【推荐1】Earth Day is April 22. It's a day when people around the world work to help the planet, including kids.

Speaking Out

Jaysa Hunter-Mellers, 14, spoke at the City Hall to ask leaders to shut the last coal power plant（发电厂）nearby which brought her a serious trouble that made breathing difficult. She didn't think that people would listen to her, a kid. But the coal plant later said it would close. Jaysa learned to speak to her local government at a young age and now she wants to teach others to speak up too.

Helping Butterflies

When Aiden Wang was 6, he learned that local butterflies were in trouble because they needed milkweed plants to survive. But milkweed was disappearing. So Aiden started growing milkweed at his home, on which the insects lay eggs. Aiden's now 13 and he cares for eggs and lets them go when they turn into butterflies.

Doing Good for Gorillas（大猩猩）

When Addy Barrett was in first grade, she learnt that the mountain gorillas were in danger. She wanted to protect them and set up a program called Gorilla Heroes. So far, Gorilla Heroes has raised more than $11,000 to help mountain gorillas. Addy says, “The feeling of having a fine influence on the world is like no other. It feels so good to know that I am making a difference.”

Educating the Youth

In fourth grade, Jeremy Clark and Charlie Abrams saw a picture of the Statue of Liberty（自由女神像）up to her waist in water. It was meant to show what the statue would look like if all the ice in the world melted（融化）. In 2019, they started a group called Affected Generation to encourage young people to become climate activists. The two also want schools to teach about climate change.

【推荐2】Now, Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22. A man, called Senator Gaylord Nelson Take, was determined to change the way we treated our planet. He didn’t stop his work until he had made a difference.

In 1963, Senator Gaylord Nelson wasn’t happy with the earth’s condition. He wanted to clean up the planet and solve pollution and environmental problems. As a senator, Gaylord Nelson was someone chosen by US citizens to help make laws, so he had a lot of power. He went to John F. Kennedy, the President at the time, with his concerns. The President agreed that the planet’s environment was a serious issue, so President Kennedy went around the country on a five­day tour to promote (宣传) the idea of cleaning up the planet. People began making small changes, but it wasn’t enough.

A few years later, Senator Nelson decided to put one day aside every year for the cause of saving the planet. On April 22,1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated; 20 million American demonstrators (示威者) took part in Earth Day activities. Since then, Earth Day has become an international holiday. People all over the world are doing something to make the earth a cleaner, better place. Today more than 500 million people in 164 countries participate (参与) in Earth Day festivities!

Then, what can you do to make a difference?

*Encourage your family to recycle on a regular basis. It is a good way to help the earth!

*Switch to energy­efficient light bulbs in your house to reduce the effects of global warming.

*Every glass bottle you recycle saves enough energy to run a TV for an hour and a half, while recycling an aluminum (铝) bottle can save enough energy to run your TV for three hours!

*Turn out the lights when you leave a room — unless someone’s still there!

*Use re­useable containers for your school lunches and snacks.

【推荐1】A trial project by the Montreal Children's Hospital suggested that the use of medical hypnosis（催眠）can reduce pain and anxiety in patients. The project also resulted in a reduction in the amount of medicines used to perform medical-imaging（医学影像）procedures.

"During the examination children don't move. It works perfectly. It's amazing," said Johanne L'Ecuyer, a medical-imaging technologist at the hospital.

The project was inspired by a French team from Rouen University Hospital Centre where examinations are done under hypnosis instead of general anesthesia（麻醉）.

A French medical- imaging technologist—also a hypnotist—was invited to train a few members in the medical-imaging department of the children's hospital. In all, 80 examinations were conducted for the project between January and September, 2019, focusing on the imaging procedures that would cause anxiety.

Hypnosis is not a state of sleep: It is rather a modified（改变的）state of consciousness. The technologist will guide the patient to this modified state—an imaginary world that will disassociate itself more and more from the procedure that follows.

"The technologist must build up a story with the patient," Ms. L'Ecuyer said. "The patient is left with the power to choose what he wants to talk about. Do you play sports? Do you like going to the beach? We establish a subject that we will discuss throughout the procedure."

Everything that happens next during the procedure must be related to this story—an injection（注射）becomes the bite of an insect; the heat on the skin becomes the sensation of the sun and a machine that rings becomes a police car passing nearby.

"The important thing is that the technologist associates what is happening outside the patient's body with what the patient sees in his head," Ms. L'Ecuyer said. "It requires creativity on the part of the technologist, imagination, a lot of patience and kindness."

The procedure appealed to the staff a lot when it was introduced in January. "It spread like wildfire that someone from France was here to train the technologists," Ms. L'Ecuyer said. She added that she had a line of staff at her door wanting to take the training.

【推荐3】It’s hard when a best friend isn’t around—maybe because you moved to a different school. You may feel lonely at break or lunchtime. You should have new friends. But how do you make new friends? Maybe it seems like everybody else already has their friends. But remember, there’s always room for more friends.

Start by looking around your classroom — think about which kids you’d like to play with at break. Look for chances to say “Hi.” to them, smile and be friendly. Offer to share something or express your appreciation to them. Invite someone to play with you or say “Do you want to sit here?” in the lunchroom. When you’re at break, walk over to kids you want to play with, act friendly and say “Hi, can I play, too?” or just join in.

If you have trouble doing this or if you’re feeling shy, ask your teacher to help you make new friends. Teachers are usually pretty good at matching up friends. The best way to make friends is to be a friend. Be kind, be friendly, share, say nice things and offer to help — and pretty soon, you’ll have one, or two, or even more new friends.

You might still miss that special best friend. But when you see each other, you can share something you didn’t have before you left. You can introduce your best friend to your new friends!