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　　People have strange ideas about food．For example, the tomato is a kind of very delicious vegetable．It is one of the useful plants that can be prepared in many ways．It has rich nutrition(营养)and vitamin(维他命)in it．But in the 18th century, Americans never ate tomatoes．They grew them in their gardens because tomato plants are so pretty．But they thought the vegetable was poisonous(有毒的)．They called tomatoes “poison apples”．

　　President(总统)Thomas Jefferson, however, knew that tomatoes were good to eat．He was a learned man．He had been to Paris, where he learned to love the taste of tomatoes．He grew many kinds of tomatoes in his garden．The President taught his cook a way for a cream of tomato soup．This beautiful pink soup was served at the President’s party．The guests thought the soup tasted really good．They never thought their president would serve his honored guests poison apples．Jefferson never spoke to his honored guests about the fact．

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　　When we don’t understand each other’s language, we can talk with the help of signs．

　　A Frenchman was once travelling in England．He could not speak English at all．One day he went into a restaurant and sat down at a table．When the waiter came, he opened his mouth, put his fingers in it, and took out again．He wanted to say．“Bring me something to eat．”

　　The waiter soon brought him a cup of tea．The man moved his head from side to side．The waiter understood him and took the tea away．In a moment he came with a cup of coffee．But the man again refused it．He shook his head whenever the waiter brought him something to drink, for drinks are not food．

　　When the man was going away, another man came in．This man saw the waiter, and he put his hand on his stomach．That was enough．In a few minutes there was a large plate of meat and vegetables on the table in front of him．

　　So you see, we cannot understand the language of signs as well as we can understand the language of words．

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　　Beijing(13, July)China sent up a new data relay satellite, Tianlian I -02, on Monday at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in South-western Sichuan province．The new satellite will promote the country's satellite communication network for space docking．

　　The satellite was launched on a Long-March-SC carrier rocket at 11∶41 p. m., sources at the centre told Xinhua News Agency．The satellite separated from the rocket 26 minutes after its launch and was then successfully delivered into a geostationary transfer orbit．

　　Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the satellite is the country's second data relay satellite．The first, Tianlian I -01, was launched on April 25．2008．

　　The two satellites will form a network to improve communications between China's spacecraft and bases on Earth, according to the centre．They will also be used to help the nation's first space docking, scheduled for the second half of this year．

　　As planned, China will launch space module Tiangong-I, which was designed as a platform that will dock with an unmanned spaceship, Shenzhou, for the county's first space-docking mission this year．

　　Two more Shenzhou spaceships will dock with Tiangong-I next year, and one will be manned by two or three astronauts, according to China Manned Space Engineering Office, which was the main user of the Tianlian I series data relay satellites．

　　"The new satellite can cover a greater area to track and command the country's space vehicles in low-Earth orbits, such as manned spacecraft and remote sensing satellites, from a higher position in outer space．Only three satellites of this kind are needed to form a global communication network, and China has two now．" Pang Zhihao, a researcher and deputy editor-in-chief of Space International, said．

　　The satellite could also equip astronauts with real-time communications, which will benefit the country's future manned space flights, he said．

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　　I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps(快照), maybe occasionally for magazines．Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand．So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store．There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list．And it was on special offer．I pointed at it and asked an assistant, “Can I have one of those?”? He looked perturbed(不安)．“Do you want to try it first?” he said．It didn’t quite sound like a question．“Do I need to?” I replied, “There is nothing wrong with it？” This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad．“No, no．But you should try it,” he said encouragingly．“Compare it with the others．”

　　I looked across at the others：shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box．With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time．But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with：first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model．

　　But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice．In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen．The assistant seemed a sincere man．So I let him take out of my chosen camera from cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers… and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well．

　　Why do we think that new options still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine．

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　　It’s hard to track the blue whale, which has almost been killed off by commercial whaling．Attaching radio devices to it is difficult and visual sightings are too unreliable to give real insight into its behavior．

　　So biologists were delighted early this year when, with the help of the US Navy, they are able to track a particular blue whale for 43 days recording its sounds．This was possible because of the Navy’s former top secret system of underwater listening devices across the oceans．

　　Tracking whales is but one example of an exciting new world just opening to civilian scientists after the cold war as the Navy starts to share and partly uncover its global network of underwater listening system built over the decades to track the ships of potential enemies．

　　Earth scientists announced at a news conference recently that they had used the system for closely observing a deep-sea volcanic eruption for the first time and that they planned similar studies．Other scientists have proposed to use the network for tracking ocean currents and measuring changes in the ocean and global temperatures．Different layers of ocean water can act as channels for sounds focusing them in the same way a stethoscope(听诊器)does when it carries faint noises from a patient’s chest to a doctor’s ear．This focusing is the main reason that even relatively weak sounds in the ocean, especially low-frequency ones, can often travel thousands of miles．

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How Much to Tip

　　You’re out to dinner．The food is delicious and the service is fine．You decide to leave a big fat tip．Why? The answer may not be as simple as you think．

　　Tipping, psychologists have found, is not just about service．Instead, studies have shown that tipping can be affected by psychological reactions to a series of different factors from the waiter’s choice of words, to how they carry themselves while taking orders, to the bill’s total．Even how much waiters remind customers of themselves can determine how much change they pocket by the end of the night．

　　“Studies before have shown that mimicry(模仿)brings into positive feelings for the mimicker,” wrote Rick van Baaren, a social psychology professor．“These studies show that people who are being mimicked become more generous toward the person who mimics them．”

