2 . Tens of thousands of honeybees in Spain’s Canary Islands can now add “survived a volcano (火山)” to their wish list.

A report on Saturday told the story of five hives (蜂箱) of honeybees that were left unattended after the eruption (爆发) of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma, which happened on September 19, for about 50 days (their beekeeper had been forced to leave the area). When the beekeeper returned, he found the hives covered in volcanic ash (灰) .

Inside the hives, however, the situation was completely different. To the beekeeper’s surprise, he found tens of thousands of live honeybees, who had managed to carry on despite the heat and harmful gases released by the volcano. They may have also gotten lucky because they were covered with light ash with small holes, which allowed air to pass through the hives.

Not all honeybees on La Palma were so lucky, though. Spanish news service EFE reported that a group of hives closest to the Cumbre Vieja had been covered completely by lava, hot volcano matter, which killed them.

Antonio Quesada, a spokesperson for the GranCanaria Beekeepers Association, said that a key part of the bees’ survival was propolis (蜂胶). Produced by bees, propolis is a sticky thing made from resins (树脂) the insects collect from plants. Often called “bee glue,” propolis is often used to smooth surfaces or cover the space in hives.

Quesada said the La Palma bees managed to seal (密封) themselves inside their hives to protect themselves from the volcanic gases, which can be harmful to people, animals, plants, and buildings. The bees also thought about food an date from the honey stores they had inside their hives.

“It’s unbelievable how such a tiny animal that has been around for hundreds of thousands of years can have that ability to survive,” Quesada said.

That’s not all they did, though. Although they sealed themselves in their hives, they made sure to leave a very small pathway to the outside so they could get out one day.

3 . Cackles was my favorite goose. I was proud of her. Few people I knew had geese. It was_________in the 80s to have geese, especially where we lived. But we_________a few on a small piece of land.

I was most _________when I had my birthday parties. They were so different from my friends’ _________ . On the way home from school, we would collect grass and return to my garden in small groups, ready to _________the beautiful birds. The children weren’t as _________as their parents. Some had a good_________ - my uncle once got bitten by our bad-tempered male goose.

I remember being scared of them before I learned to stand my ground. As they_________me from behind, I would turn and they would stop, as if they had run into a cartoon wall. “You just have to_________them,” I would tell friends. “Don’t run.” Easier said than done.

One day, I came home to find that Cackles was being __________ . She had chased a woman down the road. The woman had been “frightened”. I was__________: “Why did she__________from a goose?”

My dad said Cackles had to__________. I last saw her in my dad’s van (运货车). It was a strange and memorable sight for all the wrong reasons. I was__________.

My dad__________me that she went to a local farm for a happy retirement. I chose to believe him.

4 . How Weather Affects Our Mood

The weather supplies many metaphors (隐喻) for our changeable minds. Moods can brighten and darken, futures can be under a cloud, and relationships can be stormy.    1    , but does it also influence our moods?

Of the many aspects of weather, sunshine is the most closely tied to mood. Although the link is weaker than many people imagine, sunlight has repeatedly been found to increase positive moods and reduce tiredness.    2    . Happy people tend to be more favorable toward one another, and people are more helpful when the sun is shining. One study even found that diners in Minnesota, US, tipped more generously on sunny days.

    3    . A study showed that university admissions officers stressed the academic qualifications of applicants more on cloudy days, and their non-academic qualities more on sunny ones.

    4    . The more it departs (偏离) from an ideal of around 20C, the more discomfort we feel. One study found that rates of helping others decreased as temperatures dropped below or rose above this value.

Indeed, the effects of weather on mood depend on our behavior and on how we think.     5    . A study by US psychology researcher Matthew Keller and his colleagues showed that beneficial effects of warm and sunny conditions on mood were only seen in people who had spent more than 30 minutes outdoors that day. Good weather even had negative effects on mood for people confined (限制) indoors, who perhaps looked enviously (嫉妒地) outside at the solar fun they were missing.

5 . Art may not be a uniquely human patent. Apes (猿), monkeys, elephants, dolphins and even rabbits can be encouraged to express themselves via pencil and paper.

New research on the artistic efforts of apes suggests that their work varies according to changes in the world around them. The new study, published in the journal Animals, focuses on hundreds of drawings produced by five female apes at Japan’s Tama Zoological Park, where keepers provided them with crayons and paper over many years as part of a behavioural enrichment programme.

One of the apes, named Molly, was especially productive. She only started drawing on her 54th birthday, but from that point on, until her death five years later, she produced about 1,300 pictures. She drew almost every day, creating more complex pictures than her companions. “I don’t know if we can describe her as a genius,” says Sueur, a biologist in the park. “Such differences are often observed between individuals of a species, with some smarter than others.” Sueur and his colleagues identified individual differences between the apes’ artistic styles, in terms of their preferred colors, the types of shapes they drew and the space they filled on the paper. Only Molly routinely filled most of the space available.

Molly’s style changed with the season too. In summer and winter, greens dominated her pictures, but she switched to pinks and purples in spring and autumn. Appealingly, she opted for red whenever another female in the group was giving birth, which may indicate that her paintings are something more than purely abstract.

