The first thing my wife, Peg, said when I retired was "Good news! Now you'll have time to clean the garage!" Not exactly good news-it was the one task I'd been putting off. Inside the garage had been gaps so big you could see all the way down to the ground and all the junk that had piled up since I'd started my job.
I'd earned a job as a news director, a position where I could use my skills. I threw my whole into it and put aside all the family trifles. I'd even worked my way up to head of the office. And after 30 years' service, I knew it was time to retire. But after decades of long hours and strict deadlines, now what?
This dusty garage didn't seem like much compared to the marble halls of the office building. Sure, I would have more time to spend with my family, but I worried I'd lose the sense of purpose and identity I had felt in my job.
I picked my way past coolers, snow shovels and folded canvas. Here I was puttering (磨蹭), of all things. I pulled on work gloves, then removed a box of motor oil out of the way, intending to empty some shelves when my hand hit something hard. What could that be?
"Just a dusty tin of seeds." I sighed. "Huh, maybe older than me."
I grabbed a plastic tray and pushed them into the soil. "What are my chances?" I asked an experienced gardener. "Not very good," he said. I told Peg with a sigh, wanting to get rid of the tray, but something made me hesitate.
One morning, a sprig of green accidentally came into my view. Was it just grass? A weed? Or could it be...? I found myself checking first thing every morning, until one day I saw leaves unfurled. I proudly showed off the broad, healthy leaves to Peg and our grandchildren. "I just feel it even something this old can still come up. Pretty cool, right? Just like your papal!"
It's an attractive idea: By playing online problem-solving, matching and other games for a few minutes a day, people can improve such mental abilities as reasoning, verbal skills and memory. But whether these brain training games deliver on those promises is up for debate.
A research team gathered more than eight thousand volunteers globally after collecting their submission of an online questionnaire about their training habits and which, if any, programs they used. Some one thousand participants reported using brain training programs for about eight months, on average, though durations ranged from two weeks to more than five years. Next, the volunteers completed 12 cognitive (认知) tests assessing their mental abilities. They faced specially designed memory exercises, such as mentally rotating objects, pattern-finding puzzles and strategy challenges.
When looking at the results, researchers saw that brain trainers on average had no mental edge. Even among the most dedicated, who had used training programs for at least 18 months, brain training didn't boost thinking abilities above the level of people who didn't use the programs. Participants who had trained for less than a month, also performed on par with people who didn't train at all.
"No matter how we sliced the data, we were unable to find any evidence that brain training games were connected with cognitive abilities," says leader of the team. That held true whether the team analyzed participants by age, program used, education or socioeconomic status – all were cognitively similar to the group who didn't use the programs, suggesting that brain training games don't live up to its name. Accordingly, the study advocates no more time sitting at a computer and doing little tasks.
On June 7, 1195, a fiery spinning ball emerged from a dark cloud in the sunny sky close to the London city. An account of this extraordinary moment survives in a chronicle (编年史) between about 1180 and 1199 by Gervase. It would appear that this is the first credible record of ball lightning in England, and much more convincing than the earliest European description, which was believed to be from the 17th century.
Historians discovered the account of what appears to be ball lightning while exploring Gervase's records of natural events in his chronicle, a treasure of historical details giving insights into medieval culture. They dug through hundreds of pages in Latin and came across this sighting. Gervase's records of natural events appear within the historical narrative, often with no opening statement, and the account of ball lightning is sandwiched between the events of the changing of kings at that time.
No attempt is made to explain the "marvellous sign" in the sky seen near London. Readers are left to draw their own conclusions. But Gervase appears to have been a sharp-eyed observer and reporter of celestial (天空的) activity. His fanciful description of ball lightning is remarkably similar to modern reports.
For a long time, ball lightning was regarded with skepticism. Although it is now generally accepted as a genuine phenomenon with thousands of reported sightings, there is still no accepted scientific explanation of its origin. Understanding the phenomenon has been blocked by an inability to reproduce the effect convincingly in the lab and partly because of the variations in eyewitness reports. Whatever the case, centuries later, Gervase's record makes stimulating reading for modern scientists as well as historians.
Why Are Tigers Orange?
The colors of an animal serve lots of different purposes — for instance, to help them hide into surroundings and escape from being noticed by preys (猎物). For tigers, their ability to be invisible will just decide whether they catch dinner or go hungry.
As for humans, orange is a color used for items that need to stand out, like traffic lights and safety vests. That's because we have what's called trichromatic color vision, which differentiate three types of color: blue, green and red. But most other mammals, including dogs, horses and deer, have dichromatic (二色的) color vision for only two colors: blue and green. Humans who get information only of blue and green are considered color-blind, and can't distinguish between red and green colors.
Mammals like deer are the tiger's main prey, and their dichromatic vision means they don't see tigers as orange — they see them as green. That makes the tiger much harder to spot as it's prowling behind a bush or crouching in the grass. Although green tigers would probably be even harder to spot, evolution (进化) just doesn't work with the ingredients necessary to make green fur. The only recognizably green mammal is a sloth, and its fur isn't green in fact. That's an alga that grows in its fur.
