I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous. I searched in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had taken those. I looked through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. I called out to him “Have you got a light?” He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette. As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently（不经意地）locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don't know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn't want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.

    "I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension too. “Do you have kids?” he asked. “Yes, here, here.” I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I'd never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too. "Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out. Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.

    “My life was saved by a smile.” Yes, the smile― the unaffected, unplanned, natural connection between people. I really believe that if that part of you and that part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn't be enemies. We couldn't have hate or envy or fear!

The weather is getting hotter and you'll be getting thirstier playing basketball or riding home from school. A cold drink may be just the thing. But be careful what you pour down your throat. Something that looks cool may not be good for your health.

    There are plenty of so-called energy drinks on the market. Most of them have an attractive colour and cool name. Their nutrition list also contains various things from vitamins to ginseng. Sounds great!

    But after a careful check you may find that most energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine. These drinks are typically aimed at young people, students, busy people and sports players.

    Makers sometimes say their drinks make you better at sports and can keep you awake. But be careful not to drink too much.

    Caffeine raises your heartbeat. Because of this, the International Olympic Committee has limited their use. The amount of caffeine in most energy drinks is at least as high as in a strong cup of coffee or strong tea.

    Research by Australian scientists has found that many teenagers are affected by caffeine. The results of their survey show that 27 percent of boys aged 8-12 take in more caffeine than their parents.

    There are potential health risks linked to energy drinks. Just one can of energy drink can make you nervous, have difficulty sleeping and can even cause heart attacks.

    Teenagers should be discouraged from consuming drinks with a lot of caffeine in them, an expert from the Australia Nutrition Foundation said.

    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 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 identification 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 BookCrossing to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce peterson 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 to 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.

    Barbara McCintock was one of the most important scientists of the twentieth century. She made important discoveries about genes(基因) and chromosomes (染色体).

    Barbara McClintock was born in 1902 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her family moved to Brooklyn area of new York City in 1908.Barbara was an active child with interests in sports and music. She also developed an interest in science.

    She studied science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Barbara was among a small number of undergraduate students to receive training in genetics in 1921. Years later, she noted that few college students wanted to study genetics.

    Barbara McClintock decided to study botany, the scientific study of plants, at Cornell University. She completed her undergraduate studies in 1923. McClintock decided to continue her education at Cornell. She completed a master's degree in 1925. Two years later, she finished all her requirements for a doctorate degree.

    McCintock stayed at Cornell after she completed her education. She taught students botany. The 1930s were not a good time to be a young scientist in the United States. The country was in the middle of the great economic Depression. Millions of Americans were unemployed. Male scientists were offered jobs. But female geneticists were not much in demand.

    An old friend from Cornell, Marcus Rhoades, invited McClintock to spend the summer of 1941 working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is a research center on Long Island, near New York City. McClintock started in a temporary (临时的) job with the genetics department. A short time later, she accepted a permanent (永久的) position with the laboratory. This gave her the freedom to continue her research without having to teach or repeatedly ask for financial aid.

    By the 1970s, her discoveries had had an effect on everything from genetic engineering to cancer research. McClintock won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of the ability of genes to change positions on chromosomes. She was the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize.

    In a win for literary fiction amid declining sales, Sally Rooney's novel Normal People has been named Waterstones book of the year in 2018.

    Rooney's second novel, which follows two young people falling in love in Ireland, has sold 41, 000 copies in hardback in the UK since it was released in August-five times the hardback sales of her 2017 debut, Conversations With Friends. At 27, Rooney is now the youngest winner of the award, which is given by the UK's biggest bookshop chain, Waterstones.

    Normal People received almost universal applause upon its release. Longlisted for the Man Booker prize, the book won novel of the year at the An Post Irish book awards in November of 2018 and has also been shortlisted for the Costa novel of the year, announced in January of 2019.

    The reader response to Normal People had been astonishing. As well as the universal praise, it has been a huge word- of-mouth (口头的) hit. There're customers returning to buy multiple copies as gifts. Normal People strengthened Sally Rooney's reputation as the voice of her generation and one of the most exciting novelists around today. Its success is a testament to the health of literary fiction and indicates that there is still significant appetite for excellent storytelling.

    The award, established in 2012, tends to go to books that are already bestsellers near Christmas. It has previously been won by the late American author John Williams's Stoner, the cookbook Polpo by Russell Norman, and last year's choice, Philip Pullman's La Belle Sauvage.

    James Daunt, Waterstones' managing director, said Rooney's win was a sign of the healthy state of literary fiction, which has seen sales decrease over the last decade. "We are delighted to name it our book of the year," he said.

    If you are planning on travelling, there are few simple rules about how to make life easier both before and after your journey.

    First of all, always check and doublecheck departure(出发) time. It is surprising how few people really do this carefully. Once I arrived at the airport a few minutes after ten. My secretary had got the ticket for me and I thought she had said that the plane left at 10:50. When I arrived at the airport, the person at the departure desk told me that my flight was closed. Therefore, I had to wait three hours for the next one and missed an important meeting.

    The second rule is to remember that even in this age of credit cards(信用卡), it is still important to have some local money in cash(现金). Once I arrived at a place at midnight and the bank at the airport was closed. The only way to get to my hotel was by taxi but because I had no dollars, I offered to pay in pounds instead. "Listen! I only take real money!" the driver said angrily. You can image how terrible I felt at that moment.

    The third and the last rule is to find out as much as you can about the weather at your destination before you leave. I feel sorry for some of my workmates who travel in heavy suits and raincoats in May, when it is still fairly cool in London or Manchester, to places like Athens, Rome or Madrid, where it is already beginning to get quite warm during the day.