词义猜测题 知识点题库

    A new study suggests that washing dishes by hand is healthier than using a dishwasher.

    Nobody likes doing the dishes, but it turns out that doing this task might pay off in an unexpected way. According to a new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, washing dishes by hand instead of using a dishwasher might prevent the development of allergies (过敏).

    Researchers in Sweden surveyed the parents of 1,029 children aged 7 and 8. They discovered that children whose families hand-washed the dishes instead of using a machine were less likely to have allergies.

    Earlier research has shown that dishes washed by machine are cleaner than those washed by hand. So why would kids who eat with slightly dirtier plates be better when it comes to preventing allergies? One explanation is based on a theory known as the “hygiene hypothesis,” which says the reason why kids develop allergies is that their environment is actually too clean. Your immune system keeps you healthy by fighting germs like viruses and bacteria. But when you have allergies, it overreacts and tries to fight ordinary things like pollen(花粉) or certain foods.

    Being exposed to germs, especially early in life is good training for the immune system, says the lead author of the study, Dr. Bill Hesselmar of Queen Silvia Hospital in Sweden. “You stimulate the immune system in various ways and it becomes tolerant.”

    This study shows that while using the dishwasher might be easier, the old-fashioned method of cleaning up could be better for your health.

    Papa's jaw dropped when Mama told him that Sister had cheated on her final exams—not to succeed but to fail. “It's unbelievable!” he said. “Sister has always been so proud of her good grades!”

    “Yes, she has,” said Mama. “But it's not unbelievable. It just shows how badly she wanted off the swimming team.”

    “Wanted off the swimming team?” said Papa. “She never said anything about that to me.”

    “Of course she didn't,” said Mama. “She was afraid you'd blow your top. You already had her getting a swimming scholarship to college and winning gold medals at the Olympics. Can you imagine how much pressure she must have felt? For her, being on the team couldn't have been much fun.”

    “Oh, my god!” Papa said, clapping a hand to his forehead. “I've been so stupid! I just thought she'd want to be a champion swimmer because she's so good at it.”

    “It's like anything else, dear,” said Mama. “No matter how good at it you are, if it stops being fun, you won't want to do it anymore.”

    Papa put his head in his hands.

    “She must be really mad at me,” he mumbled. “Maybe I should say sorry to her.”

    Sister's footsteps could be heard on the stairs. She came into the kitchen and looked hopefully up at her parents.

    “Honey,” said Mama with a smile, “your papa and I have decided that there's no reason for you to be on the swimming team if you don't want to.”

    Sister's face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yippee!” she cried.

    “And,” added Papa, “there's no need for any more drills. I'm sure you'll bring your grades back up all by yourself.”

    Sister ran to Papa and jumped into his arms. She gave him a big hug. “I'm going to go play cards with Lizzy!” she said. “See you later!”

    From the kitchen window, Mama and Papa watched their daughter run down the sunny road toward Lizzy's house.

    “It's good to see her happy again,” said Mama.

    “It sure is,” Papa agreed. “As for the swimming team, there's always next year.”

    “If?” Mama prompted him.

    “Oh, right,” said Papa. “If she wants to.”

    Mama smiled. “At least you're learning, dear,” she said. She kissed him.

    “Well, you know what they say,” Papa said. “Better late than never.”

    When the population of the port town began to suffer from poisoning, the police came to find the cause of the poison. They thought someone was poisoning the people on purpose but no one knew how it was possible. Soon people took the position that the pork was poisoned. It was a popular food everyone ate and it could have possibly made everyone sick. Anyone who had possession of pork would throw it out. Even the poorest of the poor wouldn't eat pork. Signs were posted on poles and letters were sent to everyone to warn people of the pork. Shortly afterwards, even policemen in high positions were also getting sick.

    Soon it became political and popular. Politicians rushed to the town to talk about politics and promised how they would find the solution if they were elected. Everyone was so sick that they didn't care about politics. Everyone was in a position where he or she didn't know what to do anymore. They went to the post office to mail posts out asking for help. The poor town didn't know how to deal with the situation.

