3 . Masks that helped save lives are proving a deadly danger for wildlife, with birds and sea creatures trapped in the shocking number of thrown-away facial coverings. Single-use masks have been found around pavements, waterways and beaches worldwide. Worn once, the thin protective materials can take hundreds of years to decompose. “Face masks aren't going away any time soon—but when we throw them away, these items can harm the environment and the animals,” Ashley Fruno of animal rights group PETA said.

In Britain, a gull was rescued by the RSPCA after its legs became tangled in the straps of a mask for up to a week. The animal welfare charity took it to a wildlife hospital for treatment before its release.

The biggest impact may be in the water. More than 1.5 billion masks made their way into the world's oceans last year, accounting for around 6,200 extra tonnes of ocean plastic pollution, according to environmental group Oceans Asia.

Conservationists in Brazil found one mask inside the stomach of a penguin after its body was washed up on a beach, while a dead pufferfish was discovered caught inside another off the coast of Miami. French campaigners found a dead crab trapped in a mask near the Mediterranean. Masks and gloves are “particularly problematic” for sea creatures, says George Leonard, chief scientist from NGO Ocean Conservancy. “When those plastics break down in the environment, they then enter the food chain and impact entire ecosystems.” he added.

There has been a shift towards greater use of reusable cloth masks as the pandemic has worn on, but many are still using the lighter single-use varieties. Campaigners have urged people to bin them properly and cut the straps to reduce the risk of animals becoming trapped. Oceans Asia has also called on governments to increase fines for littering and encourage the use of washable masks.

4 . Smart glasses could be the next leap in technology

First there was the keyboard, then the touch screen. Some tech companies say a wearable pair of glasses could be the next leap in technology, even if it didn't work out for Google glass. In the future we won't be only limited to our smartphones, when it comes to understanding the world around us.     1    

The US-based company Snap's investment is this, the Spectacles 3 sunglasses. This third version is smarter than the previous ones. It has two cameras. The comer of the glasses lights up when recording video, and allows the wearer to put 3D objects in the video. Here are some flowers.     2    

In a very different application, the AM glass by Hong Kong-based Pacific Future allows theme park visitors to have a different kind of experience through Augmented Reality. During the launch of the smart glasses during Halloween, this park became extra scary.     3     The glasses are used in theme parks in China and Malaysia, with a processor inside. These Augmented Reality glasses are designed for ages 12 and up, because of its weight and size.

    4     He can set a blacklist and the skin in the crowd and find the criminal very soon. Armed with facial recognition software, these smart glasses capture video or images, which can be sent to security officials off-site for analysis. Of course there are privacy concerns with any device that comes with built-in cameras.     5     Still, the race is on for tech companies big and small to turn an everyday item like glasses into something smarter.

5 . Technology has become a vital part in our life. It has transformed our lives in many ways.    1    . The things that seemed impossible in the past can now be done in just minutes.

Technology and Farming

Nowadays farmers use mobile apps to calculate the grass in their field.    2    . In the past farmers used pesticides(杀虫剂) and insecticides to protect its crop but now with the invention of BT Crops, the excessive use of pesticides have been decreased.

Technology and Our Lifestyle

    3    . In the past people were busy leading a normal life. They had time for everyone, they shared their feelings and moods with their loved ones, they loved nature and expressed their feelings and emotions. Today we only care for technology, and we prefer to spend our time on social media, using the internet, watching TV, playing video games rather than giving time to our families, playing out with our friends.

Technology and Communication

Nowadays we have social media, mobile phones, laptops, and internet with many videos that have made our communication far easier than before.     4    .

Technology in Education

Technology has totally changed our methods of education and learning. In the past, it was not easy to get information or knowledge as quickly as we do today with the help of internet.     5    . Now there are online schools, online education system where you can get educated.

I'm sure that the future of this world will be quite different from what it is today. It is quite more interesting and convenient.

6 . Cindy Soule is a teacher in Portland, Maine, an area known to have extremely cold and snowy winters. But cold weather doesn't stop Soule and her students from continuing with outdoor learning during the COVID-19.

Earlier in the school year, students in Soule's fourth-grade class had outdoor lessons. Then, the snow came. Wearing warm clothes, the students took their school supplies outside in buckets. Then, they turned the buckets over, put them down in the snow, took a seat and went to work. The lesson that day centered on snow and the formation of snowflakes.

Schools across the U.S. have pushed for outdoor learning to keep students and teachers safe. Infectious disease experts worldwide have noted that the virus spreads less easily outdoors. Now, with temperatures dropping in much of the country, some schools have made plans to continue outdoor learning during the winter.

Anne Stires is an outdoor learning expert in Maine. She said "the outdoors is the healthiest, safest place for us to be right now. Anything that we can do to get kids outdoors for longer periods of time is vital," Stires added. "This is only where we need to be right now."

In the neighboring state of New Hampshire, fourth- and fifth-grade students are still learning outside at James Faulkner Elementary School in Stoddard. The school created an outdoor classroom by clearing some trees and building an area for warmth by fire. In the western state of Colorado, elementary school students in the Lake County school district study in usual classrooms for half the week. For the other half, they learn outdoors.

For educators, outdoor learning is yet another period of change. Last spring, it was distance learning. Then came mixed learning methods. Now, educators are trying to keep their students warm enough to learn outside.

