China has the highest adoption rate in the world for technology-enabled payment systems, according to a report released on Wednesday. The report, from the market research firm Nielsen, is based on a survey of 13,000 respondents in 26 countries.

    The survey showed that 86 percent of Chinese respondents said they paid for online purchases during the past six months via digital payment systems compared with a global average of just 43 percent.

    "Chinese consumers have more payment choices for products and services than ever while digital payments will continue to win over more Chinese consumers due to its convenient nature," said Kiki Fan, managing director of Nielsen China.

    The increasingly popular payment method is part of the rapidly evolving purchasing behavior of Chinese consumers. About 98 percent of the respondents in China, the world's largest e-commerce market, said they had made purchases online.

    The majority of them still make online purchases via computers, but the number of those who use mobile devices to make purchases is growing fast and is significantly higher than the average in other surveyed countries.

    At 71 percent, food-related businesses topped the list of purchases made via smart phones while event ticket purchases stood at 51 percent.

    The rising use of digital payments has attracted numerous players to the Chinese market.

    Apple Inc launched its contactless payment system Apple Pay in the Chinese mainland last month. It allows users of the iPhone 6 or more advanced versions, certain iPads and Apple Watches to pay by their devices in bricks-and-mortar stores.

    Apple's rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to bring its own mobile payment service to China in mid-March—Sam-sung Pay.

    China's Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd have already taken about 90 percent of the mobile payment market, but industry observers said the competition is just about to start.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Simone was born in Ohio, but grew up in Texas. Early on, she and her siblings (兄妹) were adopted by her grandparents, who she says support her in everything. She first realized she wanted to be a gymnast at the age of 6 when she and her classmates went on a field trip to a local gym. A coach at the gym saw her natural talent and wrote a letter to her grandparents urging them to get her involved. The sport she signed up for “for fun” soon turned into her life's enthusiasm.

    Simone is energetic, so it's no surprise that she's got a few medals in her time. Her ten world gold medals are the most ever achieved by a woman in gymnastics history. She is also the first woman to win four medals at the same World Championships, which happened in her second year performing in 2014.

In 2015 Simone became the first gymnast to win three constant all-around titles at the World Gymnastic Championships. She even amazed herself, telling the interviewer “I blew my own mind.” and posting to social media “breaking history is kind of cool.”

    What surprised everyone most though, was that she was performing perfectly as she usually does—her skill is so beyond everyone else that she can't be beaten even when she trips up!

    Experts say that, among young Internet users, it's not boys who create most web content. The pioneers of the Internet at the moment are the girls.

    According to Jenny Baker, whose hobbies are designing icons（图示）, most boys just aren't patient enough for blogging, uploading photographs, and creating their own websites. Jenny posts her pictures on her own website, and believes that most boys don't often have their own sites. She thinks it's mainly girls.

    And Jenny is right. A study shows that, among Internet users aged 12 to 17, a lot more girls blog than boys (35 percent of girls compared with 20 percent of boys). A lot more girls also work on their web pages (32 percent of girls compared with 22 percent of boys). Girls are also ahead of boys in working on websites for other people.

    Some girls have their own teenage podcasts（播客）which have become very successful and sometimes the creators have their own TV shows too. When asked what they think about the study that shows girls are more active on the web, they say that they're not surprised because girls are very creative, and sometimes more creative than boys.

    Other girl have started interactive（交流的）e-zines with articles written for girls by girls. “Girls from everywhere read our articles, and they ask lots of questions,” they say. “I think girls like to help other people more.” One expert said: “If boys were more interested in helping other people, the numbers would be different.”

    But if girls are more interested in computers, why do women only have 27 percent of computer-related jobs? Maybe this will change in the future—after all, girls like these will be in the job market before too long.

    A Language Programme for Teenagers

    Welcome to Teenagers Abroad! We invite you to join us on an amazing journey of language learning.

    Our Courses

    Regardless of your choice of course, you'll develop your language ability both quickly and effectively.

    Our Standard Course guarantees a significant increase in your confidence in a foreign language, with focused teaching in all 4 skill areas — speaking, listening, reading and writing.

    Our Intensive Course builds on our Standard Course, with 10 additional lessons per week, guaranteeing the fastest possible language learning(see table below).

    Evaluation

    Students are placed into classes according to their current language skills. The majority of them take an online language test before starting their programme. However, if this is not available, students sit the exam on the first Monday of their course.

