The World's Largest Libraries
British Library (United Kingdom, London)
The British Library was created by Act of Parliament in 1972; previously, the library had been part of the British Museum, where the famous circular reading room had accommodated researchers including Karl Marx, who worked on 'Das Kapital' there, as well as Oscar Wide and Mahatma Gandhi. The British Library is now housed in a new building in St. Pancras, London, where its treasures include two Gutenberg bibles, the Lindisfarne Gospels and one of Leonardo da Vmci's notebooks.
Library of Congress (United States, Washington, D. C.)
Founded in 1800 with the private collection of Thomas Jefferson, the Library of Congress is in effect the USA's National Library. It receives two copies of everything published in the United States. The Library of Congress wag burned by the British Army in 1812, and severely damaged by fire again in 1851. The collection includes many rare books, drawings and two Stradivarius violins.
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library developed gradually in the nineteenth century from the merger and acquisition (收购兼并) of a number of public and private collections; it has many branches in different districts of New York City. It remains a structure which combines public and private finance and governance. Treasures held at the library include a Gutenberg Bible.
Russian State Library (Moscow)
Founded in 1862 as the Moscow public library and museum, this collection became the State Library in 1925. In consequence it receives copies of all Russian publications, and also holds large collections of maps, journals, music scores and recordings. Its possessions include the Archangel Gospel, a codex in the Slavonic language dating from 1092.
At first, Michael Surrell didn't see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors' home. He and his wife had just parked around the corner from their own house, when they got a call from one of his daughters: "The house next door is on fire!" He went to investigate. That's when he saw two women and a girl panic-stricken on their doorway.
"The baby's in there!" one of the women cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, instinctively ran inside. "The baby" was 8-year-old Tiara, the woman's granddaughter.
Entering the burning house was like "running into a bucket of black paint," Surrell says. The thick smoke caused him to struggle blindly around, burned his eyes, and made it impossible to breathe. The conditions would have been risky for anyone, but for Surrell, who has lung disease, they were life-threatening. After a few minutes in the smoke-filled house, he withdrew outside to catch his breath.
"Where is Tiara?" he asked desperately. "The second floor," The woman shouted back. Taking a deep breath, he went in a second time. The darkness was overwhelming. Yet because the house had a similar design to his, Surrell found the stairs and made it to the second floor. He was already out of breath. Then a soft but distinct moan appeared. He crawled toward the sound, feeling around for any sign of the girl. Finally, he touched something. A shoe, then an ankle. He pulled Tiara into his arms. Turning, he fought through the smoke and ran blindly into the blackness. The next thing he knew, he was at the front door, then outside.
Surrell woke up in the hospital a couple of days later, having suffered severe burns. Tiara was released from the hospital after a few days. "It's a small price to pay," Surrell says. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Wouldn't give it a second thought."
The world's insects are going down the path of extinction, threatening a "catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems", according to the first global scientific review. More than 40％of insect species are declining and third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles.
"It should be of huge concern to all of us, for insects are at the heart of every food web. They pollinate (授粉) the large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and much more. Love them or 1oathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects, "said Prof Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex in the UK.
The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive (集约型) agriculture is the main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy use of pesticides. Urbanisation and climate change are also significant factors.
"If insect species losses cannot be stopped, this will have catastrophic consequences for both the planet's ecosystems and for the survival of mankind. It is very rapid. In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none," said review author Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, at the University of Sydney, Australia.
One of the biggest impacts of insect loss is on many birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish that eat insects. "If this food source is taken away, all these animals starve to death," he said. Such effects have already been seen in Puerto Rico, where a recent study revealed a 98％fall in ground insects over 35 years.
Matt Shardlow, at the conservation charity Buglife, said: "It is thoughtful to see this evidence that shows the pitiful state of the world's insect populations. It is increasingly obvious that the planet's ecology is breaking and there is a need for a strong and global effort to prevent and change these terrible trends."
Moving smoothly and silently through Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's futuristic "FlyZoo" hotel, black disc-shaped robots about a metre in height deliver food and drop off fresh towels.
The robots are part of a set of high-tech tools that Alibaba says strongly cuts the hotel's cost of human labour and eliminates the need for guests to interact with other people.
Formally opened to the public last month, the 290-room FlyZoo is an incubator for technology Alibaba wants to sell to the hotel industry in the future and an opportunity to showcase its prowess in artificial intelligence. It is also an experiment that tests consumer comfort levels with unmanned commerce in China.
Inside the hotel, softly-lit white panelled walls bring to mind the interiors of Hollywood spaceships. Guests check in at podiums that scan their faces, as well as passports or other ID. Visitors with a Chinese national ID can scan their faces using their smartphones to check in ahead of time.
Elevators scan guests' faces again to verify which floor they can access and hotel room doors are opened with another face scan.
"It's very quick and safe. I haven't used it much yet, but basically, I can be in my room in one minute, "said guest Tracy Li. Li added that safety was one of her priorities and she was pleased her room could only be entered with a scan of her face.
