1 . Contrary to the long­held belief that plants in natural world are always in competition, new research has found in bad environments mature (成熟的) plants help smaller ones — and thrive as a result. The research team, led by Dr.Rocio Pérez­Barrales studied adult and young plants in the “ecological desert” of soil in the south­east of Spain.

The findings could have significance for those managing bad environments like coastal areas. Dr.Pérez­Barrales said, “What we have found surprising is that a strong large plant, called a ‘nurse’， shields a young one, and it also produces more flowers than those of similar size growing on their own.” Dr.Pérez­Barrales and her team studied plant growth in southern Spain for over three months during summer and found that the young and “nurse” are more likely to thrive when grown together, compared to either plant growing alone.

The young plants benefit from shade, more moisture and more nutrients, from the leaf litter (落叶层) of the “nurse” plants, and probably higher bacteria and fungus (真菌) in the soil. As it matures, the “nurse” plant grows more flowers than those similar ones nearby growing alone, greatly increasing its chances of producing seeds and reproducing. Besides, vegetation of “nurse” and facilitated plants with more flowers might be able to attract a greater number and variety of pollinators (传粉昆虫) in an area. In turn, it supports insect and soil life, and even provides a larger range of different fruit types for birds and mammals. This is the greatest achievement of the ecosystem.

The research is likely to be of value to those who manage to protect plants in hostile and harsh environments, such as shingle and sand­dune (沙丘) ecosystems, which are considered at high risk due to human action and climate change. Most home gardeners and farmers are happy with the research as well, but the findings might be of more value to those who garden in harsh places.

2 . You’d think that being the president of a country would be the top of anyone’s life. For Jimmy Carter, it was just one stop on a very long train ride, filled with powerful, good deeds and gentle influence.

Former President Jimmy Carter is almost as well­known for his volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity as he was for being the 39th president of the United States (1977－1981).His relationship with Habitat for Humanity, a global nonprofit housing organization devoted to providing comfortable and affordable homes for families, started in 1984.

Jonathan Reckford is Habitat for Humanity’s chief officer. He said, “The group was started by Millard and Linda Fuller in 1976. The Fullers asked Jimmy Carter to help with one of Habitat’s building projects in 1984. Jimmy Carter agreed. Since that time, the former president’s beloved wife Rosalynn has worked by his side.They now continue to lend their names and muscle to this international aid group. They have worked on thousands of homes across many countries.”

Not surprisingly, volunteering is in Carter’s DNA.   Jimmy Carter said, “My mother served as a doctor for many poor African American patients. She refused to acknowledge most racial distinctions.” In 1966, at the age of 68, Miss Lillian became a Peace Corps volunteer. She stayed in India for 20 months, where she taught women about birth control and treated people with disease.

Through the years, to help the unfortunate families, Jimmy Carter has worked alongside thousands of everyday volunteers. When we say work, we mean those related to getting his hands dirty, wearing jeans, and picking up tools. He slept in all manner of accommodations, and dealt with all types of weather around the world. And Carter hasn’t let his worsening health hold him back either. In early October, the former president, now 95 years old, didn’t let a severe fall hold him back from kicking off the 36th Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity in Nashville.

Eric Gale’s tips for guitarists

“Good things are happening in life for me now,” says Eric Gale, a famous American guitarist, “and when you allow yourself     1    (receive) those good things, the sky is the limit(极限).” He also said, “Even if I could go back to the start, I still wouldn’t change the way I play     2     guitar. I’m playing the way that it came to me, and it turned out     3     (exact) how it was supposed to. I picked the guitar up that way. I’d already learnt a tune     4     two, and when I tried to change, my brother was like, ‘No, man, this is the way you’ve learnt to play — so     5     are you trying to change it?’ I don’t feel like I’m playing the ‘wrong’ way, because it’s so natural to me. Anyway, who’s to say it’s not everybody else that’s playing it wrong?”

