【推荐1】For the past six weeks, I have been lucky enough to visit schools and bookstores nationwide to meet young people and talk about my new book！

Through my experience, the most remarkable（引人注目的）thing is that wherever I am, kids tend to ask me the same kinds of questions. They always want to know why women's rights are so important. Besides, they always ask me what issue I most care about. From the bottom of my heart, this is my favorite question to get, because it's the one I tried to answer in my book. I tell them that there is something important that they should focus their attention on. That is where I think they can make a difference.

Once, a parent who came to my book signing brought a group of girls who were reading my book as part of their book club. They came to the signing with their copies of my book covered with tiny sticky notes. When I asked what the sticky notes were for, they told me that they marked each fact that they thought was really important with a note. Later that parent emailed me a video of the girls talking about the later chapters（章）of my book. I have to admit, that video made me smile.

I didn't necessarily mean to shock readers, but I did hope that reading these facts would inspire them to make a difference in their families, their communities and the world around them. And because of readers like those girls and their book club, I am posting this Call to Action video. Facts and information are incredibly important, but they're just the beginning. Like the words on the cover of my book, the world belongs to each of us, and once we're informed and inspired, it's time to get going!

I hope after you watch this video, you'll think about what issue you care most about and then you' ll encourage all the kids in your life to do the same. With a little information, every kid can make a difference, and every kid can answer the question: It's your world—what will you do?

【推荐3】If you look for a book as a present for a child, you will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books, which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.

Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children. According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all. In 2003, 35% did. And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.

Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computer games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile. Either way, Chancellor Gordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class. In his pre-budget report, he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.

Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds, who receive four months of individual daily half- hour classes with a specially trained teacher. An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress, and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.

International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well, but read less – often for fun than those elsewhere. Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success. According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage.

【推荐1】Microplastics are everywhere in our environment. It’s hardly surprising that the tiny fragments have also been found in the human body. A new study shows that Americans are consuming as many as 121,000 particles each year.

Measuring 50 to 500 microns in length, microplastics come from a variety of sources, including large plastics that break down into smaller and smaller pieces. Therefore, much remains unknown about the common existence of these materials within the human body, as well as the impact on human health.

Hoping to fill in some of these gaps, a research team, led by Kieran Cox, a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Victoria, looked at 26 papers assessing the number of microplastics in commonly consumed food items, among which are seafood, sugar, salt, honey, alcohol and water. The team also evaluated the potential consumption of microplastics through inhalation (吸入) using previously reported data on microplastic concentrations in the air and the Environmental Protection Agency’s data on respiration rates. Based on these data, the researchers calculated that our annual consumption of microplastics via foods and drinks ranges from 39,000 to 52,000 particles. When microplastics taken in through inhalation are taken into account, the range jumps to between 74,000 and 121,000 particles per year.

The authors of the study found that people who drink exclusively from plastic water bottles absorb additional 90,000 microplastics each year, compared with 4,000 among those who only consume tap water. “This shows that small decisions, over the course of a year, really matter and have an impact.” Cox says. The new study, according to its authors, was the first to investigate “the accumulative human exposure to microplastics”. But in all likelihood, the research tells only a small part of the entire story. Collectively, the foods and drinks that the researchers analyzed represent 15 percent of Americans’ caloric intake. The team could not account for food groups like fruits, vegetables and grain because there simply is not enough data on their microplastic content.

For those who worried about microplastic consumption, cutting down bottled water is a good place to start. But for the heart of the problem, we have to stop producing and using so many plastics.

【推荐2】Humans have sailed the oceans’ surfaces for millennia (千年), but their depths remain effectively uncharted. Only about a quarter of the seafloor has been mapped at high resolution. Maps of most regions display only approximate depths and often miss entire underwater mountains or canyons (峡谷).

So a group of researchers has recruited some deep-diving experts: Elephant Seals and Weddell Seals. Scientists have been placing trackers on these blubbery marine mammals around Antarctica for years, gathering data on ocean temperature and salinity. For a new study, the researchers compared these dives’ location and depth data with some of the less detailed seafloor maps. They spotted places where the seals dove deeper than should have been possible according to the maps-meaning the existing depth estimates were inaccurate.

In eastern Antarctica’s Vincennes Bay, the diving seals helped the scientists find a large, hidden underwater canyon. An Australian research ship called the RSV Nuyina later measured the canyon’s exact depth using sonar, and the researchers have proposed naming their find the Mirounga-Nuyina Canyon — honoring both the ship and the involved Elephant Seals, genus (动植物的属) Mirounga.

