With New Year approaching quickly, I was so pleased with the resolution (决心) my family had made at the beginning of this year and proud that we were actually able to keep it. For the past year we had made an effort to go 1 and, looking back, we were pretty successful.
Last year we began recycling all of our glass, paper, plastic, and aluminum cans. We 2all light bulbs throughout our home with energy saving bulbs; we stopped purchasing 3water. In addition, we made it a point to 4 reusable bags when grocery shopping.
Although I took pride in all the 5, I felt that we could take it a step 6 and do more. I was especially interested in teaching my kids to become more 7 in learning how important it is to take care of the environment. I began thinking about ways I could further the 8. It took a while for it to come to me but when it did I was 9 and excited about it.
I recognized that, in our own way, we were already 10 to Mother Earth. 11wouldn't it be great if we could give more to organizations that support causes which help the less 12 around the world? What I decided to do was 13 the money we earned from 14 our waste to charity.
My seven-year-old son, Brayden, would even be able to join in, as he was 15 for sorting the items and taking them to the recycling center with me. To make him more involved, I decided that he would help me 16 which charity to support. Because we sold our recyclable items every month or so, we wouldn't have a large 17; but I loved the idea of teaching my son that however much you give, what 18 is that you give. The smallest donation can make a 19.
Next year, we will continue doing our 20 to help the environment and make this world a better place.
Jaya, Topan, and Kasarna, the Sumatran tigers
Those tiger cubs were born on January 2, 2015, at Chester Zoo in England. There are only 300 to 400 left in the wild, which places these felines on the critically endangered list. Most of their natural jungle habitat (栖息地) has been destroyed, and they are common targets for poachers(偷猎者). Found in the forests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the tiger is the smallest of big cat species. |
African painted dog pups
Pictured at three months old, these African painted puppies were born at the Port Lympne Reserve in Kent, England. Originally from South Africa, the species are natural hunters and live in packs of 20-30 members. Scientists estimate their population size around 3,000 to 5,500. They are targets of human killings, and are easily harmed by disease and habitat destruction, placing them on the endangered list. |
Pancake, the cheetah
Pancake was born on February 28, 2015, at Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. When she was six weeks old, a pup named Dayo arrived at the zoo to serve as his companion. Cheetahs are naturally shy, so zoos often pair them with dogs to help them overcome their anxiety. Cheetahs are native to eastern and southwestern Africa; fewer than 10,000 felines remain in the wild. |
Asmara, the Sumatran orangutan
Asmara was born on November 22, 2014, at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo in Indiana. These monkeys are endangered in the wild, with fewer than 14,000 left. Agricultural development has ruined their natural forest home. They are hunted, mainly to be kept in homes as status symbols. They live in the trees, almost never touching the ground. |
Businesses are finding more uses for Virtual Reality (VR) as the technology develops. VR is no longer only for gaming or enjoyment. An American company called Blue Goji is using VR to improve one's health by making exercise more fun.
Blue Goji has offices in Austin, the capital of Texas. The company showed its cardiovascular (心血管的) workout machine, called the Infinity treadmill (跑步机), at the recent South by Southwest festival, an event held every year in Austin.
A person using the treadmill wears a virtual reality headset when exercising. Before starting, the user tightens a belt to prevent falls. Then, the user plays a VR game while running on the machine. The game can transport the user into the virtual world, where he or she can be racing against virtual people.
Recently, Leonardo Mattiazzi tested the Infinity treadmill. Mattiazzi said he had a strong feeling to actually get running and do something that pushed his limits. He said the experience was more interesting than running inside the gym without actually going anywhere.
Constam said the active use of virtual reality helps solve a common problem while wearing a VR headset. She noted that a lot of VR experiences cause motion sickness because people are in motion during the game, but not moving in real life. But when the user is moving on the treadmill and in the game, the chances of motion sickness are reduced.
