2 . Landslides and earthquakes are even more dangerous now than in the past because around half of the world’s population now live-in cities. Many people in cities and towns in South America and Asia are at risk from landslides. In April 2017,the city of Mocoa in Colombia was hit by a landslide, leaving many dead and injured. A great number of people live at risk from earthquakes too. These have claimed more than 1.6 million lives in the last hundred years.

Most disaster experts believe that things could get a lot worse. Professor Hou Ming of Peking University studies volcanoes. He warns that the world has not seen the worst yet. The worst eruption in human history was probably Mt Tambora in 1815,in Indonesia. Dust from the volcano rolled across the Earth’s skies. There was no summer in Europe and America the following year. But evidence shows that 73,000 years ago there was a much greater eruption. “It reduced temperatures by maybe 6°C in some places, and the whole planet was sent into winter for years. And there are about two of these events every 100,000 years...”

3 . It appears to fit with most people's experience: how Christmas seems to come around quicker every year? Questionnaires by psychologists have shown almost everyone feels time is passing faster now compared to when they were half or a quarter as old. Most strikingly, lots of experiment have shown that, when older people are asked to guess how long the time is, or to ‘reproduce’ the length of periods of time, they guess a shorter amount than younger people.

In 1877, Paul Janet suggested the proportional theory, where a child of 10 feels a year as I 10 of his whole life while a man of 50 as 1/50, so the subjective sense of the 50-year-old man is that: these are insignificant periods of time which gallop.

There are also biological theories. The speeding up of time is linked to how our metabolism (新陈代谢)gradually slows down as we grow olden Children's hearts beat faster than They breathe more quickly. With their blood flowing more quickly, their body clocks “cover” more time within the space of 24 hours than ours do as adults. On the other hand, older people are like clocks that run slower than normal, so that they lag behind, and cover less than 24 hours.

In the 1930s, the psychologist Hudson Hoagland found body temperature causes different perceptions of time. Once, when he looked after his ill wife, he noticed she complained he'd been away for a long time even if only away for a few moments. Therefore, Hoagland tested her perception of time at different temperatures, finding the higher her temperature, the more time seemed to slow down for her, and that raising a person's body temperature can slow down his sense of time passing by up to 20%.

Time doesn't necessarily have to speed up as we get older though. It depends on how live our lives, and how we relate to our experiences.

4 . A boat floated peacefully on the crystal-blue water. “How fascinating! ” Antonio told to his friends, who shared a passion for diving. In the following diving, unfortunately, he was trapped with his friend, who shared the oxygen with Antonio but died afterwards. Antonio breathed hard on his mouthpiece, but there was nothing left.He started to scream and kept screaming until he had no voice. As hours passed and Antonio failed to surface, his other friends rushed for help.

Shortly the local divers came to rescue, but in vain. Years of experience told them, lost in the cave, one must be dead. They considered going back in but decided against it because of the incoming dark, the muddy water and the lack of help. Too risky.

Asked for help, Peter, a chief frogman, began to plan the next morning’s operations, knowing hurried preparation was deadly. He had narrow escapes from death. Each time, though, training and a cool head saved him. Suddenly, a thought struck him. "Who said he died? That guy may be alive!” The next morning, Peter was suited up. Before a dive, he prayed.

Antonio "dreamed” he was drowning. He forced himself awake but couldn't feel his body. He was too tired to feel scared. Entering the cave, Peter found Antonio. On touching him, a hand closed around his left wrist Peter knew the young man must be kept from panicking. Gently he passed his mouthpiece to Antonio. He heard Antonio take a couple of breaths before handing the mouthpiece back. Antonio was trying to share oxygen with him, Peter realized. How unbelievable was that, after 17 hours in this hole, his mind still stayed cool!

Antonio was treated in the nearest hospital. Doctors said he wouldn’t have survived more than another hour in the cave. When Peter finally climbed back into his car, he doubled up, sobbing. He felt he took part in a miracle. Somehow an unseen hand that had guided Antonio to a tiny air pocket in the cave guided him there too. Where he should have found death, he had met life.

7 . More than half the world’s population live in cities, and by 2050 the UN expects that proportion to reach 68%. This means more homes, roads and other infrastructure. In India alone, a city the size of Chicago will have to be developed every year to meet demand for housing. Such a construction increase is a bad sign for dealing with climate change, because making steel and concrete, two of the most common building materials, generates around 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions (排放). If cities are to expand and become greener at the same time, they will have to be made from something else.