    One day, a well-known scientist from New York came to the town with a huge box containing many instruments and his possessions. He went to pools and the port and made measurements. He was quiet and polite. Then one day he made a speech at a newspaper meeting-room to announce his findings.

    “I'm sorry to say your water supply is so heavily polluted; it is poisoned. I know who has been poisoning you all for such a long time. It is you who have been poisoning yourselves with pollution. A great deal of rubbish has been thrown into the water day after day. No one here has taken good care of the environment. It is no wonder all of you have been sick.” Shocked at the news, the people present were lost in thought.

    There are an extremely large number of ants worldwide. Each individual (个体的) ant hardly weigh anything, but put together they weigh roughly the same as all of mankind. They also live nearly everywhere, except on frozen mountain tops and around the poles. For animals their size, ants have been astonishingly successful, largely due to their wonderful social behavior.

    In colonies (群体) that range in size from a few hundred to tens of millions, they organize their lives with a clear division of labor. Even more amazing is how they achieve this level of organization. Where we use sound and sight to communicate, ants depend primarily on pheromone (外激素), chemicals sent out by individuals and smelled or tasted by fellow members of their colony. When an ant finds food, it produces a pheromone that will lead others straight to where the food is. When an individual ant comes under attack or is dying, it sends out an alarm pheromone to warn the colony to prepare for a conflict as a defense unit.

    In fact, when it comes to the art of war, ants have no equal. They are completely fearless and will readily take on a creature much larger than themselves, attacking in large groups and overcoming their target. Such is their devotion to the common good of the colony that not only soldier ants but also worker ants will sacrifice their lives to help defeat an enemy.

    Behaving in this selfless and devoted manner, these little creatures have survived on Earth, for more than 140 million years, far longer than dinosaurs. Because they think as one, they have a collective (集体的) intelligence greater than you would expect from its individual parts.

    A great white shark in a California aquarium attacked two soupfin sharks(翅鲨), causing their deaths. The attack was not a natural action for food, but a kind of response when the two sharks swam too close to the great white. The great white didn't attacked other fellows, but the officials had to move other soupfin sharks to another tank(贮水池)for their safety.

    These attacks had given rise to calls for the freedom of the 88-pound, 5-foot-3- inch shark. The aquarium housed the shark in a huge tank. However, according to experts, the tank was not big enough for the shark. Its nose was bloody from striking the glass of the aquarium. Great white sharks in the wild had a big amount of migration, sometimes traveling 50 miles a day. Because the shark was still young, there was possibility of his growing. As it grows, it can became more troubled in the limited space.

    Aquarium officials said that keeping the shark in the aquarium allowed them to study their behavior that they cannot study with free great white sharks. When they studied behavioral patterns, scientists believed that they can help great white sharks in the wild.

    Since the shark had been on display, the number of people who visited aquarium increased greatly. The one-year-old shark was the longest surviving great white living here. It had been at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for six months. Other great whites did not survive for longer than 16 days in the aquarium.

    The writer Margaret Mitchell is best known for writing Gone with the Wind, first published in 1936. Her book and the movie based on it, tell a story of love and survival during the American Civil War. Visitors to the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia, can go where she lived when she started composing the story and learn more about her life.

    Our first stop at the Margaret Mitchell House is an exhibit area telling about the writer's life. She was born in Atlanta in 1900. She started writing stories when she was a child. She started working as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal newspaper in 1922. One photograph of Ms. Mitchell, called Peggy, shows her talking to a group of young college boys. She was only about one and a half meters tall. The young men tower over her, but she seems very happy and sure of herself. The tour guide explains: “Now in this picture Peggy is interviewing some boys from Georgia Tech, asking them such questions as 'Would you really marry a woman who works?'

    And today it'd be 'Would you marry one who doesn't?' ”

    The Margaret Mitchell House is a building that once contained several apartments. Now we enter the first floor apartment where Ms. Mitchell lived with her husband, John Marsh. They made fun of the small apartment by calling it “The Dump”.

    Around 1926, Margaret Mitchell had stopped working as a reporter and was at home healing after an injury. Her husband brought her books to read from the library. She read so many books that he bought her a typewriter and said it was time for her to write her own book. Our guide says Gone with the Wind became a huge success. Margaret Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for the book. In 1939 the film version was released. It won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

    Scientists in Argentina have created the world's first cow with two human genes that will enable it to produce human-like milk.

