E-mail has been widely used since its invention for its convenience, efficiency, and high speed. However, it is wise to remember how easily this wonderful technology can be misused, sometimes unintentionally, but can result in serious consequences.

    Now let's look at the case of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel , he decided to send his wife a quick E-mail. Unable to find the note with his wife's E-mail address, he did his best to type from his memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his E-mail was directed to an elderly lady whose husband had passed away (去世) only the day before. When the sad widow checked her E-mail, she took one look at the screen, let out a sharp cry, and fell to the floor in a dead faint (昏迷 ). At the sound , her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

    MY DEAREST WIFE： JUST GOT CHECKED IN. EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW.

    P.S. SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE

    Getting more followers is something we usually associate with social media or micro messaging apps. But soon we could all have a new type of follower—a robotic one.

    Dozens of robots and technology fans gathered in Boston, US, earlier this month for the Robot Business conference. The latest developments in the world of robotics were shown to the public, and this time the trend was robots following people.

    Perhaps the most exciting development on show was the ability of drones (无人机) to follow you from the air, acting as your own personal cameraman or photographer. One example is 3-D Robotics' Iris+ drone, developed by a US-based company.

    The drone is fitted with cameras and has a “follow me” function. It connects with your GPS-enabled Android device, like a mobile phone. Then it flies and follows you around, shooting action film of you from above. The software in the drone makes sure that you're always in the center of the frame.

It can keep working for 15 minutes, as long as there aren't too many trees for it to crash into. This could be exciting for anyone who loves action sports or wants to be the star of their own short film.

    But what if you want to be one of those celebrities (名人) who have helpers carrying all their bags and doing all their chores? A robot called Budgee can help.

    Budgee, made by 5 Elements Robotics, is literally a basket on wheels.It is designed to help elderly and disabled people, or simply anyone who doesn't have enough arms for grocery bags, Wired magazine reported.It can carry up to 22.7 kg of items.

    To make Budgee follow them, its owner will have to wear a small device and use an app to set the distance between themselves and the robot.Budgee even sends a text message when it can't keep up with its owner.

     “I want you to look at the robot like he's your buddy, he's your friend. There's a relationship you develop with the robot,” Wendy Roberts, CEO of 5 Elements Robotics, told gigaom.com.

    It might not be quite the same as robotic assistants we've seen in movies such as Disney's Wall-E, where robots cater for our every need, but that idea doesn't seem quite so far-fetched now.

    Sometimes it can be easy to become too satisfied when it comes to living sustainably. We may all have recycling bins in our kitchens, but here are some ways you can live more sustainably.

    ⒈Put an end to plastic water bottles and one-off coffee cups

    The only way this is going to work is that if you have reusable options you really love, invest in a great water bottle. This is an advance payment, but it will save you money in the long run. A 750ml bottle of Evian costs 90p in Tesco, meaning if you buy one every two days you could save £10 within three weeks by filling up a reusable bottle at home.

    ⒉_______________________________________

    The high street is problematic on so many different levels. Not only are you buying items with questionable supply chains, but the carbon footprint of each product is shocking as well. Online shopping is even worse, with overpackaging for each item and the emissions from delivery trucks. The answer is to stick to reach-me-down or previously owned items as much as possible. Not only will this save you money, but there's also a sense of satisfaction in finding a hidden treasure from the flea market where you find outstanding bargains or something used, which you simply can't get from shopping in Wal-Mart or on Amazon.

    ⒊Think hard about your transportation

    Even if your car is supposedly a low-emissions model, it's still going to be a huge contribution to your carbon footprint. There are times when getting in a car can't be avoided, but if you can substitute just one flight a year with a train, one car journey a week with a bus, and one bus a month with a bike ride, you'll find that making more mindful transport decisions can easily make your day-to-day life more environmentally friendly with little effort.

    ⒋Try to buy local, seasonal produce

    You may think buying strawberries in December or courgettes in spring is no big deal, but the chemicals and fuel used to artificially copy the right environment for them to grow create harmful gas emissions. Similarly, the environmental impact of transporting produce from another country is huge. Buying from local farmers also means you can often ignore the huge amounts of packaging the supermarkets use.

    Yesterday I went to the nursing home to visit my grandma. She just got out of the hospital recently where she had some serious operations. I wanted to surprise her after work so I stopped by for a quick visit.

