1 . We may think we're a culture that gets rid of our worn technology at the first sight of something shiny and new, but a new study shows that we keep using our old devices(装置) well after they go out of style. That’s bad news for the environment — and our wallets — as these outdated devices consume much more energy than the newer ones that do the same things.

To figure out how much power these devices are using, Callie Babbitt and her colleagues at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York tracked the environmental costs for each product throughout its life — from when its minerals are mined to when we stop using the device. This method provided a readout for how home energy use has evolved since the early 1990s. Devices were grouped by generation — Desktop computers, basic mobile phones, and box-set TVs defined 1992. Digital cameras arrived on the scene in 1997. And MP3 players, smart phones, and LCD TVs entered homes in 2002, before tablets and e-readers showed up in 2007.

As we accumulated more devices, however, we didn't throw out our old ones. "The living-room television is replaced and gets planted in the kids' room, and suddenly one day, you have a TV in every room of the house," said one researcher. The average number of electronic devices rose from four per household in 1992 to 13 in 2007. We're not just keeping these old devices — we continue to use them. According to the analysis of Babbitt's team, old desktop monitors and box TVs with cathode ray tubes are the worst devices with their energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions（排放）more than doubling during the 1992 to 2007 window.

So what's the solution（解决方案）? The team's data only went up to 2007, but the researchers also explored what would happen if consumers replaced old products with new electronics that serve more than one function, such as a tablet for word processing and TV viewing. They found that more on-demand entertainment viewing on tablets instead of TVs and desktop computers could cut energy consumption by 44%.

7 . I know when the snow melts and the first robins (知更鸟) come to call, when the laughter of children returns to the parks and playgrounds, something wonderful is about to happen.

Spring cleaning.

I’ll admit spring cleaning is a difficult notion for modern families to grasp. Today’s busy families hardly have time to load the dishwasher, much less clean the doormat. Asking the family to spend the weekend collecting winter dog piles from the melting snow in the backyard is like announcing there will be no more Wi-Fi. It interrupts the natural order.

“Honey, how about spending the weekend beating the rugs, sorting through the boxes in the basement and painting our bedroom a nice lemony yellow?” I ask.

“Can we at least wait until the NBA matches are over?” my husband answers.

But I tell my family, spring cleaning can’t wait. The temperature has risen just enough to melt snow but not enough for Little League practice to start. Some flowers are peeking out of the thawing ground, but there is no lawn to seed, nor garden to tend. Newly wakened from our winter’s hibernation, yet still needing extra blankets at night, we open our windows to the first fresh air floating on the breeze with all of the natural world demanding “Awake and be clean!”

Biologists offer a theory about this primal impulse to clean out every drawer and closet in the house at spring’s first light, which has to do with melatonin, the sleepytime hormone our bodies produce when it’s dark. When spring’s light comes, the melatonin declines, and suddenly we are awakened to the dusty, virus- filled house we’ve been hibernating in for the past four months.

I tell my family about the science and psychology of a good healthy cleaning at spring arrival. I speak to them about life’s greatest rewards waiting in the removal of soap scum (浮垢) from the bathtub, which hasn’t been properly cleaned since the first snowfall.

“I’ll do it,” says the eldest child, a 21-year-old college student who lives at home. “You will? Wow!” I exclaim.

Maybe after all these years, he’s finally grasped the concept. Maybe he’s expressing his rightful position as eldest child and role model. Or maybe he’s going to Florida for a break in a couple of weeks and he’s being nice to me, the financial-aid officer.

No matter. Seeing my adult son willingly cleaning that dirty bathtub gives me hope for the future of his 12-year-old brother who, instead of working, was found to be sleeping in the seat of the window he was supposed to be cleaning.

“Awake and be clean!” I say.

8 . We’ve all heard the stories of an actor’s struggles before a career breakthrough: living a hard life, working part time, being a couch potato before getting that major role. Shelby, the star of “A Dog’s Way Home,” has a hard-luck tale that could top them all. Before her big break, she was living in a landfill, rooting through garbage for her next meal.

