【推荐2】The automobile（汽车）has many advantages. Above all, it offers people freedom to go where they want to go, when they want to go there. The basic purpose of a motor vehicle is to get from point A to point B as cheaply, quickly, and safely as possible.

In addition, much of the world's economy is built on producing motor vehicles and supplying roads, services and repairs for those vehicles. Half of the world's paychecks are auto related. In the United States, one of every six dollars spent and one of every six nonfarm jobs are connected to the automobile or related industries, such as oil, steel, rubber, plastics, automobile services, and highway construction.

In spite of their advantages, motor vehicles have many harmful effects on human lives and on air, water, land, and wild life resources. Since Karl Benz built the first automobile, almost 18 million people have been killed by motor vehicles. In addition to the tragic loss of life, these accidents cost American society about $60 billion annually in lost income and in insurance, administrative, and legal expenses.

Los Angeles is a global symbol of urban sprawl（城市扩张）built around a vast network of freeways. An estimated one third of the city's total metropolitan（大都市的）area and two thirds of its downtown area are devoted to roads, parking lots and other automobile related uses. Each day, its network of streets and freeways is crowded with more than five million vehicles, which are responsible for 85% of both the air pollution and the noise in this urban area.

If present trends continue, U. S. motorists will spend an average of two years of their lifetimes in traffic jams. Streets that used to be for people are now for cars. Pedestrians and people riding bicycles in the streets are subjected to noise, pollution, stress, and danger.

Motor vehicles are the largest source of air pollution, producing a haze of smog over the world's cities. In the United States, they produce at least 50% of the country's air pollution.

【推荐1】Must-read Books that Are Hitting the Big Screen This Year

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

Starring: Jessica Chastain and Johan Heldenbergh

Release Date: July 31, 2017

This true story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Ackerman artfully retells the story of Jan and Zabinski and how they used their zoo to save over three hundred people from the Nazis. After their zoo was bombed, they managed to hide people in animal cages, giving animal names to their guests and human names to their animals. This is one story we truly hope lives up to the hope on film.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Starring: Sienna Miller and Robert Pattinson

Release Date: August 14,2017

Looking for adventure? This story is just what you need. The book(and film) tells the tale of British explorer Percy Fawcett and how he ventured into the Amazon jungle in 1925, never to return. It's an enchanting mystery that we can’t wait to see play out on screen.

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Starring: Richard Gere and Rebecca Hall

Release Date: October 5,2017

We always say we'd do absolutely anything for our kids, right? The story begins with two couples politely, eating dinner together, avoiding a conversation about their children who have committed a horrific act. As the story goes on, you'll see just how far these parents will go to protect the ones they love.

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Starring: Emma Watson and Patton Oswalt

Release Date: November 28,2017

A young woman, Mae, is hired to work for a powerful Internet company and Feels like she's hit the job jackpot. The facility is very advanced, lively, and a bit wild. Mae's story begins as one of ambition but soon turns into a heart-racing story of suspense.

【推荐2】What do you do in a situation like this? You’re eating dinner with friends at a nice restaurant. You’re having a great time when a phone rings at the table next to you. A man takes out his phone and starts talking loudly about problems he’s having with his girlfriend. He talks for almost ten minutes!    1    

Many people find cell phones useful in their daily lives. But we’ve all sat next to someone talking too loudly on a cell phone. You may want to tell the loudmouth to end the conversation, but let the management take care of those noisy customers.           2    Here are a few rules:

▪ Off means off!     3    If a sign says “turn off cell phones”, don’t use your phone.

▪     4     Speak softly and for a short time. Try to move away form other people.

▪ Lights off, phone off! Never make calls in a theater or at the movies.

▪     5     Talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous. And watch where you’re going when you’re walking down the streets and talking on the phone.

As more people use cell phones, things are only going to get worse. So, the next time you’re getting ready to make a call, stop and consider the people around you.

【推荐1】A long time ago, there was a seed and because it was only a seed, nobody noticed it. Thus, feeling inferior (低级的), the seed gave no importance to his existence (存在).

Then one day, a wind picked him up and threw him on an open field under the sun. Later, he was given rain. Years later he saw a traveler sitting by his side. "Thank you God for this. I really needed some rest," he heard the traveler say.

"What are you talking about?" the seed quickly asked. He thought the man was making fun of him. No one ever spoke to him like that.

"Who just spoke?" the shocked man asked.

"It is me. A seed."

"A seed?" The man looked at the big tree. "Are you joking? You are not a seed. You are a big tree!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Why else do you think people come here?"

"What do they come here for?"

"To feel your shade (树阴)! Don’t tell me you didn’t know you had grown over time."

A moment passed before the traveler’s words brought him pride.

The seed thought and smiled for the first time in his life. The years of torture (折磨) by the sun and the rain finally helped him grow up.

"Oh! That means I’m not a little seed anymore! I was actually born to make people feel comfortable. Wow! That’s great!"

【推荐2】The Vienna-based researchers showed that dogs will stop doing a simple task when not rewarded if another dog, which continues to be rewarded is present.

The experiment consisted of taking pairs of dogs and getting them to present a paw for a reward. On giving this “handshake” the dogs received a piece of food. One of the dogs was then asked to shake hands, but received no food. The other dog continued to get the food when it was asked to perform the task.

The dog without the reward quickly stopped doing the task, and showed signs of anger or stress when its partner was rewarded.

To make sure that the experiment was really showing the interaction between the dogs rather than just the frustration of not being rewarded, a similar experiment was conducted where the dogs performed the task without the partner. Here they continued to present the paw for much longer.