There seems to be no evolutionary pressure, particularly for deer, which are the main prey of the tiger, to become trichromatic. That's probably because the tiger doesn't know it's orange either. So, the evolutionary race really doesn't exist for that color. It's just that the tiger has evolved over the sweep of evolution to have a coloring, a hiding system, which protects it very well in its jungle setting.
A. Actually, there are no green furry animals.
B. Orange fur makes tigers relatively easy to spot.
C. The same is likely true for dichromatic animals.
D. Then, why don't deer evolve the ability to see orange?
E. So, of all the colors they could be, why are tigers orange?
F. Colors of humans' eyes are quite similar to many other mammals'.
G. We share this style of vision with some mammals like apes and certain monkeys.
The engineer's motto is: "Keep it simple and serious." But Dr. Arnold, though the fifth woman engineer in history to win the Nobel Prize, is somewhat 1. She always seems to meet something unexpected or have the talent to make things 2.
Here's a picture of a beaming President Obama, 3 her for winning the National Medal. That should have been a moment of 4. But you can never imagine what happened to her. The minibus that 5 the medal receivers should catch fire at the White House door. The bus filled with smoke, passengers within were gasping and crying and staggering toward the 6, the younger ones carrying the older ones — and all were greeted by a team of Secret Service agents, 7 aimed at the medalists' heads. They were amusingly 8 as terrorists. What a joke!
Another 9 story! When Dr. Arnold and her little son, landed in London, the border agent asked what brought them to the UK. Feeling very proud and hot-stuff, Dr. Arnold 10 she was going to a reception to meet the Queen. She then 11 shot her mouth off about her next award ceremony at the palace in Italy. The agent skeptically 12 her slightly disheveled (凌乱的) clothes and demanded the invitation letter. But she said it was in her suitcase. Without more 13, she, along with her son, was grabbed to the detention room (拘留室). They spent the next two and a half hours there 14 their story was verified (证实), and 15 made it to meet the Queen. Once again, the should-be 16 engineer was mistaken. Afterwards, she 17, "We should have been simple, sensed the environment and then respond." Her son replied, "Mom, next time why don't you keep your mouth 18."
See what the engineer has 19 ! Yes, indeed we can never tell one's experiences from their 20.
It might be surprising to know that ice-skating has appeared in the ancient times. Believe it or not, it (be) once a warriors' (战士的) art with ice skates. The sport was then called bingxi, and it was practiced because Manchu men needed to master the skill of moving 350 kilometers in a single day (reach) their enemies.
When the Manchu men moved from the north to the capital city of Beijing came to power in the Qing Dynasty, ice-skating became traditional sport. Every winter, there were 200 proficient ice-skaters (select) to perform on the frozen royal lake.
Ice-skaters during those times wore knee pads, and they secured their shoes with leather. Their shoes (fit) with single iron blades for speed, and double blades for security. There were also (compete) for figure skating, ice acrobatics (杂技), and speed skating were held for the benefit of the royal family.
China being one of the oldest and longest (last) civilizations in the history of the world, the ancient Chinese were also involved different sports. And most of their popular sports are still being played up to the present time.
It was a cold yet sunny Saturday morning in February. Dad's New Year's resolution had been to get fit. Mum pushed him out of bed and told him to go jogging by the river. Later, after a nice lie-in, she went downstairs in her dressing gown and found the kids watching TV. She turned it off and said she was going to do something really special for Dad's birthday. If they overheard anything, just promised to keep it secret.
Jenny looked at Mum with a puzzled expression on her forehead and promised they wouldn't say anything whatever happened. But Jenny reminded Dad's birthday was in June and it might be a little too early to get all steamed up about it.
Silent for a moment, Mum said she was not getting everything ready but just wanted to spare enough time for preparation as this year it's a bigger deal than usual. Dad was going to be 50.
"50! Gosh, that's half a century," spluttered Gerry. "I knew he was old, but I didn't realize he was ancient!"
Indeed, that was why Mum started planning a special party for him. Mum talked with grandma about the plan because her house was the only one in the family that is spacious enough for all friends and relatives. Grandma quite agreed and also started preparing.
"But you know how Dad feels guilty to bother others. You've got to admit," reminded Jenny. Thinking over the special occasion, Mum was continuing with her secret when one evening, Dad was sitting at the dinner table and he suddenly slapped his forehead, "I just realized that I am going to be 50 in June. Let's just quietly forget about it. I want to mourn (哀悼) the passing of my youth in private."
"Oh, come on Dad, don't be such a spoil-sport!" begged the kids, hoping to give mum a hand.
Realizing no more chance to hide the secret, Mum carefully worded her thought and shared her plan of having a little party at grandma's house. Dad was stunned (震惊的) to no reply.
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Paragraph 1:
Frustrated, Mum made a call to grandma.
Paragraph 2:
They got everything ready as planned when June finally came.
