At thirteen, I was diagnosed（诊断） with kind of attention disorder. It made school difficult for me. When everyone else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.

    In my first literature class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hand right away and said, “Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it.”

    She glanced down at me through her glasses, “You are not different from your classmates, young man.”

    I tried, but I didn't finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home. In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time when the blind couldn't get much education. But Louis didn't give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots（点）, which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.

    Wasn't I the “blind” in my class, being made to learn like the “sighted” students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was no different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problems, why should I ever give up?

    I didn't expect anything when I handled in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day- with an “A” on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words: “See what you can do when you keep trying?”

We thought we had it all—a beautiful house, three healthy children and one more on the way, two cars — and we loved it. We spent money like it was going out of style. Then, the market turned and my husband's job as a bigwig(大人物) at a construction company was gone. The company was closing down for ever.

    We both started looking for jobs right away, but there weren't any to be found. With each passing day our panic increased and we continued to work together in order to pull our family through. The more we pulled together, the closer we got. I felt feelings of great love for my husband that I hadn't felt in years.①

    That's why it was so hard for me to watch him blame himself for our present situation. I knew that he had no control over the economy, however, he constantly degraded (降低…身份)himself and his spirit sunk lower with each unkind comment. I continually asked him to stop, but he seemed to want to punish himself for not having a job.②

    Finally one afternoon I pulled him aside and said, “We have four healthy children. That's what's important. That makes you a rich man.”

    “But what if we lose the house? They'll hate me—you'll hate me.” he replied.

    I smiled at him and put my hands on both sides of his face to make him look me in the eye.③

    “If we live in a cardboard box on the empty place across the street I will be happy—as long as I have you.” I smiled again as I realized that I wasn't saying it. Somehow, in all the struggling together I had found that deep love for him that I had on the day we said “I do.”

    I could see relief wash through him as his shoulders and neck relaxed and the tension left his body. He held me close and we were able to talk and plan and dream together in a way that we hadn't in quite some time. ④

    We are still struggling financially, but I consider us well-off because we have something that money can't buy and no one can take away from us.

    To personal trainer Sammy Callari, 13-year-old Parker Seward is more than a client(客户). He's his "little brother". Over the past year, the pair have bonded. They play basketball together, share meals and dance to hip-hop like no one's watching.

    The trainer was asked to work with the 13-year-old boy, who has Down syndrome(唐氏症), because his coworker who dealt with the boy was out of town last spring. Callari had never worked with someone with a disability before. He was anxious the first day he met Parker. But Parker's big smile and cheery introduction immediately put him at ease. He reminded Callari of himself when he was a teenager. Like Parker, Callari has also faced his fair share of challenges over the years.

    As a high schooler, Callari described himself as being the weak kid. When it came to sports, he was always overlooked. His dream of playing baseball in college quickly faded away. When he went to college, Callari turned to a new sport. His younger brother trained him to become a boxer. Callari participated in five matches. Out of four of those fights he was the underdog, and he won three times. "I know how it feels," Callari said. "Society tells you that you can't do this, you can't do that." When it comes to Parker, Callari refuses to accept the word "can't".

    The friends meet twice a week to train. They bike, box, run and work on their core with push-ups. Parker has a short attention span, so it's Callari's job to keep him focused. "If Parker can do it, if he's having fun, even with his frustration, then people will ask, "Why can't I do that?" Callari said. "That's the whole task right now."

    Callari recalls Parker's mom once thanking him for taking a "chance" on her son. Callari told her he never viewed it that way. Parker may be the student, but Callari says he's also the one who's learning.

    Humans make mistakes. Even surgeons with years of experience are not infallible. But what if these doctors could pool their knowledge and experience together and create a surgical standard of care, to be carried out by machines?

    That's the idea behind surgical robots, which may soon perform most surgeries, from sewing up tiny wounds to performing heart procedures. Many of these operations are, in fact, already completed with the assistance of robots. But a recent test suggests that robots in the operating room may soon go a step further, performing on soft tissue completely on their own, from start to finish.

    The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot（STAR）, successfully completed surgeries on pigs. "We're the first group to develop autonomous robotic surgery with soft-tissue surgery, and when compared to standard operation, it's better, "says Peter Kim, professor of surgery. "The idea is not to replace surgeons；it will make the surgeons better and make the procedures safer. "

    A recent Mayo Clinic study found that major surgical errors-including operating on the wrong site or side of the body, or even leaving tools or objects inside the patient-occur every one out of 22, 000 procedures. That's rare, but robots like STAR would aim to lower the number even further.

    In the da Vinci surgical system, surgeons place their arms inside instruments and use their hands to control the movement of robotic tools on the operating table from afar. The robot's every major move is controlled by surgeons, and thus its results may vary based on the surgeon's training or experience.

    STAR, on the other hand, is entirely autonomous. It's not only able to work on its own and perform surgeries with a more flexible "hand", but it's able to react to the unexpected incidents. Cutting into hard tissue like bones is one thing, but operating on moving soft tissue is far more complex. STAR reacts to a changing environment, similar to how self-driving cars are programmed to not only drive on the highway, but also react to another driver making a mistake and getting in your way.

