After years of research and testing, the hybrid car was developed and put on the market. It' s an interesting and exciting new improvement in today' s world as we look for better ways to protect the quality of the air we breathe and conserve our natural resources.

    The quality of our air is affected by many different things. But one of the largest sources of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline which is used to power a car' s engine. The EPA has set national standards to help control the level of harmful pollutants sent off into the air, and the automobile industry has acted by producing a hybrid car that uses less gas and therefore causes less pollution.

    A hybrid car is a combination of a regular car that runs on gasoline and an electric car that is battery powered. Some people tend to think that since the hybrid car is partially electric, you have to plug it in to charge it. But that's not how it works. The 144-volt battery pack is actually recharged through the energy that is produced when the car's brakes are used. This is referred to as “regenerative braking”, because it generates electricity.

    Although the hybrid car still runs on gasoline most of the time, this helps it use less gas than a regular car. When the driver stops at a traffic light, the engine automatically shuts off to save fuel. Then, as soon as the driver puts the car in gear and touches the gas pedal, the engine starts back up.

    Have you ever ridden in a car with someone who ran out of gas? That probably wouldn't happen if you were riding in a hybrid car. It flashes a warning on its computer screen that says, “I am low on gas”. When it completely runs out, the warning reads, “YOU ARE NOW OUT OF GAS!” Then the electric power supply kicks in to let the driver travel a few more miles to a gas station.

B

    These days, young people in some English-speaking countries are speaking a strange language, especially when communicating on social media.

    Look at these words chosen by The Washington Post: “David Bowie dying is totes tradge,” and “When Cookie hugged Jamal it made me totes emosh.” Or this sentence: “BAE, let me know if you stay in tonight.”

    What on earth do they mean? Well, “totes” is a short form of “totally”. Similarly, “tradge” means “tragic” and “emosh” means “emotional”. It seems that, for millennials（千禧一代）, typing in this form is not only time-saving but fashionable.

    As you can see, many millennial slangs（俚语）are formed by so-called “totesing”—the systematic abbreviation（缩写）of words. The trend might have started with “totally” becoming “totes”, but it now has spread to many other English words.

    The origins of other millennial slangs are more complex than “totesing”.“Bae”, for example, has been widely used by African-Americans for years. It can be an expression of closeness with one's romantic partner or, like “sweetheart”, for someone without romantic connection. After pop singer Pharrell used the word in his work, “bae” became mainstream.

    Some people might think millennial slangs lower the value of the English language, but Melbourne University linguist（语言学家）Rosey Billington doesn't agree. She says when people are able to use a language in a creative way, they show that they know the language rules well enough to use words differently. Two other linguists, Lauren Spradlin and Taylor Jones, share the same view. The two analysed hundreds of examples of totes-speak and discovered totesing has complex roots.

    It isn't simply an adult version of baby talk, nor a clever way to minimize your word count. Rather, it is a highly organized system that relies on a speaker's mastery of English pronunciation. It is about sounds, follows sound system of English and has strict rules.

    When you see someone you know, the easiest way to recognize them is by their face—but not everyone can do this. Many people have prosopagnosia, or face blindness, which is a neurological（神经病学的）condition where the part of the brain that recognizes faces fails to develop. It can stop people recognizing partners, family members, friends or even their own reflection. It was once thought to be caused by brain injury (acquired prosopagnosia) but now a genetic link has been proved (development prosopagnosia).

    Acquired prosopagnosia is a very rare but as many as one in 50 people may have developmental prosopagnosia. There's no specific treatment, but training programmes are being developed to help improve facial recognition.

    For many, the situation can be dangerous. I've heard stories of people being robbed by strangers claiming to be family members, or of children wandering off strange men.

    It was only is this century that researchers began to realize exactly how many people in this world were quietly living with the condition.