However, users who tested the treadmill while wearing the VR headset each had a different experience. Constam said there generally is a learning curve for VR. The first time users feel lost, but "the more you do it, the more you get used to it," she said. Mark Sackler was a first time user. He said he felt a little sick at one point during the game. But he thought the experience was surprisingly realistic.
After carefully studying the users' experiences, Blue Goji plans to make the treadmill available to the public in 2019.
Skateboarding is an action sport which includes riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as an activity for fun, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. In 2016, it was announced that skateboarding will be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
There are various theories about the origins of Skateboarding, but it is generally held that the sport began in the 1940s on the west coast of the USA when metal wheels were attached to a narrow wooden board. In the 1950s, plastic replaced metal as the material of choice for the wheels, and the first "Roller Surfboard" become commercially available, which in turn developed into the skateboard that we know today. The sport was a big hit with the younger generation and grew in global popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the late 1990s, skateboarding has become an important part of street culture.
However, skateboarding has raised heated discussions in areas where the activity, although legal (合法的), has damaged stone works, steps, benches, and parks. Certain cities oppose the building of skate parks in their neighborhoods, for fear of increased crime (犯罪) and drugs in the area. The disagreement between the old image of skateboarding and a newer one is quite obvious: magazines such as Thrasher describe skateboarding as dirty, and still firmly tied to punk (朋克), while other publications, Transworld Skateboarding as an example, paint a more different and controlled picture of skateboarding. As more professional skaters use hip hop, or hard rock music in their videos, many urban youths, hip-hop fans and hard rock fans are also drawn to skateboarding, weakening the sport's punk image. Besides, group spirit influences the members of this community. In presentations of skateboarding, the evidence of crime is absent, and no attempt is made to tie extreme sports to any kind of illegal activity.
The good news is that efforts have been made to improve recognition of the cultural heritage as well as positive effects of skateboarding in cities. By raising £790,000, the Long Live Southbank initiative managed to stop the destruction of a forty years old spot in London due to urban planning, a rescuing operation whose effect extends beyond skateboarding. The presence of skateboarders on this public space keeps the area under nearly constant watch and drives homeless people away, increasing the feeling of safety in the area. The activity attracts artists such as photographers and film makers, as well as a significant number of tourists, which in turn drives economic activity in the neighborhood.
I sit on the stoop (门廊) in front of my friend's house at the top of a steep hill. And now my friend is late, and I'm stuck here waiting.
I see a man approaching.
"Por favor. Call 911," the man says. "Finger. Cut." With his left hand, he is pressing the handkerchief around his right little finger.
"No. Have. Phone," I say, as if English is also my second language.
"Have phone," he says, and dips his chin toward his front pants pocket. There, I find a phone, and call 911.
The operator answers, and I say "I'm with this guy, and he cut his finger."
"Did he cut it off?"
"Did you cut it off?"
"Sí." He sighs.
"Yes. He cut it off."
"Where is it?" the operator asks.
"Where is it?"
"Upstairs," he says, pointing with his elbow to the house next door.
"Go get it," she instructs me.
I follow the man toward the house. Inside, I see a table saw(锯), and the blood spreading across the ceiling, but I don't see the finger. I lift up each foot and look underneath to be sure I've not stepped on it. I'm getting that jumpy, tight-shouldered feeling like when you've lost sight of a spider that was on your ceiling a moment ago.
"Do you see it?" I ask him.
He points at his own finger beside the table saw. I grab a paper towel, pinching it carefully, the way you might pick up a harmless but frightening insect.
"We have secured the finger," I tell the operator.
"Hang tight. The ambulance is on its way."
We sit on the stoop waiting for the ambulance.
"You're going to be OK," I say, putting my free hand on his sawdust-covered back.
"Gracias," he says.
"De nada. Esta no problemo," I reply in broken Spanish.
It feels good to be able to comfort someone, anyone. For months now, the second my hands would go idle(闲散的), a familiar depression would climb on my back. I have been trying to put on a good face for my kid, but I feel as if I've been failing. Could I save myself? I wouldn't know how. But I am determined to save this man.