    Genetic engineering was used to introduce the "mothers' milk" genes into the animal before birth, according to the National Institute of Agribusiness Technology in Buenos Aires.

    As an adult, the cloned cow "will produce milk that is similar to that of humans", which will prove "a development of great importance for the nutrition of infants(婴儿)", said the institute. "The cloned cow, named Rosita ISA, is the first in the world with two human genes that contain the proteins present in human milk," said the statement.

    In April, scientists in China published details of research showing that they had created dairy cows which produced milk containing proteins found in human breast milk. But the Argentine team said the Chinese only introduced one human gene, while their research involved two, meaning the milk will more closely resemble that of humans.

    “Our goal was to raise the nutrition value of cows' milk by adding two human genes, which do good to the immune system of infants,” said Adrian Mutto, from the National University of San Martin which worked with the institute.

    Cristina Kirchner, President of Argentina, said that the scientific institute made all Argentines proud. She also said that she had refused the "honor" of having the cow named after her. "They came to tell me that the name is Cristina, but what woman would like to have a cow named after her? It appeared to me to be more proper to call it Rosita.”

    One afternoon I toured an art museum while waiting for my husband to finish a business meeting. I was looking forward to a quiet view of the wonderful works.

    A young couple viewing the paintings ahead of me chatted nonstop between themselves. I watched them a moment and decided she was doing all the talking. I admired his patience for tolerating her constant words. Disturbed by their noise, I moved on.

    I encountered them several times as I moved through the various rooms of art. Each time I heard her constant talking, I moved away quickly.

    I was standing at the counter of the museum gift store doing some shopping when the couple approached the exit. Before they left, the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a white object. He turned it into a long cane (手杖) and then tapped his way into the coatroom to get his wife's jacket.

    "He's a brave man," the clerk at the counter said, "Most of us would give up if we were blinded at such a young age. During his recovery, he made a promise that his life wouldn't change. So, as before, he and his wife come in whenever there's a new art show."

    "But what does he get out of the art?" I asked, "He can't see."

    "Can't see! You're wrong. He sees a lot. More than you or I do," the clerk said, "His wife describes each painting so he can see it in his head."

    I learned something about patience, courage and love that day. I saw the patience of a young wife describing paintings to a person without sight and the courage of a husband who would not allow blindness to change his life.

    And I saw the love shared by two people as I watched this couple walk away arm in arm.

    Adopting (领养) a new pet should be an exciting and rewarding experience. But just as all families are different, so are all pets. Learn what to consider before you find your new furry family member.

    All pets require their owner's time, so Theisen, an expert in pet care, says how much time you can give to the pet is the top thing to consider. "If you adopt a 4-year-old cat, she's not going to need the same amount of care as a 9-week-old dog". says Theisen.

    Like dating and finding the perfect partner, you want a pet that shares your interests and activity levels, particularly if you're looking for dogs. "Consider activity levels in the family," says Theisen. "If you're a couch potato, or in other words, a homebody, look for a pet that matches that activity level."

    Some dogs, like Dalmatians and Terriers, can be loud and noisy and demand a more active lifestyle and room to be outside; they might not fit as well in close living situations as more sedentary pets. The Humane Society of the United States encourages potential owners to research books and websites and talk to other pet owners when considering adopting a new pet.

    Theisen says that potential owners should go beyond the first impression of loveliness and watch how the animals interact with them. "There are dogs that will jump to the gate to meet you," says Theisen. "And there are dogs that sit there with their sad doggy eyes — you know they're not going to be high-energy dogs".

    Some exotic pets, like tortoises and parrots, are likely to live longer than dogs and cats — and even their human owners. They can also grow to be much larger than they were when they first came to live with their owners. Owners should make sure that their living situations should be continually updated and also prepare for the animal's future.

    From composer, musician, and philanthropist (慈善家) Peter Buffett comes a warm, wise, and inspirational book that asks, "Which will you choose: the path of least resistance or the path of potentially greatest satisfaction?"

