1 . Coca-Cola is to test a paper bottle as part of a longer-term goal to get rid of plastic from its packaging entirely. The prototype (样本) is made by a Danish company from an extra-strong paper shell that still contains a thin plastic liner (衬垫). But the goal is to create a 100% recyclable, plastic free bottle capable of preventing gas escaping from carbonated (碳酸) drinks. The barrier must also ensure no fibers get into the liquid.

That may have a risk of changing the taste of the drink —or potentially can’t meet the requirements of health and safety checks. But industry giants (巨头) are backing the plan. Coca-Cola, for example, has set a goal of producing zero waste by 2030. Coca-Cola was ranked the world’s number one plastic polluter by charity group Break Free From Plastic (摆脱塑料) last year, closely followed by other drink-producers Pepsi and Nestle.

The Paper Bottle Company, or Paboco, is the Danish firm behind the development of the paper-based container. Part of the challenge has been to create a structure capable of standing the forces exerted by carbonated drinks — such as cola and beer — which are bottled under pressure. On top of that, the paper needs to be mouldable to create different bottle shapes and sizes for different brands and take ink for printing their labels.

After more than seven years of lab work, the firm is now ready to host a trial in Hungary this summer of Coca-Cola’s fruit drink Adez. Initially, this will involve 2,000 bottles distributed via a local retail chain.

But it is also working with others. Absolut, the vodka maker, is due to test 2,000 paper bottles of its own in the UK and Sweden of its pre-mixed, carbonated raspberry drink. And beer company Carlsberg is also building prototypes of a paper beer bottle.

Michael Michelsen, the firm’s commercial manager, says the bottles are formed out of a single piece of paper-fiber-based material to give them strength.

2 . Road Trip Apps You Need Before You Leave

Ever wonder how delivery drivers manage to hit so many different places in a relatively short amount of time? It’s because they’re using an app like Road Warrior to plan their routes to be as efficient as possible. However, while many other route planning apps only take things like traffic into account, Road Warrior includes lots of other time-sucking details. The subscription options start at $10 per month.

Gas prices have been something of a disaster recently, so travellers are naturally focused on finding the lowest rates whenever possible. GasBuddy is one of the most popular apps for locating affordable gas, especially on long road trips. Simply enter the starting point and destination, and then watch as all of the cheapest gas prices along your route pop up. Like many apps, there is a free version, as well as a premium (额外费用) option with added features.

Sure you could listen to music or watch movies, but sometimes it’s fun to throw it way back with classic travel games. The Plates Family Travel app is a modernized version of the classic license plate game. There’s also a map feature that shows you exactly where you saw all the license plates on your road trip. This app is available for Apple or Google devices for free.

For people who aren’t totally focused on getting from point A to point B in the fastest time possible, the Road Trippers app is an absolute must-have. Users can plan their trip from start to finish with as many as 150 waypoints/stops when using the premium version of the app, which costs $29.99 per year. It won’t let you miss the famous scenic spots along the way. It estimates fuel costs, allows for RV drivers to customize routes friendly to their particular vehicle and lets the user cooperate with friends who are also on the road.

3 . It was June a few years ago right around the Summer Solstice(夏至). The first fireflies(萤火虫)had appeared, _______ on and off in the woods around my house. What a(n) _______ it was to see them again! How amazing the natural life was! Their small light made me smile, and I couldn’t help but feel _______ to nature.

As the daylight _______, I saw some children trying to catch the fireflies in the dark. A girl went inside and came back with a clear glass bottle. After several _______ attempts, she went to run after another one instead. _______, she was very happy. Eventually, she caught two fireflies and put them into the bottle.

All the other children including me were very _______. We gathered around, desiring to watch the fireflies’ light inside the bottle. Soon the girl’s mom walked to us and told us it was time to set the fireflies _______. One of the children disagreed. But the girl’s mom explained that the fireflies would die if left in the _______. Then she said something that still stays in my mind now, “Let them go so they can share their ________ with the rest of the world!” Finally, we knew the meaning of life.

I ________ in our childhood, we used to sing the song, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine!” But as adults we find it ________ to do so. We often forget to share.

Don’t ________ your “light”. Don’t keep it in a “bottle”. Share your “light”, no matter how ________ it may be. Let love light up your heart and then give it to the whole world. Learn from the lightening fireflies and let the “light” within you ________ the darkness away.

4 . Jose Alberto Gutierrez’s life changed 20 years ago when he found a copy of “Anna Karenina” in the garbage. It happened while he was driving his garbage truck through wealthier neighborhoods at night and seeing deserted books. This sparked his mission to rescue books, leading him to collect thousands and establish a community library called “The Strength of Words” at home, which benefits both children and adults in his community.

Colombia’s capital city has 13 million residents and 19-public libraries. However, these libraries tend to be far away from where rural and poorer communities live. The option of buying new books is non-existent for families struggling to make ends meet. Having access to a library of books and being taken away to another world while immersed in a book is a luxury for the kids who visit Gutierrez’s library.

Gutierrez grew up poor, and his family couldn’t afford to educate him beyond primary school. However, his mother was a keen reader and read stories to him every night. Her love for books left a deep impression on Gutierrez, who never let a lack of formal education stop him from reading classics by the likes of Victor Hugo, Mario Vargas Llosa and so on.

Today, his community library, “The Strength of Words”, occupies most of his home and is piled from floor to ceiling with fiction and non-fiction titles. Everything from school textbooks to story books can be found in his collection of more than 20,000 books! The library opens every weekend. It is not just school-going children who are enjoying the benefits of The Strength of Words library. Adults are also welcome to expand their horizons and develop new skills to build a better life for themselves.

Despite having done so much for his community, Gutierrez is not yet content to call it a day. He continues to search for reading materials and shares his concept internationally.

5 . At 111, Dr Edith Kaufmann was the second oldest person in the UK. I met her when I _________ a care home for the elderly in London six years ago. I didn’t realize it would be the start of a close _________, where the age gap was eight decades.

At first sight, I was _________ by her self-confidence. Her doctorate (博士学位) told me she was intelligent and _________. From the beginning, I never felt as if Edith and I _________ conversation. Edith could have a full conversation with me about anything, and that her memory stretched back so easily, _________ even small things which took place 100 years ago.

She was also _________ . She loved dancing as a child and I recall, only a few weeks before her death, she laughed _________ when I played the waltz (华尔兹) and we _________ hands and danced along to the music. Although towards her later years she was __________ to a wheelchair, she still participated in the exercise classes.

As I __________ Edith each week, I realized that I was going as much for me as I was for her. I learnt to take the words of __________ when I could get them. When I have __________ over the years, and small decisions have weighed on my mind, I have __________ nothing more than the opportunity to regain my perspective on life and what actually __________.

6 . The organic foods have gained a lot of popularity as they are being considered as healthier and tastier. A fair number of people advocate a large-scale shift to organic farming from conventional agriculture. But this might not seem well-founded.

Since the mid-19th century, conventional industrial agriculture has become incredibly efficient on a simple land to food basis. Conventional farming gets more and more crop per square foot of land, which can mean less wilderness needs to be transformed to farmland.

To make farming more efficient, conventional agriculture uses a significant amount of synthetic fertilizer each year, and all that nitrogen (氮) enables much faster plant growth. However, the cost is paid in vast polluted dead zones at the mouths of many of the world’s rivers, because much of the nitrogen ends up running off the soil and into the oceans. This also makes conventional farming one of the major threats to the environment.

To weaken the environmental impact of agriculture, improve soil quality as well as produce healthier foods, some farmers have turned to organic farming. Environmentalists have also welcomed organic food as better for the planet than the food produced by agricultural corporations. Organic practices — refusing artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides—are considered far more sustainable. Sales of organic food rose 7.7% in 2010, up to $26.7 billion — and people are making those purchases for their moral senses as much as their tongues.

