My heroes are the Singapore Women's Everest Team．In 2009，they became the first all-women team to climb Mount Everest．The team of six young women trained for seven years before they climbed the mountain．It was difficult for them to train because Singapore doesn't have any snow or any mountains．But they didn't stop，and in the end they made it．They Worked hard every day for their dream so I really admire them．

——Lance Reed, 16, from Britain

    My mum，Mary Evans，is a real hero．I have a very big family, with two brothers and three sisters．My mum works very hard every day to look after us, and she is very busy．She always makes time for everyone and she always listens to me if I have a problem．I really respect my mum because she always looks after my family and makes sure we have everything we need．

——Mark Sterling，l7，from America

    I admire the Salwen family from Atlanta，USA．In 2006, they made a very unusual choice．They decided to sell their house and give half of the money to charity(慈善)．They moved into a smaller house and gave $800,000 to charities in Ghana. I really respect them because they gave their money to people in need．

——William Kloster, 17, from Canada

    I really admire Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple．He invented a new kind of technology．Apple technology is very intelligent(智能的)．The products that he made are also really beautiful．Steve Jobs created a successful business in IT．I was very sad when he died in October 2011．I respect him because he changed the way people use technology all over the world．

——Richard Hale, 18，from Australia

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    Hundreds of years ago, news was carried from place to place by people on foot or by horse. It took days, weeks and sometimes months for people to receive news. Now it is possible to send words and pictures around the world in seconds. Billions of people learn about news stories of their own country and all over the world every day, either by watching TV or reading newspapers.

    Newspapers have been an important part of everyday life since the 18th century. Many countries have hundreds of different newspapers. How do newspaper editors decide which news stories to print? Why do they print some stories and not others? What makes a good newspaper story?

    Firstly, it is important to report new stories. TV stations can report news much faster than newspapers. Yet, newspapers give more about the same story. They may also look at the story in another way, or they may print completely different stories to those on TV.

    Secondly, a news story has to be interesting and unusual. People don't want to read stories about everyday life as a result, many stories are about some kind of danger and seem to be "bad" news. For example, newspapers never print stories about planes landing safely, instead they print stories about plane accidents.

    Another factor (因素) is also very important in many news stories. Many people are interested in news in foreign countries, but more prefer to read stories about people, places and events in their own country. So the stories on the front page in Chinese newspapers are usually very different from the ones in British, French and American newspapers.

    A telescope, called Gaia, is being designed by astronomers in Europe, and it couldn't be more different from Pan-STARRS, which is another telescope being designed. While Pan-STARRS will be looking for asteroids (小行星) and comets headed for Earth, Gaia will be looking at our entire galaxy (银河系).

    Gaia is designed to draw a map of the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Just as a map of your town gives you a picture of where things are located, Gaia's map of the galaxy will tell astronomers where the stars are. Over five years, Gaia will observe (观察) about a billion stars and other objects in our galaxy. Each object will be observed about 70 times.

    Gaia will be sent into space connected to a rocket. It contains two telescopes, each focused at a different angle (角度). These two telescopes act like Gaia's “eyes”. The reason why humans can see things in 3D is that we have two eyes focused on the same object, at slightly different angles. By using two telescopes like eyes, Gaia can produce the first 3D map of the positions of the stars it views.

    Gaia, which is to be sent into space, will be a powerful telescope. If you were to use it on Earth, for example, you could stand 600 miles away from your best friends and still get a clear picture of their hair.

    Gaia is one of more than a dozen telescopes being designed by scientists right now. The next generation of telescopes will reveal new parts of our universe that will seem surprising. The universe, with all its planets, stars and other strange objects, is a puzzle with pieces that we can see by using powerful telescopes.

    Ever walked to the shops only to find, once there, you've completely forgotten what you went for? Or struggled to remember the name of an old friend? For years we've accepted that a forgetful brain is as much a part of ageing as wrinkles and grey hair. But now a new book suggests that we've got it all wrong.

    According to The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, by science writer Barbara Strauch, when it comes to the important things, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that some studies have found that our brain hits its peak between our 40s and 60s— much later than previously thought.

    Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we retain （保留）them, and even produce new ones well into middle age. For years it's been assumed that brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.

    This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that on average, participants performed better on cognitive （认知的）tests in their 40s and 50s than they had done in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving.

    Where they performed less well was number ability and perceptual speed－how fast you can push a button when ordered. However, with more complex tasks such as problem-solving and language, we are at our best at middle age and beyond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scientific proof that we do get wiser with age.

    Neuroscientists are also finding that we are happier with ageing. A recent US study found older people were much better at controlling and balancing their emotions. It is thought that when we're younger we need to focus more on the negative aspects of life in order to learn about the possible dangers in the world, but as we get older we've learned our lessons and are sub-consciously aware that we have less time left in life: therefore, it becomes more important for us to be happy.

    Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.

    Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an ID number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.

    Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says "The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both."

    Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.

People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.

    BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back the "real" and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.

    The 67th Miss Universe beauty pageant (选美比赛) will take place December 16 in Bangkok, Thailand. The competition will include young women from around the world representing their countries. But one South American country, Chile, will not be represented by a native Chilean. Instead, Andrea Diaz, a native of Venezuela (委内瑞拉) will have that honor.

    Diaz grew up in Valencia, Venezuela. She began training as a model at age 12 at a school there. At 19, she won a pageant organized by her town's baseball team. As Diaz moved along her career path, she also moved away from home. She went first to Panama, and later to Mexico, for modeling jobs. In 2015, she settled in Chile, where most of her family members now live. The 27-year-old woman told the reporter, “I represent the new Chile. This is an inclusive (包容的) country where immigrants come in search of opportunities.”

    Thousands of people leave Venezuela each day to escape a lack of food and medicine in the country. Its economic crisis (危机) has created an almost 1 million percent inflation (通货膨胀) rate. Many beauty pageant hopefuls have left Venezuela and have found work in modeling and media fields. Diaz is one of several Venezuelan beauty pageant competitors representing countries other than their homeland.

    A recent Miss Earth pageant had two Venezuelan models who competed for other countries, including Jessica Russo. Russo represented Peru just one year after moving to the country. She said, “My dream of being a beauty queen is not going to stop just because I arrived in a new country.” The 22-year-old competitor did not make it into the Miss Earth finals. But she is not giving up. She says she hopes to one day win a competition for Peru, the country where her mother was born.