【推荐1】Some immigrants (外来移民) in the northeastern part of the US, Maine, are learning to lose their accents. They speak English fluently but have a difficult time being understood because they have heavy accents.

Nyirabahizi said she left her home and job in Rwanda two years ago, coming to America in hopes of a brighter future. She has a master’s degree in computer science and speaks English fluently. She said all of her classes in Rwanda were taught in English, but here she had to learn again because of her accent.

She attended a free class to reduce her accent with seven other students. The city of Portland conducted the class and Greenlaw was the teacher. She said immigrants who had reduced their accents had greater success at work. And they could communicate more easily with store workers, teachers, doctors and neighbors. “It’s a basic need to be understood,” Greenlaw told the newspaper, “It affects every part of their lives.”

Greenlaw began the class by telling students the 44 sounds of the English language. She told the students how the lips and jaws worked to form the sound. She told the students that some American English pronunciation rules didn’t make a lot of sense. But she said it was important to learn them if immigrants wanted to be understood by Americans.

Losing one’s accent is especially important for immigrants who live in Maine. More than 90 percent of the population of Maine are whites. Many people who live in Maine have not heard foreign accents except in movies or on televisions.

Greenlaw said some Mainers were impatient with people who spoke English with heavy accents. Her students said some Mainers ignored them or were unfriendly toward them because of their accents. They said this made them less likely to speak.

【推荐2】It is quite common for people to have high expectations of other people: much higher than they would for themselves. In fact, sometimes you will see someone criticize another person for doing the exact same behavior that they do. For example, a woman makes note that another mom has gained weight. Yet, this particular mother has gained weight herself. She seems to expect the other mother not to have gained weight, but does not have this expectation for herself. I feel this is a problem that could be holding people back from moving further in life. I have a few tips on how to expect more from yourself and less from other people.

First, you need to always remember that before you expect something out of somebody else, you need to have actually conquered this goal yourself. In fact, maybe try asking yourself, “Why do I even have this expectation of another person?”

Second, start taking a really good look at yourself. You may find what you are doing right now is below your level of expectation from yourself. Use the words. “What do I expect of myself, and what can I do to improve myself?” This will automatically help distract you from focusing on other people. Ultimately, you only have control over your own behavior and you have zero control over other people.

Lastly, the moment you feel you are disappointed because another person did not come through for you; literally say to yourself. “It’s not for me to have those expectations on that other person.” Just the act of letting yourself know in the moment that you’re not supposed to have high expectations of the other person will automatically help you as an individual stop feeling constant frustration, anger, and disappointment from those around you.

【推荐3】“Have a dream. Don’t be afraid to want something.” That’s the advice from Florence Bergeron, associate director of knowledge mobilization (动员) for the Students Commission of Canada. The group organized the country’s annual “Take Our Kids to Work Day” initiative on November 1.

Across Canada, ninth-grade students had the chance to visit the workplace of a parent, relative or friend. Bergeron said over 450,000 people participated this year.

The initiative began in 1994. “The principle was to bring their own children into the workplace so they could see what their parents were doing and prepare for taking on that same role,” Bergeron explained. The purpose of the day has changed over the years, as many kids now follow careers different from their parents’.

According to Dorota Peacock, who is the district coordinator for career education in the Surrey School District in British Columbia, the event is beneficial in various ways. “It’s valuable for exposing students to what people do in the adult workforce that they normally wouldn’t see,” Peacock said. “They get to ask questions and decide what’s interesting.”

Peacock added that students also learned what they were loath to do, which was just as valuable. That was the case for three ninth graders from Ecole Salish Secondary School in Surrey. Mia Kim, Rithi Murugaselvam, and Eljie Salimbagat said that they enjoyed visiting their parents’ workplaces, but realized that they, themselves, would likely follow different paths. Rithi,14, who visited a day care center where her mother worked, said that “much patience is required for working with kids.”

All three students agreed that learning to socialize is essential, no matter what career path you follow. “I learned that for a lot of jobs, you needed to learn how to communicate with others to be successful,” said Mia, 13.

Peacock hoped that the event inspired Canada’s ninth graders to have a deeper appreciation for their parents. “They are smart, productive people, and not just people who come home and help with homework and make meals,” Peacock said. “They’re an actual person in the world doing really cool things.”

【推荐1】China will accelerate law-making on making up for ecological damage, as the mechanism (机制) continues to prove its role in helping restore damaged environments across the country, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. From 2018 to 2021, authorities across the country handled about 11, 300 such cases, with compensation (补偿) amounting to almost 11.7 billion yuan.

The department showed statistics demonstrating the mechanism as effective in dealing with ecological and environmental damage.

It said that thanks to the compensation, over 36 million cubic meters of contaminated soil and 300 million cubic meters of polluted surface water have been treated. The mechanism has also helped restore over 61 million square meters of forest.

In a case exposed in late 2019, for instance, a paper company named Meili was found to have illegally dumped a large amount of thick, black waste from papermaking in the Tengger Desert. According to the ministry’s investigation, most of the pollutants were dumped from 2003 to 2007, polluted soil and groundwater, and damaging plants. In March 2021, after a third-party agency was brought in to assess the damage, a court in Zhongwei required the polluter to pay more than 198 million yuan in compensation in two stages.

