Natural World Photography Competition Now Open！
Now in its 10th year, Big Picture encourages photographers from around the world to contribute their works to this competition that both celebrates and illustrates the rich diversity of life on Earth and inspires action to protect and conserve it through the power of imagery. Click here and enter your work for a chance to win cash prizes and be exhibited at the California Academy of Sciences！
Prizes
Big Picture is open to all photography worldwide to compete for a chance to win the $5, 000 grand prize. Winning images include images named as grand prize, first place, and finalist images. They will be displayed at the California Academy of Sciences for all visitors to enjoy.
Competition Period
The Big Picture Photo Competition begins at 12:00 am on December 1, 2022 and closes at 11:59 pm on March 1, 2023.
Entry Fees
Each photographer can enter photos as follows:
$ 25 for up to 10 single image submissions in any category.
$ 15 for each 6 - 8 image Photo Story submission.
Photographers are limited to up to 10 image submissions per registered email address and may register an unlimited number of email addresses. Entry fees are used to provide the competition prizes and help the Academy in its mission and can not be returned.
Participants
Big Picture is open to all photography enthusiasts and professionals alike worldwide, except employees, volunteers and Board Members of the Academy （as well as their sponsors） and the immediate families and individuals living in the same household.
My love for animals began through watching wildlife documentaries when I was a kid. I went on to study Environmental Science at university, and became interested in marine（海洋的）biology when I did my master＇s degree. That＇s when I realised that there was a possibility to do more for Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, many people would associate marine life only with seafood, and few people would consider it as a part of nature to be appreciated. Although our marine life is highly diverse, our waters have been overfished for more than 40 years. Records show that, decades ago, Hong Kong had such high production of seafood that it supported about 90% of the local demand. Today, at least 90% of the seafood we eat has to be imported to meet local demand, as our waters are so overfished that they can no longer support the local appetite.
Despite this shift, we are still a city in love with seafood-according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Hong Konng has the second highest annual seafood consumption per capita （人均）in Asia-but consumers are barely aware of where their seafood comes from and which species are threatened.
There is a lot of room for improvement in Hong Kong. Improving local fishery management policies and increasing the coverage of Marine Protected Areas, as well as conducting the relevant research to inform decisions, could move the city towards greater sustainability in this area. And consumers should avoid eating seafood that is on the threatened species list. As a general rule of thumb, if people are not sure what the species is, they should choose something else that they are more familiar with.
With the marine ecosystem already weak and easily destroyed, the greatest threat is continued ignorance and inaction. It is time for us to show that we can also be a part of the solution. If each person plays their part - even for just one meal a day-Hong Kong would already be on its way to making considerable progress towards sustainable seafood consumption.
Look up how to increase your life expectancy（预期寿命）, and you will probably see plenty of results recommending that you have a healthy diet, get sufficient sleep, work out and cut out tobacco and too much alcohol consumption. But what many of us don't know is that our relationships also affect our life expectancy. Social integration is associated with greater life satisfaction, better health and increased life expectancy. People with wide social networks are more likely to be happy, experience fewer health issues, enjoy better mental health and to live a lot longer.
Now this doesn't mean that we should dive head first into a relationship whenever we're lonely in order to avoid dying young. Harmful relationships can be as isolating as being alone, so who we choose to break bread with is absolutely vital to our overall health.
Have you ever wondered why some people are single and happy, while others are drowning in suffering? Or why some married couples exist in a consistent state of bliss, while others are practically enemies?
Research shows that marriage has greater benefits for men than it does for women. Being coupled allows men to receive the essential emotional support that they would lack if they were single. They also get the added benefit of being physically taken care of thanks to the gender roles society still subscribes to.
Women, on the other hand, don't have as much luck when it comes to being coupled. A woman in a harmful relationship is likely to experience the mental, emotional and physical consequences that come with that. On the contrary, a woman in a healthy relationship is likely to live well. Research shows that the women who are happily married tend to be coupled with partners who take on their fair share of household responsibilities.
But that's not all, age gaps also need to be factored in to determine relationship satisfaction. Couples with wider age gaps are more likely to be harmonious compared to their peers.
An artificial intelligence can decode （解码） words and sentences from brain activity with1 surprising accuracy. Using only a few seconds of brain activity data, the AI guesses what a person has heard. It lists the correct answer in its top 10 possibilities , researchers found in a primary study.
Developed at the parent company of Facebook, Meta, the AI could eventually be used to help thousands of people around the world who are unable to communicate through speech, typing or gestures.
Most existing technologies to help such patients communicate require risky brain surgeries to put in electrodes （电极）. This new approach "could provide a possible path to help patients with communication problems, avoiding the use of surgeries, " says neuroscientist Jean-Rémi King, a Meta AI researcher.
King and his colleagues trained a computational tool, also known as a language model, to detect words and sentences on 56, 000 hours of speech recordings from 53 languages. The team applied an AI with this language model to databases from four institutions that included brain activity from 169 volunteers. In these databases, participants listened to various stories and sentences, while the people's brains were scanned by magnetoencephalography （MEG）（脑磁图）.
Then with the help of a computational method that helps account for physical differences among actual brains, the team tried to decode what participants had heard using just three seconds of brain activity data from each person. The team instructed the AI to match up the speech sounds from the story recordings with patterns of brain activity that the AI computed as corresponding to what people were hearing. It then made predictions about what the person might have been hearing during that short time, given more than 1, 000 possibilities. Using MEG, the correct answer was in the AI's top 10 guesses, the researchers found.