Shelby’s big break came in April 2017, when animal-control officer Megan Buhler was driving in Cheatham County. Tennessee. Out on an unrelated call, Buhler spotted and approached what she recalled was a noticeably scared puppy emerging from the dump. “I knelt down and just said, ‘Oh, come here, baby,’” said Buhler. “She was so scared, but she came right up to me, and I was able to put her in my truck.” The pair headed to the county animal shelter, where the staff began calling the new resident Baby Girl.

Buhler and others didn’t know that 3,200 kilometers away, Hollywood was looking for a dog to play Bella in a film written by Cathryn Michon. The find-a-Bella job went to freelance trainer Teresa Ann Miler. Her mission was to search shelters nationwide for a dog that could play Bella. One day, Miller spotted Baby Girl’s adoption photo. “Honestly, it was a really good picture, and she was flat-out smiling,” Miller said. Then she met Baby Girl, and assessed her on personality and the ability to respond to simple commands. After assessment, she adopted Baby Girl from the shelter, renamed her Shelby and took her to California for training. Miller and Shelby trained for just over three months before filming began. Then they were together each day on the set.

Most of the film’s reviews have praised Shelby’s performance. Variety made the comments “an amazing dog, perfect performance!”

Shelby has come a long way from the dump. But Buhler said she saw Shelby recently had needed only a second to compare the movie star with the dog she found from piles of trash. “She’s exactly the same,” Buhler said.

9 . Throughout history, many lives have been lost at the hands of severe weather. Meteorologists (气象学家) and scientists alike are always investigating new ways to increase the warning time for storms, with the hope of reducing the ______ of lives. In the past few decades, local weather radar advancements have been made, which allow for better accuracy in ______ the paths of storms.

Meteorologists and scientists have been able to successfully track severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes by using an advanced tracking system called NEXRAD (Next-Generation Radar). NEXRAD is a tracking network ______ 158 Doppler weather radars. And during a storm this high-resolution computerized ______ takes readings on the amount of precipitation (降水) in the air, the movements in the clouds, and the wind speeds.

These ______ are bounced back to a local weather computer, and a colorful image appears on the screen, giving meteorologists a clear picture of what kind of weather is on the horizon. This final image is what you see when the meteorologist breaks in with severe weather reports and warnings. ______, on your television screen you will see a computer animated image of the approaching storm.

If the storm is severe enough, then the National Weather Service (NWS) will ______ severe weather reports of severe thunderstorm warnings for your area. ______, the storm captured on the radar will have produced strong readable winds, detectable lightning, and some hail (冰雹). Paying attention to the weather map is ______ when severe weather is around.

On the television screen you will see several colors on the precipitation map, ______ from blue (the lightest) to black (the heaviest). If the colors for your ______ area are yellow, take caution. If the colors range between orange and red, take cover immediately, as damaging winds and dangerous lightning have been reported.

When local weather radar in Atlanta, Georgia reported high winds, ______ wind patterns and large hail earlier this year, the National Weather Service issued a tornado ______. Meteorologists in the area used the collected data to predict what path the storm would take, ______ which areas needed to be warned.

Thanks to this technology, most residents received the severe weather reports early enough to seek ______ before the storm hit. Paying attention to your local weather source during severe weather plays a vital role in your safety.

10 . Some plants get so hungry that they eat flies, spiders, and even small frogs. What’s more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environments) in every state. In fact, they’re found on every continent except Antarctica.

You’ve probably seen a Venus’ flytrap. It’s often sold in museum gift stores, department stores, and even supermarkets. A small plant, it grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks (茎) are specially modified leaves that act like traps. Inside each trap is a lining of tiny trigger hairs. When an insect lands on them, the trap suddenly shuts. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.

The Venus flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International carnivorous (食肉的) Plant Society’ s Newsletter. Note: Despite any science-fiction stories you might have read, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.

Dr. Meyers-Rice says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following “attract, kill, digest, and absorb” some from of insects, including flies, butterflies, and moths. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants -- well, most of the time.

All green plants make sugar through a process called photosynthesis (光合作用). Plants use the sugar to make food. What makes “meat-eating” plants different is their bug-catching leaves. They need insects for one reason: nitrogen. Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can’t obtain any other way. While almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil, “meat-eating” plants can’t. They live in places where nutrients are hard or almost impossible to get from the soil because of its acidity. So they’ve come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soil is poisonous to “meat-eating” plants. Never fertilize them! But don’t worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they’ll grow very slowly.