1 . Many of us think of sharks as powerful, mysterious, and lonely as they move through the deep. And nowonder the fish have long been portrayed in popular media as lone predators, appearing out of nowhere to attack. But that image has come under inspection in recent years, as shark researchers around the world have discovered the fish gathering in large numbers and interacting with others of their own species in ways that are obviously friendly.

Yannis Papastamatiou, a marine scientist at Florida International University, and his team used acoustic transmitters to record the interactions over four years of about 40 reef sharks around Hawaii. Their study found that reef sharks return to the same communities year after year, forming clear preferences for sharks with some friendships that endured throughout the study. In his 2016 study, he found that individual sharks tagged with recording devices had thousands of interactions with their peers, with some pairs spending up to four straight days together. The study also found certain sharks were unmistakably companions. “These weren’t random associations,” he says.

Finding out why sharks socialize — and how much of their behavior is cooperative — is a challenge, but there are some clues, such as food availability and warmer waters. Great white sharks, are showing up in record numbers along southern California beaches as the population has doubled since 1994. While great white sharks typically maintain distances of about 30 feet from each other and don’t seem too close, they are clearly drawn together by a preference for the area. In some cases, there may not be an obvious purpose for shark’s friendship. At the Bimini Shark Lab, Smukall and his colleagues found that young lemon sharks sought out companionship of other sharks for no clear reason. There’s growing evidence that lemon sharks have their own personalities, which may influence whether they spend time with other sharks, he adds.

More would be known about the intimate lives of sharks if the field weren’t so new, due in part to a lack of funding and sharks’ negative reputation. “We’ve only had about 20 years to really start studying sharks,” says Smukall.

3 . Nowadays, taking no notice of protecting the environment leads to problems including global warming. While discussing with my daughter about going green, I remembered the daily practices in most households in India. What we did was actually helping our environment and also protecting our resources. We did all this naturally, without even realizing its importance.

We preferred reusing pens in the past. We used to have ball pens used again and again by changing the refills and we also used ink pens, which were refreshed now and then by filling ink in them when required. There was no such thing as a use-and-throw pen. We loved the process of cleaning the writing instruments. However, today, plastic pens that do not last long are ruling the stationery（文具）shops.

We recycled and reused newspapers without really thinking twice about it. Newspapers were kept carefully during those days because they were an important material used for packing and storing. Today plastic bags have become important, All these materials pollute our land and water and prevent all conservation(保护)efforts.

Public transport was a common thing in the old days and it was so much fun. Nowadays.no one seems to have the patience to take public transport and many consider it too silly for them. So people take their cars out every day and pollute the environment, thinking it makes the m look cool. Vehicular (车辆的) pollution in cities is the biggest contributor to environmental problems.

I am not against the usage of modern technologies. In fact, it has helped make our life casier. While we can use the same technology to go green instead of polluting the environment, we should also go back to a few old traditions that are ecofriendly.

5 . Doing your laundry with cold water can help save the planet, and maybe save you some money along the way. That’s the message from Tide in a newly launched campaign to decarbonize laundry. The goal is for consumers in North America to do three out of every four loads of laundry with cold water instead of hot by 2030, up from about half today. That would eliminate the power consumption required to heat cold water.

If this goal is met, it will have the same impact on greenhouse gas emissions as removing about a million cars from the road for a year. “There is no tradeoff. You will save 150 a year in energy costs, your garments will last longer. And by the way, you’re helping to save the planet,” Shailesh Jejurikar, CEO of Procter & Gamble’s fabric and home care division, said in an interview. “It’s a beautiful win-win-win if we get this right.”

“This is going to be the defining decades for where we end up on climate change,” Jejurikar said. “If we don’t get this situation under control in the coming years, we are going to pay the price. There is a need to act now.” Beyond its focus on cold-water washing, Tide set a new goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions at its factories in half by 2030. That’s in addition to the progress it already has made cutting emissions by three-quarters over the past decade as the brand adopted 100% renewable energy at its manufacturing plants. Tide also plans to reduce its carbon footprint by using 100% recyclable packaging for all products by 2030 and by teaming up with Silicon Valley startup Opus12 to capture carbon from its factories.

Jejurikar said P&G does want to get to zero emissions in its factories, but added that how people use Tide products has 10 times more impact than what happens in its plants. “We are trying to give them chance to take their ordinary daily actions, and make them have an extraordinary impact,” Jejurikar said.

Climate change makes wildfires, hurricanes and heat waves more frequent     1     stronger than before. The bad effects are in the headlines     2     (regular). The warming climate also changes lives     3     subtler (不易察觉的) ways.

In Tampa, Fla. , Sara Brogan says summers are getting     4     (hot). Going to the beach to cool off is a decades-long tradition for her family. They     5     (go) to the beach once this summer. There was a red tide. These algae (水藻) blooms are increasing, likely because of human     6     (pollute) and warming temperatures. They produce toxins (毒素) that kill sea life. That is     7     Brogan is staying away from the beach. A lot of times it's—before you even get there, you can feel the smell of dead fish is very strong.

Wildfire smoke obviously is not good for people and the animal. Heather Duchow and her husband celebrated     8     (they) 20th anniversary in Montana's Glacier National Park. When they got there, it was very smoky. She felt disappointed: the smoke made it difficult     9     (see) the awe-inspiring views she remembered. For future anniversaries, they may go sooner in the summer,    10     (hope) to avoid the worst of fire season. It's strongly recommended that some measures should be taken to control the warming climate.

7 . My work started in 2003 at my local animal shelter’s Adoption Department. It seems like such a long time ago. In the 13 years that have passed, more than 50,000 animals have passed the doors of the shelter. Most of them, I do not remember. But occasionally there are animals who stand out. Tabby was one such animal.

Tabby was one of the many homeless dogs. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s chances at adoption seemed remote at best. But one day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, who suffered from epilepsy (癫痫) had seen Tabby’s picture on the shelter’s website. They were interested in meeting her! Most boys would want a puppy, a dog who could grow with him and run through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would never be able to do that. But as they say, "love is blind". After meeting her, they decided to adopt Tabby!

If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her successful adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed but it was what happened after her adoption that some might label as "magical" or perhaps even miraculous. As Gary and Tabby did everything together, they became so "in tune" with one another that Tabby began to telegraph Gary’s seizures (疾病发作) before they occurred, giving his family a warning that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s arrival.

How could it be? There are some things that happen in this world that challenge all logic and understanding. Sometimes, the best that we can do is to accept a miraculous thing, which we didn’t attempt to explain. Because when you try to explain it, you lose the beauty and wonder of it all.