On July 1, 2017, Canada turned 150. That day, more than half a million people visited Ottawa for the country's biggest birthday celebration ever. At the same time, hundreds of parties, fireworks displays, and performances took place across Canada to mark the occasion.

    As we all know, native people like the Inuit have lived in Canada for thousands of years. About 500 years ago. French and British people started arriving there. They claimed some of the land for their countries. The two countries often fought over control of the land. The British won full control of the area in 1763. But French remains one of the official languages, along with English. Canada became fully independent of Britain in 1982.

    Over the years, it is now the second-largest country in the world. At more than 5,500 miles, its border with the US is the longest border between the two nations.

    Canadians are proud of their country. Canada even made the list of the 10 happiest countries, according to a 2017United Nations report. Located not far from the North Pole, its cold and icy north is home to about two-thirds of the world's polar bears. Its icy and snowy land also helps explain why some of its popular sports are ice hockey, skiing and curling(冰壶)

    They are also very proud of the country's history of welcoming people from around the world and of the diverse population. “It reminds us of the values that unite us—openness, and deep respect for our differences,” says Prime Minister Trudeau. “Today, and every day, let us celebrate the differences that make Canada strong, diverse and proud.”

    Babies have an astonishing talent that adults entirely lose. By the age of one, they can recognise the significant noises around them and group them into a language. When we have lost this capacity as adults, it becomes enormously difficult to distinguish between sounds that are glaringly different to a native speaker. It all sounds Greek to us. This is because the range of possible sounds that humans use to convey meaning may be as high as 2,000, but few languages use more than 100 and even then the significant noises－the phonemes (音素) of a language－each cover a range of sounds and so vague distinctions which would change the meaning of a word in other languages.

    But where do these phonemes come from and why do they shift over time? New research suggests that the apparently arbitrary distribution of some sounds around the world may be partially explained by diet. This is unexpected. We'd rather think of language as product of our thought  rather than of the arrangement of our teeth. In reality, though, any given language must be both.

    Hunter gatherer languages very seldom use the sounds known as labiodentals (唇齿音)－those such as f and v－that are made by touching the lower lip with the upper teeth. Only two of the hundreds of Australian aboriginal languages use them, for example. But in cultures that have discovered farming, these consonants (辅音) are much more common. The argument goes that farmers eat more cooked food and more dairy than hunter gatherers. Either way, they need to chew mush less, and to bite less with their front teeth. So farmers grew up with smaller lower jaws and more of an overbite than their ancestors who had to bite through harder foods. It became easier for them to make the labiodental consonants instead of purely labial (唇音) ones: one example is that f come to take the place of p. Romans said "pater" but English speakers (unless they're Rees－Moggs) say "father".

    Beyond these particular changes, the story highlights the way in which everything distinctively human is both material and spiritual: speech must combine sound and meaning, and the meaning can't exist or be transmitted without a real object. But neither can it be reduced to the purely physical, as our inability to understand or even to recognise foreign languages makes clear. The food we eat shapes our jaws, and our jaws in turn shape the sounds of our language. The ease with which we eat probably shapes our thought too, as anyone who has suffered toothache could testify. What we eat may have shaped the sounds of our language, but how we eat changes how we feel and what we use language to express. A family meal is very different from a sandwich at the office desk, even if the calorie is the same. Food has purposes and meanings far beyond keeping us alive and pleasing the Palate (味觉).

Great Activities for Nature Lovers

Hiking

One of the easiest and most accessible ways to get close to nature is by setting out on a good old fashioned hike. Hiking generally doesn't require any fancy equipment or special skills, just a piece of map and a thirst for adventure. This activity can be as relaxing as you make it.

Backcountry Camping

Why limit yourself to just a day hike when you can have a full weekend for a longer adventure? Backcountry camping involves packing your tent，sleeping gear, food, and water on your back to set up camp in a remote location. I you're an experienced hiker and camper, this is an excellent way to test your survival skills and explore the wilderness.

Mountain and Road Biking

Unlike long hikes through the woods, biking allows you to cover more ground and travel farther in nature. Mountain biking typically involves riding up and down steep slopes, between trees, and over rocks. If this sounds too intense or your tires aren't suited for rugged terrain(地形), consider taking a road bike on paved trails through forest preserves or along country roads.

Gardening

Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to travel beyond your own backyard to experience the beauty of nature every day. If your personality is less adventurous or your mobility restricted, consider planting a garden to grow your own vegetables, fruit, herbs，or flowers. There's something truly satisfying about mixing up a salad with fresh ingredients you grow yourself. One of the best parts about spending time in gardening is that it doesn't have to break your budget and anyone can do it.

