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    When someone reads the right book at the right time in his life, it can have a profound effect. Such is the case for the people on this list, who come from all walks of life. These people have singled out a book that they read which had a life-changing effect on them. They, in turn, affected the worlds of science, technology and politics.

1). That Printer Of Udell's—Ronald Reagan

    One book that had a big effect on former President Ronald Reagan as a child was the Christian-book That Printer of Udell's, by Harold Bell Wright. The main character of the book, Dick Falkner, was born into a broken home with an alcoholic father. After losing both of his parents, Falkner moves to a bigger city, called Boyd City to make a living. However, everyone turns Dick down for a job, except for a printer. At the end of the book, Dick heads to Washington, D. C, to become a politician. It's said that the book showed him that good could defeat evil and that the good guys followed a code of morality, which can be seen as a driving factor in his presidency.

2). A Treatise Of Human Nature—Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein was one of the greatest minds of all time. His name is synonymous with brilliance. So, what book had the biggest effect on such an important mind? It was A Treatise of Human Nature, by David Hume, which was published in 1738. Hume was a Scottish philosopher known for his contributions to philosophical skepticism(怀疑论). Einstein mentioned a few times that A Treatise of Human Nature had a large influence on him. He read the book just before coming up with his famous special relativity theory. In a letter, Einstein said that Treatise helped him formulate the ideas. It was like he already had the ideas in his brain, and Hume helped him to express them clearly.

3). The Aeneid—Mark Zuckerberg

    When Mark Zuckerberg first added his likes to his Facebook profile, he put the book Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, as a favorite book. Later, in an interview with The New Yorker, Zuckerberg clarified that the sci-fi classic was one he enjoyed, but it wasn't his favorite. He said that his favorite book is The Aeneid, by Virgil, a Latin epic poem that was written somewhere between 29 - 19 BC about a group of Trojan survivors. Zuckerberg said he first read the book when he was in high school while he was studying Latin and that one thing that stuck with him was Aeneas's drive to follow his fate to build a city that “knows no boundaries in time and greatness".

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Ways to Stop Worrying

    A little worrying now and then can be self-protective. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But too much worrying can lead to many problems, such as reduced concentration, poor sleeping habits and the inability to handle everyday difficulties. What's more, it may also cause physical health problems, such as high blood pressure.

    Here are some tips to help you lighten up and enjoy life more.

1). Note down your worries

    Writing in a worry journal helps create some distance between you and your concerns. Write down your thoughts briefly every day, perhaps the first thing in the morning, before you start your regular routine. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

2). Pack away your worries

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Imagine tucking (塞) away your anxieties in a small box and closing the lid (盖子). Set aside some time each day to open the box and examine your worries, but otherwise, keep it closed.

3). Share your worries with a friend

    Don't be embarrassed. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Then, he or she may give you some practical suggestions. Telling someone your fears helps lift the burden of worry and gives your friends a chance to offer comforting thoughts.

4). {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Select a quiet spot in your home where you can focus on your worries without being interrupted (打扰). Stay there every day for 10 to 20 minutes. Make sure you maintain a strict time limit and try to avoid worrying except when you're in your designated (指定的) “worry space”.

A. Create a personal worry space.

B. See worries from a different perspective.

C. Talk to your friend about your worries.

D. If journal writing isn't for you, create a “worry box” in your mind.

E. Spend about 15 minutes just writing and reflecting on what is bothering you.

F. Check with your local health centre about programs to stop worrying in your area.

G. Without anxiety you probably wouldn't lock your door at night or schedule your regular check-up.

    All animals produce waste. We call it "waste," but we all know it can be very useful. In some parts of the world, animal waste, or poop, is collected, dried, and burned for cooking and heating. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

    The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center has an unusual way of using animal "waste." The center's 40 pandas produce about two tons of poop a day. This material is being turned into a new product called Panda Poop Paper. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} After all, paper is made from plant fiber, which cannot be digested and simply goes through the body as waste.

    Since pandas eat nothing but bamboo, their "waste" is perfect paper material. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} 

    Their stomachs haven't fully developed for their vegetarian diet, so their bodies make use of just 20% of what they eat. The other 80% comes out as poop: very high in fiber and perfect for paper.

    Once the poop is collected, it is cleaned with chemicals, crushed(碾碎), and put into frames(框架) to dry. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Because of its good quality as well as the worldwide popularity of the panda, gift products made from the paper sell well.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They got the idea from the elephant dung(大象粪) paper made at Elephant Conservation Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. And Creative Paper Wales in the U.K. sell paper gifts made from sheep waste.

A. But do you know some paper from poop?

B. Where does the paper come from?

C. After these steps, good, strong paper comes into being.

D. Moreover, there is more special about pandas.

E. It's not really that strange!

F. Yet, the Chinese weren't the first people producing paper from animal waste.

G. Farmers have been using animal and human waste for a long time.

    Recent summer temperatures in parts of Australia were high enough to melt asphalt. As global warming speeds up the heat and climatic events increase, many plants may be unable to cope. But at least one species of eucalyptus tree can resist extreme heat by continuing to “sweat” when other essential processes stop, a new study finds.

