1 . J. K. Rowling frequently shows there is magic every day. Her Harry Potter series has helped people through times of stress and depression and she is always there to deliver wise words of encouragement.

She is one celebrity who is very active on Twitter. So when a single dad named Matt Burke sent her a message thanking her for the series, she noticed. Her series had helped strengthen his relationship with his 9­year­old daughter Bailey.

He included a link to his article titled Being a Broke Parent. He explained how he hadn’t found a level of financial stability that allowed him to pay bills on time and take his daughter on more activities and events. The family also doesn’t have the Internet or TV, which means there’s no “digital babysitter” and he has to rely on his own creative ways to bond with his daughter. Since he received the series, the main thing that has occupied them these days is reading books together.

Burke admits that he thought he was “too cool” for the books when they first came out and he was in his twenties, but he’s loving reading them now. “We switch off chapter by chapter reading them out loud，“Burke explains.” This not only allows her to get more used to reading aloud in front of someone, but it gets me directly involved in something she loves, and it gives me the chance to be very dramatic when I read my chapters and bring myself into the characters in the book, which has proven to be a ton of fun.”

After hearing Burke’s story, Rowling said how honored she was when Harry Potter was a part of his family’s life and offered Burke more books. Besides, people are also offering to send Burke more books as gifts. For Burke, this experience, far more than gifts, will be what he treasures.

3 . When did you last write a letter? Properly write one—by hand? In a digital world, sending a text or e-mail is far more convenient than using traditional mail. Well, some people claim that writing still has many benefits, so maybe it’s not time to throw away your ballpoint or fountain pen yet.

These days, when people request things in writing, a typed, electronic document will be accepted. Doing this on a computer means it could be saved, edited, copied and sent via e-mail. But doing a handwritten document is unique: It requires planning and thought, and, as well as practising your handwriting, it helps you to remember spelling and punctuation (标点符号).

Some experts believe your brain benefits from using old-fashioned pen and paper. This is particularly related to students, because typing notes into a laptop is thought to lack the “tactile feedback (触觉反馈)” to the brain. They think taking notes by hand involves cognitive (认知的) engagement in summarising, paraphrasing, organizing, concept and vocabulary mapping. They also agree that handwriting may improve fine movement skills of your hands and fingers.

There are everyday benefits to using pen and paper too. Writing notes, shopping lists or messages on the back of an envelope can still be useful, quick and convenient. But putting pen to paper in a letter to a friend or loved one can probably have the most influence. Pen Pal writer Katherine Moller said, “In a world where it is so easy to get online to e-mail or send a fast text, it is so personal and so precious to know someone chooses to turn off the virtual world to spend some time with you.”

So, while digital skills remain important, don’t get rid of your pens and pencils yet—especially if your smartphone, table t or laptop runs out of power!

4 . A few weeks ago, I sat with a California farmer named Dave Ribeiro. I asked him what he wished more people knew about farmers. He smiled and said, “That we walk among you. We look like you and talk like you. We have advanced degrees and hobbies, just like you.”

Take Dave: He’s a young man with a music degree. And if you walked past him on the street, you’d never think, “There goes a farmer.”

Is someone like Dave who you picture when you think of a farmer? Probably not. I think that most people would picture a man in his overalls. I can tell you, that does not represent Dave or any of the many other farmers I have gotten to know.

Not only do we have to throw out our stereotypes of farmers, but farming as a whole doesn’t look much like it used to either. We recently sent a team out to see what modern farming looks like, and they found farmers to be completely different from our usual ideas about them and also came across them in some unexpected places.

In a parking lot in a neighborhood of Brooklyn, they met a new crop of young farmers who are trying to bring fresh greens closer to eaters in the city by growing them in high-tech indoor vertical farms. In a Florida field under the flight path of an airport, they discovered farmers with university degrees growing algae (藻类) that might someday fuel our cars. And in a modern farm in California, they observed how farmers are using technology to take the best possible care of their animals.

