1 . How can a creature weighing over 5 tons and normally taking 150 kilograms of food and 120 liters of water per day survive in a desert environment?

In the southwest African country of Namibia, and the Sahara lands of Mali further north, the desert elephant does just that.

Although not regarded as a separate species from the African elephant, the desert cousin differs in many ways. Their bodies are smaller, to absorb less heat, and their feet are larger for easier walking across sandy surfaces. They are taller, to reach higher branches. They have shorter tusks (象牙), and most importantly, longer trunks to dig for water in riverbeds.

Desert elephants can travel over 70 kilometers in search for feeding grounds and waterholes, and have a larger group of families, They drink only every 3-4 days, and can store water in a “bag” at the back of their throat, which is only used when badly needed. Desert elephants are careful feeders — they seldom root up trees and break fewer branches, and thus keep what little food sources are available. Yong elephants may even eat the dung (粪便)of the female leader of a group when facing food shortage.

During drought (干旱) they are unlikely to give birth to their young but with good rains the birthrate will increase greatly. Desert elephants have sand baths, sometimes adding their own urine (尿液) to make them muddy!

As we continue to overheat our weak planet, it can only be hoped that other animal species will adapt (适应) as extraordinarily well to change as the desert elephant.

4 . Children need to be prepared for an earthquake as much as adults, if not more.

Infants and Toddlers (初学走路的儿童) For infants and toddlers, special emphasis should be placed on making their environment as safe as possible. The beds should be placed away from windows and tall bookcases that could slide or fall. A minimum of a 72-hour supply of extra water, bottles, food, juices, clothing and medications should be stored where it is most likely to be reached after an earthquake. Also keep an extra bag with these things in your car. Install bumper pads (防撞垫) to protect babies during the shaking. Install latches (闩锁) on all cupboards (not just those young children can reach) so that nothing can fall on your baby during a quake.

Preschool and School-age Children By age three or so, children can understand what an earthquake is and how to get ready for one. Take the time to explain what causes earthquakes in terms they understand. Include your children in family discussions and planning for earthquake safety. Conduct drills and review safety procedures every six months. Show children the safest places to be in each room when an earthquake hits. Also show them all possible exits from each room. Teach children what to do wherever they are during an earthquake (at school, in a tall building, outdoors). Make sure children’s emergency cards at school are up-to-date. It’s important that they know what gas smells like. Advise children to tell an adult if they smell gas after an earthquake.

5 . The Silk Road is the name of different roads that long ago connected Europe, Africa and Asia. People reached these different places along these roads. Scientists believe people began to travel the Silk Road about 3000 years ago. By the time the Chinese silk trade became important in the world, the Silk Road covered almost 6500 kilometers. It spread from Rome to China, which is from the West to the Far East.

Traders travelling along the Silk Road carried silk, of course. They also carried and traded spices (香料), cloth, valuable stones and gold.

There is a famous old story along the old road. It is said that Roman soldiers travelled through central Asia. They started to live somewhere near the ancient Chinese village of Liqian. Sortie of these Romans married local Chinese women and the story of blue-eyed villages of China was started.

During its busiest period, the Silk Road allowed people from many different cultures and countries to meet each other and mix. The Silk Road allowed the sharing of valuable goods and new ideas. These included people and trading goods from the Mediterranean, Persian, Magyar, Armenian, Bactrian, Indian and Chinese areas. All these peoples travelled the Silk Road, and they shared goods, stories, languages, and cultures.

In modern times, the old Silk Road routes (路线) are still used, but now they are crossed by trains instead of camels and horses. There is even a Silk Route Museum in Jiuquan in China. It has over 35,000, objects from all along the Silk Road. In this way, China protects the history of many countries and peoples.

7 . Maggie, a girl of thirteen years old, lived on the west coast of the United States. She had never experienced an earthquake before; she only prepared for it. As long as she could remember, preparing for an earthquake was common at her school. Her family had made plans as well in case of a natural disaster.

One day, Maggie arrived home from school at the usual time. However, it was not the same as usual. She was home alone. Her mom would be driving home on the busy freeway and her dad was to arrive at the airport. He was coming home from a two-week business trip.

After finishing her homework, Maggie felt a little hungry, so she went to the kitchen to find something to eat: Just then she felt a shake, then the violent shaking. Maggie quickly ran under the large table in the dining room. The sounds of breaking glass and the crashing of many things were deafening, and Maggie hugged herself in fear.

After what seemed like a very long time, the earthquake appeared to be over. Maggie could hear the sound of water rushing below her in the basement. And there was the smell of natural gas in the air. Maggie knew where the main water valve(阀门) was and how to turn it off. Dad had ever shown her before.

Slowly and carefully she came out from under the table. The once tidy home was then almost unrecognizable. Walls had fallen down and many things in the room were in a mess. As Maggie approached the open basement door, she could see the steps. Carefully she made her way down into the dark basement.