    As plants change sunlight into food, or photosynthesize (光合作用), they absorb carbon dioxide through pores on their leaves. These pores also release water via transpiration(蒸腾), which circulates nutrients through the plant and helps cool it by evaporation(蒸发). But exceptionally high temperatures are known to greatly reduce photosynthesis—and most existing plant models suggest this should also decrease transpiration, leaving trees in danger of fatally overheating. Because it is difficult for scientists to control and vary trees' conditions in their natural environment, little is known about how individual species handle this situation.

    Ecologist John Drake of the S.U.N.Y. College of Environmental Science and Forestry and his colleagues grew a dozen Parramatta red gum (Eucalyptus parramattensis) trees in large, climate-controlled plastic pods that separated the trees from the surrounding forest for a year in Richmond, Australia. Six of the trees were grown at surrounding air temperatures and six at temperatures three degrees Celsius higher. The researchers withheld (扣留) water from the surface soil of all 12 trees for a month to imitate a mild dry spell, then induced a four-day “extreme” heat wave: They raised the maximum temperatures in half of the pods（three with surrounding temperatures and three of the warmer ones）— to 44 degrees ℃.

    Photosynthesis ground to a near halt in the trees facing the artificial heat wave. But to the researchers' surprise, these trees continued to transpire at close-to-normal levels, effectively cooling themselves and their surroundings. The trees grown in warmer conditions coped just as well as the others, and photosynthesis rates bounced back to normal after the heat wave passed, Drake and his colleagues reported online in Global Change Biology.

    The researchers think the Parramatta red gums were able to effectively sweat — even without photosynthesis — because they are particularly good at tapping into water deep in the soil. But if a heat wave and a severe drought (干旱) were to hit at the same time and the groundwater was exhausted, the trees may not be so lucky, Drake says.

    Other scientists call the finding encouraging. “It's definitely good news,” says Trevor Keenan, an ecologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who was not part of the study. “It would be very interesting to know how this translates to other species,” he adds. Drake hopes to conduct similar experiments with trees common in North America.

Londoners are great readers. They buy vast numbers of newspapers and magazines and of books — especially paperbacks, which are still comparatively cheap in spite of ever-increasing rises in the costs of printing. They still continue to buy "proper" books, too, printed on good paper and bound（装订）between hard covers.

    There are many streets in London containing shops which specialize in book-selling. Perhaps the best known of these is Charring Cross Road in the very heart of London. Here bookshops of all sorts and sizes are to be found, from the celebrated one which boasts of being "the biggest bookshop in the world" to the tiny, dusty little places which seem to have been left over from Dickens' time. Some of these shops stock, or will obtain, any kind of book, but many of them specialize in second-hand books, in art books, in foreign books, in books on philosophy, politics or any other of the countless subjects about which books may be written. One shop in this area specializes only in books about ballet!

    Although it may be the most convenient place for Londoners to buy books, Charring Cross Road is not the cheapest. For the really cheap second-hand books, the collector must venture off the beaten track, to Farringdon Road, for example, in the East Central district of London. Here there is nothing so impressive as bookshops. The booksellers come along each morning and pour out their sacks of books onto small hand carts. And the collectors, some professionals and some amateurs, have been waiting for them. In places like this they can still, occasionally, pick up for a few pence an old one that may be worth many pounds.

    If you live in a big city, there are many thing to drive you crazy on your daily route, and it's not just overcrowded subway trains.

    Vicky Zhao is a mainlander working in Hong Kong. For her, one thing she can't put up with is people standing on the wrong side of the escalator(自动扶梯) in subway stations. "Escalators help us move faster and save time. It isn't a place to rest," the 24-year-old says. "I often see tourists block the way with their suitcases or chatting on the escalators during rush hours. It annoys me to no end."

    Admitting she is not the patient type, Zhao says things are much better in Hong Kong than in cities on the mainland where "stand right, walk left" signs are often ignored.

    The logic behind the "stand right, walk left" escalator etiquette(礼仪) seems obvious. Even though you may want to catch your breath while you're transported up or down, you should still consider others and leave enough space for people in a hurry, so that they can run and catch the train.

    Many cities' escalators, including London's and Beijing's, use the "stand right, walk left" system to speed up the flow of people. (Australia is an exception and you should stand on the left side instead.) But some cities discourage people from moving on escalators out of safety reasons. In Hong Kong's subway stations there are regular announcements asking people to "stand still" on escalators. Even so, most people in this fast-paced city observe the "stand right, walk left" etiquette.

    But the people who stand on escalators defend themselves by telling the walkers not to be so impatient. The BBC quotes one stander as saying: "If the person is in such a rush, why not just take the stairs? Even when the escalator is packed and there's nowhere to move, I see these same people complaining about not being able to pass."

    Whatever the escalator etiquette is in the place you live or visit, do what most people are doing and always be mindful of others: leave enough space between each other, don't stay at the end of the escalator, and if someone is blocking your way, a simple "excuse me" is enough.