Modern graffiti began in big cities in the United States in the 1970s. In New York, young people wrote their names, or 'tags', in pen on walls around the city.

    One of the first 'taggers' was a teenager called Demetrius. His tag was TAKI 183. He wrote his tag on walls and in stations in New York. He did it just for fun and he had never imagined his behavior would have launched an amazing art campaign. Other teenagers saw Demetrius's tag and started writing their tags too. Soon, there were tags on walls, buses and trains all over New York.

    Then, some teenagers started writing their tags with aerosol paint. Their tags were bigger and more colourful. Aerosol paint graffiti became very popular in the 1970s and 1980s. It appeared on trains, buses and walls around the world.

    In the 1990s and 2000s, a lot of graffiti artists started painting pictures. Some artists' pictures were about politics. Other artists wanted to make cities beautiful and painted big, colorful pictures on city walls.

    In some countries, writing or painting on walls is a crime. Sometimes, graffiti artists have problems with the police. In other countries, artists can draw and paint in certain places. For example, in Taiwan, there are 'graffiti zones' where artists can paint on walls. In São Paulo in Brazil, street artists can paint pictures on walls and houses. Their pictures are colorful and beautiful. Some tourists visit São Paulo just to see the street art!

    In Bristol in the UK, there is a street art festival in August every year. Artists paint all the buildings in a street. Lots of people come to watch the artists and take photos. You can see exhibitions of street art in some galleries too. There have been exhibitions of street art in galleries in Paris, London and Los Angeles.

    Obama, Lady Gaga and Steve Jobs—what do they have in common? They are, of course, all Americans. And according to a survey by social networking site baidu. com, they all best illustrate(举例说明) the word “cool”.

    But just what does it mean to say someone is “cool”? Most would answer that it is something to do with being independent-minded and not following the crowd.

    Yale University art professor Robert Farris Thompson says that the term “cool” goes back to 15th century West African philosophy. “Cool” relates to ideas of grace under pressure.

    “In Africa, ” he writes, “coolness is a positive quality which combines calmness, silence, and life.”

    The modern idea of “cool” developed largely in the US in the period after World War II. “Post-war ‘cool' was in part an expression of war-weariness (厌战情绪), ... it went against the strict social rules of the time,” write sociologists Dick Pountain and David Robins in Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude.

    But it was the American actor James Dean who became the symbol for “cool” in the hugely successful 1955 movie Rebel without a Cause. Dean plays a tough guy who disobeys his parents and the authorities. He always gets the girl, smokes cigarettes, wears a leather jacket and beats up bullies. In the movie, Dean showed what “cool” would mean to American young people for the next 60 years.

    Today the focus of “cool” has changed to athletics (体育运动) stars. Often in movies about schools, students gain popularity on the athletics field more than in the classroom. This can be seen quite clearly in movies like Varsity Blues and John Tucker Must Die.

    But many teenagers also think being smart is cool. Chess and other thinking games have been becoming more popular in schools.

    “Call it the Harry Potterization of America—a time when being smart is the new cool,” writes journalist Joe Sunnen.

    International Children's Day is coming up on June 1st. Here we have chosen some films from around the world that are most worthy for children to see.

    E, T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

    Director: Steven Spielberg

    Country: United States of America

    Storyline: A group of aliens are visiting the Earth at night. But one of the visitors from space is left behind and finds himself all alone on a very strange planet. Fortunately, he meets Elliot, a lonely boy himself, and slowly makes friends with Elliot's older brother Michael, his sister Gertie. Meanwhile government officers work day and night to track down the little alien. Elliot and others try their best to help the alien go home.

    Children of Heaven (1997)

    Director: Majid Majidi

    Country: Iran

    Storyline: Ali takes his little sister Zahra's shoes to the shoemaker to be repaired but loses them on the way home. There is no money to buy another pair. Ali makes a plan to share his shoes: Zahra will wear them in the morning and hand them to Ali at midday so he can attend school classes. Ali then enters a children's racing competition in hopes of receiving the third prize, a new pair of shoes.

