Her life looks like one out of a fairytale, Li Ziqi impressed the world with her videos, where she makes everything almost by hand, from dying(染色) a dress with fresh grape juice to making traditional lipsticks(口红) from roses in her garden. She even rides a horse to get ingredients(材料) for the meals. She has about 50 million fans in China, and another 8 million overseas(在海外). Behind her fame at home and abroad, her experience is like a motivational(励志的) book.

Li grew up with her grandparents in the countryside of Sichuan Province. When she was 14, she went to work in the city. In 2012, she returned to the countryside to take care of her grandmother. Four years later, she started filming her life there. Whatever she makes, she leaves no stone unturned. For example, in one video, she uses flowers to make pies. In order to get the fresh dew(露水), she got up early to gather the early morning dew. Besides food, she is also known for her videos introducing traditional crafts(工艺), like building bamboo furniture sets. Three years after she first picked up the camera, Li is one of China’s most successful online video makers now.

CCTV praised(赞扬) that “She did not praise China with a single word, but she did a good job of showing Chinese culture and Chinese stories”. Many interviewers say Li creates(创造) a beautiful lifestyle and her videos help them find inner peace and get a break from their stressful(有压力的) and busy lives.

Li says, “I hope I can show how amazing the Chinese culture is!”

2 . How the Grand Canyon was created is one of the geology’s greatest mysteries(奥秘). Some geologists believed that it came into its shape slowly in the long history: the Colorado River went through the canyon and slowly cut deeper and deeper into the ground over millions of years. But some rocks of the volcanoes, which have been discovered in the canyon recently, show that the canyon was down-cut instead.

Down-cutting is when a flood of water rushes(冲) over a place with enough force to cut deeply into the ground and leaves behind a canyon. Such a flood usually comes when a natural or man-made dam(坝) breaks.

Robert Webb, a research geologist, says natural dams seem to have formed and broken across the Colorado River several times during the last million years. The dams were built when lava (火山岩浆) from the nearby volcanoes flowed into the river. The lava hardened into hard rocks and blocked(阻挡) the river, causing it to back up and form a lake. Each time the lake grew so huge that it broke the rock dam, then the flood of water caused the down-cutting and the canyon became deeper. Down-cutting does not only happen on the earth. Satellite photos sent back from Mars show that down-cutting has happened there, too, say many other scientists. The photos, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, indicate(表明) that a huge lake existed on Mars 3.5 billion years ago. The lake spilled into a large nearby hole. One edge of the hole broke, releasing a flash flood that quickly carved out a huge canyon. The finding of down-cutting on Mars is just one more piece of evidence(证据) that the formation of the Grand Canyon was not a gradual course.

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4 . Do you look like your parents? What genetic traits(遗传特性) did your parents pass on to you? Was it their eye color or their height? It could be their sense of humor or their musical talent. Or maybe it was their fear of mathematics.

A research at Ohio State University in the US has found that genetics are partly responsible for children’s math skills and anxiety about math.

Scientists studied over 500 sets of twins to find out how genetic affect math anxiety. Over a period of 10 years, the twins completed math tests and filled out surveys about their levels of math anxiety. They found that fraternal twins (twins with different genetics) had different levels of skill and anxiety about math. Identical twins (twins with the same gene set) has similar levels.

This shows that people’s fear of math is partially affected by their genetic makeup(基因构造). Math anxiety has a strong effect on a child’s abilities. University of Chicago found math anxiety can cause the same feeling as being physically hurt.

This anxiety means that some students are not willing to study math as much as they should. Therefore, they become even worse at math and less confident in their skill. This only adds to their fear.

But if you’re bad at math, don’t try to blame(责怪) it on your parents. Math anxiety is till rare—genetic-factors explained about 40 percent of people’s math anxiety. The environment, including school and family, is also part of the equation(影响因素).

5 . Forgot your password (密码) or your ID? Well, you’ll never forget your face. Using your face as your ID is quick and convenient. You could take the subway or board a flight with just your face alone. This is how facial recognition (人脸识别) works. It has also been used to catch criminals (罪犯).

In China, facial recognition systems have been used in many areas. In Zhengzhou, people can now get on the subway by using facial recognition technology. They just need to link their online payment systems to the subway’s smartphone app. Students at Peking University can pass through the school’s gate by scanning their face.

However, there are no laws to regulate (规范) the use and collection of facial information. Many citizens are worried about the collection and use of this information by governments and companies. Why is it necessary to collect data (数据) about your face and what will the data be used for? These are some common questions on the facial recognition.

“I feel uncomfortable because I don’t know how the company is using my facial information or whether the company will leak my facial information,” Feng Yi, a tourism company employee (雇员) said. Leaks are a problem because there is a long history of companies failing to protect our data. When someone steals your personal information, you can change your bank card and password, but can you change your face when your facial information is stolen?

As facial recognition is used more and more in our daily lives — from college campuses and subways to street corners and smartphones — we must ask ourselves whether this new technology is worth the risk or not.

6 . It is a question people have been asking for ages—is there a way to turn back the aging process in people? For centuries, people have been looking for a “fountain of youth.” The idea is that if you find a magical fountain, and drink from its waters, you will not age.

Researchers in New York did not find an actual fountain of youth, but they may have found a way to turn back the aging process. It appears the answer may be hidden right between your eyes, in an area called the hypothalamus (下丘脑). The hypothalamus is part of your brain. It controls important activities within the body. They include growth, reproduction and the way we process food.

Researchers at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that hypothalamus neural stem cells also influence how fast aging takes place in the body.

What are stem cells? They are simple cells that can develop into specialized cells, like blood or skin cells. Stem cells can also repair damaged tissues and organs.

