Some people make you feel comfortable when they are around. You spend an hour with them and feel as if you have known them half your life. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} .

    Here are several skills that good talkers have. If you follow the skills, they'll help you put people at their ease, and make friends with them quickly.

    First of all, good talkers ask questions. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} . One well-known businesswoman says, “At business lunches, I always ask people what they did that morning. It's a common question，but it will get things going.” From there you can move on to other matters—sometimes to really personal questions. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} . Second, once good talkers have asked questions, they listen to the answers .This point seems clear, but it isn't. Your questions should have a point and help to tell what sort of person you are talking to. And to find out, you really have to listen carefully and attentively.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} . If someone sticks to one topic, you can take it as a fact that he's really interested in it. Real listening also means not just listening to words, but to tones of voice. If the voice sounds dull, then, it's time for you to change the subject.

    Finally, good talkers know well how to deal with the occasion of parting. If you're saying goodbye, you may give him a firm handshake and say, “I've really enjoyed meeting you.” {#blank#}5{#/blank#} . Let people know what you feel, and they may walk away feeling as if they've known you half their life.

A. Real listening at least means some things.

B. You can become a popular person.

C. Almost anyone, no matter how shy he is, will answer a question.

D. And how he answers will let you know how far you can go.

E. If you want to see that person again, don't keep it a secret.

F. It's polite to listen to others with a smile.

G. These people have something in common.

    Have you ever imagined traveling to a foreign country without having to worry about the headache of communicating in a different language?

    In a recent Wall Street Journal article, technology policy expert Alec Ross argued that, within a decade or so, we'll be able to communicate with one another via small earpieces with built - in microphones. That's because technological progress is extremely rapid. It's only a matter of time. Indeed, some parents firmly hold the idea that this technology is approaching and they're wondering if their kids should even learn a second language.

    It's true that an increase in the quantity and accuracy of the data loaded into computers will make them cleverer at translating “No es bueno dormir mucho” as “It's not good to sleep too much.” Replacing a word with its equivalent (同义词) in the target language is actually the “easy part” of a translator's job. But even this seems to be a discouraging task for computers.

    It's so difficult for computers because translation doesn't--or shouldn't--involve simply translating words, sentences or paragraphs. Rather, it's about translating meaning. And in order to infer meaning from a specific expression, humans have to interpret a mass of information at the same time.

    Think about all the related clues that go into understanding an expression：volume，gesture, situation, and even your culture. All are likely to convey as much meaning as the words you use.

    Therefore, we should be very skeptical of a machine that is unable to interpret the world around us. If people from different cultures can offend each other without realizing it, how can we expect a machine to do better? Unless engineers actually find a way to breathe a soul into a computer, undoubtedly when it comes to conveying and interpreting meaning using a natural language, a machine will never fully take our place.

    Sydney has a huge bus system(系统). No buses accept cash, and a ticket needs to be bought ahead of time. The buses often run at busy hours and regularly(有规律地) during the day. The Sydney Explorer bus provides air-conditioned service and stops at 27 tourist attractions. Its partner, the Bondi Explorer, stops at 19 attractions. Tickets allow holders to jump on and off as they please, and they are valid(有效的) for one or two days. It's an easy way to see the city and the surroundings.

    Sydney's train service runs throughout the central city area and the surroundings. Tickets can be bought from machines that operate 24 hours a day or from ticket offices. The monorail(单轨铁路) travels through central Sydney. It is the most excellent way to gain a good view of the whole city. The monorail runs every three to five minutes, and it takes 15 minutes to complete its journey.

    Sydney is built around a harbor, and the Parramatta River has a large ferry（渡轮）system. It serves the area around the harbor. These include Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbor, Rose Bay, the North Shore, Cockatoo Island and Sydney Olympic Park. The ferries have operated for more than 135 years and 14 million passengers take the ferries each year.

    Water taxis can transport passengers to specific locations(地点), and offer guided tours of waterways. They also offer special services that some visitors may enjoy. The tickets sell for 20 AUD (Australian dollars)for a day or 57 AUD for a week. It is strange, isn't it?

    This year's flu season is pretty scary. To try to minimize the effects, public officials are still urging anyone who hasn't yet gotten their flu shot to get one as soon as possible. However, even if every single person got a shot in the arm, the vaccine(疫 苗)—with its excellent 36 percent effectiveness—would not prevent everyone from getting infected with the annoying virus. Knowledge is power, so here's what goes on in your body when you come down with the flu.

