2 . As more and more people speak the global language of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will be likely to die out by the next century, according the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations — UNESCO and National Geographic among them — have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.

Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.

Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayan reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.

At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials —including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes — which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection. Now, through the two organizations that he has founded — the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project — Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to schools but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.

3 . Three French students，using the name “Obvious”， have produced the first artwork created mainly by a computer program to be sold at auction (拍卖). Using artificial intelligence (AI)，Obvious created 11 portraits (肖像画) of an imaginary family they called Belamy.

Obvious used 15,000 real portraits to train an AI program which has two parts.One part tries to create pictures that look real.The other part judges the work.If the portrait doesn’t look real enough，the first part goes back and changes its decisions until it comes up with a better picture.These decisions are controlled by an algorithm (计算程序). The students made many choices，helping guide the AI’s decisions.But even so，the painting is “signed”by the algorithm，instead of the students.

On October 25，Obvious’s picture，Edmond de Belamy，was sold at auction at Christie’s in New York.The final price for Edmond de Belamy was $432,500—about ten times more than Christie’s expected.

This is not the first AI artwork，just the first one sold at auction.In fact，many people are not impressed with the portrait.“The work isn’t interesting，or original，”says 19­year­old Robbie Barrat.He should know.He wrote much of the program that created the pictures.

But he doesn’t like the idea of Obvious selling the picture.He thinks it’s too simple and gives a bad idea of what real AI artists are doing.He points out that he created many pictures like these over a year ago.

Obvious doesn’t hide the fact that it used Mr.Barrat’s work，or even that its portrait is not the best AI artwork ever.Pierre Fautrel of Obvious said，“...the goal of our project was to do something that was simple enough for...my mother or brother to understand.”

Obvious got the attention of Christie’s by selling another work，Le Comte de Belamy，for over $11,000 in February. One reason Christie’s chose to auction Obvious’s work is because AI art is unusual now.In the future it will be much more common.

4 . Every week in China, millions of people will sit in front of their TVs watching teenagers compete for the title Character Hero, which is a Chinese-style spelling bee. In this challenge, young competitors must write Chinese characters by hand. To prepare for the competition, the competitors usually spend months studying dictionaries.

Perhaps the show’s popularity should not be a surprise. Along with gunpowder and paper, many Chinese people consider the creation of Chinese calligraphy(书法) to be one of their primary contributions to civilization. Unfortunately, all over the country, Chinese people are forgetting how to write their own language without computerized help. Software on smart phones and computers allows users to type in the basic sound of the word using the Latin alphabet. The correct character is chosen from a list. The result? It’s possible to recognize characters without remembering how to write them.

But there’s still hope for the paint brush. China’s Education Ministry wants children to spend more time learning how to write.

In one Beijing primary school we visited, students practice calligraphy every day inside a specially decorated classroom with traditional Chinese paintings hanging on the walls. Soft music plays as a group of six-year-olds dip brush pens into black ink. They look up at the blackboard often to study their teacher’s examples before carefully attempting to reproduce those characters on thin rice paper. “If adults can survive without using handwriting, why bother to teach it now?” we ask the calligraphy teacher, Shen Bin. “The ability to write characters is part of Chinese tradition and culture,” she reasons. “Students must learn now so they don’t forget when they grow up.” says the teacher.

5 . Have you ever thought about writing your own fantasy novel? One of the best things you can do is to take inspiration from others. Here are some of the best fantasy books for you.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

While attending boarding school, Sabriel receives a package which contains bells, her father's swords, and a message instructing her to stop a dangerous act on destroying the Old Kingdom' S magical rules. This classic fantasy provides readers with more adventures to explore.

Also available from: Amazon ; Walmart.

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

This book is about ideas of justice, good and bad. Jam lives in the town of Lucille, where the old statues have been torn down and the bad things no longer exist. But when a creature named Pet appears from one of her mother's paintings, on the hunt for a monster, Jam will have to rethink all she's been taught.

Also available from: Amazon; Barnes & Noble.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Fans of Harry Potter will be swept away by this adventurous tale about four new friends who discover they have access to powerful magic. Born in New York City, Sunny Nwazue felt out of place and isolated-until she was invited into a hidden world and handed a dangerous task.

Also available from: Amazon; Walmart.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

This novel takes readers into a world where dragons and humans live side by side. Seraphina is half human and half dragon, with a dragon mother able to take human form and a human father who can't stand dragons. Seraphina will probably become a teen fantasy classic.

Also available from: Bookshop; Target.

6 . We have written this to give you an idea of what will happen on your first day in high school. We also have a New Student Handbook that will answer many of the questions that you might have.

If you come on a school bus, you will arrive at school at 7：30 am, and if you are coming by car, you should be here at the same time. Registration starts at 7 ：45 am. When you arrive, you will wait in our reception ( 接待) area for a few minutes. You will be met by our Admissions Officer ( 招生负责人). You will be introduced to your buddy—a student in the same class as you who will be looking after you for the first few days.

You will be taken to your form room（年级办公室）by your buddy, and be introduced to your teacher who will give you your timetable and planner. When form time finishes, your buddy will take you to your first class. You will have some tests to do so that we can place you in the right group.

For the first couple of days, you will mainly go to lessons with your buddy as we think this helps you to settle in. After that, you will be placed in your appropriate ( 合 适 的 ) group for Maths, Science and English which are taken by all students.

At lunchtime, your buddy will show you around the school, show you how to get lunch, and make sure you are spending time with friends and are included in social activities.

At the end of the day, your buddy will show how to get your bus or where to wait for your car. We hope you have a really good day, and we look forward to having you here.

