【推荐1】

【推荐2】Harsukh Bhai Dobariya, of Gujarat, India, is very popular with birds. Every day, about 3,000 birds visit his 4-acre farm to eat tasty grains and build their nests away from natural enemies. Nicknamed “The Birdman”, Harsukh has spent the last 17 years of his life looking after the birds and transforming his land into a safe place for them.

Many people would consider such a large number of birds making a mess outside their windows, but Harsukh couldn’t be happier about it. As more birds started visiting him and the limited space on his balcony became a problem, he built a stand（台）out of old pipes and put grains on them, so the birds could eat in comfort.

Harsukh and his family used to live in the middle of the city, but as the number of birds visiting them increased, they became a conundrum for the neighbors. In 2012, Harsukh moved to a 4-acre piece of land on the suburbs（郊区）, where the birds didn’t bother anyone.

“In my old house, neighbors would get disturbed by the constant chirping（鸣叫声）of birds,” Harsukh said. “Though they would never complain, I still thought that these birds need a space of their own.”

Today, about 3,000 birds visit Harsukh’s farm several times a day. He and his family have built several stands for them, and make sure to add grains twice a day.

Over 1,000 birds build their nests on the farm, and have their babies here. Harsukh and his family protect them from enemies until they are ready to fly. During the rainy season, the doors of the Harsukh’s house are always open to birds that are seeking shelter from the rain.

【推荐3】Airports are dull places where bored passengers kill time eating rubbish food they don’t want and buying stuff they’ll never need. Right?

Wrong! Many of today’s terminals（航站楼）around the world offer great entertainment, dining and shopping. With so much to offer, you’re almost attracted to miss your flight.

It’s the only one in the world with its own butterfly garden, and each of the three terminals has its own indoor playground and video game area.

If you have a long wait you could always watch the latest movies at the free cinema, go to sunflower gardens or take a dip in the rooftop swimming pool.

A five-minute free shuttle bus ride will take you to the SKY72 Golf Club, with three courses and a driving range.

There are seven gardens inside the terminal, an ice rink, a spa and the Museum of Korean Culture. There is even a casino（赌场）.

It has its own health club with a Jacuzzi, gym and swimming pool, or you can wander in the Zen Garden. The weary can take a rest in a sound-proofed pod with a bed for a while.

Not only does it have its own IMAX cinema, the airport is home to Green Live AIR, a hi-tech space offering both nine and 18-hole golf simulations（模拟）.

For kids, there’s the Dream Come True Education Park, where they take part in role-playing jobs, or the Aviation Discovery Centre, with themed exhibits and graphics, and the Sky Deck runway viewing platform.

Go to the outdoor Visitor’s Park to check out the historic aircraft, watch the planes from the viewing hill or browse in the souvenir shop. For kids, there’s Kinderland, a fun paradise with a big “adventure plane”, films, games, arts and crafts, and a waiting room for their tired parents to relax in.

And, of course, since we’re in Bavaria there’s a beer garden!

【推荐1】4 Highly Outstanding Awards in Architecture

Founded in 1979 by the Pritzker family, and funded by their Hyatt Foundation, the Pritzker Architecture Prize aims to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. The annual award includes a grant of US $100, 000.

Established in 2016, the Architecture MasterPrize (AMP) was created to honor, celebrate and share the very best projects in the fields of architectural design, interior design, and landscape architecture. Unlike other awards, the AMP is open to submissions from all architects, across the world, whether students just beginning their journey into the discipline or those who have established experts in their field. Split into two categories—professional and student winners—the AMP has very quickly established itself as the home for innovative thinking, promoting new ideas.

Founded in 1834, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) organizes a number of awards as a part of their program. The latest winner of the RIBA International Prize, Children Village, by Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum of Brazil, demonstrates exactly what the RIBA jury is looking for—a project which fits its environment perfectly, achieving precisely what was needed in the brief but going beyond this, into those rare levels of perfection.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA), founded in 1857, runs more than thirty award programs, with the Gold Medal being the most famous and prestigious. This is awarded annually to an individual, or a pair, whose work has created an influential legacy both practically, and also through architectural theory.

【推荐2】Imagine a child standing on a diving board four feet high and asking himself the question: “Should I jump?” This is what motivation or the lack of it can do.     1     Without motivation, you can neither set a goal nor reach it. Like the child on the diving board, you will stay undecided.

So how should you motivate yourself?     2     First, you need to evaluate yourself, your values, your strengths, your weaknesses, your achievements, your desires, etc. Only then should you set your goals.

You also need to judge the quality and depth of your motivation. This is quite important, because it is directly related to your commitment. There are times when your heart is not in your work.     3     So, slow down and think what you really want to do at that moment. Clarity (清晰) of thoughts can help you move forward.

Another way of setting realistic goals is to analyze your short and long term objectives keeping in mind your beliefs, values and strengths. Remember that goals are flexible.     4     They also need to be measurable. You must keep these points in mind while setting your goals.

