— _________ Aren't you joking with me?
— I agree. I have been there twice.
— We are sure to win the battle, but ______ it'll be over soon I'm not sure at the moment.
— I'd like to buy a present for my father's birthday, ______ at a proper price, but of great value.
— No. _______ so much in the war has made him more thoughtful.
— ________. You didn't mean to, did you?
How can I forget the day? On 14 July 1974 I travelled in an overcrowded bus to an unheard town called Shendurni. The next day, I was to join the faculty of a junior college there.1about my new job, but anxious and fearful too, I was out of my2zone. Around 7 p.m. it started pouring with rain. Wondering about my new career in an unknown land, I had3in my seat. I woke up with a(n)4to the sound of the conductor announcing the name of my bus stop. I looked out. It was pitch-dark. Ah, a power cut.5 unusual during heavy rains. "Conductor Sahab, can I get a 6 for myself here? I'm new to the place," I heard myself ask 7. "Are bhai, get off my bus and let us go. We8to reach the next station on time. Where will you get a place to stay in this goddamned town?" he shouted back. Amid mounting panic, I felt a 9 tap on my shoulder. As I looked back, a warm smile 9me. "I'm Sawant, from the next town. The bus11there for the night and returns tomorrow morning. Why don't you buy a ticket for the next stop? You can spend the night at my place, and join work tomorrow." I thanked him from my heart and accepted his12. By the time the bus reached the final stop, it was 8:30 p.m. The kind soul led me to his house. He and his wife took great13to make my stay comfortable. I was 14 with warm water for a bath, followed by a hot15 and a comfortable bed. All this took place in semi-darkness. No lights yet. I was up early the next morning and my benefactor (恩人) came to16me off. I could not see his face clearly, as it was 17dark. I made it18the college in time and taught there for almost 11 years. All this while I19him, even asking my new friends and students to help find the kind soul. But Mr Sawant remained20. Perhaps I had got his name wrong. My only regret: I could not thank him again.
Castel dell' Ovo is one of Naples' most famous monuments. It offers sweeping views over the city and Mount Vesuvius in the distance.
The Basics
The site on which Castel dell' Ovo now stands has a long history, beginning as a settlement for Greek colonists(殖民地定居者). The current castle was built in the 15th century, and today, the 19th-century fishing village of Borgo Marinari, known for its excellent seafood restaurants and marina(游艇停靠区), sits at the base of the castle.
The Egg Castle
The origin of the castle's name comes from a story about the Roman poet Virgil, who is said to have placed a magical egg in the foundations beneath where the castle now stands. As long as the egg stays well, Castel dell' Ovo will remain standing.
Things to Know Before you Go
·Castel dell' Ovo is a must-see for history and architecture enthusiasts.
·Admission to the castle and the museum is free.
The inner halls of the castle are open to the public only during special events and exhibitions; the ramparts (城墙) and towers are always open.
·There is a lift from the ground floor to the ramparts, making the castle accessible to wheelchairs.
How to Get There
Castel dell' Ovo is located in the Bay of Naples just off the coastal road. Bus 151 from the train station and 140 from the port stop at Castel dell' Ovo.
When to Get there
The castle is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 am to 7 pm, and Sundays and holidays from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. The Prehistoric Museum is open only on weekends from 10 am to 1 pm. As Naples is one of Italy's most visited cities, its sights can be very crowded in the high-season summer months. Visit in the early morning or late afternoon to avoid the crowds and to take advantage of the best light for taking photos from the castle's towers.
Book Online or Call +1(702)648-5873
I hear some actors keep a sad thought or memory tucked away to help them with scenes where they might need to cry. I think we should each try to find the opposite; a happy memory, something to lift us up on those inevitable down days. I'm saying this because I think I just found mine!
I had some work in Glasgow today. I was on a really tight schedule, which meant I would have no time for myself (or my own work) all day. I was having one of those days, the train was completely packed out and the conversation going on around me seemed to be particularly inane. On top of all that, I had a bit of a headache.
Walking briskly across the concourse, I fished some change from my pocket. There was usually someone at the exit selling The Big Issue (a magazine that helps homeless folk earn a living).
As the crowd parted ways at the bottom of the concourse, I saw someone selling the Big Issue. You had to be homeless to sell the Big Issue. She really looked like she'd been sleeping rough. Her clothes were ragged and she obviously hadn't had a scrub up for quite a while.
As I approached the exit, I saw that she was also rocking from side to side. At first I thought maybe she was trying to keep warm against the biting wind. But she wasn't, she was moving in time to a tune. I couldn't hear her, but I could see her lips moving.