Dr. Frederike Range from the University of Vienna says this shows that it was the presence of the rewarded partner that was the greater influence on their behavior.

“The only difference is that one gets food and the other doesn’t. They are responding to being unequally rewarded.” she says.

The researchers say this kind of behavior, where one animal gets frustrated with what is happening with another, has only been observed in primates (灵长类) before.

Studies with various types of monkeys and chimpanzees show they react’ not only to seeing their partners receiving rewards when they are not, but also to the type of reward.

The dog study also looked at whether the type of reward made a difference. Dogs were given either bread or sausage, but seemed to react equally to either. Dr. Range says this may be because they have been trained.

【推荐3】Many years ago, my dad decided to volunteer at the local children hospital. My dad loved kids. It was the perfect job for him. He would talk to them and play with them and do arts and crafts with them.

There was a girl, Karen, who had been admitted with a rare disease that paralyzed (使麻痹) her from the neck down. She was very depressed (沮丧的). My dad decided to try to help her. He started visiting her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up against a backing, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn’t use his hands at all. Only his head would move. He would visit her whenever he could and paint for her, telling her, “See, you can do anything you set your mind to.”

At the end of the day, she began to paint using her mouth, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was discharged (允许出院) because the doctors felt there was nothing else they could do for her. Some time later, my dad was at the volunteer counter in the lobby (门厅) of the hospital when Karen came in. She ran straight over to my dad and hugged him really tight. She gave my dad a picture she had done using her hands. At the bottom it read “Thank you for helping me walk”.

My dad would cry every time he told us this story. He would say sometimes love is more powerful than doctors, and my dad who died just a few months after the little girl gave him the picture—loved every single child in that hospital.

【推荐1】Since the earliest times, trees have always been very useful and important to men who made use of them in a number of ways for their daily life. Even today trees continue to serve men in so many useful ways.

They supply men with food, fuel (燃料) for burning and building materials in the form of wood. Without trees it would be impossible to build houses, boats and even bridges. Furniture such as tables and chairs is also made of wood.

In the tropics (热带) where it is very warm throughout the year, trees protect men from the terrible heat of the sun. They are also useful in preventing good and fertile (肥沃的) top soil from being washed away during heavy rains which are so common in the tropics. If there were no trees or vegetables of some types to hold back the soil with their roots, heavy rains would wash away the rich surface soil so important for agriculture. The result is that the land becomes useless and unproductive.

There are many desert areas in the world. A long, long time ago these areas must have been rich, fertile areas too, but people in ancient times cut down trees without any plan. They never took the trouble to plant new trees. Strong winds bit by bit blew away the rich surface soil and in the end the land was turned into useless desert where nothing could grow.

【推荐2】The first thing you should know about Nightfood, a new “sleep-friendly” ice cream，is that it's a genius idea. There are certainly still some doubts whether it actually works. But many people have trouble sleeping, and many people love eating ice cream，and the possibility of cookies-and-cream-flavored Ambien (一种助眠药), even though that's not exactly how the product functions，is going to be irresistible to people with sleep problems everywhere.

“Part of me is like，I’m jealous I’m not part of this marketing programme,” said Raj Dasgupta，assistant professor of clinical medicine specializing in sleep at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. “They knew exactly how to appeal to customers.”

You could eat Nightfood any time of day without feeling sleepy，but the product is designed for sleep because surveys have shown one of the most common times people tuck into a pint of ice cream is at night, probably while watching Netflix. But can junk food really solve your sleep problems? Probably not, Dasgupta said.

The best way to improve your sleep is to practice good sleep hygiene: have a set bedtime and wake time every day，avoid caffeine and screens late at night, and, uh, do not eat within two hours of your bedtime. But our willpower fails us in the face of a “Russian Doll” binge with a pint of mint chocolate chip.

“They know no one is going to listen to this advice，so，might as well cater to (迎合) them,” Dasgupta said. Sugary snacks “are the no-no foods you don’t want someone to eat before bed. If they’re going to eat it anyway，I’d rather they grab the nutritious one rather than the Twinkie or the cupcake.”

And here's the thing： It actually tastes really good. Unlike other “functional” ice creams that boast of higher protein and lower sugar and fat, Nightfood uses real sugar — no alternative .sweeteners. There is milk and cream in it. It has fewer calories than your typical pint，but you would hardly know it from the texture or taste.

Nightfood is not the only sleep-friendly product on the market. There are also several carbonated sleep drinks, including Som and Neuro Sleep. They might help a bit, but Dasgupta cautions that sleep-promoting foods are not a cure-all.

“You’re not just going to start eating this food and get great sleep. There's other things that go into it, too,” like your overall health, stress level and the amount of time you spend aimlessly scrolling through Twitter in bed.

【推荐3】For years, business people in Western Europe were worried. They knew they could not compete against business from the U.S. The United States is much larger and had many more resources than any Western European countries.

Some European people realized that the European nations need to join together to help each other. If they could forget their language differences and the differences in customs, they might become strong competition against other countries.

In 1958, six of the European countries — Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany and Italy got together and decided to cooperate. They called their group the European Economic Community, or the Common Market. These countries agreed to join their resources together.

Within a few years, the European Economic Community had worked so well that its members were more prosperous than many other European nations. Soon, other nations began to realize the advantage of the Common Market. Today the Common Market includes most of the important countries in Western Europe. It is helping Western Europe to again take its place as a leader among the industrial nations of the world.