Early one weekend morning, I was sleeping like a log when the telephone rang. When I answered I heard my Grandma’s voice “Hey, sweetheart. I have missed you so much lately. Why don’t you come to the countryside and enjoy some fine views?” she asked. “Dad, Grandma is inviting us to her home,” I shouted to my father who was busy in the kitchen. “Fine with me,” he responded in a casual tone. After a quick breakfast, we drove to Grandma’s.

Once we arrived, we were both thrilled by the breathtaking landscape. The plum trees in the backyard were ripe with fruit, while millions of wildflowers colored the valley. Grandma prepared delicious lunch including her special homemade apple jam, which was my favorite. Seeing my greedy eyes, grandma said “Take some when you leave, and I’ve got plenty stored in the cellar (地窖) .” Talking and laughing, we didn’t even notice that it was late in the afternoon, though somewhat cooler than it had been that morning. Grandma suggested that we take her homemade wooden boat for a tour along the nearby river.

Seated in the boat, looking up at the sky, I felt like the clouds were greeting us cheerfully from above. In the vast fields, the golden trees were like brides in the sun. The breeze skimmed over the surface of the field, carrying the sweet smell of the flowers. It was like a picture painted by one of the Dutch masters. “It is so nice to spend some quality time with family,” Dad murmured. “It feels like we’re on an adventure,” I added. “It’s been so much fun!”

While we were admiring the splendid setting around us, the weather started getting hot and humid again. At first, we ignored this change, but when dad looked up at the sky, he saw dark, low clouds were approaching us. Then a fierce gale (大风) sprang up. Lightning flashed within the black clouds, followed by a roar of thunder. “Row!” Dad shouted, trembling, “A tornado (龙卷风) is coming!”

There was no time to think. We rowed as fast as we could.

Grandma opened the door for us.

5 . Oxygen, I'm sure you'd agree, is pretty important for life on Earth. We breathe it in, our cells survive on it and without it, we hardly live. Basically all multicellular life on Earth evolved over millions of years to make use of oxygen.

But take a deep breath, because we need to talk about Henneguya salminicola, a tiny parasite(寄生虫) containing fewer than100 cells that lives within the muscle tissue of salmon, a large fish with silver skin and pink flesh. The strange-looking parasite does not busy itself with such small matters as breathing oxygen. Nope, it seems that H. salminicola is the first multicellular animal we've found that survives without the stuff.

“Aerobic respiration(有氧呼吸) was thought to be commonly found in animals, but now we confirmed that this is not the case, "said Dorothee Huchon, a zoologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel, in a press release.

Huchon and a team of international researchers examined and sequenced(排序) all of. salminicola's' genes in their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that the parasite, which is closely related to jellyfish, lacks the DNA machinery necessary to“breathe”---it doesn't' have mitochondria(线粒体), often called the "powerhouse" of the cell, because they use oxygen to make energy. It's like a little factory inside almost all cells, and DNA detectives can find mitochondrial genes during sequencing.

The discovery came as something of an accident for the team, who were examining the genome (the complete set of genes) of the species. When they went searching for the mitochondrial genes,   they came up empty-handed. "Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directions, ”Huchon said. "Aerobic respiration is a major source of energy, and yet we found an animal that gave up this important pathway.”

Some single-celled life forms have evolved the ability to survive without oxygen and do not have mitochondria, either. Plenty of bacteria can exist without oxygen at all. Instead of oxygen, they get their energy from fermentation(发酵) or use other molecules like iron.

But how H. salminicola produces energy is still unclear. Huchon suggests it could draw oxygen from the cells in salmon or it could have evolved similar methods to those of single-celled organisms which scientists have documented in the past.

Alexis Vaughan, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad's car. She stared out the window at the Preston, Idaho, cornfields.

Alexis, a high school student, let her eyes lazily scan the landscape for wildlife. Still, she was terrified when a deer came into view about 200 yards in front of them, just a few feet off the road. "Dad, there's a deer, there!" Alexis said, rolling down the window for a better look. It was a three-point buck (雄鹿) — a male deer with sharp, three-pronged antlers (角) on each side of its head.