As I got closer, I saw a white cane hanging from her elbow and noticed that she had sunken eyes. She was blind, dirty and living on the streets. I came closer and through the noise of the traffic and the commuters I heard her sing the immortal line, “… and I think to myself, what a wonderful world!”
I bought her last magazine for twice what I'd originally intended. She thanked me, then she picked up her stuff and went tapping off along the pavement - still singing!
So, I have my happy memory for the day. And I think it will stay with me a long, long time. Feel free to borrow it if you like.
The AlphaGo program's victory is an example of how smart computers have become.
But can artificial intelligence (AI) machines act ethically, meaning can they be honest and fair?
One example of AI is driverless cars. They are already on California roads, so it is not too soon to ask whether we can program a machine to act ethically. As driverless cars improve, they will save lives. They will make fewer mistakes than human drivers do. Sometimes, however, they will face a choice between lives. Should the cars be programmed to avoid hitting a child running across the road, even if that will put their passengers at risk? What about making a sudden turn to avoid a dog? What if the only risk is damage to the car itself, not to the passengers?
Perhaps there will be lessons to learn from driverless cars, but they are not super-intelligent beings. Teaching ethics to a machine even more intelligent than we are will be the bigger challenge.
About the same time as AlphaGo's triumph, Microsoft's 'chatbot' took a bad turn. The software, named Taylor, was designed to answer messages from people aged 18-24. Taylor was supposed to be able to learn from the messages she received. She was designed to slowly improve her ability to handle conversations, but some people were teaching Taylor racist ideas. When she started saying nice things about Hitler, Microsoft turned her off and deleted her ugliest messages.
AlphaGo's victory and Taylor's defeat happened at about the same time. This should be a warning to us. It is one thing to use AI within a game with clear rules and clear goals. It is something very different to use AI in the real world. The unpredictability of the real world may bring to the surface a troubling software problem.
Eric Schmidt is one of the bosses of Google, which own AlphaGo. He thinks AI will be positive for humans. He said people will be the winner, whatever the outcome. Advances in AI will make human beings smarter, more able and "just better human beings."
Americans have always been ambivalent in their attitudes toward education. On the one hand, free and universal public education was seen as necessary in a democracy, for how else would citizens learn how to govern themselves in a responsible way? On the other hand, America was always a country that offered financial opportunities for which education was not needed: on the road from rags to riches, schooling-beyond the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic-was an unnecessary detour.
Even today, it is still possible for people to achieve financial success without much education, but the number of situations in which this is possible is decreasing. In today's more complex world, the opportunities for financial success is closely related to the need for education, especially higher education.
Our society is rapidly becoming one whose chief product is information, and dealing with this information requires more and more specialized education. In other words, we grow up learning more and more about fewer and fewer subjects.
In the future, this trend is likely to continue. Tomorrow's world will be even more complex than today's world, and, to manage this complexity, even more specialized education will be needed.
Why would human beings waste a third of their lives sleeping when they could be doing more important things like looking after their families or working? Some scientists believe sleeping helps recharge the body, while others think it is important for strengthening newly-formed memories. Now, there is new evidence which suggests that the purpose of sleep may be to forget some of the millions of new things we learn each day.
The neurons in the human brain consist of fibers called dendrites (树突). These grow as we learn new things and connect the brain's cells to each other at contact points called synapses (突触). The larger the dendrites become and the more cells they connect, the more information we store.
In 2018, Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli, both biologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggested a new idea: The things our brains learn each day result in so many synapses that things start to get a little messy. Sleeping allows us to sort through (整理) the "noise" and dispense all the unnecessary information, leaving behind only the most important memories.
Recently, the university's research has provided direct evidence to support the theory. The experiment involved analyzing 6,920 synapses in the brain shavings from two groups of mice over a four-year period; one group had been allowed to sleep, while the other had been kept awake and entertained with toys. The researchers discovered that the brain shavings of the sleeping mice had nearly 20 percent fewer synapses than those that had been kept awake and entertained.
It was also evident during the study that the brain does not shave every synapse. 20% of neurons remained unchanged; these were most likely well-established memories. Therefore, although we may be sleeping to forget some of what we've learned, the brain "forgets" in a smart way.
Most researchers believe clearing our brains is not the only purpose of sleep. Resting our minds and bodies has also been found to help with other biological functions like strengthening our immunity. Though scientists may never agree on a single reason, they are all sure of one thing-a good night's rest is essential for our health. So try and spend at least a third of your day sleeping!
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