Plenty of people dream of traveling to other planets. But “Star Wars” fans can actually visit locations where many of the films' most famous scenes were shot. Here are some of the places where “Star Wars” comes to life.

Hotel Sidi Driss, Matmata, Tunisia

    Perhaps the most famous "Star Wars" landmark in the world, this is where the interiors of Luke Skywalker's childhood home on planet Tatooine were filmed. Centuries ago, Berbers built the underground structure as a real home. Eventually it became a hotel, which George Lucas used to film the first "Star Wars" film. The set decorations came down when the crew left, but were rebuilt in 2000 for "Attack of the Clones." Since then, they've remained, so guests can eat at the table where young master Luke did.

La Grande Dune, outside Nefta, Tunisia

    The igloo(冰屋) outside of Luke's house was filmed about 300 kilometers away on the dried-up salt lake of Chott El Jerid. The igloo is still there, reachable with a decent car at the GPS coordinates 33"50'34. 42"N, 7"46'44.48"E.

    The surrounding hotels are man-made, to create the illusion (幻觉)that the underground house is next to it. The igloo from the 1977 movie was taken apart, but again rebuilt for "Attack of the Clones," and later restored by a fan. Nearby is La Grande Dune, site of the Dune Sea. About 30 minutes from the igloo is the set of Mos Espa, the spaceport town where Anakin was discovered as a young slave.

Redwood National and State parks, California

    Endor, the forest moon home of the furry Ewoks, was filmed among California's giant redwoods. Most of the well-known scenes were shot on private land owned by a lumber company. Since the cast and crew worked on "Return of the Jedi" in 1982, heavy logging has left most of the landscape unrecognizable. But driving through the parks still gives a feel for the set, especially along the Avenue of the Giants highway.

    In Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park and the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, plates were filmed for some chase scenes.

    Experts are always advocating the health benefits of biking. And while the barrier to entry is low-pretty much all you need to know to start cycling is how to ride a bike itself-people often ask me if I have any tips for beginner bikers.

    Below, a few things I've learned along the way that help make for a safer and more joyful ride:

    Follow the rules of the road. Brake at yellow lights, stop for pedestrians and maintain a solid distance from cars.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Therefore, never fly through stop signs, approach too close to the front vehicles or shout at cars.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}A British doctor recently made headlines when he claimed that wearing a bike helmet is actually more dangerous than traveling without one, but most research suggests otherwise. A full 98 percent of bike commuters （上班族）own a helmet, so you'll be in good company, anyway.

    Make a playlist. Laws against riding with headphones vary from state to state, and it's never proper to listen to music in more than one ear. But cruising around to a soundtrack can be an amazing feeling, so consider buying a wireless speaker you can fix on your frame.  {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Know your rights. If you do end up getting into a collision, stay on the scene until the police come.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Cyclists are too often taken advantage of in bad situations, especially if their injuries don't seem to be apparent.

    Find some friends. As great as it can be to bike alone, zipping down the street in a big group is an equally satisfying experience.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Various bicycle trips are often organized, which provides opportunities to develop friendship among bikers.

A.Be sure to get a helmet.

B.It's necessary you give them an accurate report of the incident.

C.Most cities have enough resources for the cycling community.

D.Most of us will feel it obviously safer to ride on a bike than in a car.

E.Then put together a list of your favorite tunes and get ready to enjoy them.

F.Pushing to the limit not only gives bikers a bad reputation, but also a great danger.

G.It' s comforting to know that whatever I need is nothing more than a bike ride away.

    As self — driving cars come closer to being common on American roads, much of the rhetoric (说辞) promoting them has to do with safety. About 40,000 people die on U. S. roads every year, and driver errors are linked to more than 90 percent of crashes. But many of the biggest advocates of autonomous vehicles aren't car companies looking to improve the safety of their existing products. Huge backing for self - driving technologies is coming from Silicon Valley giants like Google and Apple.

    Those of us who have studied the relationship between technology and society tend to look more carefully at the motivations behind any technological push. In this case, it's clear that in addition to addressing safety concerns, Silicon Valley firms have a strong incentive (动机) to create a new venue for increasing the use of their digital devices. Every minute people spend on their mobile phones provides data - and often money - to tech companies.

    At present, digital devices and driving are in conflict: There are serious, often fatal, consequences when drivers use smartphones to talk or to text. Regulators and safety advocates look to resolve dial conflict by banning phone use while driving - as has happened in virtually every state. But the tech companies are taking a different approach. The obvious answer for Silicon Valley is creating an antomobile in which continuous cellphone use no longer poses a threat to anyone.

    In recent years, the amount of time adults spend on their mobile devices has grown rapidly. At the moment, it's around four hours a day for the average adult in the U. S. However, that rapid growth is likely to slow down as people run out of time that ' s available for them to use their devices. Unless, of course, there's a new block of time that suddenly opens up. The average American now spends about 48 minutes in a car every day, a sizable opportunity for increased cellphone use.

