More perhaps than any other European nation, the Swiss have got used to looking after foreign travelers. As early as the 18th century, wealthy French, Germans and Italians were treating the country as an amusement center while, in the 19th century, it became the major holiday playground for the British nobles. Today, it attracts visitors from all over the world.

The Swiss are clear about the importance of tourism to their economy, which contributes about eight percent of Gross National Product, and helps the industry greatly. Managers of hotels from all over the world go to Switzerland to learn how to do the job, and a generally high standard can be expected from the great majority of the country’s hotels, most of which are small and pride themselves on a personalized service. Public transport is the best in Europe. Both the Swiss Federal railways and the private railways are fully electrified, and the total network is made up of about 5000 kilometers of track.

Under the Fly Baggage system passengers can check luggage in at 116 railway stations and have it automatically carried to their flight. The national highway system is equally well planned, and the mountain roads offer views of some of the country’s most breathtaking scenery. Also serving the mountains is an effective system of railways and cable ways, while more than 160 passenger cars cross the lakes and rivers to and fro. Hiking in the mountains is equally popular with Swiss nationals and foreign visitors. For those who want to view the country from a height without having to climb the mountain themselves, it is always possible to take in the view from a balloon.

Australia’s koalas could be wiped out within 30 years unless urgent action is taken to stop the losing in population, according to researchers. They say development, climate change and bush fires have all combined to reduce the number of wild koalas sharply.

       The Australian Koala Foundation said a recent survey showed the population could have dropped by more than half in the past six years. Previous estimates (估计) put the number of koalas at more than 100,000, but the latest calculations (计算) suggest there could now be as few as 43,000.

       The foundation collected field data from 1,800 sites and 80,000 trees to calculate the numbers. In one area in northern Queensland estimated to have 20,000 koalas a decade ago, a team of eight people could not find a single animal in four days of searching.

       The foundation said besides problems caused by cutting down forests, hotter and drier conditions because of global warming had reduced the nutritional (营养的) value of their staple food, eucalyptus leaves, leading to poor nutrition for them.

       Koalas, which live in the forests in Australia’s east and south, are very fussy (爱挑剔的) about what types of the leaves they eat.

       Foundation chief Deborah Tabart said: “The koalas are missing everywhere we look. It’s really no tree, no me. If you keep cutting down trees you don’t have any koalas.”

       She is hoping the new figures will persuade the government’s Threatened Species Steering Committee (TSSC) to list the koala as threatened. But committee chairman Bob Beeton said a decision was not likely recently and the koala’s status as one of the country’s favourite animals would not be a factor. “There’s a number of species which are attractive and people have special feelings towards them. We don’t consider that,” Mr Beeton was reported as saying by the AFP agency.

Next time you raise an eyebrow at the views of your friend, brother, sister or colleague, remember they could be helping to make you smarter. New research shows that intelligence is not fixed but can be improved throughout adulthood by family members, bright mates and intellectually challenging careers. The study challenges the commonly held belief that intelligence is fixed by the age of about 18.

    Scientific consensus (共识) suggests intelligence is controlled by genes, with environmental factors such as schooling and nutrition playing a part up to this age. After this point, IQ scores become steady. But James Flynn, professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, argues that people can "upgrade" their intelligence throughout their lives. He believes intellectual stimulation (刺激) from other people is important as the "brain seems to be rather like a muscle—the more you use it, the stronger it gets". However, the opposite is also true—so people who share a home or workplace with the intellectually challenged risk seeing their IQ levels nosedive as a result.

    Professor Flynn analyzed US intelligence tests from the last 65 years and created new IQ "age tables". He found a bright ten-year-old with brothers and sisters of average intelligence will suffer a five to ten point IQ disadvantage compared to a similar child with equally bright brothers and sisters. However, children with a low IQ could gain six to eight points by having brighter brothers and sisters and special educational treatment to help pull them up.

    Professor Flynn concluded that although genetics and early life experiences determine about 80% of intelligence, the remaining 20% is linked to lifestyle. This means people can raise their IQ, or allow it to fall, by ten points or more. He suggests the best way to improve IQ levels is to socialize with bright friends, and find an intellectually challenging job.

The death of the plastic credit card could be a step closer as high street names including McDonald's and the Co-op prepare to test a breakthrough finger-scanning payment technology.

FingoPay, developed by British start-up Sthaler, uses a biometric reader to scan the veins(纹理）of a shopper’s finger, building up a “map” that is unique to each individual.

