The critics’ top four books of 2018 are based on Christmas selections in national newspapers, the London Evening Standard, The TLS, The Spectator and the New Statesman.

Normal People by Sally Rooney     Faber £14.99

Sally Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations with Friends, was one of last year’s most talked-about books. The response to the Irish writer’s follow-up has, if anything, been even more ecstatic. The 27-year-old was praised for her ability to convey subtle modulations of emotion. The novel was long listed for the Man Booker Prize — but many felt that it should have done better.

Vietnam by Max Hastings   William Collins £30

This long-awaited historical blockbuster follows the Vietnam War over three decades. from the French “dirty war” of 1946—54 to America’s capitulation to the Vietcong in 1975. Hastings, who reported from the battlefield in Vietnam as a young British journalist, was praised for his encyclopedic knowledge of the conflict.

The Silence of the Girls     by Pat Barker   Hamish Hamilton £18.99

Pat Barker’s novel is a retelling of The lliad — but with women at the heart of the action. The central character is Briseis, who appears only glancingly in Homers original. Best-known for her First World War Set Regeneration trilogy (1997). Barker, in her fifties, again focuses on the traumas of war. Reviewers praised the novel’s subversive energy even if it was judged conventional in places.

A Certain Idea of France    by Julian Jackson   Allen Lane £35

This door-stopping biography by British historian Julian Jackson — born in 1954 chronicles the life of Charles de Gaulle who is regarded as one of the greatest ever Frenchmen. While acknowledging that de Gaulle wasn’t very likeable, Jackson salutes his imagination and boldness- qualities that helped him steer France through its liberation from the Nazis and the war in Algeria. Critics suggested it would become the standard biography.

In Australia, the bilby (兔耳袋狸) project is seen as an important part in protecting the nation’s wildlife. Bilbies are known for their long ears and large back legs. They usually sleep during the day, and are awake at night. They look a lot like rabbits and grow to about 2.5 kilograms.

For the first time in 2018, bilbies are running wild in Southeastern Australia. The small animals were once widespread across much of Australia, but were last observed in the wild in New South Wales state in 1912. Every year bilby populations continue to decrease. Wildlife experts are afraid that the bilby, a small marsupial, could eventually disappear forever, either because of land clearing or fires. Another reason is a threat from cats and foxes, which hunt down and kill bilbies.

In northern New South Wales state, environmentalists are celebrating what they are calling a historic moment. Thirty bilbies from a captive breeding program have been released into a large predator-free enclosed area north of Sydney. Without the protection of a 32-kilometer fence, experts say the animals probably would not survive.

Tim Allard heads the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, which is involved in the project. He says the release of these beloved animals is a big deal. “There are some remaining wild bilby populations, but they get predated upon heavily by feral cats and foxes. Bilbies only really survive behind fenced areas.” Allard said the point of doing this project is to return the countryside to what it used to be before Europeans arrived. “So in the not-too-distant future, you will be able to go inside the fenced areas and it will be like stepping back before Europeans turned up,” he said.

That the success of humans as a species depends to a large extent on our ability to cooperate in groups is widely believed. Much more so than any other animal, people are able to coordinate and join their forces and actions to produce mutual benefits.

New research involving Dr Molleman, an expert at the University of Nottingham, suggests that successful cooperation in groups depends on how people gather information about their peers, and how they base their cooperative decisions on it.

Biologists wonder how cooperation could have developed by natural selection: it is puzzling how cooperation can be beneficial when it is possible to behave selfishly and take advantage of the cooperative efforts of your group. Psychologists and economists try hard to understand why many people are willing to sacrifice their own welfare to benefit their social environment. They asked questions like “How do people make decisions when their actions can affect the welfare of others?” “How people determine their behavior when they have to cooperate in groups?”.

Dr Pieter Van Den Berg from the University of Groningen said, “From previous research we know that some people are ‘majority-oriented (以……为中心)’ and tend to look at the behavior of the majority in their group, whereas others are ‘success-oriented’ and try to find out what kind of behavior pays off best for themselves.”

Dr Molleman, from the center of the Decision Research and Experimental Economics, said, “It turns out that behavior in groups of success-oriented people was much more selfish than it in groups of majority-oriented people. As a consequence, the people in the majority-oriented groups tended to cam more money in the experiment since they cooperated more.”

Stephen Hawking’s final fear was that DNA manipulation would lead to a master race of superhumans. The physicist, who died aged 76 in March, 2018, thought the development could destroy the rest of human beings. His last prediction is revealed in a new book of his collected articles and essays called Brief Answers to Big Questions.

Hawking feared rich people would soon be able to edit their children’s DNA to improve attributes like memory and disease immunity. And he said that would pose a crisis for the rest of the world even if politicians tried to illegalize the practice. In an extract (摘录) published by The Sunday Times, he wrote: “I am sure that during this century people will discover how to modify both intelligence and instincts such as aggression. “Laws will probably be passed against genetic engineering with humans. But some people won’t be able to resist the temptation to improve human characteristics, such as memory, resistance to disease and length of life.” And he said that would cause huge problems for humans who have not undergone the same process, leaving them unable to compete. The professor even warned it could lead to the extinction of humanity as we know it. He said of normal humans: “Presumably they will die out, or become unimportant. Instead, there will be a race of self-designing beings who are improving at an ever-increasing rate.” The Brief History of Time author also refers to techniques like Crispr, which enables scientists to modify harmful genes and add in others. And although such procedures could be a boost for medical science, some critics are worried that they could cause a eugenics-style (优生方式) movement, where the weak are weeded out of society.

