More than 25 years ago, Saroo Brierley lived in rural (农村) India. One day, he played with his brother along the rail line and fell asleep. When he woke up and found himself alone, the 4-year-old decided his brother might be on the train he saw in front of him—so he got on.
That train took him a thousand miles across the country to a totally strange city. He lived on the streets, and then in an orphanage (孤儿院). There, he was adopted by an Australian family and flown to Tasmania.
As he writes in his new book, A Long Way Home, Brierley couldn't help but wonder about his hometown back in India. He remembered landmarks, but since he didn't know his town's name, finding a small neighborhood in a vast country proved to be impossible.
Then he found a digital mapping program. He spent years searching for his hometown in the program's satellite pictures. In 2011, he came across something familiar. He studied it and realized he was looking at a town's central business district from a bird's-eye view. He thought, "On the right-hand side you should see the three-platform train station"—and there it was. "And on the left-hand side you should see a big fountain"—and there it was. Everything just started to match.
When he stood in front of the house where he grew up as a child, he saw a lady standing in the entrance. "There's something about me," he thought—and it took him a few seconds but he finally remembered what she used to look like.
In an interview Brierley says, "My mother looked so much shorter than I remembered. But she came forth and walked forward, and I walked forward, and my feelings and tears and the chemical in my brain, you know, it was like a nuclear fusion (核聚变). I just didn't know what to say, because I never thought seeing my mother would ever come true. And here I am, standing in front of her."
The boy sat on his chair, with his hands above the keyboard. He thought about what to write.
He recalled that the competition deadline was merely a week away. But he still had not even started on his piece. He looked at the brochure again. "WRITING COMPETITION!" the title read. His mum had encouraged him to enter the writing competition, and now he was taking it on as his personal task for the holidays.
As the boy reflected on his previous writing efforts, he realised how hopeless his task of winning was. Every story he ever wrote was based on other stories. He had little imagination, and unfortunately, imagination was the key to writing.
Suddenly, he had a brainwave. This time, he came up with an original and imaginative story.
The words shot towards him like a storm of leaves. Words were coming easily, flowing through him, faster than he could type. He typed faster than he ever had before. He continued to type, amazed how easy writing this story was. The boy could not stop writing. He looked at the word count and saw the number "248" starting right back at him. He was not even halfway yet.
Then he heard his mother's call of saying time for bed. He continued writing the piece, ignoring her. He had to make up for the time he had lost in thinking about a topic to write.
Finally, he finished. The word count now read "498".
"Perfect," he thought, "just under the word limit." He knew this was the story that would win.
He went to the website and searched for the competition. He found the page but there was no "Enter" button.
Confused, he then re-read the page again. It read COMPETITION CLOSED.
Australian adults want to see "life skills" introduced into school curriculums, including money management, job preparation and domestic tasks. New research from Monash University showed Aussie adults also widely supported the inclusion of technology, coding and artificial intelligence subjects in student curriculums to prepare them for future jobs.
Co-author Professor Neil Selwyn, from Monash's new Education Futures think tank, said the survey results of more than 2,000 Australians had taken himself and Dr Deana Leahy by surprise. "The life skills—I wasn't expecting that at all," he said. Those quizzed were asked to rate the value of a list of subjects already in the curriculum, but were also given an open space to write what they think should be included. Prof. Selwyn said people called for schools to teach financial skills, budgeting, cooking and doing taxes. "You could argue that these are things people should be learning themselves, or learning from their families," he said. "But we've got to be thinking forward in terms of the skills people will need for jobs and their ways of living."
One respondent said schools should introduce a "contemporary life skills" subject: "A compulsory 1-hour a week class on skills needed that parents seem continually unable to teach their kids". Suggestions for the class included résumé writing, filing tax returns and health claims. Another respondent called for students to be taught "general life skills" as unfortunately not enough kids will have parents to actually be bothered to educate them or simply parents don't know themselves.
Of the subjects, maths was the highest ranked (75.5 percent), followed closely by English (74.8 percent). And while science was the third highest ranked subject (46.2 percent), it was more strongly supported by those who earned higher wages and were university-educated compared to lower income earners.
Aspects of school life considered least important were students having fun, learning about things that interested them and being given the opportunity to be creative.
As we live longer and technology continues its rapid development, we can imagine a future where machines will enlarge our human abilities and help us make better life choices, from health to wealth. Through our dialogue and digital pieces, AI (artificial intelligence) will understand our life goals and wishes, our duties and limitations. It will help us plan different life events, so we can spend more time enjoying life's moments.
The ability for AI to understand the complexities and slight differences of human conversation is, however, one hurdle. There are several thousand known living languages in the world today. Adding to the difficulties are the varied ways words are shared and used across different cultures, including grammar, levels of education and styles of the speakers. Google Duplex, the technology supporting Google Assistant, which places phone calls using a natural-sounding human voice instead of a robotic one, is an early attempt to address such challenges in human communications. But these are just initial whispers in voice of AI's long journey.
Beyond making reservations and conducting simple dialogues, virtual assistants will need to become far more useful and further fit into the parts of our everyday lives. Not only will they need to foresee what we need before we ask, they also need to understand the context of our conversations and react accordingly. Imagine a snow day when school is canceled for the kids. Knowing that you must now stay at home with your children, your phone would remind you, asking if you'd like your meetings moved to the following day. Alternatively, imagine how much more pleasant your journey home from a business trip would be if your phone could automatically arrange for a ride waiting to pick you up at the airport, based on your travel plan, location, and habits. The possibilities are endless.
