【推荐3】In this article, we want to present why nature conservation and the promotion of sustainable development principles are important.

Environmental protection prevents natural disasters. Nature struggles for balance. This is how forests absorb CO₂, grow and change it into oxygen. This provides an opportunity for life and also slows down climate change. The destruction of forests greatly changes the climate of entire regions, or even causes powerful floods.     1    

Environmental protection stimulates research and technological innovation. The idea for the first flying machine was inspired by bird observation. The rainforest is the richest source of many medicines. Almost every animal and plant has its own technical secrets.     2     With the disappearance of ecosystems and wildlife species, the base for scientific research and technical improvement is nowhere to find.

Protecting the environment is protecting people. The loss of natural resources leads to economic crises, wars or diseases.     3     For example, the reduction of the population of bees will affect not only the production of honey, but also the whole food production system. No bees — no honey, no fruit, very few vegetables. This leads to hunger, disease, migration and war.

    4     We meet with like-minded people. Any local success — the rescue of an endangered population for reserves — becomes a cause for global joy and inspires more participation.

We humans are part of nature and its cycles ourselves. Our impact on ecosystems has noticeable influence on our daily lives. But it can be predicted and avoided if you think with your head and act carefully.     5     Even small deeds can improve the state of nature and our life on the planet.

【推荐1】My family would describe me as anything but a risk-taker. “Grandma drives faster than you!” my younger son likes to joke with me. So when I announced I was going to step outside my comfort zone and sign up for a self-defense course, my children, my husband, and even my mom were a bit doubtful.

A gym near my house was offering free two-hour classes including boxing, wrestling and judo(摔跤和柔道). I signed up for it and for the next days I questioned whether yoga would have been a wiser choice. The morning of the class, I pulled up to the gym, grabbed my water bottle along with a bit of courage I brought with me, and walked inside. We learned how to kick and knee someone where it counts and how to strike using the palms of our hands, After the instructor showed various escape techniques, I wondered what I was doing there. Seconds later, I reminded myself that I was on a search to push my boundaries(极限). By the time class ended, I was full of energy.

Before I entered the gym, I never imagined I would have the confidence and courage to throw a punch that could discourage someone twice my size. Almost two years later, I still attend classes. As the oldest female in the class, I push myself to keep up, try harder and, more importantly, not quit.

Between increasing my strength and feeling confident about protecting myself (although I hope I never have to test my skills outside of the gym), I'm proud of the risk I took in signing up for the course. I know that defending myself s not about strength; it's about strategy(策略). At the same time, I'm calmer and less anx1ous—a benefit my family enjoys. As for my driving, after a recent lunch date, my mom suggested I speed up to at least the speed limit. She didn't want to be late for her tennis match.

【推荐3】The painter Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and grew up on her family’s farm. At seventeen she decided to be an artist and left the farm for schools in Chicago and New York, but she never lost her contact with the land. Like most painters,O’Keeffe painted the things that were most important to her, and nearly all her works are simplified portrayals (描绘) of nature.

O’Keeffe became famous when her paintings were discovered and exhibited in New York by the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. During a visit to New Mexico in 1929, O’Keeffe was so moved by the bleak (荒凉的) landscape and broad skies of the western desert that she began to paint its images. Cows’ skulls and other bleached bones found in the desert figured prominently in her paintings. When her husband died in 1946, she moved to New Mexico permanently and used the horizon lines of the desert, colourful flowers, rocks, barren hills, and the sky as subjects for her paintings. Although O’Keeffe painted her best-known works in the 1920s,1930s and 1940s, she continued to produce tributes to the western desert until her death in 1986.

O’Keeffe is widely considered to have been a pioneering American modernist painter. While most early modern American artists were strongly influenced by European art, O’Keeffe’s position was more independent. She created her own vision and preferred to view her painting as a private effort. Almost from the beginning, her work was more identifiably (可识别地) American than other painters in its special treatment of colour,light,space and natural forms.