The annual World Economic Forum (经济论坛) took place in Davos, Switzerland, in Jan 23 -26, 2018. What did Chinese entrepreneurs (企业家) speak in the forum? Are there some quotable quotes for you?

    Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group

“I think globalization cannot be stopped — no one can stop globalization, no one can stop trade. If trade stops, the world stops. Trade is the way to dissolve the war not cause the war,”said Ma in Davos, “Google, Facebook, Amazon and Alibaba we are the luckiest companies of this century. But we have the responsibility to have a good heart, and do something good.”

    Richard Liu, founder and chief executive officer of JD

    “Business is not only a way to make money but also a way to contribute yourself, to help people,” Liu said in a speech in Davos.”How can we face the fractured (分化的) world? That's the topics of the Davos this year. I think a very important thing in business is cooperation. If we can unite, work together, (if) we work very closely, I think we can bring more hope to the people and we can build more trust between the people, countries and companies and partners,” he said.

    Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip

    “Tourism is a sunrise industry. Since I entered Ctrip, every year there are new comers, which, first of all, shows that tourism is booming.” Sun told Sina.com in Davos. “We invested heavily in ABC. A refers to AI, B is big data, and C is cloud computing. As we continue to expand overseas, these three will be very good weapons for us. So we think those mean opportunity,” she said.

    Hu Xiaoming, president of Aliyun

    “In 2018, people will see the development in various countries more closely connected with cloud computing. More manufacturing enterprises and financial institutions will start to use 'cloud', and cloud computing will increase the efficiency of technology and finance,” Hu told Xinhua in Davos.

    On a clear night, you can see a sky paced with stars. But you can't see planets orbiting any of these stars, even with the strongest Earth—based telescopes. Astronomers reported that they discovered seven Earth—sized planets orbiting a nearby star called TRAPPIST – 1 in February. They had to rely on indirect evidence to tell them that the planets are there. By doing some math, they figured out the number of planets and the distance of their orbits.

    TRAPPIST – 1 is a red dwarf （红矮星）, much smaller than our sun, but larger than Jupiter (木星). If the sun were the size of a basketball, TRAPPIST – 1would be the size of a gold ball. This star is one of our closest neighbors, just like the moon to the earth in space.

    When astronomers using Earth-based telescopes to study TRAPPIST – 1,they noticed that every once in a while, it became slightly dim（昏暗）. They decided that a planet must be passing in front of the star, blocking part of the light. This dimming would come and go as the planet orbited the star, passing alternately (交替地) behind and in front of the star regularly.

    By making careful observations, astronomers expected to get a rough idea of the planet's size from the pattern of dimming light. But the light level changed often and not at evenly spaced (均匀间隔的) times. The astronomers had to conclude they were looking at more than one planet! To get additional data, NASA's spritzer Space Telescope measured TRAPPIST –1's brightness nearly continuously for 20 days, catching 34 crossings of planets in front of the star. Sorting through the mess of data, the astronomers found that the innermost planet completes its orbit in 1.5 Earth days, while the outermost planet takes 20 days. Once you know how long it takes each planet to complete an orbit, you can work out how far it is from the star compared with the other planets.

    The TRAPPIST – 1 planets are not alone. So far, astronomers have found more than 3,400 planets that orbit other stars.

    The US teenager Thomas Cheatham had planned to study Latin during his time at Hebron High School in Texas. But when he learned that the school district was going to offer a Mandarin class, he quickly changed his mind.

    “I thought Mandarin would be more beneficial than Latin,” said Cheatham, who is now in his second year of studying the language. He speaks Mandarin to order food at Chinese restaurants and can read social media posts from his Chinese-speaking friends.

    While it's a difficult language to master, the high school junior, who plans to study computer engineering, thinks it will be important for his career. “Chinese is a good language to know, especially with China becoming a growing power,” he said.

    Many experts agree that proficiency in a language spoken by a billion people worldwide will give American students an edge in the global economy. “People are looking at China as our next economic competitor, and interest in Mandarin is growing,” said Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. “We're seeing it in all parts of the country. ”

    Abbott estimates that as many as 100, 000 students are now studying Mandarin throughout the US, in public and private schools. She said the US government has designated (指定) Mandarin as a “critical needs” language and provides professional development programs for teachers. “Our government wants to increase our language competency for national security and economic competitiveness,” Abbott said.

    At the same time, the Chinese government is spreading knowledge of the Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes established in many US states. For example, the Confucius Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas has been the home of a Confucius Institute for 10 years. It sponsors Confucius Classrooms at 21 local public and private schools, where tens of thousands of students are learning Mandarin.

