【推荐2】Whenever I moved to a new city, the first thing I did was to hire a bicycle. Why?     1     You travel much faster than on foot and you notice so much more of your surroundings than when in a bus or a car. It's more appealing to wander down small streets if they seem interesting, as you can quickly get back to the main road. Besides, I soon discovered more benefits of cycling.

A bicycle means that fewer places, especially in a small city like the one where I live now, feel far away. For example, cycling to work takes me half the time that it would to walk,     2    

Of course, there are obvious health benefits of cycling — a bit of extra movement as part of your daily routine can help you keep fit and healthy. Cycling on my way to work also makes me feel more energetic in the mornings.

    3     While cars pollute the environment，bicycles are carbon neutral (碳平衡的). Furthermore, thanks to being petrol-free, bicycles are cheaper to run, buy and fix than cars. Even if you don't own a car，a bicycle can pay for itself when compared to the price of bus tickets.

    4     Always wear a helmet, pay attention to other traffic and don't forget your lights at night. Make sure you know the road rules, especially in a new place. Some cities are more bicycle-friendly than others.     5     Luckily, where I live now is quite easy to ride a bicycle around, thanks to having lots of cycle lanes and not too many hills!

【推荐1】Gauri Nanda sees a wearable computer as a handbag-one that’s built out of four-inch squares and triangles of fiber，with tiny computer chips embedded（嵌入）in it. It looks, feels, and weighs like your typical leather purse.

That’s where the similarities end: This bag can wirelessly keep track of your belongings and remind you, just as you’re about to leave the house, to take your wallet. It can review the weather report and suggest that you grab an umbrella. This purse can even upload your favorite songs onto your scarf.

Sure, a computing purse and scarf set may seem like the stuff of science fiction. But these devices, part of next generation of wearable computers, could become commonplace within a few years. DuPont created new super strong fibers that can conduct electricity, and can be woven into ordinary-looking clothes. And the chipmaker developed chip packaging allowing wearable computers to be washed if there is a need to do it, even in the heavy-duty cycle.

As a result, these new wearable devices are different from the heavy and downright silly versions of the recent past, which often required users to be wrapped in wires and type on their stomachs. Unlike their predecessors, these new wearable computers also make economic sense. When her bag becomes commercially available in two to three years, Nanda expects it will cost around $150, which is the price of an average leather purse.

Here’s how the bag works: You place a special radio-signal-transmitting chip onto your wallet. A similar radio in your purse picks up the signal and notifies you that you’ve forgotten to take your wallet. In turn, sensors on your purse’s handles will notify the computer that you’ve picked up the purse and are ready to go.

Already, these new kinds of wearable devices are being adopted for use in markets like auto repair, emergency services, medical monitoring and even, increasingly, for consumers at large. Indeed more people will want to cross that bridge in the coming years-making for a booming market for wearable computers that don’t look like something out of science fiction.

【推荐2】Facial recognition technology has been already widely used by governments and some advertising companies. The technology uses machine learning tools to search for faces in an attempt to identify people.

In a recent study, scientists announced they had developed machine learning tools to track the faces of individual wild chimpanzees (黑猩猩). Dan Schofield said that the system was developed to improve the quality of information collected about chimpanzees in the wild over a long period of time.

"For species like chimpanzees, which have complex social lives and live for many years, getting a snapshot of their behavior from short-term field research can tell us only so much," Schofield said.

The researchers wanted to get a more complete understanding of the lives of the chimpanzees by studying them over several generations. But doing this would have required searching through hundreds of hours of video recordings of chimpanzees in the wild.

The researchers recorded the activities of a group of chimpanzees that lived in the West African nation of Guinea. A facial recognition computer model was trained with more than 10 million images of the animals. The model was then used to search for, recognize and track individual chimpanzees. The system was able to identify individual chimpanzees correctly about 92 percent of the time. It successfully identified the animals' sex 96 percent of the time.

The study included an experiment with humans to see how they could perform against the machine learning system in making identification. Humans were able to correctly identify individual chimpanzees about 42 percent of the time. The machine learning tool was much faster in completing the experiment. Human experts took about 55 minutes, while the computer took only several seconds.

The researchers say they are permitting other scientists to use the system for similar projects. They hope the method will be used for other species to record animal behavior and monitor different animal populations in the environment.

【推荐1】PM2.5 refers to fine particles (2.5 micrometres or smaller in diameter ), which are produced by combustion (氧化），including motor vehicles , power plants , forest fires, and some industrial processes .

