Every time we get behind the wheel of a car, we put our lives and the lives of others at risk. Self-driving cars are designed to reduce those risks by letting technology control our vehicles.

    Accident rates for self-driving cars have been much lower than the rate, for human-driven cars. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    As humans, we can make moral choices in avoiding accidents. To avoid hitting a child, for example, human drivers might sharply turn a car away from the child even if others may be injured. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Researchers studied this issue. They have developed the Moral Machine website to help explore the choices self-driving cars should make.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} You are shown two possible traffic situations and you choose between them. An accident will take place. You choose how many living beings would be hurt or killed.

    In one situation there may be a female doctor, a child, two dogs and a homeless person who would be killed. In the other situation, you might have two babies and a cat who would be killed. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    The Moral Machine website has many situations and many possible outcomes. When you click on the situation of your choice, it will be highlighted. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} At the end of the situation, you are shown the results, based on the choices you made. The results show which character you were most likely to save and which character you were most likely to have die.

    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 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 follow the English-Only 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.

    The world's first subway was built in London in 1863. At the time, the government was looking for a way to reduce traffic problems in the city of London. The poor areas of the city were so crowded with people that it was almost impossible for horse carriages to get through. The city officials were interested in trying to make it possible for workers to live outside of London and travel easily to work each day. If people had a cheap and convenient way that they could depend on to go to and from work, they would relocate their homes outside of the city. This would help ease(减轻) the pressure of too many people living in the poor parts of London. From these problems, the idea of the London Underground, the first subway system, was born.

    The plans for building the Underground met with several problems and delays, but the fast track was finally opened in January 1863. A steam train pulled the cars along the fast underground track which was 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) long. About 30，000 people got on the subway the first day. Riders were treated to comfortable seats (standing up while the train was moving was not allowed), and pleasant decorations inside each of the cars. However, the smoke from the engine soon filled the air in the tunnels(隧道) with ash and soot(煤灰), as well as chemical gases. Fans had to be put in the tunnels later to keep the air clean enough for people to breathe. Even with its problems, riding in the Underground did catch on. It carried 9 million riders in its first year.

    Not sure what gift to get your loved ones? Think technology! You may even find something special for yourself!

    Mini Quadcopter

    Would you like to have a flying toy, but lack space to fly one? Consider a Mini Quadcopter that is small enough to fit inside your hand. This Mini Quadcopter can be controlled to fly in any direction with its remote control. The Mini Quadcopter is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $39.95.

    Selfie Toaster

    Does your sweetie like taking selfies and eating toast? Well, why not combine the two with the Selfie Toaster? The Selfie Toaster crates an image on the piece of toast so you can smile at yourself every morning. The Selfie Toaster is available from Etsy for $10.95.

    Amazon Echo

    Give the knowledge of the world with the Amazon Echo.

    The advice can answer questions, tell you about weather conditions, tell jokes, play music and more. The Echo also acts as a Bluetooth speaker so you can connect your phone and listen to your favorite songs. The Echo is available from Amazon for $179.

    Indoor Snowfall Light

    Get into the spirit of the holiday season in your home with the Indoor Snowfall Light. The light shows snowflake shapes in your room to give you the feeling of a winter snowfall. You can control the speed of the snowfall, unlike the real whether. The Indoor Snowfall Light is available from Sharper Image for $59.99.

    Scientists have found an unexpected use for virtual reality headsets (耳机). The devices (装置), widely used by computer gamers, show pictures that can be used to test the navigational (导航的) skills of people, who were thought to be at risk of dementia (痴呆). Those who do worse in the tests will be the ones more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease later in life, scientists now believe.

    The discovery that the loss of navigational skills was associated with Alzheimer's was made several years ago by Dennis Chan and his colleagues based at several centers in the UK. These studies used computers to test navigational tasks. But now scientists plan to take their tests to a new level with the use of the virtual reality headsets in which wearers are placed in man-made environments through which they must navigate.

    Around 300 people, aged between 40 and 60, will be arranged to participate in the study. Some will have a gene that puts them at risk of the condition or will come from a family with a history of Alzheimer's. Not all will certainly be affected by the disease, however. Chan's project aims to find out who will. Wearing the headsets, participants will be asked to navigate their way through a series of different environments and then remember the details.

    Researchers recently pointed out the significance of a tiny area of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex (an important memory center in the brain). It acts as a center in a widespread brain network that controls navigation. This now appears to be the first part of the brain that seems to be easily harmed by Alzheimer's.

    The goal of the work is to help people as they develop the disease. "So far, drug trials for Alzheimer's have been applied when people have already got dementia, by which time considerable damage to the brain has already occurred," Chan told the Obsenver. "If we can develop drugs and use them earlier, for example, before the disease has spread beyong the entorhinal cortex, then this would have the potential to prevent the dementia."

    After a morning hike in the Saneum HealingForest, 46-year-old firefighter Kang Byoung-wook has tea made from the bark of an elm tree, practices yoga (瑜伽), and makes a picture with dried flowers. He is one of 40 firefighters taking part in a three-day program, the aim of which is to offer "forest healing" (森林治愈); the firefighters all have posttraumatic stress disorder (创伤后应激障碍).

    Saneum is one of three official healing forests in South Korea. Soon there will be 34 more. South Koreans-many of whom suffer from work stress, digital addiction, and great academic pressure have accepted the medicalization of nature with great enthusiasm.

    There is increasing evidence that being outside in a pleasant natural environment is good for us. But how many of us get to enjoy nature regularly? Fewer and fewer, it seems. According to Lisa Nisbet, a psychology professor at Canada s Trent University, evidence for the benefits of nature is pouring in at a time when we are most disconnected from it.

    "We don't think of being outdoors as a way to increase happiness," says Nisbet. "We think other things will, like shopping or TV." But South Korea is starting to challenge this opinion.

    So what are some of the benefits of nature that Nisbet refers to? Being surrounded by nature has one obvious effect: It calms us and reduces our stress levels. This has been shown to lower blood pressure and heart rates.

    Another experiment conducted by psychologist Stephen Kaplan found that people who took a 50-minute walk in a park had better attention and short-term memory than those who took a walk along a city street.

    Perhaps what's more surprising is that nature may also make us more creative. David Strayer, a psychologist at the University of Utah, showed as much with a group of participants, who performed 50 percent better on creative problem-solving tasks after three days of wilderness backpacking.

    In fact, we may never know exactly what nature does to the brain. Something mysterious will always remain, and maybe that's as it should be.