1 . Nowadays, it is more common for people to express their thoughts in an e-mail or text. In fact, more and more students use technology for written communication in their lives. Even so, research shows that teaching handwriting skills has its benefits (好处). However, are the benefits worth spending valuable classroom time on teaching handwriting skills when students could be learning more about computer keyboarding?

States across the country have good reasons to require students to learn computer keyboarding skills. For one, students are learning a technology that will help them communicate faster with more people and in many different forms, such as e-mails, websites, blogs, and so on. Also, the better a student's computer keyboarding skills, the greater the chance that student has to become a better writer. Computer tools such as the grammar and spell check make correcting quick and easy, although not 100% accurate (准确无误的). With these and many other tools, students gain important computer skills. Furthermore, students no longer have to worry about their writing being graded poorly by teachers. All in all, computer keyboarding skills are a step in the right direction.

Still, the advantages of computer keyboarding skills may not be enough to leave handwriting instruction in the dust. Marlena Hamilton, professor of neurology at University of Pennsylvania, did an experiment with her co-workers to study what happens in students' brains when writing. They found that many of the areas of the brain light up. These are the same areas that are used to learn to read. They then wondered if the same would be true when students looked at letters on a keyboard. “What we found,” she states, “is that brains are much less involved when we just view letters. When we actually use our hands to make things, the brain works much harder.”

Schools across the nation are looking at the evidence and deciding what to do. William McIntyre, a reading coach at Sunshine Elementary School in Albany, New York, says, “What we have learned from the research is that learning handwriting benefits students educationally. What we also know is that students need to be taught keyboarding skills.” Now, it is up to each school to make a decision.

2 . Tropical ( 热带的) rainforests are disappearing at an alarming rate, and according to a new report by Rainforest Foundation Norway, humans are to blame. The world’s dependence on coal, farming, beans, palm oil and mining has resulted in two-thirds of Earth’s tropical rainforests being completely destroyed, and the remaining ecosystems being put closer to a tipping point.

Tropical rainforests once covered 14.5 million square kilometers of Earth’s surface, but now, just one-third of that remains undamaged. Of the original area tropical rainforests once occupied, 34% is completely gone and 30% is suffering from damage. All that remains is roughly 9.5 million square kilometers, and 45% of that is in a degraded (恶化) state, the report says.

Researchers blame human consumption for the loss. While agriculture has always been a driving factor of rainforest loss, the report said that energy consumption, international trade and the production of beans and palm oil, logging and mining have been the largest threats (威胁) over the past century. A significant number of US products rely on resources from tropical rainforests. The country heavily relies on palm oil, rubber and cocoa, all of which come from forests around the world. Often, these resources are harvested from illegally destroyed lands.

Tropical rainforests are home to more than half of the Earth’s biodiversity and have more carbon in living organisms than any other ecosystem. In addition to supporting significant animal life, tropical rainforests are also necessary for slowing down global warming. “These unique ecosystems are suffering from constant abuse, through our bottomless appetite for land and resources,” said Anders Krogh, the author of the report. “We expect that upcoming UN climate and biodiversity summits provide specific targets and measures to protect tropical rainforests.”

The researchers also believe that the loss of tropical rainforests puts the whole world at the risk of future diseases. “Huge deforestation (毁林) is violating nature’s natural virus protection systems,” Krogh said. “The outbreak of COVID-19 should bring rainforest protection to the top of the agenda of all policy makers and world leaders concerned about preventing the outbreak of new diseases.”

4 . It was an afternoon in August. I was just short of turning 18. I stood in front of a six story, red brick building. It was to be my new home for the next several years. It was my first day of college, and I was very excited. I had two suitcases and a bag with me. Everything I thought I would need was packed in them. I carried them up the five flights of stairs to my dorm and wondered what life had in store for me –a young girl.

It was another afternoon in August. I was just short of turning 42. My daughter was 18, and we were standing in front of the same building at the same college that I had gone to years before. I smiled as I helped her carry her things up to her room, but I also noticed that we were making more than one trip. All the students seemed to have much more stuff (东西) than I did all those years ago. Yet, it didn't seem to make things any better for them. In fact, they looked more stressed. As I threw down another box of my daughter's stuff, I wondered what life had in store for her.

Last night I had a dream that I'd had many times before. I was back in that same dorm with my belongings piled on my bed searching for my course book and wondering what classes I would take. I often wondered what this dream meant, but when I woke up this morning, it became crystal clear to me. We are sometimes teachers in this life, but we are always students in it. We are here to learn to love ourselves and everyone as ourselves. It takes a lifetime. The stuff we carry with us through this life doesn't matter at all. It is the stuff we carry inside of us when we leave this life that counts.