    The influenza virus primarily attacks your nose, throat, and the tubes that lead to your lungs. But the flu is so much more than that. Your muscles ache, your head hurts, and your appetite goes down, among other things. To our surprise, almost all of these symptoms have less to do with the virus itself than with your immune(免疫的)response to them. Unfortunately, the very defense you have in place to get rid of the flu is the reason you feel so painful when you recover.

    The virus usually enters through your mouth, typically by way of your hands. But it takes a few days for symptoms to set in. While this process might cause some harm to your nose and throat, it's nothing major, and nothing like the symptoms that typically accompany a bad or even mild case of the flu.

    The real fun starts when your immune system begins to fight. Your immune system comes in two parts: the innate system and the adaptive. The innate immune system is essentially an all-purpose tool. As soon as your body senses the presence of any injury or invader, the innate immune system launches into action by producing tiny proteins called cytokines and chemokines. The cytokines reproduce almost immediately and start to attack the virus. This increase in immune cells creates a serious inflammation(炎症) throughout the body. But the worst is still to come.

    Meanwhile, the chemokines work with the adaptive immune system to help create T cells. These cells are a special type of white blood cell that works in a much more specific way: They find the influenza virus, identify what's special about it, and create something unique on their surface that finds and destroys similar invaders.

    Gregory Kloehn digs through dustbins every day, but not for the reason that most people would think. He isn't homeless. In fact he is trying to help the homeless.

    Gregory began his life as a sculptor. But he often felt that his sculpture (雕塑) which just stood in rich people's houses for years, lacked a meaningful purpose. So in 2015 he decided to put his artistic energies into creating homes to sell—not ordinary homes but small structures built entirely from recycled materials.

    The thought of creating homes for the homeless didn't come to him until the year 2017, when a homeless couple asked him for a tarp (防水布). Instead of a tarp, Gregory offered them something better: a small home with a water tank, a kitchen and a tap for waste. They were so grateful that Gregory decided to focus his efforts on helping house the homeless population in his city. And soon his "Homeless Homes Project" was started.

    Before starting a new home, Gregory goes hunting for materials by digging through dustbins. Everything he finds is usable—refrigerator doors become house doors; washing machine doors often serve as windows, and the tops of cars become strong roofs. He put wheels at the bottom for users to move their homes around easily. Each home takes two to three days to make.

    So far Gregory has donated dozens of homes to the city's most needy. While his small low- cost mobile homes are not the final solution to the problem of homelessness, they are really practical and do provide a warm and safe place for the homeless to stay in. They are simply a way for one man to do something nice for those in need of some help.

    Gregory has written a book titled Homeless Architecture, where he explains techniques to build those homes and he is now working on weekend workshops. "A lot of people who hear about what I'm doing want to get involved," he said. "Maybe we can meet someplace and put a couple of homes together."

    NASA has a new job listing, and it's no joke. The US space agency is looking for a "joker" to join their planned mission to Mars.

    A mission to Mars is no laughing matter. On average, the red planet is 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) away from Earth. A trip there would take around eight months in a small spacecraft. And Mars has a communications delay of 20 minutes. This means that astronauts will have to wait 20 minutes for a reply, when an emergency happens.

    "When you're living with others in a confined space for a long period of time, such as on a mission to Mars, problems are likely to occur," Jeffrey Johnson, a scientist at the University of Florida, told The Guardian.

    This is probably why NASA wants an astronaut with a sense of humor. "These are people that have the ability to pull everyone together," Johnson said.

    In stressful situations, perhaps humor is a way to know we aren't alone. By laughing together, we share our stress. Then we can focus on our jobs instead of just worrying.

    There are other examples of team "clowns". One example is the journey to the South Pole led by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. It was a difficult journey full of danger. Adolf Lindstrom, a cook at Amundsen's team, was a "clown". He made people laugh through the whole journey. Amundsen later wrote that Lindstrom was the most valuable member of the team.

    But if you're hoping that your favorite TV comedian will fly to Mars, that probably won't happen.

    "Being funny won't be enough to land somebody the job," Johnson said. "They also need to be an excellent engineer."

    Besides, they must be in top physical condition.