【推荐1】The students stand on a pier (码头) over the Harlem River in New York City. They stare down into the brown water. Their teacher, Mr. Rodman, pulls a long rope out of the river. Fastened to the end of the rope is a metal cage and inside are oysters (牡蛎). Taking turns, the students measure all the oysters, and then compare notes. The biggest oyster is over 2 inches long, much bigger than a healthy size for its age! They also measure the level of oxygen. As more oysters grow, the water should become clearer and hold more oxygen. Also, other animals should move in.

Oysters are soft-bodied animals, and share the underwater community with plants, fish, and other life. They are food for crabs and other animals. As new oysters grow, they attach their shells to older ones, forming big reefs with many small spaces where other animals live. Oysters eat algae (藻类). If algae grow too fast, they can decrease oxygen from the water and even fish need oxygen to breathe!

But what happened to the oysters 100 years ago in New York Harbor? Before then, lots of oysters lived in these waters. They were shipped to restaurants around the world. By the early 1900s, people were eating them faster than they could grow. Pollution was pouring into the waters. The harbor became severely polluted. Since the 1970s, new laws have helped reduce poisonous waste. Some fish started to swim through again. But oysters were still missing—until recently.

The Billion Oyster Project began in 2014 to help bring oysters back to New York Harbor. The project has recruited more than 6,500 students at more than 100 middle schools and high schools to help grow, distribute, and study the oysters.

Finally, the students put the oysters back in the cage. Mr. Rodman lowers the cage into the river. In a few months, they will check the cage again. When the oysters are big enough, they will be moved to join a healthy reef in the middle of the harbor.

【推荐3】Reading books can obviously make you a better, smarter entrepreneur. According to a 2018 study of over 160, 000 adults in 31 countries, the more books that were present in participants’ childhood homes, the more competent they now are as adults with skills in literacy, mathematics, and technological problem-solving. Researchers note that book-oriented socialization, indicated by home library size, equips youth with lifelong tastes, skill and knowledge.

Growing up with home libraries boosts adult skills in literacy, numeracy and technological problem-solving beyond the benefits acquired from parental education or your own educational or occupational attainment. Kids who grow up in a home where reading is valued and modeled are more likely to be good readers. Strangely enough, though, advanced education doesn’t necessarily offset the “lots of books in the home” advantage. Adults who grew up with relatively few books in their homes and later earned a college degree had literacy levels approximately equal to adults who grew up in homes with large libraries but only attended school for nine years.

Jessica Stillman writes, surrounding yourself with more books than you could ever read says good things about your mind. Those books serve as a constant reminder of all the things you don’t know — which helps keep you intellectually hungry and curious. And possibly, this will keep you a little more modest, since research shows the quicker you are to admit you don’t know something, the faster you can then learn it. As Jeff Bezos says, a key sign of intelligence is the willingness to change your mind, something that only happens if you’re willing to admit that your current thinking may not be the best thinking. Modesty, learning and the willingness to change your mind when new data presents itself: That’s another three bonus every entrepreneur can benefit from.

【推荐2】The second little pig was unlucky. He built his house from sticks. It was blown away by a wolf, which quickly ate him up. His brother, by contrast, built a wolf-proof house from bricks. The fairy tale could have been written by a salesman for the construction industry, which strongly favours brick, concrete and steel. However, in the real world it would help reduce pollution and slow global warming if more builders copied the wood-loving second pig.

In 2015 world leaders meeting in Paris agreed to move towards zero greenhouse-gas emissions（排放）in the second half of this century. That is a tall order, and the building industry makes it even taller. Cement-making alone produces 6% of the world’s carbon emissions. Steel, half of which goes into buildings, accounts for another 8%. If you count all of the energy that goes into lighting, heating and cooling homes and offices, the world’s buildings start to look like a serious environmental problem.

Governments in the rich world are now trying to promote greener behavior by requiring developers to build new projects to “zero carbon” standards（标准）. From January 1st 2019 all new public buildings in the European Union must be built to “nearly zero-energy” standards. All other types of buildings will follow in January 2021. Governments in eight further countries are being advised to apply the similar standards.

These standards are less green than they seem. Wind turbines and solar panels on top of buildings look good but are much less productive than wind and solar farms. And the standards only count the emissions from running a building, not those let out when it was made. Those are thought to account for between 30% and 60% of the total over a structure’s lifetime.

【推荐1】London (CNN) There is no God -- that's the conclusion of the well-known physicist Stephen Hawking, whose final book is published on Tuesday. The book Brief Answers to the Big Questions, which was completed by his family after his death, presents answers to the questions that Hawking said he received most during his time on Earth.

Other bombshells(爆炸性事件)the British scientist left his readers with include the belief that alien life is out there, artificial intelligence could outsmart humans and time travel can't be impossible.

"There is no God. No one directs the universe," he writes in the book." For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse by God," he adds. "I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature."

While Hawking spoke of his lack of belief in God during his life, several of his other answers are more surprising. "There are forms of intelligent life out there," he writes. "We need to be cautious about answering back until we have developed a bit further."

"Travel back in time can't be ruled out according to our present understanding," he says. He also predicts that "within the next hundred years we will be able to travel to anywhere in the Solar System."

