1 . I was shocked when my socially awkward sister, who had suffered from Asperger Syndrome (阿斯伯格综合症), decided to sing in front of the school. I knew she would ________ me in some way, so I protested. However, my parents insisted that she ________ and I would have to be part of the audience. I silently hoped that something would happen to ________ me from watching her losing face.

As I waited in the hall, sweat ________ my forehead. I comforted myself that no one knew she was my sister and tried to persuade myself that it would be ________. The lights darkened and the ________ opened to reveal (使露面) my sister standing alone on stage. She seemed ________, taking a minute to stammer (结结巴巴地说) her name and class. ________ began to be heard in the audience.

I shifted nervously in my seat, afraid what was about to happen. But as my sister started to sing, I was ________. Her voice flowed effortlessly and melodiously, filling the hall with its ________. I watched in wonder, realizing I had never known she could sing so ________. I listened carefully to the lyric (歌词) she had written herself, feeling ashamed for doubting her ________. My heart gave way as I heard the heartfelt words.

2 . How satisfied are you with your life? How good do you feel every day? Your answers to those two questions can show how happy you are.

It’s true that your happiness is partly affected by your genes.     1     According to experts, happiness is a choice. It’s something that you can develop with continuing practice. Following these tried-and-true tips can help you find happiness.

Don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone has different talents and abilities. It’s OK that you’re not like someone else. Comparison has been called “the thief of joy”. In addition, forgive yourself often.     2    .

    3     Yet much of what appears on social media is not real. Many people compare themselves with those images, resulting in feelings of discouragement.

Spending time with people you love and that love you is necessary for building strong connections and developing a sense of belonging. By devoting time and attention to those who matter most to you, you can create lasting memories, deepen understanding, and strengthen bonds with each other happily.

Nature helps to reduce stress. Exercise and put your health in the first place.     5     Just going on a walk can make a difference.

Stay aware of recent events. But don’t spend hours consuming news, which usually includes negative stories and events.

Since happiness is a choice, why not choose it? Life will look brighter filled with love and joy!

3 . Why do we talk the way we do? It might date back to when our ancestors left the jungle for the open plain. Between 5.3 million and 16 million years ago, Africa’s landscapes changed from thick, leafy forests to wide-open grasslands. This environmental change pushed our ancestors out of the trees and onto the ground. Along with all of the physical and behavioral changes this may have caused, researchers also believe it may have changed the way we speak.

“Open landscapes provide us with fewer objects to affect signal communication, meaning our voices can travel further compared with that in thick forests,” Charlotte Gannon, a researcher who studies language development, told Newsweek. “The move to these open spaces may have increased the effectiveness of our communication.”

By comparing the vocal calls of the orangutan (大猩猩) , Gannon and her team were able to establish how different calls could travel across different landscapes. In their study, the team played 487 calls from orangutans and measured their audibility (可听度) at set length over an overall distance of over 1,300 feet in the South African plain.

“Our results were surprising,” Gannon said, “The rule of sound spread suggests that lower-frequency (低频率) sounds (the grumphs) would have traveled further than higher-frequency sounds (the kiss squeaks). Our results actually found the opposite to this.” In these environmental settings, consonant (辅音)-like calls traveled a lot further than vowel (元音) -like calls. Actually, around 80 percent of consonant-based calls were audible at 1,300 feet, compared to only 20 percent of vowel-based calls.

Gannon said these results highlight the importance of studying living orangutan to learn about our species’ history. “We can view them as time machines that allow us to recreate key moments of our history so we can learn more about the development of our language,” Gannon said. “Despite their popularity in modern languages, consonants have often been forgotten when discussing speech development. Our research highlights not only their presence in ancient times but their importance to the development of language.”

4 . Macquarie Island is a tiny island that’s part of Australia. It’s about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. The island’s been made a world heritage area because it’s so untouched, but this unique environment is under threat from some unwanted visitors.

It all started when seal hunters came to the island in the early 1800s. They brought rabbits with them as a source of food for the journey, and also on board the ships were rats and mice, which made their way onto the island too. They’re being blamed for destroying the homes of marine birds, causing soil loss and ripping up plant cover, as these before-and-after photos show.

So what’s being done about the problem? It starts with a team of helicopters that fly across the island carrying these giant containers. Inside them are poisoned pellets (有毒饲料) which are dropped and spread across the island. For any rabbits that survived the baiting (诱饵) , there’s a plan B. This special team of dogs is being put through a final training. It’ll be their job to track down any remaining rabbits. They have to also learn to behave around the island’s native wildlife. The dogs could be here for years or until the task is complete. The dogs don’t actually kill the rabbits. They find them, then the hunters decide to either catch the rabbits or shoot them.

But the program has received a bit of criticism. Some people argue 25 million dollars is a lot of money to be spending on wiping out rabbits and rodents (啮齿目动物), and in the process, some native birds will be killed because of the baiting.

