【推荐1】Rainforests, it turns out, are not created equal. Take the Amazon rainforest, an area that covers about 7 million square kilometers. But within that huge expanse are all kinds of ecological zones, and some of these zones, says Greg Asner, are a lot more crowded than others.

“Some forests have many species of trees,” he said, “others have few. Many forests are unique from others in terms of their overall species composition…” And all of these different small areas of forest exist within the giant space that is the Amazon Rainforest.

So Asner, using the signature technique called airborne laser-guided imaging spectroscopy, began to map these different zones from the air. “By mapping the traits of tropical forests from above,” he explains, “we are, for the first time, able to understand how forest composition varies geographically.”

The results show up in multicolored maps, with each color representing different kinds of species, different kinds of trees, the different kinds of chemical they are producing and using, and even the amount of biodiversity, the animal and plant species that live within each zone.

Armed with this information, Asner says decision-makers now have “a first-time way to decide whether any given forest geography is protected well enough or not. If not, then new protections can be put in place to save a given forest from destruction.”

Asner says the information is a great way for decision-makers to develop a “cost-benefit ratio type analysis.”   Conservation efforts can be expensive, so armed with this information, government leaders can ensure they are making the most of their conservation dollars by focusing on areas that are the most biologically diverse or unique.

The next step, Asner says, is to take his project global, and to put his eyes even higher in the sky, on orbital satellites. “The technique we developed and applied to map Peru is ready to go global.” Asner said. “We want to put the required instrumentation on an Earth-orbiting satellite, to map the planet every month, which will give the best possible view of how the world’s biodiversity is changing, and where to put much needed protections.

【推荐2】China is betting on its successful hybrid rice varieties to fight food shortage in Africa.

“We’re no longer suffering from hunger,” 55-year-old Georges Ranaivomanana, a Madagascan farmer who took the lead in planting Chinese hybrid rice in his town of Mahitsy. Georges told Xinhua that he hoped that all Madagascan farmers would use the seeds to raise their living standards.

China has been helping African countries develop productive rice farming for years with its hybrid rice. For farmers on the continent like Ranaivomanana, they are “very grateful” to the Chinese as the hybrid rice is the key to better food security and higher incomes.

In May, the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Centre opened a research centre in Madagascar to select hybrid rice varieties based on the island nation’s diverse ecological environment, in an effort to find more productive crops for a continent long troubled by insufficient grain output.

In the northwestern Nigerian state of Kebbi, Chinese expert Wang Xuemin stood in a rice field, surrounded by green rice plants. “This year, we are using a new technology,” he said, adding that “it can significantly reduce labor and other costs. “The land, climate and rice farming methods in Nigeria are very different from those in China. We had a lot of problems at the beginning,” said the 51-year-old who has been in Nigeria for 16 years.

In 2006, after Wang and his colleagues had sown the seeds, their field management techniques and large-scale farming equipment could not adapt to the operating environment, and hundreds of hectares of rice fields were almost completely taken over by weeds. “We came to realize that blindly copying the Chinese model is not feasible (可行的). It is necessary to constantly innovate our techniques to fit the local situation in Africa,” he said.

After more than ten years of research and innovation, the Nigerian farm now becomes a major training and mechanized production centre in the country, training more than 1,000 farmers and agricultural machinery management staff.

【推荐2】Is there a single word that motivates us more than “weekend”? It’s like the promise of a sweet future following what seems like a lifetime of hard work. It’s the spring our step that gets more energetic with each passing day until by Friday, we’re practically bumping our heads against the ceiling.

The trouble is that the weekend is a rip-off. You think you’re getting 48 hours of unconditional rest, but reality takes a discount. In fact, it takes most of Sunday. That’s when anxiety comes creeping（溜）in and another countdown begins: 12 hours until Monday. Sure, weekend is free time. But the mounting stress of an incoming Monday can erase any joy you might get from a Sunday evening.

That feeling is so common among the Monday-to-Friday crowd. There’s even more than one name for it: the Sunday Scary, or Sunday Fear Syndrome. Going from a countdown to the weekend to a countdown to Monday can be difficult. Even Monster.com, a website which specializes in connecting humans to the Monday-to-Friday cycle, admits it’s a problem. In a survey, Monster found that 76% of Americans have really bad Sunday night blues. For most people, Sunday is no holiday at all. It may all come down to the same problem. We can’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Even worse, we may develop some unhealthy coping strategies for that transition from weekends to Monday. Some might resist- staying up late, making use of every minute of a fleeting（短暂的）Sunday.

But why should Monday cast such a long and fearful shadow on our lives? Maybe it’s because the counter is reset, and the weekend, or happiness, seems at its furthest point. Like most of us, you have a tolerable（可容忍的）job, but don’ t much like the whole idea of working. There are plenty of ways to make Mondays a little less stressful. Most importantly, don’t leave any unsettled Friday business hanging over the weekend. So, clear the decks and tie up loose ends. Learn to seize the week rather than just the weekend.

【推荐1】Feel nervous on the first day of school? You are not alone! Here is some advice on how to make you feel comfortable.

Get ready the night before. Plan out what you’re going to wear and what you will need for class. Then get a nice, long sleep. There’s nothing worse than looking terrible on the first day of school. If you don’t want to oversleep, set an alarm on your phone, or alarm clock to wake you up on time.

Eat a good breakfast. You’d be surprised at how much happier and more focused you’ll be after eating a good breakfast. Have a healthy breakfast.A rich breakfast may make you feel lazy and sugar rich foods may affect your ability to stay focused.

Decide whether to take the bus, walk, or have a ride from your parents. It’s your call. If you want something familiar, take a bus ride and sit next to someone you already know. However, if you are really nervous, you can ask your mom or dad to drive you to school, but expect that there will be heavy traffic.

Smile and be friendly! You want to seem easy to get along with and that you had the best summer. Smile and be friendly. Instead of coming up as a boring person, compliment people. Everyone needs a little confidence and is happy when praised on the first day of school.

【推荐3】Developing healthy eating habits starts from childhood, therefore it is important for parents to teach and provide children with a healthy diet. DPHSS administrator of the Bureau of Nutrition Services, Charlie Morris told KUAM News, “A healthy diet for a child consists of a lot of fruits and vegetables in the diet limiting the amount of simple sugars in the diet and high fat food and highly processed food.”

This means staying away as much as possible from food such as chips, cookies, candies and sugary drinks, as all children need to have meals which involve a well-balanced diet. Community nutritionist Thelma Romoso said, “The fruit, the vegetable, the grain, the protein, and also the milk, the diary product, so for the fruits it’s easy for a mother to go into the two plus three concept of fruits and vegetables or five a day.”

This concept means that there are at least two servings of fruits a day, three servings of vegetables a day which can be served for lunch and dinner. As for protein parents can make a variety of dishes from chicken, beef, fish or even dried beans to pledge the child gets three servings a day.

Morris said that the child’s hunger level controls how much is eaten and the parent controls what and when the meal is offered, saying, “Mom needs to ensure that the food offered is good food for the child to eat and throughout the day depending on how active they are, snacks are not a bad thing, so the mom should offer good kinds of snacks.”

When it comes to preparing your child’s lunch and snacks for school, make sure to keep in mind that the food you provide should not only be a source of energy but also be nutritionally beneficial such as fresh fruits, and whole grain bread. But parents must be sure to remember that a good nutritional diet must be balanced with physical activity, namely it is important that children get outside and run around and play and get activity in addition to eating a good diet.