1 . Fifteen volunteers have come out a difficult situation from a cave (洞穴) in the southwest of France after spending 40 days without clocks, phones, or sunlight for a human isolation experiment. The group had no communication with the outside world and was not able to use any electronic devices.

Eight men and seven women were grouped to live in the cave as part of a $ 1.4 million project called Deep Time, which set out to explore the limits of human ability to gradually change their behaviour and attitudes in the new situation. The experiment ended after 40 days.

During their time in the cave, the volunteers slept in tents and made their own electricity with a bike since there was no natural light. They also got water from a well (井) 146 feet below the earth. Since there was no sunlight, the team had to follow their biological clocks to know when to sleep, eat, or do daily tasks. To no one’s surprise, they quickly lost their sense of time.

One of the volunteers said he thought he had been underground for 23 days. Another volunteer said he ran 10-kilometer circles in the cave to stay fit. And he couldn’t wait to leave the cave. But other volunteers felt differently, with two-thirds saying they wanted to stay in the cave for longer. Some even thought it was as if they could press pause and stop to live.

During their time in the cave, scientists carefully watched and checked the volunteers including their sleeping patterns, social activities and cognitive functions (认知功能). The experiment will help scientists understand how human brains can help people adapt (适应) to serious living conditions in new situations.

2 . It’s three o’clock in the afternoon. The golden sunshine comes through the southern window of the main reading room of the Braille (盲文) Library of China (BLC), yet not a single reader can be seen.

This doesn’t mean the librarian is doing nothing. ________ She keeps an eye on We Chat while checking QQ for new messages, as well as being ready to answer the phone that might ring at any time. All calls and messages come from visually impaired (有视觉障碍的) people or their families.

Since it was set up in 1994, the BLC has been providing free mailing service for the visually impaired. They can just send messages or make phone calls to request the books they need and then wait at home for them to arrive. After finishing the books, they only need to stick a prepared address card to the mail bag that comes with the books and put it in the mailbox.

The service has helped many visually impaired people who want to learn at home. Cheng Donghao, a 22-year-old blind man, is one of the over 20, 000 people who directly benefit (获益) from it. Having been a member of the BLC for about 10 years, Cheng has borrowed Braille books since primary school. “Now, I am preparing for the 2022 college entrance exam and I want to learn traditional Chinese medicine in university,” he says.

“The best way of improving the lives of the visually impaired is to help them gain (获得) knowledge,” says Zhu Bing, head of the BLC.

3 . It’s been over a year since COVID-19 first appeared and the virus continues to be a problem in many parts of the world,scientists have realized the development of vaccines (疫苗) is a solution to the pandemic. A global effort to vaccinate as many people as possible would be needed, since vaccines typically take years to develop.

On Dec 2, 2020, the first COVID vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine, was approved (批准) by UK health department. However, these vaccines must be stored at very low temperatures, which is not possible everywhere. In response, Chinese companies like Sinopharm and Sinovac have developed vaccines that can be kept at normal temperatures.

Now, vaccines are being rolled out all over the world, with millions of people being vaccinated every day. In China, 285 million vaccine doses (剂量) had been given so far. Meanwhile, the US has given out 247 million doses. The UK now stands at 50 million doses.

Although there have been rumors about vaccines being unsafe, most of people seem to realize the importance of vaccination for building mass immunity (群体免疫) in order to stop the virus from spreading. The world has come to understand that the vaccines will protect us. Therefore, sharing vaccines has become a key factor of staying safe and healthy worldwide.

Unfortunately, not everyone can get the vaccine yet. Children below the age of 16 can’t be vaccinated because they have not yet been tested on them. Those who have a history of vaccine allergies (过敏) shouldn’t get it, either.