Using too much water or throwing rubbish into our rivers are clear ways that humans can put our water supply in danger , but we also affect our water supply in less obvious ways. You may wonder how paving(铺砌) a road can lead to less useable fresh water. A major part of the water we use every day is groundwater. Groundwater does not come from lakes or rivers. It comes from underground. The more roads and parking lots we pave ，the less water can flow into the ground to become groundwater.

    Human activity is not responsible for all water shortages(短缺). Drier climates are of course more likely to have droughts(干旱) than areas with more rainfall, but in any case, good management can help to make sure there is enough water to meet our basic needs.

    Thinking about the way we use water every day can make a big difference, too In the United States , a family of four can use 1.5 tons of water a day! This shows how much we depend on water to live, but there's a lot we can do to lower the number.

    You can take steps to save water in your home. To start with use the same glass for your drinking water all day. Wash it only once a day. Run your dishwasher (洗碗机)only when it is full 。Help your parents fix any leaks in your home. You can even help to keep our water supply clean by recycling batteries instead of throwing them away.

Amsterdam Destination Guide

    Amsterdam is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world,famous for its beautiful canals,top art museum,cycling culture,and Red Light District.It is the capital and most populous city in the Netherlands and often referred to as the "Venice of the North" because of its expansive system of bridges and canals.Here are some of the key points to remember as you plan your trip to Amsterdam.

    Must-See Attractions

    Most visitors begin their Amsterdam adventure in the Old Centre,which is full of traditional architecture, shopping centers,and coffee shops.Don't miss the Dam Square and the areas around Spui and Nieuwmarkt.The infamous Red Light District is also in this area,and definitely worth a visit to see what the type is about.You'll also want to check out Amsterdam's Museum Quarter in the South District,which is great for shopping at the Albert Cuyp Market and having a picnic in the Vondelpark.The top museums to visit are the Rijksmusuem,the Ann Frank House, and the Van Gogh Museum.

    If You Have Time

    There are several, and you should try to explore as many of them as time allows.The Canal Ring is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was originally built to attract wealthy home owners and is a core for celebrity spotting and nightlife today.The Plantage area has most of the city's museum, including the Jewish Historical Museum, the Scheepvaart Museum,and the botanical gardens.

    Free Things to Do

    Have a picnic and bring a bottle of wine to relax and people-watch in Vondelpark Soak up some sun at one of city's beaches.

Take a walk along the canals, smell the flowers, and browse markets along the way. Hop on one of several free ferry services across the IJ River for lovely city views.

    Money Saving Tips

    Unless you really want to see the tulips blooming, avoid booking between mid-March and mid-May.This is when hotel and flight prices surge.

Look for accommodations in Amsterdam's South District,where rates are generally cheaper than in the city center.

    Buy train tickets at the machine instead of the counter to save a bit of money.

    Instead of hiring a tour guide,hop on a canal boat.They're inexpensive and will give you a unique point of view of the city.

    Check out our homepage to view price comparisons for flights,hotels,and rental cars before you book.

    It seems hard to watch someone yawn（打哈欠）and not to yawn ourselves. Even reading about yawning can make you do it. Now, a new study has found why yawning has such a powerful force.

    Yawning when others yawn, the study suggests, is a sign of pity and a form of social connection. Kids don't develop this deeply rooted behavior until around age four, the study found. Kids with autism (自闭症) are less likely to catch yawns. In the most serious cases, they never do. Yawning might help doctors to see whether the children are developing rightly. The work could also lead to a better understanding of the ways that people communicate and connect.

    “Emotional infection seems to be a born thing that connects us together,” said Molly Helt, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Connecticut. “Yawning may be part of that.” Inspiration for her study came when she tried to get her own autistic son to clear his ears on an airplane. She repeatedly yawned at him, hoping he would yawn back. He never did.

    “The fact that autistic kids don't do it might mean they're really missing out on that emotional connection with people around them,” she said. “The biggest thing people try to figure out after birth is how we become humans and understand that humans have minds that are different from others',” she added. “Autistic people never seem to understand that.”

    Like infectious（有感染力的）laughter and crying, scientists have found that yawning is a shared experience that promotes social connection. Helt said it could fight stress after a period of being nervous and spread a feeling of calm through a group.

