My 20-year-old daughter, Allison, who has her own apartment in Philadelphia, sent me a text the other day: “I need socks and shampoo.” I laughed and texted back, “I need deodorant and coffee filters.” I had a fleeting thought that she was   (1)   asking me to pick some items for her, but I   (2)   to think she was playing a cell phone game. I   (3)   not to be a helicopter parent. My experience as a mother and professor has taught me that it won't    (4)  .

Instead, I prefer a more hands-off   (5)  . After Allison turned 18, I no longer had any    (6)   to know her work and life schedule.

But that’s not what I   (7)   at Drexel University where I teach. Most of my students talk to their   (8)   three times a day or more. One students’ mother called when she didn’t   (9)   from him for a few days. He was in the library so he   (10)  , “Hello.” She accused him of being drunk,   (11)   it was about10 a.m. on Tuesday, and   (12)   that he take a picture of himself holding a newspaper with that day’s   (13)   on it and send it to her.

I’ve always treated my students as independent beings, telling them on the first day of the new term that I will not   (14)   up on their missed classes or assignments. I am getting them to become independent thinkers and take responsibility for their   (15)  .

But their parents don’t   (16)   them like me. I know a mother who watches the surveillance cams (监控摄像) at her child's school for hours, hoping he will walk   (17)   the camera. However, my daughters only come to me with stuff that’s more   (18)   than a late-night pizza purchase, and I think that’s because I give them space.

Many parents try to find if their kids are   (19)   from them. But we have to learn to respect others’ privacy and independence,   (20)   when technology is so powerful. So I am going to do my best not to be a helicopter parent.

The habit－forming process within our brains is a three－step loop(回路). First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode(模式) and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop—cue, routine, reward—becomes more and more automatic. The cue and reward become intertwined(交织) until a powerful sense of anticipation and a desire appears. Eventually, a habit is born.

Habits arenˈt destiny. Habits can be ignored, changed, or replaced. But the reason why the discovery of the habit loop is so important is that it reveals a basic truth: When a habit appears, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or shifts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit—unless you find new routines—the pattern will unfold automatically.

  Habits never really disappear. Theyˈre encoded(嵌入) into the structures of our brain, and thatˈs a huge advantage for us, because it would be awful if we had to relearn how to drive after every vacation. The problem is that your brain canˈt tell the difference between bad and good habits, and so if you have a bad one, itˈs always lurking(蛰伏) there, waiting for the right cues and rewards.

This explains why itˈs so hard to create exercise habits, for instance, or change what we eat. Once we develop a routine of sitting on the sofa, rather than running, or snacking whenever we pass a doughnut box, those patterns always remain inside our heads. By the same rule, though, if we learn to create new neurological(神经系统的) routines that overpower those behaviours—if we take control of the habit loop—we can force those bad tendencies into the background. And_once_someone_creates_a_new_pattern,_studies_have_demonstrated,_going_for_a_jog_or_ignoring_the_doughnuts_becomes_as_automatic_as_any_other_habit.

Of course, those decisions are habitual, effortless. As long as your basal ganglia(基底核) is complete and the cues remain constant, the behaviours will occur unthinkingly. At the same time, however, the brainˈs dependence on automatic routines can be dangerous. Habits are often as much a curse as a benefit.

Spatial navigation(空间导航) relies on brain regions that are commonly affected by the early stages of Alzheimerˈs disease. Before severe and obvious memory problems set in and people are diagnosed with dementia(痴呆), they might report problems with finding their way around and frequently get lost in familiar neighbourhoods. In that early stage, however, it is difficult to know whether their damaged navigational skills are actually due to the disease or simply a part of normal aging—because we currently donˈt have a firm grasp on what “normal” is.

In their recent study, Spiers and his colleagues aimed to change that by establishing a common baseline for adultsˈ navigational skills, which naturally decline with age. For that, the researchers needed large numbers of people—hence the idea for crowdsourcing the experiment via a gaming APP that measures spatial navigation ability.

Navigating inside a game may not be exactly the same as finding oneˈs way in a real－world situation. But people are likely to use the same cognitive mechanisms(认知机制) in both situations.“If you are good at navigating, youˈll do well in the game. And if you are bad at finding your way out there, youˈll also struggle in the video game，”Spiers says, adding that their team still plans to compare the game performance with real－life performance in near future.

Since its launch in May, some 2.5 million healthy people have played Sea Hero Quest, making it one of the most impressive scientific experiments to date just by the sheer number of participants.“To my knowledge, never before has spatial navigation been quantified on such a large scale，”says Katherine Possin, an assistant professor of neuropsychology at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved with the research.

