2 . In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, there's a famous saying, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. The surprise is part of the fun. Now blind box toys（盲盒)are bringing the magic of surprise to online shopping.

A blind box toy is hidden inside similar boxes but invisible from the outside. You don't know what will be inside, although the toys typically come from pop culture, ranging from movies to comics and cartoons.

Blind boxes have become popular since they were first introduced from Japan to China in 2014. According to a 2019 Tmall report, the mini-series of Labubu blind box designed by Hong Kong-born Kasing Lung, was named Champion of Unit Sales with 55, 000 sold in just 9 seconds during the Singles Day shopping event. Most customers for blind boxes are young people aged 18 to 35.

According to The Paper, blind box toys are popular in part because of their cute appearances. The typically cute cartoon figures(人物)come in small sizes, making them suitable for display almost anywhere.

Even if blind boxes are not their top choice for decorations, the mystery and uncertainty of the process also attracts people. It's the main reason why people buy blind boxes one after another.

"Expecting the unknown is always a part of the box-opening process," said Miss Cao, 24, who lives and works in Shenyang. Speaking to Sina News, she said: "Until you open all the boxes, you cannot know what it is inside."

Opening a blind box is a delightful little surprise for our mundane daily lives, something small but fun to wait for each day, week or month. When people open this simple little box, they may be disappointed, but the uncertainty is part of the fun. People will open more blind boxes and hope for a better outcome.

When someone re-makes Forrest Gump, don't be surprised if he says, "Life is like a blind box."

3 . Once upon a time two brothers, who lived on neighboring farms, had a quarrel. It was the first serious rift in 40 years, sharing machinery and exchanging goods as needed.

One morning there was a knock on the older brother's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's tool box.

"I'm looking for a few days' work." he said." Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help with?"

"Yes." said the older brother. Look across the creek（小溪）at that farm. That's my younger brother. Last week there was a grassland between us, but he made a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to make difficulties for me, but I'll do him one better." "I want you to build me an 8-foot fence, so I won't need to see his place or his face anymore."

The carpenter said, "Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you." The older brother got things ready and went to town.

The carpenter worked hard all that day. About sunset, when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job.

The farmer's eyes opened wide. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge—a bridge from one side of the creek to the other! The neighbor, his younger brother, was coming toward them." You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done." They met in the middle, taking each other's hand.

They turned to see the carpenter taking his toolbox onto his shoulder.

"No, wait! Stay fora few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother.

"I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but I have many more bridges to build."

4 . Decades ago, NASA asked experts to develop the "smell of space1' in order to help prepare astronauts for the experience of outer space. Now, a perfume, Eau de Space, has attracted eager buyers.

According to the Kickstarter campaign, which has been launched to sell Eau de Space, the history of the "smell of space" has been unclear owing to various accounts of its development. Ever since the first spacewalk, astronauts have been shocked by the smell.

NASA astronauts Col. Chris Hadfield said, "The only time you can smell space is when you come back from a spacewalk. As you open the hatch(舱门)，there is a distinctive smell. " Some astronauts and space tourists describe it as fruit, or burnt cookies. Astronauts Gene Cernan talked of another smell he experienced: "The moon smells like spent gunpowder " The smell of space is so distinct that NASA reached out to fragrance makers to recreate the smell, according to NASA documents.

Now, the makers have cooperated with award winning perfumers(香水调配师)，and report that they've secured commercial contracts to reproduce the smell based on astronaut’s accounts.

At S29 per boule. Eau de Space will help support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs for students. “For every bottle of Eau de Space you buy, were going to donate one to a STEM program for low-income. It’s a big promise and isn’t the best decision for a company trying to make a profit. But we really believe in the cause and hope you do too. Imagine that a child who smells Eau de Space today is inspired Io become an astronaut, scientist or engineer,” shows Kickstarter.

Eau de Space will be made in the UK employing low-income labor and environmentally-friendly practices, including zero manufacturing waste, according to the campaign. So far, about 11,000 people have become supporters.

