3 . Recently, I pulled a jacket from my wardrobe, paired it with my red trousers and earrings, and hit the town for a book signing event. That night, I found myself unexpectedly satisfied. I got more praise over this jacket than I had got in years. But what made me feel way better was to respond, “Thank you. I bought it at a second-hand shop.”

Not only did I spend minimal amount on a clearly unbelievable find, but I also joined the ranks of consumers turning to circular fashion”-a growing trend in refreshing our wardrobe and producing new clothes in more planet-friendly ways.

As for the clothing industry; it produces close to 10% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions (碳排放) and is a massive consumer of the world's water supplies. To create a single pair of jeans, for example, requires nearly 2,000 gallons of water. And each year, around 8 billion barrels of oil are used to produce artificial materials.

Consumers also contribute to the problem. They buy cheap new clothes, wear them a few times, and then throw them out. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that Americans threw away 16 million tons of clothing in 2018, with only 15 percent recycled--the rest ended up in landfills or being exported abroad.

Something’s got to give. Scientists are working to develop less harmful carbon-negative fabrics, while some leading brands are shifting from linear take-make-waste economies to circular ones in which fewer clothes are made, waste and pollution are vastly reduced, and the used clothing is given new life.

But there’s also a role for the individual in addressing the problem. “Following the circular fashion, you’ll build an affordable cupboard that's better for the planet,” says Gama, co-founder of a company that helps brands scare their recycling and resale programs.

According to ThredUP, the world’s largest fashion resale platform, the U.S. second-hand market is expected to more than double by 2026. “Our resale report data found that over half of the consumers are more opposed to waste, both financially and environmentally, says ThredUP president Anthony Marino.

4 . In September, I received a message from my third-grade son's school that he was reading at a second-grade level. I was a bit alarmed by the news. For one, my son is old for his class; for another, I am a reading lover and believe in the power of books.

So the fact that my own son - who is bright and scores extremely high in math - was struggling in reading hit me a little, but it was not a surprise. Like many children, he fell behind during the pandemic, and our efforts to make him get caught up at home were pretty ineffective. For example, as parents, we didn't do a good enough job of finding the right books to naturally arouse his interest and curiosity. Another issue was that at some point he began to feel self-conscious about reading, which created a strong dislike of books.

About two months ago, I had just finished reading a story to my 6-year-old son who shares a bedroom with his older brother. I went to flick the light off when my older son said something I'd never heard before

“Can I read for just ten more minutes?” he asked, showing me his book on professional football players.

I of course readily gave my approval and told this to my wife. “They're doing a reading competition at school, which is about boys against girls,” she said. “Every minute of his reading is now added to their score. So now he wants to read - because it's a competition.” Over the next several weeks. my son leapt nearly two reading levels.

I don't doubt that some will look at this strategy with disdain (鄙视). We're taught today that competition is stupid, even harmful. This is nonsense, of course. It's the force that drove Roger Bannister to break the four-minute mile. It's given us the achievements of Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan. We should recognize that competition is a healthy force. It's capable of not only lifting tens of millions of people from poverty but also galvanizing (激励) a 9-year-old child into pushing himself to read. That's power.

5 . In a popular TikTok video, Emily McDonald, a neuroscience consultant, discusses three things she does each day to protect her brain -staying off her phone in the morning, thinking positively, and avoiding junk food. The advice McDonald gives in her video isn't bad.     1    

Catch some z's

Practicing good sleep hygiene (卫生), as well as getting six to eight hours of sleep each night, is one of the best things you can do for your brain health. Sleep helps the brain form memories, reinforce new concepts and ideas, and remove the buildup of bad proteins in the brain.     2    With enough sleep, you can preserve your brain's functionality even when you get older.

Get your heart pumping

Regular exercise makes for powerful heart muscles. And a strong heart helps pump enough blood to the brain to maintain its performance. The official recommendation is to have 150 minutes' moderate exercise a week which is not limited to certain types of physical activities.     3     Remember that anything is better than nothing

Try new things.

Exposing yourself to new people, places, and challenges can keep your mind sharp, and improve brain plasticity. But trying new things doesn't necessarily mean you need to spend money traveling or take up a new hobby.     4     If you can keep using your brain in new ways, you'll have better mental outcomes as you age.

    5    

Many studies have shown highly processed foods, like packaged goods, can increase the risk of health problems, like diabetes and high blood pressure. These diseases can generally harm the entire body, including your brain. To keep your brain healthy, limit processed foods and get sufficient nutrition from a wide variety of plants and animals.

Located at the foot of Wushan Mountain in the southern scenic area of Hangzhou, Qinghefang Historic & Culture Feature Street sits just several hundred meters away from West Lake. It ranks as    1     must-visit destination for culture and history lovers.

Huqingyutang Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum,    2     (lie) on Qinghefang Street, is an ancient wooden building    3     combines commerce and art. It's also the best-preserved commercial building from the late Qing Dynasty.

