1 . From video games and museums to medical training, virtual reality (VR) has been changing our lives for the better. However, this amazing new technology has a so-far unsolvable shortcoming: motion sickness. “With modern VR systems, the possibility of motion sickness after only 15 minutes is anywhere from 40 to 70 percent.” Thomas Stoffregen, a researcher told ABC News. Indeed, some VR applications have a user-sickness rate of nearly 100 percent!

When caused by VR, this sickness is called cybersickness. It’s probably caused by sensory conflict, explains Stoffregen. When you are wearing a VR device, your body’s motion sensors cannot match the information received by your eyes. For example, when we wear a VR headset and ride a virtual roller-coaster, we think we are going up and down, but our bodies stay still. It leads to confusion of balance and spatial orientation. Sickness is our bodies’ natural response to this confusion. Adding to this problem, Stoffregen says, “Women are more likely to feel sick from the VR experience than men.”

According to a study by Bas Rokers, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, one reason could be the headsets. To work properly, VR headsets must match up with your pupil distance. Since they are designed larger than the average PD, not everyone gets the best experience.

Rokers found that when the headset PD is too large, users experience greater discomfort. Based on his studies, about 90 percent of women have a shorter PD than the headset is designed for. In comparison, only 5 percent of men had this problem. ABC News says that cybersickness presents a “serious barrier” to widespread use of VR technologies. However, people believe it will become comfortable and easy to use and that it can play a great role in our lives.

2 . According to the latest Highway Code（公路法）, insurance companies rather than individuals will be liable（有责任的）for claims if self-driving cars are involved in crashes, the Department for Transport（DfT）said.

However, the update to the Code will make it clear that drivers must be ready to take back control of vehicles when needed. While the DfT also plans to allow drivers to watch TV and films on built-in screens while using self-driving cars, it will still be illegal to use a mobile phone. These measures are temporary by the government to support the early deployment（部署）of self-driving vehicles.

There are currently no vehicles approved for self-driving on UK roads but the first models could be given the green light later this year. It comes a year after the DfT announced it would allow hands-free driving in vehicles with lane-keeping technology on congested motorways. While many cars already have “assistive” technology, drivers must remain fully in control.

Transport minister Trudy Harrison said updating the Highway Code will be a “major milestone in our safe introduction of self-driving vehicles, making our future journeys greener, safer and more reliable. ”   She added: “In doing so, we can help improve travel for all while promoting economic growth across the nation. ”The DfT believes that the development of self-driving vehicles could create around 38,000 new jobs in Britain and be worth £41.7 billion to the economy by 2035.

Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said driverless cars “promise a future where death and injury on our roads are cut significantly” but there is likely to be a “long period of transition（过渡期）” while drivers accept “much of the responsibility for what happens”.

3 . Although living on the shores, the children in the coastal villages in Kenya rarely eat seafood. In 2020, Lora lannotti, a public-health researcher at Washington University asked people why the children weren’t eating seafood but corn flour, even though all the parents fish for a living. The parents said it made more financial sense for them to sell their catch than to eat it.

So, lannotti and her team are running a controlled experiment. They have given fishers improved nets with small openings that allow young fish to escape, thus improving the health of the overfished ocean over time, and eventually increasing incomes. Then, community health workers are using home visits and messaging to encourage parents to feed their children more fish. Later the scientists will track whether children from these families eat better and are growing taller.

Lannotti is trying to deal with questions that are a major focus of the whole world looking for diets that are good for both people and the planet. More than 2 billion people are overweight or obese (肥胖), mostly in the Western world while 811 million people are not getting enough calories or nutrition, mostly in low-income nations. As the world’s population continues to rise and more people start to eat like Westerners do, the production of meat, dairy and eggs will rise by about 44% by 2050.

That causes an environmental problem alongside the health concerns. Our current industrialized food system already sends out about 1/4 of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. It also accounts for 70% of freshwater use and 40% of land coverage, and relies on fertilizers (化肥) that are responsible for much of the pollution in rivers.

“We need to make progress toward eating diets that have greatly lower ecological footprints, or it’ll be a matter of a few decades before we start to see global falls of biodiversity (生物多样性), land use and all of it.” says Sam Myers, director of the Planetary Health Alliance.

4 . Has your mom or dad ever posted a photo of you on social media that you didn’t want anyone outside your family to see? In an age when people often share personal information on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, many parents usually post photos of their children. According to a recent study, a parent will post almost 1,000 photos of a child online before the child turns 5.

Parents often post photos on social media because they want to share their child’s special moments with friends and family. Some moms and dads do it as a way to connect with other parents. They may have discussions with experienced parents about topics such as how to get kids to sleep, or how to deal with kids’ behavioral problems.

Most parents don’t ask their children for permission before posting photos of them.They feel it is not necessary to consult with their children first because the benefits outweigh any possible risks.Many of them do not fear their kids’ pictures will spread further than intended. Some may even expect unknown people to view and comment on the pictures, and thus meet more new people on the Internet. “The images I post of my children allow me to know a lot of people I wouldn’t necessarily include on my list,” said Lauren Apfel, writer and mother of four.“They have helped me create a group on social media.”

