3 . In the joyful summer Chadalavada spent with Jayasree, his grandmother in 2018, the pair watched endless movies. Late one evening, Jayasree, who had recently been diagnosed (诊断) with Alzheimer’s, got up in her nightdress and went to make tea at her home in India. After she returned to her bedroom, Chadalavada went into the kitchen to find that his grandmother had left the gas on!

Chadalavada decided to invent a wearable device to help people like his grandmother. Now aged 17, Chadalavada is ready to start making the Alpha Monitor. The device, which can be worn as an armband, sets off an alarm when the wearer with Alzheimer’s starts to move and warns a caregiver if the patient falls or wanders off.

Most similar devices run on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so when a person moves out of their frequencies’ limited range the connection is lost and with it the monitoring. But the Alpha Monitor can detect a person more than a mile away in cities and three miles in the countryside thanks to the long-range technology, known as LoRa, it uses.

Teaching himself with YouTube videos about robotics and electronics, Chadalavada has developed several prototypes (模型). To understand the needs of people with Alzheimer’s, he spent time in a day centre run by the Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India. There, the cofounder told him that the device “had to be something light that can be worn on any part of the body”. She says: “Many patients don’t like having to wear a watch and they take it off.”

In March, when Chadalavada’s school exams are over, he will put the finishing touches to the monitor, with the aim of getting the device ready for market by September. He is confident that it should be sold at an affordable price for most people.

Chadalavada hopes to study robotics at a university abroad. His aim is simple: “I want to create products to help people in India for the whole world.”

6 . I used to stutter (口吃) quite badly. I felt very ________ , like I was less of a human being.

I didn’t have any ________ when I left special school. So I got a job as a trainee hotel porter. I enjoyed it because I was meeting new people and earning my own ________ . I felt like a proper adult. But the other men ________ me mentally because of my disability. They’d imitate (模仿) me ________ because of my speech impediment (障碍). I got very down. I was ________ inside.

The stepping stone to self-belief for me was ________ I got help from KeyRing—an organization which helps disabled people to live ________ . I couldn’t write very well, but I could ________ that. Apps on computers meant I could dictate (口授) my emails. I got the government ________ for disabled people in work. It paid for me to help with paperwork two mornings a week.

________ I heard about a job going at the human rights charity CHANGE. I got an ________ that got me the job of international project consultant. I travel all over the world to ________ professionals to work better with people with learning disabilities. This builds my ________ . I lost my stutter in the end.

My learning disability was a bit of me, but it doesn’t ________ me. It’s just a label people put on me. It hasn’t stopped me having a life.

7 . Bottled water has long been marketed as a safe drink—if it doesn’t come straight from a mountain spring, it’s at least clean and free of chemicals. But a new study demonstrates that bottled water may not be so safe when it comes to microscopic plastic pollutants capable of passing into the bloodstream.

For years scientists have raised the alarm over microplastics, which form when plastics break down into increasingly smaller particles (微粒), ranging from five millimeters down to one micrometer. Previous studies have found that a liter of bottled water can contain tens of thousands of identifiable plastic particles. But they stopped at the one micrometer level due to technological restrictions.

The study used a new technology to find even smaller particles, and detected an average240,000 plastic particles per liter of bottled water. About 90% of the particles were considered nanoplastics, smaller than one micrometer. Unlike microplastics, they are capable of passing through some organs like lungs into the bloodstream. From there they can stay in the heart muscle and other organs, pass into the brain, and even into the bodies of unborn babies.

So far, little research shows what nanoplastics exactly do once they enter the bloodstream. But there is much evidence that chemicals used in plastic production are bad for human health. Even if nanoplastics themselves are not deleterious, they can serve as carriers for the dangerous chemicals, increasing the risk of cancer and impacting key organs such as the heart.

“There is a huge world of nanoplastics to be studied,” said the researchers. Even if nanoplastics make up 90% of the number of plastic particles found in bottled water, they make up far less in mass, they said. However, this fact provides little comfort: It’s the numbers rather than mass that matter; and the smaller things are, the more readily they can get inside us.

8 . The impact of technology on language is a topic that often causes concern, with many assuming that it is simply ruining it. However, language experts resist such pessimism, noting that there is little evidence to support the view that speech is getting worse. Gretchen McCulloch, in her book Because Internet, focuses on what can be learned about language from the internet rather than talking about its supposed negative effects.

