“Plants were expected to get larger with increased carbon dioxide in atmosphere, but  changes in temperature, humidity and nutrient availability seem to trumped the benefits of  increased carbon dioxide，” said researchers from the National University of Singapore.

    45 percent of the species studied now reach smaller adult sizes than they did in the past. The  researchers pointed out that warmer temperatures and changing habitats, caused by climate  change, are possible reasons for shrinking creatures.

     “We do not yet know the mechanisms involved, or why some organism are getting smaller while others are unaffected，” the researchers said. “Until we understand more, we could be risking negative consequences that we can't yet quantify.”

    The change was big in cold­blooded animals. Only two decades of warmer temperatures were enough to make reptiles smaller. An increase of 1 degree centigrade caused nearly a 10 percent increase in metabolism (新陈代谢). Greater use of energy resulted in tiny tortoises and little lizards. Fish are smaller now too. Though overfishing has played a part in reducing numbers, experiments show that warmer temperatures also stop fish growth. There is a recent report on warmer temperatures' negative effects on plankton, the base of the marine ecosystem.

    Warm­blooded animals weren't immune from the size change caused by climate change. Many birds are now smaller. Mammals have been miniaturized too. Soay sheep are thinner. Red deer are weaker. And polar bears are smaller, compared with historical records.

    This is not the first time this has happened in Earth's history. 55 million years ago, a warming event similar to the current climate change caused bees, spiders and ants to shrink by 50 to 75 percent over several thousand years. That event happened over a long time than the current climate change.

    The speed of modern climate change could mean organisms may not respond or adapt quickly enough, especially those with long generation times. So, it is likely that more negative influences of climate change will be shown in future.

    Take a look at the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 7, 9, 6. Read them loud. Now look away and spend 20 seconds memorizing them in order before saying them out loud again. If you speak English, you have about a 50% chance of remembering those perfectly. If you are Chinese, though, you're almost certain to get it right every time. Why is that? Because we most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within a two-second period. And unlike English, the Chinese language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.

    That example comes from Stanislas Dahaene's book The Number Sense. As Dahaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be spoken out in less than one-quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is “si” and 7 “qi”). Their English pronunciations are longer. The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.

    It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number-naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed. In English, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, so one might expect that we would also say oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, and fiveteen.  But we don't. We use a different form: eleven, twelve, thirteen and fifteen. For numbers above 20, we put the “decade” first and the unit number second (twenty-one, twenty-two), while for the teens, we do it the other way around (fourteen, seventeen, eighteen). The number system in English is highly irregular. Not so in China, Japan, and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten-one. Twelve is ten-two. Twenty-four is two-tens-four and so on.

    That difference means that Asian children learn to count much faster than American children. Four-year-old Chinese children can count, on average, to 40. American children at that age can count only to 15. By the age of five, in other words, American children are already a year behind their Asian friends in the most fundamental of math skills.

    The regularity of their number system also means that Asian children can perform basic functions, such as addition, far more easily. Ask an English-speaking seven-year-old to add thirty-seven plus twenty-two in her head, and she has to change the words to numbers (37+22). Only then can she do the math: 2 plus 7 is 9 and 30 and 20 is 50, which makes 59. Ask an Asian child to add three-tens-seven and two-tens-two, and then the necessary equation(等式) is right there, in the sentence. No number translation is necessary: it's five-tens-nine.

When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have a built-in advantage. For years, students from China, South Korea, and Japan — outperformed their Western classmates at mathematics, and the typical assumption is that it has something to do with a kind of Asian talent for math. The differences between the number systems in the East and the West suggest something very different — that being good at math may also be rooted in a group's culture.

    Every day, a homeowner in Pennsylvania is reminded of a mistake he made 13 years ago. At around 8 in the evening, his peaceful house comes alive with the noise of an alarm clock he dropped into the wall over ten years ago. It's been stuck in the wall ever since.

    13 years ago, Jerry Lynn wanted to make a hole through his living room wall, so he could pass the television cable (电缆)through it. He didn't want to destroy any pipes in the wall, so he came up with a good idea to make sure that he was drilling(钻孔) in an empty place. He took his alarm clock, tied it to a string(线) and set it to go off in 10 minutes. Then he lowered it into the wall, and waited for it to ring. His goal was to drill a hole in a safe place near the place where the ringing was coming from, making sure that there was nothing to pass through there. It all went smoothly until the alarm clock fell into the wall.

