体裁分类 知识点题库

    Johnny Smith was a good math student at a high school. He loved his computer. He came home early every day, then he worked with it till midnight. But Johnny was not a good English student, not good at all. He got an F in his English class.

    One day after school Johnny joined his computer to the computer in his high school office. The school office computer had the grades of all the students: the math grades, the science grades, the grades in arts and music, and the grades in English. He found his English grade. An F! Johnny changed his English grade from an F to A. Johnny' parents looked at his report card. They were very happy.   "An A in English!" said Johnny's Dad. "You're a very clever boy, Johnny." Johnny is a hacker.

    Hackers know how to take information from other computers and put new information in. Using a modem, they join their computers to other computers secretly. School headmasters and teachers are worried about hackers. So are the police, for some people even take money from bank computer account and put it into their own ones. And they never have to leave home to do it! They are called hackers.

    Donald Watson was a man who thought very much about the food he ate. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in September 1910. And he died in November 2005, at the age of 95. That is a very great age. Watson explained that it was because he never ate any food from animals.

    When he was a boy, Watson stayed on a farm. .He loved to see the animals. He said that they gave so much to people. And all the animals were so friendly. Then, one day, he saw a man killing a pig. He was very sad. From then on, Watson decided that he would never again eat meat. Twenty years later he decided that he wouldn't eat anything from animals, such as milk, cheese or eggs. He became vegan (素食主义者).

    Watson formed a group called "The Vegan Society". In its newspaper, The Vegan Society thought it was terrible and wrong to eat food from animals. At first, there were not many people who agreed with him. They thought it was crazy to do it. Most people thought it was too difficult and unhealthy. However, over time, more and more people began to agree with Watson and The Vegan Society.

    People become vegans for many reasons. Watson and his friend stopped eating because they loved animals. They believed that it was wrong to hurt another living thing.

    Now, people also become vegans for environmental reasons. Keeping animals takes a lot of resources(资源), including water and food. Also, in some places, people are cutting down trees to create more land for cows. By avoiding food from animals, vegans hope to protect these forest areas.

    Finally, just like Watson, some people believe that being a vegan is healthier. They believe that food from animals causes heart problems, a high body weight and many other health problems.

    While most high school students spend most of their time worrying about who likes who, and different relationships between their classmates, I choose to focus on my school lessons and sports.

    When I was young, my mother encouraged me to develop and keep friendship with boys in order to build strong relationships. But she told me not to risk a good friendship with a boy with the title of boyfriend. It's indeed a wise choice to stay friends with those of the opposite gender(性别).In my opinion, even though some high school relationships might continue after graduation, the probability of them lasting much longer is so slim(微小的)that there really is not a point to it.

    Firstly you have to think about such a question whether it is possible to hurt both of you, or even hurt both of your future husbands or wives. My second point is that you still can date if you hope marriage could possibly follow. Except this, there really is not any other reason for dating. Some students desire relationships for a chance to be romantic. While these are nice to have, there are many more important things at this point in our lives.

    The titles of boyfriend and girlfriend put too much stress on a relationship between high school students. Just staying as common friends may be the best choice for us. I do advise we should deal with it in a proper way and follow our teachers' advice if necessary.

    Perhaps there is no sport in the world more connected to sneakers than basketball. Many NBA players wear them to send important messages and showcase their personalities on court.

    And now, thanks to a new policy, the NBA will strengthen its status as the most stylish sports league in the world. When the 2018-2019 NBA season kicked off in October, the NBA lifted its color restrictions on players' sneakers. It is the first time in the league's 72-year history that it has allowed shoes to be of any color a player likes, as long as no reflective(反光的) material is included.

    In the past, the NBA required "uniformity(一致性) of uniform", meaning each players' shoes had to match those worn by the rest of the team. Their sneakers had to be at least 51 percent black or white, with an element of team color.

    This landmark rule change is part of the NBA's collective effort to support players "statements" on and off the court. "More and more people realize that limitation of the color of players' shoes actually constrains(限制) their personal expression and storytelling," CNN News noted.

    Sometimes a shoe was worn in a memorable game, or the design of a shoe has meaning for the player.

    Before Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, nicknamed "the Black Mamba", retired, it was said that he wore a new pair of sneakers to each game and stored his used sneakers.

    Bryant brought the low-top style of sneaker with a Mamba print to the forefront in 2008 to symbolize the spirit of perseverance and bravery. In 2013, Bryant added nine red stitches(缝针) to the back of his shoe to represent the nine stitches from his Achilles tendon surgery. "It has become an attitude. That is my Mamba personality," Bryant told Sports Illustrated magazine.

