LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant is a winner in retirement, too. The former Los Angeles Lakers star won an Oscar in the animated short category for "Dear Basketball," a poem he wrote after ending his 20-year career on the court in 2016.

    He'll add it to an already jammed trophy collection that includes five NBA championships with the Lakers, two Olympic gold medals, NBA Finals most valuable player awards, a league MVP award and four All-Star game MVP awards.

    As executive producer, Bryant accepted his golden Oscar statue from "Star Wars" star Mark Hamill on Sunday night. He shared the award with Disney animator Glen Keane.

    Among those offering their congratulations via Twitter were Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Bill Russell and Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant's former Lakers teammate who admitted, "I'm jealous!"

Since hanging up his basketball shoes, Bryant has thrown himself into business (a new Nike shoe) and various forms of storytelling.

    "As basketball players, we're told to shut up and dribble," Bryant said on stage. "I'm glad we did a little bit more than that."

    He thanked his wife, Vanessa, and his three daughters, naming each of them. He spoke a few words of Italian — a language he learned as a child growing up in Italy — and closed by telling them, "You are my inspiration."

                                        Do dogs understand us?

    Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.

    A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee(黑猩猩).

    In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn't see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.

    In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.

    The correct object was chosen in seven out of l0 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination(排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.

    Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (品种)known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.

    It's hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can't talk back. Still, it wouldn't hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!

    PHILADELPHIA-The thumb of a Terracotta Warrior was stolen by a member of the public in Philadelphia, where the statue is on display. The cultural relics authority of Northwest China's Shaanxi province will send conservationists（保护工作者）to repair a Terracotta Warrior that had its thumb stolen by a member of the public while on display at a Philadelphia museum.

    US departments that are involved should guarantee the safety of the relics on display, and parties concerned will be held legally accountable, the provincial cultural heritage department said on Sunday.

The statue of a cavalryman（骑）, which dates back to at least 209 BC, is one of10

    Chinese Terracotta Warrior statues now on display at the Franklin Institute in Pennsylvania.

    Since 2009, Wang's team has restored more than 100 of the Terracotta Warriors. According to the Stolen（Lost）Cultural Relics Information Publishing Platform of China, which went online late last year, up to 60 percent of cases of theft have occurred in museums and historical relics institutions. However, most cases occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. As security technology developed in recent years, it has become more difficult to steal a cultural relic from a museum in China, according to the publishing platform.

    Chen Shiqu, deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Department at the Ministry of Public Security, said during a previous interview that the prices of cultural relics have risen in recent years, leading to more thefts by using upgraded technology.

    "Some criminals are equipped with high-tech tools that can make a tunnel very quickly to steal and transport the cultural relics," he said.  "China will continue to complete the mechanism for fighting against and preventing relies thefts. We will crack down on（打击）the whole market chain, including the trading of the relics and organized thefts. All involved offenders will face criminal liability."

    Meanwhile, US authorities said Michael Rohans, 24, from the US state of Delaware was arrested in connection with the theft and has been released on $15, C00 bail（保释金）, on the condition that he surrender his passport, consent to drug testing and refrain from leaving the country before trial. Museum staff members noticed the missing thumb on Jan 8, and a special agent from the FBI's Art Crime Team tracked down Rohana days later.

    You probably know the basics of how comparatives(比较级) and superlatives(最高级) work in the English language. When comparing something, you often add an "-er" to the end of the comparative adjective. The general rule is that one-syllable(音节) words get the suffix(后缀), and polysyllabic words get "more" or "most." That is, unless the two-syllable word ends in a "y"; if that's the case, you will add the suffixes and change the "y" to an "i".

    But what about the word "fun"? This simple adjective only has one syllable, so you'd think you'd add suffixes on it to create superlatives. But if you were to say "I think Magic Kingdom is a funner park than Epcot." or "Disney World was the funnest vacation ever!" you might get some strange looks. It doesn't sound quite right. But…why? "Fun" is one syllable, so why do we choose "more fun" as the comparative—especially considering that the similar word "funny," which has more syllables than "fun," uses the suffixes with no problem?

    Well, the problem comes from the fact that the word "fun" was not originally an adjective. Until the early 19th century, it was mostly just a noun, and it gained its meaning as "amusement" in the 18th century. But as early as the 1800s, people began using it as an adjective, the way we'd describe "a fun time" or "a fun place" today.

    Basically, language is still developing. Grammarians have mostly come around to the use of "fun" as an adjective (though some dictionaries still call it informal). There was (and remains) an agreement of "Fine, you can use ‘fun' as an adjective…but, like, it's not really one, so it can't follow the rules of real adjectives." So they also agree that the answer to "is funner a word?" is yes. If you want to consider "fun," as an adjective, then "funner" is indeed a word, as is "funnest". But this doesn't mean that "more fun" and "most fun" are incorrect, though; in fact, in formal writing, you'll probably still want to use those instead of "funner" and "funnest."

    The English language is chock-full of uncertain grammar rules; there's no need to insist that a word breaks the common rules of language just because we didn't used to use it in a way we do now.

    The common cold is the world's most widespread illness, which is probably why there are more myths(神话) about it than any of the other illnesses.

    The most widespread mistake of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated Arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected(感染的) people from the outside world by way of packages and mails dropped from airplanes.

    At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be doused(浸入) with cold water, and then stood about dripping(滴干)wet in drafty(通风的) rooms. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.

    If cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter? In spite of the most painstaking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.

    No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors such as aspirin, but all they do is to relieve the symptoms.

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