1 . In recent years, aggression on social media have become commonplace. More than half of the victims said they didn’t know the identity of the perpetrator (作恶者). Most people agreed that the anonymity (匿名) of the Internet provides cover for nasty and harassing (骚扰) behavior.

Does this growing aggression on social media give us a glimpse of our real human nature? Are we-at our core-aggressive beasts? It’s true that hate crimes are on the rise, and political divisions app ear to be growing. The level of public bitterness-especially online-is substantial. But I don’t believe that’s because social media has unlocked our cruel human nature.

As an evolutionary anthropologist, I have spent years researching our transformation as a species. Over the past two million years, we have evolved from groups of apelike beings armed with sticks and stones to the creators of cars, rockets, and nations. Our bigger brains have allowed us to bond and cooperate in more complex and diverse ways than any other animal. Meanwhile, “you are whom you meet.” How we perceive, experience, and act in the world is shaped by who and what surround us on a daily basis. This process has deep evolutionary roots and gives humans what we call a shared reality.

I would argue that the rise in online aggression is a product of our evolutionary social skills, the social media boom, and the specific political, economic and social context where we find ourselves. This explosive combination has opened up a space for increasingly more people to fan the flames of aggression and insult online. Aggressive behavior-especially to those you don’t have to confront face-to-face-is easier than it’s ever been. And for the aggressor, there are often no consequences.

Yes, it seems that the world is getting more aggressive, but that’s not because we are more aggressive at our core. It’s because we haven’t been standing up against bullying, abuse, and aggressive harassment, and promoting pro-social attitudes and actions our contemporary world demands. In person and on social media, we must do both.

Bookstore brand targets isolated areas closer to cultural traditions, helping them open a prosperous new chapter, Yang Yang reports.

Five years ago, Qian Xiaohua, founder of Librairie Avant-Garde, a bookstore brand based in Nanjing, Jiangsu province,     1     (come) to Kaiping, a county-level city of Jiangmen, Guangdong province, to look for a site in the countryside     2     might be transformed into a modern bookstore. “We believe that Chinese culture     3     (root) in the rural areas.     4     (promote) Chinese culture, we first need to bring the rural areas to life. So, for us, opening bookstores in the countryside is more     5     (value) and meaningful than doing so in the cities,” says Qian.

Diaolou refers to the multi-story defensive village houses in Kaiping, combining Chinese and Western structural and decorative forms. In June 2007, UNESCO added Kaiping Diaolou and Villages to     6     (it) list of World Heritage sites. Five years ago, while traveling around to visit the Diaolou, Qian was impressed by the five giant white-walled Diaolou towers. Light and spacious, they     7     (full) satisfied Librairie Avant-Garde’s     8     (requirement) for a public space.

After a year and a half of design and construction, on November 11, Jiangmen Kaiping Avant-Garde Bookshop was opened, covering an area of 1,553 square meters.     9     total of 38,000 books are displayed throughout the five buildings. The opening day saw hundreds of people from nearby cities     10     (visit) the bookstore. This bookstore can enrich people’s cultural life and improve local tourism.

    1     majority of people suffer from so-called “Just-me-ism”. That is, you leave the tap     2    (run) while brushing your teeth, leave a light on when going out or drop a piece of waste and are unwilling to pick it     3    . It is absolutely wrong, but in your opinion, it doesn’t matter if only one person does it and no one will know it. But if there are millions of people doing like this, resources would be wasted and litter would be dropped, which     4    (be) quite harmful to our environment.

Therefore,     5    (encourage) people to take measures to protect the environment, Roots & Shoots     6    (establish) by Jane Goodall. The     7    (organise) is called Roots & Shoots because roots can form a firm foundation while seemingly weak shoots can break open brick walls to reach the light. The roots and shoots are you, your friends and young people all around the world, who can change the world into a better place.

Every individual is     8    (value) and useful to the world. Every individual can play a role in our world. It is every individual     9     matters. Now you can make a choice to make a difference to our environment and make Roots & Shoots     10    (root) in everyone’s heart!

6 . Would it surprise you to learn that the vast majority of adults—around 75 per cent—tell up to two lies every day?     1    

Why people lie

Over 20 % of lies are told in a bid to avoid other people; 20 % are jokes or pranks; 14 %are told in self-protection; 13 % are attempts to make a good impression; 11 % are told to protect others; and 9% are for personal gain.

How to spot a liar

So, are there any body language giveaways that can help “out” someone who’s lying? Back in 2015, University of Michigan researchers identified some common behaviours among liars, including grimacing(作怪相), looking directly at the questioner in order to appear trustworthy, or looking to the right, and overcompensating by gesturing with both hands.     2    .

    3    

Vocal factors can offer a good clue, too. People who are being deliberately dishonest—or who lack certainty in what they’re saying— tend to speak slower and place less emphasis on the middle of words, according to a previous study.Interestingly, the researchers also found that listeners automatically registered these voice changes as a sign of dishonesty, even when they weren’t being asked to do so.

