Maria Montessori (1870-1952) is a famous Italian educationalist whose method of teaching has influenced people all over the world.

    Born in Italy in 1870, Montessori became the first female (女性的) doctor in her country after she graduated from medical school in 1896. Later, working with deprived (缺乏足够教育的) children, she set up a “Children's House” in Rome. This was the place where she developed the Montessori Method, an educational system that encourages an informal style of teaching. Children learn from dealing with everyday materials and they develop at their own pace. The Montessori philosophy is simple. Children are individuals (个体) who must be free to learn without being criticized (批评) or limited. It's the child that controls the pace, topic and lessons, not the rest of the class or the teacher. As a result, children enjoy learning and this gives them confidence and makes them happy.

    The Montessori Method also teaches children skills to help them become independent. Very young children learn to dress themselves, to cook and to put their toys and clothes away. Children are encouraged to repeat activities as often as they wish, and they develop their observation skills by doing different activities.

    A Montessori teacher observes children closely in order to provide them with individual learning programmes. The teacher is a guide, not a leader of the classroom, helping to open students' eyes to the wonders around them.

    Montessori wanted to free children's minds so that they could learn through self-teaching and self-correction. It's an approach to teaching which encourages children to learn by doing and experimenting.

    A typical room in a Montessori school has many things children can use, for example, books, objects and games. The furniture is light so they can arrange it as they wish, and the cabinets (橱柜) are low, so the children can reach them. Because the environment offers a range of activities, children like to work together and they develop a social life based on cooperation rather than competition.

    Maria Montessori travelled all over the world, training teachers to use her method. She wrote The Montessori Method in 1912 and The Secret of Childhood in 1936.

    Just an hour after completing her first aid course, Mamta (wait) at a bus stop when she heard a crash and saw a motorcyclist flying through the air — his helmet was going one way and his motorbike the . She could also see a pedestrian (行人) was knocked down.

    As other pedestrians stood (shock) by the scene, Mamta (immediate) stepped forward and help. The motorcyclist's eyes were rolling back; his head and arm (injure), and he was making noises. So she shouted at him, "Can you breathe?" While he was given emergency (treat), the confused motorcyclist actually tried to walk away but Mamta insisted he wait for the ambulance. Once the motorcyclist was comfortable, Mamta went over (check) on the injured pedestrian and pressed her blouse on his (bleed) arm. Before long, official medical help arrived.

    Looking back on the incident, Mamta said, "I'd been asking tons of questions all through that day's course. Little I know that I'd be putting it into practice on my way home. It just shows that even the most basic training can make difference."

    The documentary (纪录片) Blood Lions shows South Africa's cruel "canned" lion hunting industry. In canned hunts, lions are raised by humans and kept in enclosed (围住的) spaces on private hunting areas. Hunters can get trophy (战利品) heads easily in exchange for (交换) fees of up to $50,000. There are about 8,000 "ranch (a very large farm)" lions in South Africa. So the country's hunt operators can make a fortune.

    Ian Michler was a lead character in the film. He talked about Blood Lions last July when it was shown in Durban, South Africa. The film has since been viewed in 185 countries. More than 50 screenings have been held at film festivals and in meetings of special interest groups. This year, Blood Lions will be shown at every major tourism conference in Europe and Africa.

    Outside the film, Michler and the team are running a global campaign. They are aimed at ending canned hunts and other cold-blooded activities involving lions and other large animals.

    Australia became the first country, in February 2015, to forbid imports (进口) of lion trophies. It was followed by France in November. That month, Blood Lions was shown in the European Parliament. As a result, the governments of Finland, Italy, and Spain decided to hold their own screenings. There are a number of other countries likely to do the same.

    At the same time, at the end of last year, the world's leading group of African lion researchers offered an important suggestion. They advised that any analysis of the present state of wild lions in South Africa should not include its thousands of "ranch" lions. Wild lions in South Africa now number some 3,000. There are around 20,000 wild lions in Africa.

