2 . The summer vacation is drawing near. Here we have prepared a visual feast for our boys and girls. Let’s feast our eyes first.

Jurassic World Dominion

It is the final film in the second trilogy of dino-movies, and it’s the first one which really deserves to be called “Jurassic World” rather than “Jurassic Park”. Yes, prehistoric dinosaurs are out and about in the wild this time, rather than being stuck in a theme park.

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Official Competition

Cruz and Banderas have been two of Spanish cinema’s famous superstars for decades, and yet have only rarely acted on the screen together. Now, once again, that wrong has been righted by Official Competition. Cruz is an art-house director who is adapting a Nobel-Prize-winning novel in the film. Banderas plays a dull Hollywood action hero who is hired to star in it.

Director: Mariano Cohn & Gaston Duprat

Brian and Charles

Not a typical science-fiction movie, Brian and Charles is a low-budget, low-key British comedy starring and co-written by David Earl, a regular in Ricky Gervais’s sitcoms. “Brian and Charles is this year’s sweetest film by a country mile,” says Cory. “It’s like Edgar Wright’s The Mighty Boosh project thrown into a cotton-candy machine, and it is also one of the most surprising films about being a parent, even when your son is a 7-feet-tall robot who loves cabbages.”

Director: Jim Archer

Lightyear

After four Toy Story films, everyone’s favourite space ranger action figure, Buzz Lightyear, gets to leave Woody and friends behind, and go off on an adventure on his own. Or so you might assume so. In fact, the latest Pixar cartoon isn’t about the toy.

Director: Angus MacLane

3 . Frank and his brother Jack lived near the ocean. Frank was outgoing while Jack was shy. They liked doing different things. Frank was famous for organizing games of beach volleyball, football, and any other sport imaginable. Jack preferred to draw, paint, or build sandcastles (沙堡).

Frank didn’t understand why Jack would rather do artistic things than play ball. He believed sports often allowed many kids to play together. That was when Jack’s idea hatched. He would show Frank what doing things together looked like!

After Jack finished creating a special sandcastle with stairs, towers and walls, he took pictures of it. Then he painted colorful posters featuring (突出) his sandcastle and the question, “Can you top this?” He hung his posters everywhere in town, announcing his plan for a day of sandcastle artistry-all ages welcome.

When Frank saw poster, he not so nicely told Jack that no one would come. Still, shortly after sunrise on Saturday, Jack was on the beach digging in the sand. By mid-morning, four kids were sculpting (雕塑) the sand alongside him. By noon the number had increased a lot.

After Frank came back from his ball game, he went to check how his brother’s plan turned out. He couldn’t believe what he saw. At least 30 people were building a city of sandcastles, and everyone was chatting and laughing and working together! It was the most beautiful thing he had seen on the beach.

“I guess you’ve proved me wrong,” Frank said. “You should make this sandcastle day a yearly tradition!” Handing Frank a shovel (铲子) with smile, Jack got started together with his brother on their super creation in the sand.

7 . Lightning flashed through the darkness over Sibson’s bedroom skylight (天窗). Sibson was shaken by a clap of thunder _______ he knew what was happening. The storm had moved directly over his two-story wooden house. Then he heard the smoke alarm beeping.  

Sibson rushed down the stairs barefoot to _______; he opened the door to the basement, and flames _______ out. Sibson ran back upstairs to call 911 from his bedroom. “I felt _______ because the room had a separate outdoor stairway,” he explains.  

But the phone didn’t work, and when he tried to go down the outdoor stairway, he was _______ by a wall of flames. Sibson realised he was trapped.  

Sibson’s house was three kilometres _______ the main road and was so well hidden by trees that he knew calling for help would be _______.  

Up a hill nearby lived Sibson’s neighbour, Huggons. He was lying in bed when something like a smoke alarm _______ his ears. He jumped out of bed, took his phone and flashlight, and headed down the hillside toward the _______. That was when he saw the rolling heavy smoke.  

Huggons dialed 911, and the operator warned him not to enter the house. But Huggons said, “There is no way that I am going to listen to Sibson ________ and die in that fire.” 

“Anyone there?” Huggons called out. Then he heard “Help! I’m trapped!” coming from the second-floor balcony (阳台). He entered the house, but soon had to run back to catch his ________.  

After one more ________ inside the house, Huggons gave up and circled around back.  

The wind parted the smoke just ________ for him to catch sight of Sibson. But there was no way to get to him. He shone the flashlight into the woods and noticed a ladder. He took it over to the balcony and ________ Sibson down just as the second floor of the house fell off.  