The man didn't get back the alarm clock, but thought it would probably run out of battery(电池)in several months, so he wasn't too worried about it. But 13 years later, the alarm clock still rings every day.

    As you can imagine, Jerry and his wife have gotten used to the ringing living room wall, but it can still surprise  guests. So Jerry decides to pull down that wall, just to stop that boring thing, though after putting up with it for 13 years, he think it will be a pity. He says, “I've never herd of a clock battery lasting that long and my friends think it may be interesting to see how long it will keep ringing for.”

    Hundreds of years ago, a Roman army came north from England to make war on Scotland. The Scots, a brave people, love their country. They fought hard to drive the enemy out of Scotland. But there were too many of the Romans. It looked as if the Romans would win.

    One night, the leader of the Scots marched his soldiers to the top of a hill. “We will rest here tonight, my men,” he said, “Tomorrow we will fight one more battle. We must win, or we will die.”

    They were all very tired. So they ate their supper quickly and fell asleep. There were four guards on duty, but they were very tired, too, and one by one, they fell asleep.

    The Romans were not asleep. Quickly they gathered at the foot of the hill. Slowly they went up the hill. Closer they came to the sleeping Scots. They were almost at the top. A few minutes more the war would be over. Suddenly, one of them put his foot on a thistle (蓟). He cried out and his sudden cry woke the Scots. In a minute they were on their feet and ready for a battle. The fighting was hard, but it did not last long. The Scots wiped out the Romans and saved Scotland.

    The thistle is not a beautiful plant. It has sharp needles all over it. Few people liked it. But the people of Scotland liked it so much that they made it their national flower.

    Good afternoon, and welcome to England. We hope that your visit here will be a pleasant one. Today, I would like to draw your attention to a few of our laws.

    The first one is about drinking. Now, you may not buy alcohol (酒) in this country if you are under 18 years of age, nor may your friends buy it for you.

    Secondly, noise. Enjoy yourselves by all means, but please don't make unnecessary noise, particularly at night. We ask you to respect other people who may wish to be quiet.

    Thirdly, crossing the road. Be careful！The traffic moves on the left side of the road in this country. Use pedestrian crossings (人行横道) and do not take any chances when crossing the road.

    My next point is about litter (throwing away waste material in a public place)．It is an offence (违法行为) to drop litter in the street. When you have something to throw away, please put it in your pocket and take it home, or put it in a litter bin.

    Finally, as regards something, it is against the law to buy cigarettes or tobacco (烟草) if you are under 16 years of age.

    I'd like to finish by saying that if you require any sort of help or assistance, you should contact your local police station, who will be pleased to help you.

    Now, are there any questions?

    What makes a person a giver or taker? The idea "give vs. take" takes shape in all interactions (互动) and relationships of our lives. We're either giving advice, making time for people, or we're on the receiving end. We keep changing between the two based on different situations on a daily basis, if not an hourly one.

    According to Adam Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, most people are matchers. They make careful observations on takers and make it a point for them to pay something back. They hate to see people who act so generously towards others not receive any rewards. Actually, most matchers will try hard to promote and support givers so that they can get the good they deserve.

    Is there a gender factor (性别因素) that plays a part in this?

    A study led by Hannah Riley Bowles, a professor at Harvard University, focused on this question. She asked 200 senior managers to sit down in pairs where one person would act as the boss and the other as an employee to discuss salary promotions. Male "employees" asked for an average salary of $146k while the females asked for only $141k. But why did they not bargain as hard as the men? Simply because they were more likely to be givers.

    As a woman, I do enjoy the act of giving up my time, my knowledge, and my care and my attention to others. I don't expect anything in return, but I do tend to pull myself away when I feel like I'm being taken for granted. I also tend to get upset when I see a loved one's continuous actions of kindness go unnoticed. So, it's safe to say I'm 50% giver, 35% matcher and 15% taker.

    I do know someone, however, who is 99% giver. They're constantly devoting their time, sharing valuable insights (洞察力) and going out of their way for everyone who crosses their path. Although they're changed the lives of many people, they rarely see any of it returned. But the universe is slowly repaying them; they're now extremely successful, well known for what they do.