"Given that signs of Alzheimer's disease (老年痴呆症) start to accumulate in the brain several decades before the disease begins, understanding the connection between sleep and cognition (认知) earlier in life is critical for understanding the role of sleep problems as a risk factor for the disease," said study author Yue Leng, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco.

The study involved 526 people with an average age of 40. They were followed for 11 years. Researchers looked at participants' sleep duration and quality. Participants wore a wrist activity monitor for three continuous days on two occasions approximately one year apart to calculate their averages. Participants slept for an average of six hours. Participants also reported bedtime and wake-up time in a sleep diary and completed a sleep quality survey with scores ranging from 0 to 21. A total of 239 people reported poor sleep with a score greater than five.

Researchers also looked at sleep fragmentation (碎片化), a measure of restlessness during the sleep period expressed as a percentage. The higher the value, the more sleep is interrupted. Participants were divided into three groups based on their sleep fragmentation score. Of the 175 people with the most interrupted sleep, 44 had poor cognitive performance 10 years later, compared to 10 of the 176 people with the least interrupted sleep.

After adjusting for age, sex, race, and education, people who had the most interrupted sleep had more than twice the possibility of having poor cognitive performance when compared to those with the least interrupted sleep. There was no difference in cognitive performance at midlife for those in the middle group compared to the group with the least interrupted sleep.

However, due to the small sample size, the researchers were unable to fully investigate potential race or sex differences. "More research is needed to assess the link between sleep disturbances and cognition at different life stages and to identify if critical life periods exist when sleep is more strongly associated with cognition," Leng said.

What's In a Name?（课文P40-41）

The United Kingdom, Great Britain, Britain, England--many people are {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (confuse) by what these different names mean. So what is the {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (different) between them, if any? {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (get) to know a little bit about British history will help you solve this puzzle.

In the 16th century, the nearby country of Wales was joined {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the Kingdom of England. Later, in the 18th century, the country Scotland was joined {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(create) the Kingdom of Great Britain. In the 19th century, the Kingdom of Ireland was added to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(final), in the 20th century , the southern part of Ireland {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (break) away from the UK, which resulted {#blank#}8{#/blank#} the full name we have today: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Most people just use the shortened name: "the United Kingdom" or "the UK". People from the UK are called "British", {#blank#}9{#/blank#} means the UK is also often {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (refer) to as Britain or Great Britain.

The four countries {#blank#}11{#/blank#} belong to the United Kingdom work together in some areas. They use {#blank#}12{#/blank#} same flag, known {#blank#}13{#/blank#} the Union Jack, as well as share the same currency and military {#blank#}14{#/blank#} (defend). However, they also have some differences. {#blank#}15{#/blank#} example, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland all have different {#blank#}16{#/blank#} (educate) systems and legal systems. They also have their own {#blank#}17{#/blank#} (tradition), like their own national days and national dishes. And they even have their own football teams {#blank#}18{#/blank#} competitions like the World Cup!

The United Kingdom has {#blank#}19{#/blank#} long and interesting history to explore, {#blank#}20{#/blank#} can help you understand much more about the country and its traditions. Almost everywhere you go in the UK, you will be {#blank#}21{#/blank#} (surround) by evidence of four different groups of people {#blank#}22{#/blank#} took over at different times throughout history. The first group, the Romans, {#blank#}23{#/blank#} (come) in the first century. Some of their great achievements included {#blank#}24{#/blank#} (build) towns and roads. Next, the Anglo-Saxons arrived in the fifth century. They introduced the{#blank#}25{#/blank#} (begin) of the English language, and changed the way {#blank#}26{#/blank#} people built houses. The Vikings came in the eighth century, left behind lots of new vocabulary, and also the names of many {#blank#}27{#/blank#} (location) across the UK. The last group were the Normans. They {#blank#}28{#/blank#} (conquer) England after the well-known Battle of Hastings in the 11th century. They had castles {#blank#}29{#/blank#} (build) all around England, and made changes {#blank#}30{#/blank#} the legal system. The Normans were French, {#blank#}31{#/blank#} many French words slowly entered into the English language.

There is so much more {#blank#}32{#/blank#} (learn) about the interesting history and culture of the United Kingdom. Studying {#blank#}33{#/blank#} history of the country will make your visit much more {#blank#}34{#/blank#} (enjoy). The capital city London is a great place to start, as it is {#blank#}35{#/blank#} ancient port city that has a history {#blank#}36{#/blank#} (date) all the way back to Roman times. There are countless historic sites to explore, and lots of museums {#blank#}37{#/blank#} ancient relics from all over the UK. The UK is a {#blank#}38{#/blank#} (fascinate) mix of history and modern culture, with both new {#blank#}39{#/blank#} old traditions. If you keep your eyes open, you will be surprised {#blank#}40{#/blank#} (find) that you can see both its past and its present.