Sibson is still ________ when he tells the story. “I was alone that night,” he says. “Then I heard the most beautiful sound in my life. It was Huggons.”

8 . When I entered Berkeley, I hoped to earn a scholarship. Having been a straight A student, I believed I could ________ tough subjects and really learn something. One such course was World Literature given by Professor Jayne. I was extremely interested in the ideas he ________ in class.

When I took the first exam, I was ________ to find a 77, C-plus, on my test paper, ________ English was my best subject. I went to Professor Jayne, who listened to my arguments but remained unmoved.

I decided to try harder, although I didn’t know what that ________ because school had always been easy for me. I read the books more carefully, but got another 77. Again, I ________ with Professor Jayne. Again, he listened patiently but wouldn’t change his mind.

One more test before the final exam, one more ________ to improve my grade. So I redoubled my efforts and, for the first time, ________ the meaning of the word “thorough”. But my ________ did no good and everything went as before.

The last hurdle (障碍) was the final. No matter what ________ I got, it wouldn’t cancel three C-pluses. I might as well kiss the ________ goodbye.

I stopped working hard. I felt I knew the course material as well as I ever would. The night before the final, I even ________ myself to a movie. The next day I decided for once I’d have fun with a test.

A week later, I was surprised to find I got an A. I hurried into Professor Jayne’s office. He seemed to be expecting me. “If I gave you the As you ________, you wouldn’t continue to work as hard.”

I stared at him, ________ that his analysis and strategy (策略) were correct. I had worked my head ________, as I had never done before.

I was speechless when my course grade arrived: A-plus. It was the only A-plus given. The next year I received my scholarship. I’ve always remembered Professor Jayne’s lesson: you alone must set your own standard of excellence.

9 . Tu Youyou has become the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize for her work in helping to discover a crucial new treatment for malaria. The 84-year-old’s route to the honour has been anything but traditional. In China, she is being called the “three nos” winner: no medical degree, no doctorate, and she’s never worked overseas.

In 1967, malaria, a deadly disease at that time, spread by mosquitoes was decimating Chinese soldiers fighting Americans in the jungles of northern Vietnam. A secret research unit “Mission 523” was formed to find a cure for the illness. Two years later Tu Youyou was instructed to become the new head of “Mission 523”.

The team read ancient books carefully for a long time to find historical methods of fighting malaria. When she started her search for the medicine for malaria, more than 240,000 compounds around the world had already been tested, without any success. Finally, the team found a brief reference to one substance, sweet wormwood, which had been used to treat malaria in China around 400 CE. The team took out one active compound in wormwood, and then tested it.

But nothing was effective until Tu Youyou returned to the original ancient text. After another careful reading, she changed the drug recipe one final time, heating the compound without allowing it to reach boiling point.

After the drug showed promising results in mice and monkeys, Tu Youyou volunteered to be the first human recipient of the new drug. In any case, Tu Youyou is consistently praised for her drive and passion. One former colleague, Li Lianda, says Ms Tu is “unsociable and quite straightforward”, adding that “if she disagrees with something, she will say it.”

Another colleague, Liao Fuming, who has worked with Tu Youyou for more than 40 years, describes her as a “tough and stubborn woman”. Stubborn enough to spend decades piecing together ancient texts, she applies them to modern scientific practices. The result has saved millions of lives.

10 . If you really want to go green, here’s good news:eating green is good for you. The very foods with a high carbon (碳) cost — meat, pork, dairy products, processed snacks — also tend to be filled with fat and calories. A green diet would be mostly vegetables and fruit, whole grains (全谷物), fish and lean meats (瘦肉) like chicken — a diet that is good for environment and your figure. Eating green can be healthier and beneficial to the climate.

It may be hard to believe that a meal in a fast-food restaurant produces more carbon than your trip to a faraway place. More than 37% of the world’s land is used for agriculture, much of which was once forested. Deforestation (砍伐森林) is a major source of carbon. The fertilizer (化肥) and machinery needed on a modern farm also have a large carbon footprint, as does the network of ships and trucks that brings the food from the farm to your plate.

The most efficient way to reduce the carbon footprint of your menu is to eat less meat, especially beef. Raising cattle takes a lot more energy than growing the equivalent (相等的) amount of grains, fruit or vegetables. What’s more, the majority of cattle in the US are fed on grain and loads of it — 670 million tons in 2002 — and the fertiliser used to feed that creates separate environmental problems.

Focus on eating lower on the food chain, with more plants and fruits and less meat and dairy. It’s simple. We can change today what goes into our bodies for the health of our planet and ourselves.