1 . Big changes in agriculture are taking place in Singapore. The small, Southeast Asian nation is leading a farming revolution, according to the Reuters news agency.

Singapore covers around 720 square kilometers of land and only one percent of that land area is used for agriculture. Food production costs are higher there than the rest of Southeast Asia. As climate change and population growth threaten food supplies, the pressure on new farmers is to answer the government’s call to “grow more with less”.

“Whenever I talk about food security in Singapore, I tell people not to think about land-think about space，because you can go upwards and sideways,” said Paul Teng，an agriculture professor at Nanyang Technological University.

There are more than 30 vertical (垂直的) farms in Singapore-ones that grow up，not across，the land. Sustenir Agriculture is one of these businesses. Is hydroponic (无土栽培的) farm grows non-native foods like cherry tomatoes and strawberries inside buildings under artificial lighting. Then it sells the produce to local supermarkets and online stores. Sustenir raised $16 million from investors (投资者) last year. The money will be used to expand operations in Singapore.

However, not everyone thinks the new technology is best. Egg farmer William Ho says the government should not depend so much on agriculture technology businesses. “Many of them have failed. That’s why I’m always asking the government why it doesn’t invest in us old-timers. We are more practical,” he said. Professor Paul Teng said an issue for urban farmers is that the high cost of the technology makes their products too pricey for many people.

2 . Everyone needs to be safe, loved and to have a sense of belonging. These are inborn and natural basic needs. In an effort to have these needs satisfied, many of us tend to please others. And it works for a while. We find that we experience less conflict (冲突) with others, but the conflict within ourselves grows. Saying “ no ” produces feeling of guilt (内疚) and saying “ yes ” brings anger.

My father was in the military, so we often moved. Being shy, I didn’t make friends. What’s more, I grew up in a household where grades, image and how others saw our family were very important. In our household a “ C ” was unacceptable, a “ B ” should have been an “ A ” and an “ A ” meant the lesson was too easy. I was too thin, my sister was too fat and my brother’s lips and ears were too big for his tiny head.

To stop pleasing others is easier said than done. It’s a long process, one in which I am consistently working to perfect. The turning point for me came shortly after I got married. The very first thing that we did to end the cycle of pleasing others was developing our own identity as independent human beings and then as a couple. And then we developed a strong set of core (核心) values and a vision for our future. The third and one of the most valuable things we did during this process was developing our own personal influence on others and we valued deeply the opinions of the wiser and more successful people around us.

Besides, we should understand that sometimes helping people at once actually hurts them. The struggle is necessary to success. The struggle strengthens character, making people determined. So sometimes allowing people to struggle is the best thing you can do for them.

4 . The elderly residents (居民) in care homes in London are being given hens to look after to stop them feeling lonely.

The project was dreamed up by a local charity (慈善组织) to reduce loneliness and improve elderly people’s wellbeing. It is also being used to help patients suffering dementia, a serious illness of the mind. Staff in care homes have reported a reduction in the use of medicine where hens are in use.

Among those taking part in the project is 80-year-old Ruth Xavier. She said: “I used to keep hens when I was younger and had to prepare their breakfast each morning before I went to school. ”

“I like the project a lot. I am down there in my wheelchair in the morning letting the hens out and down there again at night to see they’ve gone to bed.”

“It’s good to have a different focus. People have been bringing their children in to see the hens and residents come and sit outside to watch them. I’m enjoying the creative activities, and it feels great to have done something useful.”

There are now 700 elderly people looking after hens in 20 care homes in the North East, and the charity has been given financial support to roll it out countrywide.

Wendy Wilson, extra care manager at 60 Penfold Street, one of the first to embark on the project, said: “Residents really welcome the idea of the project and the creative sessions. We are looking forward to the benefits and fun the project can bring to people here.”

Lynn Lewis, director of Notting Hill Pathways, said: “We are happy to be taking part in the project. It will really help connect our residents through a shared interest and creative activities.”

5 . The Government’s sugar tax on soft drinks has brought in half as much money as Ministers first predicted it would generate, the first official data on the policy has shown.

First announced in April, 2016, the tax which applies to soft drinks containing more than 5g of sugar per 100ml, was introduced to help reduce childhood obesity (肥胖). It is believed that today’s children and teenagers are consuming three times the recommended level of sugar, putting them at a higher risk of the disease.

Initially the sugar tax was expected to make £520m a year for the Treasury. However, data of the first six months showed it would make less than half this amount. At present it is expected to generate £240m for the year ending in April 2019, which will go to school sports.

