Since May 12, a computer virus named WannaCry has infected（感染）more than 300,000 computers in over 150 countries, according to Reuters.

WannaCry is spread by using a weakness in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Once the virus gets into the computer, it locks all the papers and asks the user for money to unlock them. At first, it asks for $300, but if the user doesn’t send the money in 72 hours, the price doubled, Papers are locked forever if the user doesn’t pay in seven days.

The virus has brought bad results. For example, in the UK, the virus left the country’s National Health Service in a mess. Some hospitals had to cancel patient appointments（预约）, reported The Telegraph. In China, the virus has hit thousands of computers, according to Qihoo 360. One of the most hard-hit groups in China were university users. Many students’ graduation papers were locked. They felt nervous and frightened. Also many gas stations were seriously hit, and the payment system didn’t work.

WanaCry is the latest example of the cyber security（网络安全）problem. Matthew Hickey(who set up the security company Hacker House) said, “The attack is not surprising. It shows that many organizations do not use updates（更新）fast enough.” According to a survey, nearly half of the people said, “ We are not satisfied with the way software updates work.”

As China Daily wrote, “We can’t completely protect our computers against these kinds of viruses, as this cat and mouse game will continue forever. The best choice for most users is to take care online and always install（安装）software updates.”

Feeling left out?

A reader wrote in to say that she was feeling lonely at break because her best friend wasn’t around. Here’s our advice to her, and to all kids who feel lonely sometimes.

It’s hard when a best friend isn’t around. Maybe because she moved to a different school or a different class. You may feel lonely at break or lunchtime. You want to have new friends. but how do you make them? Maybe it seems like everybody else already has their friends. But remember, there’s always room for more friends.

Start by looking around your classroom. Think about which kids you’d like to play with at break. Look for time to say hi to them, smile, and be friendly. Offer to share something or express your appreciation(欣赏)to them. Invite someone to play with you or say “Do you want to sit here?” in the lunchroom. When you’re at break, walk over to kids you want to play with. act friendly, and say “Hi，can l play, too?” or just join in. If you have trouble doing this or if you’re feeling shy, ask your teacher to help you make new friends. Teachers are usually pretty good at matching up friends. The best way to make friends is to be a friend. Be kind and friendly. Share and offer to help. Pretty soon, you’ll have one or two, even more new friends.

You might still miss that special best friend. But when you see each other, you can share something you didn’t have before she left. You can introduce her to your new friends.

  One day, Mr. Arnold was teaching a lesson, and things were going as normally as ever. He was explaining the story of human being to his pupils. He told them that, in the beginning, men were nomads (游牧); they never stayed in the same place for very long. Instead, they would travel about, here and there, in search of food, wherever it was to be found. And when the food ran out, they would move off somewhere else.

    He taught them about the invention of farming and keeping animals. This was an important discovery, because by learning to cultivate (耕作) the land, and care for animals, mankind would always have food steadily. It also meant that people could remain living in one place, and this made it easier to set about tasks that would take a long while to finish, like building towns, cities, and all that were in them. All the children were listening attracted by this story, until Lucy jumped up:

    "And if that was so important and improved everything so much, why are we nomads all over again, Mr. Arnold?"

    Mr. Arnold didn’t know what to say. Lucy was a very clever girl. He knew that she lived with her parents in a house, so she must know that her family were not nomads; so what did she mean?

    "We have all become nomads again,” continued Lucy, " The other day, outside the city, they were cutting the forest down. A while ago a fisherman told me how they fish. It's the same with everyone: when there's no more forest left, the foresters go elsewhere, and when the fish run out, the fishermen move on. That's what the nomads did, isn't it?

    The teacher nodded, thoughtfully. Really, Lucy was right. Mankind had turned into nomads. Instead of looking after the land in a way that we could be sure it would keep supplying our needs, we kept developing it until the land was bare. And then off we would go to the next place! The class spent the rest of the afternoon talking about what they could do to show how to be more civilized (文明的).

    The next day everyone attended class wearing a green T-shirt, with a message that said "I am not a nomad!"

    And, from then on, they set about showing that indeed they were not. Every time they knew they needed something, they made sure that they would get it using care and control. If they needed wood or paper, they would make sure that they got the recycled kind. They ordered their fish from fish farms, making sure that the fish they received were not too young and too small. They only used animals that were well cared for, and brought up on farms.

    And so, from their little town, those children managed to give up being nomads again, just as prehistoric men had done, so many thousands of years ago.

When talking about picking a right school, a mother and teacher gave some pieces of advice.

  In the latest issue(期) of Youth magazine, the mother shared the school advice she gave her daughters with young people across the country.

 “I’ve told my daughters many times that I don’t want them to choose a name,”the mother said.“I don’t want them to think, Oh ,I should go to these top schools. We live in a country with hundreds of excellent universities. So the first question is: what’s going to work for me?”

 “When it was time to prepare for picking school, nobody around me believed I could get into Xiamen University. But through hard work I finally made it,”she continued.”So, my second piece of advice is :believe in yourself, no matter what other people might say. Once your goal is set, you only need to try your best to make it come true.”

“The last piece of advice is not to be worried even if your dreams don’t come true. As I’ve said above, there are so many good universities out there. So it’s important for everybody to understand that you can always find a university that gives you a great education.”