Body language is one of the most powerful means of communication, often even more powerful than spoken language. It is said that our body movements communicate about 50 percent of what we really mean while words only express 7 percent. So, while your mouth is closed, your body is just saying.

    Arms. How you hold your arms shows how open and receptive you are to people you meet. If you keep your arms to the sides of your body or behind your back, this suggests you are not afraid of taking on whatever comes your way. Outgoing people generally use their arms with big movements, while quieter people keep them close to their bodies. If someone upsets you, just cross your arms to show you're unhappy!

    Head. When you want to appear confident, keep your head level. If you are a monitor in class, you can also take on this position when you want your words to be taken seriously. However, to be friendly in listening or speaking, you must move your head a little.

    Legs. Your legs tend to move around a lot more than normal when you are nervous or telling lies. If you are at interviews, try to keep them still!

    Posture (姿势). A good posture makes you feel better about yourself. If you are feeling down, you normally don't sit straight, with your shoulders inwards. This makes breathing more difficult, which can make you feel nervous or uncomfortable.

    Mouth. When you are thinking, you often purse(噘嘴) your lips. You might also use this position to hold back an angry comment you don't wish to show. However, it will probably still be noticed, and people will know you're not pleased.

    Face. When you lie, you might put on a false face. But that expression would crack briefly, allowing displays of true emotions such as happiness, sadness, disgust (厌恶) and fear to come through.

    After a confirmed rabies(狂犬病) case in Parke County, Indiana, experts are urging caution if you find a bat(蝙蝠) in your home or office.

    “If you try to kill a bat, you are more likely to get bitten,” said Joy O'Keefe, assistant professor of biology and director of Indiana State University's Centre for Bat Research, Outreach and Conservation. “Most bats people find in their houses are healthy and are not going to bite them and give them rabies.” But they could be a federally endangered species, such as the Indiana Bat, which is found in this area.

    So if you spot a bat in your home or office, don't kill it or touch it with bare hands, O'Keefe said. Instead, put on a pair of heavy gloves and gently move it into a box or bucket. Once contained, the bat can be removed outside.

    “If it's a healthy bat, it'll fly away eventually,” O'Keefe said. “If it doesn't move or seem to be healthy, you can take it to the health department to be tested.”

    This is the time of year when bats move from their summer resting sites to their winter resting sites, O'Keefe said.

    “We get calls every year during the first month of school year from people finding bats in the university's buildings,” said O'Keefe.

    Bats are a great help to people, as every night they can eat up to their entire body weight of insects. Bats, however, are facing great threats from epidemics(流行性疾病), habitat destruction and other things.

    “The best way the average person can help bats is by understanding them and by telling other people how awesome bats are and what bats do for us,” O' Keefe said. “Hopefully, it will make people think that if there's a bat in their house, they should try to get it out but not kill it. That would be really positive for bats—to not have people be one of their major threats.”

    In the 1880s, Mark Twain managed his own publishing company. He also became interested in various investments（投资）, especially a kind of typesetting machine. He lost almost $200,000 in investments in the machine between 1881 and 1894. Also, his publishing company declared bankruptcy（破产）in April 1894. Thus, in January 1895, Mark Twain found himself publicly shamed by his inability to pay his debts.

    Mark Twain finally recovered from his financial difficulties, through his continued writing and a successful lecture tour in 1895 and 1896. During this much-publicized tour, Twain lectured in such places as India, South Africa and Australia. By the time he returned, he had become an international hero. Twain enjoyed this attention, and his habits of smoking cigars or a pipe and wearing unusual white suits contributed to his showy image. He also made use of his position as a public figure to criticize the US foreign policy.

    Although he was recovering from his financial problems by 1898, Mark Twain had begun to experience tragedy（悲剧）in his personal life. Suzy, his oldest daughter, died of meningitis （脑膜炎）in 1896, while her parents and sister Clara were abroad. In 1903, Mark Twain sold the beloved house in Hartford, which had become too closely associated with Suzy's death. His wife, Olivia, who had developed a heart condition, died on June 5, 1904. His youngest daughter, Jean, died on Dec.24, 1909.

    When my sister Mertie told me she had put out tomato plants last summer, I was quite impressed.

    Since she was a garden-beginner, Mertie researched exactly how far apart to space her tomato plants; what kind of fertilizer to use; how to keep away the bugs（害虫）, etc. Once they were planted, she took care of them daily, anxiously awaiting the juicy tomatoes to appear. But, day after day, her plants were tomato-less while all of her neighbors who had also put out tomato plants were already enjoying the fruit of their labor.

