【推荐1】Agriculture is playing an important part in the world. Now let’s have a look at some different methods of agriculture.

Traditional Agriculture

Most Canadian farmers focus on high productivity from a few main products, such as beef cattle, wheat crops, or greenhouse produce.     1    , although not as a primary resource. Crop rotation(轮流耕作) kills certain pests and keeps the land rich. In fact, traditional agriculture is main farming.

Organic Agriculture

It is growing popular. Farmers who focus on protecting the environment believe that a successful organic system begins with a healthy soil that develops healthy plants, farm animals and people.     2    , 1.7% of Canadian farms were proved organic in 2009.

The Natural Solution

It is from natural insect control. A bag is used to ship certain kinds of insects from the supplier to an organic farmer. Farmers avoid chemicals with natural methods, such as using insects to attack agricultural pests.     3    .

Genetic Engineering

    4    . The reasons include increased production and the convenient management of insects, diseases and wild grass. Genetically engineered crops account for most of the corn, and soybean plantings in Canada and the United States.

    5    .

Farmers who want to buy special seeds must sign an agreement with the seed supplier. One requirement is that the farmer shouldn’t keep seeds from the present year’s crop for planting in the following season.

【推荐2】A new study in the journal of Tourism Analysis shows frequent travelers are happier with their lives than people who don’t travel at all.

Chun-Chu Chen, an assistant professor at Washington State University, conducted a survey to find out why some individuals travel more frequently than others and whether or not travel and tourism experiences have a lasting effect on happiness and wellness.

Additionally, participants in the survey who reported regularly traveling at least 75 miles away from home also reported being about 7% happier when asked about their overall well-being than those who reported traveling very rarely or not at all. The results of his analysis show individuals who pay more attention to tourism-related information and frequently discuss their travel plans with friends are more likely to go on regular vacations than those who aren’t constantly thinking about their next trip.

“While things like work, family life and friends play a bigger role in overall reports of well-being, the accumulation (积累) of travel experiences does appear to have a small yet noticeable effect on self-reported life satisfaction,” Chen said.

Participants in the study were asked about the importance of travel in their lives, how much time they spent looking into and planning future vacations, and how many trips they went on over a year. They were also asked about their life satisfaction. Out of the 500 survey participants, a little over half reported going on more than four pleasure trips a year. Only 7% of respondents did not take any vacations.

As travel restriction (限制) due to COVID-19 pandemic begin to relax in the future, the research could have important effects on both tourists and the tourism industry. Based on the results of the study, Chen said travel companies, resorts and even airlines, could launch social media campaigns, such as creating signs about the scientific benefits of vacation, to spark people’s interest in discussing their opinions about travel.

【推荐3】China is recognized as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition systems. A Chinese company says it has created a new facial recognition system that can identify people even if they are wearing masks. Engineers at the Beijing-based company say their system is the first to be created to effectively identify people wearing face masks.

The company told a news agency that a team of 20 people built the system in about a month. The system is based on existing technologies developed over the past 10 years. The process involved adding a collection of about 6 million unmasked faces and a much smaller collection of masked faces, the company said.

The company is now selling two main kinds of products that use the new technology. One performs “single channel” recognition, which is designed to be used at the entrances to buildings. The other product is a “multi-channel” recognition system that uses groups of surveillance (监视) cameras. It can identify individuals in a crowd of up to 30 people within a second.

“When people are wearing a mask that covers the mouth and the nose, the recognition rate can reach about 95%, which can ensure that most people can be identified,” said Huang, vice president of the company. He added that the system’s success rate for people not wearing a mask is about 99.5%.

However, the new system struggles to identify people wearing both a mask and sunglasses. “In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost. In such cases recognition is tough,” Huang said.

People react to the new technology differently. While some citizens have been against using such tools, the majority have accepted the technology as an effective way to reduce crime and catch criminals.