7 . I did an experiment last week. No, nothing involving test tubes or beakers (烧杯). Instead, I experimented with not watching the news right before I went to bed.

This is a long-time habit of mine so it’s probably not surprising that the first couple of nights I got a little twitchy when news time rolled around and I wasn’t watching. To distract myself, I went to bed a little earlier and read. Wow, what a treat that was! I love to read but I don’t always make the time for it so this felt quite luxurious. On the nights I didn’t read, I spent a little extra time petting my dog, Henry. He loved it. There’s never enough ear scratching for him. The compromise nights were when I had a book in one hand and was petting the dog with the other. Happy all around!

The funny thing about happiness is that it’s a whole lot easier to feel when you’re not being bombarded (轰炸) by images of bad news. It’s not like skipping the late news means that I don’t know what’s going on in the world. I still do read, listen to, and watch news stories. Just not right before I go to bed. That makes it easier to fall asleep and then stay asleep without dreaming about crime, wars, or natural disasters. (Although that dream I had about going to the prom might count as a natural disaster!) It’s definitely a much gentler way to end the day. I like it so much that I’m going to not only continue the no news before bed practice, but I’m also going to experiment with turning off other electronics earlier in the evening, things like the computer and smart phone.

Do you have any experience with turning off your electronics early in the evening? Does setting a particular time, like digital Quiet Hours, work? Please share any tips you have. Something tells me that this could be a little more challenging for me than no news.

8 . Earth Hour is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It's a big event usually at the end of March every year. On this evening, people “go dark”.     1    

It's true that turning off lights for just one hour saves only a small amount of power.    2    On one level, joining in Earth Hour makes people think about the problem of climate change and what we can do in everyday life to protect nature.

But on another level, a large number of people’s acting together sends a powerful message to governments and companies.     3     They begin considering green issues when big decisions.

The logo(标识) of Earth Hour is “60+” .The number 60 is for the 60 minutes of Earth Hour.     4     In fact, people who join in Earth Hour say that taking part makes them want to do more for the environment.

    5     Musicians give concerts by playing acoustic(原声的) instruments instead of electric ones, and using candles instead of electric lights. Celebrity chefs have created special recipes for families to prepare and eat by candlelight. Tree-planting sessions, group walks and runs are also among the options.

9 . Most teenagers are still trying to find their passion and purposes in life. However, not Gitanjali Rao. The 15-year-old girl has been coming up with innovative solutions to worldwide problems since she was ten. It is, therefore, not surprising that the teenager has won the honor of “America's Top Young Scientist”.

In the third grade, Rao was inspired to build a device after witnessing the shocking story unfold in Flint, Michigan, where cost-cutting measures led to the use of a polluted river as the city's primary water supply and incredibly high levels of lead made their way into people's drinking water.

After two months' research, Rao designed a small and portable device that used sensors to instantly detect lead in water. Called Tethys, after the Greek Goddess(女神) of freshwater, it attaches to a cellphone and informs the residents via an app if their drinking water contains lead. The design earned her the 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017. She is currently working with scientists and medical professionals to test Tethys' potential and hopes the device will be ready for commercial use by 2022.

Later, Rao took on another social issue-drug addiction. Her app, called Epione, which won the Health Pillar Prize at the TCS Ignite Innovation Student Challenge in May 2019, is designed to catch drug addiction in young adults before it's too late.

More recently, the teenager has developed an app named Kindly, which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible signs of cyberbullying(网上欺凌). When users type in a word or phrase, Kindly is able to pick it up if it's bullying, and then it gives the option to edit it or send it the way it is. It gives them the chance to rethink what they are saying so that they know what to do next time.

All kinds of awesome, Gitanjali Rao has been selected from 5,000 equally impressive nominees(被提名人) for TIME Magazine's first-ever “Kid of the Year”.

10 . The only thing better than receiving a book is getting one delivered by a horse. Caitlin Gooch，the founder of Saddle Up and Read(SUAR)，literally saddles(跨上马鞍)up onto one of her family's horses and visits primary schools, libraries and youth groups to encourage students to read. The nonprofit in Wendell，North Carolina，also organizes book drives and school-wide reading competitions.

Along-with her five brothers and sisters, Gooch grew up on a family farm owned by her father. Although he worked as a used car salesman，he built a race track on their 87-acrefarm, where he hosted races. Gooch said she grew up around 80 horses and felt blessed to have grown up with them.

In 2017, Gooch，who had been working at daycare centers and youth groups，noticed that some of the younger children struggled to read. She decided to work with a local library. Any student who checked out more than three books would be entered into a prize draw. Five names would be selected out of the draw and each received a trip to visit the horses on the Gooch family farm.

It was a hit. Gooch expanded her services by creating her nonprofit，SUAR. When Gooch shared her organization's story on Twitter, it reached over 70,000 likes in a week. She even got a shout out from Oprah Winfrey，a famous talk show hostess. She's raised over $ 20,000 from supporters across the world. “Now that it's sort of, all eyes on me，there's definitely an opportunity to do something more,” Gooch said.

Gooch isn't just encouraging children to read more. She's also showing them that horseback riders can look like her. Online，she's often referred to as the “Black Cowgirl”. “It feels amazing to be that kind of representation,” Gooch said.