Paying with your palm
Your palm（手掌）could soon be your ticket to a concert, thanks to Amazon One. On Sept 14, Amazon, a tech giant from the United States, announced that it is bringing Amazon One, a palm recognition technology, to music places as a replacement for physical tickets and apps. People just need to wave their hands over a piece of equipment outside the place to connect their palm to a ticketing account. Then they can use their palm to get into other shows and events at the place.
Catching CO2 from air
Carbon dioxide（CO2）is the main kind of greenhouse gas. It is usually the result of human activities, like driving cars and flying airplanes. Now, Swiss company Climeworks has created a machine called Orca to help catch CO2. From its base in Iceland, Orca catches CO2 from the air and keeps it 1, 000 meters underground. Orca can catch 4, 000 tons of CO2 each year-around the same amount of CO2 emissions(排放) that 870 cars give off per year.
Creating starch in a lab
Starch（淀粉）is the most important part of human food. Scientists at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have created starch using CO2, hydrogen（氢）and electricity, according to a study published in the journal Science on Sept 24. Lab tests show that synthetic（合成的）starch is about 8.5 times more efficient than starch produced by traditional agriculture. "There are many industries that can benefit from this technology." Ma Yanhe, the author of the study, told China Daily.
Last Thursday, the world's first self-driving, electric container (电气化的集装箱) ship made its first trip to Oslo, Norway. The ship's owners aim to cut pollution by moving large amounts of products by water on the southern coast of Norway instead of by truck.
The ship, called Yara Birkeland, is owned by Yara, a company that makes fertilizer (化肥). The company wanted to develop a zero-pollution ship that was completely autonomous (self-driving). Yara worked with a ship-building company called Vard and the technology company Kongsberg to develop the ship. The company says that in the future everything will be done completely by machine.
The Yara Birkeland is a container ship, able to carry 120 large containers like those pulled by trucks. But the ship is fully electric and is powered by clean batteries (电池). The company says the ship has roughly（大约，粗略地） as many batteries as 100 electric cars. The electricity（电） that will be used to recharge（给…再次充电） the batteries is produced by water power, so there's no pollution at all.
On November 18, the boat traveled from Horten to Oslo, making its first trip ever. But the Yara Birkeland won't usually be going to Oslo, and it won't be traveling far, either. It will travel a regular route from Yara's factory in Porsgrunn up to the port in Brevik, covering a distance of about 8.7 miles. Yara normally uses trucks to move fertilizer between these locations.
Now, with the Yara Birkeland moving huge amounts of fertilizer by water, the company expects to cut out 40,000 yearly trips by oil-powered trucks. That will prevent about 2,204,620 pounds of carbon from being let out（释放，发出） every year.
In the future, as an autonomous（自动化的） ship, the Yara Birkeland is expected to operate without any human control. Yara plans to spend the next two years training and testing the ship. But, as with（与…一样） many autonomous cars, the ship will continue to have humans watching out even once the ship is driving by itself.
The universe(宇宙) likes to be shy about its age, but astronomers （天文学家）believe they have a pretty good idea of the range. Currently（目前）, the most widely accepted age for the universe is around 13.8 billion years, but determining the age of...well, everything, is no easy feat(并非易事).Now, new studies have investigated(调查研究) the question using different methods--and they've come up with two different answers, separated by more than a billion years.
Because the universe is expanding(膨胀，扩大) at an accelerating(加速的) pace, the further away an object（物体） is, the faster it appears to be moving away from us. This is expressed as the Hubble constant(哈勃常数),and it's a key factor in figuring out the age of the universe. After all, if we can determine how fast objects moving away from us, we can rewind（倒回） that process to its beginning—the Big Bang(大爆炸). Researchers from the University of Oregon set out to map(绘制…的图) the distance（距离） to dozens of galaxies（银河系）. The team calculated that the universe is only 12.6 billion years old—that, you might notice is much younger than the 13.8 years usually stated.
In the second study, the method of figuring out the age of the universe is by mapping the oldest light we can detect(探测). We are restoring(修复) the' baby photo' of the universe to its original condition, removing the wear and tear of time and space that distorted(扭曲）the image, says Neelima Sehgal, co-author on the study. Only by seeing this sharper baby photo or image of the universe can we more fully understand how our universe was born."In doing so, the researcher determined that the universe is 13.8 billion years old—in agreement with(与…一致) the accepted age.
The real problem though, is that the studies disagree so wildly with each other, to the tune of(共计，达到) a billion years. But they are not the only ones--the battle lines are commonly drawn by the methods used. Obviously（显而易见）, more research is needed to determine where the truth lies.
I'm Jeff Logan, president of Logan Luxury Theaters Corporation. I'm very sorry to tell you many cinemas are at risk of closing permanently (永久). That's something we would hate to see happen.
Watching the newest box office movie and eating a big bucket of popcorn is an experience that many of us have enjoyed for a very long time. We all have fond(美好的) memories of going to a theater of our first dates（约会） or the first movie we saw with our children. A movie theater is so important to the fabric of the local community. It's a place where we all gather, no matter what our interests, and no matter what ages, young and old, rich and poor.
