There have been claims that warming on Mars(火星) and Pluto(冥王星) is proof that the recent warming on Earth is caused by an increase in solar activity, and not by greenhouse gases. But we can say with certainty that, even if Mars, Pluto or any other planet has warmed in recent years, it is not due to changes in solar activity.

The Sun’s energy output has not increased since direct measurements began in 1978. If increased solar output really was responsible, we should be seeing warming on all the planets and their moons, not just Mars and Pluto.

    Our solar system has eight planets, three dwarf planets and quite a few moons with at least a thin atmosphere, and thus a climate of sorts. Their climates will be affected by local factors such as orbital variations, changes in reflectance and even volcanic eruptions, so it would not be surprising if several planets and moons turn out to be warming at any one time.

    One theory is that winds have recently swept some areas of Mars clean of dust, darkening the surface, warming the Red Planet and leading to further increases in windiness --- a positive feedback effect.

Observations of the thickness of Pluto’s atmosphere in 2002 suggested the dwarf planet was warming even as its orbit took it further from the Sun. The finding confused astronomers at the time, and the cause had yet to be determined.

It has since been suggested that this is due to a greenhouse effect: As it gets closer to the Sun, Pluto may warm enough for some of the methane ice on its surface to turn into a gas. This would cause further warming, which would continue for a while even after Pluto’s orbit starts to take it away from the Sun.

In China, there are usually two reasons why people receive messages from friends and relatives from whom they haven’t heard for a while. The first is about New Year greetings, which are always welcome. The second reason is often less pleasant, however; people are increasingly contacting long lost friends, or even casual acquaintances(泛泛之交), and urging them to cast online votes for their children or grandchildren in competitions.

The practice, which has been growing rapidly, has now reached the point where people are becoming tired and may even feel annoyed.

The results of a recent survey conducted by the Jinhua Evening News in East China’s Zhejiang Province show that 94 percent of 384 interviewees were once asked by friends or relatives to cast votes online for their children. The contests range from the cutest baby to dancing competitions. Most people receiving the messages haven’t heard from the sender for a long time and have never met the child involved.

Although the competitions may appear to be fun, some education professionals are concerned that they could have a negative effect on children.

Tang Sulan, a member of the CPPCC’s National Committee (全国政协)，proposed a ban on online competitions featuring children to prevent future psychological issues. She was also concerned that publicdisclosureof a child’s personal information and publication of photos cause a potential(潜在的) risk to the child’s safety.

Li Hongyan, the mother of an l1-year-old girl and an 18-month-old boy in Beijing, said she has never urged others to vote for her children. Although on the surface the children are competing among themselves via(通过) their parents’ social networks, the competitions are also about parents seeking a “sense of victory” for themselves, she said. “It feels as though parents are using their babies as tools to win glory for themselves, rather than truly respecting their kids’ dignity and nature.” However, despite her dislike of the contests, she has twice voted for the babies of close friends because “it would be embarrassing to say no”.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that in order to achieve contentment, one should "cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously."It turns out Emerson—who explored the meaning of a good life in much of his work—wasn't far off when it comes to What we now know about counting one's blessings. Research is continually finding that expressing thanks can lead to a healthier, happier and less-stressed lifestyle.

How can we, as Emerson advised, be thankful for each thing that contributes to our lives? Below are four habits that could help you cultivate gratitude on a daily basis.

Keep a journal.—Research has shown that writing down what you're thankful for can lead to a range of wellness benefits. Keeping a gratitude journal can reinforce positive thoughts—something particularly helpful as the brain tends to naturally focus on what goes wrong. Putting pen to paper can also help you make more progress as you work toward personal goals. In order to reap the full benefits of keeping a journal, Dr Robert Emmons, gratitude researcher and psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, recommends writing for five to 10 minutes every other day."You really need to commit to doing it, and if you write it down eventually it will become more automatic," Emmons says."It's like exercise—you're not just going to get up one morning and go running, you need to have a plan.

Don't avoid the negative.—Expressing gratitude has been proven to generate more optimism, but thankful people also don't shy away from the negative. Emmons says that while we often associate gratitude with focusing on the good and avoiding the bad, the key to leading a thankful life is embracing setbacks as part of your overall journey. Emmons suggests recalling a hard time you once experienced—chances are, you'll start to feel grateful for your current state and for overcoming former challenges.

Spend time with loved ones.—Thankful people know they didn't get to where they are by themselves—and they make it a habit to spend time with those people who matter most."Gratitude really helps us connect to other people," Emmons says."It actually strengthens relationships and relationships are the strongest predictors of happiness and coping with stress."Expressing appreciation for loved ones can also help create closeness by allowing others to see how you look at them. According to Dr.Michael E.McCullough, a University of Miami researcher, your feelings of gratitude benefit more than just yourself."More than other emotion, gratitude is the emotion of friendship," McCullough told the New York Times in 2011."It is part of a psychological system that causes people to raise their estimates of how much value they hold in the eyes of another person."

