1 . Spending time outdoors has long been linked (联系) to better health. Gardening goes beyond just beautifying outdoor spaces—it can have a deep effect on our physical and mental (身心上的) health.

Gardening involves physical activity that works all the main muscle (肌肉) groups, which is helpful for overall health. “Activities such as digging, planting, weeding and harvesting require movement and can help to improve strength,” said Clayton, CEO of an online lawn care company. “Performing these activities regularly can help burn calories, and keep a healthy weight.”

Beyond burning calories and building muscle, lots of studies have shown that gardening can improve the immune system (免疫系统). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week, and gardening is listed as a suitable activity. Doing garden work for that time each week can reduce the risk of obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. Additionally, spending time outdoors makes us get close to natural sunlight, which is important for vitamin D synth.

Gardening provides a chance for social connection, too. It can be a shared activity among family members, friends or neighbors, building relationships and a sense of belonging.

Gardening also offers cognitive (认知的) benefits. It excites the senses, improves focus and encourages problem-solving and creativity. It provides a chance to learn about plants, ecosystems and the environment, developing a deeper understanding and appreciation for nature.

4 . Mental Health Apps

Although most mental health doctors probably wouldn’t advise people to spend more time with their cellphones, there are some apps that can turn screen time into time well-spent. These apps provide tools for people looking to improve their lives.

This app was created to teach meditation (冥想). Developed for adults, teens and kids, it is perfect when you’re troubled by emotions like anxiety, stress, sadness or anger. It guides you through the practice of stopping, calming your mind and body through breathing and then taking part in short meditation.

Cost: $9. 99 per month. Download here for Apple or Android.

Breathe2Relax teaches “belly breathing”, a technique that encourages full oxygen exchange, lowers the heart rate and helps reduce stress. This type of breathing can help people who are experiencing fear, anxiety or anger. The app features videos, reading materials and ways for users to track their progress.

Cost: Free. Download here for Apple or Android.

Productive is a simple app that helps you set goals and track your progress. It offers users help in breaking negative habits and forming healthier habits. Users can specify what time of day they want to begin an activity, for how long, and how often, and the app shows users their successful periods, sends them motivating reminders and records their growth.

Cost: Free. Download here for Apple or Android.

Regardless of where you are, with INSCAPE, you can focus on the areas that you’re looking to improve. Depending on whether you’d like to sleep better, or be more efficient at work, INSCAPE will suggest a practice that will be most beneficial to your goals, including breathing exercises, meditation and more.

Cost: $12. 99 per month.

Download here for Apple. Come here for Android.

5 . I was nervous as I had never worked in a hospital before. However, my advisers were amazing and instantly put me _________ . From my first day, I realised that my highlighter pens were my most important _________ in understanding the information given in handover. Never did I know these pens would help make a real _________ to the care of one patient.

I was helping to look after Lily, who had _________ a total left hip (髋部) replacement. My adviser and I were _________ Lily for discharge (出院), but problems with her short-term memory meant she found it _________ to understand her prescribed medications (医嘱). Although we explained it, she was still _________ and became upset. To make it simpler, I decided to create an easy-to-understand medication _________ using my highlighter pens. I _________ all her medications, the amounts and the time of day. By spending just ten minutes creating something __________ to Lily, I made it.

When Lily received a follow-up call later, the nurse __________ a message from her, thanking me for my colour chart, which had helped her __________ . I was pleased by this: it was only a small act, but it made me realise how much the little things __________ and that you can never __________ patients fully understand what is being said. I am always happy to spend that extra few minutes to make sure a person understands what is fully __________ about their care.

7 . In the countryside in Fuzhou, Fujian, there is a girl, her little brother, their grandma and a cat named Hua Juan. In the eyes of Hua Juan, the grandma treats the boy and the girl very differently — she saves milk for the boy and feeds him as if he were a baby, not paying much attention to the girl. One day, Hua Juan falls asleep and starts to have a dream. Everything begins to change.

This is the story told in the short film I’m Hua Juan, which explores a heavy topic -the traditional preference for sons over daughters. The film helped 18-year- old Zhu Manlin win the best director award at the 2021 International Teen Short Film Festival. The competition aims to encourage middle school students internationally to look at the world around them through images and pay attention to their position within it.

Zhu, a student at Fuzhou Senior High School, said she got the idea of the film from stories she heard. “Gender (性别) preference is still a common thing. Three out of the five members of our filming team have such families with older sisters and younger brothers,” said Zhu. “Many people may take it for granted, but not for a cat. I tell the story from the viewpoint of a cat to encourage the audience to take another look at reality.”

As the director and photographer, Zhu together with her teammates spent about two months writing the script (剧本), shooting the video and editing. She used several key scenes to show the grandma’s preference for the boy: more meat in his bowl, gentler words and interesting toys, while the girl is ignored and accompanied only by Hua Juan. The strong comparison can help viewers better emotionally connect with the girl and reflect on the unfavorable situation of other girls in the same situation. Zhu also set a scene in which the girl looks through the crack of a door and sees a part from the film Sister, which describes An Ran, a girl who struggles to pursue her own dream while having to raise her younger brother after their parents died in a car crash. “I want fewer girls to have to bear such burdens as An Ran and instead bravely fight for their own rights,” said Zhu.

