March 12th is Tree Planting Day in China. Trees are important to the earth. You can help to improve the environment and make the world a better place by planting trees. If you want to plant a tree, here are some simple     1     for you to follow.

Step 1: Choose the Right Kind

You need to choose the right kind of trees     2     you plant a tree. Some kinds live better in cool or cold places, while others live better in warm or hot places.

Step 2: Choose the Proper Place

Once you have your tree, find a proper place for planting. Look for an area that gets plenty of sunlight and enough space for the tree to grow. What's more, the ground should be neither too wet nor too     3    . Avoid planting your tree too close to buildings because when the tree     4    , it may influence the building nearby and its roots (根) may also cause trouble.

Step 3: Plant the Tree

Dig a hole that is just a little wider than the root ball of the tree. Pick up rocks from the soil (土壤) because they may     5     the roots. Now it's time to plant your tree. Carefully place the tree in the hole, and fill     6     with some soil. Make sure to press the soil down. Don't forget to tie a stick to the tree. In this way, the tree will stand     7    , not leaning (倾斜) to one side. After finishing the above steps, remember to water the tree well.

Step 4: Care for the Tree

Continue to water the tree once a week during the first year after planting. Then the tree will get used to the new environment sooner. Cut     8     some old branches so that the tree will grow better the next year.

In a word, planting trees is important to the health of our planet, and it's something that everyone can do.

At the opening ceremony (典礼) of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, everyone was amazed by the Malan Flower Children’s Choir (合唱团). The song moved people around the world. The choir was named after Malan Village. Deng Xiaolan taught music there for 18 years. Sadly, Deng passed away soon after this great performance, leaving behind her beloved village and the children she taught.

Deng Xiaolan was born in a small village in Hebei Province in 1943. She learned the violin and singing when she was young. She joined the school band after entering Tsinghua University, and she also taught her colleagues to play the violin after graduation. She worked in Beijing until she retired(退休). In 2004, the 61-year-old woman started volunteering to teach music in Malan Village.

Deng’s arrival (到来) brought changes to the children in the village. They fell in love with music. They would sing together in the morning, at noon, and at dusk (黄昏). Their beautiful voices went along with the birds’ songs and the wind through the trees. Some of the children went to college to study music and even became music teachers later. To let the children experience the beautiful views of our capital city, she even paid for their trip to Beijing. She led them to the Palace Museum, the Tiananmen Square, and so on. They opened their eyes to the outside world as well.

Teaching music in the village for such a long time was not easy for Deng, but she believed that music could make children healthier and happier. “In the last 18 years of her life, mum devoted (奉献) most of her time and energy to music education for children in Malan Village, which brought her great joy and made her life more meaningful. Her hard work had a big effect even though she’s no longer with us, ” said her daughter.

5 . While screen time is known to affect sleep, new research suggests that interactive (互动的) activities, such as texting friends or playing video games, put off and reduce the time spent asleep to a greater degree than passive (被动的) screen time like watching television, especially for teens.

The team studied the daytime screen-based activities of 475 teenagers using daily surveys. They asked the teens how many hours they had spent that day communicating with friends through social media and how many hours they spent playing video games, surfing the internet and watching television or videos. Finally, the researchers asked if they had joined in any of these activities in the hour before bed.

Next, the team measured their sleep time for one week. The researchers found that the teens spent an average of two hours per day communicating with friends via social media, about 1.3 hours playing video games, less than an hour surfing the internet and about 1.7 hours watching television or videos. For every hour throughout the day that they used screens to communicate with friends, they fell asleep about 11 minutes later averagely. For every hour to play video games, they fell asleep about 9 minutes later. Those who talked, texted or played games in the hour before bed lost the most sleep: about 30 minutes later.

Interestingly, David, lead author of the study, said the team found no obvious relations between passive screen-based activities and sleep. “It could be that passive activities are less mentally exciting than interactive activities,” said Anne, co-author of the study. “It’s a tricky situation,” she said. “These screen tools are really important to everyone nowadays, so it’s hard to put a limit on them, but if you’re really looking out for a teenager’s health and well-being, you might consider limiting the more interactive activities, especially in the hour before bed.”

6 . Active listening is a communication skill that involves going beyond simply hearing the words that another person speaks but also seeking to understand the meaning and intention behind them. The word “active” implies that you are taking some type of action when listening to others.

Be fully present

Active listening requires being fully present in the conversation. It enables you to concentrate on what is being said. Being present involves listening with all your senses and giving your full attention to the speaker. To use this active listening technique effectively, put away your cell phone, ignore distractions, and shut down your internal dialogue.     2     And let everything else slip away.

Pay attention to non-verbal cues (非言语暗示)

As much as 65% of a person’s communication is unspoken,     3    . This involves not folding your arms, smiling while listening, leaning in, and nodding at key points. It can also be helpful to pay attention to your facial expressions when active listening so that you don’t convey any type of negative response.

Keep good eye contact

When engaged in active listening, making eye contact is especially important. This tells the other person that you are present and listening to what he or she says.     4     At the same time, you don’t want to use so much eye contact that the conversation feels strange. To keep this from happening, follow the 50/70 rule. This involves maintaining eye contact for 50% to 70% of the time spent listening, holding the contact for four to five seconds before briefly looking away.

Be patient

Patience is an important active listening technique because it allows the other person to speak without interruption. Being patient involves not trying to fill periods of silence with your own thoughts or stories. This also requires listening to understand, not to respond.     5     Also, don’t change the subject too abruptly as this conveys boredom and impatience.

10 . Satellites are already in use for so many purposes today — from weather forecasting to communications, GPS, and more.

Since the late 1970s, satellites such as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) CryoSat-2 and the US Space Agency’s ICESat-2, have also been used to monitor changes in the Arctic sea ice.

Data suggests that sea ice is thinning over time due to climate change. Over the last 40 years, the extent of Arctic ice cover has been declining at a rate of 13% per decade. However, existing ways of measurement do not provide a clear and continuous picture of the state of sea ice.

These satellites use special radar or laser-based altimeter instruments (雷达或激光测高仪). Sea ice thickness is then calculated as the difference between the height of the ice and the top of the water (ice level—sea level). This method works well during the winter months.

Unfortunately, satellite-based sea ice thickness measurements are inaccurate during the summer months: the time of the year with the greatest melting. This melting creates a pool of liquid water on the surface. As a result, the simple calculation (ice level—sea level) does not work as radar systems are unable to differentiate between ocean water and ice, thus making measurements inaccurate.

Last September, scientists developed a new method to tackle this age-old issue. The new method combined computer modeling and satellite data to predict ice thickness — all year round. The research team led by Jack Landy, a scientist at the University of Tromsø (The Arctic University of Norway), used the new method to distinguish between seawater and ice.

The researchers built a model of the radar system’s predicted data and cross-referenced these values to those collected by a satellite. This model allows the researchers to obtain accurate, year-round Arctic sea ice thickness data.

According to Dr. Michel Tsamados from University College London, the new advanced climate model “will improve both the short-term forecasts for the weather at the mid-latitudes (中纬度地区) and the long-term forecasts that show what climate we will have in the future.”