Hundreds of years ago，a Roman army came north from England to make war on Scotland. The Scots，a brave people，loved their country very much. They fought hard to drive the enemy out of Scotland，but there were too many Romans. It looked as if the Romans would win.

    One night，the leader of Scots marched his soldiers to the top of a hill. "We will rest here tonight，my men,” he said. "Tomorrow we will fight one more battle. We must win or we will die."

    They were all very tired，so they ate their supper quickly and fell asleep. There were four guards on duty, but they were very tired as well and also fell asleep one by one.

    The Romans were not asleep. Quickly they gathered at the foot of the hill. Slowly they climbed up the hillside, taking care not to make a sound. Closer and closer they came to the sleeping Scots. They were almost at the top. A few minutes more，the war would be over. Suddenly，one of them put his foot on a thistle(蓟). He cried out and his sudden cry woke the Scots. In a moment，they were on their feet and ready for battle. The fighting was hard but it did not last long. The Scots wiped out the Romans and saved their country.

    The thistle is not a beautiful plant. It has sharp needles all over it. Few people like it. But the people of Scotland liked it so much that they made it their national flower.

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    What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology(生物技术). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today's leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memories.

    In discussion of technological(技术的) changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs（器官）. The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on—in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.

    It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.

    It is widely accepted that nightmares (噩梦) are a reaction to negative experiences that happen during waking hours. However, some scientists believe that nightmares do have some real benefits. One 2017 study, for example, found that frequent nightmare sufferers rated themselves as more empathetic (有同理心的). They also displayed more of a tendency to unconsciously mirror other people through things like yawning People who have constant nightmares also tend to think further outside the box on psychoanalysis tasks. Some other researchers have found support for the idea that nightmares might be linked to creativity.

    People seeking cure for nightmares were not necessarily more fearful or anxious, but rather had a general sensitivity to all emotional experience. Sensitivity is the driving force behind intense dreams. Heightened sensitivity to threats or fear during the day results in nightmares, whereas heightened passion or excitement may result in positive dreams. And both these forms of dreams may feed back into waking life, perhaps increasing suffering after nightmares, or promoting social bonds and empathy after positive dreams.

    The effects go further still. This sensitivity overflows into awareness and thoughts －people who have a lot of nightmares experience a dreamlike quality to their waking thoughts. And this kind of thinking seems to give them a creative edge. For instance, studies show that such people tend to have greater creative talent and artistic express and people who often have nightmares also tend to have more positive dreams than the average person.

    The evidence points towards the idea that, rather than disturbing normal activity, people who are unfortunate in having a lot of nightmares also have a dreaming life that is at least as creative, positive and vivid as it can be distressing and terrifying. What's more, this imaginative richness is unlikely to be limited to sleep, but also is filled with waking thoughts and daydreams. Even after people wake up and shake off the nightmare, in other words, a mark of it stays behind, possessing them throughout the day.

Coolest Bookstores in the World

    Where did you buy your last book? Chances are that you bought it on the Internet. But if you did, you missed the remarkable experience of browsing in a real bookstore. These days bookstores offer lots of great books and plenty more.

    Eslite Dunnan Store

    Time magazine once named Eslite Dunnan Store in Taiwan province, China "Asia's best bookstore". One visit to the store tells you why. The store, spread across five floors, offers a combination of restaurants, music and over 200,000 books. With its comfortable reading spots, visitors sometimes say it's like a library. Others have called it the "7-Eleven of bookstores" because it's open 24 hours a day.

    Book Garden

    The world's biggest bookstore is Tehran, Iran's Book Garden with 700,000 square feet of space. In addition to restaurants and a theater, the Book Garden features a park on the roof. Visitors can pick up one of 1,000 free books to read while enjoying the fresh air and sunshine from the Book Garden's rooftop park.

    Saraiva Bookstore

    Rio de Janeiro's Saraiva Bookstore might be the world's most colorful bookstore. The visible upper level is lined with books arranged by their colors. This rainbow effect provides a color welcoming for shoppers as they arrive. A rainbow path also leads young readers into the children's section.

    Liberia Acqua Alta

    Venice, Italy, is a city surrounded with water. Its books are displayed in all things related to water such as boats, bathtubs to protect them when the shop floods during high tide. It overlooks one of Venice's many canals, and the smell of old books fills the air.

Today's world is not an easy adjustment for young adults. A key skill set for success is persistence(毅力), a characteristic that researchers say is heavily influenced by fathers. Researchers from Brigham Young University discovered that fathers are in a unique position to help their adolescent children learn persistence.

BYU professors Laura Padilla-Walker and Randal Day arrived at these findings after following 325 American families over several years. And over time, the persistence gained through fathers led to higher achievement in school.

"There are relatively few studies that stress the unique role of fathers," Padilla-Walker said. "This research also helps to prove that characteristics such as persistence—which can be taught—are key to a child's life success."

Researchers determined that dads need to practise an "authoritative" parenting style. Authoritative parenting is not authoritarian: rigid, demanding or controlling. Rather, an authoritative parenting style includes some of the following characteristics: children feel warmth and love from their father; responsibility and the reasons behind rules are stressed; children are given an appropriate level of autonomy(自主权).

In the study, about 52 percent of the dads exhibited above-average levels of authoritative parenting. A key finding is that over time, children raised by an authoritative father were significantly more likely to develop persistence, which leads to better outcomes in school.

This particular study examined 11 to 14-year-olds living in two-parent homes. Yet the researchers suggest that single parents still may play a role in teaching the benefits of persistence, which is an avenue of future research.

Everyone in the Smiths shares the housework. Let's see what they usually do.