　　So Rick van Baaren divided 59 waiters into two groups．He requested that half serve with a phrase such as, “Coming up!” Those in the other half were instructed to repeat the orders and preferences back to the customers．Rick van Baaren then compared their take-home．The results were clear－it pays to mimic your customer．The copycat(模仿者)waiters earned almost double the amount of tips to the other group．

　　Leonard Green and Joel Myerson, psychologists at Washington University in St．Louis, found the generosity of a tipper may be limited by his bill．After research on the 1,000 tips left for waiters, cabdrivers, hair stylists, they found tip percentages in these three areas dropped as customers’ bills went up．In fact, tip percentages appear to plateau(达到稳定水平)when bills topped ＄100 and a bill for ＄200 made the worker gain no bigger percentage tip than a bill for ＄100．

　　“That’s also a point of tipping,” Green says．“You have to give a little extra to the cab driver for being there to pick you up and something to the waiter for being there to serve you．If they weren’t there, you’d never get any service．So part of the idea of a tip is for just being there．”

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　　Though “nanometer”(纳米)is now a fashionable term all over the world, few people know exactly what it is．It has become a new favorite of manufacturers and sellers in recent years．Many “high-tech” products bearing the name “nano” have entered the market, bringing more mysterious feeling to surprised consumers．

　　Nanometer is a very small length unit of measure, and is very small．One millimeter is 1000 micrometers, and one micrometer is 1000 nanometers．That is, one nanometer is one billionth of a meter．Nano materials are solid materials composed of particles(粒子)or crystallites(晶体)of less than 100 nanometer in size．Then, is a cup made of nano material really any different from an ordinary cup in function as far as how it works?

　　Are nano cups really so wonderful? A reporter went to the Institute of Nanomedicine, which is the first such institute of such a sort in the world and the only one in China, specializing in researching the investigation of the application of nano technology into medicine．

　　A water molecule(分子)is composed of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom．It can be changed only by special working skillfully of the atoms．The material making up the cup can have nanometer particles．But it cannot change the chemical and physical properties of the water contained in it．The water in the cup is still water．When people drink it, it will produce no special effect on human body．

　　Professor Ji who worked in the Instiute of Nanomedicine told the reporter, so far, the investigation of nano materials is still limited in the laboratory．No commercial micro products can be produced yet．With the present level of science and technology, the time of everyday goods made of nanometer materials is still years away．

　　The products labeled with nano marks in the market now are only traditional products coated with a thin layer of nanometer material, which makes them more abrasion resistant(耐磨), much easier to be cleaned, or oil resisting or moth proof(防蛀)．

　　Professor Ji explained that nano cup is a real cup．It can also be included in the list of nano products in a certain sense．But the nano cup has not changed its property and function as a cup．It is not a magical medicine for curing and health care．

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　　Writing articles about films for The Front Page was my first proper job．Before then I had done bits of reviewing－novels for other newspapers, films for a magazine and anything I was asked to do for the radio．That was how I met Tom Seaton, the first arts editor of The Front Page, who had also written for television．He hired me, but Tom was not primarily a journalist, or he would certainly have been more careful in choosing his staff．

　　At first, his idea was that a team of critics should take care of the art forms that didn’t require specialized knowledge：books, TV, theatre, film and radio．There would be a weekly lunch at which we would make our choices from the artistic material that Tom had decided we should cover, though there would also be guests to make the atmosphere sociable．

　　It all felt like a bit of dream at that time：a new newspaper and I was one of the team．It seemed so unlikely that a paper could be introduced into a crowded market．It seemed just as likely that a millionaire wanted to help me personally, and was pretending to employ me．Such was my lack of self-confidence．

　　Tom’s original scheme for a team of critics for the arts never took off．It was a good idea, but we didn’t get together as planned and so everything was done by phone．It turned out, too, that the general public out there preferred to associate a reviewer with a single subject area, and so I chose film．Without Tom’s initial push, though, we would hardly have come up with the present arrangement, by which I write an extended weekly piece, usually on one film．

　　The space I am given allows me to broaden my argument－or forces me, in an uninteresting week, to make something out of nothing．But what is my role in the public arena? I assume that people choose what films to go to on the basis of the stars, the publicity or the director．So if a film review isn’t really a consumer guide, what is it? I certainly don’t feel I have a responsibility to be ‘right’ about a movie．Nor do I think there should be a certain number of ‘great’ and ‘bad’ films each year．All I have to do is put forward an argument．I’m not a judge, and nor would I want to be．

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　　Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made．In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight, and I would almost always get up late the next morning．

　　But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high relationship between success and rising early．On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity was almost always higher．So I set out to become a habitual early riser．But whenever my alarm went off, my first thought was always to stop that noise and go back to sleep．Eventually some sleep research showed me that I was using the wrong strategy．

　　The most common wrong strategy is this：You assume that if you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier．It sounds very reasonable, but will usually fail．

　　There are two main schools(流派)of thought on sleep patterns．The first is that you should go to bed and get up at the same time every day．The second school says you should go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up．However, I have found both of them are wrong if you care about productivity．If you sleep at set hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed when you aren’t sleepy enough．You’re wasting time lying in bed awake and not being asleep．

　　If your sleep is based on what your body tells you, you’ll probably be sleeping more than you need．Also, your mornings may be less predictable if you’re getting up at different times．

　　The solution for me has been to combine both methods．I go to bed when I’m sleepy and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time．So I always get up at the same time(in my case 5 am), but I go to bed at different times every night－sometimes at 9∶30pm, and other times at midnight．Most of the time I go to bed between 10-11 pm．

　　However, going to bed only when I’m sleepy, and getting up at a fixed time every morning is my way．If you want to become an early riser, you can try your own．