    When I got there, she was so happy to see me. We hugged, kissed and exchanged greetings. Then I heard a woman crying. It was my grandma's roommate. The curtain was drawn so I could not see her. She started calling out a name that wasn't mine but she was certainly talking to me, begging me to go to her side of the room.

I ignored her at first and continued talking with my grandma. Then she started begging and saying, "Please, come to see me!" So I went to see her.

    When I drew the curtain back, she looked so old but flashed me the biggest smile! She opened her arms wide for me to hug her so I bent low and gave her a hug. I sat on her bed and talked with her for a few minutes. She kept calling me by the other name, but I did not correct her. She told me stories as if I had been there when they happened.

Finally I went back to talk with my grandma. Then the woman started crying again, saying, "Please, come back." She finally slept.

    I stopped by the nurse's station and the nurse told me that the lady suffers from Alzheimer's (老年痴呆症). I mentioned the name she had called me. The nurse told me it was the lady's daughter's name. Then I understood why she wanted me to go to visit her.

    We will all get old some day. Some of us will have broken minds like the lady and some of us will have broken bodies like my grandma. As I was leaving, I promised I would go back and visit the lady, even after my grandma moved back to her home.

    In my memory, winters always used to be really unpleasant. You had to dress like a bear just to keep warm when you went outside. You were often cold, wet and no more than one step away from the thin ice on the lake. If you worked over time and went home in the dark, you would arrive home to an ice-cold house. And that would mean turning on the heating and waiting.

    Fortunately, things don't have to be so challenging any more. Technology, engineering and design have developed, giving us new solutions to old problems. It means dealing with winter needn't be like skating on thin ice.

    With a smart thermostat(恒温器), our homes can be toasty when we need them to be. Many models go with smartphone APPs that allow you to regulate temperature from a distance, so we can warm up the house before we arrive home. According to techradar.com, a large technology news and reviews website, Tado's model has a voice control function, while the Nest “learns” your habits and heats the house for you.

    Clothes have been given an upgrade, too. Electronic heated jackets and trousers heat up when you turn them on. What better way to keep warm in the dead of winter? At the touch of a button, or through an APP on our phones, the clothes produce heat from materials placed inside. Many models offer three levels of heating which stay warm for over 12 hours.

    Finally, there is the headgear(头部装备) - Hats that have speakers which are included in the cloth using Bluetooth technology, so we can listen to our favourite music or, in some cases, have a phone call using the in-built microphone. All while keeping the head warm and avoiding coldness.

    For many, the thought of winter used to be enough to make their blood run cold. But using technology, life needn't freeze up. There's no reason why winter can't be really, really cool.

    Each year, hundreds of thousands of wild animals around the world are killed in trophy hunting—the organized shooting of animals for pleasure. The hunters then bring parts of the animal home with them as their "trophy" to remember the hunting.

    Trophy hunters pay big money to kill animals. Some of the money goes to helping wildlife protection. Trophy hunting also attracts business, which encourages people to preserve land and breed(饲养) animals that would otherwise be endangered. Cathy Dean, head of the Save the Rhino Charity, says that at the start of the 1900s there were only 50–100 southern white rhinos. Now, there are around 18,000. This is partly because some of them were raised specially for trophy hunting.

    But things don't usually go on one way. According to WWF, elephant populations have fallen from 1.3 million to just over 400,000 since the 1980s. Over the same period, hunters from around the world have taken home more than 100,000 African elephant trophies. Trophy hunting is not illegal(非法的) but unfair on the animals. In 2015, Cecil the lion was shot by a US trophy hunter. Cecil was a beloved lion in Zimbabwe, Africa. Cecil was lured with bait(诱饵), shot with an arrow and struggled in blood for more than ten hours before his hunters tracked and finished killing him. His son, Xanda, met a similar fate two years later.

    Cecil's death caused worldwide outrage and protests(反抗) against trophy hunting. Countries including Australia, France and the Netherlands banned(禁止) the import of lion trophies—they stop hunters from being allowed to bring home parts of the animal they kill. They believe that people will stop trophy hunting because the activity might lose its attraction if hunters can't bring their trophies home.

    The UK Government said that it would consider a ban on trophy-hunting imports by 2017, but no action had been taken. In April 2019, a letter by protesters against trophy hunting was sent to the UK government asking to ban trophy-hunting imports. On 7 May, the official in charge of the environment, Michael Gove, said that the UK would not ban the imports for the time being. This left the world in a state of a shock. Hopefully the UK will place a ban on trophy-hunting imports, which would be an important message and inspire others to treat animals better. We're waiting for the day to come.