4 . From July 19 to 24, I travelled to the Shiyanghe Basin in Wuwei, located in the heart of a desert in Northwest China’s Gansu province. Looking down from the plane on the way to the destination, all I saw was endless ranges of desert mountains and sands, which made it a breathtaking transformation when I saw green gardens and fruit farms upon arrival.

A local farmer in this landscape shared his success story of enlarging his farm through greenhouse crop production with me. Thanks to the greenhouse technology, his farm has grown from 10 workers, to around 100 within 10 years. The key role of women in agriculture is also praised, as their contributions increase the energy of the landscape.

We also visited a greenhouse with vertical (垂直的) watermelon farming. It was a well-aired, strategically positioned structure with shade cloth, vertical supports, drip irrigation (滴灌), good lighting, and insect management. It was amazing how technology can transform limited space into a great agricultural powerhouse, which not only increases outputs but also reduces environmental impact. What’s even more impressive is that it’s a great approach: It doesn’t stop at farming but can be used in food processing industries. This ensures that the journey from seed to consumers is seamless (无缝的), maintaining product quality and reducing waste.

I learned that Wuwei, although located in a region famous for its dryness, has attempted to become a major supplier of fruits and vegetables, competing with other regions in southern China which have sufficient water resources and good weather conditions. Through advanced irrigation techniques like drip systems, controlled environments, and effective resource management, they show the power of sustainable agriculture and the untiring spirit of those who transform deserts into fruitful landscapes.

5 . In an inspiring series of events over six years, a remarkable woman has turned up as the guardian angel for one family. She ______ a man from a life-threatening situation and later saved his daughter’s life.

Six years ago, Kristi Hadfield was a nurse who saved John Cunningham’s life when he was ______ a heart attack. “At the time I ______ being in the back of the ambulance and I was like, ‘Not today John, not today,’” Hadfield recalled. She performed chest compressions (按压) until they ______ the hospital. ______ , doctors were able to get him back.

Hadfield stayed in ______ with Cunningham through social media, as she often does with ______ patients. She also became Internet friends with his daughter, Molly Jones, after Jones sent her a friend ______ on the Internet. On July7, Jones ______ on the Internet that she was officially on the kidney transplant (肾移植) list. She was ill with advanced kidney disease. Although she found it hard to ask for help, she wanted to see if anyone would ______ donating.

“And when I posted it, I got a(n) ______ from Kristi,” Jones said. Hadfield messaged Jones and said, “Hey, I’ve got your kidney here.” Hadfield was eventually cleared to be a kidney ______ and the two women met for the first time. And on December 27, the operation finally ______ . The operation went as planned and was ______ . “It was amazing. Kristi gave me back my ______ ,” Jones said.

6 . Simone Biles is a remarkable athlete, having won 7 Olympic medals across two Olympic Games. However, in 2020, she shocked the world when she quitted from the Tokyo Games due to some mental problems. Many praised it as a brave decision, as mental health is just as important as physical health. The athlete said she often suddenly lost the sense of direction during the Games, which meant she could no longer sense her body move in the air. It is dangerous for any athlete.

Since then, Biles has focused on her personal life, marrying the love of her life in the process. Recently, USA Gymnastics announced that Biles is ready to return to gymnastics. She is scheduled to compete at the coming US Classic in August, and fans are waiting eagerly to see her in action. Joining Biles in the upcoming competition are 12 Olympic and 16 World Championships roster members. Some notable names include Olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee and 2020 Olympic floor champion Jade Carey, among others.

Before Simone Biles became a successful athlete, she and her siblings experienced a “hungry” childhood. Biles’ love for gymnastics began on a field trip. They visited a local gymnasium, where she was given a flyer (传单) to join the program. Biles was a natural, but she didn’t see her potential right away. Little did she know, but everybody else around her did. Her difficult beginnings set the stage for Biles to become one of the most successful sportswomen. Her parents gave their 100% support for her to grow up in the environment she was great at.

Biles has everything she could need to live a golden life— a supportive family, a loving boyfriend and a passion, which also happens to be her career. At 26 years old, she has her whole life ahead of her and is expected to continue dominating (统治) the gymnastics world in the coming years.

7 . Best Parks to See Wildlife

A recent report from a vacation site listed the total number of species and sizes of several well-known national parks. Here are some of them to see the widest variety of animals.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio

Number of species per square meter: 317

Located 20 miles southwest of Cleveland, Ohio, Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a mixed ecosystem of forest and wetlands sheltering a variety of animals. From the boardwalk at Beaver Marsh, watch for water-loving mammals or snapping turtles (鳄龟) that can weigh as much as 55 pounds each. More than 200 bird species live in the park.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

Number of species per square meter: 286

The representative for Carlsbad Caverns is the Brazilian free-tailed bat. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of the furry, big-eared creatures live in these caves in southeastern New Mexico, attracting crowds at sunset with their spectacular out flight. The Brazilians are one of the 17 bat species that nest at Carlsbad. You might also encounter wild pigs and cave swallows.