Wood is one of the most promising sustainable (可持续的) alternatives to steel and concrete. It is not, however, everyday wood that is attracting the interest of architects.

Rather, it is a material called engineered timber. This is a combination of different layers, each designed to meet the requirements of specific parts such as floors, panels and beams (横梁). Designers can use it to provide levels of strength like steel, in a product that is up to 80% lighter. In addition, engineered timber is usually made into large sections in a factory for future use, which reduces the number of deliveries to a construction site.

According to Michael Ramage of the University of Cambridge, a wooden building produces 75% less CO2 than a steel and concrete one of the same size. However, if building with wood takes off, it does raise concern about there being enough trees to go round. But with sustainably managed forests that should not be a problem, says Dr Ramage. A family-sized apartment requires about 30 cubic metres of timber, and he estimates Europe’s sustainable forests alone grow that amount every seven seconds. Nor is fire a risk, for engineered timber does not burn easily. Besides, fireproofing layers can be added to the timber. All in all, then, it looks as if wood as a building material may get a new lease of life.

8 . Educational programs often use fear-based messaging and films of crash scenes to reduce risky driving behavior among young people. But does this “scary” approach work? A new study suggests that fear-based messaging fails to reduce risky driving behavior, while fear-based Virtual Reality (VR) films showing a violent collision may actually lead young drivers to take more chances behind the wheel.

A team of psychologists in Belgium conducted a study of 146 students who had been legally driving for less than five years. The researchers examined the impact of both content (fear vs. positive) and delivery mode (2D vs. VR) of driver safety intervention programs.

By showing a serious consequence such as death, fear-based driver education films attempt to arouse a sense of fear and persuade young people to drive more carefully. Positively framed films take the opposite approach, using humor and modeling safe driving behaviors that result in positive consequences.

Three tests were used to analyze the risk-taking behavior of the young drivers before and after participating in the intervention program. One was a questionnaire. Another was a test on traffic, which asks participants to watch video clips of driving situations and choose whether they view a situation as too risky, for example, choosing whether to pass another car in icy conditions. A third test was used to measure the level of emotional arousal (such as feeling afraid) after watching a film.

The results showed that participants who viewed the fear-based VR film reported riskier driving behaviors afterward, while those who viewed a positively framed VR film exhibited the greatest reduction in risky driving behavior. This finding supports other research that has shown that exposing participants to an extreme collision tends to activate defensive mechanisms, such as paying attention for a shorter time, disengaging, rejecting a message, and an increase in risky behaviors.

“Fear appeals have been used in many health and environmental campaigns, such as smoking and anti-drug,” says Dr. Cutello of the research team. “Further experimental research is needed to determine whether the use of fear is effective.”

9 . In the long history of humans, women’s stories have often been overlooked. Yet as modern society has allowed women to speak for themselves, more and more women are standing up to choose how to live their lives. Here are five powerful films that just might inspire you to re-imagine what it means to be a woman.

Hi, Mom (2021)

Directed by Chinese comedian Jia Ling, this heartwarming comedy, about a woman who accidentally meets her mother during time travel, became a hit with audiences this year, leading the mainland box office right after Chinese New Year.

Leap (2020)

This 2020 film about the Chinese national women’s volleyball team presents their history from 1981, when they won the Women’s World Cup, to the year 2016. Actress Gong Li stars as the legendary volleyball player Lang Ping, and Peter Chen from Hong Kong is the director.

Coco Avant Chanel (2009)

The life of Coco Chanel serves as a guide to all women wishing to establish their own careers. Audrey Tautou, famous for her iconic performance in Amelie, stars as the glorious French fashion designer. It is French director Anne Fontaine’s most famous film.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

Based on the novel The Joy Luck Club, Chinese director Wang Ying tells the stories of four Chinese women and their daughters who were all born and lived in the US. Their conflicts also reflect the collision between traditional Chinese culture and American culture.

The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)

Directed by Zhang Yimou, the 1992 film describes a peasant woman Qiu Ju who lives in a rural area of China and fights for justice. It is a screen adaptation of writer Chen Yuanbin’s novel The Wan Family’s Lawsuit.