The change in Kate was obvious to all, but no one understood it. Prim and Celia were sure Kate’s unhappiness was due to disappointment. Prim assured her that Hugh would give in to their arguments and take her into town, but Kate no longer wanted to go. After her guardian gave away her horrible life secrets, society parties had gone quite out of her head.

Kate couldn’t bear for her little sister to find out that they weren’t really family, so she said nothing about what she had learned, and she tried to keep up a cheerful appearance. But keeping a secret from loved ones is a heavy burden, and now she was keeping two secrets. Her nightmares were wearing out her, and her worried sister’s constant questions were upsetting her. Prim noticed the pale cheeks and the dark shadows under her niece’s eyes. Lips tight, she called the doctor, but neither he nor Prim could find anything wrong. Between them, they dosed Kate with a variety of strong and well - meaning remedies that did no good at all.

The weather changed with the approaching end of summer, and clouds gathered over the Hill. One breathless afternoon nothing could bring relief to spirit or body. A gray haze hung in the air, too diffuse to be called clouds, but too thick to be called anything else. The sun shone through it as a brilliant white spot, and not a whisper of wind stirred. As evening came, no thunder rumbled in the hills, and no breeze sprang up to fan their clammy cheeks. The sun was leaving without a blaze of color. The thick haze just seemed to swallow it.

“Please, Aunt Prim, let us walk up in the hills and see if we can’t find some cool wind somewhere,” Kate begged. “I promise we’ll come back before it gets dark.” Her aunt knew better than to let her go. Storms were sure to follow a day like this, even if they were taking their time building. But at last she gave consent, with all the conditions hat approaching storms and nightfall demanded. They were to stay out of the woods, watch the sky, and come back at the first sign of bad weather.

【推荐1】Imagine a way to produce meat without killing animals. Instead of raising livestock on farms, Uma Valeti, a cardiologist, and co-founder of Upside Foods, dreamed of a way to “grow” meat by cultivating(培养) animal cells(细胞).

The idea for what’s now called “cultivated” meat came to Valeti when he was working with heart attack patients at the Mayo Clinic more than 15 years ago, growing human heart cells in a lab. It should be possible to grow meat with similar science, he realized. Scientists could take cells from an animal by a needle biopsy(切片检查), place them in tanks, feed them the nutrients they need to reproduce, including fats, sugar, amino acids and vitamins, and end up with meat.

It has taken years of experimentation by a crew of biologists, biochemists and engineers to turn that idea into a product ready to eat. Now the company is awaiting a greenlight from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin selling its first cultivated meat products, including a chicken fillet (without bone).

After four years of talks with regulators at the FDA, Valeti expects this could happen “in the very near future.” When it does, Upside’s production facility in Emeryville, California, will be able to produce over 50,000 pounds of cultivated meat products per year.

For Valeti, the potential benefits of cultivated meat are too important not to try to overcome the current obstacles. He sees a future with a better choice to the current system of producing meat, and he’s determined to create it. Valeti says, at last, as a doctor he might have been able to help a few thousand patients during his career. But, by taking the great step to cultivated meat, with its potential promise to surpass meat production, he believes he can have a larger impact. “This could literally affect billions of human lives and save potentially trillions of animal lives,” Valeti says.

【推荐2】Like everybody else, I was addicted to my devices. When realizing its harm, I decided to make a change.

“I’m doing Tech-Free Sundays now!” I told my mother, on the Saturday night before my no-tech journey started. “Oh,” she said. “So are you giving up, like, the wheel?” I defined my terms. No: computer, phone, iPad. No: email, Twitter, Instagram. Yes: wheels, modern medicine.

But when I woke up in the morning, I failed. The problem was my work: I needed to meet a deadline. I thought I could just use the computer for work, and wouldn’t check Twitter. And I didn’t, for many hours. And then I did. It was right there! And though I checked it very briefly, just in case anyone was mad at me, the spell (咒语) was broken.

But the beautiful thing about Sundays is that there is always another one. The next week, I changed my approach: no tech, at all. This time, I was prepared. On Saturday, I made a list of everything I wanted to accomplish over the weekend, and then worked my way through all the parts that require technology. And then I put my phone down, and when I woke up on Tech-Free Sunday, I did not pick it up again.

Instead, I finish a book—one with paper! Do you know how pleasurable it is to read a book by touching it? It is a delight, like petting a very literary cat. However, the trouble came when I went to meet a friend. I was running late, but had no way to tell her because my phone was at home.

Was I relaxed on such a Sunday? It was an unfamiliar feeling, but I was. I felt a sense of control over my life. But because life is nothing if not a learning process, the next weekend, I told everyone who might need to get in touch with me that I would not be reachable on Sunday.

【推荐2】When I was in Tanzania, Modesta was my Swahili teacher, who was friendly and outgoing. Three years later, I was living in India, teaching at an English-medium international school. Modesta was still in her village, about 15. She had exhausted her country’s free education options. Instead of high school, early marriage is waiting for her. After much thought, I decide to invite Modesta to join me. I stressed the challenges: She’d have to adapt to living in an English-speaking environment, dealing with racism, and being separated from her family. Modesta decided she was up for the adventure.

At the airport gate, the agent asked for our yellow fever vaccination (疫苗接种) certificates. Tim and I pulled out ours but Modesta didn’t have one. “Then she won’t be allowed on the plane,” the agent said. “India won’t let her into the country without it. But...” My heart was racing. How had I failed to think of this? “There’s a clinic at the other end of the airport,” the agent said. “Takeoff is in 30 minutes, and the certificate is only valid 10 days after the injection.”

When the nurse finished the injection, I glanced at my watch again — 14 minutes — and said: “So, in order for us to travel today, the paperwork has to be dated 10 days earlier.” The nurse replied with a lazy eyebrow raise. “Modesta is from the village,” I almost cried. “For her this means everything: continuing her studies, learning English...” The nurse didn’t say anything, but with nine minutes left, when she handed us the certificate, it was backdated by 15 days.

We dashed through the gate just as it was closing. When we finally took off, my hand shook as I held Modesta’s. Tim finally broke our silence. “I was ready to pay an enormous bribe back there, to get them to change the date.” “I was ready to tell lies,” I said. “Big lies, whatever it took.” “I was praying and praying to Jesus,” Modesta said. Fifteen years later, Modesta has friends on four continents and the first college degree in her family.