American Unique Buildings

The country’s full of awe—inspiring natural wonders, but those made by man (and woman) are equally impressive. The architect behind a design or the creation’s history or purpose are all elements that may prove particularly attractive. These following buildings are all well worth visiting.

Bradbury Building

Los Angeles

Glancing at the Bradbury Building, built in 1893, the oldest commercial building in L.A., you may say: “OK, it’s a 19th-century relic.” Step inside and you will be surprised by the light-filled Victorian court, a wonder of open—cage elevators, marble stairs, and splendid iron barriers. Its architectural history is debatable — Sumner Hunt’s designs seem to have been completed by George H. Wyman, who monitored the construction.

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

Miami

Built in 1916, the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, formerly Villa Vizcaya, is the one-time winter home of businessman James Deering. On Biscayne Bay in the Coconut Grove neighborhood, the early 20th-century property features Italian Renaissance (文艺复兴) gardens, native woodlands, and a complex of historic outbuildings. The property designed by Paul Chalfin is today operated by Miami-Dade County.

Rogers Building

Orlando

The 132-year-old, Queen Anne-style structure, now housing an art gallery but a one-time home to cocktail-and-gaming clubs, was donated to the City of Orlando in 2018 earlier by Ford Kiene. The restriction that it must remain an arts and culture center for at least 20 years ensures public access for the near future.

Griffith Observatory

Los Angeles

It’s possible to see the stars at this destination that includes sweeping views of the city and the Hollywood sign, and has a planetarium (天文馆) to boot. It’s been a draw for its construction style sign its 1935 opening, with a $93 million expansion completed in 2006.

Humans eat an astonishing amount of meat every year-some 800 billion pounds of it, enough flesh to fill roughly 28 million dump trucks. Our desire for meat, particularly in industrialized countries like the United States, is one reason why the planet is warming as fast as it is. Raising animals consumes a lot of land that could otherwise soak up carbon. Cows, sheep, and goats give out heat-trapping methane (甲烷). And to grow the corn, soy, and other plants that those animals eat, farmers spray fertilizer that emits nitrous oxide (一氧化二氮), another planet-warming gas.

Cutting out meat sounds like an effective approach. But what would happen if everyone actually stopped eating meat tomorrow? Such a quick shift probably wouldn’t cause the sort of turmoil that would come if the planet immediately abandoned fossil fuels. But still, the consequence could be quite chaotic, causing different problems.

Researchers say the economic damage caused by the sudden disappearance of meat would fall disproportionately on low-income countries with farming economies, like Niger or Kenya, where farming and raising livestock are critical sources of income. Getting rid of livestock overnight would not only deprive many people of essential nutrients, but also threaten food security, especially in regions like South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, there’s the issue of cultural damage. Taking away meat, according to Wilson Warren, a history professor at Western Michigan University, would do more than just deprive Americans of hot dogs and hamburgers and Italians of salami.

Rejecting meat entirely, let alone immediately, isn’t an ideal solution to the climate crisis. Dutkiewicz, a political economist at the Pratt Institute, suggested using guidelines established by the EAT-Lancet Commission, an international group of scientists who have designed a diet intended to give people the nutrients they need without destroying the planet.

Halloween candy could be in for a California big change. State lawmakers last month passed the California Food Safety Act, which bans four materials found in popular snacks and packaged foods - including candy corm and other Halloween treats. Set to take effect in 2027, the ban will lead candy and food producers to change their formulas for products sold both in California and elsewhere around the country.

The law bans the production and sale of some materials, which are used in processed foods including kinds of instant potatoes and sodas, as well as candies. The additives (添加剂) have been linked to increased risks of cancer and nervous system problems, according to the Environmental Working Group, which started the act, and are already banned in many other countries.

Food producers and their lobbyists (说客) opposed the law, arguing the conclusion that the four additives are unhealthy should be made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They thought that evaluating the safety of food materials and additives should rely on the scientific accuracy of the FDA. But food safety advocates say the FDA has moved far too slowly in regulating food chemicals. It’s unacceptable that the U.S. is so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to food safety.

California’s act made headlines this year as a “Skittles (彩虹糖) ban” that would wipe popular candies off California shelves. But supporters of the act said the intention is simply to require changes in the materials, as has already happened in Europe. Perhaps the most standing-out material on California’s banned list is red dye No. 3. It is allowed only in candied and cocktail cherries in the European Union but more than 3,000 products contain the chemical in the U. S. The list includes items like frosted pretzels and scores of brand-name candies such as Peeps and Pez. It also includes items like fruit cocktail cups, protein drinks, and yogurts.

“Tie an Italian’s hands behind his back,” runs an old joke, “and he’ll be speechless.” This rests on a national stereotype: Italians are talkative and emotional, and all that arm-waggling supposedly goes to prove it.

