1 . Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts, a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.

2 . The wrecks were first discovered in October 2022 by Shenhai Yongshi after about 500 exploratory dives. They were identified as being from the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644) and were later named the No 1 and No 2 shipwrecks near the northwest continental slope of the South China Sea.

The relatively well-preserved wrecks contain a large number of cultural relics of important historical, scientific and artistic value. The discovery is not only a major breakthrough for China’s deep-sea archaeology, but also ___________________.

3 . China’s first deep-sea floating wind power platform, which is expected to be put into operation by the end of May, marks significant progress in China’s key technological advancement in deep-sea floating wind power, industry experts said.

Offshore construction of China’s first deep-sea floating wind power platform has been completed and ready _____________________, after the 5-kilometer underwater cable was successfully laid on Saturday, said its operator China National Offshore Oil Corp.

When I was a young boy, I lost my mother and father. As     1     a person without a father or mother life was difficult for me and I was often lonely. l lived in a home with other children and my bedroom was     2     empty with few toys or things to enjoy.

Although I married eventually and had my own children, I always felt sad thinking about my parents. One day I got a letter in the post. It said it was from my sister! I was     3     shocked to read this and as it had never been     4     told to me that had other family members. The letter said my sister would like to meet me and told me the time and place to go.

On the day I met her, l arrived at her home. It was a beautiful old house with blue walls and white     5     window coverings. As I went up the garden path, the door was flung open by a woman who looked just like my mother! At first I was     6     stuck in one place with shock but she     7     jumped into my arms and we hugged. It was such a special moment that I found myself     8     crying with joy.

My sister said she too was unaware that she had a brother but that she had     9     looked into our family history in the past year and found my name. Knowing that I have a sister gives me so much comfort as I have a connection to the past.

5 . In their letters to Santa Claus, most kids ask for toys, dolls or maybe a new Xbox. All Jonah Simons wanted was a coronavirus cure to save the world. That was last year. This holiday season, the 10-year-old Florida boy is back with a different request for Santa.

“Dear Santa, it’s Jonah. Do you remember me? I was the one who asked for a covid cure,” he wrote in a letter addressed to the North Pole and shared with CNN. “Thank you so much for the vaccine! You helped save lives. This year, can I please have a Santa costume to spread your joy around the world?”

6 . Sleeping badly or working night shifts could be making you fat, weak and more likely to become diabetic. A study has revealed sleep loss changes the way people’s DNA works and makes the body more dedicated to storing fat. Muscles get smaller and fat stores begin to rise when people lose as little as one night’s sleep, the experts found. Although midnight snacks or being too tired to exercise could be blamed for tired people getting fatter, there may now be a more scientific reason.

Researchers have linked losing sleep to weight gain in the past but have found it difficult to explain—now they reveal it could be linked to the body clock. And a tired body also becomes less able to handle sugar in the blood which raises the risk of someone developing type 2 diabetes.

8 . Cuaya and her colleagues decided to use brain images from MRI scanning to shed light on her hunch. They worked with dogs of various ages that had, until the experiment, only heard their owners speak just one of the two languages, Spanish or Hungarian. Not surprisingly, getting the dogs to happily take part in the experiment took some creative coaxing and animal training! The researchers first needed to teach Kun-kun and her 17 fellow participating dogs including a labradoodle, a golden retriever and Australian shepherds, to lie still in a brain scanner. Their pet parents were always present, and they could leave the scanner at any point.