1 . You can’t buy much for a dollar these days, but when everybody pools their dollars together for a good cause, amazing things can happen.

That is the idea behind Anthony Talley’s $1 Thursday campaign. The Georgian man believes that the world will be changed for the better if everyone just contributes one dollar at a time.

Last year, Anthony Talley managed to raise $8,000 to help a local man who lost everything in a house fire. And he did it all by asking people to donate just one dollar each.

Anthony Talley uses his social media page to raise money. On $1 Thursdays, he tells his friends and fans what goal they’re working toward that week and asks them to contribute just a single dollar to the cause.

Some of the acts of kindness he has been able to perform include helping kids to buy shoes and clothes and even buying ice cream for every primary school student in the city of LaGrange, Hogansville, and West Point!

One of their most recent missions was to raise enough money to help a mother with 10 kids who badly needs a new car. So far, they have raised $576!

You can support his mission through mobile payment services, Cash App or Venmo.

It really does take a village! Anthony is finding a way to allow every single person in his community to become a hero in their neighbors’ lives. After all, it’s only a dollar!

Robots on the farm

What can drones (无人机) do? Their many uses include taking pictures from the sky, observing wild animals and delivering packages. Now these small flying robots are leading a new farming revolution (革命).

When equipped with cameras and other data-gathering devices, drones provide us with an eye in the sky. Here are a few of the farming-related jobs drones can do.

    1    

Drones can scan crops using different kinds of light. Then they produce multispectral images (多谱图像) that can help us find sickly yellow plants within fields of green. Drones can also detect bacteria (检测细菌) that are harmful to crops in the air from a few kilometers away. Farmers can check the drones’ air samples and try to find ways to protect their crops before the bacteria get to them.

    2    

When flying over cattle, drones can track the livestock (牲畜) and find out where fences need fixing. People can also equip drones with thermal imagers (热像仪) and night-vision cameras. This can help farmers know if they have their cattle lost and what animals are a threat to their cattle.

    3    

Most fields aren’t perfectly flat. After watering, some places may dry out faster than others. Other spots might not get water at all. Drones can scan the field and make a 3-D map. Using the map, farmers can figure out which parts of a field are dry or need improvement.

4 . Alice was at her home on Christmas Day when she heard someone shouting on her street. When she looked outside, she saw a man _______ for help in the cold. She brought the man, 64-year-old Joe White, into her home to _______ but she feared it was too late. His hands had frostbite (冻伤) and his body was looking worse and worse the longer he stayed in her home.

In search of _______, Alice took to Facebook Live. “We gotta get some help,” she said on the livestream. “He’s going to lose his fingers. I don’t know what else to do. I have fed him. I have _______ him.” “I’m going crazy because I’m scared. His body has changed rapidly every _______.”

Alice said she made a(n) _______ call but due to the snowstorm, emergency workers were unable to respond to calls for hours over the weekend. Ambulances (救护车) were getting _______ in the thick snow.

_______, her request was answered. A group of men arrived and took Joe to the hospital on Christmas night.

Joe is now _______ in the ICU with fourth-degree frostbite, his sister June said. June has expressed her thanks to Alice. “We were all trying to help each other and it was ________,” June said. “He was in a mess. And Alice clearly saved his life.”

6 . London’s best local theatres

The Bush Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush began life in 1972 above a pub that held only 80 people, but in 2010 it moved to an old public library building. Under the artistic directorship of Madani Younis, the theatre became one of the city’s most influential artistic spaces. Now that Lynette Linton has taken control of it, the theatre continues to host groundbreaking works

7 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherd’s Bush, bushtheatre.co.uk

Set up by artistic director Mehmet Ergen in 2000, the Arcola in Dalston has two theatre spaces and plays host to a number of works. As well as hosting new writing, they hold Grime born, an opera (歌剧) festival that runs for several weeks every summer.

24 Ashwin St, Dalston, arcolatheatre.com

Southwark Playhouse began life in 1993, with a disused workshop being turned into a theatre space. With two performance spaces, they put on a widespread of works, from musicals to new plays. The Playhouse is moving into two new venues (剧场), a flagship site at Elephant and Castle and another in the arches of London Bridge Station.

77—85 Newington Causeway, southwark playhouse.co.uk

It’s worth making the journey to the Rose Theatre. It opened in 2008 and its layout (布局) was based on that of the original Elizabethan Rose Theatre on London’s Bankside. It hosts works from theatre companies as well as producing its own, and can attract the best. The world’s first public performance of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend took place here in 2017.

24—26 High St, Kingston upon Thames, rosetheatre.org

9 . Gary McKee, 53, from Cleator Moor in Cumbria, raised his arms and was cheered by a crowd of people as he completed his 365th marathon of the year on New Year’s Eve. As of 4 pm on Saturday, he had raised more than £890, 000 for the charities Macmillan Cancer Support and Hospice at Home West Cumbria. The father of three has gone through 22 pairs of sports shoes and has run 9, 563 miles in rain, snow and sunshine to raise money.

“The support has been amazing and it always is and the West Cumbrians get behind us, but cancer is scary so it isn’t just a West Cumbrian thing, it’s a national thing,” said Gary. “I just hope that people do get behind us and we do raise that million pounds.” Gary has not only raised money for two fantastic charities, but he has also sprinkled magic on the local community and brought people together supporting him with the challenge.

Chris Young, 29, who ran 90 marathons with Mr McKee, said: “Gary set a good example to me this year when I began running often with him. He has given me both physical and mental confidence that I don’t know if I would have ever discovered in myself in a million years. I know I don’t just speak for myself on that front as he has inspired not just me or the few, but the whole local community and beyond,” said Chris. “This challenge has raised a great amount of money for two fantastic charities, but the influence Gary has provided to the community and people around him is immeasurable.”

10 . Zion is among the most visited parks in the USA and is particularly crowded because many of its most popular sites sit in a narrow six-mile canyon (峡谷). Last year, about 4.3 million people visited it, up to 60 percent from a decade ago. So this year, park managers announced they were considering a first for any national park: requiring reservations (预定) for entry.

The National Park Service was created in 1916 to protect the country’s growing system of parks and monuments. Its aim is to conserve scenery and wildlife while also protecting visitor enjoyment for generations to come. For years, the lack of a reservation system for park entry associated with the spirit of adventure: Anyone could come, pretty much anytime.

But recently, both visitors and nature are suffering. Mr. Burns, who is on a team that is considering a reservation system, said some people showed up for a vacation they had planned for months, spent a day in the traffic jam and turned around. Mr. Burns said he favored a reservation policy. He recalled the days when he would jump in a car and pull up to parks across the West with no plans.

When he first came to the park in the 1980s, he wrote a letter home. “I’m living in a no-man’s-land,” he told his parents. He could hike for hours, even days, without seeing anyone, and he remembered the constantly changing light on the canyons, the brilliant green of the trees, the blue water of the Virgin River. Today, he said, when he wants to find solitude (清静), it is usually joined by the distant rumble of the shuttle bus.

“There is only one Zion National Park,” he said to those struggling to see a need for limiting access. “And it’s sacred (神圣的). Its beauty is sacred.”