By connecting this pattern with a credit card or bank account, the company plans to let shoppers pay simply by placing their finger in a pocket-sized scanner, doing away with cash and credit cards.

Sthaler, founded by former music industry executive Nick Dryden, will begin testing the technology next month in Proud, a London nightclub. Mr. Dryden said McDonald's is experimenting with a pilot of the technology, and that Sthaler is also planning a project with Co-op’s food stores.

It comes amid growing interest in using biometric identification in payments, which backers believe are more secure and efficient than passwords and PINs. Apple Pay, which uses the iPhone’s fingerprint technology, launched in the UK in 2015 and was followed by the Android equivalent in May 2016.

Hendrik Kleinsmiede, the director of Visa Europe’s innovation arm Collab, which is backing Sthaler, said the Fingopay technology was less immune to problems such as wet and dusty fingers or fraud. “People are ready to accept biometrics as a secure authentication mechanism,” he said.

Sthaler says the chance that two people have the same vein structure is 3.4bn-to-one, making it virtually impossible to crack. The vein scanner, developed by Hitachi, is already being used by Barclays to identify business customers as well as in cash machines in Japan, but Sthaler has the unique rights to license it to retailers.

In the trial at Proud set to begin in September, the technology will be used to speed up waiting times at the bar both by cutting down on cards and by being able to suggest drinks based on what a patron has previously ordered.

Scientists have identified the order of the gene of the giraffe for the first time to help explain how the tallest animals on earth developed their remarkably long necks.

    Being a giraffe is not easy. To pump blood two meters up from the chest to the brain calls for a powerful heart and twice the blood pressure of other mammals. Giraffes also need special safety system to let them bend down for a drink and raise their heads again without feeling dizzy.

    The animals' unique body structure has long been a puzzle for biologists, including Charles Darwin. Now, by comparing the gene of the giraffe with its closest relative, the short-necked okapi, scientists have solved part of the puzzle by studying changes in a small number of genes responsible both for regulating body shape and circulation. This suggests that the development of a long neck and a powerful heart went hand in hand, driven by a relatively small number of genetic changes.

    The interpretation of the genetic factors behind the giraffe's remarkable heart system could also be instructive for human health, since the animals appear to avoid the kind of organ damage often found in people with high blood pressure.

    The more fundamental question of why giraffes developed their long necks remains open, bowever. The apparently self-evident idea that it was to reach ever-higher food supplies has been challenged in the past 20 years by a competing belief that it is actually due to competition among fighting males for females.

    Unlike long-necked birds, which have additional vertebrae （椎骨）, giraffes have the same seven vertebrae found in all mammals, although theirs are greatly extended.

快餐现在在中国很流行，但快餐对人的身体却没有什么好处。请根据以下要点以 Fast Food为题写一篇100词左右的短文。

1.快餐在中国很流行,人们尤其是儿童和青少年喜欢吃快餐。

2.快餐受欢迎至少有四方面原因:

(1)方便,节约时间;

(2)既可以在快餐店吃,又可带回家吃;

(3)店里干净,舒服;

(4)股务周到,食品质量有保证。

3.从营养分析,快餐食品却不尽如人意。

4.建议:如时间来不及可考虑吃快餐,但以偶尔品尝为宜;儿童应尽量少吃快餐。

You’re surrounded by robots and you probably don’t even know it. Most are not all that   (1)   and they won’t come up to you and speak like a friend.   (2)   you’re unaware of them, they know you’re there. Robots are monitoring   (3)   in hospitals, providing banking services,   (4)   people from burning buildings and assisting astronauts in   (5)   . Robots are everywhere.

Are robots   (6)   or deadly enemies? Robotic expert Hans Moravec says intelligent robots today are no smarter than the average insect. But, don’t feel too   (7)   about that. For example, army ants in South America   (8)  everything in their path when they go to war—forests, crops, buildings, people...

In case you   (9)    don’t care about our little mechanical friends,   (10)   this: Robot technology is currently   (11)    at a rate 10 million times faster than the evolution of   (12)   .

Considering the advances in robot technology during the upcoming years, Moravec says that robots must pass through four   (13)   of development before they rule the planet.

First robot technology must achieve the ability to   (14)    as general­ purpose tools with software running at one million instructions per second (MIPS). Those robots will have the   (15)   of reptiles (爬行动物). Next, this happening into 2020, robots will have acquired brains capable of   (16)   300 million MIPS, which will give them the intelligence of smart mice. A hundred billion MIPS will be   (17)    sometime after 2030. By then robots will be provided by their   (18)    (humankind) with monkey­like brains.  (19)   , at the dawn of 2040, robots will   (20)   human intelligence and they will quickly surpass humans and challenge people for supremacy (至高无上) of the planet.

