An absolute description of the threat hanging over the world's mammals,reptiles,amphibians and other life forms has been published by the well-known scientific journal,Nature.A special analysis carried out by the journal indicates that an astonishing 41% of all amphibians on the planet now face extinction while 26% of mammal species and 13% of birds are similarly threatened.

    Many species are already critically endangered and close to extinction,including the Sumatran elephant,Amur leopard and mountain gorilla.But also in danger of vanishing（消失）for the wild,it now appears,are animals that are currently rated as merely being endangered.

    In each case,the finger of blame points directly at human activities.The continuing spread of agriculture is destroying millions of hectares of wild habitats every year,leaving animals without homes,while the introduction of newly-come species,often helped by humans,is also damaging native populations.At the same time,pollution and overfishing are destroying ocean ecosystems.

    "Habitat destruction,pollution or overfishing either kill off wild creatures and plants or leaves them badly weakened," said Derek Tittensor,an ocean ecologist at the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge. "The trouble is that in coming decades,the additional threat of worsening climate change will become more and more common and could then kill off these survivors."

    The problem,according to Nature,is worsened because of the huge gaps in scientists knowledge about the planet's biodiversity.Evaluations of the total number of species of animals and plants alive vary from 2 million to 50 million.In addition,evaluations of current rates of species' disappearances vary from 500 to 36,000 a year. "That is the real problem we face," added Tittensor. "The scale of uncertainty is huge."

    In the end,however,the data indicate that the world is heading cruelly towards a mass extinction-which is defined as one involving a loss of 75% of species or more.This could arrive in less than a hundred years or could take a thousand,depending on extinction rates.

    English is full of colorful phrases to describe shyness. Someone shy might be called shrinking violet or a wallflower, while for especially nervous types we have the curious expression: they wouldn't say boo to a goose.

    None of these are traditionally seen as positive descriptions, even if you like geese. In a culture of go-getting, high achievers, shy people don't come first. Or that's what the self-help industry would have you believe. Bookshops are filled with vital tomes(巨著) that promise to help beat social fears and find success in life, love and business. That is why one book, Shrinking Violets: A Field Guide to Shyness, bucks the trend. It became a sudden success across English-language media recently for its new take-on shyness.

    Author Joe Moran says that despite struggling with shyness and longing for loneliness all his life, being shy can also be "a gift". Freed from the constant urge to participate and compete in social situations, people are liberated to look at the world in new ways, and gain fresh insights.

    Indeed, many of the world's great thinkers and artists are introverts(内向的人). Scientists Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein preferred their own company; actress Keira Knightley often finds herself tongue-tied at parties; and Harry Potter author JK Rowling claims she used to be too nervous to even borrow a pen.

    Moran told BBC Future: "I think shyness probably does turn you into an amateur anthropologist(人类学家), really-you are more likely to be an observer."

    So, while extroverts make all the noise, they don't necessarily have the best ideas.

    If you're shy, you've probably known this for a long time. You just don't shout about it.

    Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions(探险)but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.

    Larry first began diving when he was his daughter's age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. He had hated them. They were either too big or too small. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children his age were not even allowed to dive.

    After the first expedition, Larry's later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.

    Larry's first expedition without his father was in the Cayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them. Fortunately for him, a man offered to take him around the different Spots for free. Larry didn't even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide array of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.

    Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.

    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.

    I had about 10 minutes to exercise before I had to pick up my two older daughters from school yesterday. It was a busier day than usual for me with a couple of meetings besides my regular work.

    Years ago, I would have put off my workout and would have left things for the next day. But since it was a busy day as well, I knew that I may not have all that much time either. So, I picked up my kettle-bell (哑铃) and went to town for 4 minutes.

    See, 4 minutes, if that's all you've got, is enough to give your body a great fat-burning exercise. How did I get a killer workout in 4 minutes? I used a training workout discovered 10 years ago by a Japanese Sports Scientist called a TABATA.

    It includes 20-second periods of warm-up, followed by 10-second periods of rest and 4-minute straight exercise. How is a 4-minute exercise able to burn fat? It all depends on the quality of work you do. Not on the quantity. Here's how I did it yesterday.

    You should never forget your warm-up. A TABATA workout is 20 seconds of 2-arm Kettle-bell swings, 10 seconds rest, 20 seconds push-ups, and 10 seconds rest. You should do those 4 rounds. That's it. I was done in a total time of 8 minutes by the time and when I got to school my heart was still pumping pretty hard.

    A healthy body is needed for studying and working, and efficiency (效率) is the key to building a great body in the least amount (数量) of time possible and you can't get more efficient than a 4-minute workout.

    China and India are leaders in improving global(全球的) tree cover, a new study based on NASA research showed.

    They took a 31.8% part together of the total global new leaf area between 2000 and 2017. China played a major role, adding 25% to this increase, and India added 6.8%, followed by Canada and Russia. The study in the Nature Sustainability journal shows that more than 5.5 million square kilometers of green leaf area was added globally. Since 2000, there has been a five-percent increase in global green cover, it said.

    "The greening over the last twenty years shows an increase in leaf area on plants and trees which is as large as the area of the entire Amazon rainforest," Chi Chen, a Boston University researcher and lead of the study told Nature Sustainability. Large plantation activities to protect forests in China contributed nearly 42% to the country's green cover, and agriculture added another 32%. In India, 82% of the increase in leaf area was because of agriculture.

    "China and India take up one-third of the greening, but hold only nine percent of the planet's land area covered in green plants," Chi Chen told NASA Earth Observatory. "That is a surprising finding, considering the land degradation(退化) in countries with large populations."

    Boston University's research team first detected an increase in global green cover in the 1990s but were unsure about what contributed to the increase. Finally, with the help of NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites research, they managed to find out the increase in leaf cover from different areas and places.