Canada is a very large country. It is the second largest country in the world. By contrast(比较)it has a very small population. There are only about 29 million people (by the year 1996) there. Most Canadians are of British or French origin, and French is an official language of Canada as well as English. About 45% of the people are of British origin, that is, they or their parents or grandparent, etc., come from Britain. Nearly 30% are of French origin. Most of the French-Canadians live in the province of Quebec.

    Over the years, people have come to live in Canada from many countries in the world. They are from most European countries and also from China, besides other Asian countries.

    However, Canada was not an empty country when the Europeans began to arrive. Canadian Indians lived along the coast, by the rivers and lakes and in forests. Today there are only about 350,000 Indians in the whole country, with their own languages. In the far north live the Inuit. There are only 27,000 Canadian-Inuit. Their life is hard in such a harsh climate.

    BackJoy Orthotic Seat: Easy, Drug-Free Relief from Back Pain

    Why BackJoy?

    BackJoy is an innovative device that provides relief from back discomfort by aiding in maintaining your posture (姿势) anywhere you sit, hard or soft seats.

    Proven effective � over 2.0 million units sold, durable to provide long-lasting support

    Recommended by doctors and nurses

    Safe and effective � a natural alternative

    Back Pain Is A Problem!

    We average over 9+ hours of sitting each day!

    80% of adults will suffer from back pain in their life

    Back pain is the No. 2 reason for visiting the doctor

    Mom was right: “Sit up straight!”

    How to use

    BackJoy is made small on purpose. It is designed to cradle the space around the two sitting bones at the base of your pelvis and must be smaller than your buttocks to do so.

    Sit on top of it

    Handle goes in front and between your legs

    Pull it tight & cup to fit

    Feel it cup & lift your hips above the seat from below you

    A Chinese scientist's attempt to produce the world's first gene-edited babies who are immune to HIV has caused floods concern.

    In an online video posted on Monday, He Jiankui, a biological researcher, announced that a pair of twin baby girls, Lulu and Nana, was born healthy a few weeks ago with genetic editing technology that can prevent them from being infected with HIV.

    He, who was believed to be in Hong Kong on Monday to attend the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, could not be reached for comment. But his announcement sparked a heated argument concarning medical ethics（伦理）and effectiveness.

    The Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission said on Monday evening that it had not received any ethical assessment application for the study, which is required as a prior condition for such experiments.

    More than 120 scholars from universities and institutes with high status from China and abroad,such as Tsinghua University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),strongly condemned the research in a signed statement, saying the “research” lacks effective ethics inspection, and it amounts to human experimentation,which is “crazy”.

    In the statement, published on Sina Weibo, the scientists said any attempt to make changes to human embryos with genetic editing and give birth to such babies involves high risk as an inevitable part, due to inaccuracies in existing genetic editing technologies.

    “Scientists all over the world dare not make such attempts due to the huge risks and more importantly, ethics. The government must make quick legal moves to strictly supervise（监督）such research. The Pandora's Box has been opened, and we may still have a chance of closing it before it is too late,”the statement said.

    Tsui Lap-chee, president of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong, said a lot of issues may occur in gene editing. If one gene is edited, it will affect others that interact with it. And the whole genome, a collection of genes, may also be affected.

    The "Give It Up for Earth Day" encourages people to commit to giving up actions that are harmful to the environment, such as using poisonous cleaners.

    Throughout the month of April, Canadians are being asked to "Give It Up for Earth Day!" Earth Day has been celebrated every year on April 22 since 1970. Earth Day Canada president Jed Goldberg says that as people become more environmentally aware, they want to find ways to reduce their environmental influence, not just celebrate one special event.

    "Earth Day is a great launching pad for thinking about environmental action every day," said Goldberg. "Choosing healthier options, even for the short term, can lead to thinking about the influence of our decisions for a lifetime."

    That's the reason behind the "Give It Up for Earth Day" campaign. It's designed to encourage healthy habits that benefit people and the planet. It challenges everyone to help create a healthier world by making changes in their daily routine.

    "We wanted to plan an action—targeted campaign that will give people a chance to act on their concern for the environment in a positive way," said Goldberg.

    The campaign has identified four daily actions that can add up to huge environmental savings. They include pledging (保证) to turn off the TV, give up the use of poisonous cleaners, reduce consumption of consumer products and cut out meat.

    At the end of April, all of the pledges will be recorded and converted (转化) into the number of TV hours not watched, dollars not spent on unnecessary items, electricity saved, greenhouse gas emissions (排放) avoided by cutting out meat, and poisonous chemicals produced from homes and landfills.

    "What we're trying to achieve this year for Earth Day is to give people a chance to do something that is meaningful and measurable," said Goldberg.

    Many automobile makers present their newest designs at car shows around the world. Many designers seek to create the car of the future. One device that is popular among car manufacturers(生产商) is an autopilot. Autopilot permits a car to drive itself without human control.

    A recent car show in Geneva, Switzerland also presented other possible designs, including cars manufactured in 3-D printers.

    Rinspeed is a Swiss design company. It showed a vehicle based on the US electric car Tesla Model S, but the Rinspeed car includes a large television and an espresso coffee maker.

    Frank Rinderknecht is the CEO of Rinspeed. He says he does not want to just sit and watch the steering wheel(方向盘) turn as he rides in a car with autopilot.

    "I want to ride; I want to sleep, relax, watch movies, news, anything else. So that's the vision which we have. One day on the boring motorway traffic, you just do anything which makes your life better," said Rinderknecht.

    One of the most interesting ideas presented at the show is a car built on a 3-D printer. The German engineering firm EDAG designed the car. The body of the vehicle called "Genesis" is printed in one piece from a material called thermoplastic(热塑性塑料).

    Christoph Horvath is spokesman for EDAG.

    "To create a car without the use of any tool. This would be a real revolution for the industry," said Horvath.

    EDAG says it based its design on a turtle shell. The company says the design provides the right amount of strength and firmness.

    Other automakers did not look so far into the future. Czech automaker Skoda presented its "Vision C" model vehicle. The car has an environmentally friendly natural gas engine.

    Jo Davidson is a company spokeswoman. She says the car releases very low levels of the pollutant gas CO₂. Ms Davidson says the "Vision C" plans to be launched in two years.

Natural selection is the process by which one type of animal within a species develops well because of certain characteristics that make it more likely to live than others in its group. The history of the peppered moth(桦尺蛾) is an example of the natural selection process.

In nineteenth-century England, certain types of peppered moths were able to better blend (融合) into their surroundings. During that time period, great changes were happening in Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution was part of this change, and with it came air pollution. Natural selection usually takes hundreds or even thousands of years to occur. For the peppered moth, this process occurred relatively quickly .

At the beginning of the Industrial Age, most peppered moths in England were light-coloured and covered with black markings, although a few moths had dark-coloured wings. Because the light-coloured moths blended into the light-coloured bar k on the trees, they could not be easily seen by birds that would eat them. As the air grew more polluted, however, tree trunks (树干) became covered with soot (煤烟) and became darker. The light-coloured moths became easy for birds to see against the dark tree trunks. Since the dark-coloured moths now had the advantage, their numbers grew. Within 50 years, the peppered moth went from being mostly light-coloured to being mostly dark-coloured.

In the twentieth century, the air cleared up, and the peppered moth population changed again. As tree trunks lightened due to less soot in the air, light-coloured moths once again had an advantage. Their numbers increased as soot levels declined. Depending on their environment, the colouration of the moths helped them to be "naturally selected" to survive.