In the first stage, Meili will pay about 44.2 million yuan to cover the cost to investigate andclean up the pollutants. The rest of the compensation will be used in the second stage to carry out compensatory restoration, groundwater monitoring and risk control in the area. In its statement, the department of law, regulation and standards also noted the remarkable progress the country has made in enhancing the institutions for the mechanism.

Bie Tao, director of the department, vowed further efforts to promote law-making for the mechanism. “Aside from striving to include ecological and environmental damage compensationinto the Environmental Protection Law and other relevant laws, we will also make efforts to promote research into a specific law for the mechanism,” he said.

【推荐1】Although it is a business not many are aware of, sidewalk robots are set to become an industry with annual sales of $ 1bn within a decade, estimates IDTechEx, a British firm of analysts. These four- or six-wheeled autonomous machines, usually the size of a suitcase, are already delivering groceries and other goods in America, China and Europe.

That puts them ahead of many driverless cars, buses and lorries being developed. Those bigger vehicles are held back not by technology but regulation, says Zehao Li of IDTechEx. This means having a “safety driver” on board ready to take over if there is a problem, which is hardly labor-saving.

For these larger vehicles regulators want to see safety systems thoroughly proved. But there are legal hurdles, too. In January Britain’s Law Commission, which reviews legislation, recommended that it should not be the person in the driver’s seat who faces appeals if a vehicle in autonomous mode crashes, but the manufacturer behind it.

Meanwhile, sidewalk robots are getting on with the job. Typically, these robots carry a few bags of groceries using a variety of sensors, including cameras, radar and GPS to navigate and avoid obstacles and people. Their progress can be monitored on a phone app, which also unlocks them for goods to be retrieved (检索). As they are small, move slowly and are “telemonitored” by people in a control room who can take over, authorities seem more willing to give them a green light.

Robotic versions which operate on roads are also appearing. Nuro,a Silicon Valley firm, makes one about the size of a small car that can carry 24 bags of groceries. It has frozen and heated cabinets for food and drinks. Udelv, also a Californian firm, is developing a larger type called Transporter to operate at highway speeds. Being much further along the road in earning their keep, these delivery bots are helping to pave the way for the time when bigger autonomous vehicles can join them.

【推荐2】Are men OK? Most likely, they’ll never tell you. Only 21% of men say they received emotional support from a friend within the past week, compared to 41% of women, according to a 2021 survey by the Survey Center on American Life. Similarly, just 25% of men say they’ve said “I love you” to a friend recently, as opposed to 49% of women.

It’s part of an “epidemic (流行病) of loneliness” that director Lukas Dhont says he wanted to explore in his new drama “Close”, which is Oscar-nominated (提名) for best foreign language film. It follows two close teen boys.

“Close” begins with Leo and Remi during summer vacation: running, biking and sleeping together in the peaceful Belgian countryside. They think nothing of their close connection — sharing beds at sleepovers or resting their heads on each other’s shoulders — until they return to middle school, where they are teased by their classmates. Consequently, Leo starts avoiding Remi and joins a hockey team. Remi, meanwhile, becomes deeply depressed.

“We live in this society that teaches young men to stop caring for trusty connections and be more distant with emotions,” Dhont says. There are all sorts of social standards that lead men and women in very different directions when it comes to friendship. Part of the problem is that young men are encouraged to build shoulder-to-shoulder friendships in team sports or group activities, rather than one-on-one relationships. Some parents might say if they’re watching their boys play a lot of sports and compete with another guy, that may be more typical. Whereas if they’re seeing them have long, private discussions, that would tend to go against gender (性别) expectations.

Hollywood “bromantic” comedies also tend to make light of male friendship, rather than give it the weight it deserves. But films like “Close” can help show young men positive examples of male friendship. “They need to have role models and actually see men being close with their friends,” Fager, a mental health expert says. If there are no examples around them of male love, and they are just told that close friendship with men is healthy and normal, the message won’t stick and the wound will last.”

【推荐3】Scientists have discovered a new behaviour among bumblebees that tricks plants into flowering early.

When lack of pollen, bumblebees will bite little by little on the leaves of flower-less plants. The damage seems to fool the plant into flowering, sometimes up to 30 days earlier than normal.

With their hairy appearance and special sounds, bumblebees are hard to miss in gardens all over the world. Their hairy bodies make them excellent pollinators for crops like tomatoes and blueberries. They are among the first bees to appear each year and work a long season.

But despite their key role, bumblebees, like many other pollinators have seen their numbers decline suddenly in recent decades. One recent study pointed to climate change, reporting that an increasing number of hot days in Europe and North America was raising local bumblebees extinction rates.

But researchers have now made a discovery about bumblebees that could have something to do with their long term survival. Scientists in Switzerland found that when the bumblebees were out of pollen, they started to bite on the leaves of plants that hadn't yet flowered. They used their mouths to cut clearly-shaped holes in the leaves. But the creatures didn't eat the material or use it in their nests.

The damaged plants responded by flowering earlier than normal- -in some cases up to 30 days ahead of schedule. Researchers also found that the bee damaged plants flowered 30 days earlier than undamaged plants and 25 days earlier than ones damaged by the scientists.

“I think everything that we've found is consistent with the idea that the bumblebees are damaging the plants and that that's an adaptation that brings flowers earlier and that benefits the bees,” said Dr Mark Mescher, one of the authors from ETH Zurich.