    Kyrie Irving of the Boston, Celtics wears probably the most famous signature sneakers. Inspired by his mother, who died when he was four, he has a rose on one side of his shoe to represent her. All of his sneakers are also inscribed(刻) with the words, "JBY(Just Be You)". "Just Be You is the motto I live by every single day, because I'm happy to be an individual. It's a beautiful thing," Irving told UK media site GiveMeSport.

    There is no end to the stories about sneakers in basketball. It's certain that they will remain a platform for players who want to use them to express their ideas and personalities.

    Can children improve their reading skills by reading to dogs? Researchers at the University of California, Davis, reported that the answer is yes. Just ask Taivion Scott. He began learning to read last year at Stanton Elementary School in Washington, D. C. He struggles with new words, but says it helps when a dog is sitting next to him.

    Izzy has been coming to school for a year with Denise Velasquez, a volunteer with PAL. PAL is People Animals Love, a private group in Washington, D. C. that brings dogs into schools and libraries.

    Denise Velasquez helped Taivion with his reading. She said, "I pulled Izzy in a little bit, too, so he could feel a little bit closer to her, and then we started to take it one word at a time because a whole book can be overwhelming, but a single word is something you can deal with. "

    Eric Reithel from the PAL programme says he can understand the children because he had problems with reading when he was young. He said, "They feel more confident when reading to a dog; a dog won't tell them that's the wrong word. "

    The Anacostia neighbourhood is the poorest area in Washington, D. C. , and it has the highest crime(犯罪) rate in Washington, D. C. Seventy-five percent of the students here are raised by a single parent, usually a mother. Reading to dogs helps the children with their reading. For example, Melvin Hansberry, one of the children here, says the dogs help him learn big words. He said, "It's like you're reading to your little sister or your brother. "

    Demaris Hamilton, a teacher's assistant, grew up in Anacostia and says the environment in many homes can make it hard for children to learn but when they come here, they get much love and attention.

    Jimmy is an automotive mechanic, but he lost his job a few months ago. He has good heart, but always feared applying for a new job.

    One day, he gathered up all his strength and decided to attend a job interview. His appointment was at 10 am and it was already 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to be interviewed, he saw an elderly man wildly kicking the tyre of his car. Obviously there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately went up to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished working on the car, the old man asked him how much he should pay for the service. Jimmy said there was no need to pay him; he just helped someone in need, and he had to rush for an interview. Then the old man said, "Well, I could take you to the office for your interview. It's the least I could do. Please. I insist." Jimmy agreed.

    Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line of applications waiting to be interviewed. Jimmy still had some grease (油腻物) on him after the car repair, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have a change of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer's office with disappointed look on their faces. Finally his name was called. The interviewer was sitting on a large chair facing the office window. Rocking the chair back and forth, he asked, "Do you really need to be interviewed?" Jimmy's heart sank. "With the way I look now, how could I possibly pass this interview?" he thought to himself.

    Then the interviewer turned the chair and to Jimmy's surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning. It turned out he was the General Manager of the company.

    "Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but I was pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforce before you even stepped into the office. I just know you'd be a trustworthy worker. Congratulations!" Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deserved coffee as he landed himself a new job.

    The moment I fell off the horse, I knew I was going to die. I felt myself thrown violently over his head and onto the ground. I heard my bones break.

    "Help me," I cried. "Please, help me." Terrible pain in my chest and back turned my words into a whisper. "I'm alone," I thought. No one heard me. In a daze, I struggled to my feet. "You are strong," I told myself," and you can do this. "I forced myself to walk back to the farm house. Doctors told me later that I'd done all of this with seven broken bones, a bleeding lung and an injured neck.

    "Mary, I fell off 'Nate', "I phoned. "I think it's bad. I can't feel my right arm anymore. "I'd called my workmates at the hospital, knowing they would be my lifelines.

    An hour later, I lay in the hospital. I was no longer a nurse; I was a patient in my own emergency department. At that moment, I let my memory go back some four weeks.

    "OK, just jump out, "Duke commanded as I hesitated in the doorway of the plane. Today I would prove how strong I was. Today I would be a skydiver. "Let's do it!"I shouted back and I jumped.

    The shaking stop of the CT scanner interrupted my memory. I was a single mother and a strong woman who could drive a horse. The misfortunes of the past two years had taught me to stand taller.