    You may think that with a last name like this, Buffett has enjoyed a life of endless privilege. But the son of billionaire investor Warrant Buffet says that the only real inheritance handed down from his parents is a philosophy: Build your own path in life. It is a principle that has allowed him to follow his own passions, establish his own identity, and achieve his own successes.

    In Life Is What You Made It, Buffett expounds on the strong set of values given to him by his trusting and broadminded mother, his hardworking and talented father, and the many life teachers he has met along the way.

    Today's society, Buffett assumes, has begun to replace a work ethic (准则), which enjoys what you do, with a wealth ethic, which honors the reward instead of the process. We confuse privilege with material wealth, character with external (外在的) recognition. Yet, by focusing more on substance and less on reward, we can open doors of opportunity and work hard toward a greater sense of achievement. In clear and brief terms, Buffett tells us a great truth: Life is random, neither fair nor unfair.

    From there it becomes easy to recognize the equal dignity and value of every human life—our circumstances may vary but our essence does not. We see that our journey in life rarely follows a straight line but is often met with false starts, crises, and mistakes. How we push through and insist on those challenging moments is where we begin to create the life of our dreams—from discovering our vocations (使命感) to giving back to others.

    Personal and instructive, Life Is What You Make It is about challenging your circumstances, taking control of your fate, and living your life to the fullest.

    On Wednesday afternoon, a handsome, wealthy attorney renowned for handling affluent clients came into the restaurant. At least that's how Lawrence described himself to me in his intro. He was dressed in a sharp navy suit, white shirt and silk tie. He asked, "How long have you been waiting tables?"

    Jokingly, I replied, "I'm new, so forgive me if your meal lands on your lap."

    He replied, quite sternly, "Don't make excuses for your mistakes." I thought he was joking, but his face lacked even the hint of a smile. In the same tone, he said, "Come to dinner with me Saturday night."

    I ignored his invitation, which seemed more like a demand, and asked, "How long have you been an attorney?"

    "As long as I've wanted."

    Confused and curious, I prodded: "What kind of answer is that?"

    "The only one you're going to get." Lawrence placed his order: filet mignon, green beans instead of broccoli. Staring at me straight-faced, he added, "I'll have bottled water. Tap is for the waitstaff."

    As soon as I brought his food to the table, he took his fork and inspected the filet. "Saturday night I'll take you to a restaurant that makes this one look like fast food."

    "I enjoy fast food; it's unpretentious," I responded. "Besides, I haven't agreed to any date."

    After he asked for the bill, I carefully removed his glass, plate and utensils, trying not to drop anything on him or the floor. As I cleared the table, he asked, "So, are we on for this weekend?"

    Something about him was intriguing. So as not to appear too eager, I replied with a tentative, "I guess so."

    Phone in hand, he asked, "What's your name and number? I'll call for your address."

    I took out my phone and said, "First, you tell me yours."

    He paid with cash, and instead of a tip, left a note stating he would make it up to me on Saturday night.

    He waited until Saturday morning before calling to ask for my address. I told him to park in the upper tier of the parking garage next to my apartment building.

    "Why can't I just pick you up at your apartment?" he asked.

    "I don't know you well enough for that. Is that a problem?"

    "No, but it's weird."

    "Not to me."

    "OK, I'll meet you there. Do you have any nice clothes to wear?"

    "Lawrence, you better shape up before tonight, or this date isn't going to take off. I look good in anything."

    "OK, OK, calm down."

    I arrived early, and the adrenaline was rushing through my veins as I waited for Lawrence in the parking garage. The minutes passed slowly until I heard the sound of a car engine approaching from below.

    Lawrence had arrived in a black stretch limousine.

    Waiting for Lawrence were three FBI agents—colleagues of mine—with cameras. Lawrence wasn't an attorney; he was an unemployed jewelry store employee who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise. His ex-fiancée went to the police after he broke off their engagement. But her story hadn't been enough; we needed evidence.

    I ran the prints from Lawrence's glass and utensils— they matched perfectly with the ones found in the store's safe. In the trunk of the limo, Lawrence had suitcases packed for a getaway. Hidden inside one was a small sack of jewels: rubies, diamonds, pearls, sapphires and emeralds.

