Time to Learn How to Sort
Whatever we don't want —- no matter whether it's eggshells, newspapers, soda cans or old socks —- it's all garbage. And garbage goes to the garbage bin. There seems to be wrong with that. But do you really know how to throw away garbage properly?
China (promote) garbage sorting for over a decade, but for the majority of the public the concept hasn't sunk in. Shenzhen issued a new regulation. It says residents will be fined up to 100 yuan and organizations 1,000 yuan for not sorting rubbish specific groups.
"It's evident that the government is determined to push this forward," said Zhang Ning, a program officer (serve) in a Beijing-based public welfare organization. "But I'm afraid the regulation will prove to be counter-productive because garbage sorting has never been achieved by merely imposing severe punishments."
A recent survey found that 49.5 percent of the respondents said they still don't know how to sort garbage, 45.5percent just can't be bothered to do it. "Lots of citizens (confuse)about what's recyclable and what's general waste. For example, it's scarcely known that tissue is non-recyclable because it's too moisture-prone and usually too polluted (recycle)." said Zhang, a representative.
According to Zhang, 70 percent of garbage is a " (misplace)resource". For instance, a ton of waste steel can be refined into 0.9 tons of usable steel, and a ton of kitchen waste is able to produce 0.3 tons of organic fertilizer.
But all of this is based on the condition the garbage is categorized properly. And the behavior of households the sorting process initially starts —- is the key. Garbage sorting is a chain effect. Misconduct at the very beginning will make all the following efforts go in vain.
Garbage sorting is a complex issue and takes patience. So next time when you throw away what is called "garbage", do it in the right way.
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A. marginal B. personal C. sliding D. promise E. counted F. gaps G. profits H. distributed I. relief J. maturing K. leveling |
Bad News for Apple; Good News for Humanity
When Apple cut its revenue estimate(收益预期) for the last quarter of 2018 because of unexpectedly slow sales of iPhones, markets trembled. The company's share price, which had been for months, fell by a further 10% on January 3rd, the day after the news came out. Apple's suppliers' shares were also hit.
Analysts assume that the number of smartphones sold in 2018 will be slightly lower than in 2017, the industry's first ever annual decline. All this is terrible news for investors who had on continued growth. But step back and look at the bigger picture. That smartphone sales have peaked, and seem to be off at around 1.4billion units a year, is good news for humanity. The slowdown is actually the result of market saturation (饱和), which hits Apple the hardest because, despite a relatively small market share (13% of smartphone users), it captures almost all of the industry's . But Apple's pain is humanity's gain. The fact that the benefits of these magical devices are now so widely is something to be celebrated.
Now many phones are used for longer than three years, often as hand-me-downs. Replacement cycles are lengthening as new models offer only improvements. So even with flat sales, the longer between upgrades mean people who already have phones benefit. For all but the most addicted device fans, the slowing pace of upgrades comes as a welcome .
Does that mean innovation is slowing? No. As computers become smaller, still more and closer to people's bodies, many technicians expect that wearable devices, from smart watches to AR headsets, will be the next big thing. Even so, finding another product with the scope of the smartphone is a tall order. The smartphone holds its as the device that will make computing and communications worldwide. The recent slowing of smartphone sales is bad news for the industry, obviously. But for the rest of humanity it is a welcome sign that a transformative technology has become almost universal.
Now, U.S. researchers have identified a new way to treat people infected with tuberculosis (肺结核)before they get sick.
Tuberculosis is one of the world's most 1 health threats. The World Health Organization says tuberculosis kills nearly two million people each year. Another two billion are 2: they are infected, but don't have symptoms of the disease. Those at highest risk can take medicine, but Vanderbilt University researcher Timothy Sterling says not everyone 3 with the treatment, which is a daily dose of isoniazid(异烟肼，抗结核药)for nine months. So although the medication is highly effective if people take all of their medication, many people do not take all their medication and therefore the effectiveness of the treatment plan is4. As a(n) 5, Sterling and his colleagues 6 isoniazid with another drug, rifapentine (利福喷汀).The combination was taken weekly, not daily, for just three months. And the results of this study showed that the new treatment plan —- the three months of isoniazid and rifapentine—- was as effective as the nine–month isoniazid treatment plan.7, the short-course, three-month treatment plan had higher treatment completion rates and was also well 8.
There was some other difference. The two-drug, combination treatment was administered as directly 9 therapy. That means the patients took their medicine in the presence of a health care worker, to ensure that they followed the treatment plan. This was a large study, involving 7,500 participants in North America, Spain, and Brazil. Sterling 10 that most of the people in this study were HIV-negative. The results might be 11for HIV-positive people. A recent study in South Africa indicated that the combination therapy works well in people infected with HIV as well as tuberculosis, but the study was too small to be12.
