In 1999, 36­year­old Tori Murden McClure became the first woman to row also (单独地) across the Atlantic Ocean, from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean. The journey of just over 5,300 kilometers took the American 81 days. Her boat, The American Pearl, was only 7 meters long.

    McClure is a real adventurer. She has been on many mountaineering expeditions, including climbs in Alaska, Kenya and Antarctica. She was also the youngest person in a team that skied 1, 200 kilometers across Antarctica to the South Pole in 1989, and became one of only two women ever to travel to the Pole by land.

    The journey across the Atlantic was her third attempt. The first time she failed because of illness, and during her second attempt, in 1998, she nearly died. She had rowed nearly 5,000 kilometers when her boat was hit by Hurricane Danielle. McClure was suddenly in the middle of 80 kph wind, and surrounded by waves that were 20 meters high. Her little boat turned over five times. McClure was sure that she was going to die­she took the video recorder that she had brought with her and recorded a farewell message to her family and friends. The hurricane continued into night, and The American Pearl turned over five more times. McClure was determined not to send a signal asking to be rescued­she didn't want other people to risk their lives, too. But after the eleventh turning over of her boat, she finally sent it and a large ship came and found her. However, they couldn't get her boat out of the rough sea­it was found months later near the coast of Portugal.

    Tori McClure had concussion (脑震荡) and a dislocated shoulder when she got home. Many people might have given up after an experience such as this, but one year later, McClure was back in her repaired boat and trying again. This time she was successful­and although she again met a hurricane on the journey, which stopped her from breaking the record for the fastest transatlantic (横渡大西洋的) rowing crossing, she only overturned once!

    Japanese technology giant Toshiba has built a huge "clean" factory farm where it is growing various types of lettuce (莴苣) leaves without sunlight or soil for sale in its new healthcare business.

    Located in a disused 21,000­square­foot electronics factory in Yokosuka, Toshiba announces to have created a perfect "bacteria­free" environment where it will grow three million bags of lettuce a year.

    Completely cut off from conditions outside the temperature controlled tank, lettuce inspectors wear full body suits while making notes on the quality and growth of the leaves on their iPads in order to prevent the air around the plants becoming contaminated.

    Each plant is given man­made lighting to trick it into believing it is exposed to sunlight, while vitamin and nutrients are put directly into its roots, meaning the lettuce does not need soil.

    Toshiba's new high­tech farm may produce the world's highest quality lettuce. The final product will be free of any form of bacteria or insect life before being placed into sealed (密封的) bags, which should ensure the product has a longer shelf life than other lettuces.

    The gardening technique aims to have a bacteria amount of no more than 1/1000th­much lower than that found in normal gardening soil.

    Toshiba aims to harvest three million bags of leaf lettuce, baby leaf greens, cabbages and other kinds of vegetables every year­with each bag likely to cost people £1.

    The most important thing in organic vegetables, the lettuce requires no pesticides (杀虫剂) but is expected to have a similar shelf to plants that have been heavily treated with chemicals.

    The lettuce factory is no marketing trick by Toshiba, however. Instead it represents the company's latest attempt to expand its technology­led business.

    There are already plans for the technology giant to build similar factories around the world over the coming years and it will also be selling the high tech equipment that allows factories to produce similar products of exceptionally high quality.

    One of the most outspoken supporters that I know of women and girls is actually a man. As co­founder of the ONE Campaign, my friend Bono spends a lot of time speaking out against global poverty (贫困). Together, we're working to get out a simple, powerful message: poverty is sexist.

    Women and girls are more likely to be in poverty, less likely to get an education and more likely to suffer bad health. And when they are born into poverty, it is much more difficult for them to lift themselves and their families out of it.

    Why? One reason is that breaking out of poverty takes time­and that is a resource women around the world are short on. On average, women spend about twice as much time as men in doing the unpaid work that makes life possible for everyone, like cooking, washing, cleaning, shopping and caring. In developing countries, the gap is even much bigger. As a result, women have no time to finish their education, learn new skills, open a business, develop personal relationships or even go to the doctor. They dream of creating a better future for their children, but they can not spare the hours to put those dreams that they have into action.

    The fact that the potential of so many women and girls is going unrealized is a sad thing­but it is also an opportunity for us. We need to recognize, reduce and redistribute the burden of work that is holding them back. Because if women have time to invest (投资) in themselves and their ideas, they could transform the world.

Ways to Fight and Overcome Laziness

    You read productivity tips, you've used a million to­do list apps, and you promise yourself every month that you're going to start being productive, but it never happens. Here's how to break the cycle when you feel like your problem is just laziness.

    Simple things first: It's important to get started with the task you're willing to perform in order to fight laziness.  Doing so will help you to break your inner resistance.

    Step­by­step:  And it will keep us motivated to perform these tasks one after the other in a relaxed manner. Once you have completed one sub­task you can tell yourself that you're on a roll and that you will soon have finished the next sub­tasks as well.

