It is necessary to be reasonable and flexible enough to avoid conflicts as much as possible and live in peace with others. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} If you have done all your best to avoid conflicts and you are still arguing, then read these effective tips on how to avoid conflicts.

● Don't get in the center of the conflict.

    Sometimes people can get in the center of conflicts due to their enthusiasm for offering help. Frankly speaking, it is very unwise, because it can make you the main figure of the conflict. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You should focus on your own life issues.

● Be kind.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Life is full of conflicts and disagreements, that's why you should find more conservative ways of dealing with them. For example, kindness can lessen the conflict.

● Try to be a peacekeeper.

    Peacekeepers tend to cooperate with people without bad emotions which usually lead to arguments and even conflicts. “{#blank#}4{#/blank#}” This saying is the life motto of a natural-born peacekeeper. Don't worry if you are not a natural-born peacekeeper; you can gain this skill during life.

● Walk off.

    When the conflict is gathering pace and you can't manage to control yourself, you should choose to handle the situation in another way. By all means, try to keep yourself away from stress. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You should get away from the situation for a while.

                                                                            Common-sense Safety Tips for Travelling Abroad

    When a holiday is just around the comer, you may be planning a trip abroad. But to enjoy a worry-free adventure abroad, you also should pay attention to the following common-sense safety tips for travelling abroad.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Another reason to take only carry-on carriage—besides avoiding baggage fees—is that the less you have to carry around, the more quickly you can move, if necessary. You should always have a free hand. Besides, you won't be exhausted from dragging all those bags around.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Lock it up.

    Leave your hotel with only what you need and lock up the rest. Take a lock for your luggage just in case your hotel doesn't offer a safe{#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you don't need all your cash and cards, don't take them all with you when you go out for a day of sightseeing or shopping. Also, leave your passport in the hotel. Make photocopies of all your important documents and leave the hotel with a copy of your passport plus a one photo I.D. Why?{#blank#}4{#/blank#}If all of your identification is in it, imagine the trouble you have to go through to replace it all.

    Think and Plan.

    Always keep in mind that, when you travel abroad, you are in a place you don't know well and you can always be a target. Trust your senses{#blank#}5{#/blank#} After your arrival, ask the hotel staff and locals about the areas you are thinking of visiting, especially at night. And you should walk in well-lit areas at night and know how to contact the local police with your cell phone or a payphone in a foreign country, if necessary.

A. Travel light.

B. Pay by credit card.

C. Imagine having your bag stolen off a restaurant table.

D. You should also make it a habit to take your watch with you.

E. Plus, dragging lots of luggage is a dead giving away that you aren't a local resident.

F. You should call ahead to be sure, especially if your luggage is made of cloth material.

G. You are smart and mature, so if something or some situation doesn't feel safe, it probably isn't.

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is rushing into business. Firms of all types are using AI to forecast demand, hire workers and deal with customers. The McKinsey Global Institute, a think-tank within a consultancy, forecasts that just applying AI to marketing, sales and supply chains could create economic value of $2.7trn over the next 20 years.

    Such grand forecasts fuel anxiety as well as hope. Less familiar, but just as important, is how AI will transform the workplace.

    Start with the benefits.AI ought to improve productivity. Humanyze, a people analytics software provider, combines data from its badges（工牌）with employees' calendars and e-mails to work out, say, whether office layouts favour teamwork .Slack, a workplace messaging app, helps managers assess how quickly employees accomplish tasks. Companies will see when workers are not just dozing off but also misbehaving.

    Employees will gain, too. Thanks to advance in computer vision, AI can check that workers are wearing safety equipment and that no one has been harmed on the factory floor. Some will appreciate more feedback on their work and welcome a sense of how to do better.

    Machines can help ensure that pay rises and promotions go to those who deserve them. That starts with hiring. People often have biases but algorithms（算法）, if designed correctly, can be more unprejudiced. Software can flag patterns that people might miss.

    Yet AI^'s benefits will come with many potential drawbacks. Algorithms may not be free of the biases of their programmers, which can have unintended consequences. The length of a travel may predict whether an employee will quit a job, but this focus may harm poorer applicants. Older staff might work more slowly than younger ones and could risk losing their positions if all AI looks for is productivity. And surveillance（监控）may feel Orwellian—a sensitive matter now that people have begun to question how much Facebook and other tech giants know about their private lives.

    As regulators and employers weigh the pros and cons of AI in the workplace, three principles ought to guide its spread. First, data should be anonymized where possible. Microsoft, for example, has a product that shows individuals how they manage their time in the office, but gives managers information only in aggregated（整合）form. Second, the use of AI ought to be transparent. Employees should be told what technologies are being used in their workplaces and which data are being gathered. As a matter of routine, algorithms used by firms to hire, fire and promote should be tested for bias and unintended consequences. Last, countries should let individuals request their own data, whether they are ex-workers wishing to contest a dismissal or jobseekers hoping to demonstrate their ability to prospective employers.