Cattle manure(粪肥) has become one of the world's greatest environmental killers, but one Dutch artist is using chemistry to turn it into something that is both eco-friendly and valuable.

In recent years, scientists around the world have made great progress in their attempts to recycle cattle manure, including turning it into natural fertilizer, but Eindhoven designer Jalila Essaidi didn't think they were efficient enough to solve the global manure problem. So she started on her very own solution, one that approached animal waste as a valuable material that could be processed into useful products.

She started by separating the waste, with the dry manure used to get pure cellulose(纤维素) from the grass that cows eat. From the wet manure, she got acids used to create a natural liquid plastic which was used to make fiber that are later turned into fabric(material used for making clothes).

This new material was named Mestic, from mest, the Dutch word for manure. Essaidi claim that it has the same function as plastic from fossil fuels, but is bio-degradable(可生物降解的). Better yet, the degradability can be dealt with in the lab, making it possible to create materials that last for different periods of time depending on their purpose. "This is not the first time that scientists have been looking for ways to solve the manure problem, but it is the first time that manure is being considered as a valuable resource." the Dutch designer said.

Last year, Jalila Essaldi partnered with the city of Eindhoven to produce a fashion show using Mestic-based fabrics. Her Mestic collection was so impressive that clothing giant H&M awarded her the Global Change Award and a $1million prize. And cow manure is just the beginning of Jalila Essaldi's experiments with animal waste. "After cows, we'll deal with pigs and other animals," she said.

The rolling out of 5G services has triggered a wave of competition across the world. More importantly, it has started a race to develop 6G as the telecommunications sector has always been a hotspot for competition.

Compared with 5G technology, 6G will have lower latency, higher speed and more bandwidth. And this advanced technology will help connect the real world with virtual digital world. It will also make product design R&D(Research and development) and experiments significantly more efficient and greatly reduce their costs while making it possible to produce digital products. In the physical world through high-tech, including 3D printing. The seamless and intelligent connection of the physical and digital worlds will lead to a thorough reconstruction of the division of labor and societal cooperation.

In terms of economic development, 3G fostered e-commerce while 4G boosted e-commerce and mobile payment. 5G infrastructure building and application marked the beginning of intelligent manufacturing. Similarly, wireless cognition technology associated with 6G technology, once it matures, will further boost the development of the digital economy. In digital economy, intelligence based on big data will become the real force for innovation and 6G networks not only will be highways for transmitting data, but will also much more seamlessly integrate edge and core computing as part of a combined communications. This will provide many potential advantages as 6G technology becomes operational, including access to AI capabilities. Digital economy based on 6G will become the determining factor of the country's competitiveness in the future, and 6G technology with wireless cognition as its major characteristic will become core technology and main driver of the digital economy.

Starting with 5G our telecom industry, thanks to its extensive R&D input, has taken the lead in standardizing and manufacturing 5G telecom equipment，the competition in 6G will start with the setting of standards, which will determine the level of R&D needed for the launch of the technology and thus decide the market share of the emerging industry . As far as R&D in 5G technology is concerned. We have already enjoyed two advantages. first, it is a global leader in the telecom sector and has a solid reserve of talents. And second, it has a relatively complete industrial chain that covers R&D and design, manufacturing and application. and is home to leading 5G equipment maker. Recent history shows whoever leads the telecom technology sector sets the standards for telecom products and services. and plays a bigger role in the industry's future development . An official research team on 6G including the government. enterprises and research organizations has been established to obtain the advantage of 6G development competition .

Feeling achy and feverish? Your misery has plenty of company. By the end of December, the tally(记录) of flu-like illnesses in the state exceeded the peaks in the two previous seasons, when the biggest number of cases occurred in February and March. This time, the flu virus seems to be hitting even harder.

Flu is unique among human diseases. It circulates constantly in cool and dry areas. Because it spreads from person to person and can be picked up easily, nearly everyone is exposed. While it's unclear whether the annual flu epidemic(流行病) will worsen this year, or just arrived earlier, fears have been increased by the severity of flu in Australia during its most recent season and the fact that the vaccine may protect against the predominant(盛行的) kind of the flu only 30 percent of the time.

Despite the worries, doctors and public health officials say there is no evidence that people are getting sicker than usual. Flu cases in Massachusetts started rising around Thanksgiving and increased steadily, with an especially steep climb in the last week of the year. "This is a bad flu season but not a horrible one," said Dr Andrew G. Villanueva, a lung specialist and chief quality officer at the Lahey Hospital & Medical Centre in Burlington.

"The flu season, while clearly in full swing, doesn't ‘feel different' from previous years," Villanueva said. "We're not seeing a lot of people being hospitalised because of flu," he said. "Most people with the flu recover on their own without medical care."