McCulloch compares studying language online to growing bacteria (细菌) in a Petri dish,where trends emerge and disappear quickly, allowing language experts to observe changes that would otherwise take a considerable amount of time. The influence of strong ties like friends or family vs weaker ties on language change is analyzed, with computer simulations (模拟) revealing that having both strong and weaker ties helps spread updates in a community.

The role of social media platforms in language change is also discussed. Twitter, with its mix of strong and weak ties, is shown to drive more language change than Facebook, which is controlled by stronger ties. Emoji is highlighted as a universal digital expression of gestures, not a language. Additionally, there is evidence that the use of internet“innovations”such as“omg”dates back to pre-computer eras.

McCulloch’s book focuses on the birth of a new medium rather than a new language. The rise of mass writing on the internet, characterized by frequent, error-filled, and short-lived communication, challenges traditional ideas about writing’s importance. McCulloch suggests future historians should see this as a return to more casual (随意的) language, paying more attention to the value of tools that improve social interaction online. The book argues against the idea that these changes might lead to the end of “real” writing, advocating for an appreciation of anything that enhances human connection and the enjoyment of each other’s company.

9 . Cruise through many neighborhoods or parks around the world, and you will find no shortage of well-mowed expanses of grass. Lawns (草坪) do look attractive.     1     Additionally, they can require environmentally questionable practices to maintain. Researchers and landscape architects are increasingly considering alternatives that are more sustainable, demand fewer resources and help people connect more intimately with nature. Here follows an edited excerpt of the conversation between researchers MariaIgnatieva and Marcus Hedblom.

Why did lawns become so popular?

    2     They were like a special frontier that separated cities and towns from the wilderness. A lawn was always a symbol of how a civilized society should be. That’s why it was so powerful. And of course, they are also important for recreation.

What environmental problems are lawns causing?

Lawns are homogenizing the environment, not only in terms of biodiversity but also visually. You compare countries’ and cities’ urban landscapes around the world, and they look exactly the same.     3    Mowers burn fossil fuels and emit gases that heat up the atmosphere.

    4       

You have to find your own local solution. We can take inspiration from the natural plant communities around us. In suburban and rural areas, that might mean having a meadow or prairie. In other places, it might be a savanna like environment or mountain plants. You can have a “grass-free” lawn; with only low-growing plants that create the same effect as a lawn, and you can walk on it.

How can we persuade people to adopt these alternatives?

When people see them, they appreciate them and like them.     5     We also have to try to change the minds of decision makers, including politicians. We need to show the public there are different ways of handling our urban environment and making it better.

10 . Leadership is a quality that is hard to define. Everyone can think of inspiring leaders from history but managers who think they can base their style on Nelson Mandela or Elizabeth I are suffering from misunderstandings of greatness.

The biggest mistake is to consider leadership entirely equal to charisma(魅力). Billy McFarland was just 25 when he set up the Fyre festival which promised attendees a luxury experience on a deserted island in the Bahamas. As shown by the Netflix documentary, “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened”, Mr McFarland was an unusual salesman. He convinced investors that he was a visionary businessman and persuaded talented young people to work for him.

But he lacked the skills to put his vision into practice. Festival guests arrived to find their food consisted of cheese sandwiches, rather than first-class cuisine. They were housed not in luxury villas, but in tents left over from a hurricane-relief program. The whole event ended with Mr McFarland being sentenced to six years in prison.

His example could have been a case study for the book by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic— “Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?(and how to fix it)”. As an organisational psychologist, he points out that people tend to assume that confident individuals are competent, when there is no actual relationship between the two qualities. Those confident people are promoted and then their abilities turn out to be over-estimated.

Mr Chamorro-Premuzic argues that competence is more important than charisma or confidence. Managers need enough presence to persuade their teams to follow the business plan, but they should think in terms of coaching rather than inspiration. Employees are more likely to be engaged with their work if they get frequent feedback from their bosses, and if they are involved in setting their own goals. Another key factor in leadership is the ability to set a good example. Subordinates(下属)notice what behaviour gets rewarded and which standards are set by the person at the top.