【推荐1】1970 was World Conservation Year. The United Nations wanted every one to know that the world is in danger. They hoped the governments would act quickly in order to “conserve” nature. Here is one example of the problem. At one time there were 1,300 different plants, trees and flowers in Holland, but now only 866 remain. The others have been destroyed by modern man and his technology. We are changing the earth, the air and water, and everything that grows and lives. We can’t live without these things. If we continue like this, we shall destroy ourselves.

What will happen in the future? Perhaps it is more important to ask “What must we do now?” The people who will be living in the world of tomorrow are the young of today. A lot of them know that con­servation is necessary. Many are helping to save our world. They plant trees, build bridges across rivers in forests, and so on. In a small town in the United States a large group of girls cleaned the banks of 11 kilometers of their river. Young people may hear about conservation through something called “No one’s going to change our world”, which was made by the Beatles, Cliff Richard and other singers. The money from it will help to conserve wild animals.

【推荐2】Addy Barrett, an 11-year-old girl from Maryland, the US, is a regular visitor to the zoo, and never gets tired of watching gorillas (大猩猩). “I really fell in love with these smart animals after reading a book about them,” Addy said. “I also learned they were being killed for unnecessary reasons. And I knew I needed to do something.”

Addy is now working to save her favorite animals. She has sold T-shirts and home-made cookies to raise money, and she hosts a party about the gorilla yearly.

Addy asked Meredith Bastian, a zookeeper, about the challenges that wild gorillas are facing and that many people ignore. Bastian said it’s because of habitat loss, climate change and the spread of disease. But there is also the problem of mining. “Some mines in Congo, Africa destroy gorillas’ habitats and make their living conditions worse,” Bastian told Addy.

Addy decided to start the Gorilla Heroes project. She has held fundraisers (筹款活动) hoping to start a conversation on the risks to gorillas. The animals, which are native to Central Africa, are endangered. There are fewer than 900 mountain gorillas and about 100,000 western lowland gorillas in the world. So far, Gorilla Heroes has raised more than $11,000. Addy was recently named a winner of the 2019 Gloria Barton Prize for Young Heroes for her work.

Addy hopes to get close to a gorilla in the wild, but she can’t because she is too young. So for now Addy is sticking to raising money for gorillas.

【推荐3】British sculptor Jason Taylor has made it his mission to use his talent to conserve our ecosystems by creating underwater museums. Over the years, the environmentalist has put over 850 massive artworks underwater worldwide. On February 1, 2021, Taylor launched his latest work — The Underwater Museum of Cannes.

―The main goal was to bring attention to the fact that our oceans need our help,‖ Taylor told Dezeen. ―Ocean ecology has been destroyed by human activity in the Mediterranean over the past few decades, and it is not obvious what is taking place when observing the sea from afar.‖

The Underwater Museum of Cannes contains 6 sculptures featuring local residents of various ages. They range from Maurice, an 80-year-old fisherman, to Anouk, a 9-year-old student. Towering over 6-feet-tall and weighing 10 tons, the faces are sectioned into two parts, with the outer part like a mask. The mask indicates that the world’s oceans appear powerful and unbeatable from the surface but house an ecosystem that is extremely fragile to careless human activities.

Though the waters surrounding the sculptures now appear a pristine blue, the seabed was filled with old boat engines, pipes, and other human-made trash when the project began about four years ago. Besides removing the trash, Taylor also restored the area’s sea grass. Just one square meter of the sea grass can generate up to 10 liters   of oxygen daily. The sea grass also helps prevent coastal erosion and provides habitats for many ocean creatures.

―The idea of creating an underwater museum was to draw more people underwater and develop a sense of care and protection,‖ Taylor told Dezeen. ―If we threw unwanted waste near a forest, there would be a public outcry. But this is happening every day in our surrounding waters and it largely goes unnoticed.

【推荐1】Twain was born in a small town, which happened to be called A City but anyway, he also lived in a small town. He probably died in a small town, and that's probably where they buried him. As a boy, Mark watched the ships on the Mrs. Ippy River, and dreamed of one day being the captain of a ship. Mark was an outgoing, fun-loving boy, and often got into trouble. In school, he was the class clown. His teachers often had trouble getting him to pay attention so eventually he was expelled(开除). Finding nothing but farm work at home, Mark decided to head west as part of the California Golden Grahams Rush.

In California, Twain attempted to make his fortune in the Golden Grahams field.Then he determined that writers, and especially newspaper writers, don't have to work very hard. Unfortunately, Mark never got rich by writing in California, because most of the miners were illiterate. A keen observer of life, Twain used his observations to write humorous stories.

【推荐2】“Well, I made it,” says Greg Daniels with a smile.

