【推荐1】Mother’s Day was coming.

A man stopped at a flower shop. He wants to order some flowers to be posted to his mother, who lived two hundred miles away.

As he got out of his car, he noticed a young girl sitting on the roadside, crying.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked. “I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother. But I only have seventy-five cents, and a rose costs two dollars.” the young girl replied.

The man smiled and said, “Come on in with me. I’ll buy you a rose.”

He bought the little girl her rose and ordered his own mother’s flowers.

As they were leaving he offered the girl a ride home. She said, “Yes, please! You can take me to my mother.”

She directed him to a cemetery(公墓), where she placed the rose on a freshly dug grave(坟墓).

The man returned to the flower shop, gave up the order, picked up a big bunch of flowers and drove the two hundred miles to his mother’s house.

【推荐2】When I met her， I had a lot of anger inside of me. I've lived my whole life in Spanish Harlem， but in my neighborhood， there are shoot﹣ups（枪击）all the time. I know kids who have been shot or beaten up I have friends who ended up in prison. I could have ended up that way， too. but Ms. Clark wouldn't let that happen.

Ms. Clark worked long hours， making sure I did my work. My grades rose. In fact， the scores of our whole class rose. One day， she took our class to see The Phantom of the Opera， and it was the first time some kids had ever been out of Harlem. Before the show， she treated us to dinner at a restaurant and taught us not to talk with our mouths full. We did not want to let her down.

Ms. Clark was selected as Disney's 2015 Teacher of the Year. She said she would draw three names out of a hat； those students would go with her to Los Angeles to get the award. But when the time came to draw names， Ms Clark said， "You're all going. "

On graduation day， there were a lot of tears. We didn't want her class to end. In 2016. she moved to Atlanta， but she always kept in touch. She started giving lectures about education， and wrote a bestselling book based on her classroom rules， The Essential 55. In 2018， Ms Clark took some of us on a trip to South Africa to deliver school supplies and visit orphanages （孤儿院）. It was the most amazing experience of my life.

【推荐1】Mangroves are trees that typically grow in saltwater along coasts. But some red mangroves end up deep in the rainforests of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. These plants live in freshwater along the San Pedro Martir River. That’s nearly 200 kilometers from the sea. Scientists wanted to know how these mangroves got trapped so far inland. Carlos Burelo was among them. He became curious about these mangroves on a childhood fishing trip there 35 years ago. Burelo saw that the roots of the mangroves grew above ground. This was different from the other trees.

Burelo’s team first investigated where the freshwater mangroves came from. They started by collecting their leaves and then compared their DNA to the leaves from coastal mangroves which were growing along the Gulf of Mexico. The DNA helped identify the origins of the mangroves on the San Pedro Martir River. They had started along the Gulf of Mexico, some 170 kilometers away from the river. The team discovered other evidence that this ecosystem had once been coastal. They discovered 112 other species in this region that are typically found near coasts.

The researchers looked at the soil too. “These sediments (沉积物)near the mangroves revealed exactly what we expected,” says Exequiel Ezcurra, an ecologist at the University of California. In all, the researchers turned up coastal stones, shells of sea snails and clay sediments rich in shell fragments (碎片). These led the researchers to conclude the area used to be part of the ocean long ago.

Computer models of how sea level has changed over time confirmed those findings. The models showed that when sea levels were higher in the past, the ocean merged with the lower basin of the San Pedro Martir River. That would have been around 150,000 to 130,000 years ago. This pushed red mangroves and other species inland.

“This discovery highlights how changes to the past climate have affected the world’s coastlines,” Ezcurra says. “It also offers a chance to better understand how future sea level rise may affect these ecosystems.”

【推荐1】Self-confidence: one’s belief that can meet all the demands of a task. Some people are born with it, and everyone else is out of luck, right? Wrong! Self-confidence is not something people are born with, like their height or hair color. It’s a skill that anyone can start practicing today.

One simple self-confidence builder is positive self-talk. What you say to yourself influences how you feel about yourself. Telling yourself “I can’t do anything right “or asking “Why did I even try?” could ruin you. Instead, if you get a bad grade on a test, try saying “I’ll do better next time.” rather than focusing on your failure, identify ways that you can improve, and try again.

Another way to build your confidence is to believe in yourself. Studies show that believing you can do something can increase your chance of success. If you put in the work to learn how to do something, believe in your ability. Don’t let doubt steal your energy and motivation away.

One of the ugliest enemies of self-confidence is comparing yourself to others. Thinking that you are better than other people will make you arrogant(傲慢的). And thinking you are worse than others will fill you with envy. Try keeping a diary and write down all the things that you’re thankful for.

Facing your fears is another way to build self-confidence. You might have a talent for public speaking. But how will you know if you never overcome your fears and try it? Even if you fail, leaving your comfort zone can make you stronger.

Finally, showing kindness to others is a great way to build self-confidence. Showing kindness reminds you that you can make a difference in the world. When you make others feel good, you, in turn, feel good about yourself.

【推荐3】In the early days of human history, people survived by hunting wild animals, or gathering wild grains and plants for food. Then, some people learned to grow crops and raise animals for food. They were the first farmers.

From the sixteenth century on, the word “farm” has meant agricultural land. But a much older meaning of the word “farm” is linked to economics. The word “farm” comes from the Latin word “firma”, which means an unchanging payment. Experts say the earliest meaning of the English word “farm” was a yearly payment made as a tax or rent.

Farmers in early England did not own their land. They paid every year to use agricultural lands. In England, farmers used hawthorn trees along the edges of houses. They called this row of hawthorns a hedge. Hedging fields was how careful farmers marked and protected them. Soon, people began to use the word “hedging” to describe steps that could be taken to protect against financial loss. Hedging is common among gamblers who make large bets. A gambler bets a lot of money on one team. But, to be on the safe side, he also places a smaller bet on the other team, to reduce a possible loss.

You might say that someone is hedging his bet when he invests in several different kinds of business. One business may fail, but likely not all. Farmers know that it is necessary to make hay while the sun shines. Hay has to be cut and gathered when it is dry. So a wise farmer never postpones gathering his hay when the sun is shining. Rain may soon appear. A wise person copies the farmer. He works when conditions are right.