【推荐1】After my husband died, my world crashed around me. I was overwhelmed (淹没) by the responsibilities of earning a living and caring for my six children.

I was fortunate to find a wonderful housekeeper to care for the kids during the week, but from Friday nights to Monday mornings we were alone and frankly I was uneasy about it.

One Friday evening I came home from work to find a big beautiful German shepherd (牧羊犬) on our doorstep. Where did this obviously well-cared-for dog come from? Even though he seemed gentle, he was powerful. The children took an instant liking to “German” and begged me to let him in. I agreed to let him sleep in the basement until the next day. That night I slept peacefully for the first time in many weeks.

The following morning, we tried to find German’s owner with no results. German, meanwhile, made himself part of the family, wrestling (摔跤) with the kids and playing in the yard. Saturday night he was still with us.

On Sunday I had planned to take the children to the park. I left German behind in case his owner came by. When we stopped at a gas station, we were amazed to see him running after us. No way was he going to be left behind. So he jumped into the car and settled down in the back. He stayed again Sunday night.

Monday morning, I let him out for a run while the children got ready for school. He didn’t come back. We thought we’d never see him again. We were wrong. On Friday evening, German was back again. We took him in, and again he stayed until Monday morning, when our housekeeper arrived.

It went like this for almost 10 months. We grew to love German and look forward to his coming. When we saw him come to attention and perk up (竖起) his ears, and heard that low growl (咆哮) begin deep in his throat, we knew we were protected.

Each week, between German’s visits, I grew a little braver on my own, but every weekend I enjoyed his company. Then one Monday morning we patted his head and let him out for what turned out to be the last time. He never came back.

I still think of him often. He came when I needed him the most and stayed until I was strong enough to go on alone. I’ll never forget him.

【推荐3】For the first time in about 100 years, a rare bird called the takahē is walking freely along the Lake Whakatipu Waimaori Valley in New Zealand after 18 captive birds were released into the wild. The area is also home to a Maori tribe called Ngai Tahu, which has spent years campaigning for the birds to return to their land. The Maori are New Zealand’s Indigenous people (first people known to live there), and they consider the takahē bird to be “taonga”, meaning a treasure.

Takahē are large, round, flightless birds with red legs, and they have lived in New Zealand since prehistoric times. Like many New Zealand birds, takahē evolved to be flightless because there were no mammals to compete with. When Europeans arrived in New Zealand, however, predators such as cats and ferrets were introduced and killed off many flightless birds. Takahē were declared extinct in 1898, but a small number of the birds were discovered in 1948 in a remote part of the Murchison Mountains.

Since then, conservationists have been trying to restore the takahē population in captivity. They gathered the bird’s eggs in order to keep the chicks safe from predators. The chicks were raised by volunteers, who fed them while wearing sockpuppets on their hands to imitate the parent birds. There are now about 500 takahē birds in captivity. Several pairs of adult birds have been released into the island’s sanctuaries and national parks. Experts will monitor them to see how they adapt to their new environment. If everything goes well, they hope to release seven more birds this month and 10 young birds next year.

Ta Tipene O’Regan, an elder of the Ngai Tahu tribe, helped to release the birds. He told The Guardian newspaper, ”There are few things more beautiful than to watch these large birds running back into lands where they haven’t walked for over a century. ”O’Regan said, “It’s an absolute joy. ”

【推荐1】From skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac, TikTok users got creative in a pandemic (流行病) year with new songs, dances and shows in 60 seconds or less.

The social media video app on Wednesday shared its list of top 100 videos, creators and trends in America during 2020. “These videos brought joy and inspiration to millions of Americans in the rough year,” said Kudzi Chikumbu, director of creator community at TikTok.

The platform has been widely associated with Generation Z (people born after 1996), millennials (people born in the 1980s or 1990s) and influencers who have started careers based on the shared videos.

The Weeknd's Blinding Lights and Jason Derulo's Savage Love inspired TikTok dance challenges that made them among the top songs used on the app.

For some TikTok creators, the pandemic itself became inspiration to create a connection with other users. Comedian Caitlin Reilly used the app during quarantine (隔离) to make fun of those annoying coworkers for one of the top liked videos. And singer Curtis Roach made an song for the endless days at home with his song Bored in the House.

The second most popular video was an Idaho man named Nathan Apodaca who shot to fame after coolly singing Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, while skateboarding on a highway.

But the most liked TikTok video was awarded to Bella Poarch with 45 million followers, who created a simple but interesting video with a few seconds of well-timed head nods and eye rolls.

While the app might be designed for youth, Chikumbu said that the growth of TikTok this year has pushed it more into mainstream culture. “You're seeing everyone from the teenager to the college students with their parents and then their grandparents all making videos,” said Chikumbu. “And now TikTok truly transcends generations, particularly in this year when people had a lot of time to dig in and not only watch, but try.”