【推荐1】In China, calligraphy occupies a distinguished position in the field of traditional art. It has always been more than simply a tool for communication, but also a means of expressing a person's inner world in an aesthetic sense.

Chinese calligraphy has endured for more than 2,000 years. Inscribed on animal bones, the oracle bone script is the earliest known writing form of Chinese characters. Following the changes of dynasties, it evolved into five main ways of writing, each with different techniques. With the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty, the Prime Minister Li Si(?—208 BC)actively promoted a uniform pattern of writing—the seal script. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, people simplified the seal characters, which had many strokes, and created the official script. The new calligraphy appears to be much neater, turning the round style into a flat one.

Today’s most popular and influential writing style, the regular script, first came into being between the Han and Wei dynasties. Just as the name implies, it features regularity and varies from the flat font to a square one. The period when the regular script flourished most was during the Tang Dynasty, when Yan Zhenqing(708—784) and Liu Gongquan(778—865) successively established schools of their own styles. In striking contrast, the cursive script puts emphasis on flexibility, for it only maintains the essence of each character and expresses more personal exertion. Therefore, its value lies more in appreciation than in practicality.

The Sage of Calligraphy Wang Xizhi(303—361,307—365, or 321—379), together with his son Wang Xianzhi (344 -386), led the art of calligraphy to its summit. Wang Xizhi was a master of all forms of Chinese calligraphy, especially the running script, and is generally recognized as the greatest Chinese calligrapher in history. People placed great value on his calligraphic works, comparing his handwriting to a “flying dragon”, vigorous yet elegant. His preface to the poems collected from The Orchid Parilion, known as a gem of Chinese calligraphy, was the most representative of his style. However, the original work is no longer available for public admiration. It is said to be buried in the tomb of Emperor Taizong of Tang(599-649) since he admired it so much.

Chinese calligraphy has also been introduced to many neighboring countries and has built up a worldwide reputation. Picasso(1881—1973),the world-renowned master of art, reportedly once said, “If I had lived in China, I must have become a calligrapher rather than a painter.” In 2009,Chinese calligraphy was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the U NESCO.

【推荐3】Mogao Caves

Regarded as the largest Buddhist cave site with the greatest amount of cultural relics in the world, the Mogao Caves, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, is a large palace of art combining different ancient architectures, incredible painted sculptures and extraordinary varied wall paintings.    1    .

Most caves found in the Mogao Caves are examples of rock-cut architecture of different styles in terms of building and function.     2    . Many of the caves originally had wooden porches, but only five remains.    3    .

Dating back to over one thousand years ago, the wall paintings in the Mogao Caves, with an area of 450,000 square feet, are valued for their size and richness of content as well as their art techniques.     4     They display the history and folk customs of ancient China and illustrate a variety of stories, natural scenery and daily life of ancient people.

There are around 2,400 painted sculptures in the Mogao Caves.     5    . The early sculptures feature Indian and Central Asian styles, and later they show more Chinese elements.

【推荐2】In 2009, when Qatar (卡塔尔) bid to host the 2022 Football World Cup, it promised a carbon-neutral (碳中和) event. Even back then, the prospect of neutralizing the carbon-dioxide emissions (排放) generated by hosting hundreds of thousands of fans in newly constructed stadiums, in a desert state, seemed fanciful. So it is proving. In their greenhouse-gas accounting report, published last year, FIFA (国际足联) and the Qatari organizers estimated that the World Cup would generate 3.6 million tons of CO2 emissions. Estimating emissions for big sporting events is a relatively new practice and methods can vary, but that figure is higher than any recent World Cup or Olympics.

It is also likely to be a significant underestimate. A report in May 2022 by Carbon Market Watch (CMW), a climate watchdog (监督者), found that the official forecast failed to account accurately for the emissions generated from stadiums. FIFA, which insists its method is “best in practice”, reckons that the majority of the emissions (52%) will come from fans and players travelling to Qatar, while less than 25% are from stadium construction. That is because organizers expect these stadiums to be used for years after the World Cup, spreading their carbon footprint way into the future.

CMW believes such an excuse is far from reasonable. Before the World Cup, Qataris were able to get by with only one stadium, it points out. Consequently, it estimates that the emissions from stadium construction for the World Cup are undercounted by a factor of eight. It puts the real figure at 5 million tons. Though it amounts to less than 0.02% of the world’s annual emissions, sports teams and organizations should have set a positive example in this.

To remove the doubt from outside, Qatar has established the Global Carbon Council (GCC), a dedicated environmental agency. Beyond adjusting for World Cup emissions, the GCC will promote a path to “a low-carbon future”, a great step for a country with the world’s highest emissions per person. Yet the agency is still at its early stage. Only six projects, saving less than 600,000 tons, have been approved so far.

【推荐3】A new study provides the earliest known evidence of amputation — the medical term for cutting off a part of a person’s body. Around 31,000 years ago, a young adult had his left foot and part of his left leg removed in what is modern-day Indonesia, the study suggests.

Scientists say the ancient surgery was performed when the person was a child — and that the individual went on to live for years. It suggests that humans were carrying out medical operations much earlier than scientists had thought.

Tim Maloney, the study’s lead researcher, said that researchers were exploring a cave in Borneo, a rainforest area known for ancient rock art, when they came across the person’s burial.

Although much of the skeleton(骨骼)remained, it was missing its left foot and the lower part of its left leg, Maloney explained. After examining the remains, the researchers concluded the foot bones were not missing from the burial or lost in an accident. Instead, the bones had been carefully removed. The remaining leg bone showed a clean cut that healed over, Maloney said. There were no signs of infection, which would be expected if the child had gotten its leg bitten off by a creature like a crocodile. And there were also no signs of a crushing fracture(粉碎性骨折),which would have been expected if the leg had been cut off in an accident.

The child appears to have lived for around six to nine more years after losing the limb, eventually dying from unknown causes as a young adult, researchers said.

The evidence suggests that the ancient people knew enough about medicine to perform the surgery without fatal blood loss or infection. Researchers do not know what kind of tool was used to perform the surgery, or how infection was prevented. But they believe that a sharp stone tool may have made the cut, and some of the plant life in the area could have been used for medical treatment.

“The discovery of this early surgery rewrites the history of human medical knowledge and developments,”Maloney said at a press conference.