Your next car might drive itself. After years of trials on city streets, driverless vehicles are now nearing the live phase. Last moth, a driverless bus began carrying passengers through Lyon, France, Most in the automobile industry think self-driving vehicles will be on the road by 2020 or before.

    Driverless cars will at first be huddled with human-driven cars. But the first places where they will become dominant（统治的）are dense urban areas — precisely the spots most damaged by the automobile age. Many advanced cities are already reducing the role of human-driven cargo. Driverless cars will quicken that process and will bring us enormous benefits.

    Driverless cars will reduce accidents by around 90 percent. That's big—the annual death toll on the world's roads is about 1.2 million a year. Pollution and carbon emissions will drop, because urban driverless cars will be electric. The old, otherwise they would stay at home most of the time and the disabled and teenagers will suddenly gain mobility.

    On the other hand, driverless cars will bring catastrophe. The best thing about the automobile age was that it employed tens of millions of people to make, market, insure and drive vehicles. Over the next 20 years, the mostly low-skilled men who now drive trucks, taxis and buses will see their jobs reduced. Carmakers are especially scared. The few cars of the future might be made by tech companies such as Apple, Baidu and Google. Imaging the impact on Germany, where the automotive sector is the largest industry.

    Dramatic change is coming, and driverless cars could arrive by 2020. But governments have barely begun thinking about it. Only 6 percent of the biggest US cities have factored them into their long-term planning.

    A decade ago anyone hardly saw the Smartphone coming. It has bought an epidemic of mass addiction. Let's hope we do a better job of handling the driverless car.

    We walked in so quietly that the nurse at the desk didn't even lift（抬起）her eyes from the book.Mum pointed at a big chair by the door and I knew she wanted me to sit down.While I watched,mouth open in surprise.Mum took off her hat and coat and gave them to me to hold.She walked quietly to the small room by the lift（电梯）and took out a wet mop（拖把）.She pushed the mop past the desk and as the nurse looked up.Mum nodded and said,"Very dirty floors."

“Yes.I'm glad they've finally decided to clean them,”the nurse answered.She looked at Mum strangely and said. “But aren't you working late?”

    Mum just pushed harder,each swipe of the mop taking her farther and farther down the hall.I watched until she was out of sight and the nurse had turned back to writing in the big book.

    After a along time Mum came back.Her eyes were shining.She quickly put the mop back and took my hand.As we turned to go out of the the door,Mum nodded politely to the nurse and said.“Thank you.”

    Outside,Mum told me, “Dagma is fine.No fever."

     “You see her,Mum?”

     “Of course.I told her about the hospital rules,and she will not expect us until tomorrow.Dad will stop worrying as well.It's a fine hospital.But the floors!A mop is no good.You need a brush."

    More and more birds are flying to settle at Qinghai Lake, one of the highest inland lakes in China, thanks to the protection efforts of local governments. Covering an area of over 4,000 square     kilometers. Qinghai Lake is also the country's biggest salt­water lake. Located in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, the lake is famous for the two islands at its northwest point—Cormorant Island and Egg Island. The two islands have plenty of floating grass and various schools of fish, offering rich food sources for birds. The islands have become a paradise for different kinds of groups of birds and have been called“Bird Islands”．

    Each March and April, when ice and snow covering the Qinghai­Tibet Plateau starts to melt, over 20 kinds of birds fly to the Bird Islands to lay eggs.  During the months, flocks of birds cover the whole sky over the islands and birds eggs can be found everywhere. Visitors can hear the singing of birds from miles away. These have become a world famous symbol of the lake.

    To protect this paradise for birds and support calls for ecological protection, China set up the Qinghai Lake Natural Protection Zone at the end of 1997.Meanwhile, the State has pointed out the Bird Islands and Spring bay of the Qinghai Lake as central protection zones.

    Inspection officials and management employees often patrol the lake, improving local residents' knowledge of related laws and spreading knowledge about animal protection to visitors. They are making great efforts to call on people to love and protect the birds. At the same time, they have built special fences around the island area to prevent wolves, foxes and other carnivorous animals, as well as illegal hunters from breaking up the birds' nest­building, egg­laying and breeding. As a result, more and more birds are coming to the islands for sheltering and breeding.

    With these tips you can finally get a solid night's sleep.

    Reserve Your Bed

    Get into bed just for sleeping. Avoid working, paying bills, reading, or watching television in bed. If you associate your bed only with sleep, you'll be more likely to fall asleep.