    Remove distractions: Whatever it is that distracts you (TV, the Internet, etc.), remove it!  Make sure that once you have started with one of your tasks, you will not get distracted from it by any means.

    Reward yourself: Every time you manage to overcome laziness and successfully complete a task you should reward yourself, as this will give you positive feeling about making efforts to get things done.  Little reward for small efforts and vice versa (反之亦然).

    Don't give up: It's one thing to find your motivation.  Rather than letting difficulties demotivate you, see them for what they are and refuse to be beaten by them. You're not alone and staying focused on working through challenges is one of the best ways to fight them.

A. Turn off distractions and focus on your goals.

B. Just make sure to adapt the reward to the efforts you made.

C. A list of weekly goals will help you stay focused and motivated.

D. A method that helps you do so is to start with the simple things first.

E. Occasional rewards will sweeten the tasks and help keep you on track.

F. But it's quite something else to keep it going when running into difficult problems.

G. Breaking down tasks into smaller tasks helps us to reduce the pressure of deadlines.

    Mrs. Doyle was a hero. She will be awarded the Legion of Honor, France's highest decoration, in honor of her in 1 helping to liberate the country from the Nazis.

    Mrs. Doyle was one of the female agents 2 for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). She engaged in gathering 3 ahead of the D­Day landings. "It wasn't until after my first round of 4 that I was told to become a member of it," she said in a rare interview.

    "We 5 how to get in a high window, and how to climb over roofs without being 6," she recalled.

    After the training, she was 7 behind enemy lines under a code name, Paulette. 8 aged 23, she dressed up like a poor 14­year­old French girl to make the Germans less suspicious. She used bicycles to 9 the area, passing information through coded messages.

    The 10 would take half an hour to send and the Germans need an hour and a half to pick up the 11. She would have just enough time to send her message and move on before being 12.

    She would sleep rough in forests and was 13 to hunt for food, or stay with our supporters. "One family I stayed with told me we were 14 a squirrel," she told the Army News, "I found out later it was a rat. I was half 15 so I didn't care."

    It wasn't until the last 15 years or so that Mrs. Doyle made known her career as a 16 "My eldest son found out by 17 something on the Internet, and my children 18 I send off for my medals," she said.

    "I was asked if I wanted them to be 19 presented to me, and I said no, I didn't, it was my family who wanted them."

    Laurent Contini, the French ambassador to New Zealand, said, "I have deep 20 for her bravery and it will be with great honor that I will present her with the award."

    It seems that artificial  (intelligent) can do much more than what we have ever imagined. From controlling the lighting in our homes to  (help) us order pizza, AI has become an important part of our everyday life. But what about the more creative works of mankind? Art, music, poetry­these are inspired not by logic or reason,  by emotion.

    In 2017, researchers in Switzerland created the "deep artificial composer (DAC)",  can create original music all by  (it). The scientists trained it to "listen" to over 2,000 different folk songs and  (base) on this input, the AI taught itself how to get the pitch (音高) and timing and choose the right notes. Besides music, AI already  (enter) the world of poetry as well. In 2018, Chinese and Japanese researchers wrote an AI program that uses images to write poems. Then the poems were sent to 500 human judges, who were asked to tell  they were written by a human or a computer. The result showed that as  as 200 judges mistakenly thought they were written by a human.

    So if you were  artist or a musician, would you watch out?

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    What is eco­fashion? Eco­fashion is about making clothes that considers the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry.

    A closer look at the fashion industry points out many problems that are common practices in the creation of our fashions from the field to the factory. Firstly, the production of textiles pollutes the environment heavily. Cotton­planting uses pesticides; sheep­farming and wool­cleaning bring about global warming. Secondly, every stage of clothing production consumes a great deal of energy and some also involve chemicals which obviously do harm to the surroundings. In addition, there is a lot of waste produced in the process, especially in the form of polluted water. Thirdly, growing purchasing power and our shopping habits further worsen the bad effects. We are now buying clothes in increasing quantities and we are also quick to throw away clothes that have been worn only a couple of times.

    Then, how to solve the problem? To a large degree, it is the fashion producers that really have the power and the responsibility to shape our future. There are a great many ways these producers can reduce their ecological footprint, from switching to green energy and reducing energy use, through selecting sustainable materials and choosing local suppliers, to recycling and minimizing waste. On the other hand, as consumers we can all play our part by selecting environmentally friendly clothing and reducing clothing buying.

    There is some concern that eco­friendly fashions are just a trend that we will eventually grow tired of but we can make sure that doesn't happen. Now many people are beginning to shop for organic food products because the benefits of eating food free of chemicals are immediate. They relate directly to our personal health. In fact, choosing eco­fashion can also do good to our personal health, though it is mostly done by way of keeping the health of the planet.