People always think men are more skilled than women in driving. Nowadays women appear to have a positive image of themselves as safer drivers than men.

    In a survey done for insurer MetLife, 51% of women said they drive more safely. The evidence is on their side: Men are 3.4 times more likely than women to get a ticket for careless driving and 3.1 times as likely to be punished for drunk driving. “Women are on average less aggressive and more law abiding (守法的) drivers, which leads to fewer accidents.” the report says. However, not all male drivers share the same opinion. Of the men surveyed by MetLife, 39% claimed male drivers were safer. The findings did back them up on one point: automotive knowledge. The report showed that more men are familiar with current safety equipment such as electronic stability control, which helps prevent rollover accidents.

    Auto safety unavoidably matters to money. Insurance companies focus on what classes of drivers have the lowest dollar amounts of claims, and for now, that mainly includes women. In general, women pay about 9% less for auto insurance than men. A study by the website Insweb also showed that auto insurance rates are lower for women in most states. Among individual states, women get the greatest advantage in Wyoming (where they pay 20% less), South Dakota and Washington, D. C., where their insurance costs are 16% lower.

    “More than 11,900 male drivers died in U.S. traffic accidents in 2009, compared with just under 4,900 women drivers,” according to the study. “Based on miles traveled, men died at a rate of 2.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, v.s. 1.7 deaths for women.”

     Scientists have found living organisms trapped in crystals(晶体) that could be 50,000 years old.

     The organisms were found in a hot, but beautiful cave system in Naica, Mexico. These ancient life forms can be seen only with a microscope. Penelope Boston, who leads the Astrobiology Institute at NASA, the space agency of the United States, says the ancient microbes(微生物) were able to live by eating minerals such as iron.

     She spoke about the discovery recently at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. If the findings are confirmed, they will show how microbes can survive in extreme conditions. Forty different kinds of microbes and some viruses were found in the underground area. The genetic structures of these organisms are 10 percent different from those of their nearest relatives.

     The caves in Naica are 800 kilometers deep. They were once used for mining lead. Before the miners began working in the caves, the area was separated from the surface and the outside world. Some of the caves are as big as the large religious centers built during Europe's Middle Ages. There are crystals covering the walls. The caves are so hot that scientists must wear special clothing to keep cool. The clothing keeps the crystals safe from human germs（病菌）or other damage. Boston said the researchers could only work for about 20 minutes at a time before they had to go to a room that was 38 degrees Celsius to cool down.

     NASA officials would not let Boston share her findings with scientific experts before last week's announcement. So scientists could not say much about the findings. But Norine Noonan, a biologist with the University of South Florida, said she believed them. "Why are we surprised?" Noonan asked. "As a biologist, I would say life on Earth is extremely tough and extremely colorful."

     Boston is also studying microbes commonly found inside caves in other countries, such as Ukraine and the United States. These microbes appear to be impossible to kill. Boston said they show how difficult life on Earth can be.

    For many foreigners who have visited or worked in China, one of their strong impressions is that the country is very safe. Here , you can go out alone late at night to eat at a food stand without feeling nervous. You can also let your younger children ride public transport all by themselves without worrying about their safety.

    This year, 2018 , marks 8 special anniversary of the launching of the reform and opening up policy, which took place two score years ago in China. Over the past few decades, the country has achieved fast economic growth, while social peace and stability have been maintained(维护) to the fullest extent at the lowest cost. Of course, there are still unsolved problems. However, from the overall aspect, Chinese society remains harmonious and safe. In my eyes , this should be attributed(归于) largely to the cultural ;economic and political environment of the country.

    A society can be stable and orderly only when its people can lead a prosperous(繁荣的) life. After the introduction of the reform and opening up policy, China achieved fast economic growth and significant scientific and technological progress. In the meantime, the Chinese government has taken various measures such 2s those to fight corruption, reduce poverty and promote the rule of law, in order to uphold social equity. Thanks to these efforts, the potential factors that might cause social problems have been greatly reduced.

    Apart from government departments including the police and judicial(司法的) departments , the general public also contributes much to social governance. The development of information technology has created new ways of linking the police and the public. By jointly fighting crimes in such ways, the public and the police have developed an ever-increasing level of mutual trust and positive interaction.

    The safety and stability in China did not come easily. Rather; it should be attributed to the efforts made by 1.3 'billion people. For both Chinese and foreigners living in the country, the sense of safety and security is very precious.

