On a Saturday afternoon, you find most kids outside playing games. Kids are made for the 1, with their endless energy and the easy way in which they make friends. It's not2for Kameron, an ordinary, fun-loving 7-year-old girl who loves to draw out the world's longest hopscotch(跳格子) on the sidewalk. But in between3, Kameron takes time to do something special for her4neighbors whose children have long since left home.
Kameron first started waving to them. Most of them smiled back. Then Kameron decided that some of them needed a little5. So she ran home, took her violin and made the rounds. "Can I play you a song?" she asked, after knocking on the door.
Gustav smiled wide. His wife Vivian, who has had muscular dystrophy(肌肉萎缩) for over 20 years, stood6, and had difficulty moving about. It looked terribly uncomfortable. They've7their daily walks with afternoon drives, but even those are getting too difficult for Vivian.
Gustav let Kameron in, and Vivian8both arms of her chair and pulled to it. On the table beside her was a photo of her with Gustav when they were young and energetic. "Want me to play your favorite song?" Kameron asked. "Of course," Gustav answered. It was the only song Kameron knew.
The small violin9seriously under Kameron's chin(下巴). She played as best as she could. Vivian beat her leg to keep rhythm for Kameron. Gustav held Vivian's other hand. It was not the performance that was moving, but the10it brought.
Two decades (pass) since newspapers launched websites, and yet here we are. Big papers have gone under, thousands of journalists have lost (they) jobs, and the idea that digital news will eventually become a decent business (feel) like a rumor(谣言). The reality is this: no social network has come close to matching the success of print readership.
While Lobby Boy takes its name from a character in the film, the band doesn't want to be known as anything reductive. But one of the film's ideas that everyone in your life has the incredible power to tell their own story is (amaze). "In my personal life, I try to remember that even if I'm struggling or having a conflict someone, no matter what the interaction is, no matter how small or large it is, this is a story is unfolding in front of me," he says.
After 15 years of working to raise climate urgency
I've concluded the public and world leaders underestimate how rapid, serious climate and ecological breakdown will be if humanity fails (organize). There may only be five years (leave) before humanity expends the remaining "carbon budget" to stay under 1.5℃ of (globe) heating. And there may only be five years before the Amazon rainforest and a large Antarctic ice sheet pass irreversible points.
It's exciting when your bookworm teen announces his or her plans to be a writer. Rather than bombard them with fancy pens and motivational reading direct them to a comfort zone: the Internet. These sites are great resources and landing spots for future storytellers.
Figment
Specially tailored for the teen reader/writer, Figment is a community dedicated to reading and writing stories online. Addictively fun, users can rate stories by whether they made them laugh, blush, cry, or just say "wow." The site frequently runs contests and features work from well-known authors and editors who sometimes drop in for Figment chats with the site's community.
Wattpad
It is the largest online reading platform, and allows authors to share their work with the world. Well-known writers such as Margaret Atwood and Cory Doctorow even post their work here. Teens can find and follow their favorite authors and release their own works as serial novels.
Teen Ink
Supported by the nonprofit Young Authors Foundation, Teen Ink is the twenty-five-year veteran in the fostering-teen-writers game. The magazine, book series, and website are devoted entirely to writing, art, and photos by teens. It's also a go-to for teens interested in writing and publishing nonfiction essays and articles as well as poetry.
One Teen Story
Direct kids here to introduce them to the nonprofit's monthly magazine. Each issue features one short story about the teen experience, usually from a known young adult author. Teens drawn to the short story form can also submit their work for consideration in an annual issue that features a story written by a teen for teens.
NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo is an awesome thirty-day adventure for any writer, but teens might be especially inclined to join. In November, would-be novelists over the world attempt to write a 50,000-word(or more) book in thirty days.
Many parents dream of their children growing up and seeing the world. But Edith Lemay, a mother of four from Canada, worried her children were running out of time to do that.
When her first child, Mia, was little, she noticed she would bump into things. In 2018, Mia was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa(色素性视网膜炎).
"What it does is that the cell in the retina dies over time and they lose their field of vision. There's a chance they will go completely blind by midlife," said Lemay.
The disease is genetic, meaning Lemay's other kids were at risk. She soon noticed two of her sons, Collin and Laurent, had the same symptoms. They were soon diagnosed, too.
