1 . Suddenly screams echo through the forest as alarmed animals warn each other of a predator’s (食肉动物) approach. Lying on my stomach with my camera in front of me, I’ve been watching a nearby stream for hours, waiting. This may be it!

Yes! A 380-pound lioness steps from the trees, heading towards the stream. She crouches (蹲伏) down to drink. She’s only 50 yards away. She stands up and begins to walk towards me, not knowing I’m there. When she’s just about 20 yards away, I move my camera slightly. I don’t want to shock or panic her. She freezes for a moment, then take a crouching position and continues towards me. I’m thinking, “Uh-oh, I’m about to become cat food!” I’ve approached lions before, but now the lion approaches me.

If I stand up and yell, will she leave? Maybe not. If I stand up and run, will she chase me? Probably! So I decided to stay put.

The lioness comes closer. Now she’s only about four yards from me—the closest distance that still allows me to focus my camera lens. Surprisingly, she lies down, posing like a statue in front of me. This makes me feel very small and humble (卑微的). Then she rolls over and looks at me upside down! She seems a little puzzled and appears to be trying to figure me out —Hmm, are you suitable to be eaten? You don’t look dangerous.

Breathe slowly, I remind myself, with my heart beating fast. I carefully back up my tripod (三脚架) just a bit to focus and shoot the picture. Suddenly, she leaps up. In a flash, she runs away, leaving me overwhelmed with emotion.

Getting this photograph took a long time. I spent two years waiting for a permit to track the extremely rare Asiatic lions in the Gir Forest of India and spent three months on foot searching for them. The experience felt like a gift from the forest.

Music can be a good form of therapy. It is actually used as a tool to help those with Alzheimer’s (阿尔茨海默氏症) remember very special memories and 【小题1】 (event).

Marta C. Gonzalez, 【小题2】 was a ballerina (芭蕾舞女演员) in the 1960s, danced to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake hundreds of times during her career. But later in life, Alzheimer’s stole these 【小题3】 (beauty) memories from her.

In a popular video 【小题4】(upload) onto YouTube, Marta remembered she was once a dancer. You can see her face light up when the music begins to play. Her hands move 【小题5】 (graceful) to the song, and you can see her go into her happy place. As a person with Alzheimer’s, Marta really 【小题6】 (struggle) with short-term memory. But through music therapy, she 【小题7】 (take), even for a brief moment, to a happier time. The video ended with a photo of Marta in 1967, 【小题8】 (wear) her ballerina costume. It was so touching that all the audience clapped for her 【小题9】 (perform).

Marta died in 2019. A Spanish music therapy group called Música para Despertar filmed the video before her death but didn’t share it 【小题10】 recently. And the incredible video quickly took off!

4 . Silbo Gomero is an ancient language of whistle that enabled people to communicate across long distances before the invention of the telephone or the computer. It’s now being revived on mountainous Canary Islands and the island of La Gomera, where the usual language is Spanish.

The Canary Islands government is providing funding to help school children on La Gomera to learn this ancient whistling language as part of their heritage. It sounds like birdsongs and was developed thousands of years ago by islanders to enable them to communicate up to two miles across La Gomera’s valleys.

In the past, Silbo Gomero has been passed down from parent to child, but the islanders felt embarrassed at this form of communication when they came into contact with the outside world and modern technology. It started to die out when the telephone arrived and the island open to tourism. However, the government realized what was happening and decided to make sure that it would not be lost. So, since 1999 Silbo Gomero has been part of the school curriculum and now about 3,000 Gomero children spend at least 25 minutes a week learning it. This is enough time for the basics to be learned.

Probably originating in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, the language was brought to the island by settlers 2,500 years ago. It was adapted to Spanish speech patterns, but uses tones rather than vowels and consonants (辅音). These are whistled at different frequencies (频率) to produce over 4,000 words, making proper conversations possible.

The importance of the language is growing. In 2003 the island held the first International Congress of Whistled Languages. Research is now being carried out in all places to which Gomerans have traditionally emigrated (移居国外) and where forms of the language survive. The Canary government’s Historical Heritage Department hopes to attract outside support so that it will continue.