When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Doctor Gibbs. He didn't look like any doctor I'd ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard, but was always very kind.

    When Doctor Gibbs wasn't saving lives, he was planting trees. He had some interesting theories about planting trees. He believed in the principle “No pain, no gain”. He hardly watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional(传统的) wisdom. Once I asked why and he told me that watering plants spoiled them because it made them grow weaker. He said you had to make things tough for the trees so that only the strongest could survive. He talked about how watering trees made them develop shallow roots and how, if they were not watered, trees would grow deep roots in search of water. So, instead of watering his trees every morning, he'd beat them with a rolled-up newspaper. I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree's attention.

    Doctor Gibbs died a couple of years after I left home. Every now and then, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I'd watched him plant some twenty five years ago. They were all tall and strong.

    I planted a couple of trees myself a few years ago. Two years of attending these trees meant they grew up weak. Whenever a cold wind blew, their branches trembled. Adversity(逆境) seemed to benefit Doctor Gibb's trees in ways comfort and ease never could.

    Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But lately I've been thinking that it's time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to meet with hardship. There's always a cold wind blowing somewhere. What we need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won't be torn apart.

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    Food storing is common in members of the crow（乌鸦）family. A new study tested the birds outside this naturally occurring behaviour, which may have evolved（进化）specifically because it gives crows a survival advantage. Some crow species are known to naturally use tools to recover food. So the researchers tested whether the birds could store and recover a tool so they could get it at their food after a gap of 17 hours—something we wouldn't expect them to do naturally. But they were able to instantly select the tool out of a number of unnecessary items.

    In another experiment, the researchers taught crows to select a token （礼品券）from a number of items so that they could then exchange for food. Again, the birds then showed that they could plan for the future using this new behaviour. This is different from all of the previous studies in future planning, which have focused on naturally occurring behaviour. For example, we know that chimpanzees select, transport and save appropriate tools for future needs.

    These studies have shown that animals can plan for the future—but they left an important question open for debate. Are animals only able to plan to use abilities that have evolved to give them a specific advantage, or can they flexibly and intelligently apply planning behaviour across various actions? Most critics would say the former, as the animals were tested in naturally occurring behaviours.

    But the new research provides the first evidence that animal species can plan for the future using behaviour that doesn't typically occur in nature. This supports the view that at least some recognitive abilities in animals don't evolve just in response to specific problems. Instead, it suggests that animals can apply these behaviours flexibly across problems in a similar way to humans. We need to investigate how flexible behaviour evolved. Then we might be able to see how crows' ability to plan for the future fits in with their broader cognitive powers.

    For centuries, elephants have played a big role in the world's economies, culture and religion. The African elephant used to be found all over Africa and the Asian elephant moved from Syria to China to Indonesia. Nowadays, elephants are found in small groups in the south of the Sahara Desert and scarcely in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India.

    In the early twentieth century, there were close to ten million elephants, and now the elephant number is as low as 252,000 and expected to drop down to 160,000 by 2025. Between 2007 and 2014, the elephant population fell by at least 30%, or 144,000 elephants. As researchers have traveled over the African plains, they only spotted one herd of 36 elephants in an area like the size of Mexico. It is clear that these gentle mammals are disappearing right before our eyes.

    There are many reasons why the elephant population has been decreasing, one of which is their habitat. Humans are competing with elephants for living space, and as more and more humans clear the land that is being used by elephants, the elephants have less space. Elephant hunting or “poaching” has been a major factor for the disappearance of this species, and they are killed only for their valuable ivory tusks. Although the trade of tusks is illegal, it is still a common practice in many places.

    Often, all the local people living among elephants would be farmers, and found that they could make more money by selling the tusks of one elephant, than doing manual labor for twelve years. That alone makes it really hard to prevent them from killing the elephants.

    Some places such as Botswana, have put in extra effort to protect their wildlife from poachers by founding their Botswana Defense Force, which is made up of around 700 specially-trained soldiers that are stationed in 40 different areas. You may feel worried about the present situations elephants are in, but there are ways to help. To find out how you can help elephant conservation, adopt an elephant, or donate, click here.

    Generally speaking, people like those who have a good sense of humor.