“All of the guitar     6     (performance) on my new record are special to me. As to every last one of them, I think all of them     7     (record) on the first take. I just turned it on and pressed record. It was more of a live approach (方式), you know, which I’m very     8     (satisfy) with. I don’t like to do a lot of     9    (think). I just like to go for it. It’s a whole lot better that way. All we were trying to do on this album was just be     10    (we),” said Eric.

6 . I crossed my arms as I waited for my volleyball coach to finish talking to the officials. There was a(n) _________ with the score. But did it really matter？The Lions were ahead of us, 24-14，and the game would end at 25.

The Lions’ number 8 must have thought the _________ thing, as she covered her mouth and _________. At this, I waved to the five teammates on the floor. “Listen,” I said in a very _________ voice once we’d made a circle. “The Lions think this game is over. But we’ll make the Lions know getting that last point is never _________ work. From here on, nothing drops.”

We got ready immediately at the _________. As I returned to my _________, I checked the scoreboard, which now read 24-15.We couldn’t win this game, but we could _________ that number 8 from yawning again.

24-20, we were still _________. Kait served for the sixth time. The Lions hit and the ball __________ over our fingertips. At this moment Zoe dove and somehow managed to keep the ball off the floor. It’s my __________! I pushed the ball away with my closed fist. It floated up and was over the net to number 8.She hit the ball hard and it hit the floor on our side. Game over. The Lions __________ number 8, shouting with excitement.

I watched their __________ from the floor. Did I make the right call in the first place？I wondered. Should we have saved our __________ for the third and final game of the match?

But then Zoe __________ her hand to pull me to my feet. “Maybe this game is over, but the match isn’t. Nothing drops!”

8 . In need of some encouragement? Students at West Side Union Grade School in California are providing just that in recorded messages on a free telephone hotline.

Peptoc is an art project created by teachers Asherah Weiss and Jessica Martin of this school. Peptoc is how Martin’s son, a first-grader at the school, spelled “pep talk”, which refers to a speech attempting to input enthusiasm and determination in a team.

The project consists of student-made motivational flyers (海报), and a hotline with pre-recorded pep talks and life advice from kids aged 5 — 12.

Dial 707-998-8410 and you will be greeted with the following message: “If you’re feeling mad, depressed or nervous, press one. If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press two. If you need a pep talk from kindergarteners, press three. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press four.”

Since its launch last month, the hotline has been receiving up to 9,000 calls per hour. Martin said she had signed up for the cheapest hotline provider she could find, thinking the kids would be excited to hear 100 people had called in a month. “And then two days later, we’re getting 500 an hour, and now we’re getting 9,000 an hour.”

Patients at Johns Hopkins Medical Center had been regularly calling the hotline. Rima Meechan, the school’s principal, heard from a woman with cancer who called during her treatment. Weiss said she had seen the school’s office manager in tears on the phone with the administrator of an elder care facility, where most patients are over 90 years old. The administrator was calling to thank all of the kids, because he played it for everyone who was part of that facility, and he said, “I haven’t heard laughter like that from them in years.”

Weiss and Martin said it’s more than just the messages. “Adults support children, but we don’t really celebrate how much they support us,” Martin said, “And to be able to be consoled by them gives us great hope that maybe we’re all going to be okay.”

9 . A great deal of evidence suggests that it is more difficult to learn a new language as an adult than as a child, which has led scientists to propose that there is a “critical period” for language learning.     1    . A new study performed at MIT by Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College suggests that children remain very skilled at learning the grammar of a new language much longer than expected — up to the age of 17 or 18. But it is nearly impossible for people to have native-like knowledge unless they start learning a language by the age of 10.     2    . But they started seeing a decline after that.

    3    . But since they have a shorter window before their learning ability declines, they do not achieve the proficiency (精通) of native speakers, the researchers found.     4    . This is by far the largest data that anyone has collected for a study of language-learning ability.

“It’s been very difficult until now to get all the data you would need to answer this question of how long the critical period lasts,” says Josh Tenenbaum, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive (认知的) sciences and an author of the paper. “    5    . We could work on a question that is very old, that many smart people have thought about and written about, and take a new perspective and see something that maybe other people haven’t.”