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　　American researchers have developed a technique that may become an important tool in fighting AIDS virus from attacking its target-cells in the body’s defense system．When AIDS virus enters the blood, it searches for blood cells called T4 lymphocytes(淋巴细胞)．The virus connects to the outside of T4 lymphocytes．Then it forces its way inside．There it directs the cells’ genetic material to produce copies of the AIDS virus．This is how AIDS spreads．

　　Researchers think they may be able to stop AIDS from connecting to T4 cells．When AIDS virus finds a T4 cell, it actually connects to a part of the cell called CD4 protein．

　　Researchers want to fool the virus by putting copies or clones of the CD4 protein into the blood．This way the AIDS virus will connect to cloned protein instead of the real ones．Scientists use genetic engineering methods to make the clones．Normally a CD4 protein remains on the T4 cell at all times; the AIDS virus must go to it．

　　In a new technique, however, the cloned CD4 protein is not connected to a cell．It floats freely, so a lot more can be put into the blood to keep the AIDS virus away from real CD4 protein on T4 cells．One report says the AIDS virus connects to cloned protein just as effectively as it connects to real protein．That report was based on tests with blood cells grown in labs．The technique is just now beginning to be tested in animals．If successful, it may be tested in humans within a year．

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　　According to some talk, the younger generation in Smithville is the most anti-social in history．This seems far from the truth．Young people today as a whole are better, more informed, more ambitious, healthier, and more alert than ever before．Why then, it may be asked, do we witness such restlessness and such anti-social behavior among our young people?

　　For the answer，the citizens of this community must look at themselves．What have they done to improve the life of our youth?How many playgrounds have been built in the last fifteen year?How many swimming pools?How many vocational training projects have been started?How many community-organized youth parties and picnics have been held?

　　The average citizen will answer that the responsibility for these activities belongs to the schools．But the schools cannot be held responsible for all the free-time activities of all the young people of this community．The job of the schools is formal education, not freetime entertainment．

　　This community needs a youth center suitable for such activities as picnics, camping, sports, music, art, and theatricals．There could be social and entertaining activities to meet the needs and interests of every member of our school age youth．

　　Mayor Elmo D．Greely has proposed the formation of a Youth Club as the first step in the direction of a Youth Center．Mayor Greely has called a meeting at the City Hall on Friday, August 15．

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　　Research on the human brain has been attracting more and more scientists in recent years, just like the booming hi-tech industry．One of the latest research topics is how to change the human brain or combine the computer and the human brain, i．e．to transplant a chip into o human brain．This innovation(改革)may make everyone’s dream come true．If we compare a human brain to a hard disc, what the scientists are doing is to enlarge the applicable capacity of the hard disc．For the time being, there are some difficulties in such transplant experiments, but scientists never give up．

　　Experiments have started on animals．In 1996, a transplant experiment performed at the Defense and Military Physiology Research Institute in the U．S．turned a bear into a dolphin．

　　The dolphin was named Ted, and the bear was named Tallin．Using the most advanced technology available, deep and detailed images were made of the memory area in Ted’s brain containing information about swimming by the scientists．They obtained a series of useful information, the signals transferred by the nervous system．Such information was saved into a button-sized chip, which was then transplanted into the action memory area in Tallin’s brain．The information saved on the chip was released by means of electric power．

　　Recently, another comprehensive memory transplant was performed at the Motor Never Research Institute of the University of California．The comprehensive memory transplanted in the experiment included actions, moods, logic, words, images, etc．The experiment involved an entire transplant of the memory area．This was the largest such experiment done so far．

　　The transplant was performed making a transfer from a dog named“Genius”to a dog named“Idiot”．“Genius”could understand and follow up to 100 gestures and orders made by its master．It was a real genius in memorizing．“Idiot”was the younger brother of“Genius”．It had no contact with people at all since its birth．It became an animal with nothing in its brain, without any memory．

　　The operation was a complete success．When the two dogs woke up．“Idiot”had grasped all the abilities“Genius”possessed; it was good at memorizing and sensible．It could follow every gesture and any command given by its master．But“Genius”gave no response to its master, and in fact did not recognize him at all．

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EVENTS

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　　A proud US father has named his son after a computer software term(术语)．

　　Jon Blake Cusack, from Mocjogam, told local newspapers the US traditional way of adding“Junior”or“Ⅱ”after a boy’s name was too common．

　　So, when his son was born last week, he decided on the name Jon Blake Cusack 2.0, as if he were a software upgrade．

　　Mr Cusack admitted that it took months to persuade his wife, Jamie, to accept the idea．

　　Mrs Cusack said she asked several friends whether they can accept this name or not．

　　All the men, she said, felt the name was“cool”．However, her women friends did not think so．“I think the women will end up liking it,”she said．

　　Mr Cusack told the local newspaper he got the idea from a film called The Legend of 1900, in which an abandoned baby is given the name 1900 to remember the year of its birth．

　　“I thought that if they can do it, why can’t we?”he said．

　　After little Jon Version 2.0 was born, Mr Cusack even sent a celebratory e-mail to the family and friends designed to look as though he and his wife had created new software．

　　“I wrote things like ‘there are a lot of new features from Version 1.0 with additional features from Jamie’,”he said．And he is already planning for his son’s future．“If he has a child, he could name it 3.0,”he said．

