Cities can be lovely and green homes for plants and animals. Many cities around the world want to make this come true. Let’s see how they do that!

Milan, Forest city

In the center of Milan, Italy, there are two tall buildings. Green plants cover them. They look like forests in the air. The “forests” have 800 trees, 15, 000 small plants and 5, 000 bushes. The area of these plants cover is the same as 30, 000 square meters of woodland. People plant them in big pots on large balconies. They attract 1, 600 kinds of birds and butterflies.

Cape Town, Cat city

Caracals (狞猫) live in Cape Town (开普敦) , South Africa. Cars cause 70 percent of their deaths. To save the big cats, people catch and mark cats. They also give the cats radio collars (电子项圈) . The collars tell people where the cats go. Then, people put signs at these places. Seeing the signs, cars can slow down and help take care of the cats.

Costa Rica, Sweet City

If bees could choose a place to live, they might want to live in Costa Rica (哥斯达黎加) . The city is doing its best to make bees feel at home. There, bees and other pollinators (传粉者) like butterflies, birds and bats are all seen as citizens. In the city, there’re flowers along every sidewalk so that bees and butterflies have food. It also builds “bee hotels” around the city. These are safe places for bees to live. It’s now nicknamed “Sweet City”!

2 . Jed couldn’t keep the tears running down his face. His friend, Rob, wanted to help, but the more he talked about it, the worse Jed felt. “I know how terrible you must feel,” Rob said, “Everyone on the team thought the coach would choose you. He must be crazy to let Tom swim the breaststroke(蛙泳)!”

When the coach told him about the date and place of the state swimming meeting for boys of 15 and under, Jed was sure he would be swimming the breaststroke. He even told his family that the team couldn’t win the event without him. When the coach chose Tom Timons, the new boy from Springfield, to swim the breaststroke, Jed could hardly believe it. Coach Robertson told Jed he could swim on the relay team, but that offered little consolation. “I may leave the team,” he told Rob. “I’d rather not swim at all than be on the relay team.” “I don’t know whether you should do that or not,” Rob said. “We need you on the relay team. Of course, if you say you won’t swim at all, the coach may change his mind and let you swim the breaststroke.” Jed left Rob and headed towards home. He knew it would be embarrassing to have to tell his family and his friends that someone else would take his place. He wondered if he should make up a story and tell his mom and dad that he asked the coach to put the new boy in. Jed didn’t know what to do.

3 . It is very important for us to know some Chinese table manners. In China, the dishes are put on the table and everyone shares. A lot of dishes will be served if you are treated by a Chinese host. Chinese people take pride in their culture of cooking and try their best to show their hospitality（好客）.

The meal usually begins with at least four cold dishes, followed by the main courses of hot meat and vegetable dishes. Soup then will be served after the staple food（主食）like rice and noodles.

Sometimes the Chinese host uses his chopsticks to put food in your bowl. This is a sign of politeness. It is always polite to eat it and say how delicious it is. If you feel uncomfortable with this, you can thank the host and leave the food there.

There are some things you should pay attention to. Don’t stick your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl. Lay them on your bowl instead. The reason for this is that Chinese people usually do something like this after someone dies. Besides,don’t hit your bowl with your chop-sticks. Beggars hit their bowls, so this is not polite. Don’t drink alone because alcohol is a social drink.

The Chinese hosts prefer to provide more food than guests need because it is embarrassing if all the food is eaten up.

4 . My mother is a teacher, and I grew up with the challenges a teacher faces. I often asked her, “Why do you teach? What keeps you teaching?” The answer was always the same. “There is always that one child, that one moment that is worth.

Now, I am a teacher, too. But different from my mother, I teach students challenging activities outdoors. And when my mother asked me the similar questions, my answer was “it’s that one child, that one special moment.”

One of those moments happened recently. I was working with a group of girls in a four-week programme. Everything went on well through the “Team” events and we were moving on to a “High” one called the Wire(钢索)walk.

In the Wire Walk, each girl had to climb up the pegs(木桩)in a tree to a wire, 8 meters high, and then walk across it. Of course, everything was safe for sure.

When I asked who would try, a few girls raised their hands, and they finished the Wire Walk with little difficulty.

But when it was Susie’s turn, it seemed that she didn’t really want to. I asked Susie if she was ready. She answered softly, “I suppose.”

Now, Susie was at the foot of the tree. She started to make the long reach for the first peg. The other girls cheered for her. Then I found Susie was becoming nervous with every step. I realized she would not go much further.

