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Do you still remember the scene in the famous movie Titanic, directed by Cameron, where Jack was frozen to death in the icy cold water so that Rose could survive on the floating door alone? It broke many people's hearts. Two decades later, people are still asking the question, "wasn't there enough room on the door for both of them?" Cameron once responded by saying it wasn't a question of room, but buoyancy（浮力）— if both of them had tried to stay on the door, he argued, the whole thing would sink.

But several guys from "Mythbusters", an Australian-American science entertainment television program, decided to put the theory to the test themselves. They discovered that if Rose had took off her life jacket to the bottom of the door, there would have been enough buoyancy to keep both of them afloat.

"It was an artistic choice, the thing was just big enough to hold her, and not big enough to hold him," Cameron said. "I think it's all kind of silly, really, that we're having this discussion 20 years later. But it does show that the film was effective in making Jack so attractive to the audience that it hurts them to see him die. The film is about death and separation; he had to die. "

Since Jack was doomed to die, Cameron said, it could have happened in a variety of different ways. It's not about the door not being big enough: that's just a practical method for his death. "Whether it was that, or whether a chimney（烟囱）fell on him, he was going down," Cameron said. "It's called art: things happen for artistic reasons, not for physics reasons. "

About 20 years ago, while on the way to a student's house, Zhang Guimei, then a rural teacher in Huaping county, Lijiang, Yunnan province, noticed a girl sitting on the hillside. The girl, 13, told Zhang she was about to get married though she wanted to go to school. It was arranged by her parents.

Zhang went to her house and tried to persuade her parents to let the girl return to school and promised to pay for her tuition herself. However, they didn't agree. Zhang felt sorry for not being able to help. "We always say that each child should stand on the same starting line, but these girls didn't even have a chance to get on the track," Zhang said.

It persuaded Zhang to build a free high school for girls with the objective of helping break the cycle that saw women drop out of education, marry early and spend their whole life in the remote mountain. Zhang had spent years trying to raise funds, and in 2008, Huaping High School for Girls, a free public high school, was founded, where Zhang is the principal. Over the decades, Zhang has walked thousands of kilometers, visiting students' families in the deep mountain, talking to villagers, and persuading girls to go back to school. It has been worth it. More than 1,800 graduates have been admitted to college. It    is regarded as a "miracle" in the remote area, as most students didn't perform well in academic study before the school was established.

Though lacking full health, Zhang insists on a daily routine—get up around 5 a. m. to call students to get up with a loudspeaker, accompany students to classes and sleep after senior students' study ends at midnight. Zhang's husband died in the 1990s. She doesn't have children or a house, so she lives at the student dormitory. Besides girls in her school, Zhang also donates all her income to help rural education and poor people.

In early December, she was given the honor of the country's "role model for teachers" and "outstanding woman". Her commitment to her education career inspires thousands of people.

The life of the dog, Shelby, is a surprising story. The little dog went from living in garbage heaps (垃圾堆) to winning the hearts of moviegoers around the world. 

Shelby was first found near Nashville two years ago when Megan Buhler, a Cheatham County Animal Control officer, was patrolling (巡逻) nearby. He saw the poor dog searching for something to eat in the garbage. 

"There were lots of cars passing by — I mean, it was heavy traffic," Buhler said. "She was so scared when crossing the road, and finally came up to me for help. "

Shelby was then taken to a local animal centre where she was 1  , without the worry for food. Most importantly, the workers here took 2  of her smiling face to improve the 3  of her being taken home by people. However, they never expected this would put Shelby on the 4 . 

At that time in Hollywood, filmmakers were 5 for a new movie called A Dog's Way Home. They 6 to find a dog to play the leading role. So they asked Miller, a(n) 7 dog trainer who had trained dogs for years for help.

Miller 8  three dogs, but none of them stood out after some time of training. He then 9  the pictures of Shelby by accident from Cheatham County Animal Control and immediately became 10  to see it. It turned out that Shelby was 11  after three months of training. 

Since the film was put on, Shelby has been 12  for the way she carried humour and brought much 13  to people. 

Shelby is now taking a break in Tinsel Town. 14 , she's still winning hearts through her 15 . She serves as a treatment dog in hospitals and special needs schools.

