Mama and I spend mornings cleaning up the dirt that blows into our house. Mama says all the dust is due to the drought(干旱). The dirt covers everything. It covers our clothes. We have to wash the dishes before each meal. We rarely drive the truck because Papa fears the dust from the road will ruin the motor.

When my sister, Faye, and I walk to school we wear scarfs over our mouths so we don’t breathe in the dirt. On days when the air is so bad that they close the school, we stay at home and help Mama put wet sheets over the windows. But the dirt always finds a way in.

Last Sunday, there was no dirt in the air, only bright spring sunshine and a clear blue sky. After lunch, Papa headed out to the field to check on the cattle while I played with Faye in the yard. The temperature suddenly dropped. I looked to the west and saw a huge black cloud of dust. All the birds flew away. “I must warn Papa,” I thought to myself. To avoid her fear, I gently told Faye to go back inside where she would be safe, and then headed off to the field.

The storm hit so fast, and in an instant the day turned into night. By the time I entered the cow field the fine sand was whipping(抽打) across my face. I screamed for Papa, hoping my voice would lead him back. The dirt and sand stung my skin like a thousand bees. Although I was terrified, I refused to turn back. My dad was trapped and needed my help.

【推荐1】A university in Nanjing, Jiangsu province，has installed facial recognition systems in classrooms to monitor students' behavior, sparking a heated debate online. China Pharmaceutical University recently installed the systems in two pilot classrooms as well as school gates, dormitory entrances, the library and laboratory buildings.

Xu Jianzhen，director of the university's library and information center, told TbePaper.cn that the systems will help teachers check student attendance and monitor behavior during the lectures. "In the past, some students just checked their attendance and ditched the class or asked other students to check the attendance for them. Now with facial recognition, that would no longer be a problem," be said. "The moment you enter the classroom, the camera will monitor you all the way through and can tell how long you lower your head, whether you're playing with a smart phone, whether you're dozing off or reading other books," he added.

The news has raised wide debate on Chinese social media, with many questioning if the cameras will violate students' privacy. A Sina Weibo user said: "I oppose such methods, and it is not clear whether the systems are developed by the school itself or by third parties. If it is the latter, is there any regulation of security? Where will the information be sent and stored?"

Gan Xiangsi, a senior student from the university, said she welcomed the systems being applied in dormitories and libraries as this can help prevent personal belongings being stolen，but it is not necessary to use such technology in the classroom. "If the teacher teaches well，the students will be interested," she said. "On the contrary, this kind of monitoring will make everyone feel resistant."

China Pharmaceutical University is not the first university to use facial recognition technology on campus. Many universities across the country have installed cameras at campus entrances to ensure safety. But many are also hesitant when it comes to applying such technology in classrooms.

"This issue has been debated for quite a long time," Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, told China National Radio. According to Chu, teachers and students who are under observation might not behave as they normally would since they know they are being watched. "Cameras should not be installed in classrooms merely for effective teaching purposes," Chu said, as teachers are also being observed. He agreed that "students' privacy needs to be protected". He also said that not putting classrooms under control is an important principle. “If you don't follow this principle, students will falsify and disguise their state of listening，and teachers may also not perform as well. Then real teaching will not occur," he added.

【推荐2】For years, I was in the rat race, my sense of wonder lost. Gardening was my antidote (解毒药). It gave me time to stop, listen and absorb all the little details that nature has to offer—nurturing the earth, plants and myself to fight against the aggression and tiredness of everyday working life.

I quit my job and had a vision for my company. I wanted others to find the comfort that my garden gave me. Now, I watch my clients experience their own transformations. A corner that was once an unwelcoming place of weeds is a child's play area; a lonely person has an inspiring, evolving view.

Gardening requires us to be present in the moment, while also imagining the future. You may see a beautiful flower and surprise for a minute at the magic of nature. Some flowers last for a day, others for a season. Some come back year after year. Seasons pass and you become connected to the changes in life in a deeper, more spiritual way. This builds acceptance.

Where there once may have been beauty, there might now be an empty space and a deep sense of sadness... But gardening brings hope—we can create something beautiful again and that space will no longer be bare.

Hope is one of many emotions stirred by gardening. Whether you're growing vegetables to eat, planting tiny seeds or tending flowers, there is always a great sense of satisfaction at the end of a session. How you choose to garden is deeply personal to you—it's about creating something fruitful, alone or with others.