    Learning materials are provided to students throughout their course, and there will never be more than 15 participants in each class.

Arrivals and Transfer

    Our programme offers the full package — students are taken good care of from the start through to the very end. They are collected from the airport upon arrival and brought to their accommodation in comfort. We require the student's full flight details at least 4 weeks in advance.

    Meals/Allergies(过敏)/Special Dietary Requirements

    Students are provided with breakfast, dinner and either a cooked or packed lunch (which consists of a sandwich, a drink and a dessert). Snacks outside of mealtimes may be purchased by the student individually.

    We ask that you let us know of any allergies or dietary requirements as well as information about any medicines you take. Depending on the type of allergies and/or dietary requirements, an extra charge may be made for providing special food.

    Many of us know about Russia's Lake Baikal from our textbooks, or by listening to Chinese singer Li Jian's hit song, Lie Baikal. But over the past decade, the world's deepest freshwater lake has been in the spotlight for an extreme sport.

    Each March since 2005, about 150 people from around the world sign up for the Baikal Ice Marathon. They come to explore the lake's breathtaking beauty and challenge themselves in unpredictable conditions. The 26-mile (41.84-kilometers) journey starts on the lake's eastern shore. In March, the ice is a meter thick and iron-hard. Runners cross this frozen surface, finishing on the western side of the lake.

    Known as the "blue eye of Siberia", Lake Baikal has exceptionally clear waters. This means its ice is almost perfectly transparent (透明的). "Seen from above, a runner on the ice looks as if he or she were jogging through space." The New York Times noted.

    The landscape might be beautiful, but it's also harsh. Strong winds blast (侵袭) across the lake and frostbite can occur within half an hour. Runners say the cold climate is what draws them. They want to test their limits.

    "When you are in such an environment, you don't have cars around you, and you don't have the noise around. I think these extreme races allow you to be alone with nature." Alicja Barahona, a 64-year-old runner from the US, told ABC news.

    The location offers some strange and unique characteristics for this marathon. The finishing line is visible from the start, but the endless white offers no progress markers. The race also ends with little fanfare (隆重的欢迎). Tourists crowding the ice are mostly addicted to snapping selfies (自拍) and just ignore the runners.

    For some runners, the absence of spectators makes the race more challenging, because it's lonely. They must fight with themselves. "You are alone on Baikal. It is your race. You are alone with yourself. All you need to do is to defeat yourself." Veronique Messina, a French runner, told the Telegraph.

When I teach research methods, a major focus is peer review. As a process, peer review evaluates academic papers for their quality, integrity and impact on a field, largely shaping what scientists accept as "knowledge"- By instinct, any academic follows up a new idea with the question, "Was that peer reviewed?"

Although I believe in the importance of peer review and I help do peer reviews for several academic journals-I know how vulnerable the process can be. 

I had my first encounter with peer review during my first year as a Ph. D student. One day, my adviser handed me an essay and told me to have my -written review back to him in a week. But at the time, I certainly was not a "peer"--I was too new in my field. Manipulated data （不实的数据） or substandard methods could easily have gone undetected. Knowledge is not self-evident. Only experts would be able to notice them, and even then, experts do not always agree on what they notice. 

Let's say in my life I only see white swans. Maybe I write an essay, concluding that all swans are white. And a "peer" says, "Wait a minute, I've seen black swans. "I would have to refine my knowledge. 

The peer plays a key role evaluating observations with the overall goal of advancing knowledge. For example, if the above story were reversed, and peer reviewers who all believed that all swans were white came across the first study observing a black swan, the study would receive a lot of attention. 

So why was a first-year graduate student getting to stand in for an expert? Why would my review count the same as an expert's review? One answer: The process relies almost entirely on unpaid labor. 

Despite the fact that peers are professionals, peer review is not a profession. As a result, the same over-worked scholars often receive masses of the peer review requests. Besides the labor inequity, a small pool of experts can lead to a narrowed process of what is publishable or what counts as knowledge, directly threatening diversity of perspectives and scholars. Without a large enough reviewer pool, the process can easily fall victim to biases, arising from a small community recognizing each other's work and compromising conflicts of interest. 

Despite these challenges. I still tell my students that peer review offers the best method for evaluating studies aird advancing knowledge. As a process, peer review theoretically works. The question is whether the issues with peer review can be addressed by professionalizing the field.