The kids in this village wear dirty, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can make words.

    The key to their success: 20 tablet computers(平板电脑) dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.

    The goal is to find out whether kids using today's new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they're already amazed. “What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten,” said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.

    The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The device's camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.

    With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. “Seven months ago he didn't know any English. That's unbelievable,” said Keller.

    The project aims to get kids to a stage called “deep reading,” where they can read to learn. It won't be in Amharic, Ethiopia's first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

We thought we had it all—a beautiful house, three healthy children and one more on the way, two cars — and we loved it. We spent money like it was going out of style. Then, the market turned and my husband's job as a bigwig(大人物) at a construction company was gone. The company was closing down for ever.

    We both started looking for jobs right away, but there weren't any to be found. With each passing day our panic increased and we continued to work together in order to pull our family through. The more we pulled together, the closer we got. I felt feelings of great love for my husband that I hadn't felt in years.①

    That's why it was so hard for me to watch him blame himself for our present situation. I knew that he had no control over the economy, however, he constantly degraded (降低…身份)himself and his spirit sunk lower with each unkind comment. I continually asked him to stop, but he seemed to want to punish himself for not having a job.②

    Finally one afternoon I pulled him aside and said, “We have four healthy children. That's what's important. That makes you a rich man.”

    “But what if we lose the house? They'll hate me—you'll hate me.” he replied.

    I smiled at him and put my hands on both sides of his face to make him look me in the eye.③

    “If we live in a cardboard box on the empty place across the street I will be happy—as long as I have you.” I smiled again as I realized that I wasn't saying it. Somehow, in all the struggling together I had found that deep love for him that I had on the day we said “I do.”

    I could see relief wash through him as his shoulders and neck relaxed and the tension left his body. He held me close and we were able to talk and plan and dream together in a way that we hadn't in quite some time. ④

    We are still struggling financially, but I consider us well-off because we have something that money can't buy and no one can take away from us.

    Many kids don't drink enough water daily, according to a new study. The study's lead author, Erica Kenney, at first planned to look into the amount of sugary drinks kids were drinking in schools. However, during her research she found that many kids were simply not drinking enough water.

    Kenney and her team examined data from a group of 4,000 children, aged 6 to19. The data was taken from the National Health and Nutrition Survey, a study on the health of children in the United States done each year by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

    While looking through the survey results, she noticed that more than half of the kids who took part in the study were dehydrated (脱水的). Of that group, boys were 76% more likely than girls not to have enough water in their system. Nearly one quarter of the kids in the survey reported drinking no plain water at all.

    “These findings highlight (突出) a possible health issue that wasn't given a lot of attention in the past,” Kenney said in a statement. “Even though for most of these kids this is not an immediate and great health risk, this is an issue that could really be reducing quality of life and well-being for many children and youth.”

    The United States-National Agriculture Library says average kids need between 10 to 14 cups of water every day. This water can come from a mix of drinks and foods that contain high amounts of water, such as celery, melons or tomatoes. It is also suggested that fluids (液体) come from water instead of sugary drinks that are high in calories and can lead to weight problems.

    Whenever I talk about personality (个性) in relation to choosing a career, someone always complains like this: those tests are so stupid. When I was in the sixth grade, I took one of them and it said that I should be a farmer. While I don't think I would be a very good farmer, the results are probably a lot more accurate (准确) than I'd like to admit. At the time, it seemed ridiculous­I hated the outdoors and physical work, and was particularly sick of being dirty or sweaty. Now, though, as I think in terms of personality, it might have had something to do with my personality: I like long­term planning, working by myself, and being the master of my own fate.

    Personality tests are various, and some are complete nonsense. Be careful of any personality test that claims to be capable of concluding what your dream job is from your favorite food for breakfast, or by the type of animal you like best. While there are many personality assessments (评估) that are very accurate, I'd love to say that they are a second (and often expensive) step. The best choice is to find out about yourself for yourself.

    Before determining the ways to examine your work preferences, it's important to know the difference between liking a topic and liking the work. I once had a young guy who was a third­year marine (海洋的) biology student at a large state school in Ohio. He applied for and was placed into the Whale Watch program, where he found out that he became terribly seasick on any kind of boat­a big disadvantage for a student who thought he wanted to study whales in the wild.

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    Our multi-activity holiday camps offer an abundance of fun, age-oriented(导向的)activities(4-5-year-olds, 6-9-year-olds and 10-12-year-olds), from swimming and go-karting to arts and crafts and LEGO workshops. These day camps are a great choice for parents looking for regular childcare service, available as individual days or a week at a time.

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A school district in Michigan has banned all backpacks from school buildings, in response to growing safety concerns. 

Flint Community Schools announced last week that backpacks would be banned and the ban would be in place for the rest of the school year. The new policy went into effect on Monday. 

"We are doing all that we can to create a safe and secure environment for our scholars, families, teachers and staff," Superintendent (主管) Kevin Jones wrote in a letter posted on the school district's website. 

Jones cited growing threatening behavior happenings across the country, including weapons being brought to schools, as the reason for the backpack ban. 

"Backpacks make it easier for students to hide weapons, which can be taken apart and harder to identify than hidden in pockets, inside books, or under other items," he said. 

Following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last May, where 19 students and two teachers died, schools began taking policies requiring students to use clear backpacks. However, Flint Community Schools have gone a step further and banned clear backpacks from school buildings, with the superintendent saying that it doesn't resolve the issue. 

"By banning backpacks altogether and adding an increased security presence across the district, we can better control what is being brought into our buildings," Jones said. 

Students are allowed to store personal items like wallets, keys, hygiene products (卫生用品) and phones in small purses, bring lunchboxes or place their gym clothes in clear plastic bags, all of which will be subject to searches. 

If a student brings a backpack to school, parents or guardians must pick it up from the school, according to Jones. 

The Flint Board of Education, the district's administration and headmasters approved the policy change, Jones said, adding that the district received support from the Flint Police Department.