    Months later, I returned to work to find I'd become a local legend（传奇）. The story was told and retold. One day a new employee heard the story and he asked me in surprise, "Who picked you up after you fell?"

    I felt myself take a deep breath-it was warm and alive in my chest. "Who picked me up?"A knowing smile spread across my face. "Think big, "I told him, "really big. "

    For more than 2,000 years the Chinese people have been guided by the ideals of Confucianism. Its founder and greatest teacher was Confucius, whose humane philosophy also influenced the civilization of all of eastern Asia. Many legends were spread to illustrate Confucius' beliefs. According to one story, he and his followers passed a cemetery where a woman was weeping at a graveside. She told them she was crying because "my husband's father was killed here by a tiger, and my husband also, and now my son has met the same fate". When they asked her why she did not leave such a fatal spot, she answered that in this place there was no oppressive government. "Remember this, my children," said Confucius, "oppressive government is fiercer and more feared than a tiger".

    In such teaching and with such wise sayings, Confucius tried to bring people a respect for the teachings of the wise men of older generations. He always said of himself that he was a "transmitter, not a maker". He collected and edited the poetry, the music, and the historical writings of what he considered the golden age.

    Confucius laid no claim to being more than a man. Yet when he died he was admired almost as god. Temples were constructed in his honor in every city of China. His grave at Kufow, in what is now Shandong Province, became a place of pilgrimage.

    Though Confucianism is commonly called a religion, it is rather a system of moral conduct. Confucius did not talk of God but of goodness. He did not teach about any god, simply saying, "Respect the gods, but have as little to do with them as possible." His attention was centered on making people better in their lifetime, and his Analects are wise sayings similar to the Proverbs in the Bible.

    Confucius is the Latinized form of the philosopher's Chinese name, which was K'ung-fu-tzu, meaning Master K'ung. He was born in a poor but noble family. His father died when the boy was 3 years old. When he was only 6, people noted his fondness for setting out sacrifices and for ceremony. After his marriage at age 19, he worked for the governor of his district, first a keeper of stores and then as an overseer of parks and livestock. At the age of 22 he began his life as a teacher by establishing a school. He accepted valuable aid from some of his students, but he also welcomed students who could afford to pay only a small fee.

    After some years of teaching and travel, he settled in Shandong for 15 years. When he was 52 years old, he was rewarded with an appointment as governor of a province and never failed to win the credit he deserved. He performed his task so well that a neighboring governor became jealous. Later, Confucius traveled around other kingdoms and wandered about for 13 years. Eventually, he returned to his native state of Lu in his 69th year and died three years later.

    The terrible E1Niño strikes the globe every 2 to 7 years. As warm waters in the tropical(热带的) Pacific Ocean switch eastward and trade winds weaken the weather pattern stretches through the atmosphere, causing drought in southern Africa, wildfires in South America, and flooding on North America's Pacific coast. Climate scientists have struggled to predict El Niño events more than 1 year in advance, but artificial intelligence (AI) can now extend the latest forecasts to 18 months, according to a new study.

    The new research uses a type of AI called a convolutional neural network(卷积神经网络), which is adept in recognizing images. Researchers feed the neural network a large number of training images and the AI becomes skilled at identifying fundamental patterns of those images. For example, the neural network can be trained to recognize cats in photos by identifying characteristics shared by all cats, such as hairs and four legs.

    Part of the problem with earlier researches on El Niño forecasts is that they rely on a relatively small set of historical statistics for factors such as ocean temperature. To get around this shortage, the scientists fed the program re-creations of historic ocean conditions produced by a set of reliable climate models, ones frequently used for studies of climate change, says the study's lead author, Yoo-Geun Ham, a climate scientist in South Korea. As a result, the scientists could show the computer system not just one set of actual historic data, lasting from 1871 to 1973, but several thousand reproductions of that same data by the climate models.

    But it's not clear how much real-world benefit will come from pushing forecasts beyond 1 year, cautions Stephen Zebiak, a climate scientist at Columbia University, “The kind of lead time that is actionable is probably less than a year because decision-makers are unlikely to take action further in advance,” he says.

    This new packaging material looks like conventional plastic, but it's actually made from fish waste and algae(海藻)--and unlike plastic, if it escapes into the ocean, a fish could likely eat it safely. The material, called MarinaTex, is the winner of this year's James Dyson Award.

