2 . In battling the timber poachers who enter the thick Sierra Madre forests near his home, Larry Garaes has found a new support: solar panels.

With solar chargers, the radios he and other forest rangers (护林人) rely on no longer run out of power on multi-day operations in the mountains.

“Communication between rangers is a lot better. Now, we can catch the poachers while they are in the act because we can coordinate (使协调) our moves quietly without turning to shout at the next ranger — unlike before,” Garaes said.

Access to clean energy is bringing a range of unexpected benefits around the world. On the longest mountain range in the Philippines, those benefits include better forest protection — and power for tribal people who once lacked it.

More than 2 million households — or about 10 percent of all households — in the Philippines lack electricity, according to a 2017 report by the country’s Department of Energy.About three quarters are in remote rural locations, in a country spread over thousands of islands, according to the Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG), which is trying to get them connected.Because bringing the national grid (网格) power to many of those people is not cost effective, the state National Power Corporation has charged SPUG with setting up and running small power plants in these areas. So far 327 such plants have been established. Government plans to call for 100 percent electrification of the country by 2022.

“Government has to do its work to connect all those areas that are not yet connected to the grid,” said Edmundo Veloso Jr. “But all but one of the new generation plants use diesel fuel, he said — even though transport of fuel can be a big problem in remote areas. Diesel is the fastest and the only technology available at the moment for off-grid areas. Diesel is still the cheapest in terms of capital outlay (开支).”

A cashless society is defined as one that doesn’t use cash in monetary transactions (交易). These societies favor alternative means of payment, such     1     credit cards, or contactless payment.

Of all the companies     2     (move) closer to becoming cashless, most people agree that Sweden is the closest. 85% of the country has access to online banking and only 2% of the country’s transactions consist of cash.

There     3     (be) a number of reasons for this cashless trend. Sweden has access to a popular payment app     4     (call) Swish, which more than 50% of the country uses. But the     5     (big ) catalyst (引发变化的因素) so far is that most Swedish merchants don’t access cash payment.

China also has a vast cashless market,    6     is mostly dominated by Tencent’s WeChat Pay or Alipay, which is owned by Alibaba. But unlike many other countries, China hasn’t embraced (欣然接受) credit card payment. Instead, most Chinese consumers make payment by scanning QR codes (二维码) on     7     (they) phones.

Most merchants request payment via QR codes and it’s not uncommon     8     (see) QR codes located all throughout China. And this trend is starting to spread to other countries that have a lot of Chinese     9     (travel).

The growing cashless trend has led many people to wonder     10     the U.S. will eventually go cashless. It is possible since U.S. consumers are increasingly moving away from cash and embracing other forms of payment.

5 . A new study shows that U.S. teens see more television commercials (广告) for alcohol than for jeans, sneakers, or other teen products, the New York Times reported Dec. 18.

For the study, the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University studied the 208,909 alcohol commercials on television. They found that nearly 25 percent of the ads were viewed mainly by teenagers, rather than adults.

Furthermore, 12-to-20-year-olds viewed more commercials for beer and other alcoholic drinks than products marketed directly to young people, such as gum, snacks, and juice. “No one is watching what the industry is doing, and the industry is in denial (拒绝承认),” said David A. Kessler, dean of the School of Medicine at Yale and an adviser to CAMY.

The alcohol industry uses voluntary rules to reduce the number of ads seen by those under age 21. The rules say that ads should not air during programs where at least half of the audience is underage (未成年的).

“We do not forgive illegal underage drinking under any circumstances,” said Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute. “This industry does not, and never has, targeted our advertising to people who can’t legally buy our products.”

However, the report found that alcohol ads ran during 13 of the 15 most popular shows for teenagers, including “Seventh Heaven,” “Gilmore Girls, ” “Dark Angel,” “That ‘70s Show,” “Friends,” “E.R.,” and sporting events.

Jim O’Hara, executive director of CAMY, said the industry rules are false. He added, “These standards do not protect youth from exposure and overexposure to alcohol advertising and marketing.”

