Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world.

    When it comes to cancer, the sooner you know you have it, the better your chances of surviving are.

    A new blood test could change the way doctors and researchers find cancer in patients. Researchers say the test could provide some hints of the early forms of the disease.

    Gareth Jenkins is a professor at the University of Swansea. He says he and his team did not look for cancer. They instead looked for a by-product of cancer, mutated (突变的) red blood cells. They looked for, what Jenkins calls, the collateral (附带的) damage of cancer—the damage left by the disease.

    “In this blood test we don't measure the presence of cancer，we measure the presence of mutated red blood cells which are the collateral damage that occurs—a by-product of the cancer developing.''

    The researchers used normal laboratory equipment to perform the tests. This equipment looks for changes in the structure of millions of red blood cells. Those mutated cells lack a surface protein (蛋白质) that healthy cells normally have.

    “The goal of the test is looking for very rare cells which have picked up a mutation. The number of mutated red blood cells in a healthy person is around 5 or so mutated cells per million; so, you have to look at millions of red blood cells to discover those rare events. The number increases in cancer patients—it goes up to 40 or 50 on average.”

    The researchers tested blood from about 300 people, all of whom have cancer of the esophagus (食管). Patients with esophageal cancer have high levels of mutated red blood cells. Jenkins says that at this point he is not sure if other cancers would produce similar results.

    The hope is that the new test could one day become part of commonly used medical methods to find out if a person has cancer. These new technologies could save millions of lives.

    An autonomous vehicle designed for making local commerce deliveries was uncovered by Nuro. The vehicle is about the height of an SW but far narrower than a typical car. The electric car features four outside 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, uncovered 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 diver aren't legal in California today, and many companies have shifted testing o 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.”

    Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.

    AVOID BIG EVENTS Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost £169.15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost £l18.15.

    If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid-or you're looking for a big event to pass your time—check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.

    STAY AWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.

    Don't be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge's Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was £95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was £75.75. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just £62.95.

    GET ON A BIKE London's 'Boris bikes' have attracted the most attention but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.

    Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around £1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or £5 per day).

Swimming and English Learning

    Can you swim? Do you like swimming? Yes? Well, how can you learn to swim? I think the best way is to go into the water and learn. I'm afraid you'll never learn to swim just by reading books about swimming or looking at others swimming. It's the same with the English study. We must practice, practice and practice.

    Listening and speaking are very important for beginners. The children in English-speaking countries first listen to others. Then they try to imitate and speak. We can listen to English programs on radio. You may just understand a few words. It doesn't matter. Just be relaxed, try to catch every word.

    Somebody may be a good listener. But he dare not speak. He's afraid of making mistakes. You know we sometimes make mistakes when we speak Chinese. Don't be afraid. We must be brave. If you really want to learn English well, you must try to speak with everyone so long as he knows English. Whether you know him or not is not important when there's nobody to talk with, you can talk to yourself in English. It's interesting and also a good way to practice your spoken English. Remember, the more you speak, the fewer mistakes you'll make.

    Reading and writing are more important for senior school students. First we must choose the books we're interested in. A lot of reading will improve your language sense. This is the most important.

    Keep writing English diaries. We can also write English articles. You may even post them to English magazines. Don't be afraid of failure. Failure is the mother of success.

    Easier said than done. Well, let's do more practice from now on. I'm sure you'll learn English well in this way.

    English is a very interesting language. It has borrowed words from many other languages. Immigrants (移民) coming into the United States have contributed many words to the language, which have kept their original pronunciation. "Coolie" and "kowtow" were taken from the Chinese language, "kamikaze" from the Japanese, "shampoo" from India, "blitz" from German, "amigo" and "Los Angeles" from Spanish and so on.

    Many students have studied English for years, some as many as eight. However, some students still have difficulty in speaking fluent English. Some know many words, but are unable to discern them when native speakers use them. In our oral English classes we will focus on speaking and listening to native English speakers. For this reason, because we are trying to train your ears to hear English and your mouths to speak intelligible (易理解的) English, we will have a rule that ONLY ENGLISH will be spoken in our English classes. Anyone speaking Chinese in class will be required to pay a fine (罚款) in order to encourage the speaking and understanding of English. If teachers enter a classroom and discover that anyone is speaking Chinese, they will require everyone in the room to pay the fine. It is everyone's job to enforce the English­Only rule. It is for your benefit. It is because we want to accustom (使习惯于) your ears to hearing English.

    Other subjects may be learned only from books but the only way to learn a foreign language is to SPEAK IT! Students are often nervous about speaking in class at first but we hope to make the classes fun, so you will forget your nervousness and learn to speak out. Enjoy your classes.