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    In the famous fairy tale, Snow White eats the Queen's apple and falls victim to a curse（诅咒）;in Shakespeare's novel, Romeo drinks the poison and dies; some ancient Chinese emperors took pellets（药丸）that contained mercury（水银）, believing that it would make them immortal, but they died afterward.

    Poison has long been an important ingredient in literature and history, and it seems to always be associated with evil, danger and death. But how much do you really know about poison?

    An exhibition, The Power of Poison, opened last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, intended to give the audience a more vivid understanding of poison.

    The museum tour starts in a rainforest setting, where you can see live examples of some of the most poisonous animals: caterpillars（毛毛虫）, frogs and spiders. Golden poison frogs, for instance, aren't much bigger than a coin, but their skin is covered with a poison that can cut off the signaling power of your nerves, and a single frog has enough venom to kill 10 grown humans.

    "Poisons can be bad for some things," Michael Novacek, senior vice president of the museum, told NBC News. "Yet they can also be good for others."

    A poisonous chemical found in the yew tree is effective against cancer, which is what led to the invention of a cancer-fighting drug called Taxol.

    The benefits from natural poisons are not limited to just medicine. Believe it or not, many substances（物质）that we regularly ingest（摄入）-chili, coffee and chocolate-owe their special flavors or stimulating（提神的）effects to chemicals that plants make to poison insects.

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    If we were asked exactly what we were doing a year ago，we should probably have to say that we could not remember. But if we had kept a book and had written in it an account of what we did each day, we should be able to give an answer to the question．

    It 1s the same in history．Many things have been forgotten because we do not have any written account of them. Sometimes men did keep a record of the most important happenings in their country, but often it was destroyed by fire or in a war．Sometimes there was never any written record at all because the people of that time and place did not know how to write．For example，we know a good deal about the people who lived in China 4,000 years ago，because they could write and leave written records for those who lived after them．But we know almost nothing about the people who lived even 200 years ago in Central Africa，because they had not learned to write．

    Sometimes，of coures，even if the people cannot write，they may know something of the past．They have heard about it from older people，and often songs, dances and stories have been made about the most important happenings, and these have been sung，acted and told for many generations，for most people are proud to tell what their fathers did in the past．This we may call”remembered history”．Some of it had been written down. It is not so exact or so valuable to us as written history is，because words are much more easily changed when used again and again in speech than when copied in writing．But where there are no written records，such spoken stories are often very helpful．

    Counterfeit(假的) medicines are a widespread problem in developing countries. Like other counterfeits, they look like real products. But counterfeit drugs may contain too little or none of the active ingredients of the real thing.

    People do not get the medicine they need. And in some cases, counterfeits cause death. Twenty children in Bangladesh died last year after being given acetaminophen(对乙酰氨基酚).The medications contained ingredients that looked, smelled and tasted like the real thing. The medicine was produced by a local drug company that used a dangerous substitute to save money.

The problem of counterfeit medicines is especially serious in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The WHO estimates that up to thirty percent of medicines on sale in many of those countries are counterfeit. The problem is less widespread among industrialized countries. The WHO says counterfeits make up less than one percent of the illegal drug market in countries like the United States, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

    But the agency also says as much as fifty percent of the medicine sold on the Internet is counterfeit.

    Much is being done to fight counterfeit drugs. Several companies are developing ways to make counterfeits easier to identify. And there are existing methods, like a machine that can quickly identify chemicals in pills to confirm if the pills are real. Other ideas include things like special tracking codes for drug packages. People could send a text message with the code and get a message back, which proves that what they bought is listed in a database. Some drug makers and other companies put three-dimensional images called holograms(全息图)on their products as a security device.

    A latest research led by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found a clear link between the color of a taxi and its accident rate. An analysis of 36 months of detailed taxi, driver and accident data from two fleets of yellow and blue taxis in Singapore suggested that yellow taxis have fewer accidents than blue taxis. The higher visibility of yellow makes it less difficult for drivers to avoid getting into accidents with yellow taxis, leading to a lower accident rate.

    The study was led by Prof Hou. To test whether there was a relationship between the color of a taxi and the number of accidents the taxi had, the research team analyzed data collected by the largest taxi company in Singapore. The researchers found that yellow taxis have about 6.1 fewer accidents per 1,000 taxis per month.

    They also studied the economic effect of changing the color of the entire fleet of taxis to yellow. The Singapore taxi company involved in the study owns about 16,700 taxis in a ratio (比例) of one yellow to three blue taxis. If a commercial decision is made to switch from blue to yellow taxis, 76.6 fewer accidents will occur per month or 917 fewer accidents per year.

    Assuming an average repair cost of $1,000 per car and a downtime of six days, the color of all taxis to yellow could produce an annual saving of $2 million.

    "We are eager to continue to validate(证实) the findings of our study by looking at the use of yellow in other types of public transport, such as school buses. For example, we hope to compare the accident rates of yellow school buses against those of other colors to find out if yellow is indeed a safer color for school buses. Besides, we're also interested to look at private-hire vehicles and do a comparison of the accident rates of vehicles that are of different colors, "explained Prof Hou.

    An article describing the attitude of post-1990s generations toward life has recently gone viral on Chinese social media, which resonates with(引起共鸣) millions of youngsters for reflecting their casualness and calmness under gradually increasing social pressure.

    The article was first published on WeChat with the title of “The first group of post-90s generation who have become monks”. By using the phrase “Buddha-like youngsters”(佛系青年), it claimed that some of the post-90s generations, who were born between 1990 and 1992, have “seen through the emptiness of life” and kept a casual and calm attitude toward career and life.

    “It's fine to have something or not and there is no need to pursue or win anything," said the article, while defining "Buddha-like" people and clarifying that the phrase has nothing to do with the religion of Buddhism. An easy example is that Buddha-like youngsters do not care about taking which way to return home or choosing what to eat for lunch, according to the article.

    The phrase has touched the nerves of the Chinese youngsters who are facing the fast-paced life, cut-throat world of career and great mental pressure in China, read a commentary by People's Daily on Wednesday. The phrase was well received by Chinese netizens; the original WeChat post has been viewed by more than 1 million times and then read more than 60 million times on SinaWeibo by Wednesday.

    “The phrase properly describes the mentalities and lifestyle of (some of) the post-90s generations in China, who have become less ambitious and more casual toward life due to the great pressure and fierce competition in today's China”, one SinaWeibo user commented.

    Are you a Buddha-like youngster？

China is the home of tea. Since ancient times, tea {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (become) part of Chinese culture, leaving its smell in poems and customs. Many tea lovers enjoy tea not only for its taste, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} for the beauty of tea ceremonies.

 {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (traditional), picking tea leaves is an important activity in spring in South China. The earliest batch (批) of tea is often ready to be picked before Qingming, in early April {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the temperature begins to rise and rain increases. This kind of tea, called Mingqian tea, is {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (high) praised for its good quality.

East China's Zhejiang province is considered as {#blank#}6{#/blank#} major producer of tea. White Tea in Huzhou city's Anji county and West Lake Longjing Tea in Hangzhou are famous in both China and abroad. In spring, local hills of those places are filled with tea workers {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(work) on their land. In the busy seasons, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (tourist) from different areas of the country travel there {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (see) the sights of tea farms and enjoy a freshly prepared cup of tea.

Thousands of years ago, by the hands of the Chinese people, a leaf {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (make) into a delicious drink. It has traveled a long way and continues to play a role in Chinese culture.