But seals can’t map the entire ocean floor. The trackers used in the study could pinpoint a seal’s geographical location only within about 1.5miles. Plus, because the seals don’t always dive to the bottom of the ocean, they can reveal only where the bottom is deeper than in existing maps — not shallower. McMahon notes that scientists could improve on these data by using more precise GPS trackers and analyzing the seals’ diving patterns to determine whether they have reached the seafloor or simply stopped descending.

The current seal-dive data can still be valuable for an important task, says Anna Wåhlin, an oceanographer. The deep ocean around Antarctica is warmer than the frigid waters at the surface, and seafloor canyons can allow that warmer water to flow to the ice along the continent’s coast, Wåhlin explains. To predict how Antarctica’s ice will melt, scientists will need to know where those canyons are and how deep they go.

【推荐3】Siri is a virtual assistant, applied to electronic devices with the ability to recognize humans' speech, answer questions, make recommendations and so on. Ask Siri if she's a woman. Go ahead; ask about her gender. She'll tell you that she' s "genderless". So are many other virtual assistants. But, man, do they ever sound a lot like women? Yes. Culturally, we think of them as ladies, too.

If we advocate gender diversity in other areas of daily life, why does our tech sound so female? It would be easy to blame male designers. Perhaps it's influenced by science fiction. But the biggest reason rests in social science. “Research indicates there's likely to be greater acceptance of female speech,” says Karl MacDorman, an associate professor at Indiana University who specializes in human-computer communication. MacDorman and his team played male and female voices to people of both genders, and then asked them to identify which they preferred. They reported that both women and men said male voices sounded seemingly indifferent, in comparison.

Why do we have such prejudice? Stanford University communication professor Clifford Nass says that people tend to consider female voices to be helpful for them to solve their problems by themselves, while they view male voices as those from authority figures who tell them the answers to their problems.

This finding suggests that companies will make a better impression on a broader group of customers with a woman's voice — but not just any voice. It has to be based on a brand's personality. Greg Pal, vice president of business development at Nuance Communications, Inc. insists that some brands choose male speakers. He turned on his iPhone and pulled up the Domino's Pizza app, which has an assistant, Dom. He sounded like his high school English teacher — educated. That's right for a brand attempting to appeal to guys ordering pies before the big game.

As voice technology improves, though, designers say diversity will too. Many devices already let you customize a voice interface (界面). Siri can become a sir as you want it — if you take the time to reprogram it.

【推荐1】There are some special traditions（传统）in Hawaii. People are very friendly and always welcome visitors. They give visitors a lei, a long necklace of beautiful fresh flowers. Men wear bright flowered shirts, and women often wear long flowered dresses. There are traditional Chinese, Japanese and Philippines Holidays and all the holidays from the United States. They call Hawaii the Aloha State. Aloha means both hello and goodbye. It also means I love you.

Usually when people from different countries, races and traditions live together, there are serious problems. There are a few problems in Hawaii, but, in general, people have learned to live together in peace.

Hawaiians get most of their money from visitors, and most of the visitors come from the mainland and from Japan. There are so many people living in Hawaii now that there are residential areas（住宅区）where there used to be farms. Some of the big sugar and apple companies have moved to the Philippines, where they do not have to pay workers as much money. The families of the first people who came from the U. S. mainland own the important banks and companies. Japanese are also buying or starting businesses.

【推荐3】With COVID-19 outbreaks at different stages around the world, in many countries lockdowns(封城)are being carefully eased off while urging citizens to keep on practicing the social distancing rules. Singapore is trying a new way of carrying it out—a robot dog.

The government has arranged Spot, a yellow and black robotic dog made by Boston Dynamics Company, at one local park. The same robot has ever been seen dancing to hit song “Uptown Funk” before. However, 2020 is an extremely difficult year and the company is trying to assist the national coronavirus-control effort. In turn, the job has been handed over to Spot.

The four-legged robot dog patrols(巡查)the park and broadcasts a pre-recorded message to encourage visitors to observe safe distancing measures. As it walks around the park, the dog says in a female voice, “Let’s keep Singapore healthy. For your own safety and for those around you, please stand at least one meter apart. Thank you.”

Spot is one of the world’s most advanced robots and unlike wheeled robots, it is capable of going pretty much anywhere. The dog can go and can walk up to three miles per hour over different areas, making it ideal for operation in public parks and gardens. Furthermore, it is remotely controlled and has cameras with 360-degree vision and analytic tools to scan the surroundings and help officials estimate the number of people gathering in the park.   

For now, the project is currently set to run in a limited trial for two weeks at one park during off-peak(非高峰)hours. But if all goes well, authorities will consider expanding the program to improve enforcement(强制) of social distance throughout on Singapore.

Spot is also being used in other ways during the public health crisis beyond just patrolling a park. The government says it’s also using Spot in another capacity—at a local isolation facility where the robot helps bring medicine to patients.