These farmers all spend their days in very different ways — none of them looks like the stereotypical farmer we have in our mind — but they’re all working on new ways to feed our planet. Not only do we need to change our idea of what farming looks like, but we also need to change our view of where solutions can come from. Feeding all of us is going to take all of us working together.

5 . As Norwood drove through St. Petersburg, Florida, the laughter from the four teenage girls inside her car suddenly gave way to _________. They were hit by another car and _________ into a tree.

Then smoke _________ from the car. A bystander shouted, “It’s about to _________! Get out!” Norwood immediately crawled out. Along with two of her friends, who’d also managed to _________ themselves, she ran for her _________.

But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back and found Simmons stuck in the back _________. “She wasn’t _________,” Norwood told Inside Edition. She _________ open the back door and pulled her friend out. She dragged Simmons a few feet to __________ and laid her on the ground. “I checked her pulse and put my __________ against her chest.” No sign of life. “That’s when I started CPR (心肺复苏术).”

Kneeling on the lawn and looking down at her __________ friend, Norwood started pumping Simmons’s chest. She breathed into her friend’s mouth in __________ of filling her lungs with the kiss of life. Fortunately, Simmons began coughing and breathing for __________.

Soon, paramedics (医务人员) arrived and rushed Simmons to hospital. When she heard how Norwood had saved her life, “I wasn’t __________,” Simmons said. “She always backs me up.”

6 . Next time you are struggling with the crossword, try putting the kettle on. Drinking a cup of tea can improve creativity, a study suggests.

Researchers gave participants either tea or water and then asked them to complete a word association game, which was used to measure a form of creativity known as convergent thinking (聚合思维).

In the game, the participants were given sets of words such as “same, tennis, head” and asked to find a meaningful link between them. After analyzing the results in a way that ruled out the potential effects of a person’s intelligence and language ability, the researchers found those who drank the tea performed significantly better in the word association game. The tea drinkers scored an average of 13.89 in the game compared with 12.94 for water drinkers.

The researchers said it was not clear why tea has this beneficial effect. Tea contains special components, which can improve attention, but the participants in the study drank only a small amount of tea — 90 ml, on average — and carried out the tests very soon after consuming it, meaning any effect would have been ignored. This result showed the tea drinking event itself — rather than the biological components of tea — played a positive role, the researchers said.

Previous research has found that people tend to associate tea drinking with a specific set of personality traits(特征), such as smart, creative, elegant, confident, and stable. It may be that when participants are stimulated (刺激) by tea, the mental representation of a tea drinker is also activated, and they unconsciously think that they should be smarter and more creative.

7 . The drone (无人机) is flying above the Amazon River in Brazil, but its battery is running low. Andre Coelho, the chief pilot, guides it back to safety with skills perfected by playing video games. Long hours’ practicing has become a surprising benefit in an effort to conserve dolphins that live in the river. Marcelo Oliveira, a conservation specialist, stands on the bow of a boat. He pulls the white drone from the air, changes the battery, and quickly sends it back in the sky.

Later, scientists will examine the video which has recorded for signs of the two species of dolphins that inhabit the river: the pink and bulbous boto (亚马孙河豚), and the smaller, prettier tucuxi (白海豚). Exactly how many live in the basin is a mystery. Some studies have suggested a decline of the pink dolphins in specific areas of the Amazon River, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says there isn’t enough data available for either species of dolphins.

“We need to base everything on hard data,” says Miriam Marmontel, a scientist. “We need to focus on what’s really critical to help us get to a real situation that can influence policy. We need numbers. We need information on death and reproduction.”

Marmontel’s biggest concern is that dolphins are being caught in the nets of local fishermen. Scientists have also given a warning against fishermen’s killing botos. Pollution from gold mining is also a concern.

The scientists want to use the information they collect to persuade the IUCN to list the boto and the tucuxi as endangered species. Funding agencies and governments want evidence. Without the IUCN’s categorization, it’s difficult to raise the money for protection measures.

They hope their drone monitoring will do the trick. During three trips to the Amazon last year, the team has recorded about 70 samples (样本) that will contribute to a more accurate estimate of dolphin populations in the Amazon basin.