The reality is the problem isn’t going to be solved overnight. The people running the program say that even if one pair of rabbits is left alive, the whole task will be seen as a failure, which means these guys could be here for a long time, trying to ensure that this precious island remains protected from pests.

5 . Njobati, a young woman from Cameroon, faced a challenging journey when she moved from her English-speaking area to a French-speaking area of the country to attend university. The sharp differences between these areas, once part of the British and French empires, made it difficult for her to fit in, which led her to examine her own identity—who she truly was.

Seeking guidance, she turned to her grandfather who also felt disconnected from his own culture. He expressed sadness about what the Nso had lost both culturally and materially, including Ngonnso statue. Ngonnso was the founder of Nso dating back to the 14th Century, whose statue was an important cultural symbol for the Nso. However, it was taken by the Germans in 1902 and has been housed in Berlin’s Ethnological Museum ever since.

Inspired by her grandfather’s desire and saddened by the loss of culture, Njobati made a promise to bring back the statue. She believed it would not only achieve her grandfather’s wish but connect her with her Nso heritage again.

Njobati did many researches about the statue and former unsuccessful attempts. She realized that restitution (归还) was actually about facing the colonial ( 殖民主义的) past. Njobati decided to try differently. To gather support online and offline, Njobati began a grassroots campaign. She organized meetings in community halls and churches, met people one-on-one, and used the power of social media.Through Twitter, she established contact with the Ethnological Museum.

Njobati’s tireless efforts paid off. She was told that a decision about Ngonnso statue was coming, which was an important moment for her.

“Finally, this is happening. Not just for me, but for the Nso people, and for Cameroon,” She cried. “This also lends a hand to other communities that are seeking justice for stolen culture relics.”

6 . About Byron

Whether you’re in Byron for fun or work, there are plenty of things to do to fill your spare time.

Byron, Georgia makes travel sweeter with its slower pace and breathtaking attractions. It’s full of historic sites, museums, shopping malls, and more. In this city at the center of Georgia’s peach industry, you can take a vacation that leaves you rested, not annoyed.

Georgia Peach Festival-June

Fall Market Days-September

Georgia National Fair-October

Byron Christmas Parade-December

Byron Welcome Center

Located in the Peach Shops, the Byron Welcome Center is your first stop in our area. The Byron Welcome Center is ready to help you make the most of your stay in Byron, Georgia.

North Peach Park

North Peach Park is the place for traditional festivals, movies in the park, and many other events. The park has picnic shelters, playgrounds, football fields and soccer fields all year round. North Peach Park also has an indoor, climate-controlled multi-purpose room.

The Big Peach Shopping Mall

One of Georgia’s major shopping malls, and Central Georgia’s biggest and best variety of goods, the Big Peach has something for everyone! Open seven days a week and located directly off I-75, the Big Peach is Central Georgia’s favorite shopping destination.

Party Playground Indoor Fun Center

Let the kids work out some energy with an hour or two at the Party Playground Indoor Fun Center. This room full of safe and soft play equipment will let your little ones run, jump and play, rain or shine. It’s also a great place to have a birthday party.

For more information, contact us at (478) 956-2409

Email: byronwelcomecenter@gmail.com

10 . Each year, the discovery of new shark species underlines how little we know about ocean biodiversity. In a recent report conducted by Sibert and Rubin, they reported an unexpected finding: a large-scale extinction of sharks in the pelagic ocean, the largest ecosystem on Earth, about 19 million years ago. Their discovery suggests that some extinctions in the open sea of the past may have been mysterious.

The study of Sibert and Rubin takes advantage of a system by using tiny, hard bits of shark skin and bony fish teeth that naturally fall from their bodies to the seafloor. These extremely small fossils provide a rich record of ancient oceanic sharks and their abundance for thousands of years. By studying fossils from many regions, the diversity patterns can give major insights into evolution (进化) of the open sea that would be otherwise unknown.

Sibert and Rubin quantified(量化)a past extinction of sharks, reporting a 90% decline in number and >70% drop in diversity. They found that nearer-shore sharks appear to survive, but migratory ones go extinct. The finding of this study is that sharks had undergone a widespread extinction that reorganized their communities from 16 million to 20 million years ago.

Sibert and Rubin narrowed the disappearance of sharks to a window of time under 100,000 years around 19 million years ago, but the causes of this event remain unclear. Because this time period does not stand out as a period of major climatic change, the authors do not attribute(归因于) environmental factors as an extinction driver. As for other causes, the loss of shark diversity is directly linked to overfishing.

The loss of sharks from the oceans has profound, complex, and unavoidable ecological consequences because their presence reflects the stability of marine ecosystems. Yet, one-quarter of the global diversity of sharks is currently threatened with extinction. Despite recent improvements in conservation actions, shark communities never recovered from a mysterious extinction event 19 million years ago; the ecological fate of what remains is now in our hands.