2 . The tradition of giving gifts didn’t start with the modern holidays we celebrate. Many ancient cultures celebrated holidays with the exchange of gifts. People who love to give gifts often can’t wait until it’s time for the recipients to open their gifts. If you’ve ever been given a gift, you know that part of the fun is the curiosity that builds as you wonder what the gift is.

The wish to hide the identity of a gift until just the right moment led people to wrap gifts long, long ago. Historians believed wrapping gifts in paper probably started not long after paper was invented thousands of years ago.

Wrapping paper like what we use today, though, is a much more recent invention. More than 100 years ago, gifts were usually wrapped in heavy brown paper. Before that, cloth was often used. The technology to mass-produce wrapping paper didn’t come along until the early 1900s. The first American gift wrap company— Hy-Sill Manufacturing Inc. — was founded by Eli Hyman and Morris Silverman in 1903. It wasn’t as easy to wrap presents back then as it is today, though, because adhesive tape (胶带) wasn’t invented until 1930.

Over the years, wrapping paper has developed into what we see in stores each holiday season. But scientists say that the United States alone produces an extra 5 million tons of waste over the holidays, most of which is from wrapping paper and shopping bags. To cut down on this waste, some people carefully unwrap presents, so that the wrapping paper can be reused. Others have started to use reusable gift bags instead of wrapping paper.

3 . The world is going through a basic transformation,which is changing the way we live, work and think. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing dramatic change and giving rise to a future filled with exciting opportunities and new challenges. Together, governments and businesses must find solutions to society's most pressing needs—from creating a carbon-free economy to tackling population growth and urbanization.

In any period of rapid change there is a trend to look for a simple method,to greet the new things and replace the old way of doing things. But a closer look at the facts tells a different story. Complex problems require many solutions working in harmony to enable positive change.

The challenge for scientists and engineers is to provide solutions in fact, data and today's realities. And while technologies offer new tools to help uncover solutions, the process also requires hard work, imagination and lots of improvement.

Success rests on performing practical, realistic, long- term solutions that make the world cleaner, safer and more sustainable(可持续的).

The environment is a case in point. Much of the public debate has centered on the central role of renewable power sources in realizing a low-carbon energy future. While the industry is fully behind developing renewables, today we understand that a low or zero-carbon future depends on adopting a multifaceted approach.

We cannot control sunshine levels or decide when the wind blows, which means solar power and wind power generators will produce too much or too little energy at times. The transition to renewables needs to take account of serious considerations.

Batteries have been much discussed as a means of storing extra energy, but there are other choices. Power-to- X technologies enable spare energy created by renewables to be stored and redistributed when and where it is needed.

4 . Living on the Florida Emerald Coast, people view a hurricane as a common thing. So it is not unusual for a family to have several full gas cans and bottled water stored in their houses all summer.

Though unwilling to evacuate from a hurricane, on September 15,my family was forced to leave our home for my grandfather's house several miles away. We spent the early part of that evening watching the hurricane draw closer on the Weather Channel. Around nine o'clock, a loud sound shook the house, turned over the roof and carried it off. Soon came an indoor rainstorm.

Realizing the damage, my grandfather began to be afraid. The storm had started, but he still ran out into the heavy rain and wind to see how much of the roof was left. We got him back inside. I had never seen him so scared. Mom finally asked him to lie down in his room.

The leak had progressed rapidly. It soon became a race against time to protect what was saved. Some people may think it necessary to save material things, but I hoped to save those items with emotional value, such as the photos. I still feared the storm, but I more feared the influence it brought.

The next morning, it started to clear up. Thankfully, my family weathered the storm, though the same could not be said for the house. Only the wooden beams remained, but inside many of his things were safe. My mom and I had worked tirelessly through the night.

It was late, but we were still unwilling to go to bed. We discussed the rebuilding of the house. Under the beautiful sky, we suggested looking after my grandfather more often in the future. After this disaster, I realized the truth that the hurricane itself was not so terrible if we loved each other.

5 . Gharials are living along the river banks of India and eat fish. There was a time when they were plentiful, but that was many years ago. The population changed from about 10,000 in 1946 to fewer than 250 in 2006, which led to gharials being put in the endangered part on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list.

Gharials were in such a condition due to increased fishing in their living areas — fish were caught in large numbers — gharials sometimes couldn’t find enough food. Gharials were hunted for their skins, for use in traditional medicine and so on. Many lost their living places.

Conservation efforts began in the 1970s when the Indian government started a program that built the National Chambal Sanctuary in 1978. The next year, some gharials were put into the Chambal River. Other rivers, including the Gandaki, were added. The Gandaki River is a good place for the gharials because it has sandbanks and wetlands.

Since 2016, nests have been found every year with help from local farmers and fishermen who then help to protect gharials. “Members of the community were trained by experts to watch and help gharials, ”said Samir Kumar Sinha, head of conservation at the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).

A 2018 survey by the WTI recorded more than 160 gharials in the Gandaki River. The organization also found 20 baby gharials. Now, the gharials are being found in other parts of India and in parts of Nepal. In fact, they are found in the Kosi River in India for the first time in 50 years. They are still endangered but now there is hope that the animals will begin to make a comeback.