【推荐1】Las Vegas city in Nevada is built in a desert. The city may be known to the outside world for its partying. But officials have found that there are 21 square kilometers of useless grass. The grass is never laid on, played on or even stepped on. The grass is only there to look nice.

Now, the city is asking the Nevada state legislature (立法机构) to ban useless grass. It is trying to become the first place in America to ban that kind of grass often seen between streets, in housing developments and in office parks.

It is estimated (估计) that useless grass makes up 40% of all the grass in Las Vegas and it needs a lot of water to survive. Grass needs four times more water than dry climate plants like cactus. By tearing out the grass, the city could reduce yearly water usage by 15%.

In 2003, the Southern Nevada Water Authority banned developers from planting grass in front of new homes. It also offered homeowners $30 for each square meter of grass they tear out. But fewer people are now using the program. Water usage has increased in southern Nevada by 9% since 2019. And last year, Las Vegas set a record of 240 days without major rainfall. The Colorado River provides much of Nevada’s drinking water. The river could lose more water as climate change affects it.

Water officials (官员) in other dry cities said water usage needs to be reduced. But they fear the reaction to reforms like the ones in Las Vegas if their communities do not accept them. Cynthia Campbell is the water resources adviser for the city of Phoenix in Arizona. “There might come a point whencity restrictions(限制) get too severe (苛刻的) for some residents (居民). They’ll say that is the point of no return for them,” Campbell said. “For some people, it’s a pool. For some people, it’s grass.”

【推荐2】The over 48,000 orange trees in Seville, Spain, not only fill the city’s air with the pleasant smell of orange blossoms in spring, but they also produce over 16,500 tons of fruit every winter. Though that makes the capital of southern Spain’s Andalusia region Europe’s top orange-producing city, the fruit is too sour to be consumed fresh. While some of the produce is used to make orange jam and an alcoholic drink, most of it ends up in Seville’s landfills (填埋场). However, that may change soon thanks to a clever idea to use the oranges to produce clean energy.

The trial program is being launched by the city’s council and park department in cooperation with Emasesa, Seville’s water supply and sanitation (卫生) division. Juice from 38. 6 tons of oranges will be left to ferment (发酵) in a specialized facility. The methane (甲烷) released from the fermented liquid will be captured and used to drive a generator to produce clean power. The officials estimate the test run will produce about 1,500 kWh of energy—enough to run one of Emasesa’s water purification plants. To ensure there is no waste, the orange skins, peels, and flesh will be used as fertilizer.

“It’s not just about saving money. The oranges are a problem for the city, and we’re producing added value from waste,” said Benigno Lopez, head of Emasesa’s environmental department.

If successful, by 2023, the city hopes to recycle all the oranges and add the electricity produced back into its power transmission network. In trial runs, one ton of oranges produced 50 kWh of clean energy—enough to cover the daily electricity needs of five homes. The project team estimates that if all the fruit is recycled, it will produce enough energy to power as many as 73,000 residences.

“This project will help us to reach our targets for reducing emissions, energy self-sufficiency, and the circular economy,” Juan Espadas Cejas, mayor of Seville, said in the press conference announcing the trial scheme.

【推荐1】The protected lands of the National Parks are some of the most amazing destinations within the United States to view some spectacular pieces of nature. Many of these parks have fun family-friendly activities, making them great destinations for holidays and summer break.   

Olympic National Park is a great destination for families to explore the wild beauty. At this park, visitors will find beautiful beaches, a rain forest, mountains and more. Children will love the wild coastline, with amazing beaches, and a lot of fascinating sea life. The whole family will love the many hiking trails, the wild beauty of the beaches throughout the park, and the wildlife within the forest and mountains.

Yellowstone National Park is the nation's first national park. Visitors can start at one of the Visitor Centers to learn about the abundant wildlife of Yellowstone. Children will love keeping an eye out for elk and bison while driving and hiking through the park.

Located on North Carolina's Outer Banks, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is an amazing destination for recreating, relaxing and much more. The seashore has many beautiful beaches for the whole family to explore and enjoy. Visitors can spend vacation time searching for shells, birding, kayaking, hiking and more. The Outer Banks are also an excellent spot to go windsurfing, especially on Hatteras Island.

Glacier National Park was the tenth national park created in the nation. The park offers visitors the opportunity to explore the amazing wilderness of Montana, through biking, hiking, camping, backpacking, boating and more. The best time of year to visit is the early summer, the region is snowy in the winter and hot in the summer.

【推荐2】October 15th is the Global Handwashing Day. Activities are planned in more than 20 countries to get millions of people in the developing world to wash their hands with soap. For example, donators will give 150,000 bars of soap to schools in Ethiopia.

Experts say people around the world wash their hands every day, but very few use soap at so-called important moments. These include after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby and before touching food.

Global Handwashing Day is the idea of the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap. Partners include the United Nations Children’s Fund, American government agencies, the World Bank and soap makers Unlever and Procter and Gamble. The organizers say all soaps are equally effective at removing disease-causing bacterium. They say the correct way to wash is to wet your hands with a small amount of water and cover them with soap. Rub (揉搓) it into all areas, including under the fingernails. Rub for at least twenty seconds. Then rinse well under running water. Finally, dry your hands with a clean cloth or wave them in the air.

The Partnership for Handwashing says soap is important because it increases the time that people spend in washing hands. Soap also helps to break up the dirt that holds most of the bacterium. And it usually leaves a pleasant smell. The Partnership for Handwashing also says washing with soap before eating or after using the toilet could save more lives than any vaccine(疫苗) or medicine. Hand washing could also prevent the spread of other diseases. When people get bacterium on their hands, they can infect (感染) themselves by touching their eyes, noses or mouths. Then they can infect others.

【推荐3】The word "barbecue" comes from the Caribbean word "barbacoa", which originally wasn't a way of cooking food, but the name of a wooden structure used by Taino Indians to smoke their food. It was recorded that the first barbecue as a diet consisted of some sort of fish, creatures from the sea obviously being plentiful in the Caribbean. Besides used for cooking, the structure of sticks could also be used as an area for sleeping, storage, and a shelter.

Spanish explorers took the word "barbacoa" back to Spain, where it appeared in print for the first time in 1526.At first,"barbacoa"still referred to the structure in which food was cooked, but later people started using it to refer to the process of cooking food in a barbacoa and the cooked food itself.

It was in A New Voyage Round the World written by William Dampier, published in 1697 that the word firstly appeared in print in English. It referred to the structure as a place for sleeping. By 1733, "barbecue began to mean asocial gathering when meat was grilled. About two decades later, in 1755, the word"barbecue"was entered into Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.

Today, there are different spellings as well as meanings for "barbecue". Many people use"barbeque,"BBQ", "Bar-B-Que, and other forms. The"official "spelling is generally considered to be "barbecue"with the letter"c, similar to the original. While people may debate over what should be the correct spelling or what exactly constitutes barbecue,there is one thing we all agree on: a barbecue is definitely no longer a shelter or a sleeping structure!

President George Washington himself was a big fan of barbecue. He wrote in his diary about going to a barbecue in 1769("Went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night ), and hosting one in 1773("a Barbicue of my own giving at Accatinck"). Barbecue competitions have been taking place since at least 1959. The first one seemed to have taken place in Hawaii, just a few months after it became a state, but was only for men. 25 men competed for the grand prize of $10.000.