【推荐1】The years 1347—1351 saw Europe suffer from the worst disease—the Black Death. At least one third of the population in Europe lost their lives. Even the Catholic priests(牧师) with all their influence could not survive either.     1    

Against this background, Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer, decided to collect stories from history to both comfort victims and challenge the church.     2    

In the book,10 people get together at a faraway place to stay away from the disease and share stories there to deal with boredom.     3     After each one finishes their turn, the others then share their ideas on the stories. In this way, we not only enjoy the book’s interesting stories, but also get to know the values held by people at the time.     4     As Chinese President Xi Jinping said, works like The Decameron(《十日谈》) stand against the ignorance of the Middle Ages and reflect the people’s hope for spiritual liberation.

    5     So I could fully understand the characters’feelings of panic when what they used to believe in suddenly fell away. For people in medieval times(中世纪), it was their belief in church. For us today, it might be the certainty of our global systems. But it was from the mess of the Black Death that the Renaissance and humanism were born. In today’s post-pandemic society, new lifestyles, technologies, and other changes have come to life. My most valuable lesson from The Decameron is this: We must learn from the past to better shape our future.

【推荐2】Lotus, ginkgoes, Chinese roses .... On the campus of Beijing 101 Middle School, there are more than 200 types of plants. To keep a record of the rich natural resources there, the school’s students made a beautiful book: Flora of 101.

“We chose 30 plants to show with pictures, basic information and particularly, a poem for each plant written by ourselves,” said 17-year-old Wang Jianyuan, the chief editor of the book.

The poems are not just describing the plants. They also reflect students’ stories. “One day I was a little upset when I smelt a fragrance (芳香). Looking down, I saw humifuse euphorbia, or dijincao (地锦草), a very common plant. Suddenly I felt comforted—it just grows and gives off a sweet scent, regardless of people stepping on it. So I wrote a poem for it,” said Wang Jianyuan.

“Every poem in the book shows students’ unique understanding of the plants, showing our school’s character and spirit through the book,” Wang Jianyuan added.

Wang Jingyue, 17, painted the pictures for the book. “Many students in our school love painting. We took photos of the plants and drew them in a realistic (现实主义的) style,” Wang Jingyue said. “Siting there and painting give us a chance to closely watch a plant and connect with it. It feels amazing.”

The students plan to print 300 copies of the book this September to give out to new students. “We hope the younger students can fall in love with the plants and the ecosystem in our school. Hopefully, when they walk along the green alleys (小径), they can find peace and inspiration,” said Wang Jianyuan.

【推荐1】For a lot of people, age-related cognitive decline (认知衰退) follows “gradually, and then suddenly”. At first, the loss of mental sharpness is difficult to detect. But one day you may find that your memory and other mental muscles have grown noticeably, frustratingly weak.

Research has found cognitive decline may begin as early as your 20s. “Typically, a person peaks out around their 30th birthday,” says Michael Merzenich, a former director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California. Each decade thereafter, the average person’s mental sharpness steadily drops off.

The brain’s toolset usually grows rusty (生锈的) as a result of disuse—not because of unpreventable degradation but due to taking your brain offline. “Offline” refers to autopilot activities. “This means doing the same things—relying on the abilities or skills you acquired at a younger age,” he explains. During the first few decades of your life, this sort of cognitive coasting isn’t really possible. But once you’ve settled into adulthood—into a set of routines—your day-to-day life may not ask much of your brain’s executive (决策的) functions, which are the high-level operations helping you solve complex problems. The older you get, the more difficult for you to change your habitual routine.

Fortunately, constantly engaging your brain’s learning machinery with skills or activities that are new makes it possible to prevent age-related cognitive decline.

More of Merzenich’s research has shown that “targeted” brain training can help people strengthen their memories, concentration, and high-level processing capabilities. Even among people with mild brain injury, cognitive damage is often reversible with proper training. He recommends adopting a new hobby—something that forces you to learn a new set of skills. “The goal is to expand your understanding in a new way,” he says.

Like your body, your brain requires exercise to stay healthy. Challenging it with new hobbies and learning opportunities may be the best way to maintain its fitness.

【推荐2】It’s mid-February and along Britain’s south coast gilt-head bream (鲷鱼) are swimming from the open sea into the river mouths. And this summer, countryside visitors throughout southern England will catch sight of blue flashes as small red-eyed damselflies fly across starry ponds. Both events are happening much further north than they would have 20 years ago.

Fingers point at climate change. As areas become too hot or dry, many wildlife populations are declining, while some species are showing up in places that were historically too cold or wet.

Our team, led by Alba Estrada, wanted to explain this phenomenon. If we could predict which species can and can’t colonise (移居于) new locations, we could decide which are most in need of conservation.

How far individual animals or plant seeds can move was long thought to be the most important factor. But according to our findings, other characteristics also turned out to be highly important. For example, how quickly plants and animals can produce, how well they can compete with other species for resources, and what kinds of food they can eat or habitat they can live in.

The result of this is that we might be able to predict which animals will survive under climate change. The wood mouse is found throughout continental Europe. As climate changes, we think the mouse will move north because it can breed quickly, live in lots of habitats, has a broad diet, and individuals can travel a long way. On the other hand, consider the European ground squirrel. We think it might stay just in southeast Europe because it can only live in grasslands — and climate change won’t suddenly turn farms and forests into meadows (草坪).

It’s encouraging to know that some species are doing well under climate change. There are some headaches, however. Those gilt-head bream are feeding on the local shellfish, which might be taking food away from the native fish. Small red-eyed damselflies look great, but they could become all too common around British ponds and outcompete native species. Climate change is once again posing us some tricky conservation questions.