Rwanda is a country in Africa. Last October, Mara, a company in Rwanda，opened a factory in Kigali to make the first smartphones built completely in Africa. A week later, Mara opened a second factory in Durban, a large city of South Africa. 

Africa already has some factories that put phones together out of a few large components (零件). But Mara is actually making phones from the lowest level. When it comes to creating complete smartphones, Mara is still at the early stage (阶段). 

Both factories have about 200 workers. In Kigali, that number is expected to grow to about 500. The Durban factory could one day have as many as 1，500 workers. The company says that about 60% of the two factories' workers are women.

Mara has started by making two types of smartphones. The Mara X sells for $130, and the more powerful Mara Z costs $190. That's a little more than most phones sold in Rwanda. But Mara hopes that people will spend a little bit more to have a better phone. About 15% of the people in Rwanda have smartphones. In South Africa, the number is around 36%. Mara believes that these numbers will keep growing. They hope that lots of new buyers will choose Mara phones because they're made in Africa.

Mara has opened many stores for selling its phones. But the company isn't just selling the phones in Rwanda and South Africa. So far, it has shipped its phones out to 41 other countries. The company has already produced tens of thousands of phones and believes that in the future it will be able to make several million phones each year. Mara hopes to open a third factory in Nigeria in the next few years.

A child plays many roles, such as friend, neighbour, son or daughter. Simply reminding children of that fact can lead to better problem-solving and more flexible(灵活的) thinking, finds a new research from Duke University. 

"This is some of the first research on reminding kids about their many roles," said lead author Sarah Gaither, a professor at Duke. "Such reminders improve their problem-solving skills and how flexibly they see their social worlds. "

In one experiment, Gaither and her workmates looked at 196 children, aged 6 and 7. All were native English speakers. The first group of children was reminded of their various identities, such as son, daughter, reader or helper. The second group of children was reminded of their many physical features. The rest of the children were reminded of other children's many roles, not their own.

All the children solved many tasks. The first group of children showed stronger problem-solving and creative thinking skills. For example, when shown pictures of a bear looking at a honey-filled beehive(蜂巢) high up in a tree, these children had more creative ideas for how the bear might get the honey, such as turning over a bowl as a seat. 

The second group of children also showed more flexible thinking about social groupings. When asked to group different photos of faces, they suggested many ways to do so. For example, they identified smiling faces VS unsmiling ones, and old faces VS young faces. The other children mainly grouped people's faces by race and gender.

"We often only think about ourselves in connection with one important group at a time," said Christopher Marlowe, a schoolmaster in Durham, North Carolina. "When we remind kids that they have various identities, they think more and remember that there are many other groups. They are more open-minded. "

Last year I went to the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, and it blew my mind. It had been my dream to attend the famous carnival for many years, so I was excited. However, the moment I arrived, I was a little bit nervous because there were so many people on the streets. They say that five or six million people come to Rio during carnival time and about two million of them are on the streets on any given day. Luckily, I had a local guide, my sisterˈs friend Ronnie. He said he would take care of me and show me all the highlights. He did not let me down. 

The carnival is most definitely all about the samba. Itˈs a style of music and dance which has its roots in Africa. Lots of Africans were used as slave labor by the Portuguese when Brazil was being colonized (殖民), so this mixed culture of African, Latin and European styles is really strong here. Samba music is usually fast and exciting with a lot of drums and harmonic vocals (和声). Itˈs the kind of music that you canˈt help dancing to, and I was learning that as I followed Ronnie through the crowd, my hips and shoulders were swinging (摇摆) almost involuntarily. 

Ronnie had got us tickets for the samba parade, the symbol of Brazilian culture, inside the Sambadrome where the top samba schools compete for the championship title, but we still had a long way to go through the street parties. He said most people enjoy the carnival by making their own parties in the street. About the samba parade, twelve main teams compete for the championship, and if they win, their performance will be talked about for years to come. So, you must be wondering how it was. Well, Iˈm afraid I canˈt tell you. Ronnie and I never made into the Sambadrome. We spent the day moving from one street party to another. There were more snacks, more drinks and lots of dancing. Do I regret missing the main parade? Not at all. I experienced the carnival like the locals, and it was truly amazing.