As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the buck's head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream. A few seconds later, she saw an arm fly up near the buck's head. Alexis realized the buck was attacking a woman. Sue Panter, a 44-year-old mother, had been out for her morning run. The buck had come out from the tall corn and began following her. Having lived in rural Idaho for years, Sue knew that most bucks got frightened by humans. But this buck edged closer, even when she threw at it with a handful of gravels (石子).

Sue went to pick up a log to use for self-defense, and the buck attacked her. It lifted her with its antlers (角) and threw her into the air. Sue could feel the horns punctured (刺穿) her leg and blood flowed down her leg. Within seconds, the buck had pushed her off the road and into the cornfield.

When Alexis and her father pulled up, the buck was rolling Sue like a rag doll. Alexis looked into the woman's terrified eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the 104 pound teenager jumped quickly out of the car and down the slope toward the buck. She was kicking and hitting it to get its attention. Then Michael, her father, who had followed his daughter, wrestled the buck away from the women by holding the antlers.

Alexis helped Sue up the slope.

Then she heard her father yell.

7 . "It can't be done．" Boyan Slat heard this over and over when he first proposed a way to clean   up millions of tons of plastic polluting our oceans． Almost anyone else would have given up in frustration and despair． But 20﹣year﹣old Slat hasn't： been discouraged but committed to his dream． "Human history is basically a list of things that couldn't be done， and then were done，" he says．Today， slat and his team at The Ocean Cleanup are well on their way to proving the critics wrong． Good news for the planet．

（1）_______

Slat， who grew up in the city of Delft in the Netherlands， was on a diving trip in Greece three years ago when he was deeply impressed by plastic， "There were more plastic bags than fish，" he says． "That moment I realized it was a huge issue and that environmental issues are really the biggest problems my generation will face．"

That fall， Slat， then 17， decided to study plastic pollution as part of a high school project． Soon， Slat learned that no one had yet come up with practical way to clean up this massive garbage patches． Most proposed solutions involved "fishing" up the plastic using ships equipped with nets﹣which， as Slat discovered， would likely take more than 1，000 years， cost too much， let off too much sea life along with the trash．

Slat proposed an alternative that mostly avoided these problems﹣a solar﹣powered system using a floating plastic tube which will go around the garbage and trap it is 600 meters long， A big screen hangs down from it， about three metres into the water． Wind， waves and ocean currents will push the trash toward the tube． （Fish can swim under the screen） A ship will pick up the trash and take it back to the shore to sort and recycle it into oil and other products． Best of all， Slat predicted his system could clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii where a lot of floating garbage exists， within five to 10 years．

（2）________

The following， Slat entered the aerospace engineering program at the Delft University of Technology and officially announced his ocean cleanup concept at TEDx Delft． But nothing much moved forward，

Slat found himself continually absent﹣minded in classes， looking for ways． to improve his concept． "It wouldn't let go． I finally decided to put both university and my social life on hold to focus all my time on developing this idea． I wasn't sure if it would succeed， but considering the scale of problem I thought it was important to at least try．" He says．

With this family's blessing， Slat began in earnest organizing a team of volunteers and employees for The Ocean Cleanup， which now numbers about 100．

（3）_______

In answer to opposition， Slat and his team raised ＄100，000 from a crowdfunding campaign and began testing a 40﹣meter collecting barrier near the Azores Islands last March． In June， they released a 500+ page possibility study．

Over the next three to four years， Slat will push toward a fully operational large﹣scale project by testing a series of longer and longer barriers． He's currently seeking to crowd fund ＄2 million to finance it． Incidentally， The Ocean Cleanup is also working on a plan to stop plastic from washing into the oceans in the first place． "It's just the other problem that is equally important．" Slat says． "It's something everyone is able to help with， and we also have some technologies in the pipeline．"

As for school， Slat doesn't miss it ﹣ except maybe for the social﹣part， which he hopes to （恢复） a bit once his team takes on more of the workload． " I don't have time for things like that right now， but I really can't complain． I can imagine doing something more fun than being able to have an idea and then actually making it into a reality．" he says．