"The new study is decoding of speech recognition, not production, " King agrees, "Though speech production is the final goal, for now, we're quite a long way away. "
You should know that English Literature is one of the few courses in the world that can help you better understand the world around you and far from you. The benefits of studying English Literature are as follows.
Developing the ability of critical analysis
Being a master of English Literature allows you to be critical when analyzing a text. Even after learning, you will notice that you critically analyse every text you read, even when it does not demand it. . It helps you think deeply about different situations and decisions before making them.
Creating broader opportunities
Understanding English Literature suggests that your knowledge of the English language is at full capacity creating a wider range of opportunities for the learner.
. For example, there are over sixty-seven different countries with English as their lingua franca （通用语）, which means that there are opportunities open in these countries for people with knowledge of English Literature.
The English language is more than just the way we speak and a manner of communicating. There are in-depth meanings as to how the structuring and pronunciations in the English language work. Ini studying literary English, you are sure to see these deeper technicalities surrounding the English language, helping you understand better the use of the language.
Improving the ability of brief writing
. In learning, reading, and analyzing, one is bound to take notes to keep up with their analysis of a text. This act subconsciously（下意识地）helps to make any learner of literary English a better writer than before they started learning.
Getting to know historical and cultural knowledge
Reading classic English Literature is the shortest and easiest way to learn both history and culture of people and places. You are always surprised when you find the connection between the real facts and the story of the classic literature you read.
A. Existing everywhere for a long time
B. Having a good command of English
C. You can use this skill in other areas of life
D. You are not limited in the choices you make
E. Among other things, it makes you a better writer
F. Like every other skill, critical thinking takes practice
G. It ends up being a sort of achievement in your learning
For the past 17 years, Tess Trojan has competed in the Special Olympics, with no intentions of slowing down anytime soon.
Tess Trojan has been living with Down Syndrome（唐氏综合症）, a1in which extra genetic material causes delays in the way a child 2, both mentally and physically.
3her disease, the 26-year-old woman from Canada won the gold medal in golf at the 2014 National Games. Soon, she 4 to Los Angeles for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games, which attracted roughly 7, 000 athletes from 177 countries.
In 2000, she 5 as a bowling athlete. And today, she 6plays baseball, basketball, tennis and golf with her primary7on being golf. She trains hard with her golf coaches and understands that golf is mostly a game of 8your mental ability. "For golf, you have to be mentally prepared, " she said. Not only is she an extremely talented golfer, but Trojan has also won awards for swimming and tennis. "I love doing9sports. So when I was young I used to jump from one sport to another, " she said.
Being a multi-sport athlete is something she recommends to kids. "Be 10 to learning new sports and you will have many fresh11, "Trojan often tells kids.
Her positive attitude is contagious（感染性的）and evidently making a 12in a young girl that she coaches. For the past year, Trojan has13Emi, a six-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, learn about different sports. They, of course, also make time for fun things like arts and crafts. Emi, who used to be fat, ill and depressed, has now become 14 , healthy and positive. Trojan says she loves working with kids and hopes to do more in the future. She thinks that it's a way of 15 to help others.
Dressed in long robes, a crowd of young people wanders around royal gardens, with their flowing sleeves（衣袖）（gentle） swaying in the breeze. They are not actors nor actresses in a movie set, but Hanfu fans in a themed event held in Beijing.
"Over a decade ago, Hanfu fashion was a subculture, but relevant （activity） often draw thousands of participants these days, " said Liu Xiang, an organizer of the event.
Hanfu, was a traditional style of clothing worn by the Han people, nowadays enjoys a growing （popular） among young Chinese people, including Liu. Liu is a co-founder of a Hanfu community in Beijing. This community, called Hua Yan Hui, was founded in 2011 （follow） a Hanfu revival（复兴） movement that emerged from growing cultural confidence and the desire （express） national identity. Since then, Liu （volunteer）to support the group.
"My passion Hanfu came from two of my friends who love traditional Chinese clothing, " Liu said. Her interest grew as she learned more about culture behind it and acquired her first Hanfu costume. Currently, more and more young people wear the adjusted Hanfu with the belief the best way to preserve tradition is to adapt it to modern life.
It was one of those sunny mornings when merely breathing seemed to be an event worth celebrating. I was in a particularly good mood as my mother had just given me RM400（马来西亚币）for my daily expenses during the week that she would be away with my father in China to visit her sick grandaunt. I was wondering if I survived on bread and butter the whole week, I would have RM300 to buy the latest computer games! It was certainly a great way to begin the day.
As I neared the classroom, I heard a loud noise coming from it and quickly rushed in. My classmates were gathered around Tommy's table as he searched through some personal items. Tommy had always been a popular boy in class. Not only was he bright and well-mannered, but he also came from a wealthy family that provided him with all he could ask for.
My classmates told me that Tommy had lost the money that he had brought as a donation to the welfare home that we were supposed to visit that afternoon. Understanding the situation, I suggested that we organize a search around the classroom and inform the class teacher as soon as possible. In no time, Miss Soh rushed to the classroom. She decided to run a search through everyone's bag. We quickly stood by our tables and emptied the contents of our bags onto the table. When it came to my turn, I took out all my possessions. As Miss Soh took out the RM400 from my wallet, the class fell into a shock.
Up till then, I had no idea that the amount lost was exactly RM 400. Everyone stared at me in horror. Miss Soh was pleased that her efforts had borne fruit. In a loud voice, she demanded to know where the money had come from. I told her the truth, but she appeared not to have heard anything that I had said. She claimed loudly that I was the thief, because my family was poor and could not possibly afford to give me RM400.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Her cruel words cut me deeply.
A week later, when taking Miss Soh's class, Tommy suddenly found the neatly folded RM400 slip out of his notebook.
