Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk won the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize on 10 October.

Olga was born in 1962 in Sulechow, Poland today lives in Wroclaw. Her parents were teachers and her father also worked as the librarian. In the library she read almost everything she could get hold of and it was there that she developed her literary interest. After completing her education at the University of Warsaw she made herself known as a fiction writer in 1993 with Journey of the People of the Book. The book was well received and was awarded the Polish Publisher’s Prize for the best literary work in 1993-1994.

Still, her real success came with her third novel Primeval and Other Times. The skillfully built family story in several lasting generations is set in a secret place with strong symbolic influence and full of realistic and true-to-life details. It starts in the year 1914 and deals with the Polish history, and Olga has stated that the story was a personal attempt to be in agreement with the national image of the past. The novel is an excellent example of the new Polish literature after 1989. It shows a great talent of imagination with a high degree of artistic standards.

Her 900-page The Books of Jacob, which the Swedish Academy thought of as her greatest work, covers seven countries, three religions and five languages, tracking the little-known history of Frankism, a Jewish sect (教派) that developed quickly in the 18th century. The work is considered a reflection of European culture.

Her books describe a multi-colored world, with characters’ qualities put together and poetic language.

Olga, considered the most talented Polish novelist of her generation, was honored for “a descriptive imagination that stands for different forms of life with encyclopedic (百科全书式的) passion”.

Walt Disney is credited for creating such wonderful things as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. However, he cannot take the credit for creating other well-loved characters, such as Cinderella and Snow White. They are almost automatically associated with Disney because Disney turned old fables (寓言) into cartoon movies.

The original Cinderella varies very much from the Disney version we know today. It started off with the girl mourning her mother’s death and going to her tomb three times a day. In addition, there were only birds that helped Cinderella; there was no such thing as a fairy godmother or helpful mice, nor was there mention of a horse and carriage.

The stepsisters were cruel: they always threw Cinderella’s food into the ashes of the fire and made her sleep on the ashes on the floor, hence her name.

In the original story, the king’s ball actually lasted for three days. With the help of the birds, the girl, beautifully dressed, danced with the prince on all three nights and the prince fell in love with her. However, she broke away from him to rush back home each night. On the last night, the prince placed soothing sticky on the stairs; as Cinderella made her escape, a shoe got stuck on it.

Here now is where the story becomes unpleasant: when the prince went to the house looking for the girl whose foot fit the shoe, the wicked (邪恶的) stepmother told one of her two daughters to cut off her big toe to fit into the shoe. The daughter did as told. So the prince took her away to be his bride. But when they passed the tomb of Cinderella’s mother, the birds called out to the prince, “Turn and peep, there’s blood in the shoe; the shoe is too small, the true bride waits for you.” Realizing he had been tricked, the prince returned the daughter to her mother. The other then had to cut off part of her heel in order to fit into the shoe, with the same result. Only Cinderella’s foot fit perfectly and so the prince chose to marry her. The story ends with the wedding day: as Cinderella’s two stepsisters followed her, pretending to be devoted to her so that they could enjoy the king’s riches, two birds flew by and plucked (啄) out their eyes. Because of their wickedness and falsehood, they had to spend the rest of their days blind.

The original Cinderella is so different from the Disney version. Thank goodness Disney made such changes; it indeed was a wise move.

Being able to take advantage of truly unlimited data is a smartphone user’s dream, but everyone I’ve talked to about 5G is more excited about the usage unlocked by next - generation wireless devices. From smart home security to self - driving cars, all the Internet - connected equipment in your life will be able to talk to each other at lightning - fast speed with reduced delay.

“5G is one of those forerunners, along with artificial intelligence, of this coming data age,” said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for the Consumer Technology Association. Self-driving vehicles are emblematic in this data age - they show application of data completely. With one single task, driving, you have large amounts of data coming from the vehicle itself, and a variety of sensors are collecting a lot of information to model its environment as it moves. It’s pulling in data from other vehicles about conditions down the road. There’s lots of data behind that task, which is why we need the speed and lower latency (延迟).

AR glasses and virtual reality headphones haven’t yet been inside the mainstream, but tech companies are joyfully saying that such equipment will eventually replace our smartphones. With 5G, that could actually happen. This is notable because companies such as Apple are reportedly developing AR glasses to improve-or even replace-smartphones.

Ericsson showed at February’s Mobile World Congress in 2019 how smart glasses could become faster and lighter with a 5G connection, because instead of being weighed down with components, the glasses could rely on outside equipment for processing power.

But don’t get too excited. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the meantime, including some necessary testing to make sure the radio plays nicely with basic systems and service construction so that 5G isn’t concentrated only in big cities.