Thinking of ways to reduce the impact of pollution is on everyone's minds. This is how 14-year-old Vinisha Umashankar, a student of SKP Vanitha International School in Tamil Nadu, is doing her part to save the planet.
In October 2018, Vinisha saw an ironing worker throw a few pieces of hot charcoal on the pathway and then pour water on it. When asked why he was doing that, he explained that he was cooling the hot charcoal before he could throw it into the dustbin.
On reaching home, she did a little quick research on the Internet and learnt that to make 1kg of charcoal, 12 fully-grown trees need to be cut down. Apart from that, burning of coal emits harmful gases like carbon monoxide. That is when she started to think of alternative sources of heat to iron clothes, and the first idea that popped into her mind was solar energy. While Vinisha knew that solar energy can be harnessed (利用)to generate power, she did not know how. So she referred to college-level Physics books.
By September 2019, Vinisha had finished working on the technical paper. Impressed with her work, her father submitted her paper to different competitions and soon it was picked up by a group of engineers at the National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad, who helped make the prototype (雏形).The ironing cart has solar panels as the roof, which is connected to 100ah battery. Once the battery is fully charged it will power the steam iron box for six hours. Apart from that, the cart has USB ports which can be used to charge mobile phones, too.
The approximate cost of this ironing cart is yet to be determined, and for the future, Vinisha hopes to use her prize money to deploy (配置)a few ironing carts in her hometown and get feedback from the ironing workers.
Getting your kid to bed at night is seriously one of the most challenging things you'll ever have to do. Most kids are just so full of energy that they'll tire you out before they're halfway through their store of energy. An easy thing to calm down your child to get into bed is giving in and allowing some iPad screen time. However, it's really not a great idea, just like you thought.
Researchers at the Arizona State University conducted a study with 547 kids between the ages of 7 to 9. Their parents tracked how much screen time the kids were allowed along with their sleep patterns. The study found that kids who did not engage in screen time before bed slept for 23 more minutes every week and also went to sleep about 34 minutes earlier than those playing with iPad. Although that might not seem like so much more time, quality of sleep is vastly important in Children's development.
The CDC's (美国疾病控制中心)2018 National Youth Risk Survey outlines that good quality sleep can impact a child's life in many ways, including affecting grades and also weight gain. Students with an "A" average slept for 30 or more minutes per night than those with a "D" or "F" average.
A 2018 Pennsylvania State University study showed that children with irregular bedtimes had a higher risk of having increased body weight. Those with consistent and age-appropriate bedtimes when they were 9 years old had a healthier BMI (体质指数)at age 15 than those with irregular bedtimes.
Hard as it is, it's really important not to give in and hand over an iPad to your child who is about to go to bed. Just like it's important for adults to go to sleep without any distractions, it's even more important for kids.
In order to develop the pandemic-stricken economy, China recovered the street vendors (商贩) in a new nation-wide method known as "street stall economy'', allowing residents to set up open-air shops on the sidewalks or other available public spaces.
Street vendors were once an important part of China's economy and urban landscape. However, since China's economy took off in the last decade, street vendors have gradually disappeared from the streets and many of them opened shops of their own.
Fast forward to today, street vendors have come into our sight again after cities such as Chengdu and Yantai succeeded in creating hundreds of thousands of jobs by giving street stalls permission to operate. China's tech industry was quick to jump on the street vendor trend, with tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan and JD.com flocking to dish out cheap loans, offer support and payment solutions to millions of owners of newly established small businesses.
Ant Financial, Alibaba's fintech arm, promised its mobile wallet app Alipay will give interest-free loans to 30 million vendors, and 70 billion RMB of interest-free credit line to consumers to make purchases everywhere, including street vendors.
JD.com provided 50 billion RMB worth of quality goods for street vendors, and provided each one of them with a maximum 100,000 RMB interest-free loan to stock up.
Tencent's WeChat announced to offer payment solutions, marketing supports and even training for up to 50 million street vendors, with the end goal of digitally transforming them to increase their income.
Guangzhou city partnered with WeChat this month to hold a live streaming shopping festival to improve sales of local produce. In attempts to promote various live streaming platforms, many tech CEOs also made their own live streamed e-commerce debuts (首次亮相) selling goods coming from all over the country.
It is freezing outside and running in cold weather might not feel quite as natural as when it's warm and sunny. People tend to turn to the treadmill (跑步机) indoors for their running.
Help you burn more fat. How? Cold temperatures may change unwanted tat into a different kind of fat that actually bums calories. The fat in your body isn't equal. There's white fat and brown fat in our body. Brown fat is metabolic tissue that burns calories. Exercising in cold temperatures turns our white fat to brown fat.