So far one of the main findings coming out of Sea Hero Quest is a simple linear decline with age: From the age 19 onward, spatial navigation steadily worsens from year to year. The 19－year－olds were able to remember their starting point and accurately hit it by shooting a flare(信号弹) back to that position 74 percent of the time. Those aged 75 succeeded only 46 percent of the time.

Another finding is that men appear to perform better than women on these specific tasks. Although this finding seems to fit with the long－held assumption that men are better navigators, rather it may reflect that males have more experience with games. The researchers tried to account for this possibility, yet still found a gender difference in performance. Spiers notes, however, that the games boys and girls play in early childhood—which could influence brain development and spatial skills—are much harder to account for.“The question is why. And we donˈt have an answer yet，”Spiers says.“We are really skimming the surface. Thereˈs so much data from everyone whoˈs played the game. We have two years of analysis ahead of us.”

 We all have found memories of taking a few lazy months off after the stress of A-levels. As we draw to the end of an academically and socially packed year, the idea of doing the same again is appealing.

But after graduation, there’ll be few occasions when we can enjoy such extended holidays, free to do as we wish. So now that summer has arrived, let’s take full advantage. It goes without saying that summer vacations are the perfect time to go traveling, especially if you avoid the pricey school holiday period.

Tickets go up greatly when you turn 26, so make the most of cheaper rates while you’re eligible. Finding a reliable company that won’t cheat you is extremely important, as is discovering a program that appeals to your own interests. There are plenty of websites where you can see other people’s recommendations.

Of course for most of us, money is tight—but to avoid overspending you can combine employment and adventure. Hannah Warn, a psychology student at the University of Winchester, is spending her summer at Camp America, an increasingly popular venture where British students enjoy a good time on a summer camp.

“Being thrown into something where I don’t really know what to expect is exciting.” she says.“It gives me a chance to experience being away from home in a different way.”

Those with a talent for languages might also consider working abroad as an au pair. The work may be challenging, but it’s a chance to involve yourself in a new culture while your employer pays most of the bill.

If you have an idea about the sort of career you’d like, getting work experience is wise. In many careers, graduating with only your degree to show for your three or four years just won’t make it. Send applications off early and to as many places as possible. Make sure you take a well-earned break this summer.

  The ancient Chinese game Go is considered one of the most complicated strategy games ever invented. Winning the game was seen as a test of human creativity. However, a piece of shocking news swept the world recently that a Google-developed program called AlphaGo — an artificial intelligence machine (AI) — defeated world top player, South Korean Lee Se-dol, 4-1.

    So what is next for AI and humanity?

    Some people have been arguing that AI is harmful to the human race. In 2014, US entrepreneur (企业家) Elon Musk said at a conference held at MIT that developing the technology is calling up a "demon". Similarly, in an interview with the BBC, UK scientist Stephen Hawking warned that the "development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race".

    So are we really about to live in the world shown in the Terminator sci-fi movies?

    "Not quite," answered The Economist. "After all, it's not hard to get a computer program to remember and produce facts. What is hard is getting computers to apply their knowledge to everyday situations. Many robots looked like young children learning to walk".

    "We take for granted things like balance and vision," Thomas Johnson, founder of Motion-Figures, a company that is bringing robotics and AI to toys, told the newspaper. "But for a robot, to walk up and down hills requires so many complicated decisions to be made in real time, and it's really difficult to do. "Or as The Economist put it:" We have a long way to go before AI's capabilities truly begin to approach the human brain."

    Meanwhile, John Mark off of the New York Times argued that researchers should build artificial intelligence that aims for "intelligence augmentation (增加)" (IA) in which computers make people more effective.

    "Our fate is in our own hands," he wrote. "Since technology depends on the values of its creator, we can make human choices that use technology to improve the world."

    Science has a lot of uses. It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up. Indeed science is so good at what it does that there’s always a temptation (诱惑) to drag it into problems where it may not be helpful. David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to resist the temptation.

Brooks gained fame for several books. His latest book The Social Animal, however, is more ambitious and serious than his earlier books. It is an attempt to deal with a set of weighty topics. The book focuses on big questions: What has science revealed about human nature? What are the sources of character? And why are some people happy and successful while others aren’t?

To answer these questions, Brooks surveys a wide range of disciplines. Considering this, you might expect the book to be a dry recitation (背诵) of facts. But Brooks has structured his book in an unorthodox (非常规的), and perhaps unfortunate way. Instead of introducing scientific theories, he tells a story, within which he tries to make his points, perhaps in order to keep the reader’s attention. So as Harold and Erica, the hero and heroine in his story, live through childhood, we hear about the science of child development and as they begin to date we hear about the theory of sexual attraction. Brooks carries this through to the death of one of his characters.

On the whole, Brooks’ story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discovers how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks’ attempt to translate his tale into science.

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