【推荐2】Everyone has a family name. Do you know how English people get (获得) their family names? And what do they mean (意味着)? Here are three ways.                                                                                                                             

Some family names are from the places (地点) of their homes. For example, a man’s home is on or near a hill. His family name may (可能) be Hill. In England, people’s family names may be Wood or Lake because their home is near the wood or the lake.

Some family names are from a person’s job (工作). If a man is a cook, his family name may be Cook.       

And many people’s family names are from their fathers’ family names. If you hear (听到) the name “Jackson”, you can know (知道) that he may be the son of Jack.

【推荐3】Kwanzaa (宽扎节) is a celebration of African-American history and culture. It begins on December 26th and runs until New Year’s Day, January 1st.

During the festival, a family member, usually the youngest child, lights candles in a special candle holder. Each night a candle is lit. Traditionally there are three green candles, three red candles and a central black candle. They represent the seven Kwanzaa principles (原则). The principles are believed to play a big role in building strong, successful families, neighborhoods, etc. In the evenings, adults share stories and explain how to follow the seven principles in daily life. On the sixth day, which falls on New Year’s Eve, family and friends get together to enjoy a large meal.

Kyle, a third grader, wrote this about Kwanzaa, “When we celebrate Kwanzaa, we have many people at home, light the candles, and have a nice dinner. We learn the meaning of Kwanzaa and remember family members. We say something good about them. Last year, we remembered my grandmother.”

In 1966, Dr. Karenga created Kwanzaa. He was studying the history of Africa at that time. Dr. Karenga wanted to create a holiday to bring African Americans together and celebrate their history and culture. He called the holiday “Kwanzaa”. In fact, the name comes from an African language, and it means “the first fruits of the harvest time”.

【推荐2】Artificial intelligence (人工智能) is set to benefit mankind in many ways. It will make everyday tasks easier and bring efficiency to many industries. It might be one of man's greatest inventions.

And yet, like any other technology, AI will also bring risks. In February 2018, a group of AI experts got together to discuss the possible disadvantages of AI. What they found was that "Every AI developed by the good guys is also helpful for the bad guys, too." according to Quartz.

Their biggest worry was that the bad guys could use AI for bad things. One of the areas they looked at was the use of AI to create websites that could be used to steal people's personal information. Another possibility is that AI programs could be used to hack software and break into computer secure systems (安全系统).

There are some other worries as well. It is possible that AI could be used to create fake imagines and videos. Baidu, in fact, has developed a program called Deep Voice that can "clone (克隆)" anyone's voice by studying a 3.7-second audio sample (音频样本).

Many leading people have expressed worries about AI. People like Bill Gates and Elon Musk have called for the industry to be more strictly controlled, as there are few laws right now on the use of AI.

However, this is set to change. In March 2018, the European Union plans to set up a group that will discuss the moral and ethical (伦理道德的) dangers of AI, which will help to keep it safe for mankind.

【推荐3】House fires often happened. So it appears necessary to learn something useful to protect family from them. The following poster in the neighborhood will tell you how to do it.

Fire Safety