    "It began with my desire to work with waste," says Lucy Hughes, a recent graduate from University of Sussex, who once visited a fish processing factory to see the massive quantity of waste generated by the industry and find new ways to use it. She focused on fish skins and scales (鳞片). "When I had it in my hands, I realized this has got potential, she says. "It's super strong and flexible." Hughes spent months experimenting with fish waste in her kitchen, running more than 100 experiments to find a binder and a process that could hold together the proteins in the fish skins and scales. "I had a lot of failed attempts—a lot of things either were too easily broken or too soft or easily went bad," she says. She finally landed on a type of algae that can be locally got.

    The material can be used to replace oil-based plastic in packaging such as bags or the half transparent windows used to show products in boxes. As her research continues, Hughes says that she'll be studying how MarinaTex works and how long it could be used to store food.

    Unlike some "compostable" plastics, which need to be processed in an industrial composting facility to break down, the new material can break down in four to six weeks in a backyard compost bin. ''All the ingredients are food-grade safe," Hughes says." So, this breaks down much like a piece of food would break down."

An open office is supposed to force employees to cooperate. To have them talk more face to face. To get them off instant messenger (IM) and brainstorming new ideas. But a recent study by two researchers offers evidence to support what many people who work in open offices already know: It doesn't really work that way. The noise causes people to put on headphones and tune out. The lack of privacy causes others to work from home when they can. And the sense of being in a fishbowl means many choose email over a desk-side chat.

Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban, two Harvard Business School professors, studied two Fortune 500 companies that made the shift to an open office environment from one where workers had more privacy. Using "sociometric" electronic badges (徽章) and microphones, as well as data on email and instant messenger use by employees, the researchers found in the first study that after the organization made the move to open-plan offices, workers spent 73% less time in face-to-face interaction. Meanwhile, email use rose 67% and IM use went up 75%.

The participants wore the badges and microphones for several weeks before the office was redesigned and for several after, and the company gave the researchers access to their electronic communications. The results were astonishing. "We were surprised by the degree to which we found the effect," Bernstein said. The badges could tell that two people had a face-to-face interaction without recording actual spoken words. The researchers were careful to make sure other factors weren't in question—the business cycle was similar, for instance, and the group of employees were the same.

In a second study, the researchers looked at the changes in interaction between specific pairs of colleagues, finding a similar drop in face-to-face communication and a smaller but still significant increase in electronic correspondence.

Another wrinkle in their research, Bernstein said, is that not only did workers shift the way of communication they used, but they also tended to interact with different groups of people online than they did in person. Moving from one kind of communication to another may not be all bad—"maybe email is just more efficient," he said—but if managers want certain teams of people to be interacting, that may be lost more than they think. The shift in office space could "have strong effects on productivity and the quality of work".

Bernstein hopes the research will offer evidence that will help managers consider the possible trade-offs of moving to an open office plan. In seeking a lower cost per square foot, they buy into the idea that it will also lead to more cooperation, even if it's not clear that's true. "I don't blame the architects," he said. "But I do think we spend more of our time thinking about how to design workplaces based on the observer's angle"—the manager—"rather than the observed."

A study showed that the experiences children have in their first few years are important. These experiences affect the development of the brain. When children receive more attention, they often have higher IQs. Babies receive information when they see, hear and feel things, which makes connections between different parts of the brain. There are a hundred trillion (万亿) connections in the brain of a three-year-old child.

Researcher Judit Gervain tested how good newborns are at distinguishing different sound patterns. Her researchers produced images of the brains of babies as they heard different sound patterns. For example, one order was mu-ba-ba. This is the pattern"A-B-B". Another order was mu-ba-ge. This is the pattern “A-B-C”. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during the "A-B-B" pattern. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. They also were sensitive to where it occurred in the order.

Gervain is excited by these findings because the order of sounds is the building block of words and grammar. "Position is key to language," she says. "If something is at the beginning or at the end, it makes a big difference: 'John caught the bear. ' is very different from 'The bear caught John.”

Researchers led by scientist Patricia Kuhl have found that language delivered by televisions, audio books, the Internet, or smartphones－no matter how educational－doesn't appear to be enough for children's brain development. They carried out a study of nine-month-old American babies. They expected the first group who'd watched videos in Chinese to show the same kind of learning as the second group who were brought face-to-face with the same sounds. Instead they found a huge difference. The babies in the second group were able to distinguish between similar Chinese sounds as well as native listeners. But the other babies －regardless of whether they had watched the video or listened to the audio－learned nothing.

By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world's oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.

At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms (海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean's appearance.

Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean's warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.

Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT's Center for Global Chamge Science, built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3 '℃, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener." Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing." she said, "but the type of phytoplankton is changing."

