1 . An atmospheric researcher Lubna Dada, who is part of an international project called CLOUD, and her team conducted a new study. The study looks at the role of trees and the natural compounds (混合物) they release into the atmosphere in cloud formation. The goal is to more precisely understand the climate before the Industrial Revolution — and how it’s changed since.

Clouds are not only important for the weather — they also help shape the climate. Some clouds act as a layer of protection between incoming solar radiation and Earth, cooling the atmosphere. Other clouds do the opposite: they act like a blanket and trap heat.

“But many current climate models don’t account for either the warming or cooling effects of clouds, or the role aerosols play in cloud formation. That is the biggest uncertainty in climate science at present.” Dada says.

Dada and the team are trying to figure it out using a steel, cylindrical room that roughly recreates the atmosphere. To do that, the team covers the room with tape. It has lights that seem like different layers of the atmosphere, and the researchers can change the humidity and temperature levels to create a given geographic location. Then, Dada and her team can add specific vapors into the room to study their effects. Dada says that previous research has looked at the effects of two kinds of organic emissions released by plants: monoterpenes and isoprene. But another kind of compound, sesquiterpenes (倍半萜烯), has largely been ignored.

In a recent study from the CLOUD project, scientists tested the effects of sesquiterpenes on cloud formation. They added all three compounds — monoterpenes, isoprene and sesquiterpenes — into the CLOUD room to see how many new particles (微粒) formed. They found that sesquiterpenes formed ten times more particles than the other two substances at the same concentrations.

Dada says this finding will help scientists understand the role natural emissions played in the preindustrial climate and how much humans have changed that.

Dogs can do so much for us, whether they’re service dogs that can help with mental health problems or search and rescue dogs saving lives during a natural disaster. However, sometimes dogs are the ones who need a helping hand from us.

This year, I visited Ancoats Canal (运河) in Manchester with my two friends, Jack and   Ben. where we could film lots of beautiful scenes. At the end of the visit, we managed to seek out a place to have a rest. Suddenly, we saw a man lying and struggling with a leash (狗链) over a wall. When we got closer. we realized the man was in trouble. At that time, I just took my camera to film some beautiful scenes.

The man held tightly to the leash to try to keep his dog from being dragged away. The dog fell into the canal. struggling to catch the leash. Obviously, the man was panicking (惊慌). With the camera putting on the wall, we quickly jumped in to help. We couldn’t let that dog down and not help. I climbed down the canal first. However, the wall of the canal was too high, so I was not enough to get the dog. We noticed the man in pain and the dog desperately moved his back legs in search of the ground.

Finally, my friend, Jack, was seized by a sudden inspiration.

“I am the tallest of us. I am dangled(悬挂)upside down by the legs and you can drag my legs so I could reach the dog,” Jack said excitedly.

“That is a good idea,”   the man said happily.

We carried out our plan immediately.

The video of the moving rescue was posted online after we came back home.

6 . My grandparents were always busy with food. My grandmother could pull out the feathers of a chicken in less than half an hour. They picked vegetables from their garden. Animal fat was saved.     1     Nearly a decade after my grandmother died, I found myself in a kitchen, pulling out the feathers of a chicken.

It took hours and made my fingers hurt. After an adult life spent buying rather than growing food, as a so-called new farmer, I finally began to understand my grandparents.     2    

My grandparents’ generation spent a third of their income on food.     3     Food is no longer seen as public goods, but as public given resources. The ecological cost of this progress is now clear. The health costs are starting to be noticed.

But until I began talking to the farmers around me, I had not understood the human costs faced by those asked to produce milk sold for less than bottled water.     4     Called “ regenerative farming”, it was being driven by a new generation of farmers trying to find a new kind of power in the face of loss of climate change and rising fuel and transport costs.

    5     Those plants and animals worked together to help the soil become rich again. They kept living roots in the ground all year round, building up the soil’s biology and taking in carbon.

Research has found that regenerative farming not only benefits the land, but profits can be 78% higher than conventional farms.

Missy was absolutely my best friend in the whole world. We had known each other since first grade, and we literally did everything together. We frequently visited each other’s homes, we knew each other’s families like they were our own. The interesting thing about our relationship, however the fact was that the older we got, the more our values seemed to differ. We still enjoyed a lot of the same things, but I was a bit more settled while she loved being associated with popular people and things. Although she was basically a good person, she had no problem with forcing things to go her way.