    As I walked towards the limo, I heard Lawrence pleading, "Please, I needed the money to pay bills!"

    I yelled back, "Don't make excuses for your mistakes!"

    Conflict is part of everyday life. It is not always a bad thing— it can lead to good discussions and improvements in the relationship between two people. However, if it's not handled properly, it can be destructive and can bother your studies or other areas of your life.

    We all have different styles of approaching conflict. Some of us avoid, others compete, give in, adjust or cooperate. Each of these styles has its strengths and weaknesses. So it's important to know how you approach conflict. Remember that blaming others and refusing to take responsibility for your role in a conflict can only worsen the conflict and lead to more anger, frustration (挫折), or fear. On the other hand, making the effort to listen without judgement, trying to understand the other party's needs, and searching for solutions in which everyone wins lead to healthy conflict resolution and may result in positive change. If you find that you can't work it out with the other person, you may want to seek the help of a neutral party, to help you work through the conflict.

    Whether you use the services of a third-party mediator or negotiate a solution between yourselves, the following principles are important to constructive conflict resolution: address the conflict before it becomes much more complex; separate the person from the problem; focus on interests rather than sticking to your position; commit to finding a mutually （相互地）beneficial outcome; avoid blaming others; listen actively; keep the lines of communication open; focus on the future.

    Be aware of the possibility that you may just have to agree to disagree. Not all conflicts can be resolved. For most people, values are negotiable and they are not always in line with the values of others. In a diverse community like we have now, we must accept and be respectful of difference.

Even as self-driving cars become more and more popular, there's one problem that Silicon Valley hasn't solved: the traffic jam. But Airbus Group, a U.S. aeronautics and space company, thinks that it has a solution. The company's Silicon Valley branch recently announced it's been working on a secret project titled "Vahana", an autonomous flying vehicle that can be used for both passenger and cargo (货物) transport.

Airbus' flying taxi resembles a drone in design, and would use multiple propellers (螺旋桨) to travel medium-length distances. Developers in France and Germany are working on an electrically operated platform that would allow the flying taxi to carry multiple passengers once between city destinations. Currently, no countries allow completely autonomous aerial vehicles, so the vehicle would initially be manned by a pilot.

Flight tests of the first Vahana prototype (原型) are planned, in the hope of bringing the product to consumers quickly. That's about a decade sooner than another future-travel system Hyperloop One.

"I'm no big fan of Star Wars, but it's not crazy to imagine that one day our big cities will have flying cars making their way along roads in the sky," says Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders. "In a not too distant future, we'll use our smartphones to book a fully automated flying taxi that will land outside our front door — without any pilot."

But before you get too excited about beating rush-hour traffic, it's worth noting that the company has a lot of technological kinks to work out before the product is ready to test. The same sensor technology that allows self-driving cars to avoid accidents doesn't exist for aerial vehicles. Airbus Group isn't the only company trying to get in the autonomous air transportation game. There are a number of cargo drone companies on the market and the Ehang 184, a Chinese passenger drone, began flight testing in June.

Given Australia's size and the fact that early settlements were far apart, Australian society is remarkably homogeneous (同种的). Its citizens are fundamentally prosperous and the way of life in the major cities and towns is much the same however many miles divide them. It takes a sharp ear to identify regional accents.  

However, there is some difference in lifestyle between city dwellers and the country people. Almost 90 per cent of the population lives in the fast-paced cities along the coast and has little more than a passing familiarity with the desert. The major cities preserve pockets of colonial heritage, but the overall impression is modern, with new buildings reflecting the country's youth. In contrast, the rural communities tend to be slow-moving and conservative. For many years, Australia was said to have "ridden on the sheep's back", a reference to wool being the country's main money earner. However, the wool industry is no longer dominant. Much of Australia's relatively sound economy is now achieved from natural coal and wheat, and by being the largest diamond producer in the world. Newer industries such as tourism and wine making are also increasingly important. Australians are generally friendly and relaxed, with a self-deprecating sense of humor. On the whole, Australia is a society without hierarchies (等级制度), an attitude generally held to stem from its prisoner beginnings.

