C

    How often do you check your phone? According to a study led by Nottingham Trent University in Britain, the average person looks at their phones 86 times a day. Updating their status on social media platforms also made people reach for their electronic companion frequently.

    Even the participants thought that was a lot: this figure is twice as often as they thought they did. Our phones might be shaping our behavior more than we realize. Do you actually look at your surroundings more than at your phone? Is it rude to check your phone when someone is talking to you?

    Sherry Turkle interviewed hundreds of college students about this. She's a professor of social studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They talked about something they called "the rule of three".

    The rule has to do with being considerate to others despite the allure (诱惑力) of the little flat box. Turkle explains: "If you go to dinner with friends, you don't want to look down at your phone until you see that three people are looking up in the conversation. So there's a new rule where you don't look down unless three people are looking up in order to keep a little conversation alive."

    Actually, if you are clever enough you might use your phone as a tool to connect with people next to you. Sharing a bit of your life with them can bring you closer together. And you can also invite everyone to take a selfie (自拍照) with you.

    But the best thing to deal with mobile phone addiction is to go cold turkey and leave the machine behind occasionally or just switch it off and keep it firmly in your pocket for a while.

    In a paper published in the journey Science Advance, researchers describe how Matabele ants, a species of large ant known for attacking termite colonies (白蚁群落), will, after the battle, pick up injured fellow soldiers and carry them back to the nest where they can recover.

    The paper is the latest in a growing body of research that this form of helping behavior, previously observed in some mammals and birds, may not require complex emotion, and may, therefore, be far more widespread in nature than previously thought.

    “Here we have an example of an individual saving another individual,” says lead researcher Erik Frank who conducted the research. “We can be quite certain that the ants don't know why they are doing what they are doing.”

    It's a behavior that pays off for the colony. Our classic conception of worker ants is that they are essentially abandoned, but Mr. Frank and his colleagues calculated that the practice of rescuing nest mates results in a colony size that is a 28.7 percent larger than it would be had the ants left their fellow soldiers for dead.

    “These injured ants are able to recover from their injuries, ” says Frank. “They are essential for the safety and the betterment of the colony. ”

    When a Matabele ant is injured, as often happens during battles with termites, its body will give off two smelly chemicals that tell other ants to carry it back to the nest. Indeed, the researchers found that using these chemicals to seek help from uninjured ants will effectively activate the rescue behavior, supporting their theory that the ants were acting on pure instinct(本能), not more complex emotions.

    “The more we study rescue behavior in ants and other animals, the more we are going to realize that it's not just limited to the species we've observed so far, ” says Karen Hollis, a professor at Mount Holyoke College, mentioning studies that found that dolphins help other injured dolphins to the surface for air, capuchin monkeys defend each other during intergroup battles, and rats free other rats that are trapped.

    In recent years, remote-sensing technologies have become ordinary in archaeological fieldwork（实地考察）. Such tools for excavation produce rapid results and cause no damage to archaeological sites. They are highly accurate and usually cost effective. Here are three of the modern archaeologist's most trusted remote-sensing tools.

    As the simplest of the remote-sensing techniques that archaeologists use, aerial（空中的）photography allows experts to see aspects of a site that may be invisible from the ground, such as the way in which something such as a town, garden, or building is arranged and traces of old walls and roads. The technique involves taking photographs with conventional cameras and filming from airplanes, helicopters, hot-air balloons, or other airborne vehicles.

    Geographic Information System (GIS) contains a large amount of field data archaeologists typically collect in and around excavation sites. While in the field, archaeologists use GIS on their computers to make and manage detailed site maps, and they can combine the results of remote-sensing tests with maps of the region created with the aid of Global Positioning System. Resulting maps sort the most archeologically promising areas and display these sites three-dimensionally.

