【推荐2】When comparing U.S. and Chinese schools,despite(尽管）many differences, one finds a number of unexpected similarities.

Students in both countries, in some ways, have much in common. This includes their experiences with popular culture like technology and social media, mutual care for the environment, and the fact that all were terribly influenced by COVID-19.

Students in both countries belong to what might be described as a“TikTok culture,”although this Chinese app is likely more popular in the U.S. than in China itself.The Chinese term kuaicanshi yule,which means fast-food type entertainment, is the better expression, one that conveys“snackable content”for often meme-oriented, fast moving fashion that compete for short attention spans. Whatever the app or device, students have been much influenced by technology, positively and negatively. In fact,Chinese students do face more controls from their schools about their use of social media, although many are good at finding ways to avoid them.

Furthermore, many students in both countries are attracted to similar styles, in both fashion and food, in music and film, with Chinese and American students often being similarly up-to-date on the latest hits, including television series.

Finally, what both have most in common is the strong wish to live a good life, be successful and secure. The U.S. and China approach these wishes in different ways educationally, but both could learn from each other. This is especially true given the fact that we all live in an increasingly globalized world, and must learn to work together to solve not only global problems like climate change and disease outbreaks, but unfortunate frictions between the U.S. and China. Indeed, with the last point in mind, a significant weakness in the educational systems of both countries is that neither really understands the other. This is not a new problem, but solving it needs serious attention.

【推荐1】A Beijing-based expert team has reported the world’s first case of a 19-year-old adolescent with Alzheimer’s disease(疾病) (AD). It is a condition normally related to old people. The team released the research results in Journal(杂志) of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The patient(病人) developed memory problems at 17 years old and was then diagnosed with AD at 19. The patient first began to have difficulty focusing on learning. One year later, the patient suffered great short-term memory loss, an inability to remember the previous(之前的) day’s events or where personal things were stored, as well as reading difficulties and slow reactions.

Later the patient continued to suffer gradual memory loss, even struggling to remember having eaten. As a result，the patient had to drop out of(退学) high school. The patient has no family history of AD and no other causes of memory problems such as genetic(基因的) issues or other diseases.

Since the first case of AD was reported in 1906, it has been widely believed that AD mainly occurs in the old. AD is a disease with a slow beginning. It can bring gradual loss of cognition(认知), memory and speech and an increase in mental(心智的) problems over time. It even leads to the inability to take care of oneself in time. It is still difficult to treat the disease.

The study has confirmed that AD is no longer a disease limited to the old. The team call for more attention to the possibility of AD occurring in younger people. Healthy habits may help prevent AD. Consider the following steps: exercise, eat the Mediterranean diet(地中海饮食), get enough sleep, learn new things and connect socially.

【推荐2】Are flash floods becoming more severe? Natural disasters are generally getting worse—and that's true for floods, too.

As climate change warms the atmosphere, extreme rainfall is rising, which increases the risk of flash floods. Heavy precipitation(降水) events are predicted to increase by 2 to 3 times the historical average. The Federal Emergency Management Agency expects the nation’s floodplains to expand by 45 percent by the end of this century, as the agency reported in a recent study. A study in early 2021 found that increased precipitation—resulting partially from climate change—costs the US an additional $ 2.5 billion each year in flood damage. And some studies show that flood frequency was increasing in the Mississippi River valley and across the Midwest in the last century, as well as in the Northeast over the past 50 years.

There are several steps you can take to prepare for flash floods

First, know the level of risk by looking at flood maps. You may be required to have flood insurance if you live in a high-risk area.

Pay attention to flash flood watches, which the National Weather Service issues to indicate when conditions could result.in flash floods. People in these areas-should be-ready to take action—particularly if the NWS announces a flash flood warning. That’s issued when flash floods are approaching and, at that point, people should immediately leave the area.

But be particularly careful when travelling by car. Don’t drive through flooded streets—it's difficult to judge the water depth, and roadways hidden below the water can collapse. If floodwaters cause your vehicle to lose control, abandon it and seek the higher ground. Rapidly rising water can sweep the vehicle away. Know your surroundings and head to the higher ground, and listen to the radio updates when in a flood.

It’s also important to develop an emergency prepared plan with your family or those you live with to have a few days’ worth of resources.

【推荐3】Chinese government and tech companies are working together to speed up the digitalization(数字化) of rarely used Chinese characters, which will allow them to be recognized by computers as the country's banks, hospitals and government departments move deals online. However, for lack of technical support, many people's names and place names can not be put in. This has caused troubles in life, such as opening bank accounts and booking transportation tickets.

The public are now invited to photograph unusual characters and send them through a mini program fixed into We Chat, a popular messaging app. If they pass expert approval, they will be added to China's official set of coded (编码的) characters, known as GB 18030. The latest version of GB18030 has more than 80, 000 Chinese characters. However, most computers only support the input and display of about 30, 000 commonly used characters.

Roughly 60 million people in China have names that contain rare characters and a signifcant number of place names and ancient texts have difficulty being digitalized due to unrecognized characters contained within.

Lin Sumiao, a lawyer based in Beijing, said her name, containing a rare character “su”, was constantly shown as “miao” on exam admission cards when she was in school, and the situation still happens when she prints flight boarding passes.

Lin is unwilling to change her given name as it carries special significance to her. The character “su” consists of characters “geng” and “sheng”, the latter part of the phrase “zi li geng sheng” meaning“to rely on oneself.“The character contains my parents' wish for me to grow up into an independent soul,” she said.

Digitalizing the Chinese characters is difficult, as each character must be represented in a unique form. The digitalization of uncommon characters is a complex systematic project, which requires government guidance and contributions by input methods, program developers, and operating systems.

Despite the difficulties involved, digitalization must continue to not only solve practical problems, but also to protect and pass down Chinese culture. Every rare character is a part of cultural treasures. They shall not be lost in the digital time nor become a block to digital society.

【推荐2】Ariel Novoplansky, an ecologist in Israel, set up an experiment among pea plants to study how they communicate with each other.

In the experiments, Ariel put the pea plants in rows of containers. The center plant in the row was the target. The pea plants had been grown with two main roots. On one side, each pea plant had one root in its own pot and the other reaching into a neighbor’s pot. The central plant connected to its closest neighbor, which connected to another neighbor, and so on down the line. On the other side, all the plants kept their roots in their own pots, unconnected to their neighbors.

With everything ready, the ecologist created a dryness for the central target plant, which had quickly closed up its leaf pores(气孔)to save water. Amazingly, the connected plants on one side gradually closed up their leaf pores, even though only one of them had experienced real dryness. On the other side, with unconnected roots pea chain, all their pores stayed open. This means the warning signal didn’t travel from the stressed plants leaves through the air, but only from its roots through the soil.

It’s possible that plants are just eavesdropping (偷听) even if the damaged plant didn’t mean to send signals to them. Maybe the damaged plant leaks certain chemicals and nearby roots could sense those signals. But the plants with connected roots that weren’t dried out passed on the drought signals to their neighbors too, which means simple eavesdropping probably isn’t the answer. They seem to be having a real conversation, picking up information on one side and sharing it with a neighbor on the other.

The benefit to a plant that receives this information is pretty clear. But what’s the benefit to sending a danger signal to your neigbour? Remember, your neighbor may actually be you.