Yet, contrary to widespread belief, very few Australians have true prisoner origins. Within only one generation of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, Australia had become a nation of immigrants. Originally coming almost entirely from the British Isles, today one in three Australians comes from elsewhere. Australia's liberal postwar immigration policies led to an influx of survivors from war-torn Europe, most notably Greeks, Italians, Poles and Germans.

The emphasis has shifted in recent years and today the majority of new immigrants are from Southeast Asia. Today Australia is a 'blend of nations' and although some racism exists, it has generally been a successful experiment and the country is justifiably proud to have one of the most harmonious multicultural communities in the world.

The meaning of the word "volunteer" may be a little different in different countries, but it usually means "one who offers his or her services." There are many different ways in which people can volunteer, such as taking care of sick people, working in homes for homeless children, and picking up garbage(垃圾) from beaches and parks. Volunteers may work within their own countries or in other countries. They are often people with a strong wish to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. Volunteers don't expect any kind of pay.

At the root of volunteering is the idea that one person may have the ability to offer services that can help other people. Tracy, a good friend of mine, however, recently came back from India with a ____ of what being a volunteer means. She worked for two and a half weeks in one of Mother Teresa's homes in Calcutta. The following is her story.

"I first heard about Mother Teresa in my high school, we watched a video(录像) about her work in India and all over the world. I was so moved by her spirit to help others and her endless love for every human being that after I graduated from high school, I too wanted to try her kind of work. So with two friends I flew to Calcutta for a few weeks."

"I was asked to work in a home for sick people. I helped wash clothes and sheets, and pass out lunch. I also fed the people who were too weak to feed themselves and tried to cheer the up. I felt it was better to share with them than to think that I have helped them. To be honest, I don't think I was helping very much. It was then that I realized that I had not really come to help, but to learn about and experience another culture(文化) that helped improve my own understanding of life and the world."

Honeybees can't swim, and when their wings are wet, they can't fly, either. But Chris Roh and other researchers at the California Institute of Technology found that when bees drop into bodies of water, they can use their wings to produce little waves and slide toward land-like surfers who create and then ride their own waves.

As with many scientific advances－Isaac Newton's apple or Benjamin Franklin's lightning bolt－Dr. Roh's experiment began with a walk. Passing Caltech's Millikan Pond in 2016, he observed a bee on the water's surface producing waves. He wondered how an insect known for flight could push itself through water.

Dr. Roh and his co-worker, Morteza Gharib, used butterfly nets to collect local Pasadena honeybees and observed their surf-like movements. The researchers used a wire to restrict each bee's bodily movement, allowing close examination of their wings. They found that the bee bends its wings at a 30-degree angle, pulling up water and producing a forward force. Bees get trapped on the surface because water is about three times heavier than air. But that weight helps to push the bee forward when its wings move quickly up and down. It's a tough exercise for the bees, which the researchers guess could handle about 10 minutes of the activity.

The researchers said the surf-like movement hasn't been documented in other insects and most semiaquatic (半水生) insects use their legs for propulsion (推进力), which is known as water-walking. It may have evolved in bees, they predicted.

Dr. Roh and Dr. Gharib have imagined many practical applications for bees'surfing. One plan is to use their observations to design robots able to travel across sky and sea. "This could be useful for search and rescues, or for getting samples of the surface of the ocean, if you can't send a boat or helicopter," Dr. Gharib said.

In 1975, George Carlin appeared on a popular TV show, Saturday Night Live, with his famous words about blue food. "Why is there no blue food? I can't find blue food — I can't find the flavor of blue! I mean yellow is lemon; orange is orange and red is cherry. Where is the blue food?"

Well, Carlin pretty much has it right — there is not no blue food, but there's certainly not a lot of it. Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam. The blue in blueberries — like the purple in grapes and red in tomatoes — is found in nature. But it isn't a hot color for food. People don't seem to prefer blue food. Some diet programs even suggest that those determined to lose weight should make their food blue.

Eating, in part, begins with our eyes. Chares Spence — an experimental psychologist from Oxford University — points out that color can change our taste experience. Commonly, we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour. Spence suggests: human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching — green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.

