I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

    So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

    Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲); it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.

    It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It_is_so_easy_to_exist_instead_of_to_live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

    By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.

    Sharon, Aged 22

    The most important thing to keep in mind when going into high school is to be yourself. Besides, I don't know what your middle school was like, but high school teachers will not care about things such as how much homework you already have in one night. It's best to just learn to deal with things and manage your time wisely so you can achieve everything you need to.

    Frank, Aged 21

    I think almost every kid feels both nervous and excited before their first day. You will probably love it. I know I did. You should join some sports or activities that will make your high school experience more enjoyable.

    Good luck!

    Eddie, Aged 20

    When I started high school I was really nervous too, especially since I had been homeschooled all through middle school and didn't really know anyone. I suppose the best advice would be to just relax. The first couple of days can be a little bit hard, but things will become easier before you know it.

    David,  Aged 19

    I am not going to lie. The first day is kind of frightening. But you'll get used to it. Don't be afraid of anyone; upperclassmen will pick on you more if you let them know you're afraid. Just take it easy. Making some friends and staying with them will greatly help you get used to high school quickly. After the first week it's really not bad at all. Don't worry.

    US Space Agency Returns to Mars with InSight Lander

    The American space agency's lander InSight is to arrive on Mars at the end of November, 2018. Unlike NASA's Curiosity rover, InSight will not move across the planet's surface. Instead it will become the first spacecraft (航天器) used only for exploring underground. It will study the geography of Mars, searching for signs of Martian (火星的) quakes.

    InSight is a project of U.S. and Europe. It is 6 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. It weighs 360kilograms. InSight's 1 .8 -meter robotic arm will put two experiments in place. Both are designed toexplore underground of Mars to learn about the inside.

    Bruce Banerdt is the lead scientist for InSight. He viewed the spacecraft as a robot that can take care of itself. "It's got its own brain. It's got an arm. It can listen and feel things. It pulls its own power out of the sun," he noted.

    Thomas Zurbuchen, one of the heads in NASA, said the results of the InSight project could "change the way we think about the inside of our earth." But, first, InSight will have to land on Mars undamaged. Since Mars exploration started in the 1960s, only about 40 percent of the explorations have succeeded.

    Tom Hoffman is InSight's project manager. He said earlier successes do not lessen the concerns for each new exploration. "That we ve done it before doesn't mean we're not nervous and excited about doing it again," he said.

    InSight will enter the Martian atmosphere (大气层) traveling at 19,800 kilometers an hour. It will slow for landing on a wide flat area on Mars. If all goes well, InSight could carry out its experiments in about 10 weeks. The InSight project is expected to continue for one Martian year, about two years on Earth.

    Fire fighting is a serious matter. Knowing what to do during a fire can save people's lives. It is important to know the ways you can use and show them to everyone else in the family, such as stairways and emergency exits, but not elevators.

    From the lower floors of buildings, escape through windows is possible. Learn the best way to get out from a window with the least chance of serious injury.

    The second floor window is usually not very high from the ground. An average person, hanging by the fingertips will have a drop of about 6 feet to the ground. It is about the height of an average man. Of course, it is safer to jump a short way down than to stay in a burning building.

    Windows are also useful when you are waiting for help. Be sure to keep the door closed before opening the window. Otherwise, smoke and fire may be drawn into the room. Keep your head low at the window to be sure you get fresh air rather than smoke that may have leaked(漏)into the room.

    On the second or third floor, the best windows for escape are those which open onto a roof. From the roof a person can drop to the ground more safely. Dropping onto cement might end in injury. Bushes and trees can help you to have a soft landing.

    A large number of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps creativity.

    However, an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that opinion. Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gävle, and The University of Central Lancashire say that their findings show music actually blocks creativity.

    To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants( 参与者) complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “badly affected” the participants' ability to complete tasks related to verbal creativity.

    The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word related to all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be "sun" (sundress, sunflower, etc).

    Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar words, instrumental music, or music with familiar words. "We found strong evidence of damaged performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions," says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.

    To conclude, the findings challenge the popular view that music encourages creativity, and instead prove that music consistently disrupts creative performance in dealing with problems.

Are you a moviegoer? If, like me, you're a fan of film, then there's no better place to watch something than on the big screen at the cinema. You enter the dark theatre and take your seat, ready to be entertained. But while you are absorbed in some movie magic, many others are now getting their film fixed at home.

Over the last few years, cinemas have seen a comeback. Customers have been attracted by comfortable seats, and lots of choice of things to watch. Multiplexes in particular can screen up to twenty films at the same time, suiting all different tastes. In addition, 3D and even 4D movies can give the audience an extra immersive experience. So what's not to like about a trip to the cinema?

The coronavirus pandemic has put the future of cinema under the spotlight. Some have had to close because of reduced ticket sales. In the UK, it's brought about a surge in TV watching and online streaming. It's reported that half of UK adults will keep and continue using their new streaming subscriptions.

This isn't great news for cinemas. They rely on the release of a big blockbuster to bring the crowds back, but the launch of new films, such as James Bond: No Time To Die, are being delayed. Disney has released its $200m blockbuster, Mulan, online instead of in movie theatres. John Fithian, from the National Association of Theatre Owners, told Variety magazine: This idea of waiting out the pandemic to make your movies more profitable doesn't make sense to me. There won't be as much of an industry left to play your movies in if you do that. "