After many months staying at home we're all dreaming of travelling somewhere exciting and stretching our legs. As an oceanographer (海洋学家), I've spent many years developing robots to explore the ocean, and now we're putting that technology to use in our JASON Project, a program that's designed to inspire students and get them interested in science, technology, engineering and math. We bring kids together and send back to them on large screens our live explorations of large areas of the globe. Not only are the kids observers, but they can operate robots moving across the area while broadcasting images back to them. The kids have the sensation (感受) of really being at the site with us.

I believe advances in robot technology will one day be the key to a new kind of travel. In the next 10 or 15years, people will have rooms in their houses that will be able to simulate (模拟) other environments. I like to call these rooms "home domes"—small theaters with screens and advanced equipment that can reproduce the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of a desert, or a forest. With these rooms, I can see a market for travel robots located in countries around the world. You could rent (租) a robot working in a rain forest, then go into your home dome, where you yourself operate the robot's movements. The equipment in the room will receive the sensations in the robot's environment and simulate them for you.

Today, much of the world's population never travels more than 50 or 60miles from home. And even a person with enough time can see only a part of the earth's sights. But this new way of travel will cost so much less in both time and money and allow people to see a lot more of the world. And simulated travel will also help protect our planet. You can't take large groups of tourists to look at Dian Fossey's gorillas (大猩猩). But a small robot, with no animal smell, can get very close to a gorilla and send the sights, sounds, and smells back to a million people.

Robots that can cook are in growing demand in the United States. The increased demand comes at a time when restaurants are trying to put some distance between their workers and customers during the COVID-19.

In a few weeks, White Castle restaurants will test a robot arm that can cook French fries and other foods. The robot, called Flippy, is a product of Miso Robotics, a company based in Pasadena, California.

Robot food service was becoming popular even before the coronavirus pandemic (冠状病毒). Hospitals, college dining areas and other places tried to meet demand for food while keeping labor costs low. Robot chefs appeared at places like Creator, a restaurant in San Francisco. Now, some say, robots may become necessary for the food service industry. “I expect in the next two years you will see much more robotic adoption (采用) in the food space because of COVID-19,” Jain said.

Some people say, robots can lower the demand for labor. At the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, cafe workers used to spend six hours per day making salads, notes Tonya Johnson, the school's director of nutrition services. But two years ago, the university added a Sally, a kind of robot that now makes around 40 salads per day. By adding Sally, the school was able to cut a job opening in its cooking staff. Johnson said, “I think the pandemic has made us realize how much we need more equipment like Sally.”

Miso Robotics co-founder and chief Buck Jordan said fast food restaurants are already having trouble finding workers, partly as a result of a losing population of young workers. Jordan added that his company's position is that “automation (自动化) is not a choice”. He added, “You must automate in order to survive in the future.”

The summer before my senior year of high school, I was eating in a cafeteria with some other high school students, and one girl asked me, "Do you live in a teepee(圆锥形帐篷)?" It was such a silly question that, at first, I thought she was joking! I said, "Are you serious?" She said, "Oh, wait, I'm sorry. Is that something I shouldn't ask?" She wasn't trying to be rude, so it didn't bother me. I just said, "No, I have a house with electricity and running water. I'm not disconnected from the world!" But the truth is, I did grow up differently.

I'm a Native American, and I'm from a reservation in California. A reservation is a place that's reserved for Native American tribes(部落) by the federal government.

People often have misconceptions about what living on a reservation means. In reality, though, my life probably looks a lot like yours. But there are ways that my life has been different. The reservation is an hour from town, and there's a big connection to the land. Our house is surrounded by a mountain, a river, and a farm. We have 23 animals including 10 chickens. It's not just for show! We collect eggs from the chickens, use manure(粪肥) from the animals to fertilise soil, and pick fruit and vegetables from our garden.

I've also learned how to hunt and fish. When hunting for deer, my tribe has two rules: ①Never shoot a female deer, because she might be pregnant; ②If you kill a deer, find a way to use all of it.

Going to college has been a big change for me. There were only 25 people in my graduating class, and now I go to school with thousands. On my reservation, I was surrounded mostly by Natives, and at college, the Native population is only 0.07%. It's intimidating but also exciting.

I'm studying to become a vet—there aren't any on my reservation. If an animal gets sick, we have to drive an hour to get them help. My goal is to open a veterinary clinic that will help my reservation develop.

Where he will play next is not yet official, but Lionel Messi put the only team he has laved for behind him Sunday，saying goodbye to Barcelona in a tearful news conference at Camp Nou stadium.

