In the latest romance-drama, Descendants of the Sun (《太阳的后裔》), a handsome soldier Yoo Shi-jin(柳时镇) (Song Joong-ki)(宋仲基) meets the pretty doctor Kang Mo-yeon(姜暮烟) (Song Hye-kyo)(宋慧乔) in a hospital, and he doesn't hesitate to hit on her.

    The dialogue, which takes place early in the first episode(集), immediately indicates that this is no ordinary South Korean drama. There's no family feud (不睦), or love tangles, or guesses and misunderstandings. The 16-episode show is set in the fictional war-torn country of Uruk(乌鲁克). Song Joong-ki is the leader of a special warfare command unit, while Song Hye-kyo plays a doctor who works for a humanitarian medical organization. Both are sent in the midst of disaster and disease as part of their work with UN peacekeeping troops. Both know and show clearly what they want and what they hate.

    But what stands out the most are Song's skills as a pick-up artist(撩妹技能).

    Boldness and creativity are the key weapons in his arsenal. When Kang invites Yoo to drink wine with her, Yoo, who is not allowed to drink alcohol as a soldier, says, ＂There is a way.＂ before kissing her. Forget about the ＂eighth-episode rule＂ . This kiss happens in the fourth.

    Humor also does the trick. On their first date in a cinema, Yoo says, ＂This is the most exciting moment of my life. The moment I am with a beautiful woman before the theater lights go out.＂ When Kang tries to give Yoo a hard time, Yoo jokes, ＂I mistook you for a beautiful woman because it's dark.＂

    And actor Song Joong-ki, who just came back from two years of military service last May, makes sure he delivers his pick-up lines just right.

    ＂In Deep Rooted Tree (《树大根深》) and The Innocent Man (《善良的男人》), he [Song Joong-ki] showed he had the steel to play fearless and heartless men — that he could be taken seriously as an actor, despite his pretty face. In Descendants, he hits the emotional core of every scene, whether he has to be bold and amorous, guarded and mysterious, or sad,＂said critic Foong Woei Wan in The Straits Times.

    An autonomous vehicle designed for making local commerce deliveries was uncovered by Nuro. The vehicle is about the height of an SW but far narrower than a typical car. The electric car features four outside compartments（暗格）—two on each side -to hold separate deliveries. Each compartment can be tailored to a specific use, such as cooking a pizza or refrigerating a package.

    “We can use self-driving technology to deliver anything, anytime, anywhere for basically all local goods and services,” Nuro co-founder Dave Ferguson said. “Consumers used to be okay with two-week paid shipping. It became two-week free delivery, followed by one week, two days, and the same day. Now same-day delivery isn't fast enough for some customers.”

    Nuro isn't alone in building robots for local commerce deliveries. Earlier this month, Toyota, a Japanese car company, uncovered a concept vehicle that could be used for package delivery. A handful of startups—including Starship Technologies, Marble and Dispatch—are testing small robots for deliveries on sidewalks.

    Nuro's vehicle will likely face legal hurdles. Fully autonomous vehicles without a test diver aren't legal in California today, and many companies have shifted testing o states where regulators are more welcoming of autonomous vehicles, such as Arizona.

    Nuro expects to face fewer challenges because it doesn't carry passengers. Nuro's narrow size may also be helpful when navigating streets and avoiding pedestrians. The vehicle isn't equipped with any special features to communicate with pedestrians or other road users. Some companies have tested and patented solutions such as digital screens that signal the car's next move. Ferguson said his team conducted studies and found that such techniques could confuse people. Nuro believes it's better to make sure the car performs predictably, so that human drivers know what to expect from it.

    “We feel by creating this new technology that's going to enable this last mile delivery, we're going to be creating new markets and doing things that previously weren't possible,” Ferguson said. “This is not swapping out jobs with robots. It's creating new markets. There will definitely be new employment opportunities.”

    For most of her life, Suanne Laqueur's passion for storytelling was shown on the dance floor.

    Although Laqueur began writing at a young age, dancing always took center stage. She majored in dance and theater at Alfred University and taught at her mother's dance studio in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, for years. But when her mother was ready to retire and an opportunity opened for Laqueur to take over the studio, she realized she had no interest in taking on the business side of her art: “Owning a studio is a lot of work—financially, logistically. I love the teaching, the choreographing(编舞), the staging, but I didn't want to own it.”

    Yet Laqueur's disinterest in running the studio changed when she became a self-published author. In the fall of 2013, she decided to pursue Self-publishing as a way of sharing her first completed novel with friends and family. During the process, she realized that following her true passion—telling stories through writing—made the business of the art worthwhile, and owning that business meant she could direct her writing career however she chose.

    Starting with her second self-published novel, she began investing more time in marketing and building her audience. Her investment paid off. Since 2014, Laqueur, now 49, has self-published six novels, which collectively have hundreds of ratings and reviews on Good reads. Her 2016 novel An Exaltation of Larks stole the show at the 25th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards, topping more than 2,300 entries to win the grand prize.

