【推荐1】My wife, Hannah, and I don’t usually keep houseplants. Anything in pots gets either over-watered or under-watered. But after my diagnosis with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, with no more than a year to live, I loved the idea of having something new and green around.

My friend Mitch gave me what he said was a lucky bamboo plant in a deep-green pottery bowl with three pencil-sized stalks (茎；杆) tied together. We placed the plant in the living room window across from the couch where I spent much of the day. I smiled when I looked at it over the rim of the mug of coffee Hannah brought me each morning.

I told Hannah I wanted to care for the plant myself. Tending to the plant gave me a sense of accomplishment at a time when I sometimes felt useless. Glioblastoma limited my ability to walk, and the treatment left me exhausted, making it hard for me to accomplish everyday tasks. As a family physician, I was used to being the one who provided care, not the one who received it. Since my diagnosis, I had to rely on help from other people. The enormous change left me feeling purposeless and unsettled. Watering the plant, as small an act as it was, connected me to a core part of my old identity and taught me that plants and people could still depend on me.

Over the next few months, I recovered from surgery and completed radiation and chemotherapy. Even after I returned to work, I continued to care for the plant. Soon, it had nearly doubled in height and its leaves were shiny and lush. Both the tree and I were thriving (茁壮成长).

【推荐1】Washington State's growing population of gray wolves is exposing deep divides among residents and testing its decision makers. And managing the animals is about to get more complicated, as the state begins drawing up a management plan and weighing whether to start a hunting season.

The wolves, nearly non-existent in the Northwestern state for almost a century, have grown in numbers about 28% each year since 2008, about a decade after they were introduced to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. By late last year, Washington had at least 126 wolves and 27 packs.

The wolves' return has brought cheers from conservationists, who view them as symbolic creatures that can improve the state's ecosystems, and criticism from farmers and livestock（家畜）owners, who see them as killers threatening livelihoods. With wolves expected to reach targeted recovery levels in a few years, the debate over how to manage them is getting fierce. Officials recently canceled three public meetings about wolves after threats of violence and Interruption.

Wolves were largely eradicated across the Western U.S. in the 20th century, targeted by government agencies and hunted by farmers and other private citizens. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relocated some wolves to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, leading to their return in the West.

Tensions in Washington have risen after decisions from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to kill a number of wolves responsible for the deaths or injury of cattle and livestock. The conflict is centered in Ferry County in the northeastern part of the state. Fish and Wildlife staff this year killed nine wolves in Ferry County-including the last of a pack that killed or injured 29 livestock in the county.

Washington governor Jay Inslee has asked the state Fish and Wildlife agency to reduce the need to kill wolves as a result of their killing livestock, and instead increase the use of deterrent（威慑物）which can include electric fencing or range riders to monitor cattle and other livestock. Officials have said killing wolves is a last choice.

Meanwhile, researchers are racing to understand the wolves’ effect on the ecosystem to better inform how to manage the population.

【推荐2】Everybody seeks happiness in the world. We will be really happy when we get a new car or a big house or get married... The thing is, if we are continually searching for happiness in the outside world, we will be very disappointed. It seems as if we are forever chasing it and it is always just one step away.

Happiness is a short state of mind, just like the state of sadness or joy or anger. It would not be possible for us to be in a happy state 24 hours a day. If you think that sounds laughable, think about being at a funeral when everyone is mourning. Would it feel right to go about with a huge smile on your face?

What we go through in our lives helps us grow and understand the value of happiness. We need to be able to respond in all manner of ways according to what we are dealing with at any given time. All emotions and states are part of the life.

Happiness can be found in reaching out and being in relationship with people. Though time or money may be lost in helping others, these will become our happy memories. Happiness is a dance with whatever in front of you. It is a deep connection to everything around you. It does not come from expecting others to bring you joy but from how you can create joy for others.

If you want to experience happiness more often, see what you can do to put a smile on someone else’s face each day and notice how much happier you feel when you have achieved that. Happiness is not to be found in material possessions. It is freely available to everyone at any time. All that is required to experience happiness is that you place your focus on moments in your life that make you smile.

【推荐3】We all know that water is tasteless. But it happens from time to time: you pick up the bottle of water you didn’t finish yesterday, and it tastes strange. Most often, you tend to drop the bottle in the trash bin, believing that the water has gone bad. But is it true?

According to Time, of course not, taste has little to do with quality of water.

As is mentioned in Time, when water is exposed to the air for 12 hours, carbon dioxide interacts with the H₂O in the water, and the pH value lowers slightly. As a result, the water has a different taste.

“But it’s most likely safe to drink,” Norwegian expert Truls Krogh told Science Nordic. “If the water is covered and of good quality to start with, in principle it can last a thousand years. That’s because when water is fresh, it contains little organic matter. As long as water is held in clean glasses or bottles, no pollutants will enter it to harm our health.”

People in countries like the US, the UK and Australia usually drink tap water. According to Time, if tap water is drunk within six months, the chlorine (氯气) in the water will be enough to kill any bacteria and keep it safe to drink.

However, there are also some exceptions. If you accidentally put your fingers into water or store water in unclean containers day after day, microorganism (微生物) will enter the water.

With the help of surrounding temperature, and sunlight streaming through windows, these microorganisms multiply quickly. Sooner or later, the water will be full of the unfriendly bacteria. And if you drink the water too often, then you’re more likely to be ill.

And what about water in plastic bottles? Heat and plastic are a bad combination, US researcher Kellogg Schwab stresses. When plastic bottles are used at high temperatures, they produce a chemical called BPA. BPA is something that affects hormones (荷尔蒙) and research has tentatively linked it to “several health damage, including heart disease and cancer”, Time reported.

Schwab suggests replacing disposable (一次性的) plastic bottles with the refillable containers made of metal or glass to deal with BPA.

【推荐2】Developing healthy eating habits starts from childhood, therefore it is important for parents to teach and provide children with a healthy diet. DPHSS administrator of the Bureau of Nutrition Services, Charlie Morris told KUAM News, “A healthy diet for a child consists of a lot of fruits and vegetables in the diet limiting the amount of simple sugars in the diet and high fat food and highly processed(加工的) food.”

This means staying away as much as possible from food such as chips, cookies, candies and sugary drinks, as all children need to have meals which involve a well-balanced diet. Community nutritionist(营养学家) Thelma Romoso said, “The fruit, the vegetable, the grain, the protein, and also the milk, the diary product, so for the fruits it's easy for a mother to go into the two plus three concept of fruits and vegetables or five a day.”

This concept means that there are at least two servings of fruits a day, three servings of vegetables a day which can be served for lunch and dinner. As for protein parents can make a variety of dishes from chicken, beef, fish or even dried beans to make sure the child gets three servings a day.

Morris said that the child's hunger level controls how much is eaten and the parent controls what and when the meal is offered, saying, “Mom needs to ensure that the food offered is good food for the child to eat and throughout the day depending on how active they are, snacks(零食) are not a bad thing, so the mom should offer good kinds of snacks.”

When it comes to preparing your child's lunch and snacks for school, make sure to keep in mind that the food you provide should not only be a source of energy but also be nutritionally beneficial such as fresh fruits, and whole grain bread. But parents must be sure to remember that a good nutritional diet must be balanced with physical activity, namely it is important that children get outside and run around and play and get activity in addition to eating a good diet.

【推荐3】America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while—then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flow more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly cannot manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!