In the rooms, Alibaba's voice command technology is used to change the temperature, close the curtains, adjust the lighting and order room service.
At the hotel's restaurant, taller capsule-shaped robots deliver food that guests have ordered via the FlyZoo app while at a separate bar, a large robotic arm can mix more than 20 different types of cocktails. Facial recognition cameras add charges to the room rate automatically.
The hotel does employ humans, though Alibaba declined to detail how many. This includes chefs and cleaners as well as reception staff, who will assist with conventional check-in procedures for guests unwilling to have their faces scanned and want to use electronic key cards.
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A. Height played a major factor. B. No such association was seen for men. C. The study was observational and couldn't establish cause. D. In fact, the study found that the optimal level of activity for women was 60 minutes a day. E. Neither height nor weight seemed to factor into whether the men reached their 90s, but activity level did. F. In addition, for each 30 minutes a day the men were active, they were 5％more likely to reach that age. G. And they included dog walking, gardening, home improvements, walking or biking to work and sports. |
Living to the ripe old age of 90 may depend on your body size—both height and weight—as well as your level of physical activity, and geeing to influence a woman's lifespan more than it does a man's.
The study found women who lived to 90 were, on average, taller and had put on less weight since the age of 20 as compared to women who were shorter and heavier. However, men saw more benefit from physical activity than women.
In 1986 researchers asked over 7, 000 Norwegian men and women between age 55 and 69 about their height, current weight, and weight at age 20. Both genders also told researchers about their current physical activities. The men and women were then sorted into daily activity quotas: less than 30 minutes, 30 to 60 minutes, and 90 minutes or more.
Men and women in the study fared very differently when it came to the impact of body size and exercise.
Women who weighed less at age 20 and put on less weight as they aged were more likely to live longer than heavier women. The study found women who were taller than 5 feet 9 inches were 31％more likely to live into their 90s than women who were less than 5 feet 3 inches.
Men who spent 90 minutes a day or more being active were 39％more likely to live to 90 than men who were physically active for less than 30 minutes.
However, women who were physically active for more than 60 minutes a day were only 21％more likely to live to 90 than those who did 30 minutes or less. And unlike men, there was no bonus for increasing activity.
A Milwaukee bus driver went above the call of duty when she stopped to save an unlikely would-be passenger: a toddler.
Irene Ivic was driving on a freeway overpass when she 1 a barefoot toddler, Milwaukee County Transit System spokesman Matt Sliker said. The child, wearing a red onesie and a diaper, was quickly 2 to the crossroads.
"I'm just 3 I was in the right place at the right time, "Ivic said at the awards ceremony held in her 4 on Thursday.
Ivic stopped the bus and ran out to 5 the toddler, as seen in a video 6 by the transit system. She carried the child to the bus, 7 passengers gathered in disbelief.
"Oh my God. Oh my God. I am 8, "Ivic said in the video as she sat down in the driver's seat with the toddler.
A 9 on the bus took off her winter coat and wrapped it 10 the little girl, who was 11 to the touch. The 12 were freezing that day, on December 22, according to the transit system.
Ivic sat talking to the child, stroking her hair. The little one soon fell asleep in her 13, as seen in the video.
The 19-month-old had been cold and scared but was 14 unharmed, police said.
The child went missing after officials believe her mother had a 15 health crisis, the transit system statement said. "Authorities eventually 16 the baby with its father,"Sliker said.
This is the ninth 17 a lost or missing child has been 18 by a Milwaukee County Transit System driver in recent years, according to the statement.
"I absolutely love kids. I used to be a 19 and I have children of my own, so I'm so happy I was able to help this sweet, 20 baby, "Ivic said.
Inserting needles through the skin may sound scary, but acupuncncture and moxa-moxibustion, two key components of (tradition) Chinese medicine (TCM), are said to improve the patient's health and well-being.
(add) to UNESCO's representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010, acupuncture and moxibustion are (wide) practiced in China. Their format and practice have distinctive regional characteristics and they have a precious heritage based Chinese culture and science.
The theory of Chinese medicine believes the human body is a small universe with (it) own circulatory system, in this system, there are acupoints (穴位) connecting the channels. By stimulating these acupoints, the self-regulating functions of the human body can (promote). Acupuncture refers to the practice of inserting needles into the body of a patient at a certain angle and using (technique) such as twisting and lifting the needles to excite acupoints (treat) diseases. Moxa-moxibustion normally refers to placing moxa (艾) directly on acupoints or holding moxa sticks at distance to warm the body.
In 1995, the World Health Organization published can be treated by acupuncture and moxibustion. TCM has become more and more accepted by other countries in the world.
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。
It can be seen from the picture Mr. Liu, who wears a mask, was walking his dog. Interestingly, his dog which also wears a mask.
In recent year, air pollution has become more and more serious in some areas, which have led to severe consequences. To solve this problem, firstly of all, we should raise the public awareness of protecting the environment. Secondly, the government ought to punish the illegal acts as polluting the environment severe. Thirdly, we must do our best to protecting the environment in our daily life. Only in this way can human beings and animals share a pleasant planet or live a happy life.
