1 . The first time I realized that I had a love for sports competitions was during the Field Day in elementary school. Small for my age, and more of a bookworm than a sports enthusiast, I had suffered that special humiliation of being picked last for various gym teams. The Field Day, which focused on individual skills, was different. In the Softball Throw event, I got my first taste of sporting victory. Credit goes to the example of my first coach, my father. He lifted weights every morning at home. He bought us all baseball gloves and hats, and in the warm months, we spent hours playing catch. Come fall, our backyard football games began with passing practice.

Once I got to sixth grade and switched to private school, our entire student body was assigned to either the Red or the White team. Throughout the year, we competed against each other in various games and exercises for points. I eventually became president of The Committee of Games, accelerating (加速) my competitive fever. However, in girls’ sports games at my school, I was no star. I also played on the field hockey team and the basketball team. School sports did not bleed into the weekends, as they do today, but at home, playing tennis, skating, skiing and biking were simply normal things we did. During break time, magazines were also quite popular for us teens. These regularly featured articles on physical exercise. Somehow, my college roommate and I took up the habit of completing Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) exercises every day, a practice that continued into my marriage, when we had no spare funds to use to join a gym.

So, though it shocks some of our friends, that early foundation evolved in adulthood into a sports and fitness focus, considered essential even on vacation. I still love reading and the arts, too. As far as I’m concerned, life is the richest with my feet in both worlds.

2 . Heat is the biggest end use for energy all over the world. It’s also critically important for survival in a country like Finland where the winter is long, cold and dark. And the recent move by Russia to cut off supplies of gas and electricity in response to Finland joining NATO has caused concern.

There is good news, however, that the world’s fully first working sand battery has been installed in Finland. It is a device which can store sustainably produced heat for months at a time and can be used to keep homes warm in winter. That’s why the new technology was developed by researchers there. Researchers believe it can solve the country’s year-round crisis in power supply, which is a significant issue for green energy.

The sand battery was installed in the Vatajankoski power plant that runs the heating system for the houses in the area. It works by heating the sand, circulating the heat generated in the sand using a heat exchanger. Researchers used low-grade sand to charge the devices with heat from cheap electricity coming from either solar or wind energy. The sand battery can store energy and heat up to 500 degrees Celsius. which can be used to warm homes during winter when electricity is more expensive.

It is a cost-effective method because when the battery releases the hot air, it warms the water for the district heating system that is pumped around homes, offices, and the local swimming pool. Sand is an ideal material because it is cheap and readily available everywhere. While other inexpensive items like water can store heat, sand can be heated to much higher temperatures. The sand used is of the lowest quality so it cannot be used in construction thus making it a sustainable choice. Besides, sand-based batteries last longer than other batteries. According to a study, researchers obtained silicon using sand to create a battery that lasts three times longer than lithium-ion(锂离子) batteries.

“This innovation is a part of the smart and green energy transition. Heat storage systems can significantly help to increase intermittent (间歇性的) renewables in the electrical network,” said Markku Ylönen, cofounder of Polar Night Energy. “At the same time, we can make full use of the heat waste to keep the city warm.”

3 . With the improvement of privacy protection awareness, everyone has questions about the telephone address, ID card information and so on. This visible privacy has been particularly concerned, but for chat photos and original pictures, it has not attracted enough attention. The topic “How much privacy can a photo reveal” has been trending on Sina Weibo, sparking concern and heated discussion about privacy awareness. In group chats, some people may post their original photos. But that may give away your home address and other information.

Images often contain a lot of information and various traces left by digital cameras or photo manipulation (处理) software. This data, called Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF), is a key tool for many professionals. It can detail whether the photographer used a flash, which digital effects were applied to a picture and when the photo was taken. EXIF can also contain the precise GPS coordinates (坐标) of the location where a photo was taken, according to CNN. If you take a landscape picture from your window and send the original picture to a group chat, it means that you are releasing your location data to all strangers in the group. They may even accurately infer your house number by analyzing the shooting time and angle.

Not just in a group chat, sending an image in a text message, email, or other delivery tools will also include the accompanying information. So how do we protect our privacy when sending photos? The most effective way is to avoid sending original photos in group chats. If it’s necessary, try not to tap the “original picture”. However, photos sent by WeChat Moments are automatically pressed by the system, and they travel without location and other information. To solve the problem at its root, we can delete and remove a picture’s EXIF data on a computer. If you are using an iOS smartphone, you can turn off location services for the camera in the privacy settings. If you’re using an Android, the settings vary. Typically, you can go to the setting menu and switch the services off for the camera, according to CTV News. There is one more thing you can do—photoshop your photos before you share it. What comes with your edited images is photos without stored location data.

Yours,

Li Hua

More than 500 pieces of relics     1     (discover) at the Sanxingdui Ruins site last year. The relics include golden masks, jade and ivory artifacts and bronze wares     2     were exquisitely (精美地) built and     3     (unique) shaped, said the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Heritage Administration on Sept. 9, 2021. The new discoveries bring the total number of items unearthed at Sanxingdui     4     nearly 2,000 after the excavation of No. 3 to No. 8 sacrificial pits began in October of 2020.

