2 . Some Old Truths to Help You Overcome Tough Times

Life is not a bed of roses and we are going through life facing sad experiences. Hard times may hold you down at what usually seems like the most inopportune (不合时宜的) time.     1     I want to share these old truths I’ve learned along the way.

Most of your fears are unreal. Fear is both useful and harmful. This normal human reaction is used to protect us by signaling danger and preparing us to deal with it.     2     Will Smith once said, “Danger is very real. But fear is a choice.”

    3     Sometimes you can be easily caught up by life problems that you forget to stop and appreciate the things you have. Only strong people prefer to smile and value their life instead of crying and complaining about something.

You are not alone.     4     Try to keep in mind that almost everyone wants to help you if you are trying to make a good change in your life.

Pave your own unique path. Today many people find it difficult to trust their own opinion and seek balance by gaining objectivity from outside sources.     5     When you are struggling, you should believe in yourself and be sure that your decision is the best.

5 . Qiang embroidery (羌绣) has a long and rich history, dating back to the Han Dynasty when it was adopted for use on clothing. It makes use of many kinds of stitches (针法). The Qiang people adore nature, so they embroider plants and animals on clothing. Flowers, grasses, fruits, vegetables, animals and human figures are used as inspiration for the embroidery’s most common patterns. This type of embroidery features a bold use of brilliant colors. Qiang embroidery is usually practiced by women. A pair of embroidered shoes can take as long as ten days to produce, making the practice a test of both skill and patience.

Fifty-something Chen Yunzhen, from Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County in Sichuan Province, is a master of Qiang embroidery. As the local tourism industry began to develop, Chen decided to promote the embroidery as a brand to attract more tourists. Many local women, encouraged by Chen, began to earn their living through Qiang embroidery. As part of her efforts to stop the endangered technique from disappearing, Chen began visiting the surrounding regions to teach embroidery. In 2014, she set up a Qiang embroidery workshop that has since provided free training to over 20,000 people. Over 500 local embroiderers make a living through the workshop.

To breathe new life into Qiang embroidery, Chen has continued to keep an open mind, introducing new products like personal accessories (配饰), notebooks and bags in addition to the traditional clothes. Chen’s two daughters returned to their hometown to help support her efforts after graduating from university. With her daughters’ youthful sense of innovation (创新), Chen has combined metalwork and Qiang embroidery to create earrings, rings and necklaces that are popular among young consumers. She is also considering live streaming to promote her handmade products.

According to Chen, the Qiang people do not have a written language, so Qiang embroidery must be well preserved and developed as part of efforts to sustain (传承) its culture. For Chen, Qiang embroidery is much more than a piece of art to appreciate. “If you allow it to convey its real value, it will improve more people’s lives and drive rural revitalization (乡村振兴),” she said.

It was a soccer match     1     no red carpet, no stars and no professional players, but at least 50,000 spectators watched it on-site and millions of others online.

At the Village Super League finals in Rongjiang county, Guizhou province, Saturday night, very few people were concerned about the final score. It was the passion and sportsmanship of these amateur players and the cheerful, warm and relaxing atmosphere on the field       2     inspired the crowd.

“The match itself is more important than its result,” said Dong Yongheng,     3     team is named after his village, Zhongcheng, the Chinese word for     4     (loyal). “By running, fighting and giving my all on the field, I am reminded that I still have a deep passion for life and soccer.”

Dong runs a snack bar in the village but has loved soccer since he     5     (be) very young. In this Village Super League season, which began on May 13, he scored multiple goals,     6    (make) him popular among the spectators who     7       (close) followed the matches.

All the players in the Village Super League come from different     8     (walk) of life. Some are students, while others are butchers, construction workers, drivers or businesspeople. Among the referees are schoolteachers, government workers and villagers. But all are united in their passion for soccer.

For spectators who have traveled from across the country     9    (witness) one of China’s most popular sports events this year, the Village Super League is more than a midsummer soccer fest. It is also     10       successful campaign (运动) presenting everything unique about Rongjiang county, including its culture, landscape, folklore and food.

7 . The largest living land animal in Asia, Asian elephants once roamed grasslands and rainforests across the continent. Prior to the 1700s, habitats for the now-endangered animals were relatively stable (稳定的). But a new study shows that more than 64% of historic suitable elephant habitat across Asia has been lost.