It’s important to remember though that none of these pointers offer undeniable evidence that you’re dealing with a liar.     4    

How to cope with a liar

Instead of accusing someone outright of lying, try “fact-checking” what they’re saying by asking lots of questions. Deceptive people generally can’t provide specifics and their tales start to unravel(解体). Catch someone out in this way, which at least kickstarts a more honest conversation.

    5    If a friend fakes a headache because they’re afraid you’re going to be angry with them for cancelling a night out, it probably requires a heart-to-heart, rather than an argument. Or ask yourself if you’ve ever done a similar thing to them, and if you have, let it go.

7 . It’s a connected world, and nearly every device, appliance, and machine with some sort of computer running inside it can be connected to others through the Internet of Things (IoT). What a great leap forward in this journey we call human civilization! But does this recent advancement come with a dark secret that can someday turn on us? Are smart devices spies around us?

Many smart appliances today, particularly smartphones and virtual assistants are equipped with voice command capabilities. They can, therefore, listen to and record your comments and conversations even after they’ve carried out your original command. Concerns about devices turning on voice command by themselves and listening even when you do not enable the feature have also been raised. The question then is: What actually happens when your smart device is listening? How much information gets recorded, and where does this eventually end up in?

Take a listening app called “Alphonso” as an example. You can’t download it directly from the App Store, but it comes with some games and apps that you can fix. While you are playing games on your smartphone, Alphonso comes to life and listens to what you are watching on TV. It then records this information and sends it to some server somewhere, and the data is analyzed to build a profile about your TV-viewing habits. Alphonso proves that devices can listen to what you say and do.

Alphonso proves that devices can listen to what you say and do. Now, what’s to stop devices from gathering other data? They can be made to look at chat and text messages or your calendar, for example, everything about you would be fair game. Some popular smart home platforms can control the platforms to fall silent but still remain active, capturing every word you speak that can potentially land you in some sort of phishing (网络欺诈) trouble. This seems to be the price we have to pay for the convenience that technology gives us. Privacy seems non-existent. So we should thus take steps to protect ourselves from this eventuality.

9 . Consumers in the US spend more money when doing the grocery shopping online, but spend less on sweets and desserts than when they shop in physical stores.

In recent years, online grocery shopping has grown massively. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount consumers spend through online shopping has more than doubled in the US.

Laura Zatz at Harvard University and her colleagues have looked at how people’s habits change when they’re spending in-store compared with shopping online. They hired 137 participants, who were regular consumers of two supermarkets in the US state of Maine. Each participant was the key shopper for their household, and they also had experience in shopping both online and in-store.

The researchers studied each participant for a total of 44 weeks and tracked what items they purchased. They collected data from a total of 5,573 transactions (交易), 1,062 of which were made online and 4,511 in-store. “They purchased more items when shopping online, both in terms of overall number of items but also a greater variety of unique items,’ says Zatz. On average, participants spent 44% more per transaction when shopping online than in-store.

The results show that people spent more money on sweets and desserts when shopping in-store, spending on average $ 2. 50 more per transaction. However, there was no difference in spending on sugary drinks.

It seems that in-store shopping attracts shoppers to unhealthier food choices. “When you’re shopping in-store, you’re facing all sorts of stimuli (刺激) that could make you more willing to buy unhealthy food groups when you might not have otherwise planned to,” says Zatz. Unhealthy food choices are often placed in supermarkets at the end of aisles(走道) and at checkouts, where you can easily see, touch or even smell the food.

“The findings could help consumers reflect on how to avoid unhealthy food purchasing choices, especially as complex marketing is coming online,” says Zatz. “Besides offering seemingly appealing discounts, online stores may follow physical stores in many ways. You can never be too careful when shopping online.”

10 . In gardens across Britain the grass has stopped growing, which is not drought-stricken. In fact, it is greener and cleaner than ever before. That is because the lawns(草坪)are actually artificial substitutes.

Britons are fascinated by lawns. Country estates(庄园)have long competed to have the most perfectly cut and polished grassland. “What you’re saying in big loud capital letters, is ‘I’m so terribly wealthy’” says Fiona Davison of the RHS(皇家园林协会). With the coming of grass-cutting machines in 1830, the middle classes joined the fun.

But now Britons have fallen in love with artificial grass. Evergreens UK, which sells the stuff, says it has seen a 120% rise in sales since 2015. Artificial grass is popular with families who have children or dogs and don’t want mud dragged through their houses. It has another charm factor, too—people now see gardens as “outside rooms”—pairing carpets of artificial grass with delicately decorated seating and hot containers.

Not everyone is a fan. Artificial grass contains microplastics that ruin soil and risk flooding. A study finds carthworms gain 14% less body weight when operating under rubber, a form of artificial grass, which might not be a problem for its fans, as wormholes are regular disgusting things, but it disappoints green types. Ms Davison says a group of wildlife-loving gardeners is blooming, many having caught the bug during COVID-19 lockdowns. For example, a landscape designer says they like things less neat and try “to capture that wild clement”. These cco-gardeners are influenced by rewilding projects and are more likely to be environmentalists.

While three written documents signed by many people have tried to stop artificial grass spreading, the government says regulating what people do in their backyards is wrong. The RHS is concerned about artificial grass, but prefers persuasion to laws. “We say ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom’,” says Ms Davison.