【推荐2】Guide to “Clean & Green” Home Recycling

Welcome to the “Clean & Green” home recycling initiative (倡议)! Our goal is to assist households in reducing their environmental footprint by providing step-by-step instructions on effective recycling practices.

Every city has its own recycling standards, but the followings are generally universal:

Plastics: These include bottles, containers, and other packaging materials. Always clean plastics before recycling to avoid pollution.

Paper: Newspapers, magazines, and cardboard are recyclable. However, soiled or wet paper should be discarded as regular waste.

Glass: Bottles and jars of all colors can be recycled. Ensure they are free of food waste.

Metals: Common recyclables are aluminum cans and tin foil (锡纸). Remove any food waste before disposal (处理).

Collection: Use separate bins for each type. Mark containers to avoid confusion (迷惑).

Preparation: As mentioned above, clean the items. This prevents waste and increases the recyclability of the materials.

Storage: Avoid overfilling recycling bins. Overpacked bins might lead to improper sorting at recycling facilities.

Drop-Off: If your city doesn’t offer roadside pickup, locate your nearest recycling drop-off point.

Stay Informed: Recycling guidelines can change. Regularly check city websites for “Clean & Green” updates.

DO encourage neighbors and friends to adopt recycling habits.

DON’T mix different types in one bin.

DO invest in composting if possible; it’s another great way to reduce waste.

DON’T recycle dangerous or electronic waste with regular recyclables. Ask your city for proper disposal methods.

Reduces landfill (垃圾填埋) waste.

Conserves natural resources and energy.

Prevents pollution by reducing the need for raw materials (原材料).

Supports public health by minimizing exposure to harmful things.

Join the “Clean & Green” initiative today and play your part in creating a bright future for the next generations!

【推荐1】For late 19th-century North Americans and Europeans, a display of tableware (餐具)could reveal much about someone’s social position, as the wealthy took great care to get different kinds of forks for everything. Before the 18th century, people of all classes usually ate with a knife and a spoon.

The fork’s path to the table was hard-won and slow. In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, forks were used for slicing food into pieces or lifting meat from a pot or fire.

Following a reduction in size, the fork appeared to have entered dining areas in the courts of the Middle East and Byzantine Empire by the eighth and ninth centuries, and became common among wealthy families there by the tenth century. Early in the 11th century, it appeared in various pieces of European art. In the late 11th century, St.Peter Damian from Ostia wrote about a Byzantine princess who used forks and regarded her dying of a disease as punishment for such “luxury”.

The fork’s slow conquest of Europe was carried out from Italy. Motivated by the same concerns for hygiene(卫生)，forks were bought by wealthy Britons，inspired by Queen Victoria, who regarded fork use as a sign of good manners.

The fork’s introduction to North America dates back to 1633, when John Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was gifted a set of forks. The Industrial Revolution strengthened the fork’s presence on dining room tables as production of flatware became less expensive. Writing in 1896 inSocial Eriquere，Maud C. Cooke declared the fork had finally conquered the knife in America and “any attempt to give the knife importance at table is looked upon as an offense(冒犯)against good taste.”

【推荐2】Hand gestures (手势) have been commonly used in our daily communication. They add to the message by filling in what words sometimes leave behind. But are you somewhat aware of the history that goes behind some of these popular hand gestures?

◆Handshake

Whether you’re greeting someone for the first time, or successfully negotiating (商定) an agreement, shaking hands is usually the go-to gesture. Who decided on this customary gesture, anyway? The history of the handshake dates back to ancient Greece, showing that neither person was carrying a weapon.

◆Thumbs up and thumbs down

Maybe you’re familiar with the popular story of this hand gesture dating back to Roman times. When a gladiator (角斗士) lost, the crowd would either stick their thumbs out to have him killed or just not make any sign at all. The thumbs up decided the gladiator’s fate (命运) . After WWII, thumbs up only came to mean that things were going smoothly. And thumbs down meant the opposite.

◆High five

According to some sources, the high five first became popular when baseball players performed at Dodger Stadium on October 2, 1977. Glenn Burke, one of the capable players, lifted his am high above his head and slapped palms with his teammate Dusty Baker to celebrate a milestone home run, marking what is widely regarded as the first recorded example of a high five.

◆The fist bump

The fist bump comes from boxers in the 1970s after people began imitating how they touched gloves before a competition. Later, instead of shaking hands, first bumps became popular among basketball players. The gesture soon spread to all basketball lovers, and, before long, to the President of the United States.

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【推荐3】Hunger is a very real problem around the globe. This year, almost 7 million people have died of hunger already. Why do people still die of hunger when there’s more than enough food in the world?

Well, considering that there are places in the world where basic needs like housing and clean, drinkable water are not met, then it doesn’t come as a surprise that food is just not accessible to them. The food exists-it just doesn’t get to where it needs to be.

Nigerian farmer Samson Ogbole decided to go ahead and cultivate (培育) fruit and vegeta-bles in a different way. Ogbole’s farming process centres around two concepts: soilless farming and aeroponics (气雾栽培). To put it simply-he’s growing food in the air.

As Ogbole explained during a TED talk, aeroponics is the future of agriculture because it offers many benefits. For example, it is cheaper than traditional farming because there is no need to hire as many workers since everything is done with a “click”. Also, this kind of farming is more environmentally friendly since farmers don’t use pesticides. At the same time, there are no space limitations-planting in the air means you can plant as many layers as you like. The sky is the limit literally!

So, the young farmer has been practicing aeroponics for more than five years with impressive results. His work was recently praised on social media this summer when he was featured in a network post. In the post, Ogbole’s farming method was mentioned, and Internet users had the chance to see pictures of the farmer’ s produce.

Many viewers think southern Nigeria needs this method to grow crops. This will help in bringing down the price and avoiding future food blockades from the north. It seems that people are already realizing that this method will change the way people grow food. And, most importantly, it will help solve some of the issues related to hunger around the world.