Prevent winter weight gain. Getting yourself to the gym is a challenge during the 'winter months, and a treadmill at home can get boring, which is why we love running in cold weather. We tend to move less and eat more in the colder months. Running bums significant calories and is therefore a powerful tool in maintaining and even losing during winter.
Our bodies are programmed to preserve our fat stores in the winter, slowing down our metabolisms in response to our decreased exercise levels. Running in the cold serves to 'trick' the body, preventing this seasonal slowdown of metabolism (新陈代谢) and helping to maintain a healthy weight.
Stop you from feeling quite so depressed. When the days get shorter and the temperature drops, many people suffer from seasonal depression. Running helps release powerful hormones (荷尔蒙) that help increase positive mood states during the cold weather months. One study found that people who exercised outdoors reported increased energy and decreased feelings of depression.
A. Help you slow down metabolism.
B. White fat is the unwanted body fat.
C. It's free, convenient and never dull.
D. Keep your metabolism going strong.
E. Taking your run outdoors helps boost your mood even more.
F. There are some tips for you if you love running in cold weather.
G. However there are some reasons why you should keep running in cold weather.
I love parties. I always have. I also liked all different kinds of people. I 1 quite fit into one of the many little groups at my school, so I just kind of floated around, accumulating 2from various cliques (小团体).There was an "in" crowd 3 the cool kids who had the power to rule the school - if a cool kid wore two different colored socks to school one day, everyone thought it was 4.
Shannon was one of my friends who seemed to unknowingly 5 the rules all the time. I don't know why she was targeted, but people found it 6 to make fun of her. Shannon was a nice girl and wore pretty clothes, but was somewhat overweight and didn't talk much. She was 7 a lot.
One year, to celebrate my birthday, my mom told me I could have a 8 at our house. Once I had chosen all the names, I made the 9 and handed them out to my friends at school.
"Why did you invite 10?" asked one of my 11 friends when it was discovered that I had invited Shannon. She insisted that I had made a big mistake and 12 me to tell her not to come.
The day of my party, both Shannon and my other friends came, and all 13 happened was that we had a lot of fun together.
I was 14 my high school twenty-year reunion when a beautiful, 15, very professional-looking woman walked up to me. She said, "Lindy, I am so 16 you came tonight. You are the reason I am here." "Oh? I replied, not 17 her face at first. She pointed to her nametag that 18, "Dr. Shannon Chatzky."
Shannon cherished the 19 of that birthday party from so many years before. It was important to her that I had welcomed her into the fun, and it was a day when she felt 20 and part of group.
Meat and carbohydrates have long been the main part of the typical Chinese diet. But that (change) in the last decades. According to a recent survey by the Chinese Nutrition Society, light meals have been the new trend all around the country. About 88 percent of 6,207 respondents have light food (regular), about twice a week. For them, having a light meal means a (health) lifestyle. As (oppose) to the established Chinese "big feast", a typical light dish avoids oily, salty and spicy food. Instead, it contains things boiled meat, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. These dishes are useful for keeping fit and controlling weight. That's so many people, especially people born in 1980s and 1990s, are into them.
The COVID-19 epidemic has furthered the (popular) of this trend. With an increased focus on health awareness, people are starting (adopt) more balanced diets and self-disciplined lifestyle.
, there can be traps in light meals. For instance, salad sauces are often high in calories and eating vegetables raw could have safety risks. After all, light meals should still be balanced, nutritious and safe.
Not everyone is lucky and can claim that they share a great relationship with their own parents. As you age, your points of view on life may greatly differ from those of your parents. Due to the generation gap, there is a huge possibility of misunderstandings between parents and children. All these can lead to conflicts. So what can you do to get along well with your parents as a teenager?
First, make sure that your behavior is responsible and mature. Carry out the duties your parents have assigned to you. If you complete your daily chores on time, you will realize your parents don't blame you so much! Don't go out of the way to do something which your parents have forbidden you from doing.
As you enter your mid-teens, you will realize you want to be independent, from choosing what to eat for breakfast, to buying your clothes, and making new friends. This change is going to cause a conflict between you and your parents. Keep in mind that parents will not agree to your decisions right away. You will feel you have controlling parents, and that there is no way out of the situation. To avoid further conflicts, talk to them. Hear them out. It's the best way to solve a lot of problems. In addition, calm yourself down when conflicts occur. It might take some time for your parents to realize that their little kid is growing up and is entitled to his or her own opinions.
Make it a point to talk to your parents every day about your school life, friends, your day-to-day activities, your teachers, just about anything. If you're stressed about any problem at school, discuss it with your parents. They are the best people to help you out and deal with it.
In a word, love and respect your parents for what they are and everything they've done for you, and no doubt, they'll in turn respect you for turning into responsible adults.