Timothy Sterling's research, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, has been 13 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC. The government health agency recommends the 12-dose weekly combination treatment as an equal alternative to the 270–dose daily treatment plan that has been the14therapy. But because of possible 15 issues, the CDC still recommends the daily treatment plan for HIV–positive patients who are taking antiretroviral drugs or women who are pregnant. Also because of a lack of data, the CDC says children under age 12 should stay with the nine-month daily treatment.
If a person who lived 200 years ago was treated for a seizure(癫痫)today, they would be surprised by the treatment's freshness. That's because doctors in the 1800s were influenced more by original medical beliefs than science.
Rather than thinking the brain caused seizures, people in the 1800s still thought they were the result of strange forces. They associated seizures with the work of evil spirits. Others felt that the seizures had a cosmic or lunar cause. They believed that the cycles of the moon and stars could make someone have a seizure.
During a process to treat a patient who has seizures, doctors would force the patient to pray for the grace of the God. They thought if the patient did this, then the patient would rid themselves of the evil spirits causing the seizures.
The arrival of modern psychiatry(精神病学) occurred during the 1800s. At that time people who suffered from seizures were placed in psychiatric hospitals. They were treated like they were mad. However, none of the out-of-date treatments worked.
It wasn't until the late 1850s that the causes of seizures were understood. We know today that these causes are related to the brain. Misfired signals from the brain cause a jerking reflex(反射) in the body. These usually occur when someone is very tired.
Once the causes of seizures were known, definitive treatments were developed. Today, treatments range from taking pills to having surgery. Treatment is personalized according to the type of seizure the patient has.
Even today, some people are unsure about seizures. Their most common mistake is thinking that a person having a seizure will swallow their tongue. They often push some implement roughly in the person's mouth. However, this doesn't help. The implement often blocks the airway and prevents the person from breathing. Yet most of the public no longer fear people who have seizures. Instead, they can now help and comfort a person if they have a seizure.
how were people treated in psychiatric hospitals?
How a few members of the animal kingdom handle the transition to adulthood?
African elephants
These beautiful beasts come close to imitate teen rebellion. Calves spend a decade with their mothers in female-dominated groups —- and ladies stay there —- but adolescent boys leave mom for noisy crews of bros. In their 20s, they often downsize to smaller male groups.
Orangutans (猩猩)
Slow metabolism allows these primates to survive food shortages —- times when weather makes ripe fruit scarce. But energy efficiency comes at a cost; growth and maturation take time. Orangutan mamas nurse their young longer than any other wild creature does.
Orcas(逆戟鲸)
Killer whales join their mother's familial group for life.
This lasting-relationship seems to increase a pup's chance of survival; if mom
dies a young male (under 30) is three times more likely to die than a peer whose mother is alive. Risk of death post-mom-mortem rises as kids get older.
Harp seals
A harp seal's "childhood" lasts just 12 days. A pup's sole purpose during that brief period of coddling(宠爱) is to constantly nurse, gaining a fifth of its birth weight in blubber(鲸脂) every day. Once it's fat —- they become greater from 25 to 80 pounds —- it slides off the ice and takes on the sea.
Wolf spiders
Every parent knows that tired toddlers love to hitch a piggyback ride. The wolf spider straps all her babies (40 or 50, on average) onto her back at once, carrying the brood until they are capable of fully functional spider-hood. But luckily she only has to pull them for a few days.
As advances in auto-technology have placed a huge number of self-driving machines on our roads and sidewalks, a side product has materialized in recent years: robot-babysitting.
In Phoenix, human attendants will remotely monitor Google's upcoming Waymo robot-taxis, using the cars cameras to evaluate and adapt to passenger or road challenges. State safety regulations typically require that auto-vehicles be accompanied at all times by humans. These professionals' job titles range from "robot handler" to "safety driver," but they have essentially the same responsibilities: monitoring robot behavior for safety and performance, and answering questions about the technology. Broadly speaking, robot-babysitting jobs fall under the umbrella of careers in automation, which include maintenance, engineering, and programming.
However, some observers note that certain kinds of robot-babysitting –-- the kind that is boring and doesn't require much education –-- can make for thankless work. The safety drivers who sit in self-driving cars have described their roles as" exhausting" and "demanding," and many told me about the constant pressure to stay vigilant at all times. "It's incredibly hard to sit in a chair and stare at a computer without doing anything for eight hours," Ramsey said. "But you do not need a Ph.D. to do it." In March 2018, the field of robot babysitting took a beating when a self-driving Uber in Tempe, Arizona, hit a 49-year old named Elaine Herzberg. Dashcam footage showed that Rafaela Vasquez, the car's safety driver, had not been looking at the road when the accident occurred. Investigators are deciding if Vasquez will be charged with murder.
