,you may be able to download what you want from the Internet and print it out at home.

The process was first used with music.At the very beginning,music was recorded onto plastic disks with etching(蚀刻法).Music can now be copied without a physical product.____ Rather than having to buy a physical book or magazine,you can now download them from the Internet in digital form.

This technology is already used in engineering and architecture.Melissa Shoes,a Brazilian foot wear company,is using this technology to create shoes.Rather than having to go through the current process of product design and development,the company is able to design and print shoes for display to see how well they will sell before having lots of them made.