But how much longer will classic theaters remain open? Just like other industries, movie theaters have been hit hard by the pandemic (流行病) and are going dark. The entire industry is being controlled by the pandemic, because the studios don't want to release (发行) their new movies until all the theaters can be open. As we all know, the theaters can't do well and can't get back to full 7-day a week at full speed operation without new movies to play.
Recently, the Logan Luxury 5 Cinema in Mitchell reopened for the weekends. However, like many theaters, it is only operating at about 10 percent capacity(容量，能力). Since opening, several new safety measures have been put in place. Block off(阻挡) every other row(排). People are asked to leave three seats between them and the next group. Staff spray（喷） the theater with disinfectant (消毒剂) after every show. And sanitizer stations（消毒点） can be found throughout the theater.
Even so, some people still aren't comfortable going to a movie theater yet. I fully understand that. Anyhow, I just hope we must do something else to help out our local theaters, like taking part in a new national proposal called "Save Your Cinema."
As a speaker of 10 languages I know the benefits of speaking more than one language. Actually, it is not a big challenge to learn languages. We only have to change the way we learn them.
Language learning is hard.
It is only difficult to learn a language if you don't want to. What you mostly need to do is spend some time listening and reading. Believe me, it is that simple. I have done it many times. Soon you feel the satisfaction of understanding another language. Before you know it you start speaking.
No, you don't. Anyone who wants to, can learn. In Sweden and Holland most people speak more than one language. They can't just all be gifted at languages. Foreign athletes in North America usually learn to speak English faster than people in more formal learning environments. In language learning it is attitude that determines success.
You have to live where the language is spoken.
Some immigrants (移民) to North America never learn to speak more than broken English. Yet we meet people in other countries who speak perfect（地道的） English. In 1968, I learned to speak Mandarin（普通话） fluently while living in Hong Kong, where few people spoke it. You can download it to your iPod and listen. Where you live is not a problem.
I would love to learn but I don't have the time.
How about the time you spend waiting in line, doing things around the house, going for a walk? Once you get started, even 10 or 15 minutes a day will soon grow to 30 minutes a day, or one hour. If you believe you will achieve great results, and if you enjoy doing it, as I do, you will find the time.
I believe if you can avoid these traps, we will surely become masters of language learning.
A. You have to have a gift for learning languages.
B. The following are some tips for you to follow.
C. Learning a language takes time, but is not difficult
D. Languages can only be learned instead of being taught.
E. Why not use that time to listen to a language on your iPod?
F. We need to avoid some common misunderstandings
G. With the Internet, language content is available to anyone with a computer.
My brother Joe liked driving cars. He was especially 1speed. It was enough to make mother 2.
As a little boy, Joe would often say to me. "Sister, when I am old enough to drive my own car, I will fly so fast that angels will run scared." With a big grin (咧嘴笑), he would 3 the scene. I could have told him it would 4 happen. But I didn't tell him that.
Joe was born blind. But he could 5 like anyone. I didn't want to be the one to 6 Joe's dreams.7 would do that for him, soon enough. Up to then, didn't he 8 his happiness?
Growing up is a 9 between disappointment and surprise, between dreams and reality. When Joe was 12, I think he knew he would never get a license (驾照). As with the other hard facts of life, he seemed to accept it without question or sadness, as if it were 10 more than a card drawn at random (随机地).
One hot summer day when he was 16, Joe, with the help of stick, found his way to my stepfather's car. He felt the heat of the11 opened the door and climbed in. Under the seat, he discovered 6 cans of beer. And he drank all. He found the keys, shouted, "Hooweeee!" and12 it up.
I have heard various versions (版本) of this story. They all 13this: the car's engine 14. My mother fainted. My stepfather rushed outside.
15, for everyone, the Ford didn't move an inch. But to this day, Joe still swears (发誓) that when he found those keys and fired that old engine up, he heard the angels.
In ancient China lived an artist paintings were almost lifelike（栩栩如生）, which made him proud of(he). One day the king wanted to get his portrait (画像） done so he called all talented artists to come and present their finest work. The artist was sure his work (prove)the best, but when he presented his work to the king's official, the old man laughed and told him the king was not likely (choose) it. The wise old man told him to travel to the Li River where he could learn a little from the (great) artist in the world.
Out of curiosity(好奇), the artist packed his bags and went there person. When he asked the villagers on the banks of the river he could find the legendary(传奇的）artist, they smiled and pointed down the river. The next morning he set out to find the well-known (paint).He was impressed by the mountains being silently reflected in the water as the small boat moved (gentle) along the river. When he eventually passed the milky white waterfalls and blue mountains which (surround) by soft clouds, his breath was taken away by the greatest artist on earth-Mother Nature.
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in the air; in summary; pass down; set off; be on the point of doing sth; fall on; be devoted to ; in store for; be caught up in; anything but; in honor of; |