Volunteer.—Everyone needs a little help sometimes—and grateful people know there's no other way to acknowledge this than by paying it forward. In his book "Thanks!, "Emmons notes that those who volunteer often feel grateful for the experience to give back."Since service to others helped them to find their own inner spirituality, they were grateful for the opportunity to serve, "he wrote. As recent research published in BMC Public Health points out, volunteering can result in fewer feelings of depression and increased overall well-being. Emmons suggests examining your own talents and use them to help others, noting that people become more grateful as givers rather than receivers.

Snow and ice make winter driving a dangerous game, in which motorists can get stuck in the snow—for who knows how long. Not everyone knows what to do when they get stuck in the snow, though some manage to survive through a combination of wits and good luck.

   So what to do?

   Outdoor survival expert Brian Brawdy joined Good Morning America to explain what to do if you get stuck with your vehicle in freezing, snowy weather.

   One of the key questions is whether to stay in the car or go get help. Brawdy says it is better to stick with the car, unless it is an easy walk to safety.

   "It'll help block the wind and keep you warm and dry," Brawdy said.

   But you should also be aware that staying in the car can be deadly, too. Motorists who are stuck in the snow should step out of the car and quickly check to make sure that their car's tailpipe isn't blocked by a chunk of ice, or a pile of snow. If it is, deadly fumes can get into the vehicle.

   "Carbon monoxide will kill you in a heartbeat," Brawdy said.

   He also suggests wiping snow off the taillights or the headlights so that searchers will be able to see the vehicle from a distance.

   But don't waste time outside the shelter of your car. Stay inside the vehicle, and buckle up.

   "Even though you are parked, you will want to apply your seat belt, just in case you get hit from behind, "Brawdy said.

   You can run the car's heater, but you should do it only about 15 minutes every hour to conserve fuel in the car. When the heater is running, crack the back window—whichever one is out of the wind—ever so slightly just to make sure that those poisonous gasses aren't wandering inside the car.

With its incredibly long neck, giraffe looks like no other animal on Earth. But how did this mammal come to get its famously huge neck? Well, scientists have been asking themselves this question for centuries.

The most commonly believed answer is that the massive neck – which measures on average 180 centimeters and weighs about 270 kilograms – evolved to allow the animal to reach the leaves of tall trees. British scientist Charles Darwin was one of the first people to propose this idea in the 1800s.

Yet, there are other theories.

According to a paper published in September in the Journal of Arid Environments, the giraffe’s neck evolved to increase its surface-area-to-volume ratio (表面积—体积比). Because the animal’s neck increases its body’s surface area, it makes it easier for it to keep cool, the paper’s authors wrote.

This phenomenon can be seen everywhere in nature. For example, this is why elephants have such large ears.

Meanwhile, some believe that competition is the answer.

A 1996 study by two South African zoologists argued that the male giraffes with the biggest necks are the ones who “win” access to females to reproduce, as they are better at fighting, meaning that their long necks are passed down through the generations.

So, it seems like there’s still no definite answer to the question.

With the Chinese language growing in popularity, the UK government plans to invest(投资) 10 million pounds to help more kids learn Mandarin(普通话). Do you think it is necessary for the UK pupils to learn Mandarin? Some people share their opinions online.

Ted (UK): The learning of any language can be valuable and rewarding, but it is not suitable for everyone. Chinese is a difficult language to learn and the UK is poor in teaching foreign languages. Why should they learn Chinese when most people in the world speak English?

Mark (US): I studied French for 2 years in high school and German for 4 years in college. I studied Mandarin informally for about 4 months before moving to China. Now I speak Mandarin every day as my wife doesn’t speak English. But it is far from being fluent. Learning additional languages is a great thing, which offers a different view on the world around us. Nowadays, it’s almost necessary to be able to speak more than just your native tongue.

George (UK): No, unless they’re taught from a very early stage of childhood. Mandarin is so difficult. If China really is going to dominate(支配) the world, it’ll have to do so by speaking the world’s dominant language---English.

Sam (UK): I don’t think Chinese will become as widely spoken throughout the world as English. It is too difficult to learn as a second language. To learn Chinese you completely have to devote yourself to learning how to write and read it. If you have to learn it besides other subjects you can’t be good at it. But Chinese will become more popular, and that is a good thing.

Shoppers could soon use their mobile phones to check how ripe fruit and vegetables are with an “X－ray vision” camera.

    The HyperCam, based on hyper spectral (高光谱的)imaging, can assess ripeness with 94 percent accuracy and could also be used to check for rotting produce in the fridge at home. Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle managed to create a portable hyper spectral imaging camera that would cost $ 800 (£520).

     Hyper spectral imaging uses a broader range of the electromagnetic spectrum(电磁波)than an ordinary camera. The researchers are now working on a version of the technology that shoppers could download on to a mobile phone for about $ 50. The technology is already used in satellite imaging, building safety inspection, but is a highly costly process.

