Our room was on the second floor but you could still hear the roar of the ocean and see the stars at night. I used to take long walks along the water. The food in town was wonderful and the people were very friendly. The area was very quiet and peaceful, and fairly deserted.

    The last evening of our vacation, however, we all heard strange footsteps following closely behind us as we were walking up to our room in the holiday centre. We turned around and noticed a fairly young man moving very rapidly across the beach and getting closer to us. He was tall and wore a baseball cap. We couldn't see his face and he was approaching us very rapidly. The man's actions made my dad very nervous. Dad warned us that we'd better try to make it to our hotel room as quickly as possible. I didn't like my dad's voice; I could hear fear in it. It was late and we were all alone. We didn't have any cell phones on us. I never saw Dad as worried as he was then and I knew that something was terribly wrong. The sense of fear started to overwhelm Mom and me. We had had such a good time in town. Now, the night was rapidly turning into a dangerous situation.

    We could hear the man's footsteps getting closer. Dad's face was almost pale. The so-called intruder (侵入者) had moved nearer and nearer when all of a sudden, the nearby vending (自动贩卖) machine started going crazy and spitting out cans of soda! The noise actually scared the intruder and he ran out of sight. My parents were shaking, but we all turned around to see who had put money into the vending machine downstairs, and actually saved us, but no one was around at all. Not a soul.

    It's one vacation I will never forget.

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    Claude Sammut,a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of New South Wales in Australia,said it would soon be possible for robots to defeat the stars of the future.

    For many years,Mr Sammut has been a member of a project called RoboCup,where robots have been programmed to learn how to play football and compete against others in a football match.

    As he explains,the robots are having difficulty in learning how to control the ball and move the ball on their own,but he is still full of confidence that one day in the future they will show the same skills as Wayne Rooney,who is one of the best football players in the world.

    Mr.Sammut also said,"In 1968,John McCarthy and Donald Michie made a bet with David Levy,who was then the chess champion in Scotland,that within 10 years a computer program would be able to beat him.It took a little bit longer than 10 years (nearly 30 years) but eventually such programs came into being."

    "In the same spirit of a grand challenge,RoboCup aims to develop a team of robots that can defeat the world soccer champion team by the year 2050.To achieve this,or come even closer to the ambition,the robots will have to be able to sense and act in completely unstructured environments.This will require major advances in perception（感知）,decision making,learning,and cooperative behaviors.Considering robots are integrated hardware and software systems,great advances will also be needed in sensors（传感器）,energy storage,and materials."

    In many countries, schools have long summer holidays, with shorter holidays in between. However, a new report suggests shortening school holidays to stop children forgetting what they have learnt during the long summer break. Instead of three school terms, it says, there should be five eight-week terms. And there should be just four weeks off in the summer, with a two-week break between the other terms.

    Sonia Montero has two children at primary school and works full-time. She supports the idea. “The kids,” she says, “have much longer holidays than me and I can't afford to take several weeks off work, so I need someone to take care of them. But nobody wants the work in the summer months — they all have holidays of their own.”

    Not surprisingly, some young people disagree. Student Jason Panos says “It's a stupid idea. I would hate staying at school in the summer. It's unfair, too. The people who suggest this had long school holidays when they were young, but now they want to stop us enjoying the summer. The kids in Spain and America have much longer holidays than here, but they don't forget everything they've learnt in a few months.”

    Nadia Salib agrees. “Sure,” she says, “the first week at school after the summer is never easy, but you soon get back into it. The real problem round here is that kids get bored after so many weeks out of school, and then some of them start causing trouble. But the answer is to give them something to do, not make everyone stay in school longer.”

Dear Anne,

    I like your column very much. I met a girl four years ago at a gym. She was the one who originally approached me and we became good friends. Then one day, she made me really angry, so angry that I just left and we never saw each other again.

    Looking back, I really regret ending things that way. It was a cowardly act on my part, but I had a terrible temper at that time and let the smallest thing get to me. Recently, I've started thinking about her again and I looked up her e-mail address. I thought about writing to say “Hi” and apologize for what I did but I'm not sure. She could still be angry with me, or maybe she has forgotten me. I feel very lonely and I want to see her again. What should I do?

Tom

Dear Tom,

    She may still be angry with you, and she may have forgotten the friendship between you, but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve an apology. Tom, how many of us have wished for the day that someone who treated us badly saw the light and finally owned up? But we rarely get that kind of expected result. So sure, e-mail her and say “Hi”.

    Tell her you have been thinking about her and just want to apologize for getting angry and being a coward by walking out on her. But you should remember if she thinks you're apologizing just because you are lonely, she might dismiss your sincerity. Therefore, don't mention that. If she wants to see you again, she'll make sure that happens.

    Even if she doesn't want to be your friend, I can assure you, she'll appreciate the gesture. And it might make you think twice next time you get angry.

Anne

    An abandoned girl named Sophie happens to see the big friendly giant (巨人) (BFG for short), who is running through the streets of London and “blowing dreams” to children late at night. The BFG is scared that the girl will give away his secret, so he takes Sophie back to his native Giant Country. In fact, the BFG is a kind-hearted vegetarian, but other giants in his native country like nothing more than eating humans. Sophie and the BFG try to stop these giants from continuing to eat humans. During this period, they become good friends.

    Spielberg's The BFG tells the tale of an unlikely friendship brought to life in an imaginary world. However, many people say the story is a bit too kid-friendly. Optimism is Spielberg's typical tone, but the final victorious battle against the bad guys seems a little bit too easy. And when the BFG fights for the first time against the giants who have been hurting him, it seems confusing how he successfully drives away bad guys who are almost twice his size.

    Spielberg does leave a little for adult viewers to digest. The BFG doesn't want to be seen as a monster by humans，but in the end his own kind ends up caught and locked up in isolation. Will he also be destined (注定) to spend the rest of his days in a remote place alone?

    Despite being made for a younger audience, the film is still worth a watch. It doesn't have gun-fights, death, explosions and the stuff that people seem to be interested in nowadays. But the film takes us back to a more innocent time.

    On average, Americans spend about 10 hours a day in front of a computer or other electronic devices and less than 30 minutes a day outdoors. That is a claim made by David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah. In his 2017 TED Talk, Strayer explained that all this time spent with technology is making our brains tired.

    Using an electronic device to answer emails, listen to the news and look at Facebook puts a lot of pressure on the front of the brain, which, Strayer explains, is important for critical thinking, problem­solving and decision­making.

    So, it is important to give the brain a rest. And being in nature, Strayer claims, helps get a tired brain away from too much technology. More than 15,000 campers from around the world attended an international camping festival in September. That is when friends and family take time off and escape to nature for several days. They take walks, climb, explore, swim, sleep, eat and play. Camping may be just what a tired brain needs.

    Take Carl for example. He lives in West Virginia and enjoys camping. He says that staying outdoors makes him feel at ease. It also prepares him for the work he must do. Kate Somers is another example who also lives in West Virginia. She says she enjoys camping with her husband and two children. She calls it a "regenerative" experience.

    At the University of Utah, David Strayer has studied both short­term and long­term exposure to nature. He found that spending short amounts of time in nature without technology does calm the brain and helps it to remember better. However ,he found, it is the long­term contact with nature that does the most good. He and his research team found that spending three days in nature without any technology is enough time for the brain to fully relax and reset itself.