1 . In the not-too-distant future, driverless cars will drive our streets. These cars will need to make quick decisions to avoid endangering human lives — both inside and outside of the cars.

To determine attitudes toward these decisions, a group of researchers created a modern version of the classic exercise known as “the Trolley problem”. They raised a series of moral dilemmas (道德困境) involving as elf-driving car with brakes (刹车) that suddenly give out. Should the car change direction to avoid a group of passers-by, killing the driver? Or should it kill the people on foot but spare the driver? Does it matter if the passers by are men or women? Children or older people? Doctors or murderers?

To put these questions to a large range of people, the researchers built a website called Moral Machine, where anyone could click through the situations and say what the car should do “Help us learn how to make machines moral,” a video asks on the site.

What the researchers found was a series of near universal preferences, no matter where someone was from. People everywhere believed the moral thing for the car to do was to spare the young over the old, spare humans over animals, and spare the lives of many over the few. The in findings were published Wednesday in the journal.

Researchers found that the 130 countries with more than 100 respondents (调查对象) could be grouped into three groups that showed similar moral preferences. And these preference seemed to be connected with social differences. Respondents from collectivistic cultures, which “value the respect for older members of the community,” showed a weaker preference for sparing younger people.

The researchers noted that the study’s results should be used with extreme carefulness and they shouldn’t be considered the final word on societal preferences — especially since these respondents were much fewer than they had expected.

7 . What is citizen science? Citizen science generally involves groups of people or amateur scientists helping gather data for use in nature or wildlife studies to support conservation. So whether you give your time online, or sign up for a practical project with a wildlife or nature organization close to home, your generosity and kindness will not only help nature, but do you the world of good as well.

When we give we feel good. We experience what scientists describe as the’ warm glow effect’or ‘helper’s high’, now known to be caused by a release of endorphins(内啡肽) in the brain. Research into this effect discovered that giving to charities activates the areas of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection and trust.Put simply,altruism(利他行为)is a proven path to good mental health.

When our altruism is related to nature, and in particular when we give our time and effort, the rewards for our well being, or our health and happiness, are far-reaching. Whether we’re working to maintain freshwater ponds at the weekend, or contributing to a citizen science survey by monitoring wildlife in our back garden, our care and kindness has the power to lift our mood and strengthen our self-respect, especially when we learn new skills and earn the added satisfaction of accomplishing new tasks.

The hands-on aspect of taking part in nature and wildlife conservation projects has also been shown to reduce stress, anxiety and low mood. In 2020 a three-year study by the uk Wildlife Trusts found that 95 percent of participants who reported low mental well-being at the start of volunteering, recorded an improvement in their mental health after six weeks, which increased further after 12 weeks.

Alan Murray, head of volunteering at the RSPB, also agrees: “We believe our volunteers keep coming back because of nature’s power to restore, uplift and inspire and we’re confident that the more time people spend connecting with wildlife the more they feel moved to protect it."

8 . Every minute, every hour, every day, we are losing precious time to our devices (设备).Technology has taken over much of our lives,especially over the last two years as school and work went online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    1     No, sadly. But there are things that you can do to make sure you don’t waste your time scrolling (滚屏)in the future.

    2     This is called social economizing, which means you choose how to use your time. You know exactly what you want to do, what brings you joy or closer to your goals, so choose to do those things.

If you feel an urge to jump on social media or scroll websites when you have a few spare minutes, don’t feel bad. This is normal.     3     This can include cleaning your room, organizing your closet or even replying to important messages.

Another great way to help reduce the desire to check your device is to turn off notifications (通 知).In the 1890s, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov conducted experiments to measure the build-up of saliva (唾液) in the mouths of dogs under a variety of conditions. Like the dogs in the experiments, people are conditioned to respond each time they hear a ping.     4    

As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.    5     Simply put your phone, tablet or computer in another room or away in a desk so that it can’t be seen.

China’s Latest Craze: Scripted Murders

In cities throughout China, young people are flocking to clubs to play a game that can be translated as “scripted homicide”,     1     they become different characters and spend hours solving fake murders. “Scripted homicides gain     2     (popular) among the youth. “However, there’s a huge demand for good scrips that     3     (be) just not met,” said Zhang Yi, 28, a Shanghai resident who played more than 90 games in just over a year.

Scripted homicides,     4     (know) as jubensha in Chinese, require players     5     (gather) in a group to discuss a fake murder or other crime. Each player is assigned a character from a script, including one who plays the murderer. Then they engage     6     a role-playing game, asking the host and each other questions,     7     they determine which one of them did the deed or they vote on who they think the murderer might be.

Generally, it     8     (consider) that a successful scripted homicide offers laughs, tension and maybe even tears. “They will cry,” said Poker Zhang, who owns script-writing business in the city of Chengdu. “ Players cry a lot.” The story may be     9     (imagine), but they provide a real-world alternative for young Chinese people who spend     10     (dramatic) increasing amounts of time on their screens.