【推荐1】Reading is a very active process. You have to imagine a scene in your head and understand what the writer is trying to say.

Advantages of reading

    1     You will encounter new words while reading. If there are too many new words for you, then the level is too high and you should read something simpler. But if there are a maximum of five new words per page, you will learn them easily. You can guess the meaning from the rest of the text or use a dictionary.

A reading text can be a model for writing.    2       What you read show you structures and expressions which you can use later in your writing.

You can see “Correctly Structured” English while reading. When people write, they use “correct” English with a proper grammatical structure. This is not always true when people speak.    3    

Reading tips

Try to read at the right level. Read something understandable. If you need to stop every three words to consult a dictionary, you will soon be discouraged.

Build up your new vocabulary. If there are four or five new words on a page, write them in your vocabulary book.    4     Instead, try to guess their meanings as you read, then come back when you have finished reading to refer to a dictionary.

    5     For example, read for a short time once a day. Fifteen minutes every day is better than two hours every Sunday. Fix a time to read and keep to it. You could read for fifteen minutes before you go to bed, or after you get up, or at lunchtime.

【推荐2】Emotional intelligence helps us to better understand ourselves and others. It can help us make better decisions, ones that are in harmony with our true beliefs and values. But what does emotional intelligence look like in real life? In EQ Applied: The Real-World Guide to Emotional Intelligence, the author expresses his opinion on that.    1    Take a look, and see whether they describe your everyday habits.

You take your time.

You know that emotions and feelings are temporary and that making sudden decisions leads to regrets.    2    

You praise.

You look for the good in others. When you find it, you tell them what you appreciate and why. In doing so, you lift others up and bring out the best in them.

    3    

Nowadays, people often fail to keep an appointment-from a handshake deal to weekend plans. But you'd better try to keep your word in things big and small- and that helps build your reputation as both reliable and trustworthy.

You say sorry.

You're not afraid to apologize when you mess up. Sometimes, you even apologize when you're right because you value your relationship.

You forgive and forget.

    4    And if they refuse, you move on anyway-and prevent others from holding your emotions hostage.

You learn from mistakes.

No one can perfectly manage their emotions. But you work hard to learn from those mistakes-to study your own behavior and identify your triggers(起因).    5    

【推荐1】The team of researchers from the University of Lincoln, UK, is designing and building an app to help farmers in hot climates identify and record the spread of locusts(蝗虫) on their land.

By recognizing locusts through the smartphone’s camera, the app will be able to identify the stage of the insect's growth and record its location. This information can then be utilized so that the farmers can use pesticides(杀虫剂) more accurately in the early stages of their life time, greatly reducing the amount of crop damage.

This approach could also reduce remaining pesticide levels, leading to increased food safety while maintaining food security and protecting nearby water systems.

“Each year, approximately 18 million hectares of land are damaged by locusts, influencing hugely farmers and their productivity, explains Dr. Bashir Al-Diri from the School of Computer Science at the University of Lincoln.” Their monitoring techniques currently rely on field surveys by people through digging insect eggs, but this information only helps farmers to make mid and long-term forecasting decisions and can delay effective management measures. By digitally recording the exact number, age and location of locusts, we hope this new app will put more knowledge and more power into the hands of the farmers.

Dr. Al-Diri and his team of computer scientists work with the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology at the University of Lincoln, aiming to support and improve productivity, efficiency and farming through research, education and new technology.

With advanced technology, the developers hope that the app will also be used for a wide range in the future to capture and document information about the natural world. For example, it could easily be adapted to help individuals identify plant diseases or to digitally capture the number and type of birds and wildlife in specific locations as part of national and international surveys.

The universal use of technology has resulted in a constant current of information interrupting the "flow" of our life. This disturbing pattern was initially marketed as "call-waiting" for our phones. But now our eyes, ears, and fingers are glued to our technology24/7. We are flooded by emails, texts, or the news feeds on our Face book pages. My friend Ron refers to this technology as "weapons of mass distraction."

    1    According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation report, children from eight to eighteen spend an average of seven hours and thirty-eight minutes a day using entertainment media. In addition, a study published in the August 2010 issue Pediatrics found that exposure to screen media was associated with attention problems in a sale of 210 college students.

    2    . Dealing with a crowd of daily text messages and emails makes it difficult for us to be by ourselves when all that activity stops. Although a sense of loneliness is natural at times, our addiction to the nonstop interaction afforded by technology deepens that feeling when access to the technology is unexpectedly unavailable. Just think how you feel when you lack cell phone or web access. Is it possible that our obsession with continually checking our emails and text messages has contributed to our inability to genuinely relate with others and find enjoyment without constant stimulation?

Aside from the impact of technology on our attention and our ability to be at ease in the absence of our technology, let's examine how interacting with our devices interferes with the development of our fundamental communication and social skills. Many researchers observe that everyday conversation between human beings is becoming increasingly rare.

Many of today's children are growing up with a built-in dependence on devices, making it difficult for them to feel comfortable in everyday social situations.    3    .

Over time these children forget how to relate with each other because they have become habituated to using technology to avoid direct contact with others and life itself.    4    .

【推荐3】The fast spread of the virus has led most Chinese citizens to wear face masks in public to help reduce infections. The Beijing-based Hanwang Technology Ltd. says it has created a new facial recognition system that is the first to effectively identify people even if they are wearing masks.

China is recognized as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence and facial recognition system. The new system is based on the existing technologies developed over the past 10 years.

“When wearing a mask, the recognition rate can reach about 95 percent, which can ensure that most people can be identified,” Hanwang’s vice president, Huang Lei, said. He added that the system’s success rate for people not wearing a mask is about 99.5 percent. However, the new system struggles to identify people wearing both a mask and sunglasses. “In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost. In such cases recognition is tough,” Huang said.

Hanwang is now selling two main kinds of products that use the technology. One performs “single channel” recognition and the other is a “multi-channel” recognition, which can identify individuals in a crowd of up to 30 people “within a second”.

Huang said officials can use Hanwang’s technology to compare images with ministry (部门) records on individuals in order to identify and track people as they move about. The system can identify crime suspects (嫌疑人), terrorists or make reports or warnings, he added.

While some citizens have expressed doubt to such tools, more people seem to have accepted the methods as a way to deal with the current health emergency.

So far, Huang says most interest in the new system has come from within China. But he sees the interest likely expanding if the virus continues to spread and the use of face masks increases.