Lots of foreigners don’t understand why so many Chinese people are sorrowful about Yuan Longping’s passing away.

This reminds me     1     an issue more than 20 years ago,     2     I was a Chinese journalist in the US. Some American scholars     3     (think) China could hardly realize food-sufficiency because of the     4     (limit) water resources, decrease of agricultural land due to industrial     5     (expand) and the fast population growth. Just at that time, Yuan Longping announced breakthroughs in planting the new rice.     6     (bring) to large area application, this technique improved the annual growth of rice greatly, which fed     7     population of 60 million--equal to the whole of the UK.

Western scholars’ prediction of China back then was indeed analyzing China’s problems, but they failed     8     (realize) that the Chinese people have the capability to deal with these challenges.

If they had had any knowledge of Yuan who worked devotedly for our country, they wouldn’t have made such pessimistic evaluations. Why did the Chinese people make     9    ? Why are so many predictions about China in the West     10    (accurate)? It’s time to change minds to better understand China.

5 . Having worked in the space station core module Tianhe for three months-the longest-ever human space mission in the Chinese history, three “taikonauts” of the Shenzhou-12 crew returned to Earth on Friday, hitting a new milestone in China's space exploration.

China's first self-developed space station, Tiangong, is independently constructed and operated by the country, demonstrating the country's breakthroughs in technologies concerning the astronauts' long-term stay and health care, recycling and life support system, supply of space materials and operations, as well as in-orbit maintenance.

As scheduled, the Tianzhou-3 cargo craft and the Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship will also be launched later this year todockwith the Tianhe module, and another trio of astronauts will stay in orbit for six months. For 2022, China is considering over a blitz of space missions, including the launch of the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules, two cargo spacecraft and two crewed spaceships, for the building of Tiangong, which is planned to be completed next year.

The two decades saw China launch seven manned spacecraft, two cargo spacecraft, Tiangong-1 experimental space lab and Tiangong-2 space lab, and send 12 astronauts into space, with the first “two steps” achieved, and the construction of Tiangong will mark a new peak of China's space technology.

The China Manned Space Agency has worked with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to invite UN members for scientific experiments aboard the Tiangong station. As the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)chief scientist for human exploration and operations Julie Robinson put it, “Increased scientific access to space is of scientific benefit globally, no matter who builds and operates platforms.”

There is no limit for the vast universe, nor for humanity's exploration endeavors. Tiangong, as a new outpost(前哨)in space and a platform for cooperation, will be China's gift and contribution to all humankind.

6 . Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (麻省理工学院) have turned spider webs into music——creating an strange soundtrack that could help them better understand how the spiders output their complex creations and even how they communicate.

The MIT team worked with Berlin-based artist Tomas Saraceno to take 2D (two- dimensional) laser (激光) scans of a spider web, which were linked together and made into a mathematical model that could recreate the web in 3D in VR (virtual reality). They also worked with MIT’s music department to create the virtual instrument.

“Even though the web looks really random (随机)，there actually are a lot of inside structures and you can visualize (可视化) them and you can look at them, but it’s really hard to grasp for the human imagination or human brain to understand all these structural details,” said MIT engineering professor Markus Buehler, who presented the work on Monday at a virtual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Listening to the music while moving through the VR spider web lets you see and hear these structural changes and gives a better idea of how spiders see the world, he told CNN. “Spiders use vibrations (振动) as a way to locate themselves, to communicate with other spiders and so the idea of thinking really like a spider would experience the world was something that was very important to us as spider material scientists,” Buehler said.

Spiders are able to build their webs without shelves or supports, so having a better idea of how they work could lead to the development of advanced new 3D printing techniques. “The reason why I did that is I wanted to be able to get information really from the spider world, which is very weird and mysterious,” Buehler explained. In addition to the scientific value, Buehler said the webs are musically interesting and that you can hear the sounds the spider creates during construction. “It’s unusual and eerie and scary, but finally beautiful.” he described.

In 2004, the junior high school student, now 13, launched the basketball-themed Hoops of Hope,     1     “charged” people in his neighborhood $1 for every basket he shot. Since then, thousands of youngsters have picked up on the idea and raised more than $325,000 for the cause. “It works     2     kids of my age want a chance to do something great and be part of something like this,” Gutwein told China Daily.

“I realized these kids weren’t any     3     (difference) from me, except that they were suffering     4     (terrible) and I wanted to do something to help     5     (they),” he said.

    6     the help of non-government organizations, Hoops of Hope has built a school for HIV/AIDS orphans and a medical lab in Zambia in South Africa.

Another participant, Li Yeqiao, a 15-year-old student at Beijing Bayi Middle School, told the conference how the group seeks to improve the way electronic waste     7     (deal) with, and encourages people     8     (save) water and care for animals. “We have developed 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) living habits. Our initiatives (首先行动)    9     (have) a positive impact on the local environment.” Li said.

British animal behavior expert Jane Goodall introduced the Roots & Shoots concept to China in 2000 to promote environmental and humanitarian education programs to     10     (child). There are now 300 of such groups in the country.

8 . Greying Population Stays in the Pink

Elderly people are growing healthier, happier and more independent, say American scientists.

In the last 14 years, data have been gathered on the health and lifestyles of more than 20,000 people over 65. Researchers say high blood pressure and circulation problems and other diseases of old age are troubling a smaller proportion every year.     1     . It really raises the question of what should be considered normal ageing, because the problems with old people are often not appearing until they are 70 or 75.

    2    . But there may be other contributing factors. Improvements in childhood nutrition gave today’s elderly people a better start in life.

One interesting fact is that better-educated people are likely to live longer. For example, 65-year-old women with fewer than eight years of schooling are expected, on average, to live to 82. Those who continued their education live an extra seven years.     3    .

The survey also assessed how independent people over 65 were, and again found a striking trend. Their self-reliance is probably linked to an increasing use of home medical aids, such as raised toilet seats and bath seats.     4    .Those elderly people who were independent were more likely to stay healthy in old age.

    5    . Researchers found that elderly people who felt emotionally isolated maintained higher levels of stress hormones even when asleep. So they suggest that older people live best when they feel independent but know they can get help when they need it.

9 . Facial recognition is a new technology built into all sorts of applications. It's also one of the more controversial technologies pioneered today, as it sets up deep questions regarding security versus privacy rights, and how these facial recognition applications can be safely and fairly applied.

Modern facial recognition is clearly dependent on specific technologies and algorithms (算法) that we've built during the machine learning and artificial intelligence era of the early 21st century. Specifically, most cutting-edge facial recognition programs feature a type of neural network called a convolutional (卷积) neural network (CNN). The system uses convolutions as well as other algorithm work in successive stages to do complex analysis of an image, and even identify people, animals, objects or settings through advanced analysis.

One primary piece of functionality in the CNN is feature detection. First, the face must be identified within the image context, so that the facial features can be analyzed. Methods such as the Viola-Jones are used to break down an image through color shift and local analysis of group pixels to find features like noses, ears, eyes, etc. The same facial recognition neural networks will often utilize ratios—such as the ratio from eyes to hairline, from ears to nose, or other stock facial ratios that can help with facial recognition. The image is then compared to all known faces to uniquely identify the identity of that person.

So, with all this winning technology the facial recognition engine can be surprisingly adept at learning how to recognize a particular individual’s face in a crowd. Facial recognition software is applied in payment processing to substitute cards with faces, for access and security purposes, and to identify criminals.

Primarily, companies that have used abundant public Internet images to pull together training sets for sophisticated facial recognition programs face blowback and resistance from some of their customers, including law enforcement departments, and from U.S. legislators, consumer advocates and citizens at large.