Susan Goldin-Meadow of the University of Chicago has a rather different view. Emotions come out in lots of ways: facial expressions, posture, tone of voice and so on. But people are doing something different when they use gestures with speech, which she sums up in the title of her new book, “Thinking with Your Hands”. It is a masterly tour through a lifetime’s research.

Virtually everyone gestures, not just Italians. Experimental subjects, told after a research session that they were being watched for gestures, apologize for not having made any — but were doing so the entire time. People born blind gesture when they speak, including to each other. A woman born without arms but with “phantom limb syndrome (幻肢综合征)” describes how she uses her phantom arms when she talks — but not when she walks. All this suggests that cognition is, to some extent, “embodied”; thinking is not all done in your head.

In fact, gestures that accompany speech are a second channel of information. Subjects watch a film in which a cat runs but are told to lie and say it jumped. They do so in words — while their hands make a running motion. People who say they believe in sexual equality but gesture with their hands lower when talking about women are not indicating women’s height; they can be shown to have biases of which they may be unaware.

In “The Crown”, a historical drama series, Lady Diana is warned that her hands may betray her real emotions, which could be dangerous; they are tied together so she can learn to speak without gesticulating. No one who reads Susan’s book could ever again think that gesturing shows only a lack of control. It is about thinking and communication, and is a sophisticated aid to both.

If you have ever looked closely at the tires on your car, you have probably seen little hairs sticking out of the black rubber.     16     Are they there for any safety reasons? Those little bits are one of the strange car features some people may stop to think about.

Located on the vertical part of the tire, these curious little rubber hairs are known as “vent spews (轮胎毛刺)”. They are crucial in the tire-making process. As the tread pattern mold (胎面花纹模具) is pressed into the tire’s rubber, the extra rubber requires a way to escape the mold.     17    

Curiously, there’s no set number of hairs each tire will have.     18     But the presence of tire hairs is universal. They are nothing more than remnants (残余部分) of the complex process that makes strong and durable tires.

    19     Because they are found on the part of the tire rubber that doesn’t hit the road, and they have no impact on how well your tire grips (抓牢) the pavement in rainy weather. These rubber hairs also don’t have any impact on road noise or why your tires squeak when you’re driving. They are merely evidence of the new tire’s arrival in the world.

Tire hairs are naturally worn away during normal driving, and the presence or absence of these hairs doesn’t determine if a tire is safe. There is one instance, however, where the lack of tire hairs can matter.     20     As a responsible car owner, you should monitor the health of your tires regularly.

My grandmother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Seeing her condition worsen over time, and knowing I could do nothing, created a feeling of ________ in me.

As the years passed and my understanding of the disease grew, my frustration turned first to anger, then resignation (顺从), and finally ________. Though the disease was bound to slowly eat away at her, there were ways to ________ its progress. Every night the two of us would sit together and ________ while my grandmother would count beans. The exercise could help to keep her mentally ________.

Gradually her counting became slower, and she would lose track of things more ________. While at night we would count beans, in the day I involved myself in studies of ________. My earlier feelings of despair gave way to ________; advances in genetic engineering offered the possibility that one day those like my grandmother could be cured, or ________ from developing Alzheimer’s in the first place.

Seeing my grandmother slip away ________ me to take biology courses to learn more about cells, the nervous system, and genetic information, which helped me better understand how our ________ of this disease has grown in the past decade. ________ I began to see new possibilities for preventing diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Nowadays, my grandmother cannot count beans anymore and doesn’t ________ me at all. Once she used to tell me stories and I whispered to her all my problems. Now I am a ________ to her. How I wish one day I could contribute to a future, where no child has to watch their grandmother count the ________ they have left together.

From the adorable pandas in Sichuan to the playful Pallas’s cats in Inner Mongolia, photographer Xie Jianguo has committed himself to documenting China’s rare and endangered animals,     36     highlight the country’s unique natural wonders.

Xie’s passion for     37     (photograph) wild animals is evident in his frequent visits to the remote destinations such as the Arctic continent. Since 2012, Xie Jianguo has redirected his lens (镜头) toward his homeland, focusing     38     wildlife in China. Now his     39     (footprint) have covered nearly all the provinces and regions throughout China.

During his shooting process, Xie     40     (place) great emphasis on building a harmonious relationship with the animals he encounters, ensuring that they are undisturbed and represented in their natural state. Xie said, “I am eager     41     (record) the beautiful moments of wildlife, to not only represent their living conditions but also to raise people’s     42     (aware) of protecting wild animals and their habitats.     43     (hopeful), my images can show the biodiversity and the achievements of wildlife protection in China. ”

With the aim of preserving the natural beauty of China     44     promoting its rich natural image culture to the world, Xie launched a project called “Nature Image China” in 2016. So far, over 100 photo exhibitions     45     (organize) by the project at home and abroad.