The key is to have a vision, ideas and bright hopes for the future.

【推荐3】One man’s white bread is another man’s green vegetables.

That’s the key from The Personalised Diet, a new book from Israeli authors Eran Segal and Eran Elinav. The authors say it’s time to admit to ourselves that one-size-fits-all diets don’t work, and when it comes to nutrition,it’s about doing what works best for your body, not catching the latest diet fashion.

“For years,we’ve been trying to search for that silver-bullet diet and we’ve been miserably failing,” Segal said. “And that’s because the best diet for each person really has to be tailored to that individual.”

They conducted a personalised nutrition project at Weizmann, where hundreds of volunteers agreed to have their blood sugar tested after meals. One participant in the study, a woman named Ruti, said she was surprised that it was tomatoes -- not ice cream or candies -- that were raising her blood sugar level. Ruti recalled, “I have now significantly reduced my intake of tomato and I’m feeling much more energetic, which still surprises me. I have already lost a couple of pounds, and I have high hopes that I have finally found the answer to my weight struggle, too.”

The Israeli scientists found that some people can consume traditionally unhealthy foods with little or no rise in their blood sugar levels, while others have a stronger response, and therefore shouldn’t eat those foods. It’s those kinds of results that you can only find from a personalised diet.

“What we were surprised to find out was just like any other food, there is no such thing as good bread,” Elinav said. “The response to bread was completely individualised.”

【推荐2】Adolescence is a crucial period when the subject experiences a process of growth, the development of his own personality, and the discovery of himself.

    1    

They are often upset when their children praise the homes of their friends and regard it as a slur on their own cooking, or cleaning, or furniture, and often are foolish enough to let the adolescents see they are annoyed.     2     Such a loss of dignity and descent into childish behaviour on the part of the adults deeply shocks the adolescents, and makes them resolve that in future they will not talk to their parents about anything private.

Disillusionment(幻灭感) with the parents, however good and adequate they may be both as parents and as individuals, is to some degree inevitable. Most children have such a high ideal of their parents, unless the parents themselves have been unsatisfactory,     3     Parents would be greatly surprised and deeply touched if they realized how much belief their children usually have in their character and infallibility(一贯正确), and how much this faith means to a child. If parents were prepared for this adolescent reaction, and realized that it was a sign that     4     , they would not be so hurt, and   therefore would not drive the child into opposition by resenting and resisting it.

Victorian parents believed that they kept their dignity by retreating behind an unreasoning authoritarian(专制的) attitude; in fact they did nothing of the kind, but children were then too cowed to let them know how they really felt while    5     , but on the whole this is a healthier attitude both for the child and the parent. It is always wiser and safer to face up to reality, however painful it may be at the moment.

【推荐3】School leavers are entering the workplace lacking basic skills such as punctuality, manners and the ability to hold conversations, according to employers.

A survey of business leaders found that many believed teenagers struggled to adapt to the most basic entry level jobs because of an inability to perform simple tasks.

According to the study by Barclays(one of the main banks in Britain), more than half of the companies (fifty-five percent) claimed school leavers struggled to manage conversations properly when asked to call customers or suppliers.

More than four-in-ten of those quizzed - forty -three percent - said young people failed to properly understand how long to take for breaks or how often to take them.

The same proportion also warned that teenagers struggled to appreciate when it was inappropriate to use their mobile phone in the workplace.

In total, one -in - five businesses said young people were “not ready” for entry level jobs-low-ranking roles that do not require any previous experience.

The conclusions in a study by Barclays follow a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility this month that said schools needed to place a greater emphasis on the “soft skills” that children require in the work place such as toughness, empathy and self-control.

The report recommended giving all pupils a school leaving certificate - in addition to straight exam grades - to mark out their achievements in extra-curricular activities and work experience placements where children are most likely to hone their non-academic skills.

As part of the Barclays study, researchers interviewed 500 personnel chiefs from small and medium-sized businesses about skill levels displayed by school leavers.

Some eleven percent said young people struggled to dress properly or present themselves in the workplace while nine percent said they had problems writing an email.

Kirstie Mackey, head of Barclays LifeSkills, a programme established to help prepare secondary school children for the workplace, said: “What’s missed in careers education has become ever more noticeable.

“Not only are young people struggling to gain the confidence to carry out tasks, but businesses don’t believe they have the skills for entry level roles. This problem needs to be addressed.