Feng Boyao and Meng Shuqi, students at No. 37 Middle School in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, spent nearly a year developing a new kind of Braille (布莱叶盲文) reading device and     1     (win) the first prize at a provincial-level youth science and technology competition.

A large number of Braille contact dots have been set up on the device,     2     is 50 centimeters long and 10 cm high. It can make Braille content move across a computer screen via     3     application.

“Education for blind people     4     (be) mainly based on Braille books, but very few Braille books can be found in the marketplace, or they are outdated and cannot meet the needs     5     the blind. Only a small number of people have access to Braille reading devices,     6     they may sell for as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,549) or more,” Feng said.

The cost of     7     (they) device is much lower, so it will be     8     (advantage) for market promotion. In addition, because of its magnetic structure, the content     9     (display) on the device is said to be more accurate than others. Feng and Meng hope the device can help reduce the number of blind people who are in     10     (poor) for lack of education.

5 . Office Manners

Be punctual. As a newcomer, you should arrive early, not just on the first day and don’t be the first to leave at the end of the day.    1    It shows that you respect your colleagues’ time and, in return, they will respect your time, too.

Respect other people’s privacy. Knock before you enter someone’s office and do not read any correspondence lying on somebody’s desk. If you need to discuss a private matter with a colleague, make sure nobody else can overhear you.    2    

Be neat and clean.    3     It shows respect for both your colleagues and clients and is a sign that you are professional. Keep your personal workspace clean and neat at all times, for a messy desk will make people think that you’re an unorganized person.

    4    Remember to leave the photocopier in working condition. Return the stapler (订书机) that you borrowed with at least a few staples left inside. When you use up all the paper in the printer, put more in it for the next person. If a machine jams, try to undo the jam or to tell somebody else about it.

Don’t disturb others. Always apologize if you interrupt a discussion, someone’s concentration or other activities. Be aware of how loudly you may be speaking. If people in other offices comment on your conversations, perhaps your voice is too loud.    5    

In short, office manners are about being respectful and polite in the office. It is an essential part of growing professionally and becoming a more mature person in the business world.

6 . China is one of the countries most affected by typhoons in the world. While summer is the peak typhoon season, autumn typhoons might be more dangerous.

In September, Typhoon Conson and Chanthu formed successively in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Chanthu has become a super typhoon, bringing “gale-force winds and rainstorms to regions including Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu,” reported Xinhua on Sept14.

It’s no surprise that super typhoons occur in September. From the vernal equinox (春分), the subsolar point (太阳直射点) moves from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer (北回归线), heating the tropical ocean in the northern hemisphere(半球). The sea temperature reaches the highest from August to September, according to Weather China website.

“The warming ocean, especially the warming northern South China Sea, enhances typhoons before landfall(着陆),” said Xiao Zhixiang, a researcher of the Guangxi Institute of Meteorological Sciences, in the conference of the Japan Geoscience Union in 2020.

Autumn brings cold air, and when that cold air meets a typhoon, it could make it more destructive. “This will develop into a powerful typhoon due to the greater temperature difference between the cold continent and the hot sea,” said Woo-Sik Jung, a researcher at Inje University in South Korea, at the conference. “In other words, the larger the temperature difference, the stronger the wind, the more powerful the autumn typhoon can be compared to the summer typhoon.”

Megi, the 13th typhoon of 2010, was generated in October. Before making landfall in Taiwan, it entered the South China Sea and then headed north to land in Zhangpu, Fujian province, where Megi met cold air from the north. The typhoon led to more than 1,000millimeters of rainfall in Ilan, Taiwan, resulting in many deaths, according to Weather China.

Autumn typhoons are not only powerful but also often unpredictable. Three typhoons “with the most complicated paths in China” include Wayne in 1986, Nat in 1991 and Nari in2001. Among them, Nat and Nari were formed in autumn, according to the National Meteorological Center.

8 . This year’s Olympic Games have been closed to most spectators (观众) because of COVID-19, but the eyes of the world are still on the athletes thanks to five extra cameras—the first step in a 3D tracking system that supplies spectators with instant insights into each step of a race.

The tracking system being used in Tokyo, an Intel product called 3DAT, feeds live footage (影像) into the cloud. There, an artificial intelligence program uses deep learning to analyze an athlete’s movements and identifies key performance characteristics such as top speed and slowdown. The system shares that information with viewers by displaying the action of slow-motion, highlighting key moments. The whole process, from capturing the footage to broadcasting the analysis, takes less than 30 seconds.

“It’s like having your own personal commentator point things out to you in the race,” says Jonathan Lee, director of the Olympic technology group.

To train their Olympic AI via machine learning, Lee and his team had to capture as much footage of best athletes as they could. They needed recordings of human bodies performing specific moves, but the preexisting footage shows average people in motion, Lee says. “People aren’t usually seven feet in the air,” he notes, but world-class high jumpers reach such heights regularly.

In the footage, a team at Intel record every part of the body—eyes, nose, shoulders, and more. Once those key points were identified, the model began connecting them in three dimensions (维度) until it had a simplified performance of an athlete’s form. Lee thinks the AI could help everyone from Olympians to average gymgoers correct their form and track changes in their moves that may indicate upcoming injury. “Long-term, what this technology will do is help improve an athlete’s performance by giving them more information,” two-time Olympic champion Ashton Eaton said.

10 . TEDEd Hi Katherine!

This December, the TED-Ed team will host a series of 4 calls for students to learn about climate change, as part of our larger TED Countdown Initiative (方案)

Details about call series:

Each week during the month of December, we’ll meet at the same time on Zoom (an online meeting APP). Students should join in the calls on their own. We’d like students to be able to attend at least 3 of the 4 calls.

Register your students’ interest:

As we plan the time when we will meet with students, we’d love to see how many students are interested in this opportunity. Please share this interest with your students so they can register their interest. In this form we’ll ask them for their parent’s email address for permission.

Share this interest form with your students:

https∶//airtable. com/shr4U7DICbrdHuaGM

More about TED Countdown:

On January 25, we’re hosting the Countdown Summit in Scotland— the firstTED conference focusing on climate solutions. In April, TED hosted an online meeting and announced our plan to help the planet. And as always，education plays an important role in this mission (使命). That’s why we have chosen talks for students to do together virtually for a deeper understanding of this global issue and solutions.

We hope your students join us!

Please note that this event is only for studenst aged 3-19, in high school and below!