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.

    An autonomous vehicle designed for making local commerce deliveries was unveiled by Nuro. The vehicle is about the height of an SW but far narrower than a typical car. The electric car features four exterior compartments (暗格) — two on each side — to hold separate deliveries. Each compartment can be tailored to a specific use, such as cooking a pizza or refrigerating a package.

    “We can use self-driving technology to deliver anything, anytime, anywhere for basically all local goods and services,” Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson said. “Consumers used to be okay with two-week paid shipping. It became two-week free delivery, followed by one week, two days, and the same day. Now same-day delivery isn't fast enough for some customers.”

    Nuro isn't alone in building robots for local commerce deliveries. Earlier this month, Toyota, a Japanese car company, unveiled a concept vehicle that could be used for package delivery. A handful of startups — including Starship Technologies, Marble and Dispatch — are testing small robots for deliveries on sidewalks.

    Nuro's vehicle will likely face legal hurdles. Fully autonomous vehicles without a test driver aren't legal in California today, and many companies have shifted testing to states where regulators are more welcoming of autonomous vehicles, such as Arizona.

    Nuro expects to face fewer challenges because it doesn't carry passengers. Nuro's narrow size may also be helpful when navigating streets and avoiding pedestrians. The vehicle isn't equipped with any special features to communicate with pedestrians or other road users. Some companies have tested and patented solutions such as digital screens that signal the car's next move. Ferguson said his team conducted studies and found that such techniques could confuse people. Nuro believes it's better to make sure the car performs predictably, so that human drivers know what to expect from it.

    “We feel by creating this new technology that's going to enable this last mile delivery, we're going to be creating new markets and doing things that previously weren't possible,” Ferguson said. “This is not swapping out Jobs with robots. It's creating new markets. There will definitely be new employment opportunities.”

    High school in Austria is a fantastic way to experience life overseas while growing academically.

    Activities

    Austria's close proximity（接近）to lakes, forests and mountains enables it to offer a great variety of activities. Alpine skiing began with local competitions in the Austrian Arlberg area. Snowboarding, surfing, sailing, horseback riding, soccer, tennis and volleyball are also popular activities.

    Program Dates

    Dates subject to change

    Academic Year

    Dates: August-June

    Application Before April 15th

    US$ 500 Early Application Discount Apply by February 2nd.

    Fall Trimester

    Dates: August-November

    Application Before April 15th

    US$ 300 Early Application Discount Apply by February 2nd

    Fall Semester

    Dates: August-January

    Application Before April 15th

    US$ 500 Early Application Discount Apply by February 2nd

    Spring Trimester

    Dates: January-April

    Application Before October 1st

    US$ 300 Early Application Discount Apply by July 2nd

    Spring Semester

    Dates: January-June

    Application Before October 1st

    U$ 500 Early Application Discount Apply by July 2nd

    Eligibility（资格）

    You should:

    Be between 15 and 18 years of age.

    Be from the United States or Canada.

    Have a high school grade of at least 2.75/4.

    Be in great mental and physical health.

    Have a genuine interest in becoming a part of your host family and community.

    Be willing to learn the German language.

    Costs

    Academic Trimester: US$ 8,820

    Academic Semester: US$ 12,470

    Academic Year: US$ 14,160

    Have you grasped the information taught by your teacher in class? Have you understood what you saw on the screen? Maybe everyone has their own learning style.

    Generally speaking, we gather information with our minds and bodies in different ways, such as seeing, hearing and doing. Then our brains deals with that information, organizing it and connecting it to things we are already aware .In other words, our brains will deal with the information in different ways. Sometimes we think in pictures or words. Sometimes we remember details or the big pictures.

    For different people, their learning styles are different too. One person may find it hard to make out the information in written forms but easy to know it immediately in an oral description. However, another person might find difficulties with the picture but the written message.

    Now scientists say there exist seven basic learning styles.

    Linguistic: These people learn through listening, reading, speaking and writing.

    Logical: These people learn with formula (公式) and principles (原理).

    Visual: These people learn by seeing what they are studying.

    Musical: These people learn well when information is presented through music.

    Kinesthetic: These people learn from movement and physical activities.

    Intrapersonal: These people learn best by linking new information directly with their own experiences.

    Interpersonal: These people learn well by working with others.

    Therefore, if you know what learning style is your strength, you can balance your weakness, and get a more successful learning experience.

    Teens naturally ask parents for money for material things and entertainment. But as the need becomes more frequent, why not get a job so you can earn your own money? Working for your own money will give you a sense of accomplishment and the satisfaction of a job well done.

    Babysitting is a suitable job for teens. They are best suited as a mother's helper while the mother is working in another part of the house. Babysitting is not a job for girls alone. Boy babysitters are popular with families of boys. Parents rely on friends and neighbors' recommendations. Word of mouth is your best form of advertising.

    Pet-sitting involves caring for people's pets while the owners are on vacation or away for the day. A pet-sitter will be responsible for giving fresh food and water, walking dogs and cleaning out cat litter boxes. Although the pet-sitter does not spend the night, he is there often enough to bring in the mail, water plants and take the garbage out. Create a flyer with your name, prices and references, and pass it out to the families in your neighborhood.

    Yard work can be a seasonal job. Spring cleanup is needed for flower beds and preparing the yard for summer. Summer is the busiest time for yard work with lawn mowing (割草坪),edging and trimming(修剪) bushes. Fall is the time for sweeping leaves and planting seeds for spring. If you live in a northern climate, there may be snow that needs shoveling.

    Odd jobs can mean a variety of things, including painting, washing the pet, weeding the garden, cleaning out the basement, or helping to serve dinner at a party. Doing odd jobs may be a good match for someone with a busy schedule. Most odd jobs only take a few hours to complete.

For more information, please click here.

For eight-year-old Toby, who is deaf, watching films or TV can sometimes be a bit pointless, because so many of them don't have sign language versions. "We have subtitles but it goes too fast," his dad Jarod Mills said. But now, Toby has some help thanks to an app developed by a 17-year-old student, Mariella Satow, who created a signing app called SignUp.

She got the idea when she was teaching herself American Sign Language(ASL)—one of hundreds of sign languages used across the world. Manella wanted to watch TV shows to help her learn, and she was disappointed to discover how few had signed versions. It's taken a year for Mariella to develop the technology, with lots of help from ASL teachers and the deaf community.

The app is available in the US as a browser extension—with an interpreter appearing in a box once the film starts playing. It only works on Disney Plus films at the moment, because that's where Mariella thought she could help the most children. Jarod, who works at a school for deaf children, says it was "exciting" watching Toby use Mariella's invention. He says, "Kids are getting information like any hearing child does."

Deaf people in the UK face many of the same barriers when it comes to cinema and TV. "A hearing person can go to the cinema any time whereas deaf people have to make sure there's a suitable viewing a time we're free," says 27-year-old Stacey Worboys from Cardiff. She has learned British Sign Language(BSL), and is comfortable using subtitles when watching TV shows and films. But she feels having an interpreter would make things "more inclusive", especially for someone who might struggle with subtitles. Stacey and Toby aren't the only people to be welcoming Mariella's app. It's now got thousands of users.

Stacey says a UK version of an app like SignUp would make films and TV "more accessible" for the deaf community. Mariella is up for the challenge—and hopes to make a British Sign Language version of her app for other streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. "There are more than 300 sign languages used worldwide, so it'll take a long time to get all of those versions out," she says.