5 . In early December,a new set of rules governing behavior inside Shanghai's subway came ffect, forbidding listening to electronic devices without earphones inside subway coaches.

This was long called for. Subway cars are public spaces where nobody should annoy others. However, in reality there are many who play their music or movies without the aid of earphones, disturbing co-passengers. Even if the music and movies are not loud enough, the disturbing elements also scream with joy or laughter in reaction, and they are indifferent to how it affects others inside the coaches.

In the absence of clear rules forbidding such behavior inside the coaches, there was nobody the disturbed passengers could turn to for assistance. Even if they had complained, the authorities inside the subway would have said they were not empowered(授权)to help them. However, noise inside a subway cannot be a personal matter. A person has no right to impose his movie or music on others in the shared space. Every passenger has the right to be undisturbed by any movie or music that other passengers are enjoying.

Thanks to the new rules. those taking a subway cmi now complain to staff members about smartphone noises. That the news about new subway rules was read by nearly 300 million times on the micro blog is the biggest evidence of l)ow people are happy and are looking forward to die absence of noise in the public space.

The new rules also forbid people from eating or drinking inside subway coaches, which, too, is a welcome change, as sometimes die food is smelly and lets off an unpleasant smell that can cause discomfort to fellow passengers. The new rules will help create a better environment for everyone inside the subway coaches.

The only drawback with the new rules is that it does not give specific punitive(处罚的) measures .For example, there is no listed punishment such as fines or warnings for those disobeying the rules. Maybe the subway staff members will have to be artful and persuasive while carrying out the new rules.

6 . Gitanjali Rao, a teenager who invented a mobile device to test for lead(铅)in drinking water, is Time's Kid of the Year for 2020. The magazine announced the award Thursday, indicating Rao's ability to apply scientific ideas to real-world problems and her desire to motivate other kids to take up their own causes.

It's just the latest recognition for Rao, 15, who was named last year to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list(福布斯30岁以下青年才俊榜).She won praise in 2017 after she created a device named Tehys, using carbon nanotube sensors to detect lead in water. She was named America's Top Young Scientist when she was in the seventh grade. She went on to collaborate with scientists in the water industry to try to get the device on the market.

More recently , Rao has developed a phone and Web tool named Kindly, which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible early signs of cyberbullying(网络欺凌).

Rao was chosen in part because of the way she has followed up her technical work with efforts to get other young people to work on solving the problems they see. "I don't look like the typical scientist. Everything I see on TV is that it's an older, usually white man as a scientist,” she said. “My goal has really shifted not only from creating my own devices to solve the world's problems, but inspiring others to do the same as well. Because, from personal experience, it's not easy when you don't see anyone else like you. So I really want to put out that message: If I can do it, you can do it. and anyone can do it.”

7 . If there were an app on your phone that could improve your memory, would you try it? Who wouldn't want a better memory? After all, our memory can be easily damaged by diseases, injuries, mental health conditions and, most particularly for all of us, aging.

Nowadays, there are a large number of apps that provide memory training on our phones. Can they help you remember to take medicine, do better on a school exam, remember the name of the person whom you met yesterday? Some scientists question whether this is possible. Undoubtedly, many of the brain training companies today exaggerate the potential benefits of using their apps.

Scientists have provided evidence that brain training does not benefit everyone in the same way. It is suggested that little consideration has been given to who would benefit most from those brain training apps. Will it only be those who have some form of memory impairment（缺陷），or can it also help those eager for self-improvement even though they are already functioning very well?

To overcome these limitations, our team has started a new study aiming to find 30,000 volunteers to help us determine which form of training may be best for individuals. Our goal is to avoid a one — size — fits — all approach. Instead of focusing on the simple question of whether brain training works, we are looking to engage the whole population in a new challenge to test for whom brain training works, and under which conditions.