"Of course it was devastating(令人极为震惊的). And when you have a kid, you always have an image of what their future is going to be like and all of a sudden, you get that news and you need to erase that and think it over. And it really is a grieving process," Lemay said.
Lemay wanted to prepare her kids for what was to come and thought about filling their visual memory. In March, Lemay, her husband, and her four kids left Canada and embarked on an epic journey, traveling the globe for a whole year—showing their kids the world, before it is too late.
During their trip, Lemay is homeschooling her kids. The family also made a bucket list of fun activities they want to accomplish, so each kid can see their dreams come true.
Lemay said her kids are not only making visual memories. They're also learning important life lessons, like focusing on the positive. "Sometimes they're tired and there's frustration. It's difficult. But with the travel, I want them to be resilient."
"I want them to know that any situation that's hard is temporary, because through their life, they'll need lots of resilience," she said. "They're going to adapt to a situation with their eyesight and then in a few years later, they'll lose a chunk of their eyesights and they will have to readapt and adapt again and fall and get back again," Lemay continued.
Many parents want to give their kids the world and this mom did.
We all know that eating later in the day isn't good for our waistlines, but why? A new study weighed in on that question by comparing people who ate the same foods—but at different times in the day.
"We found that eating four hours later makes a significant difference for our hunger levels, the way we burn calories after we eat, and the way we store fat," Vujović said, a researcher at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Together, these changes may explain why late eating is associated with increased obesity risk reported by other studies and provide new biological insight into the underlying mechanisms." The study provides support for the concept that circadian(生理节奏) rhythm, which influences key physiologic functions such as body temperature and heart rate, affects how our bodies absorb fuel, researchers said.
The study does show eating later results in "an increase in hunger, impacts hormones(荷尔蒙) and also changes gene expression, especially in terms of fat metabolism with a tendency towards less fat breakdown and more fat deposition," said Dr. Bhanu Prakash Kolla, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and a consultant to Mayo's Center for Sleep Medicine and Division of Addiction Medicine.
The study was small—only 16 overweight or obese people—but carefully planned to eliminate other potential causes of weight gain, the authors said. "While there have been other studies investigating why late eating associates with an increased risk for obesity, this may be the most well controlled, including strictly controlling the amount, composition and timing of meals, physical activity, sleep, room temperature and light exposure," said senior author Frank Scheer, director of the Medical Chronobiology Program in the Brigham's Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders. All participants were in good health, with no history of diabetes or shift work, which can affect circadian rhythm, and had regular physical activity. Each person in the study kept to a strict healthy sleep/wake schedule for about three weeks and were provided with prepared meals at fixed times for three days before the lab experiment began.
Results showed that hunger pangs doubled for those on a night-eating regime. People who ate later in the day also reported a desire for starchy and salty foods, meat and, to a lesser extent, a desire for dairy foods and vegetables. By looking at the results of blood tests, researchers were able to see why: Levels of leptin, a hormone which tells us when we feel full, were decreased for late eaters versus early eaters. In comparison, levels of the hormone ghrelin, which spikes our appetite, rose.
Automation (自动化) was a hot topic. Nearly everyone agreed that people would be working less once computers and other kinds of automatic machinery became widespread. For optimists, this was a promise of liberation: At last humanity would be freed from constant toil, and we could all devote our days to more refined pursuits. But others saw a threat: Millions of people would be thrown out of work, and desperate masses would roam the streets. Looking back from 50 years hence, the controversy over automation seems a quaint and curious episode. The dispute was never resolved.
A. J. Hayes, a leader (and no relation to me), wrote in 1964: Automation is not just a new kind of mechanization but a revolutionary force capable of overturning our social order. Whereas mechanization made workers more efficient — and thus more valuable — automation threatens to make them superfluous (过剩的) — and thus without value. The opinions I have cited here represent extreme positions, and there were also many milder views. But I think it's fair to say that most early students of automation, including both critics and enthusiasts, believed the new technology would lead us into a world where people worked much less.
As for economic consequences, worries about unemployment have certainly not gone away — not with job losses in the current recession approaching 2 million workers in our country alone. But recent job losses are commonly attributed to causes other than automation, such as competition from overseas or a roller-coaster financial system. In any case, the vision of a world where machines do all the work and people stand idly by has simply not come to pass.
