【推荐3】At some point in our lives, we all snore. A cold or allergy can block nasal passages, a few drinks too close to bed will automatically relax tongue, palate and throat muscles—and therefore we know that we’re unconsciously forcing air past those soft tissues, causing vibrations that escape as a snore.

“Snoring can be normal and not something to worry about,” said sleep specialist Rebecca Robbins, an instructor in the division of sleep medicine for Harvard Medical School. But snoring can also be a key sign of obstructive sleep apnea (阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停), a serious sleep disorder in which people actually stop breathing for 10 seconds or more at a time. “When it’s loud snoring, or it’s interrupted by pauses in breathing, that’s where we start to get concerned,” Robbins said.

It’s estimated that at least 25 million Americans and 936 people worldwide may suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, with many more undiagnosed. It’s called “obstructive sleep apnea” because unlike central sleep apnea —in which the brain occasionally skips telling the body to breathe — obstructive sleep apnea is due to a closure of the airways by weak, heavy or relaxed soft tissues.

“You’re making the effort with your belly and your chest to try to get the air in and out, but because of the block in the upper airway, you can’t. Often you aren’t aware of this struggle, but it can be very, very scary for anyone watching,” said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. If left untreated, obstructive sleep apnea puts you at a high risk for hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or depression, even an early death, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

【推荐2】Last year I took a trip to Dunhuang with some friends.

After we left our hotel, we stepped out into a sandstorm that morning. Luckily, many of our group were well-prepared with facemasks and caps. I, on the other hand, was not as equipped. I should have learned about the conditions there better.

This was, admittedly, the low-point of the trip, but reparation(补偿) was made that evening with a trip to an amazing cultural show, fittingly called “Silk Road”. This was a more interesting take on the Silk Road’s history, using dance and song to show the vivid cultural traditions and artistic legacies(遗产) of Dunhuang and the Silk Road. It was a fully amusing evening.

The next day’s visit to the Mogao Caves was certainly the highlight of the trip. From the outside, they look perfectly ordinary. But upon entering the dry, cool caves, it’s as though you’ve been taken to another world: it’s a great place of ancient artwork with 45,000 square metres of murals and statues, making it the world’s largest collection of Buddhist art. Many of the original pink-coloured paints have turned black. Our guide said, “The painters spent much of their lives painting in the near-dark, guided only by rays of natural light and dim oil lamps, and as such, most went blind.”

Out of the darkness of the caves, we stepped into the blinding light of the Gobi, with a view of the Yueyaquan, nestled in the desert bowl, for an afternoon of sand-boarding and camel rides --- Silk Road style.

Thankfully, the journey back was a more modern mode of transportation, and we were all aboard a sleepover train back to Lanzhou, settling into our comfortable bunk beds within their purple and gold Apsara-motif cabins, and gently rocked to sleep.

【推荐3】Moments ago, a seal was resting on a piece of floating ice deep in an Antarctic channel. Then three hungry killer whales appeared. When the seal noticed them, it was already surrounded.

On this sheet of sea ice, the nearly thousand-pound sea l would be unreachable for most of his enemies in nature. But these killer whales had mastered a hunting technique called wave washing: working together to turn water into a weapon.

Having identified their target, the killer whales formed a battle line and started rushing toward the ice. Just before reaching it, they rolled to their sides in a single, synchronized (同步的) motion. The wave they created was so powerful that it flooded the ice sheet and washed the frightened seal close to the edge of the ice sheet. Slowly and methodically, they repeated the attack. At the third time, the wave sent the helpless seal flying into the sea. It struggled to climb onto a piece of ice, but then disappeared from view...

“The level of intelligence that went into making each wave was staggering. They solved the problem with very complex teamwork. They used water as a tool,” said wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory, who had spent a decade tracking those killer whales, known as Bls. “I rarely saw failed hunts. This behavior was not what they were born with. It was learned and mastered over decades. Every time they made waves, it almost felt like more of a teaching experience than hunting. It was terrifying to watch.”

But as Antarctica warms and sea ice disappears, seals are increasingly staying on land, out of killer whales’ reach.

“I’ve found Bls are losing about 5 percent of their population every year. Whether this subgroup will go extinct or just adapt their behavior, I don’t know,” said Gregory. “But with fewer opportunities for the killer whales to wave wash, I’m seeing an extinction of a culture.”

【推荐2】It’s no secret that college is expensive. I received financial aid, and I was able to cover the cost of enrollment, books, supplies, course materials, and additional school-related fees. But I could not afford housing, transportation, food, healthcare, or other basic necessities. The longer each semester went on, the harder the choices became.

When spring semester ended that first year at college, I had good grades, but I did not have two quarters to my name. I decided that if I could afford to be a full-time student, I would need to work a full-time job. Soon, I started working at the airport as a cleaner of aircraft cabins. My first shift at the airport was a graveyard shift, where I detailed aircraft of varying sizes. During this total night shift, I have to do “deep cleaning”, which meant cleaning everything and even I had to check every safety compartment and replace any missing items. This could be disgusting work.

Another fact upset me a lot that working at the airport and going to school did not fit easily together. Some days 1 was too exhausted after a night shift to get to class. Other days I didn’t have time to complete school assignments owing to a busy workday. At the end of the fall semester, I received a final warning for my attendance at my job. Once again, I was between a rock and a hard place and had to make a decision. I wanted to go to school and excel, but I also had grown accustomed to financially supporting myself.

Ultimately, I chose to temporarily stop going to school and to continue working, a decision. I would later regret. The airline closed for various reasons. I felt stupid. I had put a lot into this job, even sacrificing my education, and now I would have neither job nor education. I’d finally learned what my grandmother meant when she once said that your job is temporary, and your education is forever.