Dongsheng Cai is a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was the lead researcher in a study on aging in mice. He and his team reported their findings in the journal Nature.

“Aging speed is controlled, can be controlled by a particular place in the body, which is the hypothalamus. And it can be controlled by a particular type of cells, which are hypothalamus stem cells.” He adds that when the hypothalamus starts aging, so does the body. “So when hypothalamus function is in decline, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, and this protection against the aging development is lost, it eventually leads to aging.”

Using this information, the researchers began trying to activate, or energize, the hypothalamus in laboratory mice. They did this by injecting the animals with stem cells. Later, the researchers examined tissues and tested for changes in behavior. They looked for changes in the strength and coordination of the animals’ muscles. They also studied the social behavior and cognitive (认知的) ability of the mice. The researchers say the results show that the treatment slowed aging in the animals.

“When we injected the hypothalamus stem cells, which were derived from young mice, we injected them to the middle-aged mice and that was, in fact, to slow down aging. So the mouse aged slowly and they also have increased their lifespan, which is longevity.”

But these results were just from studying mice in a laboratory. If the mice can live longer, does that mean people could have longer lives? The next step is to see if the anti-aging effects also work in human beings. “If we can translate what we have seen in animals to humans, I think humans, they can function better during later ages, later stage of aging.”

Cai and his team say their studies may have other benefits. They say the findings could lead to new ways to help doctors identify and treat any number of age-related health issues.

8 . ①In a room at Stanford University (大学), scientists (科学家) are studying a small animal called gecko. It’s an amazing animal because it can move very quickly up and down a tree and it can even walk upside down (倒立行走) on ceilings (机器人). The scientists are quite interested in the gecko’s feet. They want to use the same design on their own robots. The metal robot looks like the gecko. It has four feet which can also walk up walls made of glass. However, it still has a more difficult time when it tries to walk upside down.

②Animals and plants can teach people a lot about design and engineering (工程学). When scientists and engineers have a problem, nature (大自然) often has the answer. This science is called biomimetics (仿生学). Bio means “studying living things” and mimetics means “copying (模仿) the movement of things”. In other words, scientists study animals and plants in order to copy the design.

③Takea whale (鲸) as an example. Engineers in Canada are studying their flippers (鳍) because they move very fast through water. The engineers think the shape (形状) can also make the wind turbines (涡轮机) move faster. The boxfish is another animal from the sea which is helping car makers in Germany. Mercedes Benz (奔驰) is using the shape of the fish for one of its new cars. The shape makes it faster and more fuelefficient (节能的).

④Velcro is probably the most famous example of biomimetics. Most people have some Velcro on their clothes. It was invented (发明) by the Swiss engineer, George de Mestral in 1948. He was walking in the countryside when he pulled a plant’s bur (刺果) from his trousers. He noticed how the bur stuck so well to his clothes. He worked on his idea and the result was Velcro and it became an alternative to the traditional zip (传统的拉链).

⑤In a word, biomimetics has helped to design our world and there are many more future possibilities (可能性). Unluckily, it might take a long time to discover (发现) all the possibilities. This isn’t really surprising because it’s taken nature thousands of years to design its animals and plants.

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9 . Failure is part of life. How people respond to(回应)it is very important both to their decisions and achievements.

We may have such expectations: “If I reach that goal, how happy would I feel?” In a recent study, we wanted to understand how such expectations may change when facing failure. Are people able to predict(预测)their own happiness?

The old saying “The grass is always greener on the other side,” suggests that people spend much time expecting things they can’t have. But is this a good model for how ordinary people face failure? According to the story The Fox and the Grapes, failure often leads us to drop our earliest plan. In the story, the fox jumps with all his strength, yet he fails to reach the grapes. Finally, he walks away, concluding that the grapes were sour.

So, which is it: greener grass or sour grapes? We did an experiment to research how people respond to failure.

About 1,200 participants(参加者)joined in the study. On the practice before a test, half of them were told that they had performed in the bottom 20 percent, while the other half, in the top 20 percent. They were then asked to predict how they would feel if they got a high score on the actual test.

The research results showed that those who received poor feedback(反馈)on the practice predicted that they would feel less happiness and less pride, compared to those who received strong feedback. However, when they received a top score on the actual test later, they were just as happy as the other half and much happier than they had predicted before. This suggests that the first failure made people devalue(降低……的价值)how good it would feel to succeed in the future.

The question though, is why failure makes us devalue our future happiness.

According to Professor Jon Elster, people don’t always know what they want, and often change their wishes to match the things they can reach. When the result doesn’t fit the one they expected, they protect themselves by devaluing the goal—rather than devaluing themselves. In other words, we tend to protect our positive(积极的)sense of self by refusing to accept the possible happiness of future achievements.

Separation(脱离)from personal goals can be useful, if it helps people give up the impossible goals and set better and more achievable ones. However, if the sour-grape effect comes too early and people become fearful of failure, they could miss the chance to try again and don’t realize that what once seemed impossible is now within reach.

You may drink water in a bottle when you are thirsty. But plastic bottles are bad for the environment. Is there a way not to use a bottle?

Try the Ooho bubble. It is a small ball of water. The water is in a soft container(容器). People use it instead of a water bottle. It has no colour, no smell and no taste. It is made from seaweed(海藻) and is safe for people to drink.

You can make a hole in the container to drink water from it. Or you can just put the whole thing into your month.

Three creators from the Imperial College London made the Ooho bubble. It is good for the environment. And people can only spend 0.14 yuan buying one container. It is much cheaper than plastic bottles. So many people like it.

________. For example, each water ball doesn’t hold much water. You may have to drink a lot of them before you are not thirsty any more. Or some may feel it’s not clean to hold the water bubble in their hands. What do you think about it?