    "The great majority of lion populations in Africa have been reduced," says Hans Bauer, lion researcher at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. "It's important to stress that South Africa's ranch lions are a horror that has nothing to do with lion protection. These lions should never be taken into account in any serious analysis of the state of lions in Africa."

    If someone asked you to quantify (衡量) the time you spend online, how would you answer? If you're like one-fifth of Americans, you'd likely say "almost constantly." New research shows that 21 percent of Americans report that they're online more or less constantly.

    Andrew Perrin, a research assistant at Pew, did a survey about Internet use. During the survey, adults were asked how much they go online. 13 percent said they don't go online and 13 percent said they go online several times a week or less. Only 10 percent said they go online once a day and much larger quantities said they go online several times a day (42 percent) or "almost constantly" (21 percent).

    Interestingly, there wasn't a gender split (性别分化) when it came to near constant Internet use. Age seems to be the great divider: Only six percent of people over 65 said they were online that much. Those who reported that they were online all the time included 12 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds, 28 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds and 36 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds.

    Don't suppose that teenagers are online more than adults, however. In another survey, Pew found that while they did have a slight edge on adults in general when it came to "almost constant" Internet use, 24 percent said they were online pretty much all the time. They still fell greatly behind the 36 percent of adults between 18 and 29 years of age who were always online.

    Given that the United Nations considers unrestricted (无限制的) Internet access (接入) to be a human right, the number of Americans who report being online "almost constantly" could rise along with availability and affordability. But it remains to be seen whether being online all the time is actually something to long for, or how constant connectivity will affect American culture in the long term.

Book and bookmaking

    A book is a printed work that is meant to communicate. It's made up of pages that are usually enclosed in a protective cover. Among the countless types of books are novels, picture books, cookbooks, how-to books, poetry books, and textbooks.

    The first step in creating a book is for an author to write a manuscript (手稿). Then the author finds a publisher, or a company that makes and sells books. They make sure that the ideas are complete, that the writing is clear, and that there are no mistakes.

    Then the manuscript goes to a designer. This person arranges the text and pictures on the pages so that the book looks nice and is easy to read.

    Editors and designers continue working on the pages until they are perfect. The designed book is stored in computer files (文件).

    Next, the computer files are used to create printing plates, which are pieces of metal or plastic that have the book's text and pictures on them. Printing plates are put on printing presses and used to print the book.

    Early books were difficult to produce. The text was written by hand. As a result, books were expensive and hard for most people to get.

    The invention of printing changed that. In about 1450, a special type of printing press was invented in Germany. It could print many books quickly.

    Today books are published in every language. Personal computers have allowed people to publish their own books. Many books can be read or downloaded from the Internet.

A. A designer also creates the cover.

B. Books can have either a hard cover or a soft cover.

C. This has made books easier to get than ever before.

D. People have written books about all kinds of subjects.

E. Only wealthy and powerful people read these early books.

F. Books became available to ordinary people for the first time.

G. Editors at the publishing company help the author improve the manuscript.

    As a boy I was always small for my age. I was five years younger than one of my brothers and seven years younger than the other. 1, I often felt left out when their friends came over to 2. I was too 3for whatever they were doing and they didn't want me to listen to their conversations either. More often than not I found myself outside playing 4and feeling forgotten.

    I remember one Spring afternoon I felt especially 5as I sat in the yard behind our house. We lived miles from town and I 6saw my own friends outside of school. I 7my brothers laughing from 8the house and felt a single tear coming down my face. At that moment I saw a large brown dog 9me. He was wagging (摇摆) his tail 10. He greeted me like a long lost 11, licking (舔) my hand and sitting beside me on the grass, 12he didn't know me. I petted and 13this four-legged angel (天使). He let me pour out all my troubles and 14my deepest thoughts before he kissed me goodbye. I went back inside feeling happy, 15that no matter what life might hold I was loved. I 16that the dog was sent in that moment of 17to remind me just how much I was loved.

    In truth, nothing brings us greater 18than knowing we are loved. Knowing we are loved gives us the 19to love others as well. It also helps us to be the people the world meant for us to be. Remember how much the world loves you and share your 20with the world.