While the theme is realistic, the visuals are artistic. In the film, real life is in black and white while dreams are colorful. Zhu also shot the film in a square format to give it an unusual feeling as well as a sense of seriousness. She wants viewers to focus on the main story, using close-up shots to resonate with the emotions of the young actors while ignoring other unimportant factors.

Zhu said her favorite director is Lee Chang-dong from South Korea, who cares about reality but also stays poetic. “I wish I could make such films one day,” she said.

8 . Opera and cinema have much in common: as a matter of fact, they use music, theater, dance and other art forms at once. Cross-referencing and inspiration for each other have led to several interesting experiments.

Cinema, connected with opera, is very attractive for a long time. Opera has been used both as a setting and as a subject for cinema. From comic films to action films, opera scenes appear in a variety of genres(体裁). Whatever the film, scenes set in or around the opera tend to represent the most exciting moment in the plot.

Cinema is also capable of mixing the visual elements of the opera: cameras can catch facial expressions from close or far, special visual effects can be added digitally, and montage (蒙太奇) can change the meaning of a scene. Far from replacing the operatic experience, opera-based films provide a different, complementary take on operas: they become a genre of its own, which has been called the “opera-film”.

Adaptation of films into operas is quite a new development of the operatic world. It is, however, a quickly growing genre: more and more film-based operas are being produced. In the same way popular novels were chosen in the 19th century as plots for operas, nowadays composers turn to popular or relevant screenplays to attract the audience.

In the future, cinema and opera are highly likely to become more and more closely connected. While opera is fighting for relevance in the 21st century with new music produced, and cinema is slowly losing its leading role to high-quality on-demand TV, the two media can work together to give rise to new forms of art, combining their advantages to create something that can become larger than the sum of their parts.

9 . National Geographic Explorer Malaika Vaz knew from early on that she was destined for adventure. “I was someone who spent a lot of time outdoors,” Vaz says. Among her childhood experiences, she recalls expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, climbing mountains, scuba diving, and windsurfing.

“In my late teens,” Vaz says, “I began to feel like adventure didn’t really mean anything if there wasn’t an intent to protect the natural spaces we were exploring in.” She began to seek an outlet that would both satisfy her desire for adventure and allow her to support the protection of the species and ecosystems.

Vaz had an interest in the medium of film, and decided to pursue a career in wildlife filmmaking. Today Vaz wears many hats in the filmmaking world, as a documentary director, producer, writer, and presenter.

After falling in love with mantas off the coast of her home, she discovered they were being hunted illegally and she dressed herself as a seafood trader to get as close as possible to the issue. She traced traffickers back to many parts of the world to figure out why mantas were being killed. She shares the challenges of going undercover to produce Peng Yu Sai, her Green Oscar-nominated film on the matter.

The subjects that grab her attention, Vaz admits, cover a wide range. And while she’s been asked to define her focus, she prefers variety, and argues that issues she pinpoints are more interrelated than they may appear.

Her work doesn’t stop at recording important stories-she’s also on top of follow-through, ensuring the message is heard. Vaz and her team work with scientists and policy makers to amplify the message of the films they work on.

From Vaz’s perspective, real improvement in the way the planet is cared for lies in the capable hands of many from various backgrounds. “The truth is that we don’t need ten really passionate, committed environmentalists. We need one hundred or one million people who can do a little bit in that field and change things within their ability.”

10 . When Shao Tianshuai was 14, her dance teacher told her she had expressive eyes and an oval face, which were best suited for Kunqu Opera. She didn’t pay much ________to the comment until her mother __________ her to give the opera a try.

In 2001, Shao _________ for the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater in Beijing and came out with flying colors. The theater company is the only ________ platform in northern China devoted to Kunqu, an existing form of Chinese opera with a history of around 600 years.

Kunqu Opera, like many traditional Chinese operas, is _______ from one generation to another through singing demonstrations. It takes years to ________ basic skills, only after which performers can try and build their own _________.

“This type of opera was on the edge of decline (衰退) and the theater only had a dozen performances a year before I applied there,” says Shao. “However, the UNESCO tag gave the art a ________ life. The opera received government support and attracted the attention of young audiences.”

Usually, she performs her regular shows. ________, she arranges training for young performers and ______ on creating new pieces. She notes that two-thirds of the performers in the company are young, which injects energy to the theater founded over six decades ago.

Now, at 36, she is one of the leading ________ of Northern Kunqu Opera Theater and gives ________ 100 performances a year. Shao says, “In order to build up a young fan base, we use social media platforms and create original Kunqu Opera pieces, which ________   young people without changing the __________ of the art.”

“The heartwarming part is that so many young people like Kunqu Opera performances, whether online or offline. They are ________ to learn and explore, and as actors we cannot ask for more,” says Shao.