Yet a new meta-analysis in Nature does the math and comes to a hard conclusion: organic farming produces 25% fewer crops on average than conventional agriculture. This is definitely a downside of organic farming, especially when global population is still growing rapidly.

In the Nature analysis, scientists performed an analysis of 66 studies comparing conventional and organic methods across 34 different crop species, from fruits to grains. They found that organic farming delivered a lower output for every crop type, though the difference varied widely. For crops like fruit trees, organic trailed (落后于) conventional agriculture by just 5%. Yet for major grain crops and vegetables — all of which provide the world’s main calories-conventional agriculture outperformed organics by more than 25%.

What that means is that while organic farming may be more sustainable than conventional agriculture, there are trade-offs (此消彼长) with each. So an ideal global agriculture system may borrow the best from both systems rather than upholding merely organic or conventional practices.

7 . Just a year ago, Sarah fulfilled the dream of owning her own bakery, which was very popular in the local and provided a well-off life for Sarah and her family. But last February, all fell apart, after a car accident left Sarah disabled. “I could barely talk or move,” she sobbed.

Darkness and depression drowned Sarah, help seemed out of reach; she couldn’t afford a psychologist. Even worse, she had no health insurance.

So her doctor suggested a mental-health app which offers free chatbot service. It is described as a “friendly” and “mental” tool, asking the patient some questions, like “How are you feeling?” or “What’s bothering you?”After the patient responds to the questions, the computer analyzes the words and phrases in the answers, and then delivers supportive messages which have been prewritten by trained human psychologists.

That is how Sarah found herself on a new frontier of technology and mental health. Advances in artificial intelligence are increasingly being looked to as a way to help people who suffer from mild depression or anxiety.

There are, of course, still plenty of doubts about whether machines can read or respond to the human emotions accurately. “Artificial intelligence is still not at a point where they can copy the complexities of human emotions, let alone imitate mental care,” a psychology professor in a mental health center said.

However, supporters of chatbot treatment say the approach may also be the only realistic and affordable way. It meets a huge worldwide need for more mental healthcare at a time when there are simply not enough professionals to help all the people who could benefit.

9 . Grand Opening of the Book Nook

10 am to 10 pm, Saturday, March 4

You will not want to miss this celebration for the opening of your new neighborhood bookstore! Conveniently located at 2289 Main Street, The Book Nook is within walking distance of schools and many homes and businesses. Come check out The Book Nook on Saturday! Festivities（庆祝活动）will include:

★Free refreshments（茶点）

★Live music by local musicians

★One Book-of-the-Month Club membership giveaway

Wide Selection

The Book Nook has three floors with books of all kinds-any kind you could want. If we do not have the book you are looking for, we can specially order it for you. You will have it in your hands in two days!

Reading Nooks

We are proud of our children's reading area（located behind the Poetry Section on the first floor, as well as our teenagers' nook on the second floor. Come for the festivities and stay awhile! Settle in one of these reading areas; curl up（蜷缩）with a good book and a free cup of hot chocolate. You will discover the perfect way to spend a few hours.

Book Events

The Book Nook will be featuring monthly book signings by different authors, giving you a chance to meet and speak with well-known writers. Do not miss the unforgettable experience of hearing distinguished authors read aloud from their own books!

We also have summer reading programs for children of all ages. These programs are a great way to meet other children and share ideas about your favorite books.

The Book-of-the-Month Club

Our Book-of-the-Month Club will feature 12 books each year. As a member, you will select one newly released title each month from the category of your choice. The membership fee is S120.00. That is a great price for 12 books per year!

So please join us on Saturday and learn about all that The Book Nook has to offer. You can come anytime between 10 am and 10 pm—the celebration lasts all day long!