"My family and I were convinced we were going to stay here, at home," Messi said via the BBC." This is the end with this club, and now a new story will begin. Yes, it's one of the most difficult moments for me. I don't want to leave this club-it's a club I love, and this is a moment I didn't expect. It was like my blood ran cold."

The moment bad been blooming since June 30.when Messi became a free agent, and fans lined the streets outside the stadium, with team members joining him for the news conference. A famous medium ESPN reported Sunday, from unnamed sources, that he had a two-year agreement to join another club. Paris Saint-Germain in France. On Sunday Messi called a ParisSaint-Germain move "a possibility" but added:" I have not agreed anything with anyone. I have got different clubs interested. Nothing is definitive, but clearly we are talking to them.'

Messi noted that he arrived in Barcelona 21 years ago coming to Spain from his native Argentina when he was 13 and making his first-team debut (首秀) a 17-vear-old in October 2004. He scored 672 goals in 778 games as Barcelona won 34 trophies. "I cannot be more proud of everything I did and lived in this city."

He insisted that he had done all he could to stay, agreeing to a five-year deal that was half of his $170 million annual contract. But it all fell apart, and Barcelona president Joan Laporta said Friday that trying to keep Messi was a "risky" investment that would have hurt the club for 50 years.

Although midnight snacks or being too tired to exercise could make people get fatter, there may now be a more scientific reason. A study has shown short or restless sleep changes the way people's DNA works and makes the body store fat. Fat stores begin to rise when people lose as little as one night's sleep, the researchers found.

Sleep researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden did a study on people after two lab tests—in one they slept for over eight hours and in the other they did not sleep at all. Researchers then examined the make-up of fat and muscle tissue（肌肉组织）, as well as measuring sugar levels in the blood.

The researchers found after just one night of sleeplessness, the body began to store more fat and to lose muscle strength. The body's decision to store more fat when a person is tired appears to be related to a break in the body clock. When sleep times are changed， it disrupts（扰乱）the way DNA is used by the body and changes which processes are seen as most important, the scientists say. Sleep loss was already known to contribute to overweight but the scientists say they are the first to ever notice the physical changes that lead to putting on weight.

"We saw that the tissue is attempting to increase its ability to store fat following sleep loss, "said study author Jenathan Cedernaes. "We observed signs of breakdown of muscle. We also noted changes in the levels of proteins （蛋白质） related to dealing with blood sugar and this could help explain why the people's sugar sensitivity（敏感度） was damaged following sleep loss. Taken together, these observations may partially explain why long-term sleep loss can increase the risk of putting on weight as well as the risk of serious diseases. "

The researchers say their findings are important because high levels of body fat increase the risk of the world's biggest causes of death: cancer and heart disease.

Shopping is not as simple as you think! There are all sorts of tricks at play each time we reach out for that particular brand (品牌) of product on the shelf.

Coloring, for example, varies according to what the producers are trying to sell. Health foods are packaged in greens, yellows or browns because we think of these as healthy colors. Ice cream packets are often blue and expensive goods, like chocolates, are gold and silver.

When some kind of pain killer was brought out recently, researchers found that the colors turned the customers off because they made the product look weak and ineffective. Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package — blue because we think of it as safe, and white as calm.

The size of a product can attract a shopper. But quite often a bottle doesn't contain as much as it appears to. It is believed that the better-known companies spend, on average, 70 percent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging!

The most successful producers know that it's not enough to have a good product. The founder of Pears soap, who for 25 years has used pretty little girls to promote (推销) their goods, came to the conclusion: "Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius to sell it."

We spend hours, days and years of our lives in school. Imagine you could design your dream school, what would it be like? What would you be doing? We wanted to find out what teenagers around the world thought. Here is what they said:

Richard from the USA: My dream school would have a big swimming pool and two soccer fields. It would also have a cinema, a gym and a shopping centre. My school has none of these, and I think there should be more pleasant things for students to do while they are studying.

Sonia from Italy: I'd like a room where we can relax and play computer games. I'd also like to have a music room. I think there should be a place for everyone to go and relax after class.

Wu from Beijing: I think it would be great to have another day off every week, besides the weekend. If that day was a Friday or a Monday, we would have a long weekend every week. What fun! I also think school should start later, at about 10 o'clock, and finish earlier.

Hannah from Australia: In my dream school, I think the teachers should give us more freedom and choice about how we study and what we study. I also think it's not necessary for us to wear school uniforms every day. I really don't like wearing it.