Everyone has got two personalities—the one that is shown to the world and the other that is secret and real. You don’t show your secret personality when you are awake because you can control your behavior, but when you are asleep, your sleeping position shows the real you. In a normal night, of course, people frequently change their positions. The important position is the one that you go to sleep in.

If you go to sleep on your back, you’re a very open person. You normally trust people and you are easily influenced by fashion or new ideas. You don’t like to displease people. So you never express your real feelings. You’re quite shy and you aren’t quite sure of yourself.

If you sleep on your stomach, you are a rather secretive person. You worry a lot and you’re always easily upset. You always stick to your own opinions or judgment, but you don’t raise your hope too much. You usually live for today not tomorrow. This means that you enjoy having a good time.

If you sleep curled up, you are probably a very nervous person. You have a low opinion of yourself and so you’re often defensive. You’re shy and you don’t normally like meeting people. You prefer to on your own. You’re easily hurt.

If you sleep on your side, you have usually got a well—balanced personality. You know your strengths and weakness. You’re usually careful. You believe in yourself. You sometimes feel anxious, but you don’t often get sad. You always say what you think even if it makes people rather angry.

You use her as a shoulder to cry on. She texts you back with casual jokes. But she, Xiaoice, is only a virtual chatbot(虚拟聊天机器人).

      Xiaoice, Microsoft’s latest artificial intelligence robot, was briefly released in 2014, and returned to WeChat in 2015, where she became a big hit. Millions of young Chinese now exchange messages with her daily, The New York Times reported. On WeChat, Xiaoice is an official account. After following it, users can start text-based conversations with Xiaoice.

      “Her incredible learning ability was why people loved to talk with Xiaoice,” Liu Jinchang, a researcher at High-tech Research and Development Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology, told China Daily. Apart from her ability to identify photos and send emojis(表情符号) in conversations, Xiaoice gains 45 percent of her knowledge from interacting with users, China Daily reported.

      Chatbot programs first appeared in the mid-1960s in the US. Driven by top tech companies, they are becoming smarter and more common. For instance, IBM’s latest artificial intelligence program served as an academic consultant at Australia’s Deakin University, answering students’ questions about course schedules and financial aid. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa have been used as voice assistants who can read news, play music and even make jokes for their users.

      These programs are expected to move beyond smartphones, into televisions, cars and living rooms, The New York Times pointed out. However, it may take decades before scientists develop a＂Samantha＂, the advanced chatbot seen in the fiction film Her. In the film, Samantha has a romantic relationship with her user played by US actor Joaquin Phoenix. Many viewers were enthusiastic about this fantasy of virtual soul mates.

Do you know how it is when you see someone yawn and you start yawning too? Or how hard it is to be among people laughing and not laugh yourself? Well, apparently it’s because we have mirror neurons (神经元) in our brains.

Put simply, the existence of mirror neurons suggests that every time we see someone else do something, our brains imitate it, wheter or not we actually perform the same action. This explains a great deal about how we learn to smile, talk, walk, dance or play sports. But the idea goes further: mirror neurons not only appear to explain physical actions, they also tell us that there is a biological basis for the way we understand other people.

Mirror neurons can undoubtedly be found all over our brains, but especially in the area which relate to our ability to use languages, and to understand how other people feel. Researchers have found that mirror neurons relate strongly to language. A group of researchers discovered that if they gave people sentences to listen to (for example: “The hand took hold of the ball”), the same mirror neurons weretriggeredas when the action was actually performed (in this example, actually taking hold of a ball).

Any problems with mirror neurons may well result in problems with behavior. Much research suggests that people with social and behavioral problems have mirror neurons which are not fully functioning. However, it is not yet known exactly how these discoveries might help find treatments for social disorders.

Research into mirror neurons seems to provide us with ever more information oncerning how humans behave and interact. Indeed, it may turn out to be the equivalent for neuroscience of what Einstein’s theory of relativity was for physics. And the next time you feel the urge to cough in the cinema when someone else does well,perhaps you’ll understand why.oncerning how humans behave and interact. Indeed, it may turn out to be the equivalent for neuroscience of what Einstein’s theory of relativity was for physics. And the next time you feel the urge to cough in the cinema when someone else does well,perhaps you’ll understand why.