Books are excellent gifts. Here are four of the year's most talked-about titles.
Ordinary Monsters | By J. M. Miro
Miro has temporarily abandoned literary fiction in favour of a new series of historical fantasy novels. Ordinary Monsters is about a group of children with magical gifts who come together and pool their powers to escape the bad shape-shifting man that's going after them.
Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces | By Elamin Abdelmahmoud
The soundtrack to The O. C. , a drama series, and the strange beauty of Highway 401 were important factors in developing selfhood of Abdelmahmoud. This book describes his own experience of moving from Khartoum, Sudan, to Kingston, Canada, in the early 2000s at age 12.
A Magic Steeped in Poison | By Judy I. Lin
Harry Potter has his magic stick. And Ning, the heroine of Lin's first novel, has tea, which in her world carries magical properties. Lin has created a pleasing Young Adult fantasy rich in Chinese mythology (神话). In this book, Ning enters a competition to find the most gifted tea master, Shennong.
A Ballet of Lepers | By Leonard Cohen
Unlike many other posthumous (死后出版的) works, you can count on Cohen's to be worth your wait. Before his death, he said that the novel contained in the book, which was never published, was likely better than The Favourite Game, a novel he published during his lifetime. This book also includes a radio play script (剧本) and a handful of short stories.
For over a decade, Zubin Kanga, a pianist, composer and technologist, has changed the limits of the forms of musical performances. He has both organized and performed shows that have pushed barriers, with motion sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), live-generated 3D visuals and virtual reality among the technological advancements used to unlock new possibilities of music and performances.
Kanga's approach to employing cutting-edge technology was first informed by the relative limitations of his chosen instrument. "The piano is a very accurate technology," he says. "From the early 20th century till now it hasn't really changed at all. It's an amazing instrument, but it does have certain limitations in terms of the types of sound you can create. "
One of the early works is Steel on Bone, composed by Kanga himself. He performs the piece using MiMU multi-sensor gloves. "I can put up one finger, and that'll produce a particular sound," Kanga explains. "And then I can control that sound just by moving my wrist through the air — I can do that with lots of different gestures. "
"For Steel on Bone, I'm actually playing inside the piano with these steel knitting (编织) needles, and getting all these interesting effects on the strings. Then I'm using samples of them. Sometimes I'm using live delays and operating them. The sound can change depending on how my hands are moving. It allows me to make a very theatrical piece, and people can see this immediate connection between how I'm moving — these very big, almost conductor-like gestures through the air — and the way the sound is changing," said Kanga.
This is just the start, and Kanga goes on to be enthused with the use of motion sensors to make music, the possibilities that AI offers composers as a tool, and how virtual reality could transform performances and more.
Turning on the air conditioning can bring sweet relief from the heat. But your resulting energy bill? Not so much. What if your home could stay cool all on its own? That's the premise (前提) of Zheng Yi's new invention. The associate professor at Northeastern University in Boston has created a sustainable material that can be used to make buildings or other objects able to keep cool without relying on conventional cooling systems.
Zheng imagines this material covering the roofs of houses or other buildings. The material, which Zheng has named "cooling paper", has light colors and internal microstructure with many small holes. It reflects those warm solar rays away from the building, and it also absorbs heat inside — heat that is from electronics, cooking and human bodies.
Cooling paper is, in fact, made of paper. One day, Zheng saw a container full of used printing paper. He thought to himself, "How could we simply transform that waste material into some functional energy material?" So, with the help of a high-speed blender (搅拌机) from his kitchen, Zheng made a pulp (浆状物) out of it and the material that makes up Teflon, a type of plastic. He then made it into waterproof "cooling paper" that could coat homes. Then, he and his team tested its ability to keep cool: it can reduce temperatures by as much as 6 ℃. He selected materials that would reduce the cost of using the new technology to cool homes.
The cooling paper isn't just green in its ability to reduce your energy footprint. The material can be used, exposed to solar radiation and various temperatures, and then reduced to a pulp (again) and remade without losing any of its cooling properties. "That is incredible!" Zheng says. "We thought there would be maybe 10 to 20 percent of loss, but no. It's just as well as the original. "
Parks are the beating hearts of cities, providing crucial environments for wildlife of many sizes as well as areas of rest and recreation for local citizens. Accessible via public transport, and located near a university, a stadium and the National Library, Warsaw's Pole Mokotowskie Park provides green space for many people.
One of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's five pathways to transformative change for water management is to restore species population, ecosystems and the benefits that nature provides to people by using each city's advantage. As more urban centres seek new ways to unite greenery into the built environment, projects of all sizes and stages add to essential corridors and stopping points for a range of wildlife.
