Last Saturday, David was taking a walk in the park near his home when he noticed a woman with a boy of about eight years old. When David passed them, he heard the woman yell. “How stupid you are! You’re good at nothing.” David stopped and looked at the little boy. The boy said nothing. He just stood there, looking upset.

David was reminded of his English teacher Mrs Brown in middle school. After he entered a middle school, David lacked self-confidence because he was often made fun of by others. He was often told that he was good at nothing, which David behaved. But one day it all changed.

One day, in an English writing class, Mrs Brown asked them to read a novel. They were asked to write a new chapter of the novel after they finished reading it. A few days later, David handed in his story. He didn’t give it much thought. But the next day, to his surprise, the comment “well done” from Mrs Brown came into view the moment he turned to the page where the story was written. When David read that, he almost burst into tears. He never expected to be praised one day. He suddenly gained some self-confidence.

That day after he returned home, he wrote a short story and gave it to Mrs Brown the next morning. And again he was praised. David became very interested in writing. He often wrote short stories and asked Mrs Brown to read them improve writing skills. One year later, David joined the school newspaper and became an editor of it. He was no longer that boy who lacked self-confidence. He gained his confidence, and was hopeful about his future.

He succeeded in entering a college and kept writing. Several years after graduating from college, he had his first book published. With some more books coming out, he became famous as a writer in his country. And he owed his success to Mrs Brown’s encouragement. Without her encouragement, his life might be very different now.

Inspired by his own life story, David decided to do something for that boy.

The mother was ashamed when she heard that.

2 . IT’S A TYPICAL morning: you wake up, take a shower, brush your teeth, and then prick (刺; 扎) your arm with a tiny needle. Wait, what? Unless you have a serious disease such as diabetes, you probably haven’t ever tested your own blood. But in the future, that might change.

The company Cor already sells a system for home blood testing. You stick your arm using a supposedly painless, one-off , blood-drawing cartridge (针筒) about the size of a lipstick. Then you stick the cartridge into a device that looks like the base for an electric toothbrush. A few minutes later, an app on your phone buzzes with updated information, including your current health data and tips on what to eat and how to exercise during the day.

It’s true that blood contains a wealth of information about a person’s health. Blood tests can show if a person is infected with a disease or at risk for a variety of problems, including a heart attack or a stroke. But most people don’t test their own blood until a doctor says it’s time. Healthy young adults get regular blood tests about every five years. These tests happen at a lab, where a technician or a nurse sticks a long needle into the arm to draw out several tubes full of blood. Cor and similar companies, such as WellnessFX, are trying to change all that. They think people deserve access to more information about their own health.

But not everyone is convinced that regular blood testing for healthy people is a great idea. Cor’s system is expensive and may not offer much benefit. “The lightest result here is that you lose your money and then you’re reminded to get more sleep and to eat more fruits, vegetables, and fish,” Pieter Cohen of Harvard Medical School told the New York Times. “The worst result is that you end up getting frightened by probably abnormal results that are actually completely normal for you.”

Plus, the results of a home blood test might be wrong. It’s hard to get accurate results from a tiny amount of blood. So what do you think? Is monitoring your own health via pinpricks the way of the future? Or is it better to leave blood testing to medical professionals?

6 . When you watch programs about monkeys on TV, do you have face blindness? Have you ever wondered how the scientists know who is who when they study monkeys’ behavior?

In the past, scientists had to make special signs on each of the animals. But in the future, they may have much easier way to identify (辨认) them thanks to facial recognition (面部识别) technology.

A research team from China’s Northwest University is using facial recognition technology to identify thousands of snub-nosed monkeys (金丝猴) that live on Qinling Mountain in Shanxi Province.

Similar to human facial recognition, the technology creates a system that includes every monkey’s facial picture, Xinhua reported.

“When the system is fully developed, we can connect it with cameras set up in the mountains. The system will recognize the monkeys, name them and study their behavior,” said Zhang He, a member of the research team.

“We used mobile phones and cameras with’ the monkeys in tests and stayed about 3 to 10 meters away from them,” he added. “There is no need to disturb the monkeys.”

Compared with humans, facial recognition technology for monkeys is more difficult because of their hairy faces. The color of their hair makes them easy to hide in their environment. These are the reasons that make it harder for computers to identify them.

“Monkeys do not work with researchers in the same way humans do. It is difficult, to take high-quality (高质量的) pictures and videos of them, which are needed to improve the system,” said Li Baoguo, leader of the research team.

There are about 4,000 snub-nosed monkeys living on Qinling Mountain now. The team plans to successfully identify every monkey that lives there.