Good afternoon, and welcome to England. We hope that your visit here will be a pleasant one. Today, I would draw your attention to a few of our laws.

    The first one is drinking. Now, you may not buy wine in this country if you are under 18 years of age, nor may your friends buy it for you.

    Secondly, noise. Enjoy yourselves by all means, but please don't make unnecessary noise, particularly, at night. We ask you to respect other people who may wish to be quiet.

    Thirdly, crossing the road. Be careful, the traffic moves on the left side of the road in this country. Use pedestrian crossing(人行横道) and don't take any chance when crossing the road.

    My next point is about rubbish. It isn't lawful to drop rubbish in the street. When you have something to throw away, please put it in your pocket and take it home, or put it in a dustbin.

    Finally, as regards smoking, it is against law to buy cigarettes or tobacco if you are under 16 years of age.

    I'd like to finish by saying that if you require any sort of help or assistance, you should contact the police, who will be pleased to help you. You can call, write or directly go to any policeman.

UK 5 Days

Today:

    A chilly (寒冷的) and frosty start for many this morning, followed by a day of sunshine and local showers. The showers will be slow moving and heavy at times, particularly in the east with a risk of thunder.

Tonight:

    Showers will ease this evening and clear spells (一段时间) will develop, causing a widespread frost. However, rain will push into the northwest during the early hours, turning heavy at times.

Friday:

    Rain, locally heavy, will continue southwestwards through the day with strong winds. Elsewhere, it will be bright with some sunshine.

UK outlook for Saturday to Monday:

    Rain across central parts on Saturday will ease and move northwards. Largely dry elsewhere with some misty sunshine. A mixture of sunshine and showers on Sunday and Monday, turning warmer.

    Updated at 04:04 on Thur. 31 Mar.

UK 6-30 days

UK outlook for Tuesday 5 Apr. to Wednesday 13 Apr.:

    A generally unsettled picture is likely next week, with showers or longer spells of rain affecting the majority of the UK, but with some drier and sunnier interludes (间歇). Temperatures will probably be around normal for most, but central and southeastern areas may see some warmer air moving up from the continent at times. The week after next will probably continue to be changeable with showers or longer spells of rain crossing the UK, but with some brighter and drier interludes in between. Temperatures may become rather low across the north and northwest later next week.

    Updated at 12:36 on Wed. 30 Mar.

UK outlook for Thursday 14 Apr. to Saturday 30 Apr.:

    It is likely to be changeable with a mixture of sunny spells and showers. However, some longer drier spells are also likely, particularly in northwestern areas. Overall temperatures will remain around normal for the time of year but with some warmer spells developing at times.

    Updated at 12:37 on Wed.30 Mar.

    I became a magician by accident. When I was nine years old, I learned how to make a coin disappear. I'd read The Lord of the Rings and gone into the adult section of the library to be buried in fantasy literature but young enough to still hold out hope that you might find a book of real, actual magic in the library. The book I found taught basic techniques, and I tried to practice.

    At first the magic wasn't any good. It was just a trick—a bad trick. I spent hours each day running through the secret moves in front of the mirror. I dropped the coin over and over, a thousand times in a day, and after two weeks my mom got a carpet and placed it under the mirror to muffle (消音) the sound of the coin falling again and again.

    One day I made the coin disappear on the playground. We had been playing football and were standing in the field behind the school. A dozen people were watching. I showed the coin to everyone. Then it disappeared. The kids screamed. Everyone went crazy.

    A few years later, I staged an underwater escape in the river that flowed through the middle of the campus of the University of Iowa, where I went to school. I stood on a boat in the middle of the river wearing nothing but biking shorts. The sky was dead and gray, and the water was cold at the surface, and colder in the depths below.

    Technically, I succeeded. I jumped into the water, sank to the bottom, and escaped from the locks and the chains before swimming to the surface. But it didn't feel like a success.

    Boomerang children who return to live with their parents after university can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations, a study has found.

    The findings contradict research published earlier this year showing that returning adult children trigger a significant decline in their parents' quality of life and wellbeing.

