Heatable Brick Beds Warm NE China Homes

In northeast China’s chilly winter, getting into a warm bed is made possible by an ancient heatable brick bed that could date back more than two thousand years     1     is still widely used today. These beds not only bring warmth to local residents, but also continue the folk culture of northeast China.

The bed is made of bricks or other forms of fired clay with     2    width of about1.7 m to 2.3 m and a length that can be determined according to the length of the bedroom. It uses a ducted heating system similar to the Roman hypocaust,     3    (compose) of a stove, a bed and a chimney. The stove     4    (use) to burn firewood. Smoke and heat generated by burning firewood pass through an internal hollow and curved flue system to heat the bed above. Smoke is eventually discharged outward through the chimney. The bed retains heat well,     5    enables people     6    (have) a comfortable sleeping environment in the cold winter. In addition,     7    (sleep) on the heatable brick bed for a prolonged period is good for the blood     8    (circulate) and metabolism of the body, and can relieve some diseases such as arthritis and waist and leg pain.

The heatable brick bed is not only used as a bed, but also a living area for the family. People     9    (routine) have their meals and family     10    (gathering) on the bed in cold winters. The bed is a symbol of home that embodies the emotion and love they feel towards their families.

5 . A zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, is returning two giant pandas that had been on loan from China for 20 years, prompting celebrations by animal advocates who said the health of the animals had worsened due to neglect.

The announcement on Wednesday came after months of criticism by In Defense of Animals and other advocacy groups that have accused the zoo of providing inadequate care to the pandas, Ya Ya and Le Le. Critics called on the zoo to provide them with better food, more uncaged time and ultimately a transfer to a panda refuge.

IDA posted a video on Twitter in February that showed the pandas pacing in circles around their enclosure as proof they were suffering from “physical, mental, and emotional deprivation.” It received thousands of likes and was retweeted by singer Billie Eilish.

A spokesperson for the zoo said the decision to return the pandas to China had nothing to do with pressure from animal advocates. China requires foreign zoos that host pandas on loan to allow older animals to spend their final days on Chinese soil. At 24 and 22, respectively, Le Le and Ya Ya have exceeded the giant panda life expectancy in the wild by almost 10 years, according to the spokesperson.

Giant pandas, whose black and white faces have made them beloved around the world, are considered a vulnerable species, with much of their mountainous natural habitat in southwest China under threat from deforestation.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, about 1,800 pandas are left in the wild and another 500 in zoos around the world. With the return of Ya Ya and Le Le to China, U.S. zoos will have a total of 10 giant pandas.

Galactic Energy launched five satellites into orbit on Monday, boosting the private firm’s ambition to become the Chinese     1     (compete) to SpaceX. Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1 rocket lifted off Monday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, sending five satellites into their     2     (intend) orbits. The mission marks the fifth launch of the Ceres-1 rocket-a small solid fuel orbital rocket designed     3     the company. So far, 19 satellites     4     (put) into space, setting a record for a private Chinese firm.

Galactic Energy conducted the first Ceres-1 launch on November 7, 2020,     5     makes it the second Chinese private company to launch a satellite into low Earth orbit successfully.

Some Chinese satellite launch providers     6     (current) are using small solid fuel rockets like Cerebrum others     7     (develop) or testing reusable liquid fuel rocket engines.

China’s commercial space industry has expanded rapidly since 2015, when the government began encouraging private companies     8     (enter) the space sector. Over the past few years, more than 170 private firms have entered the space industry, according to a 2020 research report by Future Space Research,     9     research institute based in Beijing.

The     10     (success) launch by the Chinese startup came on the same day that Virgin Orbit suffered failure on its first rocket launch from the United Kingdom.

8 . The area of tropical forest destroyed in 2021 was enough to cover the entire island of Cuba, and sent more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as India does in an entire year from burning fossil fuels, according to an analysis published on Thursday.

Some 11.1 million hectares (around 43, 000 square miles) of forest was destroyed, mainly by logging (伐木)as well as fires, the analysis by the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch and the University of Maryland found. Some of those fires were deliberately lit to clear land and many were deteriorated by climate change.

The loss was less severe than in 2020, but deforestation (毁林)is still occurring at an alarming rate in the tropics. Of the area lost, 3. 75 million hectares were primary tropical forest at the equivalent of 10 soccer fields every minute, WRI reported.

Primary tropical forests in particular are crucial for the ecological balance of the planet, providing oxygen that supports life and as biodiversity hotspots. They are also rich in stored carbon, and when these forests are logged or burned, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

“What’s important to understand is that forests, especially tropical forests, are part of the global climate system,” WRI senior fellow Frances Seymour told CNN. “So they’re not mechanical carbon storage devices. They actually influence the energy transfer and the moisture content of the atmosphere in ways that affect rainfall and global circulation patterns.”

“When deforestation happens, when forests are lost, it not only contributes carbon to the atmosphere, but also disrupts rainfall patterns and increases local temperatures in some ways. For example, it makes remaining forests more vulnerable to fire, and the warmer, drier conditions that come with climate change,” Seymour said.

10 . My grandma passed away last week. My mum began the painful yet necessary task of sorting through her belongings.

“Is there anything you want from grandma’s flat?” Mum texted me.

“Her aloe (芦荟), please.” I required zero thinking time.

Sometime around 1975, Grandma, always believing good things would happen in the future, received this plant as a gift, which she appreciated and placed in her doorway. It came from the local butcher. Five years later, my mum married the butcher’s son and had me. Grandma revealed to me this particular plant was a living relationship between the two families. And so was I.

Recently, whenever we visited Grandma’s flat, I attempted to fix this concept in my children’s minds. “That was a gift your great-grandma bought your other great-grandma! It’s older than me!” Then my kids would nod and ask Grandma for a sweet.

Numerous times, Grandma gave me cuttings or clippings of the plant, hoping I might raise my own and continue the legend. Yet, every time, my new branch died with my awful gardening skills. But that didn’t used to matter, because I could turn to Grandma, who would wait and accept my disturbance without becoming upset. Then I got another clipping and tried again. But now I can’t. So, I decided that the plant will go and live with Ann, my mother-in-law, who is a genius with a greenhouse.

The plan is for Ann to keep hold of the original plant. In time, she can teach me how to deal with its cuttings properly, and then maybe one day I can settle the plant in my place.

In the meantime, Ann will allocate (分配) clippings among my relatives, as Grandma used to do. My wife’s two sisters, for example, are both better at tending plants than I am, so it is quite imaginable they, too, will offer cuttings of the plant to their partners, spreading this loving plant across my entire extended family.