Your personal circumstances are equally important. For example, you may want to be a pilot but can’t become one because your eyesight is not good enough.     5     You should reassess your goals, and motivate yourself to set a fresh goal.

You will surely need to overcome some difficulties, some planned, but most unplanned. You cannot overcome them without enough motivation. Make sure that you plan for these difficulties at the time of setting your goals.

【推荐1】Habitat loss, pesticides (农药) and climate change are threatening insect populations worldwide. In 2019, Biological Conservation reported that 40% of all insects species are declining (减少) globally and that a third of them are endangered.

And while it may sound nice to live in a world with fewer bad insects, environmental writer Oliver Milman says that human beings would be in big trouble without insects. That’s because insects play important roles in pollinating (给……授粉) plants we eat, breaking down waste in forest soil and forming the base of a food chain that other larger animals including- humans-rely upon.

“It would be an extremely terrible place to live in—and certainly not something we should ever aim for,” Milman says of an insect free existence. “You would certainly have mass starvation and social unrest…It’d be a place where there would be smelly waste and dead bodies everywhere because insects that break down those materials would be gone. ”

Milman charts the troubling decline of insects in his new book, The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World. He says that while it’s impossible to know exactly what’s happening with every insect species in the world, the overall trends are not good: The butterfly population in North America has declined quickly in the past 40 years, for example, and a U. N. assessment done in 2019 found that half a million insect species are under threat of extinction, some in the coming decades.

“The world, our surroundings, would be far quieter, far duller without insects,” he says. “When you start kind of digging down into these figures looking at the research, it’s clear that there’s something seriously wrong…There is a straight decline in most insect populations, and that spells major trouble for them but also for us.”

【推荐2】“No act of kindness,no matter how small,is ever wasted."

－Aesop

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day.It's a day set aside to show extra kindness to the people around us-those we know and those we don't.Smiling and saying a few encouraging words is easy. But an act of kindness is something you actually do.A random act of kindness is usually unexpected and unplanned.Maybe you help someone carry groceries.Maybe you pay for a stranger's coffee.Or maybe send an encouraging note to a friend.

Caring for others is nothing new.In fact,the Bible tells everyone to"Love your neighbor as yourself."But who is your neighbor?There is an example in the story of"The Good Samaritan”。

It tells of a traveler who was robbed and beaten.A religious leader saw the man lying in the road but didn't stop to help.Another religious man also ignored him.But a Samaritan came along.He was a foreigner.He showed compassion and took care of the strangers' needs.He showed mercy.

Is helping strangers a thing of the past?Are people today too busy or too afraid to help someone they don't know?I know from experience that goodwill between strangers still exists.

One Sunday morning I was running late for church.As I started to drive off,I noticed an elderly lady.She was dragging a large piece of wood out of the rain.I was in a hurry,but I hesitated.Then I stopped my car,got out and helped her move the wood.

Months went by.Then one day,I saw some workmen cleaning out an old store.There in the pile of trash was a large Coca-cola cooler.How fun!A worker said I could have it,so I picked it up and started home.I didn't get very far.It was much heavier than I thought.Then out of the blue,the elderly lady appeared with a cart!I had helped her,and she was returning the favor.Go and help your neighbor today!

【推荐3】A short while ago, I lost access to my WeChat account. I am not sure why it wouldn’t let me log in; perhaps it was my ancient, out-of-date phone. But I wasn’t too upset because it offered me an opportunity to take a break from social media --- something more and more people are doing.

In the United States, Twitter is losing millions of users each month and Facebook has seen a 44 percent decline among its younger users. Some of these users may have deserted Twitter and Facebook for other social media platforms, while many others have quit because they felt that social media was having a negative effect on their happiness and overall quality of life.

Stars such as Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeren have taken a break from social media because they were tired of many Internet trolls(网络喷子) leaving negative comments. Ordinary people (like me) are turning away from it because of the feeling that they were spending more time online and enjoying it less.

It is not unusual for people to spend two or three hours a day posing or reading posts, to the point where it becomes an addiction. And it is an addiction. There is a chemical in your brain known as dopamine(多巴胺) which is sometimes called the “reward molecule” and its release gives you a feeling of pleasure. For instance, when you post a photo on WeChat and get a hundred likes, you feel happy. That’s dopamine at work.

In my case, being off WeChat left me with a feeling of anxiety for a few days. No doubt I missed my dopamine. And I got e-mails from friends wondering if I was fine or if I was just being anti-social. But I soon began to feel quite peaceful and started to worry less about what other people were doing and concentrate more on my personal life. And it is an added bonus that I’m getting better sleep at night.

I’m not advocating that all of you quit social media, but spending less time on these platforms does bring you advantages. You could start by leaving your phone at home when you go to school (For some, that’s already a school rule). And it is also a good idea to charge your phone outside of your bedroom at night, as you are unlikely to get a good night’s sleep when the notification(通知) bell keeps ringing.