Susie was halfway up. Then she stopped and held the tree tight, looking very afraid. Her eyes were closed. With her face against the tree, she cried, “I can’t.”

The other girls sat in silence. I talked quietly to Susie, trying to relax her. I talked for a long time till I ran out of words.

“I will still be your friend no matter what, Susie!” Mary broke the silence.

To my surprise, Susie lifted her head and looked up to the wire. Then she turned to look down at Mary and smiled. Mary smiled back.

Finally, Susie made it all the way across that wire. When she returned to the ground, the first hug she looked for was from ________.

We all cheered.

Moments like this keep me doing what I do. The young hearts continue to fill me with courage.

6 . It is necessary for students to learn some team skills like developing relationships, communicating well with others and solving problems. Here are two fun team activities.

Activity 1: Water Relay (接力赛)

Tools

Two large buckets (水桶) to hold water

One small bucket for each team member

Instructions

Fill one large bucket with water.

Make holes in the bottom of the small buckets.

Have the team members line up between the two large buckets.

Pass the water from one large bucket to the other, using small buckets. Try to keep as much water as possible.

Why It’s Fun

It’s fun to work out a way to lose as little water as possible.

It’s water. Isn’t it fun to get you wet on a hot summer day?

Activity 2: Truth and Lie

This activity will allow team members to learn about each other.

Instructions

Have each team member think of three pieces of information about themselves, and one of them is a lie.

Each team member tells the group all the three pieces of information. Let the other team members guess which is the lie.

Why It’s Fun

Students love talking about themselves and this gives them the chance to do so.

Members can learn about each other.

Members will be surprised at what others think of them.

8 . Today we can do everything with apps. However, when it comes to technology and health care, chances and challenges come together.

Telemedicine can allow a patient to use technology to see the doctor online and get a diagnosis (诊断) and instructions without leaving home. In addition, there are many patient websites. These allow for different kinds of interactions about our health needs without the medical team.

However, every coin has two sides. What might be on the other side of techno-health care?

Firstly, we should think about the health care experience as a whole. A usual visit to a doctor begins with a receptionist (接待员) , who can see and know how a patient is doing. This may influence the treatment effect. It’s impossible that a patient website will have such intuition.

Next, sharing the details of one's life requires trust, which takes time to build. This is certainly true in health care, where patients can share some of life's best and worst moments with doctors. This human touch maybe isn’t there over the smartphone.

Lastly, test results can be difficult to understand. When someone without a medical degree sees a flagged(打记号的) result with no explanation on the website, there's room for all kinds of stories in their minds—and also great worry.

So how does medicine adapt (适应) to the new technology age? Very talented companies are working on it. There is medical equipment (设备) that can be used at home to send necessary signs and heart sounds through telemedicine. It seems likely that some companies will find a way to explain test results.

But what it will not achieve is the warmth of human interaction and touch. Patients often need someone to listen to and care about their journey story, which will never be realized through technology. Technology should be a tool, but depending on it completely will most certainly have unexpected effects. Let's not allow our humanity to be one of them.

10 . Outside, it’s a cold winter day. Inside a large shopping center, people are hanging around. But then, without warning, a pop song starts to play loudly. A teenage boy walks lazily to the center of the open space, and dances crazily to the music. He’s joined by two of his friends, then some of the old people. In a few seconds, more than sixty people are dancing to the music-all in time and all in step. At first, onlookers (旁观者) are puzzled, and then they start smiling and clapping. They now know what they’re seeing: a flash mob (快闪).

According to Wikipedia, the term “flash mob” was created by Bill Wasik, a magazine editor in 2003. It was so popular that the phrase entered the Oxford English Dictionary in a year. Since then, hundreds-possibly thousands-of flash mobs have been performed around the world, in almost every kind of public space you can imagine.

Each flash mob has its own style, but most flash mobs follow a similar formula (方案). Often, the organizers search for willing participants (参与者) using social media. Instructions and dance moves are given through the Internet. There are usually several rehearsals (排练) before the big day.

While it’s happening, a few lucky passers-by watch it live. Most people, however, will see it later online. Some of the most popular flash mobs on YouTube have been watched more than 10 million times. A famous example is MP3 Experiment Eight, a flash mob that took place in New York City in July 2011 with over 3,500 participants. This event was different from normal flash mobs because much of it was completely silent-there was no sound, and there was no rehearsal.

Flash mobs provide the participants, onlookers and online viewers with a lot of enjoyment and pleasure. For this reason alone, they’re a modern, popular art form that should be celebrated.