【推荐1】The Sidamo lark(西达莫歌百灵), discovered by scientists in 1968, is known only from a small area of southern Ethiopia. The bird is one of the most ancient types of larks known anywhere.

The Sidamo lark has brown feathers. Male and female Sidamo larks look alike. It calls with a series of quick and short sounds, typically heard as it flies high into the sky. The Sidamo lark has very special habitat requirements, having only been found in grassland with a few bushes. For thousands of years, both the wild animals and humans kept the grassland in good condition. This habitat is now being destroyed. Wild animals are too few to stop bushes growing, while growing agriculture is damaging the grassland. The Sidamo lark is thought to have a very small population now.

Sidamo lark could soon be the first bird in mainland Africa to die out since modern records began. Research has found that just a few hundred of the larks survive in Ethiopia. Unless action is taken to save it, the bird will disappear. It will be the first recorded bird dying out on the continent.

To save the bird from extinction, environmentalists have suggested the creation of small fields in which cattle could eat grass. This would stop damage to the grassland and protect the grass cover. Bushes should also be removed, while a limit should be placed on crops coming further into the bird’s habitat.

【推荐2】Consumers who want to help the environment can do so most effectively by reducing consumption. Wrapping paper alternatives can reduce the need for various resources to be consumed.    1    No matter what the gift is, there is a wrapping paper alternative to make the gift-giving experience even more special.

One extremely low-cost wrapping paper alternative is to use the Sunday comics. These are bright, colorful, and fun, and will probably be passed around and read as the receiver opens the gift. Children and adults alike will appreciate this attractive wrapping paper alternative. Clear cellophane (玻璃纸) can also be used over the comics newspaper.    2    

Re-used gift wrap, if not damaged, is another free wrapping paper alternative. Torn edges can be cut off and high-quality ribbon will last through many uses. Newsprint roll ends are often given away by newspaper offices and can be decorated with markers, paints, rubber stamps, or stickers.    3    With their permission, you can use their artwork as a wrapping paper alternative.

Any wrapping paper alternative can be made unique by adding decorations that are readily available.    4    Flowers, or stems of a fragrant plant add a special touch to the wrapped gift.

    5    For people with a lack of time or creativity, there are also commercial and available alternatives to gift wrap such as wrapping paper with recycled content or environment-friendly wrapping paper. A thoughtful consumer can wrap gifts in a variety of attractive ways without harming the environment.

【推荐1】Picture yourself driving down a city street. You go around a corner, and suddenly see something in the middle of the road ahead. What should you do? Of course, the answer depends on what that “something” is. A paper bag, or a lost shoe? You can drive right over it without a second thought. But if it’s some broken glass, you’ll certainly change the direction. In short, you’ll quickly determine the actions that best fit the situation — what humans call having “common sense”.

Human drivers aren’t the only ones who need common sense. Even the best of today’s self- driving cars are challenged by the object-in-the- road problem. When sensing something in the road, these self-driving cars will slow down suddenly and unexpectedly, causing the cars behind it to rear-end it. Rear-ending the front car by human drivers is the most common accident. Self-driving cars are no exception. The challenges for them probably won’t be solved by giving cars more training or clear rules for what to do in unusual situations. To be trustworthy, these cars need common sense: broad knowledge about the world and an ability to apply that knowledge in different situations.

Common sense is the knowledge that humans share — knowledge we are born with or learn by living in the world. That includes knowledge about the properties of objects, animals, other people and society in general, and the ability to flexibly apply this knowledge in new situations.

While we’ve made great progress in self- driving cars, the machine intelligence of our age remains unreliable. To create more general and trustworthy self-driving cars, we might need to design our machines to learn more like babies, instead of training them specifically for success against some standards. If we can find out how to get our machines to learn like babies, perhaps after some years of curiosity — driven, physical and social learning, they will finally become “teenagers” — ones who are sensible enough to be trusted with the car keys.

【推荐2】Reading and writing are essential to learning. In fact, a new study now shows that writing by hand may help kids learn and understand letters faster. It also may help kids learn to read more quickly. Published in Psychological Science, the study found that handwriting allowed participants to take in several components of new letters they learned, helping them to potentially process the information more effectively.

During the research, the participants, who were all adults, were divided into three different learning groups: a handwriting group, a group that watched videos, and a group that typed responses. Each group was then introduced to Arabic letters and then had to reproduce them in different ways. Those in the handwriting group wrote the letters with a pen and paper. The video group saw the letters on the screen and had to identify them. And the group with typed responses had to locate the letters on a keyboard. The individuals in the handwriting group learned the information more quickly.

While the test was performed on adults, researchers believe the results can apply to children’s ability to learn letters, identify them, and perhaps read earlier. Children learn by using different learning styles: seeing, hearing, moving or touching. The benefit of using handwriting with these learning methods is that it brings the methods of learning information to get her in a way that strengthens understanding. Dr Wiley notes that writing is not necessary to learn to read. But the ability to connect everything being learned about the letters can be beneficial as children become readers. And handwriting can play a part.

In fact, many experts agree that computers and digital learning can be used to improve the educational experience and not to replace handwriting and that writing should be a part of the curriculum. “We should stick with some form of written practice. That’s what the evidence really shows,” Dr Rapp concludes.