Finally the ambulance arrives, picks him up, and they're off.
Throughout the evening, I can't stop worrying about the man. I decide to call the hospital.
"Hi! I helped a guy who cut off his finger, and I don't even know his name, but I'm wondering whether he came to your hospital."
The nurse says, "His name is Jose Ramos, and he's waiting for surgery. Would you like to leave a message?"
"No. I don't want to bother him. I just wanted to be sure he was OK."
The next morning, I call the hospital again. This time, I'm put through to Jose's room. "How was the surgery?"
"No surgery," he says. "No enough blood."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I say.
Later that day, I remember that old proverb about how if you save someone's life, you are responsible for them for the rest of their life, which never made sense to me before. Shouldn't the person who got saved owe a debt, and not the other way around? But today, I get it. It's a great honor to help someone in need.
I start keeping a lookout for other people in need of assistance. I help push a stalled car out of the road. I aid a disoriented cyclist when her bike gets clipped by a car. I adopt a dog. Then one day, a month or two after the finger incident, I realize I have completely forgotten to be depressed. I've been so busy playing the role of local hero that I have ignored to drag my feet and stare into space and imagine the world without me.
Now, more than a decade has passed since Jose's accident. Occasionally I search for "Jose" plus "Ramos" plus "finger." I wish I could see him again, to see how he's getting on. But more important, to thank him, because when he lost his finger, he saved my life.
注意：每个空格只填一个单词。
Social media is all about connecting with others. But a new study suggests that too much social media leads to disconnection and loneliness—basically the opposite of what we are led to believe.
The study, Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S, which was published on March 6, 2017 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that heavy use of platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram was associated with feelings of social isolation (孤独) among young adults.
Study co-author Brian Primack and his team from the Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health at the University of Pittsburgh surveyed 1,787 U.S. adults aged 19 to 32 and asked them about their usage of 11 social media platforms (outside of work). They also asked participants questions related to social isolation, such as how often they felt left out. The participants who reported spending the most time on social media—over two hours a day—had twice the possibility of social isolation than those who said they spent a half-hour per day or less on the same sites. Additionally, people who visited social media platforms most frequently (58 visits per week or more) had more than three times the possibility of perceived social isolation than those who visited them fewer than nine times per week.
According to Tom Kersting, psychotherapist and author of Disconnected, the key to understanding these results lies in our understanding of "connections." "Humans are social-emotional beings, meaning that it is in our DNA to be connected, face-to-face, with other humans," he told Reader's Digest. "Although people think being on social media all the time makes them 'connected' to others, they are actually 'disconnected,' because the more time one spends behind a screen, the less time one spends face-to-face."
"Part of the issue of loneliness is that the majority of people who use social media aren't just posting, they are also viewing," Kersting continued. "They are spending a lot of time looking at everyone else's posts, where they are, where they are going and what they are doing. Then everyone else's 'perfect' life experiences cause them to have feelings of being left out, of being lonely."
So what's the answer? It's simple, says Kersting—although it does involve a significant amount of will power. "To solve this, what you should do is resist the temptation (诱惑) to look at everyone else's life. Just focus on your own life, where you're going, what you are grateful for, and what you want to accomplish in this world. Then go out and do it and stop wasting so much time comparing."
How social media use can loneliness | |
of the study | Contrary to popular belief, heavy users of social media may feel and lonely. ◆ People who spent over two hours are twice more to feel socially isolated than those spending a half-hour per day. ◆ People who visited social media platforms most tend to feel left out in comparison with those who visited them fewer than nine times per week. |
Reasons behind the problem | ◆ Lost in social media, people to afford enough time to communicate face-to-face. ◆ People who view others' posts can be by others' seemingly perfect life experiences. |
◆ It requires a strong to resist the temptation of social media. ◆ Focus on your own life and stop your life with others'. | |