7 . What’s your baby doing right now? I hope he or she is not rolling on the floor. Such behaviour might seem natural and age-appropriate but this laid-back environment could come back to haunt you at a later date.

Eventually you may be forced to reflect upon those wasted opportunities. In allowing your baby to unproductively behave just like, well, a baby, you may be failing to foster his or her personal growth. Are you denying your child the chance to achieve his or her full potential as a well-rounded baby?

You see, some parents are hot-housing their infants as we speak. While your baby’s programme revolves around the traditional routines of sleeping, eating and playing, other people’s offspring are on the fast-track to certain giftedness. And Baby Einstein DVDs, which were all the rage when I was a new mother, are really the least of your problems.

Ever eager to exploit our perceived inadequacies, smart marketers have found something else for parents to feel guilty about. There’s a manufactured fear that we’re squandering those valuable moments when a baby’s brain is said to be like a sponge, ready and willing to soak up new information at an alarming rate.

I’ve never seen the point of deliberately setting up your little one to be more advanced than his or her peers. I like the idea of babies just being babies and children just being children. Anyway, if they can read at the age of three then what will they learn in their first year of school?

One thing’s for sure: for some people parenting has taken on the proportions of a competitive sport. Some children wrestle with after-school activities every day of the week. Others are enrolled in extra tuition — sometimes simply to reach an acceptable standard and other times in order to be top of the class. There are tennis camps, swim academies and dancing schools. Some households even speak English downstairs and French upstairs. What? That’s not how you run your home? Oh dear. I see bilingualism passing your child by, for sure.

It’s odd — we’re always talking about the healthy work-life balance and know that working long hours can lead to stress, anxiety, and    1     (depress). Yet, we continue to devote more and more time     2     our jobs. In fact, research shows that 80% of workers answer emails and return phone calls after hours.

People believe long hours on the job to be proof of their work ethic (职业道德). And no matter how much we’d like     3     (think) there’s a direct correlation between hours worked and results produced, it might not actually be the case. Quite the contrary — doing overtime     4     (find) to lead to lower productivity.

A study     5     was made by Ford Motor Company in the 1990s already showed that every additional 20 hours of work could only increase productivity     6     (temporary) before it drops. Another research indicates that working more     7     48 hours a week is associated with significant declines in productivity, more     8     (mistake), and more mental health problems.

Clearly, doing overtime     9     (be) not a sustainable way of working, and that’s why it’s time for us to rid     10     (us) of the always-on mentality. The key is not to add more working hours to your day but to increase efficiency during your working hours. But how can we achieve this?

10 . It’s cool to be a fool in school, obviously. Research from Florida Atlantic University shows that aggressive, troublesome adolescents often end up becoming quite ________ among their peers (同龄人).

Importantly, researchers explain that being popular and having friends aren’t one in the same. Popularity ________ that everyone knows you, but they may not necessarily ________ you as a good friend. Study authors theorize that certain children ________ popularity to lots of friends. Why?

Being popular is thought a major status symbol for an ________. While it is certainly ________ that many popular children are fun and ________ , others are troublemakers.

The team at FAU performed a study to test their ________ that disruptive (破坏性的) children often start conflicts with their fellow classmates to ________ their social standing and become more popular. The results showed that higher initial levels of peer-reported ________ and disruptiveness were indeed associated with an ________ in peer-reported popularity during the semester. This was especially true for kids reporting frequent ________ with peers.

Aggression, ________ , occurs in the heat of the moment during a conflict of some kind. Researchers theorize that many kids just want to avoid quarrels, or perhaps even ________ harm. In such cases they usually ________ when challenged by an aggressive peer. These ________ “ provide visible evidence of dominance (支配地位) and ___ short-term gains in popularity” for the aggressor, the authors ________.

While researchers don’t think ________ is enough by itself to boost up (提高) one’s overall social status, they do ________ it can be used as an effective way of improving certain aspects of popularity.