Tang Fei, chief of the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, said, “The new discoveries demonstrate once again that the     5     (imagine) and creation of the ancient Chinese far surpassed what people today had expected”. Tang added that the excavation of the new pits has entered a critical stage, with more     6     (item) yet to be unearthed. He also anticipated that the items found will challenge the     7     (convention) wisdom of archaeologists.

Originally discovered in     8     late 1920s, the Sanxingdui Ruins have been considered as one of the world’s greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century.     9     (locate) in the city of Guanghan, around 60 km from Chengdu, the ruins covering an area of 12 square km are believed     10     (be) the remnants (遗迹) of the Shu Kingdom, dating back some 4,500 to 3,000 years.

8 . Climate change has been a long-standing issue that continuously drives scientists to find green, sustainable fuels. The universe’s most abundant element, hydrogen (氢), has drawn their attention and is now on its way to becoming the future of green fuel.

More than $150 billion worth of green hydrogen projects were announced globally in 2020, according to Reuters. Airbus, a European multinational aerospace corporation, has taken the lead in the new sustainable fuel industry. It has designed self-contained hydrogen fuel cell pods that can be attached to the underside of airplane wings, promoting the use of hydrogen fuel for long-distance flights, which aim to achieve zero emissions. The company plans to launch hydrogen-powered aircraft in 2035, according to Daily Mail.

Compared to fossil fuels, hydrogen is a much more eco-friendly fuel. When hydrogen burns, the only by-product is water. However, the traditional way to get hydrogen from natural gas or coal generates considerable carbon emissions. The greenest way is to obtain hydrogen from water using electrolysis (电解) powered by renewable energy, although this process requires so much electricity that it is quite expensive. The key to making hydrogen competitive with fossil fuels is to lower the production cost to under $1.50. This would require lowering around 50 percent of renewable power costs and 75 percent of electrolyzer costs, according to Australia’s renewable energy agency.

Also, shipping liquid hydrogen is challenging, given that needs to be chilled to -253℃ to do so. Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries is set to complete the construction of the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier by early 2021. According to Reuters, most of the world’s big hydrogen export projects are looking to ship hydrogen in the form of liquid ammonia (氨), which can be changed to hydrogen and needs to be chilled to only -33 C.

With more and more countries aiming to cut down carbon emissions to solve the issue of global warming, green hydrogen will help decarbonizing industries that can’t be electrified hit the targets.

“We could use these circumstances, where loads of public money are going to be needed into the energy system, to jump forward towards a hydrogen economy,” said Diederik Samsom, who heads the European Commission’s climate cabinet.

Lucy was very nervous. She had a swimming competition in the morning and could not sleep. She tossed and turned all night. She was no stranger to competition. In fact, she loved it. Lucy was very athletic and was not only part of a swim team, but a soccer team as well. But this particular competition was important. She had made it all the way to the finals and didn’t want to let her teammates down.

When her alarm went off at 6: 00 am, she hit the snooze button and rolled onto her side, wishing she could just stay in bed all day. Having slept so poorly, Lucy was not at all ready for the day. After a few minutes, she stretched her arms above her head and yawned before throwing her covers back and climbing out of bed.

She was terribly anxious about the competition, so much that she couldn’t even eat breakfast. It felt as though her stomach was doing somersaults (翻腾). Lucy’s mother looked concerned. “You have to eat something,” she said. “It’s important to keep your strength up.” “I know, I’m just not hungry this morning,” Lucy replied, picking at her eggs with a fork. All she could think about was facing the competition. What if she performed poorly? What if she disappointed her coach and teammates? She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.

Lucy’s mom sensed her daughter’s worry and gave her a reassuring (令人宽慰的) pat on the back. “You’ll be great, dear. Just do your best. That’s all that matters.”

Lucy felt a bit of relief and appreciated her mother’s kind words. But by the time she got to the athletic club where the swim meet was being held, that feeling of comfort had dissolved (消融). She went to the locker room to prepare for the competition, but when she opened her gym bag, she was quite surprised.

I grew up in a big family with my parents, my elder brother and sisters. They did all the things that I should do, including cleaning the house, washing clothes, making the bed and so on, so what I did at home was eat and sleep. As time went on, I formed the habit of throwing my things everywhere. Once my family were out, what a mess my room was! My parents were worried about how I could manage myself when I had to leave home.

That day approached. This summer I was admitted by the best boarding school in our county. It was required that two students share one room. My roommate, Jenny, was a gentle and quiet girl. I was not very neat. On the contrary, Jenny was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled (贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Jenny got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

War broke out between us one evening. Jenny came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming, “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started shouting. She shouted back louder.

The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Jenny answered it.

From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away that her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled (爬) under her covers, crying.

Obviously, that was something she should not go through alone.