【推荐1】Children of all ages gathered in New York City recently for the International Toy fair. There were new, high-tech educational products. Toymakers are working to create these products for improving a child’s emotional(情感的) intelligence.

Companies showed off their products last week at New York Convention Center.

PleIQ is a set of plastic toy blocks. It uses visual（视觉的） reality technology to teach words, numbers and other things, Edison Durán directs the company that makes PleIQ. She showed people at the toy fair how virtual(虚拟的) images appear on the blocks when they are held in front of a camera, PleIQ has children act as teacher or guide.

On the other side of the convention center, Karen Hu from another company showed an educational robot called Woobo. The robot comes programmed with educational games and activities. Children use its touch screen face to get them started. Hu described how the robot can help a child who has autism (自闭症). “The child can communicate with Woobo and follow some of the instructions Woobo is giving because he thinks of this as a companion instead of a parent or someone else telling him to certain things.”

At the EQtainment stand，sales director Jonathan Erickson explained the company’s toys. “The purpose of all of our products is to develop emotional and social intelligence.” he said Erickson showed off a board game called “Q’s Race to the Top”. He said the game got his 4-year-old daughter to open up. “The biggest thing is her talking. And that’s the key of all this—getting her feelings expressed out. Like, ‘Hey, what does it feel like to be sad? Or how does it feel like to be happy?’”

It remains to be seen whether a game or toy can improve emotional intelligence. But toymakers are doing what they can to help parents in their efforts to raise well-rounded children.

【推荐2】Described as the world’s most environmentally friendly protein, Solein is made by applying electricity to water to release bubbles of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Living microbes(微生物) are then added to the liquid to feed on the carbon dioxide and hydrogen bubbles and produce the Solein, which is then dried to make the powder. It’s a natural fermentation(发酵) process similar to beer brewing. The dried Solein has a protein content of 50 percent and looks and tastes just like wheat flour.

“It is a completely new kind of food, a new kind of protein, different to all the food on the market todav in how it is produced as it does not need agriculture.” Dr Pasi Vinikka, the chief executive of Solar Foods told The Guardian. The process used to produce Solein — converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide to calories — is amazing, as the wonder food can be produced anywhere in the world. It’s also 10 times more energy-efficient per hectare than photosynthesis (光合作用), and 10 to 100 times more environment and climate-friendly in water use than animal or plant based food production.

“Solein also contains all the essential amino acids(氨基酸), but because it is produced using carbon dioxide and electricity, it does not require large amounts of land to produce,” the Solar Foods website explains. “Another unique characteristic of Solein is that it is able to take carbon directly from carbon dioxide without needing a source of sugar.”

While Solar Foods does not expect Solein to challenge conventional protein production methods in the next two decades, it does expect it to become a “new harvest” for humanity, which is significant considering so far we have only relied on plants and animals for sustenance. The Helsinki-based company plans to open its first Solein factory at the end of 2021 and scale up production to two billion meals per year by 2022.

【推荐3】A wireless charging room has been developed by scientists. It can deliver power through the air to any laptop, tablet or phone without the need for plugs or cables.

The new technology involves generating magnetic fields (磁场) over longer distances without also producing electrical fields that would prove harmful to any people or animals within the room, according to the team from the University of Tokyo.

The system, which has been tested in a single room but is still in its initial stage, can deliver up to 50 watts of power without exceeding (超过) current guidelines for human exposure to magnetic fields, the study authors explained. It could be used to charge any device with a wire coil fitted inside, similar to the system used with wireless charging pads currently in use—but without the pad. As well as removing charging cables from desks, it could allow for more devices to be fully robotized without the need for ports, plugs or cables.

To demonstrate the new system, they installed the unique Wireless charging equipment in a purpose-built aluminum “test room”. They then used it to power lamps, fans and mobile phones that drew current from anywhere in the room, regardless of where furniture or people had been placed.