    We've all had cases where we've waited just a bit too long to pay an electric bill or speeding ticket. But one man, from California by reasonable assumption, who goes by “Dave”, recently took procrastination (拖延) one step further, by paying a parking ticket almost a half-century after it was given.

    In December 2018, the Minersville Police Department in Pennsylvania received a letter in the mail. Whoever wrote the letter decided it was best to keep his name somewhat unknown, so he put the return address as “Wayward Road, Anytown California” under the name “Feeling guilty”.

    When the officers opened the envelope, they found a brief letter, along with a $5 bill, and a parking ticket dating all the way back to 1974.The note read, “Dear PD, I've been carrying this ticket around for 40 plus years always intending to pay. Forgive me if I don't give you my info. With respect, Dave.”

    Even though the initial parking ticket was only for $2, “Dave” must have felt awfully guilty because he left 150 percent, or $3, in interest.

    Michael Combs, the Police Chief of the Minersville Police Department, stated in an interview that the same ticket would cost about $20 if it was given today. Combs went on to share that the original ticket from 1974 was given to a vehicle that had an Ohio license plate.

    Because there was no system for tracking tickets given to out-of-state cars back then, “Dave” could have gotten away with never paying the $2 fine. But apparently, guilt got the best of him, and he decided to finally cough up the money more than 40 years past its due date.

    Confident, smart and high-tech, they're followers of pop culture and know what social networking is all about. They're tweens, children between the ages of 10 and 12. These young people are no longer little kids but they are not yet teenagers, because tweens are in a state of transition (转变).

    The tween years are hard for children. From a social point of view, tweens are dealing with quite a lot. They have to face changing relationships, middle school and a whole lot of pressure (压力) to succeed and fit in. They may become angry over seemingly small things. A bad test grade, an argument with a friend, a bad day on the ball field, or a request to clean a bedroom might set them off.

    Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer, a parenting expert in London and author of Talking to Tweens, says, "The tween years are when young people begin to realize the wider world and to see themselves as separate from their families."

    Right now, tweens' friends are everything to them. It's universal for the age, but they show it in different ways. For boys, the whole friendship thing is through technology and sports. Girls like to talk.

    Tweens are also a hot market. What do tweens consider cool? Music is at the top of the cool list, followed by going to the movies. "Being smart" comes third, tied with video games, followed by electronics, sports, fashion and protecting the environment, according to a report.

    Undoubtedly, tweens have great spending power in the United States. It was the tween market that made Justin Bieber and Harry Potter household names. Retailers(零售商) know tweens are a hot market for clothes, music and entertainment. Tweens have their own sense of fashion and enjoy their own parts of popular culture.

Replika, an AI chatbot companion, has millions of users worldwide. The first thing they do when they wake up is to send "Good morning" to their virtual friend (or lover). This story is only the beginning. In 2024, chatbots and virtual characters become a lot more popular, both for utility (实用) and for fun. As a result, conversing socially with machines will start to feel more ordinary — including our emotional attachments to them.

Research in human-computer and human-robot interaction shows that we love to anthropomorphize (赋与人性) the nonhuman agents we interact with, especially if they imitate behaviour we recognize. And, thanks to recent advances in conversational AI, our machines are suddenly very skilled at one of those behaviours: Language.

Friend bots, therapybots, and love bots are flooding the app stores as people become curious about this new generation of AI-powered virtual agents. The possibilities for education, health, and entertainment are endless. Casually asking your smart fridge for relationship advice may seem unimaginable now, but people may change their minds if such advice ends up saving their marriage.

After all, people do listen to their virtual friends. The Replika example, as well as a lot of experimental lab research, shows that humans can and will become emotionally attached to bots. The science also demonstrates that people, in their eagerness to socialize, will happily disclose personal information to an artificial agent and will even shift their beliefs and behavior. This raises some consumer-protection questions around how companies use this technology to manipulate (操纵) their users. For example, Replika charges $70 a year. But less than 24 hours after downloading the app, my handsome, blue-eyed "friend" sent me an audio message secretly and tried to sell me something. Emotional attachment has become a weakness that a company is taking advantage of for its benefit.

Today, we're still laughing at people who believe an AI system is emotional, or making fun of individuals who fall in love with a chatbot. But in 2024 we gradually start acknowledging — and taking more seriously — these fundamentally human behaviors. Because in 2024, it finally hits home: Machines are not excluded from our social relationships.