【推荐1】Engineers have put a huge garbage collector to gather plastic material in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, the world's largest spread of garbage, twice the size of the state of Texas.

The Ocean Cleanup organization created the collector. The group's founder, Boyan Slat, an inventor born in 1994, was just 16 when he was moved to clean up the oceans when he was on a dive and saw more plastic bags than fish

Last Saturday, a ship pulling the pipe-shaped floating barrier left San Francisco. Attached to it is a screening skirt that hangs three meters down in the water. The screen is designed to collect the plastic as it moves through the water. Sea animals can safely swim under the barrier

The cleanup system also comes with lights powered by the sun, cameras, and other special devices, so the system can communicate its position at all times. That way a support ship can find it every few months to remove the plastic that has been collected.

Shipping containers will hold all the plastic gathered , including bottles and fishing equipment and are expected to be back on land within a year. Then the plastic will be recycled. The free-floating barriers are made to survive extreme weather conditions and damage from continual use. They will stay in the water for twenty years , thus collecting 90% ofthe garbage in the area.

The Ocean Cleanup has received $ 35 million in donations to pay for the project, hoping to put 60 free-floating barriers in the Pacific Ocean by 2020. "It's important to turn off the taps on plastic entering the ocean, but I also think people can do more than one thing at a time to deal with this problem," Slat said.

【推荐1】Our Teen Summer Spanish Program is two weeks of fun, educational excitement that helps students learn Spanish fast. Our Spanish summer program allows our students to learn from highly trained, certified teachers and be absorbed in the language and the culture of Costa Rica.

Features include:

* Intensive(强化的) daily Spanish classes

* Extracurricular classes in dance, cooking, music, and handiwork

* Outdoor activities including hiking, camping, rafting, and ziplining(高空滑索)

* Homestay with a local Costa Rican family

* Volunteer work in needy neighborhoods

Our Teaching Methods:

We are proud to use TPRS---Total Physical Response Storytelling---in our curriculum. This innovative method uses strange and amusing stories to teach new vocabulary, increase fluency, and get students involved by giving them the opportunity to alter the details themselves. Because of the silliness, creativity, and repetition involved, TPRS allows students to learn easily and remember information effortlessly

Memorizing vocabulary and listening to lectures on grammar are slow, inefficient ways to learn a new language. The best way to truly learn and commit new material to memory is through conversation. In our Spanish classes, students can expect to speak up to 80% of each class. By speaking in the new language freely and consistently, students can see progress faster because they are using the new grammar and vocabulary that they have learned at the same time. This helps the brain remember the new words and grammar structures for future use, making it much easier to progress.

【推荐2】When you hear the word “shapeshifting (变身)”, you may think of magic in some movies and not the climate. But that’s what animals are doing to go on living in the world.

A new study shows that some animals are slowly growing larger beaks, legs and ears. In this way they can cool themselves down more easily as the Earth gets warmer. When we talk about the climate change, we often ask “What can humans do with this?” “How can we live in the future?” “But we should know that animals also have to face these changes,” said Sara Ryding, from Deakin University, Australia. If animals do nothing to keep their normal body temperature, they will die.

In one example, the beaks of some kinds of Australian parrots have grown 4 to 10 percent larger. The study says it has a lot to do with the hotter summer over the years. There are other similar examples. Wood mice have longer tails and bats in warm climates have bigger wings.

Although the changes are still small, they could be common as the weather becomes hotter. “Body parts like ears may become bigger, so we might be able to see a real Dumbo (big-eared elephant from a Disney cartoon) in the near future,” Ryding told the reporters.

【推荐3】Most animals on land are known to us, but many living things underwater are not. Now let’s get to know some of them.

Sea cucumber

Sea cucumber are strange animals living at the bottom of the sea. They wear brown or pale green coats with many sticks up. When summer comes, they stay deep to sleep because they are afraid of heat. And when it is autumn, they move to shallow (浅的) water and get their food.

Pike

The pike is a kind of freshwater fish. They are good swimmers and like swimming near boats, waiting to be fed. They have sharp teeth to catch fishes. When they are young, they live in groups. However, when they grow up, they prefer to live alone.

Cuttlefish

A cuttlefish can swim quite fast, so it is also called rocket (火箭) fish. It has eight arms and two feelers on its head, just around its mouth. It ejects ink (喷墨) when it is in danger. Its meat is delicious, and it is often the first choice for many people.

Octopus

An octopus has long arms, with which to catch food and protect itself. When it is sleeping, one or two of its arms are still on duty, keeping moving. Once it feels something dangerous, it can wake up at once to take action.