“We’ve tried not to overinterpret,” says Sueur. “It could be earlier representational art.” The biologists suggest that apes may provide clues to the development of artistic skills in humans. Like children, and unlike other species known to put pen to paper, the apes needed no reward to participate in the task, suggesting that they enjoy it for its own interest.

7 . Look out the window or walk over to a patch of soil near your home. It could be reddish brown, black, dark gray or even the colour of rich, dark chocolate. If it’s moist enough, run your hands through it. It may separate into thick clumps that can hold water and later release it. With a few exceptions—such as desert sites—this is how good soil behaves.

In fact, the number of microscopic organisms that live in a shovelful of rich garden soil exceeds the number of plants and animals inhabiting the entire aboveground Amazon rainforest. And the Amazon is known for having more plants and animals than any other land-based habitat.

Soil is what supports life on Earth. Most people give it little thought, but it feeds us and the ecosystems around us. It is where countless species make their homes. It collects water, pulls pollutants from the air and helps support the planet’s atmosphere. Soil is one of Mother Nature’s unsung heroes.

And while most soil looks like it’s static, just sitting there unmoving, it actually hosts plenty of activities. Its earthworms may be digging tunnels. Worms are weightlifters. But they aren’t the only ones making changes. Other creatures below ground are too tiny to see with the unaided eye. These include one celled creatures called protozoa (单细胞生物). They improve soil by eating bacteria and releasing nitrogen, which helps plants grow.

And then there are all those bacteria. Most people think of them as dangerous. In soils, they not only serve as prey to beneficial protozoa, but also perform an environmental service. They help recycle dead plant parts and animal tissues into nutrients. They even turn some pollutants in soil and water into more of the nutrients that can sustain the diverse species that make up lively ecosystems beneath our feet.

8 . The world’s longest cave system is an enormous network of 420 miles of twists and turns, with limestone (石灰岩) falling from the ceilings in drops.

Mammoth Cave National Park preserves this unique and historical natural wonder. As large as the limestone cave system is, park officials, estimate there may be another 600 miles of cave passageways that have yet to be explored. The incredible rock formations have resulted in the park being recognized as a World Heritage Site, thanks to its extraordinary size and scientific importance –– making it one of only 13 natural US sites with that title.

The caves were created naturally by the process of limestone wearing away. Rain and rivers slowly break down and shape soft limestone, which creates the vast underground network. Not only are they an amazing destination to visit, but the system also provides drinking water for roughly 40% of the US population, and they’re of historical significance too.

The caves act as a time capsule that preserves over 5,000 years of human history — and the caves’ first explorers were Native Americans, who mined the upper levels of Mammoth Cave. Thanks to the cave system’s atmosphere and natural protection from any kind of human disturbance, the archaeological (考古的) sites have been left in great shape.

Mammoth Cave was established as a national park thanks to strong local support. Back in the 1920s, Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work created the Southern Appalachian National Park Commission in 1925 to survey proposed park sites, including the caves. After years of work acquiring the land for the park, as well as building roads, trails (小径), and public facilities, Mammoth Cave National Park was established on July 1, 1941. The park now receives around 2 million visitors a year, with roughly a quarter taking a tour of the caves –– everything from a cultural tour to the more adventurous climbing tours on offer. The cave supports more than 130 wildlife species, such as the eyeless cavefish, which has adapted to the lightless environment by no longer growing eyes, and the cave crayfish.

9 . National Geographic Explorer Malaika Vaz knew from early on that she was destined for adventure. “I was someone who spent a lot of time outdoors,” Vaz says. Among her childhood experiences, she recalls expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, climbing mountains, scuba diving, and windsurfing.

“In my late teens,” Vaz says, “I began to feel like adventure didn’t really mean anything if there wasn’t an intent to protect the natural spaces we were exploring in.” She began to seek an outlet that would both satisfy her desire for adventure and allow her to support the protection of the species and ecosystems.

Vaz had an interest in the medium of film, and decided to pursue a career in wildlife filmmaking. Today Vaz wears many hats in the filmmaking world, as a documentary director, producer, writer, and presenter.

After falling in love with mantas off the coast of her home, she discovered they were being hunted illegally and she dressed herself as a seafood trader to get as close as possible to the issue. She traced traffickers back to many parts of the world to figure out why mantas were being killed. She shares the challenges of going undercover to produce Peng Yu Sai, her Green Oscar-nominated film on the matter.

The subjects that grab her attention, Vaz admits, cover a wide range. And while she’s been asked to define her focus, she prefers variety, and argues that issues she pinpoints are more interrelated than they may appear.

Her work doesn’t stop at recording important stories-she’s also on top of follow-through, ensuring the message is heard. Vaz and her team work with scientists and policy makers to amplify the message of the films they work on.

From Vaz’s perspective, real improvement in the way the planet is cared for lies in the capable hands of many from various backgrounds. “The truth is that we don’t need ten really passionate, committed environmentalists. We need one hundred or one million people who can do a little bit in that field and change things within their ability.”