7 . One theory is that kissing all began when cavemen began licking (舔) their neighbours’ faces for the salt on them. But whatever it might have been for, the fact remains that, in one form or another, kissing has been widespread, though it developed mostly in the West.

Ancient Greek and Roman parents kissed their children, and lovers or married people kissed each other, as did friends. In the Middle Ages (the period in European history between about 1100 and 1500 AD) knights kissed before doing battle. Early Christians were often kissed to express respect.

Kissing is very much a cultural practice, and rules and attitudes vary across the globe. The French, who have had quite a lot of kissing practice, have turned kissing into a fine social art, although these days, even they are not sure when or how to do it. Many French kiss one another three, or even more, times. It can sometimes go on for a long time. Italians are enthusiastic kissers at all times, and they have been for centuries. Arabic men greet one another with kisses, as do Arabic women. Russian men too are often seen greeting one another with kisses, and it is especially noticeable in the world of Russia, where the three-kiss greeting has become a social behavior. The British, though, remain shy about social kissing. The Japanese, along with many Asian peoples, consider kissing, at least in public, as a Western custom and sometimes even offensive (冒犯的). Kissing has, however, become more commonplace in some Asian countries in the past few years.

But kissing does seem to be on the increase. We kiss people we used to hug, we hug people we used to shake hands with, and we shake hands with those we used to nod to.

8 . Most scientists are now certain that global warming is taking place. Gases such as carbon dioxide are creating a warm blanket around the earth. This blanket is trapping heat in the atmosphere, and so raising the temperature of the earth.

In Europe, eight of the last ten years have seen record high temperatures. On the other hand, the countries around the Mediterranean Sea are receiving even less rain than before. In Sub- Saharan Africa the crops are drying out in the fields and people are dying of starvation. In 1999, the southern United States was struck by a serious of destructive(毁灭性的) hurricanes. Scientists expect such trends to continue, and to worsen, if global warming cannot be stopped.

In addition to worrying about rising global temperatures and extreme weather conditions, scientists are closely monitoring sea levels around the world. They are slowly rising, as the northern and southern polar ice caps start to melt. This will have serious consequences for low-lying countries near the sea. Already parts of these places are disappearing under the rising sea water.

According to a new research, one contradictory feature(特征) of global warming is that it will probably lead to a period of much colder weather. Scientists base their theory on what happened the last time the world warmed up, 8,300 years ago. They have discovered that when the ice melted from the northern polar ice cap it became trapped in a lake in northern Canada. As more ice melted, this lake suddenly burst open, pouring millions of tons of freezing fresh water into the North Atlantic. This flood of water prevented the normal flow of water in the Atlantic, which takes warm water from the tropics(热带地区) north to Europe. When this flow of warm water was cut off, temperatures in Europe dropped by between three and eight degrees over the next 200 years. ''That's the concern here,'' says Richard Alley, an American climate expert. ''The climate hasn't varied much in 8, 000 years. But big changes could come back!''

9 . On a bright early summer morning, many young swimmers gather at a local swimming pool in the state of Maryland. They are members of a competitive summer swim team, and that’s a regular part of their daily life. As they train and cut seconds off their times, which makes them closer to the championship in the following large-scale (大规模的) competitions, they are getting lots of physical exercise and vitamin D from the sun. However, the benefits of belonging to a sports team are not just honor or health related. You can learn useful life skills.

Paul Waas, coach of the swim team, explains, “The discipline (自制力) comes into play when you’re talking about concentrating on the details that your coaches are saying as it makes you faster rather than going up and down the pool the same way you have every time. When you focus on what you’re doing right and what you can do better, then you’ll see the improvement.”

Besides, there is also responsibility, goals and workings within a group. Again, here is Coach Waas. “It’s really great! It’s so fun to watch from year to year. I’ve had kids who as 7-year-olds on the team could barely pay attention in practice and were only interested in who was going first. Now they’ve come back as 8-year-olds, having set some goals and having things that they want to achieve. These skills can help them a lot.”

But playing the sports is not without harm. Some can be hard on the body. Young athletes suffer serious injuries that follow them into adulthood. Coach Waas says that in fact, swimming is different from most others. First, it poses a lower risk of injury. The second one relates to how swim teams are structured. Actually, children are not the only ones who can benefit. Adults can also benefit from team sports.

10 . Along with silk and paper,gunpowder is another invention by Chinese and the Silk Road helped it spread to the West. The dating of gunpowder is as early as 850 AD. The Chinese used gunpowder to make fireworks and for signal flares. Gunpowder was also thought to have been used in medicine and in alchemy(炼金术). This invention seems to have been discovered in China by accident —by alchemists when doing experiments.

The gunpowder used for military purpose was first recorded in 919 AD. By the 11th century,explosive bombs filled with gunpowder were introduced and used in China. The words “fire cannon” “rocket” and “fireball” appeared time and again in the official Song history as well as two other books written during the same period.

The first detailed description of using the “fire cannon” in warfare was in connection with a battle fought in 1126 when the Song army used it against the invading enemy. The so-called “ fire cannon” was a tube made of bamboo filled with gunpowder which, when fired, threw a flaming missile towards the enemy. According to a description of a battle scene in 1132, it took two persons to carry a “fire cannon”, and the cannons were fired from a moving platform. And this platform had to be moved close to the wall of the besieged(被围攻的) city.

Gunpowder reached Japan, the Islamic countries and then Europe in the 13th century, and the Arabs improved gunpowder for military use. The early account of gunpowder in Europe was recorded by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. One century later the Arabs used it to attack the Spanish town Baza and the next year in 1326 Florence ordered the manufacturing of cannon and cannon balls. From Italy the making of gunpowder soon spread to other European countries, and by the 1350s it had become an effective weapon on the battlefield.