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, 10 million to 800 million jobs globally could be lost to automation by 2030. In the long term, it's inevitable that robot-babysitters will go the way of elevator operators and lamplighters. But they'll also birth new robot-related roles." A huge number of jobs will be created as auto-vehicles are loosed into the environment,” Ramsey said. In 2016, Bosch started training students from Schoolcraft College, a community college in Michigan, in auto-vehicle repair: Toyota has trained students in maintenance as well. "We might even see a return to low-level jobs where people come and fuel the car for you," Ramsey said. "Until we can wirelessly charge, someone needs to refuel them.” The hardest-to-automate industries, as it happens, are the ones that require looking after humans: childcare, education, health-care aides. Robot babysitters might feel like they have gained the job of the future. But in fact, real babysitters might be better positioned.
The North Star
Among the pile of stars in the universe, there are a couple that are of great importance to people on Earth. The sun, of course, is one of them. The other is known as Polaris, the North Star. Therefore, it is a great compass(指南针).When people in the northern part of Earth look toward Polaris, they can be certain that they are facing north. The permanence of Polaris in the north sky has helped countless people find their destinations.
Before the invention of modern navigation tools, sailors relied on Polaris. From the top of their ships, sailors would look for Polaris to figure out their place at sea. They figured out the angle between the star and the horizon to determine their latitude(纬度). As long as the equations were not wrong, the results were very reliable. Polaris also let sailors determine North, South, East, and West.
To those who sail at night, changeable storms and dark clouds were more than annoying things. It's possible for a captain to make an accidental wrong turn. The ship could become stranded at sea, and the frustrated captain would have no way to get the ship back on the right course. The sailor's fears wouldn't be relieved until the clouds cleared and Polaris came back into view. Even today, sailors sometimes choose to steer by using Polaris on clear nights.
The Big Dipper, a constellation that is well known in astrology, appears to revolve around Polaris. The handle of the Big Dipper always points to the North Star. When people get lost, it's comforting to know that their problems can be relieved by looking at the sky.
A. It's not difficult to tell the Polaris apart from the pile of other stars in the universe.
B. People who are lost can be relieved by gazing up at Polaris.
C. By knowing directions and their location, sailors could easily steer their ships.
D. They could destroy entire journeys by blocking the view of Polaris.
E. It's certain that the Polaris is part of a constellation(星座), which is not far from it.
F. It is special because it is the only star that always appears to be in the same place in the sky.
Unfair Comparisons
Thanks to social media, the distance between friends is smaller than ever. But does that make us happier? Not necessarily. A recent study has found spending too much time comparing your life with the seemingly perfect lives of your friends on social media can result in depressive symptoms.
We've all done it —- browsing through our WeChat friends' updates while feeling that green-eyed monster holding its head in our minds: Are their homes bigger and more tasteful? Are their vacations more expensive and exciting? Are their careers more successful and rewarding?
Comparison is the thief of joy. The more time you spend on social media, the more likely it is for you to feel depressive symptoms, according to a new study out of University of Houston. The study, led by Mai-Ly Steers, examines the potential impact online social comparison can have on a person's mental health.
"The underlying mechanism is social comparison," Steers said. "The reason why you feel these feelings is that you tend to socially compare yourself with your friends."
This social comparison theory was popularized by US
psychologist Leon Festinger in the 1950s. According to an article in The
Atlantic 
Festinger argued that people have born tendencies to track their progress and measure their self-worth by comparing themselves with other people. That social comparison leads to feelings of insignificance and insecurity. Research has since found that making social comparisons, especially upward comparisons (to people we think above us for whatever reason), are associated with negative health outcomes like depressive symptoms and decreased self-esteem.
"You can't really control the strong desire to compare because you never know what your friends are going to post. In addition, most of our friends tend to post about the good things that occur in their lives, while leaving out the bad. If we're comparing ourselves with our friends'' sharable highlights', this may lead us to think their lives are better than they actually are, and thus make us feel worse about our own lives."
So if you are the jealous type, maybe think about signing off of your WeChat for a while. Your well-being may depend on it.
据报道，某大学一宿舍的学生突发奇想建立了“夸夸群”。在群里，无论发生什么都会收到别人的夸奖和赞扬，心情不好，压力太大的时候也能收到安慰。但有些同学认为很假，应该建立“喷喷群”。那么究竟是在“夸夸群”恢复信心更好，还是在“喷喷群”中找骂认清自己更有用？
请谈谈你对此的看法，并陈述你的理由。
(备注:夸夸群—- praise-seeking group；喷喷群—-criticism-seeking group)