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　　Space is a dangerous place, not only because of meteors(流星), but also because of rays from the sun and other stars．The atmosphere again acts as our protective blanket on earth．Light gets through, and this is necessary for plants to make the food which we eat．Heat, too, makes our environment endurable(可忍的)．Various kinds of rays come through the air from outer space, but enormous(巨大的)quantities of radiation from the sun are screened off．As soon as men leave the atmosphere they are exposed to this radiation but their spacesuits or the walls of their spacecraft, if they are inside, do prevent a lot of radiation damage．

　　Radiation is the greatest known danger to explorers in space．The unit of radiation is called“rem”．Scientists have reason to think that a man can put up with far more radiation than 0.1 rem without being damaged; the figure of 60 rems has been agreed on．The trouble is that it is extremely difficult to be sure about radiation damage a person may feel perfectly well, but the cells of this or her sex organs may be damaged, and this will not be discovered until the birth of deformed(畸形的)children or even grandchildren．Missions of the Apollo flights have had to cross belts of high radiation and, during the outward and return journeys, the Apollo crew accumulated(积累)a large amount of rems．So far, no dangerous amounts of radiation have been reported, but the Apollo missions have been quite short．We simply do not know yet how men are going to get on when they spend weeks and months outside the protection of the atmosphere, working in a space laboratory．Drugs might help to decrease the damage done by radiation, but no really effective ones have been found so far．

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　　The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know．I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder．I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being．

　　She said,“Hi, girl!My name is Rose．I’m 87 years old．Can I give you a hug?”

　　I laughed and enthusiastically(热情地)responded,“Of course you may!”and she gave me a giant squeeze．

　　“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?”I asked．She jokingly replied,“I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel!”

　　“No seriously,”I said．I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age．

　　“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!”she told me．

　　Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went．She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students．She was living it up．

　　At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet．I’ll never forget what she taught us．

　　“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing．There are only two secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success．You have to laugh and find humor everyday．You’ve got to have a dream．When you lose your dreams, you die!”she said．

　　“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up．If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn 20 years older．If I am 87 years old, and stay in bed for a year, and never do anything, I will turn 88．Anybody can grow older．But every minute counts for young men,”she added．

　　“The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change．Have no regrets．The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do．The only people who fear death are those with regrets．”

　　She concluded her speech by courageously singing“The Song of Rose”．She challenged each of us to study the lyrics(歌词)and live them out in our daily lives．

　　At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago．One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep．

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　　Tell a story and tell it well, and you may open wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people’s mind to another culture or race．

　　People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them．For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times．They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own．

　　“Most local stories are based on a larger theme,”American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says,“Cinderella(灰姑娘), or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world．”

　　Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories．She works with prisoners too, helping them know who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives．If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story．Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers．“For every advance in business,”she says,“there is a greater need for communication．”Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says．

　　Pugh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there．The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere, she says．

　　“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,”she says,“What I do is to focus on the value of the stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs．We are all storytellers．We all have a story to tell．We tell everybody’s story．”

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　　The old idea that child prodigies(神童)“burn themselves”or“overtax their brains”in the early years, therefore, suffer from failure and(at worst)mental illness is just a myth．As a matter of fact, the outstanding thing that happens to bright children is that they are very likely to grow into bright adults．

　　To find this out, 1,500 gifted persons were followed up to their thirty-fifth years with these results：

　　On adult intelligence tests, they scored as high as they did as children．They were, as a group, in good health, physically and mentally．Eighty-four percent of their group were married and seemed content with their life．

　　About 70 percent had graduated from colleges, though only 30 percent had graduated with honors．A few had even flunked out(退学), but nearly half of these had returned to graduate．

　　Of the men, 80 percent were in one of the professions or in business, managerial or semiprofessional jobs．The women who had remained single had offices, business, or professional occupations．

　　The group had published 90 books and 1,500 articles in scientific, scholarly, and literary magazines and had collected more than 100 patents．

　　In a material way they didn’t do badly either．Average income was considerably higher among the gifted people, especially the men, than for the country as a whole, despite their comparative youth when last surveyed．

　　In fact, far from being strange, maladjusted(难以适应)people locked in an ivory tower, most of the gifted were turning their early promises into practical reality．

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　　People often talk as if shyness is a disease or mental condition that can be cured．I prefer to think of it as an emotional disability．It's something we are born with and something we carry with us in our entire lives．There are too many people, however, who seem to be determined to find some way of doing away with their shyness．In my opinion, it's a waste of time．I don't mean that we should do nothing about it; quite the contrary, I think we need to separate the basic fact of our shyness from our ability to take part in a social environment．

　　Look at one of the most famous shy people of them all, Johnny Carson．This man is painfully shy, yet for decades he made a living talking and associating(交往)with different people every night, in front of a national audience．Carson has never done away with his shyness, but he has successfully found a way to deal with it to the extent that he could be, not just a talk show host, but a legend(传奇)among talk show hosts．Look also at Sally Fields, who has recently admitted her problem with shyness．This is a woman who has appeared in many films, TV shows and interviews, yet in her early years she was so shy that she turned down a lunch invitation from Jane Fonda because she was terribly afraid of meeting her．

　　I guess that our shyness is there because each of us is born with some insecurity(不安全感)and this insecurity prevents us from reaching out to others the way people with a more open personality do．As we grow up and become adults, we allow our social skills to grow and develop．But we are still stuck in kindergarten or elementary school or wherever it was when our shyness took root in our soul．

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