    Professor Shwetak Patel, of the University of Washington, said: “It’s not there yet but you can probably imagine putting it in a mobile phone. With this kind of camera you could go to the grocery store and know what produce to pick by looking underneath the skin and seeing if there’s anything wrong inside. It’s like having a food safety app in your pocket.”

    Neel Joshi, a Microsoft researcher, said: “Existing systems are costly and hard to use so we decided to create an inexpensive hyper spectral camera and explore these uses ourselves. After building the camera we just started pointing it at everyday objects, really anything we could find in our homes and offices, and we were amazed at all the hidden information it revealed.”

    Other potential uses for the technology include analyzing blood vessels and identifying individual people by the unique texture (纹理) of their skin.

What will life in the future be like?

   Will it be much better than it is now? And what will we be able to do 10,20 or 30 years later? Letˈs just close our eyes and think !
     Genetic Engineering
    Genetic engineering will help us create the perfect human.  Babies will grow up to do slam dunks like Yao Ming or look like Cecilia Cheung. Also, we will be able to mix(杂交)  plants and animals !  But do you want your dog to be a tree?
     The Dead
          In the future, we will be able to bring the dead back to life.  Then each family can meet and talk with its dead family members. It will be like living with ghosts.
      On television people will see Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Confucius, Elvis Presley, and

Shakespeare talking with each other!
     Long-Iiving People
      Over the next 20 t0 50 years, it will become harder to tell the difference between human and machine. All body parts will be replaceable. We will then be able to make fake (假的) people.
       We will make a copy of ourselves, so we will appear to be alive long after we are dead.  A few decades later, people will find ways to transfer (转移)  their spirit (精神)  to the new body.
   Nanobots
      We will be able to build nanobots (纳米机器人) to travel through our body. Also, nanobots will be 
used when we are sick.
      For example, when we have a stomachache, we will swallow a very small robot and it will travel 
through our stomach, taking video of whatˈs happening there.  Then we can show the video to help the doctor diagnose (诊断)  our problem.
   Computers
     Computers help us remember, calculate, and enjoy ourselves. In the future, computers will be able to
show their feelings. They will be able to think better than the human mind.
     After television became popular, many people soon became couch potatoes. It is not surprising that
many people have become overweight; and things will get worse in the future !
      We will be more and more interested in computers and the Internet, spending more and more time in
front of computers and forget what our real needs are.  Many of us will become super couch potatoes 
and weight 250kg!

The time may soon come when we say goodbye to most of the world’s languages. Today humans

express themselves in over 6,000 different languages. But that is quickly changing. Many scientists say that over half of these languages will disappear within the next 50 years. After 100 years, the languages

used in the world will not be more than 20.

     Why? It is because people from different cultures live and work together much more often than before. This brings changes. The languages of the world’s main cultures are replacing the languages of the smaller cultures. Most international trade takes place in world languages such as English. People respect their own cultures and traditions, but when it comes to getting a job, knowing a world language is often necessary. It may mean the difference between success and failure.

    People in different cultures think it good for them to share a popular language. They can quickly share ideas and work together. Knowing the same language means easier communication and is a basis for trust.

     Is the death of a small local language such a terrible thing? The answer is maybe. Many cultures may have words for many useful things we know nothing about. If their languages die, their valuable wisdom may be lost forever. The future of the world’s language depends on our actions now. Will we protect endangered languages or allow them to quietly disappear?  

Time will have the last word.

In his book The Tipping Point Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell explains how a trend can take many forms. It can be a general change in social behavior, an idea or a fashion. However, why do some trends catch on and others not? What makes one particular brand of training shoe suddenly become the must-have product? How do people find out about trends and what makes people want to buy into them? Is it simply a question of keeping up with other people?

In his new work, Gladwell explores the moment when something becomes common and how products, ideas, messages and forms of behavior spread. He looks at the reasons why trends are similar in the way they develop to outbreaks of disease, or medical epidemics(流行病) .

Epidemics, like trends, start in a very small way, maybe from a single person with a virus, then spread very quickly until they take over the population and appear to be everywhere. Eventually, they will slow down gradually or die out suddenly. Gladwell shows how these changes happen not gradually but at one sudden moment.

Gladwell identifies three types of people who are influential in the development of these kinds of social epidemics:

Connectors are people in a community who have wide social circles. They know a lot of people and like to introduce people to each other. The people they know often come from a variety of social, cultural, professional and economic circles.

Mavens are people with a lot of knowledge or experts in a particular field. They wish to pass on their knowledge to others. Mavenscollect and gather information, so they are the first to pick up on new trends.

Salesmen are people with charisma. They have a “soft” influence over people rather than actual power. This means they are influential because people want to imitate them.

Overall, Gladwell’s book is a thought-provoking read for anyone interested in the origins of trends. What’s more, he writes in a clear style so even the most difficult ideas are easy to understand.