【推荐2】At 11:50, the bell rings. We students rush to the canteen at an amazing speed to enjoy our lunch. Have we ever stopped to see what happens after the meal?    1    . Sadly, this is not a common sight. We will find, instead, a mountain of leftovers in the waste bins.    2    .

This irresponsible food waste deed can never be tolerated. It reflects poorly on our hygiene practice (食品良好卫生规范).    3    .

Let’s learn from a Michelin-star chef who says that he will always respect the fish he cooks. Why?     4     .He can fully understand the dangers which the fisherman constantly faces in order to supply the fish to him. Therefore, by not wasting any part of the fish, and by cooking excellently every time, the chef is appreciating the fisherman’s efforts.

    5    . Just think of the poor and homeless who have not eaten for days due to a war or a natural disaster that may have wiped out homes and families. Think: “wouldn’t it be good if we shared our food instead of throwing away what we can’t finish?”

Let’s respect our food and share the joy of living well through giving food to those in need.

【推荐3】Maple syrup (枫糖浆) is a sweetener from maple tree sap (树汁). Many people use it in baking in place of sugar or other sweeteners, some use it in tea instead of honey and it is frequently used as a topping for pancakes, waffles, and other breakfast foods. Since true maple syrup is rather expensive, a wide range of false maple syrup exist.

This sweetener originated in the northeast region of North America, and it is in this region that most of the world’s maple syrup is still produced. Vermont, New Hampshire Maine, and the eastern portion of Canada are all known for their fine syrup, each with slightly different flavor qualities.

This sweetener is produced by tapping maple trees to release and collect their sap. A tree's sap is the liquid that, much like blood in animals, carries water and food to different parts of the tree to keep it nourished. A mature maple produces about ten gallons of sap in a given season, after which the tree will wall off the channel that has been tapped, so that a new tap has to be drilled the next season. Maples are not tapped for syrup until they are at least 40 years old and have reached a certain size, to ensure that no harm comes to the tree through the tapping process .

An immense amount of sap is required to produce maple syrup because the watery sap must be reduced to achieve the proper thickness and taste. Although the exact amount depends on the sweetness of the sap, in general it takes about 40 times as much maple sap to produce a portion of syrup. This may be further reduced to create thicker delicacies, such as maple butter, maple cream , and maple sugar.

In the Us, there are grade A and Grade B syrups, with three sub-divisions of Grade A: light amber, medium amber, and dark amber. Grade B is even darker than Grade A dark amber. Many people assume that the grading system is also indicative of quality, but in reality, it only helps to differentiate the color and taste of the syrup, which is a matter of personal preference. The tastes are different, but to say one is objectively “better” than another would be incorrect.

【推荐2】Blue Planet II’s latest episode focuses on how plastic is having a disastrous effect on the ocean and slowly poisoning our sea creatures. Researchers recently also found that sea creatures living in the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, have plastic in their stomachs. Indeed, the oceans are drowning in plastic.

Though it seems now that the world couldn’t possibly function without plastics, consumer plastics are a remarkably recent invention. The first plastic bags were introduced in the 1950s; the same decade that plastic packaging began gaining in popularity in the United States. This growth has happened so fast that science is still catching up with the change. Plastics pollution research, for instance, is still a very early science.

We put all these plastics into the environment and we still don’t really know what the outcomes are going to be. What we do know, though, is disturbing. Ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine animals every year. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. One in three leatherback turtles, which often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, have been found with plastic in their bellies. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating plastics on a regular basis. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.

And it’s not just wildlife that is threatened by the plastics in our seas. Humans are consuming plastics through the seafood we eat. I could understand why some people see ocean plastic as a disaster, worth mentioning to the same degree as climate change. But ocean plastic is not as complicated as climate change. There are no ocean trash deniers (否认者), at least so far. To do something about it, we don’t have to remake our planet energy system.

This is not a problem where we don’t know what the solution is. We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it. We know how to dispose (处理) of it. We know how to recycle. We can all start by thinking twice before we use single — use plastic products. Things that may seem ordinary, like using a reusable bottle or a reusable bag — when taken collectively, these choices really do make a difference.

【推荐3】Some of the world’s best Coffea arabica is grown on Mount Kenya. This variety of the plant produces beans that are tastier than those from its poor cousin, Coffea canephora (known as robusta), which often ends up in instant coffee (速溶咖啡). However, global warming may reduce the total area that is most suited to growing arabica beans by about half by 2050.

Some farmers are trying to adapt to warming by moving uphill. Yet this pushes them into areas long used for growing tea. Not only is there less space higher up; the move stresses how warming also threatens to harm the tea crop, which supports about 10% of Kenya’s population. Warmer weather will push tea itself higher up area.

Kenya’s government-funded Coffee Research Institute is trying to find other ways of helping farmers adapt, such as encouraging them to plant trees to shade their coffee bushes, or to grow hardier (适应性更强) robusta plants. It is also trying to plant a hybrid, Arabusta, which would combine the hardiness of robusta with the flavour of arabica. Coffee snobs may turn up their noses at it, but they may have no other choices.

However, such adaptations may bring social costs. Many smallholder farmers are at risk of being pushed out of the industry altogether because they cannot afford the money needed to protect their crops.

Another option may be entirely new varieties. Researchers in London are studying a wild type of coffee, Coffea stenophylla. It is delicious and can also take the heat. But it produces lower harvest than existing varieties and it may be years before it is widely grown. Without a breakthrough of some sort, caffeine addicts may face a future too unpleasant to imagine. “If we don’t have the innovation (创新) to respond to climate challenges,” Vern Long of World Coffee Research says, “we’re just going to be drinking man-made coffee.”