【推荐2】Can you imagine there being a community where boys and girls growing up together can finally speak different languages? In Ubang Nigeria, it really happens. It’s not exactly clear what percentage of the words in the men’s and women’s languages are different, but there are enough examples to make sentences sound different when spoken by the opposite sex. For “clothing”, men use the word “nki”, while women say “ariga”; “kitchi” means tree for men, while women say “okweng”. These are not just some slight pronunciation differences, but totally different words. “It’s almost like two different lexicons (词汇集),” a language expert, Chi Chi Undle said. “There are a lot of words that men and women share in common, but there are others which are totally different depending on your sex. They don’t sound alike, and don’t have the same letters. They are completely different words.”

Interestingly, both men and women are able to understand each other perfectly in Ubang, as both boys and girls grow up around their parents and get to learn both languages, but by the age of 10, boys are expected to speak in the male tongue. It seems that there is a stage the male will reach and he discovers he is not using the rightful language. When he starts speaking the men’s language, you know the maturity is coming into him.

No one really knows how or why the double-language tradition of Ubang began. Chi Chi Undie believes the two languages are the result of a “double-sex culture” where men and women operate in two separate spheres (范围) and live in separate worlds that rarely come together. However, she admits this is a weak theory, as the double-sex culture is present in many parts of Africa, where there are no different languages for men and women.

Today, with English words constantly entering the lexicon of young Nigerians, Ubang’s two languages are in danger of being lost forever. Worse still, neither the male nor female language is written down, so they both rely on young people passing them down to the next generation.

【推荐3】Just under a decade ago, faced with a declining economy and rising oil prices, drivers were turning away from gas-powered vehicles and toward hybrid-electric cars (油电混合动力汽车) that promised, over time, to save them millions.

That was then, In recent years, as the economy recovered and gas prices dropped, so has demand for more-fuel-efficient cars. Electric cars and hybrids now make up less than 3% of new-car purchases, down from years past. Roughly 75% of Americas who traded in a hybrid or an electric car this year took home an all-gas car, an 11-point increase from 2015

At the same time, it's unreasonable to expect drivers to change their habits purely because of a sense of duty to build a better world. Buying a Toyota Camry, for example, would save its owner about $400 yearly in gas spending (vs. a similar-size all-gas vehicle). But it would also cost an extra $3000 in advance. For Americans, that payoff isn't worth the investment.

Automakers face this stalemate (僵局)? The government. Thanks to a set of regulations, automakers are required to keep improving their average fuel efficiencies to a certain degree, no matter how oil prices might change.

But starting a true green-car revolution will require more than fuel-efficiency standards. One solution, favored by some economists and environmental activists, is an increase in the gas tax, Which hasn't been raised since 1993. Others have suggested taxing carbon emission(排放), so people will rethink how they drive. In Norway, where drivers pay both fees, the electric cars from Tesla Motors have enjoyed a brief period as the country's top-selling vehicle.

Indeed, the best approach may well be to create the impossible: an electric car that actually offers more value than its gas-powered competitor. Many are trying, from Tesla to GM, which is releasing an inexpensive all-electric car this year. The future of driving is “not going to be determined by gas prices," says economist Jeff Sachs. “It's going to be determined by technology."

【推荐1】People climbing Mount Everest are two times as likely to reach the top and less likely to die on the climb than 20 years ago, a new study finds. Everest, high in the Himalayans, is the tallest mountain above sea level on Earth. It reaches 8,848 meters into the sky.

Between 2006 and 2019, around two thirds of climbers were successful in their attempt to reach the top. In the 15 years before that, only about one-third went all the way to the top.

The number of attempts to reach the top of Everest has risen sharply over the years, leading to a 300 percent increase in overcrowding. In 2019, 955 climbers tried to reach the mountaintop. Only 222 people did so in 2000.

The study noted that on a single day in May of last year, 396 climbers had gathered at the narrow path just below the top. The area, known as the “death zone,” is so narrow that only a small number of climbers can pass through, one directly behind another.

Nine climbers died on Everest in May 2019. It was the deadliest Everest climbing season since 2015 when an earthquake killed at least 18 people on the mountain.

A picture of climbers waiting their turn to go up and down through the death zone became famous as it was shared online. Yet researchers say the crowds were not the main reason for the deaths last year.

“Surprisingly crowding has no evident effect on success or death” of Everest climbers, the study said.

However, overcrowding does make the climb more dangerous.

“If crowding slows climbers (as is expected), this increases their exposure to the elements, which should increase risk of an accident or illness,” said Raymond B. Huey, lead writer of the report.

An unexpected storm, earthquake, or landslide could be disastrous, he told Reuters by email.

Climbers have expressed concern that was giving anyone willing to pay the government $11,000 permission to climb Everest. Nepal plans to change its policy to require climbers to use guides, and meet physical fitness and experience qualifications, said tourism department official Mira Acharya.

Nepal temporarily closed its mountains to climbers because of the coronavirus health crisis. Now they are open again. However, Acharya noted that flights into and within Nepal have not restarted.

More than 6,000 people have climbed Mount Everest since 1953, when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to reach the top. At least 311 climbers have died trying.