Perhaps this is why it seemed that her family actually trusted me more than they trusted her. So, on the day when Missy showed up at my house with a huge dent (凹痕) in her father’s car, I knew that we were in for a troublesome time.

She had banged the car into a tree while out that day, and she knew her father was going to have an explanation. So she stopped by my house in order to make up a story that would lessen her father’s rage. Missy decided to tell him that while in a parking lot, someone must have backed into the car and dented it. Looking at the dent with some crashed leaves and bark still sticking there, I attempted to perish (打消) her thought. “I don’t think your father will buy it.” “ Don’t worry,” she insisted,“even if my dad doesn’t trust me, he’ll trust you.” My role was to confirm for her. Now keep in mind that I had strong objections to lying and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the situation. I loved her parents just like my own, and I did not want to be a party to this lie that Missy was creating. Nevertheless, after much request and a general questioning of my loyalty to our friendship, I decided that the least I could do was to act as a silent witness. That way, I wasn’t actually lying; I just wasn’t telling the full truth.

On November 27th, 2021, I was waiting to check out at a local store. The store is always busy because it is on the main street of our small town. Though I have moved to a house that is a little far from the store, I still come back to this spot for shopping, because everyone knows my face if not my name.

The clerk was very busy because it was Thanksgiving Day. Besides usual snacks and daily necessities, people were buying kinds of food and bunches of flowers. It was about 5 p. m. and still light outside, but people seemed to be hurrying back to their cars. As it was the rush hour, with people anxious to get home from work, few of the people in line responded to the clerk’s greetings. Even fewer people wished the clerk a nice evening.

Surprisingly, one elderly woman who was paying for ice cream and some snacks smiled at the clerk who was taking what seemed to be the woman’s last 20 dollars and 21 cents. The elderly customer nodded in the direction of the flowers and said to the clerk, “I hope someone will bring you a bunch of these flowers tonight.” The clerk smiled, saying a bit regretfully, “That would be nice, but I don’t think it’s likely to happen. My husband and I both have to work till midnight today.”

Hearing that, the customer seemed to be lost in thought. She accepted her plastic bag, thanked the clerk and then headed towards her old and damaged car outside the store. Hearing the dialogue between the woman and clerk, several of us women in line began to talk about when the last time we had gotten flowers was, and finally we all agreed it had been a long time.

Several minutes later, the elderly customer came back with a few coins in her hand.

The clerk looked at the elderly customer in surprise.

Jack’s grandmother’s birthday was around the corner and all the family members were busy preparing a big party for her. It would be a special birthday party, because Grandma Sophie would turn 100 years old on the birthday. The family was filled with atmosphere of mystery and kind of excitement. Everyone was busy doing something secretly. Jack’s sister was knitting (编织) a woolen scarf for Grandma Sophie. She even brought the threads and weaving sticks to school and knitted between the class intervals. Jack’s brother would play the guitar of Grandma Sophie’s favorite song at the birthday party, so he practiced playing whenever he was free. And Jack’s parents were decorating the house and doing shopping.

However, little Jack, the 8-year-old boy, sitting with his favorite toy dinosaur, looked unhappy. He wanted to engage in the big event and to make his grandma happy, but he had no idea. He couldn’t knit as his sister did, nor could he play any musical instrument as his brother did. A birthday card with beautiful pictures would be a good choice. But he had no money to buy a card. What he possessed were lots of cards, which were from families and relatives for his birthday or Christmas and New Year. So little Jack turned to his mother for help.

Jack’s cards came from his friends and relatives all over the country. There were funny cards and serious cards. Some cards had beautiful pictures. Others had silly drawings. Jack saved them all. But his favorite card was from his grandma.

“Why don’t you recycle some of your old birthday and Christmas cards?” Jack’s mother suggested. “What does that mean?” asked Jack. “Recycle means’ to use again’，” said Jack’s mother. “You can create something new from things that have already been used.” “Recycling is a good idea,” said Jack. “I know. I’ll cut out pictures and poems from my old cards. Then I’ll make a big, new card to send to Grandma.”