Someday I may reconnect with my WeChat account, but I' m not in a hurry. Life can be more relaxing and just as interesting without it.

【推荐1】There’s been lots of concern recently about the potential dangers of microwave popcorn (爆米花), but is this concern founded, or just overmuch fear-spreading? The answer is that many of the chemicals that caused worry in earlier decades have been removed from microwave popcorn, but some critics still are not satisfied.

“You may consider popcorn to be a low-calorie, high-fiber snack, but microwave popcorn isn’t a healthy choice,” explains nutrition expert Dan DeFigio. That’s because microwave popcorn bags were coated with perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) to prevent oil substance from leaking out. One particular type of PFC, known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has been linked to certain cancers, but the American Cancer Society says the evidence is unsure and more research is being done about this.

Nevertheless, in response to concerns about PFCs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) worked with popcorn makers back in 2011 to remove PFOA from their packaging. Three more PFCs were banned in the next five years. So today’s microwave popcorn doesn’t have these chemicals, but critics say that the alternatives could cause problems as the old ones, but less is known about them.

That’s not the only problem, however. The chemical that for decades lent buttery deliciousness to popcorn has also been connected in rare cases with major lung damage. Known as diacetyl (二乙酰), it’s long been a documented problem with workers in popcorn making facilities, but also can be risky for people who just eat the snack a lot. A 2007 study published in the journal Critical Reviews found that more than 80 percent of chemical release happened when the bag was opened post-popping. Although diacetyl has been removed from most products, some critics claim that the alternative to diacetyl is also harmful.

Most of the exposure (接触) to diacetyl came from inbreathing rather than eating popcorn. Therefore, experts recommend at least waiting for the bag to cool before you open it to reduce potentially harmful chemical exposure. Better yet, make your own fresh at home with an air popper. If you like to flavor it, add organic butter or some cheese.

【推荐2】People often think that blue light before bedtime can make it harder to sleep. It’s true that the screens on phones, computers and televisions send out plenty of blue light. But if you’re focused on blue light as a major problem affecting your sleep or your eye health, it’s time to look at it from another aspect.

As Philip Yuhas, a professor of vision, writes at The Conversation, blue light isn’t a uniquely technological evil. It’s part of sunlight, and your eyes are exposed to plenty of it all the time. You’re fine. There are studies in mice that have found blue light can damage their eyes, but mice are nocturnal creatures (夜行动物) whose eyes are different from ours. The pigments (色素) and the lenses (晶状体) of our eyes actually block blue light fairly well—so in a sense, we already have built-in blue blocking protection.

Adding more protection isn’t likely to help, though. You can buy glasses and screen filters (滤光片) that block blue light, but Yuhas points out they are probably a waste of money. These products do not block out much blue light. The leading blue-blocking anti-reflective coating, for example, blocks only about 15% of the blue light that screens send out. You could get the same reduction just by holding your phone another inch from your face.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology doesn’t recommend blue-blocking products, either. Instead, if you’re concerned about your eye health or your ability to get to sleep on time, you already know what to do.

Put the screens away at bedtime. Read a book or find something else to do. While you’re using screens, take a 20-second break every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet away (the “20-20-20” rule). If you get dry eyes when you look at screens for a long time, use eye drops labeled artificial tears.

【推荐3】The last African elephant at the Johannesburg Zoo, Lammie, lost her male partner to a sickness in September.

Lammie was born in the zoo 39 years ago. She had lived for 17 years with Kinkel, who died at age 35. Kinkel had been rescued in the wild after his trunk was caught in a trap in 2000.

Around the time of her partner's death on Sept. 4, Lammie had stopped eating. The day before Kinkel died, she was seen trying to help him get up.

Elephants are known for their intelligence, strong social ties and even the ability to mourn. Some people argue Lammie should be sent to another place where she can be with other elephants.

Audrey Delsink, wildlife director of Humane Society International/Africa, said Lammie "is in desperate need of a happier environment to live out her years." Delsink added that a wildlife rescue place is ready to take Lammie if the Johannesburg Zoo agrees to let her go.

But the zoo says Lammie is staying. It serves an educational purpose, especially for the poor who cannot pay to visit wildlife parks.

Michele Pickover disagrees. She is director of the EMS Foundation, a South Africa-based African wildlife rights group. She said "nobody learns anything" by seeing an elephant in captivity. She said that watching a film about elephants would be more educational.

But, a spokeswoman for the Johannesburg Zoo, Jenny Moodley, says it is looking for a new partner for Lammie. She said the zoo is following guidelines in its search set by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

She added that experts are closely observing Lammie and that the elephant might not adapt well to a new environment.

Moodley said of Lammie: "She is coping incredibly well, considering that she has lost her partner."