法国总统拟取消家庭作业

French President Fran?ois Hollande

plans to ban homework

French President Fran?ois Hollande vowed to end homework recently， but his rationale does not involve improving “la bonne vie” for Frances children.

Socialist Hollande worries that privileged children benefit from parental assistance on take-home assignments and that disadvantaged children do not. “An education program is， by definition， a societal program. Work should be done at school， rather than at home，” Hollande said at La Sorbonne in Paris.

Although students will likely celebrate the axing of homework， they might lament Hollandes plan extend the school week from 4 days to [412] days. Schools will dismiss children earlier than they already do most days and after lunchtime on the extra day， but the planned schedule is not without criticism.

“Its completely unrealistic，” said Valerie Marty， president of the national parents organization.

奧地利男子3.9万米

高空跳伞成功

Austrian breaks sound barrier in record space jump

Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner became the first man to break the sound barrier in a record-shattering， death-defying freefall jump Sunday from the edge of space. The 43-year-old leapt from a capsule more than 24 miles （39 kilometers） above the Earth， reaching a top speed of 833.9 miles per hour， or 1.24 times the speed of sound， according to organizers. “I think 20 tons have fallen from my shoulders. I prepared for this for seven years，" he told German-language ServusTV in Austria in his first interview after the leap.

美国打造星舰计划

The Starship project plans to transport humans beyond the solar system

A dramatic plan to transport humans beyond the solar system within 100 years today received the backing of former President Bill Clinton. The 100-year Starship project， which was set up with US military seed funding， plans to develop huge “starships” to send humans far into space. It has already received large amounts of funding.

The astronaut who became the first black woman in space in 1992 has been chosen to skipper the 100-year Starship project. “The 100-year Starship will make the capability of human travel beyond our solar system to another star a reality over the next 100 years，” she said.

苏格兰母女捡到

中国情侣七夕漂流瓶

Mandarin message in a bottle

wound up on a Scottish beach

A romantic message-in-a-bottle discovered by a mother and daughter at a Scottish beach has sparked a mystery about whether it could have travelled 5，000 miles across the seas from China.

Nicola MacFarlane and her daughter Lucy， from Portobello， near Edinburgh， were scouring Portobello Beach when they came across an old glass bottle sticking out of the sand containing a note inside written in Mandarin. The translated letter reads： “Da Hai： Ocean， I hope no-one will get this bottle， as we just wish you can hear our voice， and get your blessing. Today is the Chinese Valentines Day， we pray that our relationship will last forever and we will have a long happy life together.”

日本公司推移動语音翻译程序

Japan gets the phone call translator app

An app offering real-time translations is to allow people in Japan to speak to foreigners over the phone with both parties using their native tongue. NTT Docomo — the countrys biggest mobile network — will initially convert Japanese to English， Mandarin and Korean， with other languages to follow. It is the latest in a series of telephone conversation translators to launch in recent months.

Despite the ambitions of those involved in the nascent sector， one analyst questioned their chances of success. His suspicion was that it would not reliable enough to use the app for business purposes when you need to be really sure about what people said.