The new book, published by Hodder & Stoughton on Tuesday, also collects his writings on what he thought were the big questions facing science and wider society. In it, he examines whether aliens exist, colonize space and whether humans will ever go beyond our Solar System.

5 ways to focus your mind

1.Focus with a purpose

The mistake most people make is lacking a clear purpose -they want to be more focused, but don’t know what for. Avoidance is the mother of distraction. If you don’t have a concrete reason to stay focused, your mind will jump from one thing to another. Training your mind to pay attention requires something to focus on.     36    . When you don’t have a purpose, it’s easier to get distracted. Conversely, having a clear ‘why’ will help you stay focused.

2.Solve a real problem

Most of the times, we are doing meaningless work. We jump from one task to another without accomplishing anything. We end solving the wrong problem and lose our focus. You have to decide what your priorities are—focus on what will advance your daily, weekly or monthly goals. Learn to say no to the rest.     37    . Those who lack focus are busy fighting urgent, but irrelevant fires.

3.Eliminate(消除) other options

    38    , it’s harder to get distracted, Create rules where you can’t start a new activity until you finished another one first. For example, in a good day, Pink leaves his office at 10-10:30. On a bad day, he might stay ‘disconnected’ until 2 or 3 PM. When you climinate all options, it’s easier to focus on the only thing that’s left.

4.    39    .

When your work and your mental state are not aligned (使结盟), they create an emotional dissonance. Focusing is hard, Dealing with this stressful feeling becomes an additional distraction. Adapting your work to your mental state increases your focus. Learn to understand the types of work you do and align them with your mental states.

5.Set deadlines

Deadlines are more than bringing your goals to life. Yes, committing to a specific date increases your chances to achieve an objective. However, the power of deadlines lies in creating a constraint. Limitations benefit both creativity and productivity—by challenging ourselves, we increase our focus.     40    .

I did my first wing-walk two years ago, on my 86 birthday. Then last June, aged 88, I did it again and _______ my own record as the world’s oldest _______ wing-walker.

There was something about being strapped (捆扎) to the _______ of a bright-yellow 1944 Boeing-Stearman that _______ my imagination. It’s very exciting. The first experience was nothing but tame. This year, I said to the _______, “Can you make it a bit more adventuresome? ” He said, “I could do a loop-the-loop (翻筋斗) if you like?”

This time, he _______ doing half a loop which was very effective. You go down a bit, then straight up. All I felt was a bit _______, because it was windy. But you are _______ strapped. The pilot makes sure everything is _______. I had gloves on, earplugs and lots of layers, which protected me.

Both times, we __________ from Gloucestershire Airport and were in the air for 15 minutes. You don’t sit on the wing—you sit on __________ looks like a chair. I wasn’t nervous. But when you look at the propellers (螺旋桨), you do feel a little strange. You’re __________ at the beginning that it’s a __________ dangerous activity and things could go wrong. However, I said: “Well, at 88 what does it   __________? You ve got to go sometime and you might as well go in a flame of __________.”

At my age, a lot of people are __________ in their ways. I don’t think any of my __________ from my retirement home wants to __________ me. I imagine most of them think I’m __________ as a woman. But I do think people of my age should be doing more   __________ things. You shouldn’t sit back and feel sorry for yourself.

There is a small but growing movement in America of many     61     ( family) that want to reduce waste to zero.     62       (they) goal of producing no trash is probably impossible to reach. Some come close, reducing a year’s worth of trash to only a few things     63     can fit into a small container. All other things, they say, can be recycled or composted.

Zero Wasters, as they are called, help each other by sharing advice on blogs and social media. A lot of people have given     64     (value) advice on the subject recently. Some of the advice includes where to buy things     65     (avoid) unwanted packaging and how to recycle things that most people throw away.

Bea Johnson, a housewife, says that reducing shopping means her family has more money for fun vacations     66     ever before. She, who is     67     (satisfy) with the fact, says all their clothing comes from used clothing stores. She says that has reduced her household spending     68     40 percent.

Zero Wasters advocate     69     (talk) about five “r’s” that describe want they do: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot. They request that things like remaining food not     70     (throw) away randomly and refuse containers at restaurants.

2.只允许修改10处,多者(从第11处起)不计分。

Mobile payment is serving for people widely in China. The cashless trend had never been more popular. With the widespread use of mobile payment, WeChat and Alipay are two of the most convenient and safe ways to pay. People rarely need to carry a wallet and cash at all. They are used to paying by scan QR codes. When consuming, as result, people will never worry about the consequence which they may get fake notes. Besides, people can often get discounts if we make mobile payments. Mobile payment is winning over plenty of consumer with its convenience. So far mobile payment has great changed people’s life in China.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua