2 . About thirty years ago, Switzerland-based artist Klaus Littmann came across a great drawing titled The Unending Attraction of Nature by Austrian artist and architect Max Peintner. The drawing displays a scene in which nature is so separate (分开的) from the environment that it becomes just a small area of ground, protected for amusement.

“When I first saw the pencil drawing, I was interested. I knew that one day this work would be the starting point for a major art project in public space,” says Littmann. Now, decades later, Littmann has achieved the vision with the installation (大型艺术作品) of FOR FOREST: The Unending Attraction of Nature. The installation sets a native central European forest in the middle of Worthersee Football Stadium in Klagenfurt, with almost 300 trees planted, some weighing up to six tons each.

In the face of climate crisis and deforestation, FOR FOREST comes with a more pressing urgency. As explained in a statement about the installation, “In support of today’s most pressing issues about climate change and deforestation, FOR FOREST aims to challenge our perception of nature and question its future. It reminds us that nature may someday only be found in special places, as is already the case with animals in zoos.”

Overseen by Enea Landscape Architecture, the forest is made up of a diverse range of species. This attracting panorama (全景) will pave the way for a whole new view and understanding of forests.

In a short video about the work, Littmann says his goal is never to make something that will last forever; rather, he says, “My goal is for this picture to remain in people’s head for a lifetime.”

3 . Your child is unique, but what all children have in common is natural curiosity and an innate(天生的) ability to learn. Our brains are active all the time, and a baby’s brain is the busiest of all. Research has shown that babies begin to understand language about twice as fast as they actually speak it. By exposing children to other languages at an early age, you are giving them the opportunity to make use of their natural ability to hear and recognize the sounds of other languages, and their ability to make sense of what they are hearing.

Communication is something that children do to help them achieve something else, and they are unaware of the large amount of learning taking place. They take everything in through their senses, making connections between what they hear, see, smell, taste and touch. As long as we provide the right conditions, their learning and development will take place in a natural way.

In your child’s early years, the emotional environment is just as important as the physical environment. Children learn when they feel secure, happy, valued and listened to. This is central to any learning experience in a child’s early years, including learning an additional language. Your child has a trial-and-error approach to their development, and making mistakes is a valuable part of the learning process. Their progress isn’t held up by a fear of getting something wrong, and very young children are simply working their way towards getting it right.

The long-term benefits of learning another language go beyond being able to communicate with others. Studies suggest that children learning an additional language tend to score better on standardized tests because learning languages develops listening, observation, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. These are skills that are of lifelong benefit, both personally and professionally. Encouraging children in a love of language at an early age prepares them well for school and for life.

4 . A device that stops drivers from falling asleep at fine wheel is about to undergo testing at Department of Transport laboratories and could go on sale within 12 months.

The system, called Driver Alert, aims to reduce deadly road accidents by 20%-40% that are caused by tiredness. Airline pilots can also use it to reduce the 30% of all pilot-error accidents that are related to fatigue.

Driver Alert is based on a computerized wristband. The device, worn by drivers or pilots, gives out a sound about every four minutes during a car journey. After each sound the driver must respond by squeezing the steering wheel (方向盘). A sensor in the wristband detects this pressing action and measures the time between the sound, and the driver’s response.

Tiredness is directly related to a driver’s response time. Usually, a watchful driver would take about 400 milliseconds to respond but once that falls to more than 500 milliseconds, it suggests that the driver is getting sleepy.

In such cases the device gives out more regular and louder sounds, showing that the driver should open a window or stop for a rest. If the driver’s response continues to slow down, the sounds become more frequent until a nonstop alarm warns that the driver must stop as soon as possible.

The device has been delivered to the department’s 1aboatories for testing. If these tests, scheduled for six months’ time, are successful, the makers will bring the product to market within about a year.

9 . If it had not been for Fan Jinshi and her team, the world cultural heritage at Dunhuang Mogao Caves in a remote Chinese desert might have long been destroyed by sand, weather or humans.

Born and raised in Shanghai, Fan has spent half a century fighting an uphill battle to preserve the ancient Buddhist wall paintings at Dunhuang, in Northwest China’s Gansu Province. The 1,600-year-old Dunhuang Mogao Caves are a huge collection of Buddhist art—more than 2,000 Buddha figures and 45,000 square metres of paintings spread among 735 caves. It is China s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Archaeologist Fan was sent to Dunhuang after graduating from Peking University in 1963. While in Dunhuang, a remote village in the desert then, Fan lived in an abandoned temple. At first, she did not even dare to go out to the toilet at night. To protect the treasures from sand and dampness, Fan and other workers put doors on the caves,planted trees and started monitoring temperature and humidity(湿度) in the caves. They also control the number of visitors.

In the late 1990s, with tourism booming nationwide since national holidays were extended, the local government planned to go public with Dunhuang Mogao Caves, but found Fan firmly in their way. “The heritage would have been destroyed if it had been listed,” she said.

Dunhuang academy has now photographed and catalogued online all the sculptures and paintings. “Despite our efforts to minimize damage, we can’t completely stop them from being eroded(腐蚀). But the digital database will last.”

Fan was grateful when her husband joined her in Dunhuang in 1986 after 19 years of separation. Her two sons grew up in Shanghai with their aunt. “I have not been a good mother or wife. With regard to my family, I’m full of guilt,” she said. Fan, retired as the director of Dunhuang Academy but continues her efforts.

10 . Animals are natural resources that people have wasted all through our history. Animals have been killed for their fur and feathers, for food, for sport, and simply because they were in the way. Thousands of kinds of animals have disappeared from the world forever. Hundreds more are on the danger list today. About 170 kinds in the United States alone are considered in danger.

Why should people care? Because we need animals. And because once they are gone, there will never be any more.

Animals are more than just beautiful and interesting. They are more than just a source of food. Every animal has its place in the balance of nature. Destroying one kind of animal can create many problems.

For example, when farmers killed large numbers of hawks, the farmers’ stores of corn and grain were destroyed by rats and mice. Why? Because hawks eat rats and mice.With no hawks to keep down their numbers, the rats and mice multiplied quickly.

Luckily, some people are working to help save the animals. Some groups raise money to let people know about the problem. And they try to get the governments to pass laws protecting animals in danger.

Quite a few countries have passed laws. These laws forbid the killing of any animals or plants on the danger list. Slowly, the number of some animals in danger is growing.