In 1874, a local resident named Hu Xueyan started his pharmacy (药房) here. He invited famous doctors from around Zhejiang    4     (visit) and learn from each other. He also studied the prescriptions (处方) used by    5     (early) generations. Based on its selected and authentic medicines, this pharmacy gained a high reputation and Hu Xueyan    6    (praise) as the “Pharmaceutical King” of that area. Over the following century, the pharmacy experienced much change, including the    7     (transform) from a privately-run business to a state-owned one. In 1991, Huqingyutang Traditional Chinese

Medicine Museum    8     (official) opened at the site of this famous former pharmacy.

Handheld folding fans available at Wangxingji Fan, a shop on Qinghefang Street,    9    (be) among the most highly ranked in Hangzhou. The shop offers a variety of fans. The black paper fan, made of brown bamboo and mulberry paper, is particularly famous    10     its versatility (多功能). It's locally referred to as “half an umbrella in one fan”.

7 . Imagine that you’re approaching a coffee shop. Suddenly, your eyes are drawn toward an interaction between two _______ happening outside its doors. One man sits, leaning against the glass window, with a plastic bag of belongings on the sidewalk. A woman, with her hand tenderly outstretched, _______ him some bills. As you walk past the _______ and enter the coffee shop, do you _______ pulling out few bills and giving them to the man?

If you answered yes, you’re probably _______ what social scientists from UCLA’s Bedari Kindness Institute call “elevation” — an uplifting emotion often accompanied by a(n) _______ feeling in the chest, sometimes even by tears. _______, that feeling comes with some contagious (有感染力的) kindness. Researchers from the institute have studied _______ kindness can be contagious.

What they found, in short is yes.

In the study, half of the participants watched a video titled “Unsung Hero”, which follows a young man as he _______ his daily routine often ________ to help others. The other half watched another video of a man performing impressive parkour stunts (跑酷特技). These participants ________ five $1 bills as payment for their time. Then researchers invited them to make ________ to charity. Compared with the parkour ________ , people who watched the “Unsung Hero” video gave 25% more to charity.

________ by the insights obtained from the study, researchers at the institute teamed up with YouTube Kids to plan a series of videos to encourage K-12 kids to show others ________ as a way to remove bullying.

8 . Stories of Art: 1800~1900

This series of online lectures is produced by the National Gallery, London, through which you can learn about the art of different periods with Dr Amy Mechowski. Each lecture lasts 2 hours, starting from 5:30 pm

In this first session, Amy Mechowski will give a brief introduction to this module (模块). Then we will be joined by Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, who will report on the National Gallery's foundation and its development under Charles Eastlake, the first director of the National Gallery, from1855 to 1865.

With the realists, represented by Courbet, Millet, and Manet in France and important contributions to social realism by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (前拉斐尔派) and others in England, direct observation came to the forefront of artistic practice.

From their first independent exhibition in 1874, the group of artists known as the impressionists forever changed approaches to painting. Significantly, the works of women artists, who were regarded by their contemporaries as important members of this group, including Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, came into focus.

With the last of the independent exhibitions in 1886 came the debut (首次亮相) of artists for whom the English art critic Roger Fry coined the term “Post-Impressionists” 20 years later,

Only one ticket can be booked per account. You will be emailed an E-ticket with instructions on how to access the course via your account. If you are new to the National Gallery, please go to our official website and create your own account, through which all lecture information including weekly handouts and recordings will be provided.

Standard: £75

A special offer: £70.50 (Special offers are for full-time students.)

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

10 . Using needles to deliver drugs has been common for more than a century. The past hundred years have seen all manner of medical advances, from life-saving medicine and X-rays to mRNA vaccines and special cancer treatments. Yet the needle has stayed mostly unchanged. Although now available in a variety of different sizes, it remains a hollow (having a hole or empty space inside), pointy tube.

With luck, that may soon change. As Yichi Ma, a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues outline in a review paper, researchers around the world are looking for ways to ease the pain when needles go into the skin. Many have been inspired by nature.

The team got their idea from mosquitoes, which manage to get their blood meals without causing great pain to people. One reason is that the insects use painkilling chemicals when they first puncture (刺穿) the skin. But there is another reason, The point of a mosquito's saw-like proboscis (锯齿状的喙) is softer at its tip. The insect makes the skin of its target tight before biting, and shakes its proboscis as it pushes the proboscis in. All of this helps reduce the force needed to puncture the skin.

One paper, published in 2020 by a group of researchers in America and China, found that a mosquito-inspired needle required 27% less puncturing force than an ordinary one. And less force means less pain Mosquito-inspired needles might also be useful for delicate procedures such as biopsies (the examination of tissue taken from a living body). A paper from the University of Michigan, also published in 2020, found that scientists could improve biopsies of tissue in some body organs. The lower force led to less movement of the organ itself, ensuring that the needles were guided accurately to the area that needed sampling.

For now, such devices remain limited to labs. But there is a big market for better needles. According to WHO, around 16 billion injections were given in 2018. With one person in four saying they suffer from a fear of needles, the savings on stickers and sweets for the brave souls who roll up their sleeves would be considerable.