    Watch the Caffeine(咖啡因)

    Too much caffeine throughout the day can cause interrupted sleep. Limit yourself to two cups of tea, coffee, or cola, taken at least 6 hours before bedtime.

    Tap the Exercise Answer

    In a study from Stanford University School of Medicine, a group of 50- to 76-year-olds who had complained of sleep problems began proper exercise for about half an hour four times a week. Compared with a similar group of people who didn't exercise, the more active group slept an average of one hour more each night, took less time to fall asleep.

    Take a Bath

    Take a warm bath an hour or two before bed. Your body temperature will slowly drop after you get out of the tub（浴盆）, making you feel tired. Don't bathe right before bed, however, because it can briefly stimulate you enough to make it hard to fall asleep.

    Buy the Right Bed

    A bed that's too soft can cause poor sleep. Replace your mattress(床垫)if it's more than ten years old, and buy one that's as firm as you can tolerate but still comfortable.

    If 30 minutes go by and you haven't fallen asleep, don't lie in bed feeling frustrated. Get up and do something relaxing.

We were on the way from Hutchinson to Chicago for a short spring break. For many years I had wanted to take my family on the train. We all went to Chicago four years ago, and the kids loved it. Chicago is one of my favorite cities, too, so the thought struck me again last fall to ride the train to Chicago. Of course, flying would have been faster. But I don't think flying is easier, especially these days, with all the security and waiting in lines at airports.

Though we were tired in the middle of the night, the kids got on the train with the exhilaration of this adventure. "We're moving," my son William shouted happily with big eyes as the train began to pull away from the Hutchinson station.

I removed my shoes and lay down to try to finish my night's sleep. The sleeper car would have better enabled that, but the ordinary train seats were not too bad. An airline flight is a more miserable experience for me：not enough room, two hours of pain with my knees almost touching my chin, the hard seatback in front cracking my kneecaps (膝盖) with every move of the body planted in front of me. On the train I could almost outstretch all of my 6­foot­2­plus body in the generous legroom.

The journey didn't feel at all as long as it was. We all found the train ride a joy. The car ride would have felt every minute of 13 hours. But on the train you are free to walk around, sit in the observation carriage for a while and enjoy the scenery out the windows, have a nice meal in the dining car, read a book, or play a board game.

In short, the train is all about enjoying the trip, which isn't something I do so much when travelling by airline or by car, when the trip seems more of a mission (任务) to get there than an experience to enjoy along the way.

Chicago offers much to do for a family. This time, getting there was half the fun.

We are currently experiencing an unprecedented era in the realm of space exploration, marked by a surge in the retrieval and study of celestial samples. This "golden age" is characterized by the active efforts of global space agencies to gather and analyze material from various celestial bodies, including asteroids, moons, and planets.

China's Chang'e 5 mission stands out as a recent triumph in this endeavor. On December 17, the Chang'e 5 lunar probe successfully concluded its journey by landing in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, as reported by China Daily. This mission, the first lunar sample-return endeavor since 1976, managed to secure an impressive 1,713 grams of lunar rocks and dust, utilizing advanced drilling technology and robotic arms.

Similarly, on December 6, Japan's Hayabusa 2 probe achieved a remarkable feat by returning a capsule filled with samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This marks the second instance of asteroid samples being collected and brought back to Earth, following the original Hayabusa spacecraft's accomplishment in 2010.

The momentum in this field is set to continue, with NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft anticipated to return to Earth in 2023, carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu. Additionally, Russia's Lunar-25 mission is poised to launch in 2021, with the objective of collecting lunar samples.

The significance of these sample-return missions cannot be overstated. They hold the potential to shed light on long-standing mysteries that have baffled scientists, such as the origins of life and the emergence of water on Earth. As Ann Nguyen, a NASA planetary scientist, emphasizes, "I cannot emphasize enough how valuable return samples are for increasing our understanding of the origin and evolution of our solar system and our place in the universe, and how we came to be."

Upon arrival on Earth, these celestial samples undergo meticulous analysis using sophisticated instruments. These analyses can yield more detailed insights than what can be gleaned from photographs or robotic rovers alone.

In the case of the Chang'e 5 lunar samples, scientists will employ a variety of analytical methods, tests, and experiments to determine the composition, structure, and physical properties of the lunar material. This comprehensive understanding will contribute to a deeper comprehension of the moon's history and, by extension, the broader history of our solar system.

Though we have only begun to explore the surface of these celestial bodies, both in a literal and figurative sense, the knowledge we have gained is already substantial. The journey of discovery is far from over, with a wealth of mysteries still waiting to be unveiled.