    The march of Al into the workplace calls for trade-offs between privacy and performance. A fairer, more productive workforce is a prize worth having, but not if it chains employees. Striking a balance will require thought, a willingness for both employers and employees to adapt and a strong dose of humanity.

Your friends have one, maybe even two or three. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Does it seem that everyone has one but you? No, it is not the latest video game, but something much more fun—a family pet.

    Dogs and hamsters(仓鼠) are both fun to hold and pet, but they relate to people in different ways. For example, dogs enjoy human contact. They love to play with their owners. They also like to show affection(喜爱) and love licking(舔) their owners' faces. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} They need fresh food and water every day, and they need exercise. They also need someone to take care of them when their owners go out of town.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Having contact with people is not important to them. They like to sleep when people want to play. Unlike dogs, hamsters do not like being petted. Many will hide when their owners want to pick them up. Hamsters are also very independent. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Hamsters may be low on affection, but they need less daily care than dogs do. An owner usually fills up the food and water dishes only once a week. Hamsters need exercise too, but they get their exercise by running on wheels in their “houses”. If their owners go out of town, hamsters can be left alone.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} The choice is yours.

A. Dogs like to be petted.

B. Your neighbors have one.

C. Hamsters are very different from dogs.

D. They like to spend their time exploring.

E. They need food and water just as dogs do.

F. However, dogs need a lot of daily care, too.

G. Dogs and hamsters both make good family pets.

    Screen Time: How Much Is Too Much?

    Many children spend a lot of time watching or playing with electronic media—from televisions to video games, computers and other devices. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Perhaps parents now should ease up on their concerns about screen time, at least for older boys and girls.

    Until last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggested that children and teenagers have no more than two hours of screen time a day. It also suggests that parents balance a child's screen time with other activities.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Christopher Ferguson, who teaches psychology at Stetson University in Florida, notes a lack of evidence supporting reports that too many hours spent playing video games or watching TV is truly harmful.

    Ferguson seems interested in one idea: the link between video games and violent or risky behavior. When he saw results from a recent British survey on screen time, he wanted to know more. The British study found a small negative effect—about a one percent increase—in aggression and depression among children who had six or more hours of screen time a day. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} So, Ferguson and his team examined answers from a survey on risky behaviors. The study involved about 6,000 boys and girls in Florida, whose average age was 16.

    Data from this survey found that American children are also fairly resistant to the negative effects of electronic media. Among those who used screens up to six hours a day, the survey found: a 0.5 percent increase in criminal behavior; a 1.7 percent increase in signs of depression; and a 1.2 percent negative effect on school grades. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} To further argue his point that screen time is not harmful, Ferguson adds that children should become familiar with screen technology. Electronic devices, he says, are a part of our everyday lives.

A. Some negative experiences on social media can and do affect some children.

B. However, some experts question claims that too much screen time is harmful.

C. He wanted to see if there was a similar effect among young people in the United States.

D. So, it is natural that parents should wonder about all the time children spend looking at a screen.

E. The researchers found no increase in risky sex or driving behaviors, use of illegal substances or eating disorders.

F. The researchers suggested that for those children, technology use might get in the way of taking part in other important activities.

Face up to Reality

Calls to stop the use of face recognition technology are growing louder, but it is already too late. Given its widespread use by tech companies and the police, a permanent roll back is impossible.

The European Commission is considering temporarily banning the use of the technology in public spaces, giving politicians in Europe time to develop measures to reduce the potential risks of face recognition systems. Some US cities, such as San Francisco, have already implemented bans.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Public areas make up a small proportion of the physical spaces we inhabit. What about the many that are privately owned, such as shops, schools and museums, in which face recognition is steadily being rolled out, sometimes without our knowledge?

Most of us now associate face recognition with CCTV cameras（闭路电视摄像机）. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Facebook, for example, runs face recognition on users' photos to automatically identify them in other images on the site, which has been functioning for years. Russian search engine Yandex has a smart search function that, given one image of a face, can find pictures online of the same person even in different poses and lighting conditions.

Other concerns relate to the fact that the technology is imperfect. An independent analysis of a face recognition trial by London's Metropolitan Police found that 81 per cent of matches the system flagged to a watch list of suspects were incorrect. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

So what is the possible solution? When we consider both the rate at which the technology is developing and its widespread use nowadays, it is crystal-clear that a ban on its use in public spaces would be too little, too late.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}A set of effective rules on when and how it can be used needs to be decided quickly. Face recognition technology is here to stay; implementing a temporary ban would be the regulatory equivalent of burying our faces in the sand.

A. This applies to face recognition, as is often the case.

B. As a matter of fact, it is advancing in the online field, too.

C. What face recognition needs is strict and urgent regulation.

D. But the prohibitions are so limited that they are hardly bans at all.

E. And it's even less accurate for some minorities, which risks worsening racial issues.

F. Companies cannot let market make a final decision on the future of new technology.