Other parents and child experts believe that kids should be consulted.They say that photos can stay online for many years and that kids should have some control over their online photos. Devorah Heitner, an author who runs workshops about kids, is of the same opinion. “Allow your children to decide whether you can share their pictures on social media,” she said.

5 . Searching online has many educational benefits. But spending more time online does not mean better online skills. Instead, a student’s ability to successfully search online increases with guidance and clear instruction. Young people often think they are already skilled searchers. Their teachers and parents often think so too. This belief means much classroom practice centers on searching to learn, hardly on learning to search. Many teachers don’t teach students how to search online. Instead, students often teach themselves. This does not result in students learning the skills they need.

For six years, I studied how young Australians use search engines. Both school students and home-schoolers showed some characteristics (特点) of online searching that aren’t beneficial. For example, both groups spent greater time on irrelevant (不相关的) websites than relevant ones and stopped searches before finding their needed information.

Search engines offer endless educational chances, but I find many students typically only search for isolated (孤立) facts, and move on. In one observation, a home-school family type “How many endangered Sumatran Tigers are there” into Google. They enter a single website where they read a single sentence. They write this “answer” down and they begin the next topic—growing seeds.

The practice means people are no better off than they were 40 years ago with a print encyclopedia (百科全书). Why not use different keywords, sites and search tabs? The student could have learned much more.

The other thing young people should keep in mind to get the full benefits of searching online is to avoid fast search. All too often we believe search can be a fast process. The home-school families in my study spent 90 seconds or less, viewing each website and searched a new topic every four minutes. But searching so quickly can mean students don’t write useful search keywords or get the information they need.

6 . As a means of dealing with loneliness and social isolation (孤立) in English towns, local police forces have begun providing specific public benches that can be used for making friends and having conversations.

The “Chat Benches”, which are now located in two different parks and outdoor areas in Somerset, are recognized by a little sign reading: “Sit here if you don’t mind someone stopping to say hello!”

The Avon and Somerset Police Department Facebook page recently published photos of their two new “Chat Benches” in Burnham and Taunton with an encouraging note for readers to stop by and use them for socialization (社交). “The sign simply helps to break the silence between strangers who find themselves sharing a common place,” says the police department. “We can all play a part. Simply stopping to say ‘hello’ to someone at the ‘Chat Bench’ could make life a little better for many people.”

According to a survey of the department, 17% of old people are only in contact with family, friends and neighbors less than once a week. This rises to about 9 million British people who suffer from loneliness and isolation each year.

The police force started the Chat Bench earlier this month to go with World Elder Abuse (虐待) Awareness Day. Though the officers say that there are many different forms of elder abuse which need our concern (关心), they hope that the Chat Bench will help to deal with senior loneliness in their communities. “The Chat Bench is a fantastic new thing and I hope people of all ages start many more conversations in the future,” says Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens.

8 . In the early years of America, the average mother had eight to ten children. Living conditions were hard. Many children died at an early age. Families needed a lot of help on the farm. So it was good to have many children.

But over the years birth rate(比率) fell. Families began to have fewer and fewer children. By 1900, the average woman had only three or four children. In 1936, during the Great Depression, the average American mother gave birth to only two children.

Things changed after World War Two. Suddenly, it seemed like every family started having babies. Parents were hopeful about the future. People felt the need for a family and security after the long, difficult years of the war. From 1950 to 1960, the number of children between the ages of five and 14 increased by more than ten million.

Many of the new parents moved to homes in the new suburbs. Usually a developer would buy land, then clear it, level it and build houses on it. Young families would buy the houses with money that they borrowed from local banks.

Life there was different. Families moving in found that their new friends were happy to help them get started. When little Bobby outgrew his clothes, his mother gave them to little Billy across the street. People felt safe enough to leave their doors unlocked.

Parents did everything they could to make life good for their children. Between 1950 and 1960, the number of boys playing on baseball teams increased from less than one million to almost six million. The number of Girl Scouts(童子军) increased by two million.

Bicycle sales doubled. And it wasn’t just two-wheeled transportation that experienced an increase after the war.

10 . When there’s not a willing ear to complain to, there’s always a willing page.     1    , but it turns out there’s another step if you actually want to feel better.

A study divided participants who were bothered by a past psychological hurt into two groups. One group was asked to write twice a week for a month about their deepest emotions about the hurt. Another group was asked to go further besides the above.    2    .

What happened?     3    . They feel something of fevers, sore throat, or coughing — over the month of keeping diary than the other group. In other words, complaining about what and who makes you sick may actually make you sick.

    4    . The growth is the sensed benefits of coping with a personal challenge. In other words, they wrote about how what didn’t kill them made them stronger, whether in terms of personal strength, spiritual development, or a greater appreciation for life.

    5    . It’s thought that meaning-making and solution-searching helps manage negative emotion because it creates a sense of control over whatever life throws at you.