【推荐1】It has been around for centuries, but up until very recently, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) wasn’t fully accepted abroad. Proof of this can be found in The Treatment (《刮痧》), a 2001 film that tells the story of a Chinese man in the US who’s accused of abuse after he uses guasha, a form of TCM treatment, to cure his grandson’s disease.

During the last 10 years or so, however, TCM has been getting increasingly popular all over the world. A report released by the State Council Information Office on Dec. 6 says this style of health care, which includes different forms like herbal medicine and exercise, has spread to 183 countries and regions.

“We have set up 10 TCM centers outside China, and all of them are popular among locals,” Wang Guoqiang, head of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said at a news conference on Dec 6. “Governments of 86 countries and regions have signed agreements with the Chinese government on TCM corporation.”

One of the reasons behind the growing popularity of TCM is the increase of scientific research into it. And after Tu Youyou, the Chinese scientist who discovered the anti-malaria (抗疟疾) drug qinghaosu (青蒿素), won the Nobel Prize in 2015, TCM became even more famous internationally.

However, all these achievements in TCM don’t mean that it’s problem-free. Over the years, TCM has faced challenges in being able to prove that it has certain effects.

Some researchers have suggested TCM should be more exact and work together with Western medicine.

“Bringing together with Western medicine and TCM, rather than being in competition, is where the potential for great effects is,” said Bernhard Schwartlander, the China representative of the World Health Organization.

【推荐2】During the "golden week" national holiday that began on October 1st, hundreds of thousands of sightseers flocked to Lijiang, a picturesque historic town in the south-western province of Yunnan. Among its attractions are the symbols printed beneath the Chinese characters on road signs and shop fronts （Starbucks included）. They are Dongba pictographs, an ancient form of script（文字）that originated among the Naxi, a local ethnic group. It almost died until about a decade ago, when local officials began to realize its value and covered the town with it.

Dongba was never widely used by the Naxi, of whom there are about 300,000 living in the Himalayan foothills near Lijiang, as well as in Tibet and Sichuan province. The pictographs, which evolved as early as the seventh century, were developed by shamans （巫 师）of the Dongba faith, which has roots in Tibet.

Over 20,000 of these religious records survive. They provide rich insight into how Naxi people thought about war, geography, astronomy and agriculture. But they are extremely hard to read. Linguists are helped by the area's Dongba priests（神职人员）. There are about 600, most of them very old, including Yang Guoxing, who ran a school from 2010 to 2015 to teach Dongba to children living in the mountains. When Mr Yang was growing up, “everyone was too busy farming” to learn it. Now they are all busy soaking up the pop culture， he says.

Signs at bus stations in rural Yunnan encourage locals to use written and spoken Chinese. But the Naxi get off lightly compared with other ethnic minorities. Primary schools in Lijiang teach the Dongba script twice a week, as well as Naxi nursery rhymes. Li Dejing, head of the Dongba Culture Research Institute, says this is not just about keeping alive the pictographs, but letting children grasp “the very spirit of their own culture”. And this will also help tourism to develop in Lijiang.

【推荐1】Recently, Donald Trump, the President of American, announced his budgets, one of which would cut all funding to the Institute of Museum and Library services and libraries across the United States. However, as far as I'm concerned, we need to rescue our libraries.

Libraries provide books and after- school programs for children. They encourage literacy (识字) with summer programs. They help inspire a life time love of learning and reading in children of all ages. Without them, where will kids with no Internet at home do their homework? Where will kids have a place to study or borrow books after school? Therefore, we need libraries for our kids. We need them so that kids can grow up with a place, other than school, where learning and exploration is encouraged. For adults, libraries serve as a place where they can use the Internet to apply for jobs, get job training, early voting centers as well as book clubs to help make new friends. It can also serve as a place to pick up a book and learn something new. What's more, they can also borrow a book and get away from it all

Libraries save our information for the next generation. When we live in an age of alternative facts, where science is ignored in favor of personal feelings, we need libraries now more than ever. We need them to educate ourselves on the facts and hold the government responsible for them. We need them to have strong public participation.

If you assent to me, you shouldn't be silent on this issue. You can write or call directly to tell the president to rescue our libraries. You can also write to both your state Senators (参议员) and your district representative. If you do not know who they are, you can find out here. Let them know this is a beneficial issue because all people use public libraries in their daily life.

【推荐3】With the help of a robot created by Washington State University (WSU) , scientists could help elderly people with dementia and other limitations live independently in their own homes.

The Robot Activity Support System, or RAS, uses sensors equipped in a WSU smart home to determine where its residents are, what they are doing and when they need assistance with daily activities. It navigates through rooms and around obstacles to find people on its own, provides video instructions on how to do simple tasks and can even lead its owners to objects like their medication or a snack in the kitchen.

“RAS combines the convenience of a mobile robot with the activity detection technology of a WSU smart home to provide assistance in the moment, as the need for help is detected.“ said Bryan Minor, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Currently, about 50 percent adults over the age of 85 need assistance with everyday activities such as preparing meals and taking medication and the annual cost for this assistance in the US is nearly $2 trillion. With the number of adults over 85 expected to triple by 2050, researchers hope that technologies like RAS and the WSU smart home will relieve some of the financial pressure on the healthcare system by making it easier for older adults to live alone.

RAS is the first robot researchers have tried to apply to their smart home environment. They recently published a study in the journal Cognitive Systems Research that shows how RAS could make life easier for older adults struggling to live independently.

“While we are still in an early stage of development, our initial results with RAS have been promising,” Minor said. “The next step in the research will be to test RAS’ performance with a group of older adults to get a better idea of what video reminders and other preferences they have regarding the robot.”

【推荐2】Florence Nightingale was named after her birthplace, Florence, Italy. When she was almost a year old, she returned with her family to England.

Florence often helped her mother deliver (运送) food to the poor and sick.     1     Her family was shocked because nursing was not a respected profession (职业).

But Florence was determined. She studied books on medicine. Later, she visited hospitals in France, Germany and Ireland and learned everything she could.     2    

In 1854, Britain was at war with Russia, Florence went to the British hospital in Scutari and she was shocked. The hospital left men lying on the floor, and rats were running everywhere.     3     Many soldiers died before receiving help.

The doctors wouldn’t listen to Florence because they didn’t like the idea of women in army hospitals – until one day 500 unexpected casualties (伤亡者) arrived.     4     Florence made changes, making sure the men were washed and their injuries were cared for. Every night she would check the patients with her lamp.

When she returned home after the war, a fund had been set up in her honor. Many of the soldiers she had nursed had made contributions (捐款). Now she could set up the Nightingale Training School in London.

After years of hard work, Florence Nightingale saw cleaner and more cheerful hospitals.     5     All of this was because of the “lady with the lamp”.

【推荐3】The following is excerpted(节选) from the speech given by the Queen of the UK on April 5th, 2020. “I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all.”

I want to thank everyone on the NHS(国家医疗服务体系) front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all. I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times.

I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable (弱势群体) and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones. Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure(使安心) you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it.

I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes (标志) of self-discipline, of quiet good-humored resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.

The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children."

"While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour(竭力) ,using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed and that success will belong to every one of us.

We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure(忍受) ,better days will return: we will be with our friends again;

We will be with our families again;

We will meet again.

But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all.