8 . Millions of people suffer from motion sickness（晕动症）. They have a lot of activities they fear. They often avoid doing these activities which include long-distance airplane travel, sea-trips, road-trips, even certain movies and video games. However, the French company Boarding Ring promises that it has its way to solve the problem, as long as the users are willing to wear Boarding Glasses!

Why do many people suffer from motion sickness? It is believed that the brain fails to deal with mixed signals（信号）from body parts. For example, when you are looking at your phone on a moving bus, your inner ear realizes the move but your eyes, focused on the screen, think you don't move.

Boarding Glasses tries to ease motion sickness by making the user's eyes and ears send the same message. After the brain receives the same message, it will think you are in a moving environment though that sounds difficult, the science behind the glasses is surprisingly simple.

The plastic device, made up of two round frames on the front and two on the side are filled with some blue liquid （液体）. Any movement can cause the liquid to flow around the eyes. This allows the eyes to sense the move and send the correct signal to the brain.

According to Antoine Jeannin, CEO of Boarding Ring, Boarding Glasses has been tested. The CEO said that over 95 percent of the users felt better after wearing the glasses. The best part is that Boarding Glasses only has a frame, so a single pair can be worn among a group of friends, or even an entire family!

9 . Rising numbers of older adults are unable to care for themselves, often leading to serious health problems and even death, according to state and local government agencies. So-called self-neglect cases generally involve the inability to perform basic self-care, such as providing oneself with food, personal health, medication and safety.

Seniors who no longer drive, for instance, are often unable to get to medical appointments, worsening health problems that can make them unable to care for themselves. A fall can result in body injuries leaving one bedridden and unable to care for oneself. Failure to pay bills for public services could lead to service cutoffs. Forgetting to pay rent could lead to the loss of a home.

Mr. Mc-Cormack, 75 years old, and his wife, 71, both had mental illness and stayed in hospitals from time to time, unable to care for their possessions. Despite repeated visits to their home by local officials, the Mc-Cormacks refused assistance. But after they were found living in their car parked outside their house in December 2017, officials removed them from their home and helped them settle in a nursing home.

Self-neglect cases, like above, involved 144, 296 people across the country in 2018, according to a report. The federal government doesn't have comparable data for previous years, but several state and local service providers say they are seeing the self-neglect problem rise.

The reasons seniors stop caring for themselves vary, including illness, depression and poverty. The loss of the spouse or a neighbor who previously kept an eye on an individual often starts a decline into self-neglect, experts say. And the key to reducing self-neglect cases is providing services to enable seniors to remain in their homes safely, such as reliable transportation for medical appointments and shopping, as well as affordable home help.

10 . Visitors to Henn-na, a restaurant outside Nagasaki, Japan, are greeted by a unique sight: their food being prepared by a row of humanoid robots. The "head chef", named Andrew, is using his two long arms:he stirs batter(面糊)in a metal bowl, then pours it onto a hot grill. In a nearby hotel, robots check guests into their rooms and help with their luggage.

CEO Hideo Sawada, who runs the restaurant and the hotel, predicts that 70 percent of the jobs at Japan's hotels will be automated in the next five years. He said, "Since you can work them 24 hours a day, and they don't need vacation, in the end it's more cost-efficient to use the robot."

This is seemingly worrying. In fact, in America, automation(自动化)helps the food-service and accommodation sector continue to grow. In the company Panera, because of its new kiosks, an app that allows online ordering, the chain is now processing more orders overall, which means it needs more total workers to meet consumers' demand. Starbucks customers who use the chain's app return more frequently than those who don't, the company has said, and the greater efficiency that online ordering allows has increased sales at busy stores (luring peak hours. Starbucks employed 8% more people in the U. S. in 2016 than it did in 2015, the year it began to use the app.

Of course, whether automation is a net benefit to workers in restaurants and hotels, and not just a competitive advantage for one chain over another will depend on whether an improved customer experience makes Americans more likely to dine out and stay at hotels, rather than brown-bagging(自备午餐)it or find an Airbnb to book unique homes.