    Frustrated (upset), Mertie gave in and went to the market to search fresh tomatoes. While paying, Mertie told the farmer her troubles. The farmer paused to think for a moment and then asked, "Well, what kind of tomatoes did you plant?"

    "I think they were called Big Boy," Mertie remembered.

    "Well there's your problem," the farmer explained. "Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes have a 95-day growing period whereas regular tomato plants produce fruit in as few as 70 days…you just have to wait a little longer for the Big Boys."

    With that new knowledge, Mertie went home with excitement, knowing they would be worth the wait.

    Thinking about my sister's gardening experience, I had to smile. She just didn't know that Big Boy tomatoes took longer--neither did I--but once she discovered that information, she was no longer discouraged and upset about the lack of tomatoes on her plants. Instead, she was encouraged and excited to see them a few weeks later.

    It makes me wonder how many of us have "Big Boy" dreams in our hearts, yet we just don't realize that they are of the "Big Boy" variety so we are discouraged and worn out with the waiting process. Instead of waiting with excitement, we give up on our dreams and figure we must have done something wrong to stop them from coming to pass. Frustrated, we see other people's dreams coming true, and we wonder why ours haven't yet been achieved.

    Every year in May, art galleries and museums prepare shows to honor Leonardo Da Vinci, who died in France on May 2, 1519. He is remembered as one of the greatest artists and creative thinkers of all time. His most famous paintings are The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

    Recently, researchers have been studying a painting-Landscape 8P which, they think, is Da Vinci's earliest-known artwork. They used special lighting to study the artwork and discovered there were two images(图像), not one. One drawing is on the back of the piece, which dates back to August 5, 1473.

    The drawing on the front was painted when Leonardo was 21 years old. It shows a river valley and a castle outside the city of Florence. There is little left of the drawing on the back, perhaps because it was wiped off. Only a bridge over a river can be seen. But there is writing on both sides.

    The writing on the front gives the date and goes from right to left. Some people would call this "mirror-writing". It's a way Leonardo often wrote in his notebooks. The writing on the back goes from left to right and tells about an agreement, probably to produce a work of art.

    Cecilia Frosinini is an art historian. She said, "Leonardo was born left-handed, but was taught to write with his right hand from a very young age. By looking at his writings, including from this drawing, we can see his right-handed handwriting is educated and well done. "

    Experts compared the two handwriting samples(样本)and said they were both made by Leonardo. They show he could write well using his left hand or his right hand.

    The drawing is known as Landscape 8P from its number in an art list. It will be part of an exhibit at Italy's Uffizi Gallery. The gallery director, Eike Schmidt, said by studying the drawing researchers gave us a new way of looking at Leonardo's drawing technique and his abilities in writing.

Max Du emerged victorious at the Canada-Wide Science Fair with an innovative project that could revolutionize emergency response: a drone designed to assist individuals experiencing cardiac arrest. His creative spark was ignited during the Christmas break of the previous year when he received a toy drone from his parents. Due to the snowy conditions, Max was unable to fly his new gadget outdoors, prompting him to explore its potential as an indoor robot that could be of service to people in need.

In Canada, approximately 35,000 individuals suffer from cardiac arrests annually, with the majority of these incidents occurring outside of hospital settings. Sadly, less than 10 percent of these individuals survive. Max was convinced that a drone could provide more rapid assistance and deliver life-saving medication, but he knew he had to construct one himself to validate his hypothesis.

The process of testing his drone spanned six months, during which Max's parents had to tolerate their son's persistent drone flights and mishaps within their home. Each innovative feature Max developed, such as a deployable arm, added weight to the drone, causing it to disintegrate. This necessitated the purchase of new components. Through experimentation, Max eventually discovered a more lightweight material, leading to a better-balanced design.

After a series of trials and adjustments, the 14-year-old successfully perfected his drone. It is now capable of opening door handles, navigating through the air, and landing gently on the ground. The drone features a new extendable arm designed to administer injections or deliver crucial medication to a patient. Additionally, an integrated camera allows for direct communication with an emergency response team, enabling remote monitoring of the patient.

Max is looking forward to filing for a patent to establish connections within the healthcare sector and bring his invention to fruition. He spent his summer acquiring knowledge in artificial intelligence at Stanford University in California, where he was one of only 32 students chosen globally. Following this, he will attend the University of Pennsylvania to enroll in a college-level robotics course before resuming his high school studies in September.