    Ranging in size from small handled models that one places against the ground to larger ones that one across a site, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) devices use low-power radio waves to detect changes underground. Unlike traditional radar, which broadcasts into the air and uses a dish to focus the returned waves, GPR uses a small but sensitive receiver placed directly against the ground. Depending on their needs, archaeologists can adjust radio frequencies upward for shallow sites or downward for deeper areas, though GPR devices produce the greatest definition（清晰度）when reading depths of three feet or less.

    Taking on the task of producing a short movie might seem like an impossible feat, but if you can assemble a good team and if you break down each stage of production into small blocks of tasks, you'll come to realize that producing a small-scale movie isn't too bad. Just follow these steps and you'll be on your way to Kevin Smith-like fame in no time.

    Assemble a production crew. If you run out of friends or people you can get to work for screen credit, offer people “points”, which is a percentage of the movie profits.

    Get a director of photography. You need someone who knows a lot about films cameras to make the movie come out right. Local film schools are the best place to find them.

    Assemble the props and costumes. Costume shops and local theater groups can definitely help you here. But you can also borrow from friends and family or check out thrift stores for bargains.

    Choose filming locations. Make sure you have permission from the owners of the property you choose to film on.

    Get the film processed. Find the right processor with the help of your director of photography. You may need to send the film to Los Angeles for this.

    Edit the film. You need to find someone who can transfer your film to video and arrange the completed scenes in the right order. You can likely find one in the same place as your director of photography,

    Obviously, this is just a basic overview—the thing about producing a short independent movie is that the whole process is unpredictable. You can only set yourself up for the basics, but as long as you know things will go wrong every day, at least you'll be prepared to deal with the difficulties.

    There was a man playing the piano in a bar. He was a good piano player and always performed in this bar. People came in just to hear him play. But one night, a customer told him that he didn't want to hear him just play the piano any more. He wanted him to sing a song.

    The man said, "I don't sing."

    But the customer was persistent(执着的). He told the bar manager, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that man to sing！"

    The manager shouted across the room, "If you want to get paid, sing a song. Our customers are asking you to sing！"

    So he did, He sang a song. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the first time. And everyone was surprised by his song Mona Lisa. He got lots of applause(掌声) that night.

    He had such a talent for singing, but he just had been sitting on his talent for the past years! If without such a chance, he may have lived the rest of his life as a no­name piano player in a no­name bar. However, now he has become one of the best­known singers in America.

    You, too, have skills and abilities. Maybe your "talent" is not as great as the singer above, but it may be better than you think! And with effort, most skills can be improved. So, in your life, you should be brave enough to try doing different things and find out what talents you really have!

Effective Ways to Protect Our Planet

We only have one earth. However, humans haven't been very good protectors of the earth over the years. To leave a fine planet for our children and future generations, we all need to take steps to develop better living habits. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Buy less. Cheap goods in the sales may make your life better, but few of those are essential. And they almost always end up in the trash can or are forgotten in the back of a. closet. So next time you're hesitating about buying or accepting a non-essential item, think over whether it will truly improve your life. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Turn waste into treasure. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Not only does it keep items out of trash cans, but it can also prevent you from buying new items, which require lots of resources to produce. Moreover, children love making things. So instead of heading towards the craft store, check out your recycling bin first and improve your children's imagination.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Did you know it takes over 700 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to make just one plain T-shirt? Instead of going to the mall to buy new clothes, you can consider looking first in a secondhand shop or trading clothes. Second-hand shopping also applies to many other categories of consumer goods such as furniture, cars and children's toys.

Walk, bike or car sharing.According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a typical passenger vehicle emits (排放) about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year. Thus, any amount of what you can cut back on will matter. For short trips, you can try walking or biking. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} If travelling on foot or by bike isn't practical, you can try carpooling with a friend, neighbour or coworker to the same destination.

A. Save water.

B. Choose second-hand stores.

C. If not, it's okay to just say, "No, thanks!"

D. And here are some ways to protect the environment.

E. Plastic bottles are a clear example of waste material.

F. In this way, you can get some exercise without going to the gym.

G. Creating something new with unwanted items is a good way to protect the environment.