“It is never too late and you are never too old to start something new！” says Englishtown1Ellen Rema.Ellen began to learn English at the age of 50，and in just a few years，she has made2progress!

          Ellen chose to study at Englishtown because no evening classes were3in the German countryside where she lives.At Englishtown，she joins4classes online and speaks with live native English­speaking teachers.

          “Englishtown is a wonderful place to5.” she says.“My son always says，mom，you are a bit6.He cannot understand why I spend so many hours studying，7love it.I do it for myself.”

          In 2001，Ellen began with the first level of Englishtown and quickly8.“I spent hours and hours studying，”she said.“Maybe I wanted too much in a short time.I finished all my9after 2 years，but noticed I still had10difficulties.”

Instead of11 ， she chose to press on.After four years at Englishtown，she’s still studying in the online classroom，but now to perfect her already12English，she has set new13for herself and14understanding grammar points.

          “Studying online is never15 ， but you need self­discipline，self­motivation and staying power，”she says.“If you really want to learn，never quit even when you notice difficulties or when you think there is no16.Practice，practice，practice！”

          Ellen says studying English isn’t all about hard work.It should also be17！ “I really like the online conversation classrooms，”she says.“I have learned so much about other cultures and traditions.I’m open for all 18.”

          Ellen has been able to 19her English to use by visiting England five times! “I’m very thankful to Englishtown because most of the English I know now was learned here，” Ellen says.“My life has 20with Englishtown.”

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    I went to the Tsavo National Park in northern Kenya for a film. We set off early for a distant water hole. A huge elephant covered with dry mud, drank calmly and deeply. He might have traveled 50 km to reach the water. He wasn't going to hurry now. We thought he'd drink a while and rest in the shade, and then drink again. What actually happened was that he drank deeply and stepped away. Then he suddenly fell down. Within minutes he was dead.

    We called animal doctor Jeremiah Poghon immediately. He removed the head of a poisonous arrow (箭) from the elephant's body, and let out over 100 liters of drug—the result of the elephant's meeting with a poacher (偷猎者) months before.

    Today's poacher fires an arrow, covered with poison, into the body of an elephant. If the poacher is lucky, the elephant might die in an hour or two; if not, he might have to follow the elephant for days before it dies. Often the arrow head fails to kill the elephant at once—it doesn't mean the poison won't finally kill the elephant, but it will be a slow death.

    Living in Tsavo through these times, I could see the results of poaching from time to time. When I think about the death of that elephant, what stays with me is the great silence after the shocking sound of his body hitting the ground. I couldn't escape the feeling that with the death of such a large animal, the world seemed to be a poorer and emptier place.

      A glass a day keeps obesity at bay. Wine has always been thought to cause weight gain because of its high sugar content, but new research suggests a glass a day could form part of a diet. Looking at past studies they found that, while heavy drinkers do put on weight, those who drink in moderation can actually lose weight.

    A scientist for the research team at Navarro University in Spain says, “Proper drinking may be more likely to protect against, rather than promote, weight gain.” An official organization reviewed the findings and agreed with most of the conclusions, particularly that present data do not clearly show if proper drinking increases weight.

    Boston University's Dr. Harvey Finkel found that the reasons relating alcohol (酒精) to changes in body weight are not properly understood. His team pointed out the strong protective effects (效果) of proper drinking on the risk of getting conditions like diabetes (糖尿病), which relate to increasing obesity. Some studies suggest that even very fat people may be at lower risk of diabetes if they are moderate drinkers.

    The group says alcohol provides energy that is quickly absorbed into the body and is not stored in fat, and that this process could explain the differences in its effects from those of other foods. They agree that future research should be directed towards assessing the roles of different types of alcoholic drinks, taking drinking patterns into consideration.

    For now there is little evidence that drinking small to moderate amounts of alcohol on a regular basis increases one's risk of becoming too fat. What's more, a study three years ago suggested that a chemical found in grapes and red wine, destroys fat cells.

    Siri is an artificial intelligence (AI) that you can carry around in the pocket, where it waits patiently to be told what to do. In the week we spend together, my AI assistant has performed admirably in finding me restaurants, or the location of the nearest coffee shop.

    A typical command might be: “Reserve a table for two at a good French restaurant in San Francisco.” Siri responds by presenting a list of top-rated restaurants that can be booked on OpenTable.com. If you say which time you want, it can book you a table without your lifting a finger. In some ways Siri is just a fancy program to the 35 websites it can connect to, from taxi booking websites to movie review databases (数据库). But what's new is the way it can analyze the intentions of its users and use those sites to put them into action.

    Siri attaches possibilities to the explanation of each word and compare your location with other data, some of which you must provide yourself. To send email reminders, Siri obviously needs to know your email address. To “find me the flower shop closest to work”, it needs to know where you work. To pay bills or buy airline tickets, it would need to be linked to your credit card.

    That raises the question of how far we are willing to trust a piece of software that can go and do things for us based on what it “thinks” we mean. Siri may be simple, and always shows its explanation of a command before carrying it out. But it gives users a preview of a new balance between privacy, trust and convenience that the expansion of AI into everyday life is likely to develop.