    Kes (1969)

    Director: Ken Loach

    Country: United Kingdom

    Storyline: Bullied (欺凌) at school and getting little attention at home by his mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old boy from a working-class family, finds peace in his pet falcon (猎隼), Kes. With encouragement from his English teacher, Billy eventually discovers a positive purpose to his unfortunate life, until some bad thing comes.

    Never before have Chinese Internet users so openly liked and supported a Japanese athlete as they have loved table tennis star Ai Fukuhara (福原爱), better known by her Japanese nickname “Ai-Chan”.

    But they may now feel heartbroken, as the 29-year-old said on Oct.21 that she would retire (退役) from the sport. I've found the answers within myself that I have been searching for. From the standpoint ( 立场) of an athlete, I'm drawing the line here," Fukuhara wrote on her blog.

    After she started playing table tennis at 3 years old, Fukuhara was seen as a child gifted at the sport. Being trained in China at a very young age, Fukuhara can speak fluent Mandarin, with a northeastern accent.

    If her deep-rooted connection with China is one thing that has won the hearts of Chinese fans, her character is another. She always shows her real self to the public without hiding her feelings. She laughs in games when she wins, and cries when she loses. The fact that she often cries when she gets upset has earned her the nickname “Crybaby Ai-Chan” in China.

    Although she was beaten by a long line of Chinese players, Fukuhara always tries her best when playing her favorite sport. Yet, she also knows that now is the best time to close the curtain on her successful career. It's hard to say goodbye to a long journey but as Fukuhara once said on a reality TV show, “Life is not all about table tennis. Instead, it is just part of life.”

    As for her future plans, Fukuhara wrote that she would like to help more people around the world get to know the beauty of the sport.

    Birdbrain has long been a term when laughing at somebody. The common opinion is that birds' brains are simple. But that opinion has increasingly been called into question because crows and parrots, among other birds, have shown behaviors as smart as that of chimpanzees.

    The conflict of simple brain and complex behavior has led some neuroscientists (神经学家) to create a new map of the birdbrain.

    Today, in the journal Nature Neuroscience Reviews, an international group of bird experts is showing their opinion. Nearly everything written in anatomy (解剖学) textbooks about the brains of birds is wrong, they say. The bird brain is as complex, and creative as any mammal brain, they argue, and it's time to use a more exact term that shows a new understanding of the anatomies of bird and mammal brains.

    "Names have a powerful influence on the experiments we do and the way we think," said Dr. Erich, a neuroscientist at Duke University and a leader of the Bird Brain Terms Association. "Old term has prevented scientific progress."

    The association of 29 scientists from six countries met for seven years to develop new, more exact names for structures in both bird and mammal brains. For example, the bird's seat of intelligence or its higher brain is now named the pallium (大脑皮层).

    "The change of terms is a great advance," said Dr. Jon Kaas, a leading expert in neuroanatomy at Vanderbih University. "It's hard to get scientists to agree about anything."

    Scientists have come to agree that birds are indeed smart, but those who study bird intelligence differ on how birds got that way. Experts are split into two warring camps. One holds that birds' brains make the same kinds of internal (内在的) connections as do mammal brains and that intelligence in both groups arises from these connections. The other holds that bird intelligence developed through increasing an old part of the mammal brain and using it in new ways and it questions how developed that intelligence is.

    In Kansas City, Missouri, a computer helps firefighters. The computer, which works very fast, has information about all the 350, 000 street addresses in the city. Within two or three seconds after a call is received, the computer provides necessary information for the firefighters. The information is then sent to them by radio from the computer centre in the City Hall. The exact place of the burning building and its size, type and any other details are clear to them.

    The Kansas City computer system also has a medical record of each of the city's 900 firefighters. This kind of information is especially useful when a firefighter is injured. With the information, doctors at hospital can treat the injured firefighters more quickly and easily.

    The firefighters themselves greatly appreciate the computer's help. They know about possible danger ahead of them and can prepare for it. Many times the computer information helps to save lives and property (财产). Sometimes the lives are those of firefighters themselves.

    Mike Horan, a firefighter captain, says, "I feel as if the computer is ready to help me if I get hurt."