I am sorry that I haven't written this letter before now. It has taken me three years to gather the courage. I have started it so many times in my head, but was afraid that you would think it disrespectful of me to write to you. It does seem strange writing to someone I have never met, but part of me feels that I know you very, very well.

    We read your file one morning in September. We knew the contents would be difficult. Later that afternoon, we received the call from our social worker to tell us that you had passed away. Suddenly, we knew what we had to do.

    There was never any doubt. All I remember was a desire to protect this little boy, to give him the love and care he deserved. And really that was that; as far as we were concerned, David was now our son. There were further meetings, questions, paperwork, decisions, arrangements and preparations. Then, two months later, we met him for the first time. I hope the fact that I call him “our son” does not offend you. Sarah, you will always be his birth mother. But I make no apology in referring to him as our son.

    For the past three years, we have loved and cared for David. We have dealt with his anger, his confusion and his anxieties. David was taken away from you soon after his second birthday. I cannot imagine the pain that must have caused you. We know that you really wanted to be a good mother to David, but you could not cope when his father left.

    It is tragic that your life ended so early. I don't know how I will explain all these things to David as he grows up, or how he will explain his story and what happened to him during his early years. I hope that it does not cast a shadow over his life as his understanding deepens. I hope you can find comfort in the fact that, from all this pain, Sarah, you have given us the most wonderful gift – an amazing little boy who is completely fearless.

    It is so unfair that you did not receive the love and the warmth in your childhood that David now takes for granted. And although you never chose to hand your beautiful baby over, I can only feel gratitude towards you for this wonderful little boy who has made our lives complete.

C

    There's a new frontier in 3D printing that's beginning to come into focus: food. Recent development has made possible machines that print, cook, and serve foods on a mass scale. And the industry isn't stopping there.

Food production

    With a 3D printer, a cook can print complicated chocolate sculptures and beautiful pieces for decoration on a wedding cake. Not everybody can do that — it takes years of experience, but a printer makes it easy. A restaurant in Spain uses a Foodini to "re-create forms and pieces" of food that are "exactly the same," freeing cooks to complete other tasks. In another restaurant, all of the dishes and desserts it serves are 3D-printed, rather than farm to table.

Sustainability(可持续性）

    The global population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion by 2050, and some analysts estimate that food production will need to be raised by 50 percent to maintain current levels. Sustainability is becoming a necessity. 3D food printing could probably contribute to the solution. Some experts believe printers could use hydrocolloids (水解胶体) from plentiful renewables like algae(藻类) and grass to replace the familiar ingredients(烹饪原料). 3D printing can reduce fuel use and emissions. Grocery stores of the future might stock "food" that lasts years on end, freeing up shelf space and reducing transportation and storage requirements.

Nutrition

    Future 3D food printers could make processed food healthier. Hod Lipson, a professor at Columbia University, said, "Food printing could allow consumers to print food with customized nutritional content, like vitamins. So instead of eating a piece of yesterday's bread from the supermarket, you'd eat something baked just for you on demand."

Challenges

    Despite recent advancements in 3D food printing, the industry has many challenges to overcome. Currently, most ingredients must be changed to a paste(糊状物) before a printer can use them, and the printing process is quite time-consuming, because ingredients interact with each other in very complex ways. On top of that, most of the 3D food printers now are restricted to dry ingredients, because meat and milk products may easily go bad. Some experts are skeptical about 3D food printers, believing they are better suited for fast food restaurants than homes and high-end restaurants.

    Moments before I could lift my case to put it in the plane's overhead locker ahead of our recent holiday to Europe, my father gently urged me to stop. He held the thick handles of the case and lifted it with his thin arms, pushing it into place with a sigh. “You should relax and be the lady, and let me do the heavy tasks,” he said seriously. “In the future, someone special will come into your life and take over such tasks from me, but that will never happen if you do everything yourself.”

    I was stunned into silence. This was not the father I remembered from childhood, who trained me to study hard at school, asked me to earn my own pocket money as a teenager at a local coffee shop, and even taught me household chores so that my life alone in London wouldn't turn into a mess. But then, eight years after I left home and started a new life in the UK, I realized for the first time that my dad still has expectations for me to be like a princess and to stay dependent and delicate, which were considered necessary qualities of women in traditional China.