But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we see these days is dyed blue artificially. Food producers argue that artificial color doesn't do much damage to health. A lot of research shows that some physical problems of kids are related to food dyes — while other studies show no effects at all. Blue birthday cake or even blue-dyed chicken can be served on the dinner table. So what?

As a well-known Chinese TV hostess, Dong Qing is now hosting two cultural shows, Chinese Poetry Conference and Readers. The two shows are encouraging people to love traditional culture and find the beauty of life.

Dong was born in a highly educated family in 1973. She had a great love for traditional literature from an early age. In 2015 when she was about to study in the US, Dong received an invitation from the director of Chinese Poetry Conference asking her to be the hostess. Because of her passion for traditional literature, Dong accepted the job.

"The contest interests me very much. Hosting it is a process of learning about poetry and performing," said Dong. To her great joy, the show has become more and more popular.

Under the slogan " Reading touches people's hearts"， the new TV show Readers has become a success. It invites famous guests from all walks of life to read something. Dong works as both hostess and producer.

Readers became a turning point in Dong's 21 years of hosting. She said it brought her"quite a huge challenge".

"There is no shortcut in this world. If you want to be a good host, you need to make thorough preparations,"said the beautiful hostess. The charm of life lies in its unknown, so we just have to try and keep going.

A business school in Paris will soon begin using artificial intelligence and facial analysis to determine whether students are paying attention in class. The software, called Nestor, is used in two online classes at the ESG business school beginning in September.

The idea, according to LCA founder Marcel Saucet, is to use the data that Nestor collects to improve the performance of both students and professors. The software uses students webcams（网络摄像机） to analyze eye movements and facial expressions and determine whether students are paying attention to a video lecture. Professors would also be able to identify moments when students' attention declined, which could help to improve their teaching.

Advocates for AI in education say the technology could be used as a digital tutor that would adapt to a student's individual needs, and help develop more effective studying habits. Such software could also help teachers by providing quantitative（定量的） feedback on the effectiveness of their teaching.

But AI programs rely on massive information of personal data, and there are concerns over how such dat a would be treated. Saucet says Nestor won't store any of the video footage（片段） it gets and that his company has no plans to sell any other data the software collects. In addition, some are concerned that AI may one day replace teachers.

Rose Luckin, a professor at the University College London Knowledge Lab, says AI could unlock the"black box of learning"by providing information on how and when learning happens. But she cautions（告诫） against adopting new technology that, while alluring, may not actually respond to critical needs. She thinks a program like Nestor could be useful for students who take classes remotely, since "there isn't a human there watching them". So Luckin sees the technology more as an assistant, rather than a replacement.

Saucet agrees. "Human contact is not going to go away, " he says. "There will always be professors. "

China is removing one of the world's most trafficked(非法买卖) animals, the pangolin, from its list of animals used for traditional medicine.

Pangolins, despite being covered in scales(鳞片), grow to around the size of a house cat. Their scales are made of keratin——the same material found in fingernails. They use those scales to protect themselves from enemies in the wild, but in Asia, these same scales are traded for medicine. Tens of thousands are killed every year, and one million pangolins are believed to have been trafficked between 2000 and 2013. Last year, authorities seized more than 130 tons of pangolin-related products, a figure believed to represent as many as 400,000 of the animals, according to WildAid conservation group.

There are eight species of pangolin found across Asia and Africa. Three of those are listed as seriously endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN): the Chinese pangolin, the Philippine pangolin and the Sunda pangolin. The remaining five are listed as either vulnerable or endangered.

Now, three species——the Chinese, Sunda and Indian pangolin——have been afforded the same protection in China as the Giant Panda and have been upgraded from Class II to the highest Class I protection. There's a punishment of 10 years of imprisonment for anyone caught hunting, killing or trading them.

The announcement was made in June. The Chinese government has also announced plans to recover the diminishing populations by improving field patrols (巡逻) and pushing habitat recovery efforts.

"It is great news that China has moved very quickly to close live wildlife markets," said WildAid CEO Peter Knights. "We hope this brings an end to legal sales of pangolin scales as soon as possible."