6 . Beijing will provide COVID-19 vaccinations (接种疫苗) for certain groups in nursing homes, including the elderly and caregivers, on a voluntary basis to prevent a renewed outbreak at nursing homes during autumn and winter, the local government said.

Those who will receive the vaccines include nursing home kitchen workers, security guards and cleaners, Beijing Daily reported on Friday.

Xing Yinli, director of Jingkangyuan, a nursing home in Fengtai district with about 290 elderly residents (居民), said they have received the document (文件) recently and will strictly follow its guidance.

“It’s our top duty to strengthen prevention and control,” Xing said, adding they have been using methods such as keeping detailed records of resident contacts outside the nursing home, and encouraging online visits for family members.

As to vaccinations, she said they will ask for permission from residents, their family members and workers before giving vaccines.

In late October, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province carried out an emergency COVID-19 vaccine program, allowing the public to ask for injections (注射) in advance, with key groups first. A similar program was also organized in Jiaxing, Ningbo and Yiwu in Zhejiang.

Nationwide, emergency use of home-grown COVID-19 vaccines was approved in June and launched in late July. China now has four coronavirus candidate vaccines in the third stage clinical trials (临床试验).

The document from Beijing also said nursing homes should conduct nucleic acid testing (核酸检测) every month among kitchen workers and residents who leave the nursing homes to see a doctor. Tests will cover all people in nursing homes considered at high risk if new infections are reported in the city. Besides, routine disinfections (消毒) should be strengthened in kitchens, storerooms and restrooms, it said. The document also recommended non-contact visits from family members.

8 . Every superhero, no matter how small, needs a cape. That was Robyn Rosenberger’s motivation when she started sewing superhero capes for kids with cancer, heart defects, and other serious diseases. It all began when she was making a cape as a birthday present for her nephew. Rosenberger heard of a girl named Brenna who was battling a potentially deadly skin condition called harlequin ichthyosis. Anyone suffering from what she was going through had to be tough. “I had an aha moment (顿悟),” Rosenberger says. “Brenna was a superhero! She needed a cape.” So Rosenberger sent her one, and Brenna’s mother was delighted.

Rosenberger found ten more kids online and sent out ten more capes. Before long, she quit her job at a software company to dedicate herself full time to tinysuperheroes.com, a website where people can buy hand-made capes for brave kids facing illness and disability.

Since 2013, Rosenberger and her small paid staff have sent more than 12,000 handmade capes to kids in all 50 states and 15 other countries. The capes come in pink, blue, purple, or red and can be decorated with the child’s initials or specialized patches, including a heart, a rocket, or a lightning bolt. One recipient was eight-month-old Gabe, who was born with a cleft palate (腭裂), which causes distinct facial features. Rosenberger sent him a red cape with a bright yellow G in the center. It was a hit.

Gabe is now a fixture on the company’s social media posts. “The Tiny Superhero community has been a wonderful connection to have,” says Gabe’s mom, Kate Glocke. In fact, two years later, “We still bring Gabe’s cape with us to every hospital appointment.”

10 . Although vaccines are required for entry into school in most places in the United States, the government does allow for exceptions, like religious reasons.

In the last few years, the rates of vaccine-preventable illness have been on the rise. In most cases, these outbreaks began with children who were unvaccinated. To deal with this threat, some schools in New York have been refusing to allow unvaccinated children to attend school. Several parents thought this was unfair and filed lawsuits. Just recently, though, a court ruled in favor of the city schools.

The court made the right decision. Vaccine policy depends not only on the added protection that vaccines provide for those who get shots, but also on the decreased likelihood that anyone will come into contact with the disease. This is known as community immunity. It refers to the fact that when enough people are immunized, then there really can’t be an outbreak. And if there can’t be an outbreak, then everyone is protected.

This is important, because there are people who cannot be given immunizations for various reasons. For example, small babies can’t be given all vaccines.

In 1995, the chicken pox vaccine was introduced in the United States. Over time, more and more children received it. In 2011, a study looked at how the program affected the number of children who died from the disease.

The first thing noted in the paper was that death from chicken pox went down considerably after the vaccine was introduced. From 2001 through 2007, the rates of death remained much lower, with just a few children dying from chicken pox nationally each year.

What’s more from 2004 through 2007, not one child less than 1 year of age died in the United States from chicken pox. This is important, because we cannot give the chicken pox vaccine to babies. In other words, all those babies were saved not because we vaccinated them against this illness, but because older children were.

Therefore, people who refuse to vaccinate their children aren’t just putting themselves at risk — they’re putting everyone else in danger, too.