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    This month, Germany's transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, proposed the first set of rules for autonomous vehicles(自主驾驶车辆). They would define the driver's role in such cars and govern how such cars perform in crashes where lives might be lost.

    The proposal attempts to deal with what some call the “death valley” of autonomous vehicles: the grey area between semi-autonomous and fully driverless cars that could delay the driverless future.

    Dobrindt wants three things: that a car always chooses property(财产) damage over personal injury; that it never distinguishes between humans based on age or race; and that if a human removes his or her hands from the driving wheel — to check email, say — the car's maker is responsible if there is a crash.

    “The change to the road traffic law will permit fully automatic driving,” says Dobrindt. It will put fully driverless cars on an equal legal footing to human drivers, he says.

    Who is responsible for the operation of such vehicles is not clear among car makers, consumers and lawyers. “The liability(法律责任) issue is the biggest one of them all,” says Natasha Merat at the University of Leeds, UK.

    An assumption behind UK insurance for driverless cars, introduced earlier this year, insists that a human “ be watchful and monitoring the road” at every moment.

    But that is not what many people have in mind when thinking of driverless cars. “When you say ‘driverless cars', people expect driverless cars.”Merat says. “You know — no driver.”

    Because of the confusion, Merat thinks some car makers will wait until vehicles can be fully automated without operation.

    Driverless cars may end up being a form of public transport rather than vehicles you own, says Ryan Calo at Stanford University, California. That is happening in the UK and Singapore, where government-provided driverless vehicles are being launched.

    That would go down poorly in the US, however. “The idea that the government would take over driverless cars and treat them as a public good would get absolutely nowhere here,” says Calo.

右图为某同学在显微镜下观察到的细胞图像，仔细观察并分析：从像A变成像B是做了怎样的处理？

①低倍镜换成了高倍镜  ②向右下移动了玻片  ③向左上移动了玻片  ④把大光圈换成了小光圈

    On a recent sunny, dry fall morning, I found the last outdoor table at my favorite café. Reading 1 I nibbled my breakfast, I was enjoying the feeling of the cool breeze and the warm sun when a table next to me 2. A woman who had been standing nearby, 3 waiting for a seat, stepped toward the table. But from the other 4, straight from the parking lot, came a man who got to the table first.

    The woman, with a 5 on her face, explained that she'd been 6 that table for several minutes and had been on her way over. The man, also smiling but 7, told her she was out of 8; he had happened upon the table first. "You snooze, you lose!" he said cheerfully.

    She stood off to the side, clearly disappointed, and 9 her friend with the frustrating news. I sat at my table, 10 the scene, when suddenly it occurred to me—I had a(n) 11 here to be kind.

    I stood up and 12 her over to my table. Quietly, I told her I had seen what had happened, and I was happy to give her my table. I was only going to be there a few more minutes 13, so I was happy for her and her friend to have the 14.

    "But where will you sit?" she asked. I was almost done eating, I said, and I would find a seat at the counter 15. She thanked me and beamed as she 16 for her friend to sit down.

    Thinking about it as I finished up, I realized that whether or not the woman had fair 17 to the table was unimportant. The emotion of the situation—the look of hurt on her face—had 18 me, and I had the ability to do something about it.

    That isn't always the case with every feeling, situation, or injustice we 19 unexpectedly in our days. But as the early 20th century writer Orison Swett Marden once said, "Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. 20 common occasions and make them great."

    I just hope that woman's morning at the café was great. I know mine was.