【推荐1】You can see all these things at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Some technologies make the Games stand out and help people stay safe during COVID-19.

Driverless helpers

Walking inside Shougang Industrial Park, you can see different kinds of driverless cars. When you feel tired, you can get in a driverless minibus. When you feel hungry, you can buy food from a “driverless car store”. Some driverless cars can even send things to you just like a delivery man (快递员).

Body temperature check

People can wear a thermometer (体温计) on their skin. It looks like a bandage (创可贴). One charge (充电) can work for about ten days. Users can check their body temperature through an app on their smart phones. If someone gets a fever, the thermometer will report it.

Remote interview

Usually after each event, reporters will interview players face to face. To stay safe, the Beijing Winter Olympics will do remote interviews. The reporters can’t meet the players. But they can talk with each other by video.

【推荐2】If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?

According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.

The study also found the greater the effect is, the younger people learn a second language. A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals”, also called second language learners (SLL) before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.

Scans showed that grey matter density (密度) in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference. “Our finding suggests that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language.” said the scientists.

It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn. Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible (灵活的),” he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”

The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of 2 and 34. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world.” explained the scientists.

【推荐1】For most of human history, people thought the world was flat (平的). That is, they thought that if you traveled far enough in one direction, you would come to the edge of the world in the end. Then, about two thousand years ago, people started to come up with the idea that the earth was round. This meant that by traveling far enough in a straight line, you would finally come back to where you started.

It wasn’t until the sixteenth century that Ferdinand Magellan’s exploring team became the first to travel around the world. The exploring team first moved west from Portugal, around South America, across the Pacific, before returning around South Africa back to Portugal. Although Magellan died during the journey, one of his captains, Sebastian del Cano, made it all the way.

In 1872, the French science novel writer Jules Verne wrote a book called Around the World in 80 Days. The novel was about a man who traveled around the world, starting from London, to win a game.

In 1889, an American journalist, Nellie Bly, was sent by her newspaper to follow the journey taken by the characters in Verne’s book. She traveled around the world, sending letters back to her newspaper about her journey. She finally arrived back home after her trip, taking 72 days, six hours, eleven minutes, and fourteen seconds to go around the world.

Even though traveling around the world these days is very easy, and can be done in one or two days by plane, people are still interested in breaking records. From 1970 to 1974, an American, Dave Kunst, was the first person to walk all the way around the world. He wore out twenty one pairs of shoes on his trip! The first airplane flight round the world took place in 1924, done by Lt. Lowell H. Smith and five other Americans, and the first solo helicopter (直升机) flight around the world was done by an Australian explorer, Dick Smith, in 1982-1983.

As for a nonstop balloon flight all the way around the world, this wasn’t done until 2002, when Steve Fossett from the US finally succeeded after many tries.

【推荐2】Thomas Edison was an American inventor. When he was 7 years old, his mother had anappendectomy(阑尾切除手术). But it was too dark. So Edison put mirrors(镜子)near oil lamps (油灯) to light up the room

The story is in a Chinese textbook for primary school students by People’s Education Press(人民教育出版社). Perhaps many of you have read it before. But the publisher (出版社) recently said itwill cut out this story. That’s because many people think it’s not true. Many believe that the world’s first appendectomy was in 1886. But when Edison was 7, it was 1854.

The publisher also said it will not use some other stories. For example, there’s a story about the first US President George Washington. The story says young Washington cut down a cherry (樱桃) tree in the yard of his house. But in fact, there was no cherry tree in the area at that time

So what’s the problem? Experts (专家) say that some editors (编辑) care too much about the educational meaning of stories, without checking if the story is true first.

The publisher says, in the future, they will pay greater attention to the truth of the stories in the textbook. “We will invite experts to check our stories,” it said in a statement.

【推荐3】It might sound like magic, but in February, a paralyzed (瘫痪的) patient was able to drink water on his own by controlling a special glove with his brain. The glove then acted as his hand.

This was a success in brain-machine interface (BMI, 脑机接口) technology made by a team of Chinese scientists and doctors.

BMI refers to creating a connection between the human brain and external devices (外部设备), making communication between the brain and computers. For paralyzed people, BMI can allow them to move and do simple things by themselves.

On Oct 24, 2023, the team put a BMI chip (芯片)   in the patient’s head. The chip can receive neural signals (神经信号) from the brain.

After three months of home recovery training, the patient can now use his brain signals to control a special glove powered by air pressure. This helps him do things like drinking water on his own.

BMI technology usually means putting chips directly onto the patient’s brain. However, this project is minimally invasive (微创的), making sure the patient’s brain is not harmed. So it is an important achievement. It also uses a wireless power supply (无线电源), so the implanted (植入的) device doesn’t need a battery.

Li Yuanning from ShanghaiTech University told CCTV News that BMI is now mainly used in the medical field to improve the lives of people with brain-related problems or speech difficulties.

In China, BMI technology is still in the early stages of research, with no products on the market yet. Some people are worried that tests may influence patients’ independence (独立) and even who they are. Ethical concerns (伦理问题) related to BMI also need to be soled. These include whether the patient has a clear understanding of what is going on when they agree to take part in the test.