The WHO tracks air quality ( how much PM 2.5 is in the air ) at 1622 locations in 92 countries -- but all are urban areas , while Pakistan , Egypt and Mongolia are among the most polluted countries according to the report , this only refers to pollution in its cities . Air quality in the Karakoram mountain range or the Gobi Desert will, of course , be fresh .Similarly ,Russia appears to be among the worst performing countries -- but its ranking is based only on air quality in Moscow . Of the 92 countries to feature , Australia has the least polluted urban areas , followed by Brunei and New Zealand. Estonia is Europe’s top performing nation ,followed by Finland and Iceland .The UK just misses out on the top 20, coming 21st. .

London’s annual PM2.5 mean is 12μg/m3. That puts it below the WHO target and behind a lot of world capitals. Of those countries for which the WHO had data ,Madrid , Oslo , Dublin, Montevideo, Helsinki, Ottawa , Washington DC and Canberra perform better than London .Top of the table are Stockholm and Tallinn, with an annual mean of 5μg/m3, followed by Edinburgh ,with 6. London exceeds Paris and Berlin , however ( both 16), and is the same as Lisbon (also 12).

Stockholm was the first city to be crowned European Green Capital in 2010---and it clearly hasn’t rested on its great honors . Since taking the accolade (荣誉），the Swedish capital has continued to keep on with eco-initiatives and has successfully decreased carbon emissions by 25 per cent since the Nineties. The city aims to be fossil-fuel free by 2050 , a target it hopes to achieve by improving public transport ,decreasing waste and increasing biodiversity, among other things . The city also has a strong culture of cycling , which has kept many residents out of cars .

【推荐1】Ask people in the UK what the words “Sunday roast” mean to them, and they’ll probably take you back to their grandmothers’ dining rooms -maybe with a few stories of “the greatest puddings” and “the best ever steak”. But now the traditional Sunday roast seems to have been left back in the old days. According to the Daily Mail, just one in 50 British families sits down to this weekly meal together.

There are many reasons why the roast is becoming less popular. In the busy modern world, where breakfast is a slice of toast eaten on the way to work or school and lunch is a quick sandwich in front of the computer screen, people just don’t seem to have the time or patience to make a roast.

And Sunday was once a day when people could easily go to the kitchen to cook. Nowadays, people are often out shopping or at the cinema until it’s far too late to start thinking about heating the oven(烤箱) up.

However, a recent article from The Telegraph warned against being carried away by our tight schedules: “It would be a shame to let this fine old tradition disappear.”

The Guardian further explained that the eating of the big meal is only the half of it. The Sunday roast also makes for relaxed morning activities in the kitchen, and the table becomes the perfect place to share good food and chat with family and friends. “For busy moms and dads, even if you can manage to turn off your mobile phone and the TV only once a week and turn the Sunday roast into a real family event, children can have fun cooking the food and clearing up together.”

【推荐2】Just as the teacher was coming into the classroom, one of the boys, Bill, said loudly, “The teacher is a real fool.”

To their surprise, the teacher pretended not to have heard this. He paid no attention to anyone and said nothing. He just went up to the teacher’s desk and began the class. He said, “Today we are going to study punctuation (标点符号). Punctuation in sentences is very important. Look at the sentence, please, boys and girls.”

He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the following sentence on the blackboard: Bill says the teacher is a real fool. The class laughed at once.

“Now,” the teacher went on, “with two commas I can change the meaning of the sentence and it reads: Bill, says the teacher, is a real fool.”

【推荐3】Parker Stewart, a 16-year-old from Sayre School, a college preparatory school in the United States, knew last year that he wanted his independent study on the environment to have a broad impact on the community. In order to "reduce the carbon footprint," Stewart planned to produce enough solar energy to power the school's science labs. Now his plan is set to happen. The installation of 30 solar panels is scheduled for late January.

As he began his research on solar energy, he discovered a useful phone app. By entering an address, he could find out how much sunlight the location receives each day. Based on how much sunlight it receives, Stewart found that his school building was the desired position.

At the suggestion of his science teacher, Debbie Wheeler, Parker first performed an energy audit（测算）of the science lab to see how much energy a typical lab uses per day. Then, he started his research, contacting a local installer of solar panels, Synergy Home, to do the job.

Parker lacked money for launching the project, so he convinced Sayre's head of school to fund him after explaining the benefits of solar power for the school and community. Since Sayre provided the initial seed money to provide supplies and the purchase of one panel, the project has grown to include a total of 30 panels. They are expected to generate enough energy to run all four of the science labs on campus.

"It feels like a dream to think that an idea I had resulted from my AP Environmental class would have this kind of impact," said Stewart, expressing gratitude for Wheeler's help.

Wheeler said the success of the project was due to Parker's efforts and willingness to follow through on the project from start to finish.

“I've had other students talk about environmental initiatives on campus, but Parker had the persistence to make it happen," she said.