Acadia National Park, Maine

Number of species per square meter: 242

The Atlantic Ocean meets the Maine coast at this popular park on Mount Desert Island, providing habitat for wildlife with feet and flippers (鳍状肢). From the shore, scan the water for the heads of harbor porpoises (鼠海豚) and gray seals.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

Number of species per square meter: 219

In western Colorado, the 2, 722 feet between this park s canyon edge and the Gunnison River below support numerous wildlife habitats. Experienced climbers and hikers who adventure into the inner canyon find collared lizards and mule deer.

8 . In our information-driven society, shaping our worldview through the media is similar to forming an opinion about someone solely based on a picture of their foot. While the media might not deliberately deceive us, it often fails to provide a comprehensive view of reality.

Consequently, the question arises: Where, then, shall we get our information from if not from the media? Who can we trust? How about experts—people who devote their working lives to understanding their chosen slice of the world? However, even experts can fall prey to the allure of oversimplification, leading to the “single perspective instinct” that hampers(阻碍)our ability to grasp the intricacies of the world.

Simple ideas can be appealing because they offer a sense of understanding and certainty. And it is easy to take off down a slippery slope, from one attention-grabbing simple idea to a feeling that this idea beautifully explains, or is the beautiful solution for, lots of other things. The world becomes simple that way.

Yet, when we embrace a singular cause or solution for all problems, we risk oversimplifying complex issues. For instance, championing the concept of equality may lead us to view all problems through the lens of inequality and see resource distribution as the sole panacea. However, such rigidity prevents us from seeing the multidimensional nature of challenges and hinders true comprehension of reality. This “single perspective instinct” ultimately clouds our judgment and restricts our capacity to tackle complex issues effectively.

It saves a lot of time to think like this. You can have opinions and answers without having to learn about a problem from scratch and you can get on with using your brain for other tasks. But it’s not so useful if you like to understand the world. Being always in favor of or always against any particular idea makes you blind to information that doesn’t fit your perspective. This is usually a bad approach if you would like to understand reality.

Instead, constantly test your favorite ideas for weaknesses. Be humble about the extent of your expertise. Be curious about new information that doesn’t fit, and information from other fields. And rather than talking only to people who agree with you, or collecting examples that fit your ideas, consult people who contradict you, disagree with you, and put forward different ideas as a great resource for understanding the world. I have been wrong about the world so many times. Sometimes, coming up against reality is what helps me see my mistakes, but often it is talking to, and trying to understand, someone with different ideas.

If this means you don’t have time to form so many opinions, so what? Wouldn’t you rather have few opinions that are right than many that are wrong?

9 . Gardeners who use pesticides are contributing to the decline of British songbirds, a study suggests. Scientists have urged people to stop “spraying their gardens with poisons” in order to halt bird decline and adopt instead wildlife-friendly practices. The results of the University of Sussex study, which researchers call the first of its kind, were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The experiment, which surveyed 615 gardens in Britain, found 25% fewer house sparrows when glyphosate (草甘膦) was used regularly. This is an ingredient found in commonly used herbicide (除草剂) brands such as Roundup or Gallup. Slug pellets (鼻涕虫杀虫剂) also seemed to have an impact on bird sightings; in gardens where Slug pellets were used, house sparrow numbers were down by almost 40%.

Prof. Dave Goulson, of the school of life sciences at the University of Sussex, said, “The UK has 22 million gardens, which collectively could be a fantastic refuge for wildlife, but not if they are overly tidy and sprayed with poisons. We just don’t need pesticides in our gardens. Many towns around the world are now pesticide free. We should simply ban the use of these poisons in urban areas, following the example of France.” The Royal Horticultural Society, the UK’s leading gardening charity, said the use of pesticides and herbicides should be avoided if possible and they should only be used, if ever, in small and targeted applications.

The research also found that those who adopted wildlife-friendly practices such as planting native shrubs and flowers, or digging a wildlife pond, saw more birds than those who did not. Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, a PhD researcher within the school of life sciences and an author of the study, said, “It’s encouraging to find that simple measures, such as planting native shrubs and trees and creating a pond, together with avoiding the use of pesticides, really make a measurable difference to the number of birds you will see in your garden.”