    Well, that came a little late. Little did Dad know that over the three years of my university life, I moved flats five times all by myself, dragging suitcases of books and clothes, and waiting for the taxi in the rain while holding tight onto cardboard boxes. Meanwhile, living in the UK – a country currently led by a female prime minister – I have never thought there is anything girls cannot do. Most of my female friends are professionals working in the City of London, and after work, we frequently go down to the pub for a drink, just like the guys do – something my mother never did.

    I wondered how I might make Dad understand the new world his little girl has entered. Perhaps one day, he will realize the “someone special” in my life will appreciate my confidence and independence above dependence, and admit that times have changed.

    Universities and colleges in the United States are trying new programs for international students to increase enrollment and income. Some universities are experimenting with bringing international high school students to their campuses. These programs permit students to complete their high school diploma while earning college credit at the same time.

    One example of this model is at the University of Southern Maine, or USM. The program is called the "International Academy". The school is expecting its first class of international high school students this fall. Joanna Evans is the director for the academy. The program is officially a "boarding school on a university campus" that serves 11th and 12th grade international high school students only.

    The students will take classes at the University of Southern Maine to complete their high school diploma. However, because the classes are university-level, the students will receive college credit at the same time.

    According to Evans, the students they admit will have to be very strong. Their course schedule will be the same as taking only advanced-placement courses. The goal is that, by the time they complete their high school diploma at the academy, they will be ready to start college as a third-year college student.

    Their English language skills also must be strong. The Academy looks for students with a minimum Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL score of 79,or a 6.5 on the International English Testing System, or EELTS. However, there are classes available to provide additional English language training when the students arrive if they need it.

    All incoming students at the academy are required to take a college writing class in their first term. If English is not their first language, they will take a class taught by teachers with a background in teaching students who speak English as a foreign language.

    Although they are only high school students, the expectations are the same as college students. "Students need to be ready to take university classes, and that is the deal" Evans said.

    A traveller was staying in an Egyptian village. One day, she held up her camera to take pictures of the children. Suddenly the young ones began to shout at her. The traveller's face turned red and she apologized to the head for what she was doing, and told him she had forgotten that people in some places believed a person would lose his soul(灵魂) if his picture was taken. She explained to him the operation of a camera for a long time. Several times the head tried to say something, but he couldn't. When she believed that the head didn't fear any longer, the traveller then let him speak. With a smile, he said, "The children were trying to tell you that you forgot to take off the lens(镜头) cap!"

A short period of sleep taken during the day is known as a nap. Naps don't just have benefits for adults at work, though. They could also help pupils to make the most of their school day. Studies have shown that a 20 to 30-minute "beauty sleep" makes people more alert and focused. This improves people's ability to remember new information, which would help school children concentrate during lessons. Experts say that napping also improves brain functions, such as memory and the ability to complete difficult tasks.

The school day starts early, which means that pupils don't always get enough sleep because there's no chance to have a lie-in（睡懒觉. Adding naptime during the school day would help exhausted pupils to make up for any sleep they've lost from getting up so early.

There are long-term benefits to taking a short nap, too. According to a recent study from University College London, the brains of people who have regular naps are bigger than those who don't. People's brains naturally shrink (萎缩）when they grow old, and the results showed that little sleeps can help people's brains to age more slowly.

Although a nap can seem like a good idea, going to sleep for too long can actually make you feel worse. It's not very pleasant to wake up from a daytime nap feeling confused and sleepy. Napping during the day can also have a negative impact on how well you sleep at night. This can create a cycle of not being able to sleep well at night, leaving you feeling even more tired in the daytime. Sleep expert Dr Clete Kushida said, "It's generally recommended to maximize(最大化） sleep at night."

Another consideration is that there really isn't time in the school day for pupils to go to sleep. Some parents and teachers are concerned that it would cause children to miss too much lesson time. Pupils might take advantage of the system and use their need for a nap as an excuse to get out of lessons.

So, what do you think? Should school allow kids to have naps, or should you wait until the evening to catch up on your sleep?