Tasked with improving Warsaw's Pole Mokotowskie Park's natural sustainability, architecture company WXCA looked at ways of enhancing the elements that were already in place to better support wildlife. One of the most visible means was the removal of thousands of square metres of concrete (混凝土). Removing concrete in and around ponds and other waterways allows the city's features to shape themselves naturally, in reaction to both the surrounding environment and the weather. Doing so can support biodiversity by removing artificial constraints and flows. More than 13,000 square metres of concrete has already been removed, with more removal planned over the next year.
For the human users of the park, the designers created education, activity, and art spaces. The Grand Salon, a grassland surrounded by trees, is for large public gatherings, and a handful of pavilions (亭) spread throughout the space provide visible means of monitoring the quality of the air and water. They also contribute to the park's ecosystem through rainwater harvesting. As the temperature consistently rises, city planners are using the leaves and branches of the plants and mixed use designs to reduce heat islands, improve air quality and prevent urban runoff.
Patience is something that many of us struggle with. I know that I am certainly one who has a hard time dealing with delays. After all, we live in a world of instant satisfaction and overnight shipping. We can have anything that we want delivered to our doorstep right away. We can pick from a variety of entertainment options at any given moment.
The truth of the matter is, however, that anything good rarely happens quickly. You have to develop your patience over time by taking real action. This applies to a number of things: launching a business, waiting to go to an event, or striving to achieve your personal goals.
Here are a few tips to help you become more patient:
Make yourself wait on things. This can include eating, purchasing items, or taking any sort of action. It will help you increase your current patience levels and become less anxious moving forward. Try it.
Sometimes pause actually means there is hope. Perhaps you'll meet a lot of wonderful people while waiting in line, or you will find that something put off is actually better in the future.
Understand that life is full of delays. If there were delays, we would all have to accept. Ups and downs are what build character, and often, the longer we wait, the more we enjoy it. So wait it out with the best of them.
A. It usually takes a lot of work and a long wait.
B. The more patient you are, the luckier you become.
C. Teach yourself to look on the bright side of delays.
D. There is no one straight path to happiness or success.
E. Being patient is a must if you want to achieve success.
F. As a result, being patient has become increasingly difficult for most of us.
G. Work to overcome whatever makes you anxious and force yourself to wait.
Talk to a robot about my anxious feelings? Okay, I'll give it a go.
Nowadays, more and more people are 1 artificial intelligence (AI) to help them solve problems and answer questions. But what about health? 2 , that's too important to trust a robot. Really?
My mother has had a serious 3 recently, and I have two small children, a great partner and a full-time job. Often the 4 about my mother's coming death kept me 5 at night with my head spinning (旋转). I felt 6 but could not fall asleep.
However, 7 I'm lucky enough to work in the mental health field, I've heard about a tool 8 by a team of scientists at Stanford University in the USA — Woebot. I loved the idea of texting my 9 at 9 p.m. on the couch — a time that was 10 for me. I didn't have to schedule anything, so it found me where I was.
Woebot 11 itself as a "choose-your-own-adventure self-help book" that learns from your 12 . It uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (认知行为疗法) to monitor your moods and learn strategies to 13 you when you are in trouble. It asks you how you're feeling and
14 therapy for you at your selected time on each day.
Surprisingly, Woebot sent me a 15 every day and the language was chatty. It used a variety of CBT techniques but most frequently we looked at the 16 thoughts I was having and helped me reframe (重构) them. Woebot also used emojis, pictures, videos and links to
17 a point.
I do feel 18 for having got some of these thoughts out and I did 19 some language and techniques to support myself. Although I don't need to use Woebot every day anymore, it's a healthy mechanism (机制) to 20 whenever I need it.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention (《世界遗产公约》), Beijing held event titled "The Next 50 Years: World Heritage Where Challenges and Development Coexist", during which experts discussed how (make) the sites more accessible and sustainable for future generations.
Since joining the World Heritage Convention in 1985, the number of world heritage sites in China (grow) to 56, including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Grand Canal,
(allow) the nation to rank second in the world. And over the past decade, China has added 15 new world heritage sites, six of have been included in the relevant lists of intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产).
Chinese experts said that the 56 listed world heritage sites reflect the country's
(abundance) heritage and that China's cultural heritage achievements over the past 10 years can be seen in many aspects.
For example, in 2013, the Tianshan Mountains (list) on the World Heritage List. The beauty of Tianshan lies its snow-capped mountains and glacier-capped peaks. It is really an outstanding example of a mountain ecosystem with a (diverse) of landform features and ecosystems.
Experts said that the world heritage application is just a means to perform better protection. We should behave more (responsible) to conserve the heritage of all humanity.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Last week, I visited Luoyang but met a kind and caring guide, who left the deep impression on me. In the way, she told us a lot about this old city. Not only we know about the city, but we were invited to eat various special snack. Unfortunately, I got my left foot seriously injuring. It was horrible painful when I walked. Seeing I have difficulty walking, she came to my assistance. Accompanied by her, I returned back to the bus to wait for other tourists. I was really grateful for his kindness.
