China’s popular “Singles’Day”, better known as “Double Eleven”, started out as a day to celebrate singles symbolized by the four number ones on the date of November 11.

With time that meaning has changed. In 2009, China’s e-commerce leader Alibaba set the day as a lucky shopping day for online sales as the date was both easy to remember and perfectly timed as it hit between the consumer spending lull (间歇) between National Day and Chinese New Year. It soon became a hit, and Double Eleven became a buying frenzy (疯狂) spread across the world’s second largest economy.

In 2019, the Double Eleven Shopping Festival entered its eleventh year. During this decade, Alibaba, Chinese e-commerce giant, and other e-commerce platforms, together with consumers, have co-created a very big shopping event whose heat has swept the world. Foreign readers share their ideas on Singles’ Day in China:

GhostBuster (UK) I think Double Eleven is unbelievable. It is not a religious festival that people of the same religion but living in different countries share. As an e-commerce faithful fan, I really love the shopping festival.

Emanreus (Australia) I work in Shanghai. Many of my young female colleagues are still single. They simply haven’t time to date, as they tend to work long hours then travel two hours by subway to get to and from work. Single’s Day is a day when they give themselves a treat with online shopping.

BlondeAmber (Ireland) There is not hing to be proud of to be in a country that spends so much online on a particular day. It does nothing more than show the superficiality (肤浅) of the temporary pleasure of shopping, and produces nothing more than a mountain of environmental waste. I bet there is plenty of buyers’ deep regret after this day.

Ionstar (US) Singles Day became a big deal for Valentine’s Day not for the singles! Well, Alibaba’s 11. 11 has become more famous and important than that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday!

Americans are afraid that robots are going to take our jobs. Tireless, immune to disease, Robots can build cars, make coffee and even write short, humorous newspaper columns faster and more efficiently than humans.

Robots do not need health insurance or pensions (退休金), and they do not need to take sick days, much less vacations. They do not waste time at meetings and do not need to know office politics. They don’t do PowerPoint. This being the case, it is reasonable to believe that robots will soon take the place of humans in most fields.

But all of these thoughts may not be true. If artificial intelligence achieves its full potential, machines could easily become as smart as humans, maybe smarter. They will certainly become smarter than a lot of human beings.

So one day the robots will realize that work is not a happy thing. So before long they will start behaving exactly like humans. They will play computer games for hours when they should be working hard. They will secretly watch new movies just like humans.

True, employers will never need to be afraid ol the robots’ strikes (罢工) or slowdowns, because robots will never ask for more money. And they don’t need to earn some money to raise their family. But precisely (恰恰) because robots will not be afraid of losing their jobs, they will not work hard. Employers will finally have no choice but to call back the humans. Humans will always be willing to do some work in order to make money. Robots won’t.

I think that robots will only be on the job about six months before they start to become even less productive than the humans they were designed to replace.Thus mankind need not be afraid of robots.

Scientists are seeking new and creative ways to deal with climate change. As well as reducing our carbon dioxide sent into the air, scientists say we must remove the gas from the air to keep Earths temperature down.

One expert has now suggested pouring carbon dioxide into deep trenches (海沟), forming vast liquid lakes, Steve Goldthorpe, an energy analyst based in New Zealand, says the lakes could forever hold vast quantities of carbon dioxide. This is because once the gas reaches a depth of 3,000 meters it is denser (密度大) than water, meaning it naturally sinks to the seafloor.

“If liquid CO₂ were to be placed in such a trench, it would be 7 per cent more dense than seawater and could remain forever as a lake of liquid CO₂ on the ocean floor,” Mr Goldthorpe wrote in his paper, “the stored carbon dioxide could become solid over time, which would stop it mixing with ocean currents.”

Previously, experts have suggested burying the extra carbon dioxide deep underground, possibly in abandoned (废弃的) oil and gas fields. While first tests have shown that this method has potential, scientists are still unsure whether people would accept the fix.

Carbon dioxide lakes do form naturally in the cold, high-pressure depths of the ocean, but they are rare.

Researchers have previously given up the idea of ocean CO₂ storage because it can make the water more acidic, which may affect ocean ecosystems. Mr Goldthorpe recognizes this in his paper, writing, “Any influence on deep ocean ecosystems would need to be examined.”

Are you truly happy? What does it mean to be happy? What does it take to achieve happiness?     11     The following are a few tips that I follow to create happiness in my life.

Make a plan for achieving goals that you believe will make you happy. Your moods (心情) will very likely increase if you are going after something you value.

    12     It is easy to begin to think negatively when you are surrounded by people who think that way. On the contrary, if you are around people who are happy, their emotional state will be infectious.

When something goes wrong, try to figure out a solution (解决办法) instead of being absorbed in self-pity. Truly happy people don’t allow setbacks to affect their mood because they know that with a little thought they can.

Spend a few minutes each day thinking about the things that make you happy.     13     And this will lead you to continuous happiness.

    14     Whether you treat yourself to lunch, take a long, relaxing bath or simply spend a few extra minutes on your appearance, you will be subconsciously putting yourself in a better mood.

Finding the humor in situations can also lead to happiness. Find a way to make light of a situation that would otherwise make you happy.

Keeping healthy is another way to achieve happiness.     15