【推荐2】Sports fans around the world are struggling to reconcile with the sudden loss of American basketball icon Kobe Bryant. The 41-year-old died on January 26, 2020, when his private helicopter crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California — about 30 miles away from Los Angele. The crash also killed eight other passengers including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. The extremely heavy fog condition is believed to have been a major factor.

Bryant, who spent his entire 20-year-basketball career as a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, was born in Philadelphia. The basketball star, who decided to turn professional after graduating from high school, was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th overall pick, and then traded to the Lakers. At just 18 years old, he was the youngest player to be drafted in NBA history. The trade proved to be lucky for the Lakers. By his third year, Bryant had moved from being a reserve to the starting line-up. He had also firmly established himself as a star. In 2000, Bryant led the Lakers to their first NBA championship since 1988. The dream team continued to dominate the league for the next two years.

In addition to helping the Lakers win two additional NBA titles in 2009 and 2010, Bryant was also a member of the basketball team responsible for bringing home the Olympic Gold medals in 2008 and 2012. By the time he retired in 2016, the 18-time NBA All-Star had played a total of 1,560 games and scored an astounding 33,043 points — a record surpassed by only three players Kareem Abdul-Jabar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), and James (33,655) — in the NBA’s 73-year History.

Though there are many ways to honor Bryant, the best way to pay tribute to one of the greatest sports heroes of all time may be to follow his philosophy on life: “Life is too short to be discouraged. You have to keep moving. Put one foot in front of the other, smile, and just keep on rolling.”— Kobe Bryant, 2008.

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【推荐1】Why do people lie? Many psychologists agree that lying can start from childhood. There are various reasons why children make false statements. They usually tell untruthful stories to cover up the mistakes that they have done in the past. Lying is also a way to avoid receiving punishments from parents. If parents, fail to reprimand their children for making up false stories, then there is a possibility that they will continue to lie during their teenage years.

Teenagers lie because they want to be accepted by their friends. This is the main reason why they create stories that are not true just to become presentable and acceptable to other people. In some instances, teenagers tell untruthful statements to avoid criticisms from their families and friends.

As teenagers grow, lying becomes one of their habits. Their knowledge on making up untruthful stories becomes more developed. People lie in workplaces if they fail to meet the deadlines and if they fail to accomplish and do their tasks efficiently. Some of the common lies made in workplaces are getting sick and having emergencies at home. The danger involved in frequent lying is when it becomes a character. Frequent lying causes the development of the condition known to doctors as pathological lying.

Pathological lying is a mental health condition, which is associated with individuals who have the urge to tell untruthful statements. Patients suffering from it make up stories about everything and anything. These individuals pretend to meet the standards of other people who they want to please. These patients cheat other people because it gives them an unexplained pleasure. One of the best ways of treating pathological liars is to help them tell true statements and stories at all times. This may be hard for them, but as they are accustomed to it, they will start to realize that they will be more accepted by their families and other people if they stop themselves from making up false stories.

【推荐2】I still remember a lovely girl, though I don’t know her name.

We met in the Children’s Hospital. I was 11. I was born with a hole in my heart. So was the five-year-old girl in the bed beside me. We were both recovering from the same operation. Because I was older and wiser, I thought it was my job to look after her. “Do you want to hear a story?” I asked her one afternoon. “Great!” she said.

It was so easy to make her happy. She seemed always to be smiling or singing songs.

Life wasn’t fair. She passed away. My recovery went well. “You’re really lucky”, a nurse told me. “But how come my operation was so easy and hers wasn’t?” I asked. “Easy?” my dad said. “David, your operation wasn’t easy at all. we thought we were going to lose you. For two weeks after your operation many things could go wrong. You’re really lucky. When you were in the coma (昏迷), she used to come over to your bed and sing to you. She was watching over you.” my dad said.

My surgery scars (手术疤痕) are hidden under my shirt along with the memory of that kind little girl. She will be at my side like a small angel (hi). I am old and wise enough now to know that I have an angel watching over me whenever life is fair or unfair.

【推荐3】Facebook is a place where we share and celebrate memories with our friends and family. We post words and pictures honoring birthdays, anniversaries and weddings. We also show respect to the people we lost, and find sympathy and support among our friends.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, recently shared a moving post about her late husband, Dave Goldberg, on what would have been his 48th birthday.

“Today my family and friends and I mourn that he was taken away from us so suddenly and so young,” wrote Sandberg, 46, tagging Goldberg’s memorial page. “It has been a long 22 weeks, grappling moment to moment and day to day with the often overwhelming void (空虚) that his death has left in our lives.”

She shared photos of Goldberg—one from their wedding and the other of what appears to be him as a child. The Facebook manager went on to thank her family and friends for their ongoing support, and to praise her husband’s achievements as a father and CEO of the company Survey Monkey.

Sandberg said in a Facebook post back in June, in ceremony of the end of the first month for her husband’s death, “I was talking to a friend Phil about a father-child activity that Dave is not here to do. We came up with a plan to fill in for Dave. I cried to him, ‘ But I want Dave. He put his arm around me and said, ‘Option A is not available. So let’s just kick the shit out of option B.”