    “You have to write the most truthful story to you, and I think self-publishing allows that freedom,' she says. “If you work with traditional publishing, it's more about what's marketable, There are trade-offs, which everyone will tell you, but by self-publishing I have control of the book, I have control of the story, and I'm cool with that.”

    It's not just adults who have a thing or two to discuss with other people, babies too have their own social lives and enjoy group interaction, according to a world-first study.

    The breakthrough study conducted by psychologist Professor Ben Bradley, at Charles Sturt University, could completely transform the way child-care centres are set up. In their study, the researchers examined groups of nine-month-old babies in New South Wales and Britain.

    And they came across astounding (令人吃惊的) results. It was found that infants had "social brains" and focused not just on their mothers but on social life in groups as well.

    "They communicate with more than one baby at once, and show jealousy and generousness," said Professor Bradley.

    He added, "They develop their own meanings through group interaction, they notice if a group member is behaving differently and they take on roles, such as leaders and followers."

    "A baby who has a depressed mother tends to be withdrawn (内向的), but put that same baby in a group of its peers (同龄人) and they behave and interact like any other baby."

    It was the first all-baby group study ever to be conducted. "Most studies of babies concentrate on the infant-mother relationship, assuming that is the single foundation for mental health, but babies are constantly involved with groups of people other than their mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents and those taking care. Therefore, the mother-baby approach needs to be combined with a group approach," said Bradley.

    Phoebe Christison, a child-care worker at Camperdown Sunshine Bubs in Sydney's inner west, said she often noticed what appeared to be emotional attachments developed between toddlers.

    She said, "Joel (1) months and Isabella (2) months always like to hold hands when they sit in their high chairs and eat. And babies definitely show jealousy. They push and touch each other, and copy what the other is doing."

Richard Browning has been attracted by flight ever since his father took him into the hills to fly gliders (滑翔机). He has certainly been an adventurer. Richard took it upon himself to develop his own jet suit and began to experiment with some of his friends. He made quick progress. In 2017, he felt confident enough to start a company called Gravity Industries that could make jet suits. It took 15 months to develop the very first one. 

Five very small jet engines are built into the jet suit. These are powered by kerosene (煤油). Two engines are located on the pilot's arms and one is placed on the back. Each engine weighs less than two kilos and can produce22 kilos of thrust(推力). 

The pilot is able to control the direction and speed of the flight. He does this by small movements of the arms which require hours of practice. One wrong move and you could end up falling to the ground. 

Richard is not only in charge of his company; he is also the chief test pilot. He has spent hours and hours perfecting the correct moves to create a perfect flight. He was able to enter the Guinness Book of World Records in 2017 when he became the fastest man in a jet suit and flew at 51 kilometres per hour. Since then, he has presented his jet suit at 60 events in 20 different countries around the world. More recently, he flew alongside Brighton Pier on the south coast of England at 136 kilometres per hour! 

The objective of Richard's company has been to build a suit which members of the public can buy. The first went on sale in a department store in 2018 for f 340, 000. If you want to jet around your own hometown, it's time to start saving—or to work for Richard Browning.

My, what a big beak you have!

For humans, adapting to climate change will mostly be a matter of technology. More air conditioning, better-designed houses and bigger flood defenses may help to make the effects of a warmer world less harmful. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}In a paper published in Trends & Evolution, a team led by Sara Ryding, a PhD candidate at Deakin University, shows that is already. happening. Climate change is already changing the bodies of many animal species: bigger beaks (喙), limbs and ears.

In some species of Australian parrot, for instance, beak size has increased by between 4% and 10%since 1871. Another study, this time in North American dark-eyed juncos, another bird, found the same pattern.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

All that is perfectly consistent with evolutionary (进化) theory, "Allen's rule". Allen suggested it in 1877, holding that warm-blooded animals in hot places tend to have larger body parts than those in temperate (温带的) regions.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Being richly filled with blood vessels (血管), and not covered by feathers, beaks make an ideal place for birds to get rid of heat.

Ms. Ryding examined museum specimens (标本) to prove that climate change was the cause of an anatomical (解剖学的) changes. All sorts of other factors might have been driving the changes. Her team combined data from different species in different places. They have little in common apart from living on a warming planet.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

For now, at least, the increase is small, never much more than 10%{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Since any evolutionary adaptation comes with trade-offs (妥协), it is unclear how far the process might go.

A. Therefore, climate change is the most reasonable explanation.

B. That may change as warming accelerates (加速).

C. Animals will have to rely on changing their bodies or their behaviors.

D. It seems that the future world is going to be hotter than humans are used to.

E. Therefore, the negative effects of a warmer world are visible in these animals' bodies.

F. Such adaptations boost an animal's surface area relative to its body, helping it to release extra heat.

G. Similar trends are seen in mammals, with species of mice and bats evolving bigger ears, legs and wings.