    The young adults taking part in the study were “more positive than might have been expected” about moving back home – the shame is reduced as so many of their peers are in the same position, and they acknowledged the benefits of their parents' financial and emotional support. Daughters were happier than sons, often slipping back easily into teenage patterns of behaviour, the study found.

    Parents on the whole were more uncertain, expressing concern about the likely duration of the arrangement and how to manage it. But they acknowledged that things were different for graduates today, who leave university with huge debts and fewer job opportunities.

    The families featured in the study were middle-class and tended to view the achievement of adult independence for their children as a “family project”. Parents accepted that their children required support as university students and then as graduates returning home, as they tried to find jobs paying enough to enable them to move out and get on the housing ladder.

    “However,” the study says, “day-to-day tensions about the prospects of achieving different dimensions of independence, which in a few extreme cases came close to conflict, characterised the experience of a majority of parents and a little over half the graduates”.

    Areas of disagreement included chores, money and social life. While parents were keen to help, they also wanted different relationships from those they had with their own parents, and continuing to support their adult children allowed them to remain close.

    Your next Saturday night takeaway could be brought to you by a robot after a major food delivery company announced plans to use automated vehicles to transport meals. Europe's biggest online takeaway food company Just Eat has partnered with Starship Technologies to deliver food with robots on the streets of London later this month. "Nobody has ever done deliveries with land-based robots," said Allan Martinson, the chief operating officer of Starship.

    The robot courier can travel up to 4 miles per hour for about 10 miles. It uses a GPS signal and nine cameras to navigate (确定方向). Instead of a person arriving at their door, customers could find themselves receiving a notification on their phone that says a robot is on its way and a code to unlock the automated courier. "Put the code in, the robot opens up, and there's your food," said David Buttress, chief manager of Just Eat.

    The robot, which has so far been tested in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Glastonbury, costs £ 1 to transport within 3 miles, compared with the £3 to £6 it costs for a human courier. To date 30 robots have driven nearly 5,000 miles without getting into an accident or finding themselves picked on by passers-by. They have driven in more than 40 cities around the world, including London and Tallinn, Estonia.

    An initial worry was how the public would react to robots. But Martinson said the public has been calm when passing the delivery machine on the streets. "The most surprising reaction has been the lack of reaction," said Martinson.

    Another significant fear was that people would disrupt (扰乱) the robots, or try to steal them and their contents. To prevent this, the robot is fitted with nine cameras, two way audio, and movement sensors that send a warning if it is lifted off the ground. And it opens only with a passcode provided to the customer via a notification. "It's much easier to shoplift than it is to steal a robot," said Martinson.

    People always think men are more skilled than women in driving. Nowadays women appear to have a positive image of themselves as safer drivers than men.

    In a survey done by insurer MetLife, 51% of women said they drive more safely. The evidence is on their side: Men are 3.4 times more likely than women to get a ticket for careless driving and 3.1 times as likely to be punished for drunk driving. "Women are on average less aggressive and more law abiding (手法的) drivers, which leads to fewer accidents," the report says. However, not all male drivers share the same opinion. Of the men surveyed by MetLife, 39% claimed male drivers were safer. The findings did back them up on one point: automotive knowledge. The report showed that more men are familiar with current safety equipment such as electronic stability control, which helps prevent rollover accidents.

    Auto safety unavoidably matters to money. Insurance companies focus on what classes of drivers have the lowest dollar amounts of claims, and for now, that mainly includes women. In general, women pay about 9% less for auto insurance than men. A study by the website Insweb also showed that auto insurance rates are lower for women in most states. Among individual states, women get the greatest advantage in Wyoming (where they pay 20% less), South Dakota and Washington, D.C., where their insurance costs are 16% lower.

    "More than 11, 9000 male drivers died in U.S. traffic accident in 2009, compared with just under 4,900 women drivers," according to the study. "Based on miles traveled, men died at a rate of 2.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, vs. 1.7 deaths for women."