Mrs. White lived in a town of England. Her husband died three years ago and one of her children worked in the capital and the other three lived in another town. Her husband didn't leave her much money and she had to live a simple (简朴) life. Sometimes her children went to see her during their holidays, but they stayed with her for only two or three days.

    One winter morning the old woman got up early. She was going to buy some food in a shop. And when she came out, she found there was much snow in the street. She had to sweep it away. And suddenly she found a dying dog at the comer of the house. She picked it up and took it into the house quickly. She put it near the fire and gave it some milk and bread. At first the poor dog ate nothing and that afternoon it drank some milk and three days later it was all right. Now the old woman found it was a beautiful dog. And she liked it very much and took it everywhere she went. A week later she went shopping with her dog. At a bus stop a young man was eating fish and chips. The little dog became very excited at the smell of the man's lunch and began jumping up at him.

    “Do you mind if I throw it a bit?'' asked the young man.

    “Not at all,” answered Mrs. White.

    Having heard this, he picked up the dog and threw it over the wall.

    City Life in Thailand is much like city life in the United States. People live in tall buildings or in houses close together. But outside the cities, life is different. People usually live on farms far apart from one another. They grow their own food or buy fresh food almost every day at the market. But the market is not in a building. It is a floating market located on a river.

    Lamai and her family live on a farm. They grow fruits and vegetables and sell them at the market each day. Long before the sun comes up, Lamai and her brother help their parents. They pick out fruits and vegetables and clean them. Then they load everything into a long boat.

    Their boat is ready by about 6:00 a.m. Lamai and her mother row to the closest floating market. On the way the water is still and peaceful. Lamai sees the bright sun beginning to shine.

    Soon Lamai hears laughing and yelling in the distance. Her mother rows the boat around a corner. Suddenly they are at the floating market. Hundreds of boats are gathered at a wide place in the river. Lamai's mother is selling bananas and ripe tomatoes today. For Lamai a trip to the market is more than just a chance to sell or buy something. It is a chance for her to talk to her friends.

    Today Lamai sees her friend Suki. He is helping his mother prepare meals in their boat. Lamai loves the smell of the fried bananas Suki's mother is making. Lamai's mother rows over to buy a late breakfast. As Lamai eats, she and Suki talk about their summer plans.

    At around 11:00 a.m. people begin to go home. She is sleepy from waking up so early. Her mother has sold most of what they brought to the market. The will leave the market with less food in their boat but with more money for Lamai's family.

    Life in the summertime is often full of pests. Like most Long Island homeowners, I want to ensure my suburban life with pest-free living. So it was with wide-eyed wonder that I greeted the smiling exterminator (灭虫者) who rang my bell.

    “We'll be serving your neighbors, Mike and Sarah (I'm not familiar with either one by name),” he waved in the other direction. “Since we'll have a team here tomorrow, we're offering a discount.” He came out with numbers beginning from $299 then in seconds to $89.

    “You've probably been seeing the ant hills around.” he moved toward my front walkway and lawn. “And have you seen the bees that dig nests in the ground?” he continued with his head shaking up and down pushing me to do the same.

    “What we do is spray three feet out from your foundation and three feet up.” As he was talking, and without breaking eye contact, he opened his iPad cover and began operating at the screen to show me frightening images. “It also kills other pests, like spiders. It is the best pesticide (杀虫剂),” he said, pausing for effect.

    He then went into soft talk to close the deal, correctly foreseeing that I would be concerned about safety and the environmental impact on my vegetable garden, plants and our little patch of planet here on Long Island. “The products are environmentally responsible, safe with children and pets,” he said.

    I'm unkind when it comes to unwanted visitors entering on my out-of-doors moments. Any insect found in my house or on my deck is bound to be poisoned or pancaked.

    Unfortunately for the exterminator, just as I was considering making an appointment, Billy, my fearless husband, pulled into our driveway, which made me ask for a business card out of politeness instead.

    Machines equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) have performed better than human beings in a high-level test of reading comprehension. Two natural language processing tools received higher test scores than humans in recent exams.

    One of the tools is a product of the American software maker Microsoft. The other was created by the Chinese online seller Alibaba Group. The company said that a deep-learning model developed by its Institute of Data Science of Technologies was the first to beat a human score in the reading comprehension test.

    The test is called the Stanford Question Answering Dataset. It was developed by researchers at Stanford University in California. It has over 100,000 questions and answers. They are based on information found in over 500 stories from the Wikipedia website. The answers to all the questions come from the reading material.

    The AI-powered machines were tested on whether they could provide exact answers to the questions after processing large amounts of information.

    Alibaba said its deep neural (神经的) network model received an “Exact Match” score of 82.44 on the Stanford test. Microsoft reported that a team at Microsoft Research Asia had a score of 82.65. It said the human score on the same questions and answers was 82.304. Many research organizations also appeared on the list—all with scores below 82.

    Alibaba said it has already used its reading comprehension model in different parts of its business. For example, the company is using machines to answer many incoming telephone calls from customers. The company says in the future, the technology could enable machines to guide visitors through museums or provide advice to medical patients.

    Microsoft noted that, overall, people are still much better than machines at understanding the complexity and nuances (细微差别) of language.

Professor Zhang Liangren from the School of History at Nanjing University has found a unique and engaging way to transmit historical and archaeological knowledge to the public—through food vlogs. His approach, combining culinary （食物的） delights with fascinating historical insights, has taken China's social media by storm, attracting a wide audience and gathering praise for its innovative method of storytelling.

Before digging into food vlogging, Professor Zhang Liangren usually dined at the school cafeteria or restaurants near his community. However, since he started making food vlogs in the summer of 2023, he has been exploring the world extensively, dining at a variety of restaurants that were previously unknown to him. Zhang Liangren frankly admits that he is far from being a qualified "foodie": He enjoys good food, but has not yet reached the point of searching everywhere for it. What truly led him onto the path of a food vlogger was his passion for archaeology. While watching Zhang taste the food, viewers can listen to him explaining the historical stories behind the dishes. Although the food cannot be immediately tasted, the spiritual nourishment （营养） of archaeology has satisfied the taste buds （味蕾） of netizens, who have expressed their satisfaction.

Speaking of the situation at the beginning of filming, Zhang Liangren frankly admitted, "Because I rarely did these things before, I was quite uncomfortable in front of the camera at first. My Mandarin was not very good either, so my speech and movements were very awkward. But gradually, I got used to it, and overall, it's much better than before."

As for which places he prefers to visit for check-ins, Zhang Liangren states that he prefers shops with a certain level of fame, "It must be down-to-earth, the kind of place that caters to the common people." He mentioned that he usually chooses small stands or shops with a long history and good reputation. Sometimes he also selects based on festivals, tasting the food while narrating the methods of preparation and the cultural significance behind the dishes.