Thirty-five years ago, with just one acre of land, a couple of seeds and a bucket of hope, one Nigerian-born scientist began his mission to defeat famine (饥荒) on his continent.

News of the drought across Africa in the early 1980s troubled Nzamujo. Equipped with a microbiology PhD and his faith, he travelled back to Africa. There, he found a continent ecologically rich, diverse and capable of producing food. He believes drought wasn’t the only reason for widespread hunger, and that sustainability had been left out.

Nzamujo began designing a “zero waste” agriculture system that would not only increase food security, but also help the environment and create jobs. In 1985, he started his sustainable farm “Songhai” in the West African country of Benin.

Nzamajo lives on the farm and constantly updates his techniques. He credits his degrees in science and engineering for Songhai’s success. But he also thanks his spiritual and cultural roots, and his father — a driving force in his life who encouraged him to pursue his studies to the highest degree and to use Songhai to share his knowledge.

Songhai has several “eco-literacy” development programs. They range from 18-month training courses for farmer-enterprisers, to shorter stays to learn techniques like weeding. People come from all over the world to study Nzamujo’s methods.

After seeing success on his first zero waste farm, he expanded throughout Benin and western Africa. Today, the Songhai model is applied across the continent, including Nigena. Uganda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Nzamujo says they've trained more than 7.000 farmer-enterprisers and more than 30, 000 people in total since it began.

Nzamujo believes zero waste agriculture is now steadily tackling the issues he set out to defeat, hunger, unemployment and environmental declines. And he wants to see it go further.

Cikgu Azam worked in an IT department. At the same time, he had a side job where he prepared activities for school children with special needs.

In 2007, during a program, he succeeded in helping a boy with cerebral palsy (脑瘫). “While I was assisting him, I could see the tears of joy coming from his parents who were there with us as well,” he said. “If you had more expert knowledge, you’d help more people,” his friends told him. With that, he went back to school to get a degree in special education.

In 2009, he became a special education teacher in a school. Trained to help students with cerebral palsy, when he came to the school in the first year, he was surprised to learn that he would also be teaching blind students. However, he did not back down in the face of such pressure, Cikgu took the time to educate himself on what would best help his students.

“It’s disappointing to see they are so used to their closed environment. It’s not because they are disabled, but because they don’t have the courage to explore the outside world that has caused them to be depressed.” He changed this by helping them run, simply putting his hands on their shoulders to guide them. One of his students, Nur Yusrina Alisya, won several awards in sporting events.

But as he’s gotten older, it’s difficult to keep up with them. “So, one day, I saw one student pushing a foldable trolley (推车) and the idea suddenly came to mind,” he said. Ever since then, Cikgu has made it his mission to create an even better device. He’s built Caballus RAFVI which is named after a blind but brave horse. “My students need it so they can participate in sporting activities. I’ll try to improve it,” he said. “I’m going to stick with my job though I’m getting older.”

To show empathy is to identify with another’s feelings. It is to emotionally put yourself in the place of another. The ability to empathize is directly dependent on your ability to feel your own feelings and identify them.

If you have never felt a certain feeling, it will be hard for you to understand how another person is feeling. If you have never put your hand in a flame, you will not know the pain of fire. If you have not experienced jealousy, you will not understand its power. Reading about a feeling and intellectually knowing about it is very different than actually experiencing it for yourself.

Among those with an equal level of emotional intelligence, the person who has actually experienced the widest range and variety of feelings — the great depths of depression and the heights of fulfillment, for example, — is the one who is most able to empathize. On the other hand, when we say that someone “can’t relate” to other people, it is likely because they haven’t experienced, acknowledged or accepted many feelings of their own.

Once you have felt discriminated against, for example, it is much easier to relate with someone else who has been discriminated against. Our innate emotional intelligence gives us the ability to quickly recall those instances and form associations when we encounter discrimination again. We then can use the “reliving” of those emotions to guide our thinking and actions. This is one of the ways nature slowly evolves towards a higher level of survival.

For this process to work, the first step is that we must be able to experience our own emotions. This means we must be open to them and not distract ourselves from them or try to numb ourselves from our feelings through drugs, alcohol, etc.

Next, we need to become aware of what we are actually feeling — to acknowledge, identify, and accept our feelings. Only then can we empathize with others. That is one reason why it is important to work on your own emotional awareness and sensitivity — in other words, to be “in touch with” your feelings.

In an afternoon of 1929, a farmer and his son in a village of China’s Sichuan Province accidentally discovered a true wonder of civilization when     41    (dig) a well. The farmer’s discovery of     42     (treasure) including bronze, gold and jade from the ancient Kingdom of Shu,     43    (provide) evidence for an ancient Chinese civilization that extended beyond China’s central plains 3,000-5,000 years ago. Sanxingdui demonstrated a civilization that had     44     (it) own customs and rituals (仪式), as well as remarkable innovation.

Sichuan Province and its capital Chengdu are a focal point for     45     discovery and research of ancient Chinese civilizations. So far some of China’s oldest historical relics, providing evidence of ancient Chinese crafts, customs and practices,     46    (find) here. Modern Chengdu and surrounding areas are a melting pot of culture and customs inherited from ancient times: taxi drivers recite Du Fu’s poems; performers show bianlian (face-changing) performance     47     they change masks faster than audiences can follow. Each has its roots in ancient Chinese civilization and demonstrates the strong effect ancient civilization has     48     contemporary Sichuanese culture.

Treasures     49    (discover) in Sichuan province play an important role in tracing the emergence of Chinese civilization. Being     50    (natural) fertile (富饶的), the area attracted early settlers, and from sites such as Sanxingdui, archeologists and historians can discover much about Chinese civilization.

Tony gave Claire a new hairstyle and improved her makeup. As he was not     56     to accompany her to the shops, he wrote out a list of things that he would need for his work on the house... She had an     57     to paint her nails, then she went into an expensive clothes shop. The     58     there was rude to her, so she rang Tony and told him she was being treated badly... Claire thanked Tony,     59     him that he was a “dear” ... Although it was completely innocent, Claire felt     60    .

Later, the Ming Dynasty     66     developed relations with these regions. Between 1405 and 1433, seven large fleets sailed west on voyages of trade and exploration. These fleets were a sight to behold and were in a     67     of their own at that time. …African     68     families sent gifts such as giraffes as gestures of friendship in return for gold, silk, and spices. Although China     69     from further expeditions after 1433, these land and sea routes remained active     70     between other, cultures for centuries.