It comes after more than half of soft drinks sold in shops have had their sugar levels cut by manufacturers (制造商) so they can avoid paying the tax. Drinks now contain 45 million fewer kilos of sugar as a result of manufacturers’ efforts to avoid the charge, according to Treasury figures. Since April drinks companies have been forced to pay between 18p and 24p for every litre of sugary drink they produce or import, depending on the sugar content.

However, some high sugar brands, like Classic Coca Cola, have accepted the sugar tax and are refusing to change for fear of upsetting consumers. Fruit juices, milk-based drinks and most alcoholic drinks are free of the tax, as are small companies manufacturing fewer than 1m litres per year.

Today’s figures, according to one government official, show the positive influence the sugar tax is having by raising millions of pounds for sports facilities (设施) and healthier eating in schools. Helping the next generation to have a healthy and active childhood is of great importance, and the industry is playing its part.

6 . In 1916, two girls of wealthy families, best friends from Auburn, N. Y. — Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood — traveled to a settlement in the Rocky Mountains to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. The girls had gone to Smith College. They wore expensive clothes. So for them to move to Elkhead, Colo. to instruct the children whose shoes were held together with string was a surprise. Their stay in Elkhead is the subject of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden, who is a magazine editor and Dorothy Woodruff’s granddaughter.

Why did they go then? Well, they wanted to do something useful. Soon, however, they realized what they had undertaken.

They moved in with a local family, the Harrisons, and, like them, had little privacy, rare baths, and a blanket of snow on their quilt when they woke up in the morning. Some mornings, Rosamond and Dorothy would arrive at the schoolhouse to find the children weeping from the cold. In spring, the snow was replaced by mud over ice.

In Wickenden’s book, she expanded on the history of the West and also on feminism, which of course influenced the girls’ decision to go to Elkhead. A hair-raising section concerns the building of the railroads, which entailed (牵涉) drilling through the Rockies, often in blinding snowstorms. The book ends with Rosamond and Dorothy’s return to Auburn.

Wickenden is a very good storyteller. The sweep of the land and the stoicism (坚忍) of the people move her to some beautiful writing. Here is a picture of Dorothy Woodruff, on her horse, looking down from a hill top: “When the sun slipped behind the mountains, it shed a rosy glow all around them. Then a full moon rose. The snow was marked only by small animals: foxes, coyotes, mice, and varying hares, which turned white in the winter.”

8 . Dune

Only big screens can actually match Frank Herbert’s science-fiction works. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Dune is a sad film about super powered young heroes on a desert planet. It runs for 155 minutes, but still only covers the first half of the book. A large amount of money is spent on the film, and the cast (演员阵容) is packed with big names.

Antlers

The frightening story of this film is from native American tales about Wendigo. The director, Scott Cooper, asked Professor Grace L Dillon, the most famous expert on the subject, “I was told that it may not be an unreal story for native Americans,” Cooper said. “They truly believe in it, and it means greed (贪婪) and cruelty when we robbed all the resources from the locals.”

The French Dispatch

The 10th film by Wes Anderson, a writer-director, brings great joy to his fans. In this film, he takes his careful style to new extreme. Behind all these carefully prepared skills is a collection of three funny short stories, which are set in a French town probably from the magazine New Yorker in the mid-20th century.

Ron’s Gone Wrong

The cartoon is a family comedy (喜剧). Its hero, Barney, is given what seems to be a perfect toy — a shiny robot which is programmed to be his friend. But the problem is that this, robot, hardly works at all. The film’s co-writer and co-director, Sarah Smith, said, “It is completely out of control and doesn’t follow Barney’s directions. So they have to build their relationship from that point.”

9 . What will restaurants look like in the future? What would your dinner taste like if a robot cooked it? A robot restaurant in Tianjin may give you the answers.

Covering an area of over 400 square meters with a total of 112 seats, the X Future Restaurant is a robot restaurant opened in November 2018. The restaurant has amazed customers with its fully-automated technology, which covers every step of the dining experience, from ordering to cooking to serving the dishes and even taking payment.

Entering the restaurant, one can order dishes by simply scanning the QR codes on the table. There are over 40 choices of dishes. After taking the order, “robot cooks” prepare dishes using fixed time, temperature and ingredients designed by famous Chinese cooks.

“As the cooking is controlled by a computer system, the taste and quality of dishes can be good,”said Li Xiaokui, manager of the X Future Restaurant.

Robots also complete the delivery of dishes. Without following any designed route, the robot waiters serve meals thanks to automated driving technology, which helps each robot timely change its route when something is in the way.

These eye-catching technologies have received wide praise from customers. “The dishes taste surprisingly good. I couldn’t believe that they were made by robots, especially dishes that were difficult to cook”, one customer said. “The application of robots has increased our efficiency and cut down our costs,” Li said, “I think robot restaurants will develop fast and have a bright future.”