Researchers found there was a rapid growth in habitat loss of Asian elephants from the year 1700, which is related to the expansion of European colonization (殖民化) of the region. During that time, logging, road-building, resource extraction and deforestation (森林砍伐) increased, and farming need more land that might otherwise have been home to wildlife. The industrial revolution in the middle of the last century also drove greater habitat loss.

Habitat loss means elephants are migrating (迁徙) from their usual living area, creating challenges for human communities that have little experience with elephants. In 2021, millions of people were frightened by a herd of elephants that migrated out of a protected area in China’s southwest Yunnan Province and walked more than 500 kilometers, destroying crops, wandering through towns and causing more than a million dollars’ worth of damage.

With the elephants not having enough habitat, there is increased potential for human-elephant conflict (冲突) — a situation that shouldn’t be accepted as unavoidable and one that can be avoided with proper planning. “We are going to reach a tipping point in which cultures of no conflict toward one another get replaced by cultures of antagonism ( 敌 对) and violence — by both species. We have to relieve this situation,” said Shermin de Silva, a UCSD faculty member who led the research team.

If the elephants can’t find suitable habitats, they will become endangered and near extinction (灭绝), which has an effect on the whole ecosystem. This is because elephants help spread seeds and vegetation cover (植被). Their habitats also include several other species of animals and plants. In the wake of satisfying their need for large spaces, and enough water and food, plenty of other species can survive. When we protect the elephant, we also protect thousands of other species.

9 . At 6 feet, 7 inches, Will Allen was a natural at basketball. He received scholarship offers from more than a hundred colleges. He finally chose the University of Miami.

Going away to college meant leaving the family farm. He remembered how hard that life on the farm had been. Now that his life was full of possibilities, he swore he would never go back to farming.

After college, Allen began a pro-basketball career in Belgium, where, ironically (讽刺地), he rediscovered farming. He found the farmers there farmed the way his parents had back home, caring for the land without using chemicals and fertilizers.

Allen and his family moved back to the United States in 1977 after he retired from basketball. They settled in Milwaukee, where his wife’s family owned a farm. In 1993, Allen bought the last remaining farm in the city of Milwaukee, where he began his career as an urban farmer. Later he formed his own organization Growing Power, one of the world’s top urban agricultural organizations.

Allen also travelled across the United States, Africa, and Central Asia to help people grow food more efficiently in ways that fit in with their own culture. “Food is in short supply all over the world right now,” he says. “A lot of people are hungry. We need to grow food everywhere we can—in backyards and side yards, on rooftops, and even in buildings.”

He has spoken about urban agriculture around the world and is currently designing a vertical farm which is a new way to help feed more people in cities. “My main mission is to bring food into people’s lives and train people how to grow food. That continues to be important to me. ” said Allen. He said so, and he did so.

“Growing food is powerful,” Allen says. “It can change the world!”

10 . El Nino is a weather pattern that brings hotter temperatures and less rainfall than usual. It is caused by warmer surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean leading to a change in wind movements. Warmer ocean temperatures lead to more rainfall over that part of the ocean and less rain over Northern Australia.

An El Nino weather pattern has been declared in Australia for the first time in seven years and experts say people should get ready for extreme heat. The Bureau of Meteorology（欧洲气象局） said the country would sweat through hot and dry weather for the rest of 2023 thanks to El Nino and another weather pattern called a positive Indian Ocean Dipole, or IOD, which relates to ocean temperatures.

Both weather patterns have already brought hotter and drier weather to southern and eastern Australia while making heatwaves, droughts, bushfires and having effects on coral reefs much more likely.

Australia’s last El Nino was in the summer of 2015 before cooler, wetter La Nina weather took over. The Bureau said it was very likely El Nino would last the whole Australian summer.

“When a positive IOD and El Nino occur together, their drying effect is typically stronger and more widespread across Australia,” the Bureau warned.

The news comes after an unusually long period of warm spring weather, with some places recording temperatures 15°C higher than the average. A disastrous fire warning was announced for the NSW south coast on Tuesday as firefighters battled against the fire in the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales.

Senior Leeturer in Climate Science at the University of Melbourne Dr Andrew King said the recent hot weather “is a warning of the kind of extremes we’re likely to see more of over the next few months”.