    Sometimes a touch of humor might well enable us to win. Consider the case of a young friend of mine, who hit a traffic jam on his way to work shortly after receiving an ultimatum (最后通牒) about being late on the job. Although there was a good reason for Brian's being late—serious illness at home—he decided that this by-now-familiar excuse wouldn't work any longer. His boss was probably already pacing up and down preparing a dismissal speech.

    Yes, the boss was, as Brian entered the office at 9:35. The place was as quiet as a locker room (更衣室): everyone was hard at work. Brian's boss came up to him. Suddenly, Brian forced a smile and stretched out his hand. "How do you do!" he said. "I'm Brian. I'm applying for a job, which, I understand, became available just 35 minutes ago. Doesn't the early bird get the worm?"

    The room exploded in laughter. The boss clamped off a smile and walked back to his office. Brian had saved his job, with the only tool that could win—a laugh.

    Humor is a most effective, yet frequently neglected means of handling the difficult situations in our lives. It can be used for patching up differences, apologizing, saying "no", criticizing, getting the other fellow to do what you want without his losing face. For some jobs, it's the only tool that can succeed. It is a way to discuss subjects so sensitive that serious dialog may start a quarrel. For example, many believe that comedians on television are doing more today for racial and religious tolerance (忍受力) than people in any other forum.

    Resorts of every kind have sprung up to cater to the Englishman need to spend a part of the year, however briefly, by the seaside. No town in Britain is more than eighty miles from the sea and there are seaside resorts all round the coast. On a summer Sunday most of the roads that lead to the sea axe congested (拥挤) with cars full of people eager to get a breath of sea air. In the evening when everyone is full of food, ice-cream and lollypops, there is the long slow drive home on roads crowded with returning cars.

    Brighton

    Brighton is one of the best-known south coast resorts and is very popular for day trip excursions. It is only fifty miles from London and can be reached by fast train in an hour. At the weekend the pebbled beaches are thronged with people sunbathing or picking their way to the water's edge for a dip.

    Bournemouth

    Located a hundred miles from London, the beaches are wide and sandy. White houses line the cliff tops and narrow valleys, densely wooded with pine trees, reach down to the shore. The area near to the town of Torquay on the Devon coast is sometimes called Britains Riviera and the climate is so mild that palm trees grow along the sea front.

    Blackpool

    On the north-west coast, a popular resort for the people in the industrial north, Blackpool is a gay, noisy town, famous for its amusement facilities and the magical lights. At night people travel from miles around to see the extravaganza of lights decorating the sea front.

    Southend

    On the east coast at the mouth of the Thames, Southend is, like Brighton, one of the favorite resorts of Londoners. The pier here is the longest in Britain and offers a great variety of differing entertainments.

    Janus, the Roman god, has two faces looking in opposite directions. So does artificial intelligence (AI). On one side are the positive changes, enabling people to achieve more, far more quickly, by using technology to improve their existing skills. Look the other way, though, and there are plenty of potential pitfalls.

    Like Janus, technological change may also cause disruption(混乱), but AI is likely to have a bigger impact than anything since the appearance of computers, and its consequences could be far more disruptive.

    In the years ahead, AI will raise three big questions for bosses and governments. One is the effect on jobs. Although CEOs publicly praise the broad benefits AI will bring, their main interest lies in cutting costs. One European bank asked Infosys to find a way of reducing the staff in its operations department from 50,000 to 500. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that by 2030 up to 375m people, or 14% of the global workforce, could have their jobs replaced by AI.

    A second important question is how to protect privacy as AI spreads. The internet has already made it possible to track people's digital behavior in minute detail. AI will offer even better tools for businesses to monitor consumers and employees, both online and in the physical world. Consumers are sometimes happy to go along with this if it results in personalised service or promotions. But AI is bound to bring invasion of privacy that is seen as unacceptable. For example, law-enforcement officials around the world will use AI to spot criminals, but may also monitor ordinary citizens.

    The third question is about the effect of AI on competition in business. A technology company that achieves a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence could race ahead of rivals, put others out of business and lessen competition. This is unlikely to happen in the near future, but if it did it would be of great concern.

    It is too early to tell whether the positive changes brought by AI will outweigh the risk. But it will put an end to traditional ways of doing things and start a new era for business and for the world at large.