1 . Hang your tongue out of your mouth while your eyes look upwards. Breathe loudly and use your hands to pull your head in every way. This is yoga (瑜伽) for your face.

Fumiko Takatsu, creator of the Face Yoga Method, has written six books on face yoga and has been practicing facial exercises for about 15 years. Takatsu, 50, said she came up with the idea of facial exercises after a car accident when she was 35 years old, which left her face out of its proper position. Around the same time, Takatsu said she began to notice signs of aging, but gave up using creams and beauty treatments after they became too expensive.

Koko Hayashi, 39, a face yoga instructor in Los Angeles, said she first heard of face yoga by discovering Takatsu’s work. Hayashi said she had a chin implant (下巴植入体) when she was 27 years old, but took it out because it misshaped her face. “That’s why I’m so interested in more natural beauty instead of plastic surgery (整形手术),” Hayashi said. Like others who practice facial exercises, Hayashi believes it can fix signs of aging and help reduce wrinkles (皱纹).

The question that often pops up when someone mentions face yoga is, “Does it actually work?” A study out of Northwestern University found that the exercises may help middle-aged women.

“This is a pilot study that suggests that there might be some factors of face exercise that can be helpful to at least certain patients in improving certain signs of aging,” said Dr. Murad Alam from Northwestern University.” But we need more studies to better understand exactly how much exercise is necessary to have any benefit, whether it works for men and women of different ages, and then how much exercise is needed to keep that benefit.”

Medical reporter Dr. Jennifer Ashton said that she is not sure whether face yoga works and that any benefits are most likely going to be up to the person trying it. “If you feel better after trying face yoga, it may be something you should keep doing,” she said.

10 . Yang He, a 64-year-old man from Yichang, Hubei, has observed the changes in finless porpoises (江豚) population with his camera for six years. As a(n) ________ of the finless porpoise, he has taken more than 100,000 photos of them so far.

Every day, Yang wakes up early and drives to the ________ of the Yangtze River. He waits ________ there for hours for finless porpoises to capture (捕捉) their ________ with his camera. Yang ________ finless porpoises very well. They are just like his children. As soon as one of them comes out from the water, he can tell which family it ________.

The Yangtze finless porpoise is so ________ to the Yangtze River that any change in the health of its living environment can support or ________ its survival. “When I was a teenager, I could see many finless porpoises. I would often observe them ________ boats in the river,” Yang says. “But ________ human activities, finless porpoises became fewer.”

However, the situation has changed as ________ measures have been taken to protect the species. In 2017, Yang was ________ enough to take a photo of a finless porpoise after a long waiting. In 2019, he was able to take more photos, including images of the porpoises________ fish near the riverbank.

Thanks to his camera, he once discovered and ________ a porpoise whose tail became entangled (缠住) with a rope. “I will make it my life’s work to ________ this amazing creature.” Yang says.