Can creativity be taught? That's a question without a simple yes or no answer. Creativity may not be able to be taught directly, but what you can get better at is frequently targeting at the circumstances of life which bring the greatest chances for true creative expression., but more like something that manifests(显现) itself inside those who learn to develop it and create the right conditions for it.
Limit your selection of tools to only the most vital.. You'll be sharper than someone who merely fights with a larger set of tools.
Learn how to be resourceful.. Creativity is not just about creating something new but making old things work better as well. Think of crazy possibilities as well as practical ones. You might find inspiration for a workable solution in one of your ideas.
Don't listen to feedback(反馈) and keep following your own path. The problem of asking for feedback is that the feedback will be given according to the person's past experience. Others will unconsciously push you in a direction that they see as the best.. Just don't let criticism destroy your creativity during the creative process.
. Routines are positive if they strengthen a healthy creative consciousness and negative if they destroy that. The key is to discover a creative routine that puts you in a more creative mindset.
A. Creativity is not like a lightning strike
B. Having a routine is actually not a bad idea
C. You can literally do anything you like with them
D. Resourcefulness is about making the most of what you have to work with
E. The more limited your set of tools is, the more creative the output will be
F. This is done with good intentions, but it actually hurts your natural creativity
G. While breaking your routine once in a while to force new ways of thinking is good
In my childhood, there were no smartphones or computers. Still, I never felt bored. The field, 1 and woodlands around my home were the perfect playground. I can remember once hiking to a nearby 2 and walking slowly around it. At the back of it I was amazed to find an old dirt road that I had never seen before. It was full of muddy tyre tracks and deep woods bordered it on both sides, but 3 it still seemed like a fine adventure.
I 4 on and on for what seemed like hours. I was sure someone was 5 in my ears to ask me to turn around and head back home but I was 6 and even a bit stupid, so I walked on. There was still neither a car nor a house 7. My legs were getting tired. I noticed that the sun was starting to go down and I grew 8. I didn't want to end up trapped on this road in the dark of night, and I was worried that it would be dark 9 I could make my way back to the lake again.
I continued to walk on with the fear growing inside of me. My heart was 10 and my legs were aching. When I turned one last corner and saw a house that I 11, I jumped up and down and laughed out loud. I knew the way home! It was still over a mile away, but my legs felt like feathers. I 12 into the house with a big smile just in time for dinner. Then I ended my adventure with a good night's sleep.
I remembered this recently when I saw a 13 that said, "All roads lead home." This is true. I also remembered a sage(智者) compared life to a journey. Are we going to make this life a terrible trip or are we going to make the life a joyful one? It 14 our own choice.
All roads no matter how they twist and turn, can 15 us home in our hearts. May you always walk your path with love! May you always help your fellow travellers along the way!
A new social robot has been introduced to the public at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The robot,(call) Nadine, was built by a research team at the university.
Nadine has brown hair and human-like skin. She can talk and act like a human and she even has her own personality. The robot can show emotions, like anger and (sad) and change into different moods,(depend) on the topics she is talking about.
Nadine is the most advanced and human-like robot so far. She has built-in software that is similar to Apple's Siri, which works on iPhone. The new social robot has capabilities that have never been implemented in other robots so far. Nadine can not only remember people she (meet) before, but she can recall things that she said at (early) conversations as well.
Up to now, robots have been used widely in the manufacturing industry. However, more and more robots are being (equip) with social functions. This could be important our population becoming older. Working robots could be the solution to a decreasing workforce. On the other hand, such social robots could care for children or older people. They could play and talk with them or keep them company.
Currently, Nadine (have) a job as a receptionist at the university,she answers questions asked by students and other visitors.
A painter living by painting portraits(肖像) was leading a poor life.
One day, a woman came by. She liked the paintings very much and asked the painter to draw a portrait for her. They agreed on 2,000 dollars.
Before painting the portrait, the woman asked the painter to draw more jewels. The painter curiously asked why, but the woman refused to explain. After a week, the portrait was done and the woman came to take the painting. At this moment, she hit on an evil idea of bullying the unknown young artist. She thought, "The portrait is me. If I don't buy the painting, nobody will buy it. Why should I pay so much money?" So the woman said to the young painter, "I will only pay 200 dollars for it."
The young man was surprised, for he had never come across such an experience. He argued with her, expecting this woman to keep to the agreement.
"I can only pay 200 dollars to buy the painting," the woman thought she would win for sure.
The young painter knew the woman broke her promise on purpose, so he felt annoyed. He said in a firm voice, "No, I would prefer to keep this painting rather than be humiliated(羞辱) by you. Today you break your word and some day you must pay 20 times for it."
"What a joke! 20 times will be 40,000! I won't be stupid to pay 40,000 dollars to buy the painting!"
"Well, we'd better wait and see," the young artist shouted to the woman who left angrily. After the stimulation(刺激) of such an incident, the painter moved out of this sad place, studied under acknowledged teachers and worked hard day and night. More than a dozen years later, he finally started a new way and became popular in the circle of art. However, the woman had forgotten the artist's painting and words the next day.
注意：
1）续写词数应为150左右;
2）请按如下格式作答。
One day, that famous painter decided to hold an art exhibition.
……
The woman went there hurriedly, apologised a million times and promised that she would buy her portrait as soon as possible.