Researchers didn’t say what the technology might cost because it is still very early in development and “years away” from being made available to the public. “This really ups the power of computing world—you could put a computer anywhere without ever having to worry about charging or plugging in,” said study coauthor Alanson Sample from the University of Michigan.

There are also medical applications, according to Sample, who said heart implants (植入) currently require a wire from the pump to run through the body and into a socket. “This could remove that,” the author said, adding it would act to reduce the risk of infection and improve patients’ quality of life by removing the wire completely.

【推荐1】Despite their popularity, only three of Jin Yong’s martial arts novels have been translated into English. But fans will soon get more from the writer as his most popular trilogy, named after the first of the three books, Legends of the Condor Heroes, is scheduled to hit bookstores in February.

Jin Yong is the pen name of Louis Cha. And the author, who lives in Hong Kong, is one of the best-selling Chinese authors alive. With regard to Jin Yong’s works this latest translation project is the most ambitious. The trilogy, written by Jin Yong in the 1950s and 60s, covers the Song Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, and features hundreds of characters.

According to the publishing house, Maclehose Press, the translated work will come in 12 volumes, including Legends of the Condor Heroes; Divine Condor, Errant Knight; and Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre.

Speaking of the project which she took up in 2012, Holmwood, a self-employed translator focusing on Chinese-English literary translations, says in an email interview: “It had to be Jin Yong then. It was the obvious place to start, not only because of the quality of his writing, but also because of his standing and reputation in Asia.”

Having studied history at the University of Oxford, Holmwood was determined to learn Chinese due to her previous trip to China. She then went to Taiwan Normal University for language training in 2,009. In a bookshop there, she saw a whole shelf dedicated to Jin Yong. She bought a copy of Jin Yong’s work—Lu Ding Ji (The Deer and the Cauldron), the longest of his novels. “What is a bigger challenge for the translator is making the original pace and excitement into English. It’s all about whether the English reader will be lured by the emotions and characters.”

It took five years for Holmwood to finish the translation of the first volume. As for why his works need to be translated, she says: “Many have considered Jin Yong’s world too foreign, too Chinese for an English-speaking readership.Impossible to translate.” “And yet this story of love, loyalty, honor and the power of the individual against successive corrupt (腐败的) governments and invading forces is as universal as any story could hope to be.” “The greatest loss that can occur in translation can only come from not translating it at all.”

【推荐2】For 18 years after her retirement, Deng Xiaolan volunteered to teach music in a rural village in Hebei province. Her inspirational teaching and the enthusiasm and talent of her pupils made the 44 children from Malan village and neighboring villages in Fuping county sing the Olympic anthem in Greek at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb 4.

Deng’s involvement with the rural children can be traced back to her parents. Her father Deng Tuo was the publisher of Jinchaji Daily, a newspaper which was based in Malan village in Fuping county, Hebei province, from 1939 to 1948. During the Japanese aggression, 19 Malan locals were killed for refusing to divulge information about the newspaper. Under the influence of her parents, who both had a passion for music, she learned the violin and singing when she was young. She joined the school band after entering Tsinghua University, and also taught her colleagues to play the violin after graduation.

In 2003, when Deng Xiaolan returned to the village to remember the persons who were killed by Japanese invaders, a group of local children also attended the ceremony. She wanted to sing a song together with the children in commemoration (纪念仪式), but none of the children knew the well-known songs she named.

“If the children couldn’t sing, then they wouldn’t know how to appreciate music. Life would be so pale if it doesn’t have music,” Deng said. “My parents lived and fought here when they were young, and they wanted the locals to live a happy life. So I thought if I had the chance, I must teach them to sing.”

Deng began to travel between Beijing and the village since 2004 to teach the children music. She collected instruments and also rebuilt the school houses by raising funds and using her own pension. As the children had no background in music, she had to teach them basic music theory.

Two years later, she established the Malan Band. Among more than 200 students taught by Deng, many left the mountainous village to receive university education, some of whom are studying art at university or have entered a career in art education.