Whether to Study at Home or Abroad

4 . Landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom has designed a new green roof on the Rangsit Campus of Thammasat University, about 25 miles north of central Bangkok, Thailand. Her imaginative work challenges the common thinking that urbanization has a negative impact on the planet, whether flooding, excess (过度的) energy use, disrupted (扰乱) biodiversity or the heat island effect.

The 236, 806-square-foot structure, which opened in December 2019, includes a flood water management system and Asia’s largest rooftop organic farm. It combines modern landscape architecture with traditional agricultural knowledge, creating a green and friendly environment.

The green roof, containing an H-shaped landscape, looks like a futuristic hill with a brick building beneath it. The hill features a complex pattern of zigzagging terraces (之字形梯田) of planted beds, leading all the way down to the bottom. When rainwater hits the roof, it flows down the zigzags while being absorbed by the soil in the beds, The excess water is directed into four storage ponds — with a capacity of up to 3 million gallons. The process slows down the flow speed of rainwater runoff compared to a normal concrete rooftop. This keeps the area from flooding during heavy rains.

The roof’s terraces are filled with organically grown crops, including a drought tolerant variety of rice, many local vegetables and herbs. The farm can supply the canteens on campus with a large amount of rice, herbs and vegetables a year. The food waste is composted (把……制成堆肥) to fertilize the farm, and water from the storage ponds is used to water plants, creating an entirely localized and circular system.

The farm serves as an outdoor classroom and a source of local jobs, too. Farmers offer workshops on sustainable agriculture and nutrition as part of the university’s sustainability curriculum. “Students and community members are invited to participate in seasonal seeding, harvesting, and so on,” says Voraakhom. “The urban farm is training a new generation of organic farmers with real-world skills. It also promotes a sense of community.”

5 . Several years ago, I was teaching students when Charley entered into the classroom. What _________ me most was that he was in rags. Other children in the classroom stared at Charley _________ as they had never before seen such clothes. When asked to _________ himself, he told us he was from a distant village and usually helped parents do housework.

One afternoon, we had a game, and Charley made a perfect start. Next was Bruce’s turn. Bruce was the least _________ and athletic child in the history of our class. After Bruce’s second failure, Charley came up and spoke quietly to the _________ Bruce, “Forget them. I believe you can _________ it next time.”

By the semester’s end, we had all admired Charley for his _________. He taught us how to _________ a tough math question, how to _________ ripe fruit from raw fruit before that first bite, and how to treat others, even Bruce, who never called me “Miss”.

That afternoon before winter vacation, Charley walked to my desk and bent close to my ear, “My __________ boxes came out last night. I’m leaving here and moving to another place with my parents tomorrow. I’ll miss you.”

As I grasped the __________, my eyes were filled with tears. Then, as I __________ my calmness, Charley broke the __________ silence by pulling something from a box, saying, “It’s for you. I have prepared it especially for you, you’re a(n) __________ example of hardworking teachers, I show great respect for you.”

It was a dry leaf, the most valuable __________ that I had had.

When Xu Beihong(1895~1953)     1     (return) to his home country in 1927, the painter had lived and studied art in Europe for nearly ten years, primarily in France,     2     has long been known as the “land of art”.

As one of the earliest Chinese    3    (artist) to study fine arts in Europe,   Xu was well received in art and education communities back home. It then seemed a natural choice for him    4     (put) his time and effort into teaching at art schools     5     holding exhibitions (展览) of modern Chinese painting.

However, Xu     6     (touch) by the bad situation of his country and     7     (it) people at that time, so he spoke for the serious condition of the people through painting. The subjects in his works included those    8     (live) in mountainous Chongqing who had to go up and down to get water, boatmen working on the Yangtze River and women praying (祈祷) for the     9     (safe) of husbands who worked far away from home.

For those in the art community, Xu is remembered mostly for blending (融合) Eastern and Western styles and doing a great job on the higher education of fine arts in China. While for his people,     10     artist is best known for showing the true life of those at the grassroots.

10 . Most of us can’t start our day until we’ve had our morning coffee. However, the production of coffee makes large amounts of agricultural waste, about 50 percent of the actual weight of the coffee produced. Agricultural waste was a huge environmental issue for coffee producers and didn’t have any other purpose for it.

In the past, when coffee beans were roasted to make coffee, husks and pulp (外壳和果肉) were eventually turned into a powerful greenhouse gas. Now a company called Woodpecker mixes recycled plastic along with the coffee husks and pulp to create a new material that’s being used to build houses. The idea was not just to create any material but build one that was both affordable and lightweight. The material could change the way people build houses in hilly areas and remote destinations, where it’s usually harder to transport the traditional material such as bricks, and concrete.

Woodpecker experimented by combining various natural fibers with recycled plastic including rice, palm, and grass fiber. Through trial and error, the company came to the conclusion that the best natural fiber to combine with recycled plastic was coffee husks and pulp which lent the material strength and durability (耐久性). Most importantly, the material would be easily available. The material is also fireproof and prevents insect problems.

The company sponsored (赞助) two complete houses after a hurricane destroyed more than a thousand homes in Colombian. “The system worked perfectly considering there was no power supply, the ground was muddy, the airport was damaged, there was no food, etc., all the problems you can imagine. We believe that our houses are an excellent solution to the housing crisis there,” said Alejandro Franco, CEO of Woodpecker.