Recently there have been news reports and television shows reporting on the quality of school lunches. According to federal guidelines, French fries count as a serving of vegetables. Many parents and others are upset that a salty, deep-fired food is replacing healthier options like carrot sticks. As a result, the potato — what French fries are made of — has been getting a bad rap.

“The problem is not the potato,” insists Greg. “Potatoes are very healthy. But any food, even carrots or lettuce (生菜), will be less healthy if it’s cooked in grease(油脂).”

Two months ago, Greg decided to eat nothing but potatoes for 60 days. As a high school science teacher and son of a potato farmer, he wanted to do something to draw attention to potatoes as a healthy food and a good choice as part of anyone’s regular meals.

“It’s been an interesting experience,” Greg said. “For a while, I wasn’t sure I would make it. I was pretty tired of eating potatoes after a few weeks.”

But for Greg there were some benefits that he hadn’t expected. He’s lost 15 pounds and he feels better than he has in years. “I have so much more energy,” he says. “I’ve been running and playing on a local basketball team, and I feel like I’m playing as well as I did when I was in high school.”

And Greg has gotten a lot of attention, much more than he expected. “It’s been fantastic. Thousands of people have read my blog. I’ve been sharing recipes and talking about the experience. Every day I get to tell people what a great idea it is to eat potatoes.”

Greg is glad to be back to a normal diet, but he still eats potatoes at least 5 or 6 times a week. “Everyone should!” he says with a smile. “Potatoes are healthy and taste great!”

【推荐3】My family and I belonged to a country club located across the street from the Long Island Sound. Each summer, the big attraction for us was the pool. I learned how to swim and joined the swimming team but was never really a good swimmer. However, swimming in my younger days was a way to keep cool, and swimming on a team gave me identity and a sense of belonging. It also became invaluable many years later.

Fast-forward (快进) to 1973 — I was married, pregnant and had a home. What made our little home even more wonderful was when I discovered that four blocks away was Rath Park Pool! For the next 30 years, most of our summer days were spent around that pool.

Each of my five kids took swimming lessons and learned all the different swimming strokes     (姿势). They later joined the swim team and competed in meets. My daughter even became a lifeguard at the town pool. I sat back and happily took it all in!

As much as I would have liked to have life stand still, it doesn’t. My children outgrew their pool days and moved on. But the pool was still four blocks from my home, so I began to take up swimming again. And it was far better than I ever could have imagined. I got so much out of it that I joined the local pool so I could swim year-round. Whenever I swam, I would always come out feeling physically and mentally refreshed. I often felt that if I looked hard enough, I would be able to see all of the worries and problems I’ve had in life, sitting at the bottom of the pool!

What has swimming taught me? I’ve learned that balance is the key to being a good swimmer. If you are balanced in the water, you have no resistance. Working on staying balanced made me realize the similarities between life in and out of the swim lane (泳道). If you work on keeping yourself balanced, you will be able to swim right through the stress and problems life throws at you!

【推荐1】A couple of years ago, I learned this lesson. That day, I took a taxi to Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.     1    

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, got out of his car and started yelling bad words at us.     2     And I mean he was friendly. So, I said, “Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital! That was when my taxi driver told me what I now call: the law of the garbage truck.

    3     They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and if you let them, they’ll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump their problems on you, don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.     4    

I started thinking: how often do I let garbage trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people?     5    

What about you? What will happen in your life if you let more garbage trucks pass you by? Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.

【推荐2】Before you throw your trash into the nearest can, think for a moment. Not all your garbage can be dumped into one trashcan. It needs to be sorted out with different things going into different bins. Waste classification, a practice that has long been normal in developed countries like Japan, is the new challenge for many Chinese urban residents. However, though initially you might need to rack your brains to figure out which trash goes into which can, in the long run, the result is well worth the effort.

Landfills, sites where waste is buried and covered over with soil, are a major method of disposing of residential waste in China. However, considering the environmental disaster associated with burying waste, there is a pressing need to reduce the amount of waste that goes into a landfill. Classification, sorting waste into different categories such as harmful waste, recyclables and kitchen waste, is a key solution.

Currently, 46 cities across China, are carrying out a program that aims to put in place a classification-based garbage disposal system by the end of 2020. It is hoped that this will reduce the quantity of waste that ends up in landfills by a large degree. Shanghai came into the media focus in early July after it carried out compulsory garbage sorting rules that those who fail to dispose of garbage properly should be fined. Beijing is reviewing its regulations to follow in Shanghai’s footsteps. The new rules may cause short-term inconvenience but they are meant to help residents follow the concept of garbage classification for the common good.

As the programs show, residents can gradually develop this habit with their growing consciousness and the help of advanced technology. In future, this practice should be adopted across China, in urban cities and rural areas alike. With public involvement, China’s garbage sorting program will contribute not only to the nation’s sustainable (可持续的) development but also to making the planet a better place to live in.