While placing her feet firmly on the floor, Maggie felt a sudden pain as a large wood hit her head and shoulder. She fell unconscious onto a pile of boxes. An hour later, she woke up and found her parents beside her. She was happy that she was still alive!

8 . I strongly believe that individual actions make a difference to our environment. I’ve been a vegetarian for more than two decades, choose to be child-free partially because I can’t justify my genes’ importance over the shocking amount of resources needed for raising another American, and haven’t owned a car in four years. Those things, over time, will absolutely reduce my impact on our beautiful world, and the more people do them, the greater the impact is.

But it’s not nearly enough.

While I will continue to do my part to fight climate change, I have to wonder why there isn’t an equal effort by those who have the biggest impact. According to a recent report, 71% of greenhouse gases are produced by just 100 companies. Surely, working to minimize their emissions (排放物) will do far more, much faster than me talking people’s ears off on Facebook about eating less meat. After all, I have been doing that kind of work for 20 years now, and we are still headed towards climate disaster.

Why should so much of the solution to global warming be on the shoulders of individuals?

When President Kennedy decided we needed to beat the Russians to the moon landing, he didn’t encourage housewives to figure out bow to get there. He got the smartest and most talented people together to solve the challenges. NASA got us there, with lots of hard work and late nights, and also full encouragement and funding from the US government.

But this is not the case with climate change. Big companies are let off the hook while we take on the huge burden of dealing with the emissions of the biggest and most powerful. That strikes me as just plain unfair. The serious threats of climate change require an all-hand-on-deck response. Corporations need to do their part, because I can’t do it on my own.

9 . For centuries, historians and archaeologists have defined periods of human history by the technologies or materials that made the greatest impact on society — like the Stone Age, Bronze Age, or Iron Age. But what age are we in now? For some researchers, according to Atlas Obscura’s Cara Giamo, that question can be answered with one word: plastics.

“Plastic has redefined our material culture and the artifacts we leave behind. It will be found in stratified (分层) layers in our trash deposits (沉积层)” That’s according to archaeologist John Marston.

The wide variety of synthetic polymers (合成聚合物) would not exist if it weren’t for human action. Since the first plastic polymers were invented, about six billion tons of plastics have been made and spread around the planet, from forests to oceans ever since the first plastics polymers were invented.

Plastics are one of the most significant changes that humans have made to the Earth’s makeup. Most plastics don’t easily degrade. This only adds to the problem. Recycling isn’t an adequate solution. Not all types of plastic are easily recyclable. And there are only a few recycling plants that can process all varieties of plastic.

According to Debra Winter, writer for The Atlantic, this means that many of the materials thrown into recycling bins can cross the planet several times before they are processed. They are made into produce rugs, sweaters, or other bottles. Although millions of tons of plastic are recycled every year, millions more end up in landfills or the ocean. The problem has reached the point where it’s possible that in just a few decades there might be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fishes.

“Plastics have a supposed life span of over 500 years, it’s safe to say that every plastic bottle you have used exists somewhere on this planet, in some form or another,” Winter writes. 

The damage may already be done. It may be too late for human populations worldwide to change their plastic-using ways. So the Plastic Age might soon take its place next to the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in the history of human civilization.

10 . In habitats across the planet, animals periodically drop everything to walk, fly or swim to a new place. Some animals such as whales and geese learn migration paths by following their parents. Others, including small songbirds, gain the distance and direction of their migration within their genetic code. And some animals use a combination of genetics and culture to guide their migration.

Another group of migrators does not quite fit either model, and researchers have only recently started to figure out how they find their way. The Cory’s shearwater is an oceangoing seabird that migrates over the Atlantic every year. The young do not migrate with their parents, so culture cannot explain their journeys. And the exact paths vary wildly from individual to individual, making genetics equally unlikely.

Cory’s shearwaters are long-lived, rarely producing young successfully before age nine. This leaves an opening for learning and practice to develop their migration patterns. Researchers call this the “exploration-refinement”, and until now it has been hypothetical (假设的) because of difficulties in tracking migratory animals’ movements.

But a team of researchers has done that by attaching small geolocators to more than 150 of the birds aged four to nine. They found that younger birds traveled longer distances, for longer periods, and had more diverse paths than older birds. “We finally have evidence of the ‘exploration-refinement’ for migratory birds,” says Letizia Campioni, who led the study. Younger Cory’s shearwaters are able to fly just as fast as the adults——but they do not, suggesting that the young do more exploring, which gradually fades as they mature and settle into a preferred course.

“Although it may seem less efficient than other strategies, exploration refinement could be beneficial to birds and other organisms in a rapidly changing world due to unpredictable man-made changes,” says Barbara Frei. “It might be safer to repeat a behavior that was recently successful than to rely on patterns that were perfected long ago but might no longer be safe.”