The spread of automation outside of the factory has altered its social and economic impact in some curious ways. In many cases the net effect of automation is not that machines are doing work that people used to do. Instead we've dispensed with the people who used to be paid to run the machines, and we've learned to run them ourselves. These trends contradict almost all the expectations of early writers on automation, both optimists and pessimists. So far, automation has neither liberated us from the need to work nor deprived (剥夺) us of the opportunity to work. Instead, we're working more than ever.
What about trades closer to my own vital interests? Will science be automated? Technology already has a central role in many areas of research; for example, genome sequences could not be read by traditional lab-bench methods. Replacing the scientist will presumably be a little harder than replacing the lab technician, but when a machine exhibits enough curiosity and tenacity, I think we'll just have to welcome it as a companion in zealous research. And if the scientist is elbowed aside by an automaton, then surely the science writer can't hold out either. I'm ready for my 15-hour workweek.
Not every day is going to be great. Not every day is going to be your wedding day, graduation, or birthday. We have our routines; we go to school and meet a lot of the same people. Usually long periods of time in our lives are devoted to doing a specific set of things. The stress of life can disconnect us from our surroundings and make it easier to lose touch with our need and emotions.
Essentially, casual magic is practicing the habit of seeing the beauty in small moments of mundane (单调的) life. In a study that investigated what this does to your mood, 282 participants were observed on the positive effect of something they did. Researchers found that being present and focusing on positive moments gave a higher positive effect and resulted in a higher life satisfaction.
Have you ever walked through a patch of forest or seen the sunshine over rooftops and noticed how vibrant the colors were? Or have you ever felt a breeze on the side of your face? You just need to learn how to treasure and enjoy these moments.
Now this is not to say that life shouldn't be negative and that we should just ignore all the bad things that happen in life. Such emotion may be a sign that it is time to propel change and growth. Negative things should be considered to be opportunities for learning and should not be dwelled upon.
Hence, I urge you to try it. Appreciate something small: the sunlight resting on a window curtain, how green the leaves are, the happiness of laughing with a friend, the taste of an ice-cream. Not every day is going to be the best day of your life; but it can still be special.
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A. However, casual magic is the road to happiness. B. To prevent this, apply the concept of casual magic. C. An adequate example to practice casual magic is nature. D. Casual magic instead allows us to listen to and examine any negative feeling. E. Put aside your screen, be present and give yourself a chance to find that special moment. F. We should learn from negative things and move on to appreciating moments of casual magic. G. It is centered around curiosity and focuses the energy on observing and reflecting on the little things. |
White sand beaches of the Cocos Islands, which are known as a gorgeous tourist destination surrounded by greenish blue water, have now been filled with plastic wastes.
Jennifer Lavers, a marine scientist, went to these tropical islands with her research team. Knowing that lots of beaches were polluted by plastic wastes, the team conducted a careful scientific examination on the coast, only to find the problem caused by pieces of trash humans left was worse than expected.
Not all plastics are to blame. They are necessary in places like hospitals and airplanes, and make our vehicles lighter and more efficient. However, other plastics, especially disposable(一次性的) plastics, account for the growing mess on the beaches. Islands all over the world are jammed with plastics. And the Cocos Islands are no exception.
Apparently, demand for disposable plastics must be reduced greatly. "Why don't we carry around bags that we can use over and over again?" asked Richard Gross, a chemist who researches innovative ways to make more sustainable plastics. "Let's carry around reusable lunch boxes. We should understand how serious the situation is."
Although it is important for individuals to make an effort to avoid using disposable plastics, it is also generally believed that only with international rules can such a deep-rooted, common, and worldwide scourge(灾害) be tackled.
However, the U. N., which engages in dealing with accelerating climate change and public health crises, obviously isn't paying enough attention to calling for international action on plastic pollution. As a result, billions of plastic products will still be produced every year, many of which will end up in the ocean.
It requires the greatest effort of all time to control plastic pollution in modern society. No matter how tall the hurdles(栏架) are, something has to be done.
Individual efforts and international rules are both required to tackle the plastic pollution, and the U. N. pays much attention to calling for international action.