    So as the public conversation around autonomous cars highlights the safety advantages, don't forget the tech industry ' s powerful desire for more profits, which goes well beyond simply saving us from ourselves.

    If one thing on your wish-list is a stress-free holiday, then here are some shopping tips prepared for you, which will save both your time and money.

    Don't be tough on your brains. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Don't be afraid to look for clues and ask for ideas. First, see whether the folks on your to-buy-for list have already dropped some valuable hints of their dreamed items. If you strike out, encourage your lucky recipients to post items they wish someone would buy for them. You can also find inspiration in the many online gift guides. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} — Gifts for Dads, Gifts for Golfers and such. Then you'll get the idea.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} You really can enlist your own personal helpers. Don't feel guilty about that—after all, Santa employs helpers too. Many stores have free professional shoppers who can pick out presents for you. We're not talking just high-end stores such as Blooming-dale's and Nordstrom. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} They're all hungry to win your business away from online retailers. But you'll likely need an appointment, so call ahead or search stores' websites for “personal shopping”. You'll typically find a link on the home page under Contact Us or Services.

    Have gifts delivered. Time is money, and for not a lot of money you can save a lot of time by having your gifts delivered right to your door. Some mom-and-pop shops offer delivery service while chain stores tend to charge for that, but it still might be worth paying for the convenience. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} First go to postmates.com or download the free app and see whether it's available in your area. Then type the name of a store into the search bar, click on the store, and enter the item you want.

A. Make an appointment ahead.

B. Can't figure out what to buy?

C. Do you wish for a stress-free holiday?

D. Get someone else to do shopping for you.

E. They are typically organized by recipient, interest, and/or price range.

F. Others like Macy's and J. Crew will also let you leave the shopping to them.

G. For local stores that don't offer this convenience, try the Post-mates delivery service.

    There is an old saying that America and Britain are "two nations divided by a common language." No one knows exactly who said this, but it reflects the way many Brits feel about American English. But are American and British English really so different?

    Vocabulary

    The most obvious difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example, Americans go on vacation while Brits go on holidays; New Yorkers live in apartments while Londoners live in flats. There are far more examples than we can talk about here. Fortunately, most Americans and Brits can usually guess the meaning through the context of a sentence.

    Past Tense Verbs

    You'll also find some differences with past forms of irregular verbs. The past tense of "learn" in American English is "learned". British English has the option of "learned" or "learnt". The same rule applies to "dreamed" and "dreamt", "burned" and "burnt", and "leaned" and "leant". Americans tend to use the -ed ending; Brits tend to use the-t ending.

    Spelling

    There are hundreds of slight spelling differences between British and American English. Noah Webster, an author, politician and teacher, made an effort to reform English spelling in the late 1700s.

    Webster wanted to spell words the way they sounded. You can see Webster's legacy(遗产) in the American spelling of words like color (from colour), honor (from honour), and labor(from labour).

    Not So Different After All

    British and American English have far more similarities than differences. With the exception of some regional dialects, most Brits and Americans can understand each other without too much difficulty. They watch each other's TV shows, sing each other's songs and read each other's books. They even make fun of each others' accents.

Research spanning several decades demonstrates that you are more likely to think the information that is repeated to be true than the information you hear only once. You usually assume that if people put in effort to repeat a statement, this reflects the truth of the statement. This tendency-also called the truth effect-is a bias （偏见） that can lead you to draw incorrect conclusions. 

To what degree are people aware of the truth effect? This question was addressed in a paper in the journal Cognition early this year. 

In the critical study in this paper, participants did two sessions. In one session, they read about a hypothetical （虚构的） study in which they were exposed to some statements and then were asked whether both statements they had heard before as well as these new statements were true. They were asked to predict the proportion （比例） of each statement that would be judged as true. They did this both as a prediction of other people's performance as well as a prediction of how they would do in this study. 

At another session a few days later, participants actually performed this study, reading a set of 20 statements in the hypothetical study again and then judging the truth of altogether 40 statements, half of which were from the hypothetical study and the other half of which were new. 

This study did replicate the well known truth effect. People were more likely to judge statements they had seen before as true than statements that were new. Two interesting findings emerged from the prediction. First, participants tended to underestimate the size of the truth effect for everyone. T hat is, while they did expect some difference in judgments between the statements seen before and those that were new, they thought this difference would be smaller than it actually was. Second, participants more significantly underpredicted the truth effect for themselves compared to that for other people. 

This study is particularly important in light of the amount of misinformation present in social media. Many people have the power to influence public opinion about important matters. Flooding social media feeds with misinformation will lead people to believe this information is true just because it is stated. Recognizing that we are all susceptible to this influence of repeated information should lead us to mistrust our intuition （直觉） about what is true and to look up important information prior to using it to make important judgments and decisions.