    Foxes and farmers have never got on well. These small dog-like animals have long been accused (控告)of killing farm animals. They are officially considered as harmful and farmers try to keep their numbers down by shooting or poisoning them.

    Farmers can do call on the services of their local hunt to control the fox population. Hunting consists of hunting a fox across the countryside, with a group of specially trained dogs, followed by men and women riding horses. When the dogs eventually catch the fox, they kill it or a hunter shoots it.

    People who take part in hunting think of it as a sport; they wear a special uniform of red coats and white trousers, and follow strict codes of behavior. But owning a horse and hunting regularly is expensive, so most hunters are wealthy.

    It is estimated (估计) that up to 100,000 people watch or take part in fox hunting . But over the last couple of decades the number of people opposed to fox hunting, because they think it is cruel, has risen sharply. Noisy confrontations between hunters and saboteurs have become so common that they are almost as much a part of hunting as the hunting of foxes itself. But this year supporters of fox hunting face a much bigger threat to their sport. A Labour Party Member of the Parliament, Mike Foster, is trying to get Parliament to approve a new law which will make the hunting of wild animals with dogs illegal. If the law is passed, wild animals like foxes will be protected under the ban in Britain.

    Do you know the term "tweenager"? It's a slang word being used in the UK to describe children 10-13 years old. They are between junior and the teenage years. Why are they suddenly referred to in this way?

    Tweenagers now have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than they've ever had before. More and more companies are creating products and services for tweenagers. You can get everything from branded lunchboxes and mobile phone covers, to monthly fan magazines and clothing-it's all about sales.

    Most children in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did a decade ago. It is because parents are having fewer children on average than in the past. In addition, the divorce rate in the UK is continually rising and parents spend less time with their children than they used to. So, many parents try to compensate(补偿) by buying presents for them.

    And do tweenagers have more freedom? Well, UK children today are very familiar with media and computer. Many have a television, if not a computer, in their bedrooms. They have access to much more information about the world.

    They may have experienced a lot in life as well, since 24% of UK kids live in single-parent families. People now say that "Kids are getting older younger". With such sophistication (世故) at such a young age, they are much more fashion conscious and concerned about their image.

    In a world of TV programs that promise overnight success and fame at a young age, some people think it's extremely important to look fashionable. Surely none of the above is a good thing, is it? Can it really be healthy for us to encourage kids to be like adults at such a young age? Are we stealing childhoods in return for profit?

    The UK government is certainly concerned, and for that reason has strict laws preventing companies from marketing their products and services at children. So, is there a happy ending to this story?

    Companies have just worked out that the older tweenage audience is now looking for something darker and more rebellious. As a result, films such as Twilight are being produced for this older tweenage audience.

In the past decade ocean oxygen levels have taken a dive — an alarming trend that is linked to climate change, says Andreas Oschlies, an oceanographer at the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Germany, whose team tracks ocean oxygen levels worldwide. "We were surprised by the intensity of the changes we saw, how rapidly oxygen is going down in the ocean and how large the effects on marine ecosystems are," he says. It is no surprise to scientists that warming oceans are losing oxygen, but the scale of the drop calls for urgent attention. Oxygen levels in some tropical regions have dropped by an astonishing 40 percent in the last 50 years, some recent studies reveal. Levels have dropped less significantly elsewhere, with an average loss of 2 percent globally.

A warming ocean loses oxygen for two reasons; First, the warmer a liquid becomes, the less gas it can hold. That is why carbonated drinks(碳酸饮料) go flat faster when left in the sun. Second, as polar sea ice melts, it forms a layer of water above colder, more salty sea waters. This process creates a sort of lid that can keep currents from mixing surface water down to deeper depths. And because all oxygen enters the surface, less mixing means less of it at depth.

Ocean animals large and small, however, respond to even slight changes in oxygen by seeking refuge(避难所) in higher oxygen zones or by adjusting behavior, Oschlies and others in his field have found. These adjustments can expose animals to new predators or force them into food-scarce regions. Climate change already poses serious problems for marine life, such as ocean acidification, but deoxygenation is the most pressing issue facing sea animals today, Oschlies says. After all, he says, "they all have to breathe."

Aside from food web problems, animals face various other physiological challenges as their bodies adjust to lower oxygen levels. Chinese shrimp(虾) move their tails less vigorously to preserve energy in lower oxygen environments. Some creatures, such as jellyfishes, are more tolerant of low oxygen than others are. But all animals will feel the impact of deoxygenation because they all have evolved their oxygen capacity for a reason, says Oschlies. "Any drop in oxygen is going to damage survivability and performance," he says.