In remarks prepared by Hawking and played at the launch of the book in London on Monday, the scientist also turned his attention to the world he was leaving behind. His greatest concern, his daughter said, "is how divided we've become," adding ,"He makes this comment about how we seem to have lost the ability to look outward, and we are increasingly looking inward to ourselves."

Hawking's final message to readers, though, is a hopeful one. Attempting to answer the question "How do we shape the future?", the scientist writes, "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet."

【推荐3】I was 15. She looked like she was over 70. But on that day. I think she understood me more than anyone else.

Walking into the church that Sunday was hard I bad never let anyone see me cry. But I knew I would cry that day. My grandfather was suddenly ill. The doctors said he might not live much longer. Everyone in my family was crying. Grandpa was the sweetest man in the world. Why was he leaving us?

There weren’t many people at church that day. One of them was an old lady sitting at the end of my row. She was smiling I closed my eyes and prayed(祈祷) for my grandfather to get better. Soon, my eyes were full of tears I opened my eyes and saw a hand in front of me. It was giving me a tissue(纸巾).

The old lady was sitting next to me, smiling. She didn’t say a word. She just gave me a tissue and a smile. I tried to thank her, but only tears came out. Then she took my hand. I looked into her eyes. They were clear and blue, and they made me feel peaceful. Her smile said to me: I am with you. Everything will be OK. I closed my eyes again. When I opened them she wasn’t there. I left the church but still couldn't find her. I never saw her again.

My grandfather died the next week. We all cried a lot more. But when I thought of that old lady’s warm smile, I felt a little better.

How did she know how I was feeling? I wish I could see her again, to say thank you.

【推荐1】I like watching TV very much for I think it has many advantages. First of all, watching TV is a good rest. After a day of hard work, we need a good rest.Watching TV can make our mind and body not tired any more because of the pleasant music and TV plays.

Besides, watching TV is entertaining. There are many kinds of entertainment, such as sports activities, singing and dancing concerts, plays and films all over the world at every time. It’s not possible for us to go to every place to enjoy all the activities within a short time. We need at least over ten hours to fly from New York to Paris, a week by train from Beijing to Moscow and an hour to drive from Queens District to Manhattan District. But within just one second, TV can bring us from an NBA game in New York to a fashion show in Paris by changing the channels.

Most important, watching TV is educational. Our children can learn every kind of subjects through the educational programmes and the special reports on TV, and it’s easy for them to learn Chinese from a Chinese teacher in Beijing and to learn Russian lessons from a Russian teacher in Moscow. Even we can learn how to behave well from the TV plays. Besides, a teacher can teach millions of students without a huge classroom.

【推荐2】The Government has proposed to spend money developing wireless charging roads in the UK as part of a E40 million plan. Wireless charging roads could be developed to recharge electric cars while they drive along to solve some problems about limited equipment to encourage ownership of these vehicles and ensure better air quality. The Government has promised the money to develop both on-street and wireless charging to help transformation from internal combustion engine（内燃机）cars to electric.

The mode of these systems work is similar to that of a Scalextric toy car does. Wireless charging uses a process called electromagnetic induction（电磁感应）to move energy. On the ground is a pad in which electricity is passed through a set of wire to generate a magnetic field. This is then moved to a receiver on the underside of the car. If the technology works, it could mean that drivers can fill up their car as they drive along, meaning there could be longer periods between charging.

The proposal was made in a Department for Transport (DfT) and could also see charging points positioned at service stations and car parks. New homes will also, where permitted, be built with some points. David Martell, of the electric car charging company Chargemaster, said to The Times: "Wireless charging will make driving an electric vehicle as similar as possible to driving a petrol car but without going to the petrol station frequently."

This is not the first time that wireless charging roads have been proposed as a number of firms have developed technologies. Renault partnered with Qualcomm Technologies and Vedecom to develop a road to test the technology's capability. The 100-metre test track was said to be capable of a charge up to 20 kilowatts at speeds up to, and over, 62 miles per hour (100kmh).

【推荐3】Most New Yorkers wouldn’t dream of eating a fish from New York Harbor. But it hasn’t always been that way. When Henry Hudson entered New York Harbor in 1609, he had to sail the Half Moon around 220,000 acres of oyster reefs（生蚝礁）, which had fed the local Lenape people for generations. But all that changed due to overharvesting and a flood of pollution in the water. The oyster reefs disappeared, and the harbor became a no-go zone in New Yorkers’ minds.

But today, a team of high school students, scientists and volunteers are working to change that. “Through the work of restoring（使恢复）a billion oysters, we hope to reintroduce the harbor into the awareness of New Yorkers,” says Pete Malinowski, director of the Billion Oyster Project, which aims to re-establish oyster reefs in the harbor.

Much of the pollution in the harbor today comes from sewage overflows（污水溢出）, which occur when heavy rains destroy the city’s combined sewage system, leaving wastewater flowing into the harbor. Sewage contains a lot of nitrogen（氮）, an important nutrient（滋养物）for plants and animals. But too much nitrogen brings too much seaweed, which draws oxygen out of the water to create so-called dead zones.

Oysters are more than just a popular food. They also help clean the water. They can remove nitrogen and absorb it into their shells and tissue. Near oyster reefs, the water is often clearer.

The goal of the Billion Oyster Project is to have 1 billion oysters in the harbor by 2035. They still probably won’t be safe to eat. But the project is using this effort to educate the next generation of New Yorkers about the harbor and to encourage interest in restoring and protecting it.