One weekend in May 2015, over 48 centimeters of rain fell in Houston, Texas, USA. Soon the city was covered with water. The rising water rushed into the cars on the roads. There were 16 deaths that weekend.

      Changing Weather

      The weather is changing. Over the last few years, heavy rains have caused floods (洪灾) in Brazil, Pakistan, and Thailand. Droughts (干旱) have struck Russia and Australia. Heat waves have killed thousands in Europe. There are more different kinds of terrible wild weather all over the world. In 2011 alone, the bad weather caused the world to lose 150 billion dollars.　

      Warmer and Wetter

      As more wild weather events happen, a worried world is beginning to ask questions like: What is going on with the weather? And why? Many also want to know: Is this natural, or are we to blame (责怪)?

      The answer seems to be: a little of both. Wild weather is natural.   ▲   This global (全球的) warming makes heat waves more likely to happen. The higher temperatures also cause more water to enter the air. This causes much more rain. Some scientists also believe global warming makes some storms stronger.

      This means we're likely to see more wild weather. “But we don't have to just stand there and take it,” says Scientist Michael Oppenheimer. He and other scientists say we need to stop the Earth from getting warmer. We also need to be prepared, to do things that will help save lives.

    The world is not hungry，but it is thirsty. It seems strange that nearly 3/4 of the earth is covered with water while we say we are short of (短缺) water. Why? Because about 97% of water on the earth is sea water which we can't drink or use for watering plants directly. Man can only drink and use the 3%—— the water that comes from rivers and lakes. And we can't even use all of that， because some of it has been polluted.

     Now more water is needed. The problem is: Can we avoid a serious water shortage (短缺) later on?

     First we should all learn how to save water. Secondly，we should find out the ways to reuse it. Scientists have always been making studies in the field. Today，in most large cities water is used only once and then runs to the sea or rivers. But it can be used again. Even if every large city reused its water，still there would not be enough. What could people turn to next?

     The sea seems to have the best answer. There is a lot of water in the sea. All that needs to be done is to get the salt out of the sea water. This is expensive， but it's already used in many parts of the world. Scientists are trying to find a cheaper way of doing it. So you see，if we can find a way out，we'll be in no danger of drying up.

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    Artificial intelligence (AI, 人工智能) can help us make phone calls. It can guide us to where we want to go. It can play games. And now, AI can do even more things.

    Researchers from Microsoft have created the first machine translation system that can translate news articles from Chinese to English, Business Standard reported.

    According to Microsoft's official website, researchers tested the system by asking it to translate hundreds of sentences taken from news stories. Then, language experts compared the results to two translations that were done by humans. The experts concluded that the system's translations were as good as the human translations.

    Machine translation is always challenging. This is partly because different words can be used to express the same meaning. It can be hard to say which word is more “correct”.

    Experts used several methods to improve the system's translation abilities. “Much of our research is really inspired (得到启发) by how we humans do things,” lead researcher Liu Tieyan said.

    One method is called dual learning. In this method, the system translates every sentence from Chinese to English, as well as translates the sentences back from English into Chinese. This way, the system can improve itself and learn from its own mistakes. This is similar to what humans do to make sure their translations are accurate (准确的).

    Another method makes use of deliberation networks . The researchers taught the system to repeat the process of translating the same sentence over and over. Gradually, the system can improve the quality of its translations. This is similar to how people revise their own writing by going through it again and again.

    Many scientists find that colors can change people's feelings. It's very interesting. Some colors can make people feel relaxed, and some colors can make people feel nervous. Now, this kind of knowledge is being used in many places. For example, school walls are always painted green because green makes students feel relaxed. It is also good for the students' eyes. Some books are also green or light blue for the same reason. Restaurant owners not only have to know how to make food, but also have to know how to make money. Here are some things they've learned from scientific studies. The color red makes people hungry. Many fast food restaurants have red furniture or walls. Soft colors like pink and light blue make people feel relaxed, so they spend more time eating. Loud music may be nice at first, but it soon makes people want to leave. Hard seats also make customers want to eat quickly and leave. Many restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, use this knowledge to make customers eat faster.

These days, more and more people like the "city walk" around China. The city walk is a kind of city tour coming from the UK. It means tourists follow a planned route（路线）working deeply on the city's history and culture. During the traditional kind of travel, people need to follow a group of people. But city walk routes are special for every tourist. People probably choose a route on their own and move on foot without a purpose. They can also talk with locals（当地人）and taste local food on their way. 

City walkers may be tourists from other places or local young people. For tourists, by taking part in a city walk, they can learn the city's history and culture. For the local young people, they may spend weekends knowing more about their living places. And they even share their routes and places online. So more people get interested in their cities and come to visit them. 

Now the city walk is very hot. However, we also find that to make money, some travel agencies（旅行社）may make some routes without understanding the culture and history of a city. That will make tourists lose interest in the city walk. What's more, many young people spend much time taking photos to just show themselves online. 

Do you get angry when your friends sing loudly while you are trying to work? Or when your best friend does not wait for you after school? 

If you do, you need to take control of（控制）your feelings and stop getting angry so easily. Getting angry with people can cause you to lose friends. 

Gary Egeberg, an American high school teacher, has written My Feelings Are Just Like Wild Animals to help you control your feelings. It tells teens how to stay cool when bad things happen to them. The book says that getting angry only makes problems worse. 

It can never make them better. Getting angry is not a natural（自然的）way to act, the book says. It is just a bad habit, like smoking. The book says you can control your anger easily—all you have to do is to tell yourself not to be angry. 

When a baby falls over, it only cries if people are watching it. Like a baby you should only get angry if you are sure it is the right thing to do. 

The book gives many tips to help you if you get angry easily. Here are our top three: 

①Keep a record. Every time you get angry, write down why you are angry. Look at it later and you will see you get angry too easily. 

②Ask your friends to stop talking to you when you get angry. This will teach you not to be angry. 

③Do something different. When you get angry, wall away from the problem and go somewhere else. Try to laugh!