    Like a blind person who can recognize family members by their footsteps, prosopagnosics are forced to develop unusual ways of discovering who it is they're meeting or talking to. From the obvious markers like hair and voice, to the way one sits, stands or walks, they rely on dozens of means to get through ordinary life.

    Faces are an important part of identity. Not to be recognized feels terrible—it's as if you've been overlooked, like someone's saying you don't matter. But it's nothing to the pain of knowing that you're hurting people's feelings constantly, and yet being completely unaware that you're doing it in the moment. To be alienated（隔离的）from the world of faces is a strange position to be in, but I'm comforted by the thought that articles like this will do a little to help people forgive me and others like me.

    Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experiences? Strangely enough, the answer to both these questions is yes. To some extent our intelligence is given to us at birth, and no amount of special education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. Thus the limits of a person's intelligence are fixed at birth, but whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.

    It is easy to show that intelligence is to some extent something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be in intelligence. Thus if we take two unrelated people at random (随机地) from the population, it is likely that their degrees of intelligence will be completely different. I f on the other hand we take two identical (完全相同的) twins they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth.

    Imagine now that we take two identical twins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory where the work is boring. We would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this indicates that environment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are not related at all, are likely to have similar degrees of intelligence.

Small words may help you beat stress and improve your relationships. Use these tips to teach yourself a helpful and useful vocabulary.

I get to

"Many of us begin our day with the phrase 'I have to'," says Catherine Grace O'Connell, a self-development expert. "Changing this to 'I get to' has the possibility to change the way our day goes. "Even if you may not be happy about going to work or cooking dinner, saying that you "get to" do those things changes your attention to the positive aspects of those things.

Thank you

A lot of research has been done on why people — especially women — often don't accept compliments smoothly. Language in Society found that women only accepted compliments 40 percent of the time, and Harvard Business Review found that almost 70 percent of people connected receiving compliments with a little shame or embarrassment. Does this sound familiar? She says, "I love that dress." You say, "Oh this? I've had it for years." Or," You think? I'm not crazy about the color." We often demean (贬低) ourselves while doing this. A better way to respond: Look the person in the eye and simply say, "Thank you."

Not yet

Adding "yet" to the end of your words, especially when talking about abilities and goals. is a small but good way to change your attitude to life. "Add the word 'yet' to limiting comments," suggests Kyndall Bennett, another self-development expert. "When we do this, we allow ourselves to accept the limiting thoughts as truths," Bennett says. "Examples of this would be like, 'I can't speak a second language... yet' and 'I don't know how to run my own business... yet.'" This works for everything from weight loss to relationships; it's a way to add a certain optimism to your words.

When you are online, you can be anyone or anything. You can create your own image and a new personality. These digital identities are known as avatars(化身).

The first simple 2D avatars appeared in role-playing computer games in the 1980s. Yet, very few people knew that future avatars would have such a wide variety of forms and uses. By the late 1990s, they had been used in web chats.

When people started creating their own avatars, they discovered that they were going to have the power to create new identities that did not look or act like their real selves at all. They could dress their avatars in fancy clothes, or they could try being someone of the opposite sex. When Internet users realized that their avatars would be seen by many people, not just their friends, they started having more than one avatar. Avatars let you express yourself and they give you lots of room for creativity.

Of course, the avatar you choose says a lot about your personality. If your blog avatar is a picture of a cute cat, your message is "like relaxing and having fun". Well-known cartoon characters or laughing monkeys say "I'm a really funny person". Most people create avatars that have similar features to their personalities and that look more or less like them and act like them. However, people obviously make their avatars look better than they do in real life.

Nowadays, avatars are everywhere and very useful. In most web chats, people choose an avatar from a selection of ready-made images or create their own images. You can also use avatars that move around and talk when you type in your message. 

Despite the advantages of avatars, the use of avatars has also caused a few concerns. Some users worry that they are spending so much time in virtual worlds that they are becoming afraid of meeting people in the real world. The use of several avatars can also be a risk, as people can use avatars to cheat others online.