【推荐1】Plastic-Eating Worms

Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场)，and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. qSo far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass--apparently broken down by enzymes(酶)from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food-beeswax--also allows them to break down plastic "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, "she explains. "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. "

Jennifer Debruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process-not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”

【推荐2】Making other people feel good feels good, and, best of all, it requires little more than a generous heart. Studies show that people feel happier when they do something kind for another person, and both recipients and good deed-doers can get the benefits. It can't be smarter idea to create this World Kindness Day.    1    

Learn a friend's language. You care and take an interest in their experiences. Making someone feel included and respected will feel a greater sense of belonging, an essential component of happiness.

    2    . Reaching out to someone for the first time in a long time can be an instant remedy(治 疗) for whatever trouble you. It's as simple as a text, a note or a Face Time call. Let someone know you're thinking of them, even after some time apart. Studies suggest strong bonds can improve physical health, too.

Genuinely compliment(赞扬) someone. A respectful comment that comes from the heart about someone's unique hair style, excellent performance in a conceit or their great solution to a problem at work might be all it takes to improve someone's mood.     3    

Collect trash you see around your neighborhood. Picking up trash and recyclables off the street beautifies your community and benefits the environment.     4     The environment can't clean itself, after all!

Thank the people in your life.They are the security guard outside of your workplace, the supermarket worker you see every day, your mom.     5     Thank people for the things, big and small, that they do that improve your life. Gratitude is priceless.

【推荐3】Ever wonder where chocolate chip cookies came from?Or why we use waffles（华夫饼）as ice cream cones?

Mistakes that Worked,written by Charlotte Foltz Jones,award-winning author of non-fiction books for children, offers forty of these unusual tales,along with many interesting drawings and strange and amazing facts.

The book is divided into six parts: food,medicine,toys,accidental things,names,and I find the book great because if not for the book,I would never have known that something was actually accidentally created.Besides,I like to learn real information;I can't stand books with stories that aren't real.Although this is a non-fiction book and is about inventions,it is not a history of technology book;it's more of an easy reading book.This book would be attractive to both boys and girls,and it could actually be either an adult book or a children’s book.

Published in 1991,the book is a bit old and is showing its age now in 2016.Still,it contains lots of great information,even though some facts are not exact.I love the idea of a mistakes book,and I especially like the format, which allows readers to dip in and out of the book easily.However,the entries are not all equally strong. Additionally, if you don’t live in the US,the book makes little sense,since it is full of American references both historically and in terms of customs.

Anyway,Mistakes that Worked is a reminder that failure is not always the end.It is an enlightening book that encourages us to realize that taking risks and learning to experiment is often the best way to learn,even if we don’t end up creating something new and wonderful.

【推荐1】A substitute teacher crunch has forced Chicago area school districts to raise sub pay, to use parents as subs and even to seek out teachers from moonlighting police and fire department ranks. The crunch also means good subs are getting harder to find, some say. “It’s not only a quantity problem but a quality problem,” said Barbara Radner, director of DePaul University’s Center for Urban Education, which serves as expert partner to 31 academically troubled Chicago public schools. “We’re getting to the bottom of the talent pool and it’s empty,” she said. And a bad sub, Radner explained, can move a class backward by confusing students.

Radner said Chicago’s sub shortage is at “crisis” levels and the worst she’s seen in 15 years, although city school officials say West Side schools seem to be affected the most. Using the Chicago system’s substitute teacher center is like engaging in “Russian roulette”, Radner said. “Every sixth sub you get could be a total blowup.” Increasingly, she said, principals in schools she works with say they can’t get subs, or the subs they get leave midday because they can’t handle the job. Chicago school officials are recruiting police officers and firefighters to sub in high-crime areas that some subs refuse to enter. A sub recruitment push is also planned on college campuses - among graduate and doctoral students who may find the part-time work attractive, Schools Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas said.

Teachers often leave detailed lesson plans for subs if they know in advance they will be off, and keep “emergency plans” on file for unexpected absences, such as an illness. But Radner said emergency plans can amount to “a recipe for baby-sitter.” Carolyn Martin said her daughter’s last sub at Bolingbrook’s Tibbott Elementary in Valley View District 365 was so unpleasant that she may demand to sit in the classroom next time there’s a problem sub. “The last time they had a sub, the substitute teacher had to call the principal into the room,” Martin said, “This is a third-grade classroom, and the lady couldn’t even handle it”.

Demand for subs is high because of several factors, school officials say. For starters, those who hold sub certificate may not be using them because they have found better-paying jobs in today’s booming economy. Six or seven years age, Schaumburg District 54 Associate Supt. Kenneth Cull said, “I used to have 30 real estate agents sign up for sub work because they had college degrees and business was slow. I don’t have that anymore.” Sub pools have been further consumed by several waves of early teacher retirements and increased student enrollments — both of which have meant more subs are being hired as full-time teachers.

【推荐2】If you could design your own school and study whatever you wanted, what would you choose to learn?

This isn’t an unlikely question for students at Monument Mountain Regional High School, who are taking part in an activity called the Independent Project. The program is a special school within the Massachusetts public high school that’s completely run by students—no teachers, parents, or adults are allowed—and they’re in charge of deciding their whole curriculum (课程).

These teens’ homework and what they study in the classroom are all totally up to them. Charles Tsai, a journalist, made a 15-minute film about the project that shows the wide variety of activities different students join.

Students aren’t taking this lightly—instead of reacting irresponsibly to the freedom to design their own studies, they’re dealing with their own interests by writing poetry collections, learning instruments and taking flight lessons.

The program is this: On Mondays students come up with questions in relation to one of their school subjects, then they spend the rest of the week researching and coming up with possible conclusions to these questions. On Fridays, they present this information to their classmates.

“I think the more choices we have in our school, the more students we will help develop into the kind of citizens that we need,” Principal (校长) Marianne Young explains in the film.

In the video, teens express their satisfaction with the program because it holds different kinds of learners, even those who don’t always succeed in a traditional study situation.

“I have difficulty in reading and writing. School has always been a big problem for me,” one student named Sergio explains in the video. “If it were not for this program, I don’t know if I’d be graduating—I don’t know where I’d be right now. I think this has really been my savior (救星) and got me through the last two years of high school.”