    The year 2117 will be an eventful one for art. In May of that year in Berlin, the philosopher-artist Jonathon Keats' “century cameras”— cameras with a 100-year-long exposure (曝光)time—will be brought back from hiding places around the city to have their results developed and exhibited. Six months after that, the Future Library in Oslo, Norway, will open its doors for the first time, presenting 100 books printed on the wood of trees planted in the distant past of 2017.

    As Katie Paterson, the creator of the Future Library, puts it: “Future Library is an artwork for future generations.” These projects, more than a century in the making, are part of a new wave of slow art intended to push viewers and Participants to think beyond their own lifetimes. They aim to challenge today's short-term thinking and the brief attention spans of modern consumers, forcing people into considering works more deliberately. In their way, too, they are fighting against modern culture—not just regarding money, but also the way in which artistic worth is measured by attention.

    In a similar fashion, every April on Slow Art Day, visitors are encouraged to stare at five works of art for 10 minutes at a time—a tough task for the average museum visitor, who typically spends less than30seconds on each piece of art.

Like the Future Library, the century cameras are very much a project for cities, since it's in cities that time runs fastest and the pace of life is fastest. “Since I started living in a city, I've somehow been quite disconnected,” Anne Beate Hovind, the Future Library project manager, who described how working on the library drew her back to the Pace of life she knew when she was growing up on a farm in her youth, told The Atlantic magazine.

At a large forest park in eastern Beijing, 11 birds on the state-level protection list were recently released.

These birds had recovered after the Beijing Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center rescued and took care of them. "We will speed up our efforts to push the establishment of district-level wildlife rescue centers to jointly guard the health of wildlife," said Du Lianhai, director of the center.

The center was set up in 2001 and built a wildlife rescue base in the capital's Shunyi District in 2005. Staff at the base have rescued and rehabilitated over 30,000 wild animals in total.

Wildlife protection has been strengthened in Beijing in recent years. On June 1, the city's newly adopted regulation on wildlife protection took effect, introducing stricter and more concrete measures to protect the environment and wildlife.

For example, the regulation states clearly that Beijing bans hunting throughout the year, compared with the previous regulation which bans hunting during the periods of March to May and September to November each year. The new regulation also gives severer punishment for poachers.

After years of monitoring, data with the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau recently showed ecological reconstruction progress. The species and quantity of wild animals in Beijing are continuously increasing, with the number of terrestrial spinal wild animals (陆地脊椎野生动物) growing from 461 species in 1994 to more than 500. The habitat of the endangered bird has expanded from Fangshan District to the whole city, according to the bureau.

"The enforcement of the new regulation marked a new phase in Beijing's wildlife protection work," said Dai Mingchao, deputy director of the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau.

"We will step up the publicity of the regulation and raise citizens' awareness of wildlife protection," Dai said. "In our integrated protection of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands, we take into full consideration the requirements of food-chain construction, ecological corridor construction, and wildlife and their habitat protection."

California has lost half its big trees since the 1930s, according to a study to be published Tuesday and climate change seems to be a major factor. 

The number of trees larger than two feet across has declined by 50 percent on more than 46, 000 square miles of California forests, the new study finds. No area was spared or unaffected, from the foggy northern coast to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the San Gabriels above Los Angeles. In the Sierra high country, the number of big trees has fallen by more than 55 percent; in parts of southern California the decline was nearly 75 percent. 

Many factors contributed to the decline, said Patrick McIntyre, an ecologist who was the lead author of the study. Woodcutters targeted big trees. Housing development pushed into the woods. Aggressive wildfire control has left California forests crowded with small trees that compete with big trees for resources. 

But in comparing a study of California forests done in the 1920s and 1930s with another one between 2001 and 2010, McIntyre and his colleagues documented a widespread death of big trees that was evident even in wildlands protected from woodcutting or development. 

The loss of big trees was greatest in areas where trees had suffered the greatest water shortage. The researchers figured out water stress with a computer model that calculated how much water trees were getting in comparison with how much they needed, taking into account such things as rainfall, air temperature, dampness of soil, and the timing of snowmelt. 

Since the 1930s, McIntyre said, the biggest factors driving up water stress in the state have been rising temperatures, which cause trees to lose more water to the air, and earlier snowmelt, which reduces the water supply available to trees during the dry season.