Ten years ago, Melanie and Jeremy Zanni     1     (find) the house they dreamed of: a 300-year-old cottage in a small town. They moved into their new home     2     (short) after and set up a bakery. They’ve been happy ever since until     3     accident changed everything. In March, the Zannis’ cottage was burnt     4     the ground when a chimney fire grew out of control. Firefighters eventually put out the flames, but the house was completely destroyed. The couple were desperate.

Luckily, residents from the town joined hands to help the     5     (ruin) family. Using their     6     (variety) skills, they immediately got down to rebuilding the cottage.    7    (work) day and night, they ensured the couple and their nine-year-old son had a roof over their heads. Thanks to the efforts of the residents, Melanie and Jeremy once again had a place    8     (live) in.

“I am so grateful that we are living in a community     9     everyone is willing to offer a helping hand,” Jeremy said. Such     10     (story) have been heard everywhere on earth, and will continue to be heard.

2 . Several years ago, Chris Williams was driving home on a Wednesday night in Conroe, Texas. “It was dark and raining hard, and I could _________ notice two women walking on the road.” He asked the two women if they needed a _________, and they jumped in.

Soon, Williams learned why the two women were walking on the road on such a dark night: Their car had been in the repair shop for nearly three months. “And we can’t _________ to fix it,” one of the women said, _________.

Growing up with four sisters and having two daughters, Williams always felt like having a _________ to help women. That special night gave him a(n) _________: opening an auto repair garage to help women in need. Williams borrowed money and asked people he knew for _________ to start his career. Several months later, he opened the Garage, a nonprofit that repairs vehicles for women_________. The organization also _________ second-hand vehicles to women in need.

The Garage was __________ received in the surrounding community. Last year alone, it gave away 146 vehicles and repaired 127. “I understand how __________ people feel when experiencing economic difficulty, and I am __________ that I can help,” Williams said.

Jeanne McGowan, a single mom of two, __________ a used car from The Garage. “Several years ago, I got divorced. I had to quit my job __________ I could tend to my children. This car made it possible for me to drive them to school and pick them up after school,” she told a local TV reporter, “and I am __________ for it.”

3 . Covering more than 2,300 km, the Great Barrier Reef shelters over 1,000 different fish species.     1    . Many people have dived and had a look at them, but few know them like Valerie Taylor.

Valerie and her husband, Ron Taylor, were among the first to explore the Great Barrier Reef on film.     2    . In 1974, Hollywood came calling and the Taylors filmed live shark sequences (连续镜头) for Steven Spielberg’s thriller Jaws (电影《大白鲨》).

Though the movie turned out to be a great success, it changed the public attitude towards sharks — they were terrified by them, and even hated them and began to hunt them. Shocked, the couple changed their lives forever and turned their attention to shark conservation. “We did every talk show we could and told the audience that Jaws was a fictional story — sharks don’t behave that way and are actually a mild animal, but people just didn’t buy it,” said Valerie Taylor. “    3    .”

Valerie Taylor played an important role in getting sharks protected. In 2012, South Australia renamed the Neptune Islands Group Marine Park after the Taylors because of their work protecting the oceans.     4    . Human activities are endangering a species that has lived in the oceans for more than 400 million years.

    5    . “We’ve really made a bad impact, but it can be changed. Not everywhere but at least in some places. Sharks are part of the web of life, and so are the rest of the animals. If we fail to protect them, there is a big price for us to pay.”

4 . The air conditioner is nearly 100 years old, but the technology is essentially the same as it used to be. Although it has made our lives easier and more comfortable, this all comes at a cost. The cooling of our air is responsible for 10% of the planet’s electricity consumption. And as the world heats, demand for air conditioners will continue to grow. This, in turn, will increase the influence that cooling machines have on the climate, thus warming the Earth further and creating a vicious cycle.

The current technology is unsustainable. That’s why a group led by RMI, a nonprofit environmental research organization, has launched the Global Cooling Prize, a $1-million competition to design of the next generation of air cooling systems. The proposed designs employ a wide range of technologies. Barocal, a Cambridge University startup, uses solid-state cooling technologies instead of traditional liquid refrigerants (制冷剂) that may leak out over time. Meanwhile, a proposal from Kraton, a Texan chemical engineering company, simply uses water, completely doing away with the main mechanical component of air conditioners, the compressor, to make the design more affordable. Others focus on the limitations of current air conditioning units, such as the lack of control over both temperature and humidity (湿度) at the same time. The design proposed by US startup M2 Thermal Solutions allows users to set both a specific temperature and the level of humidity in a room.

It’s difficult to tell what these proposed new machines will look like before the actual machines are built, but it’s arguable that they will create something new, as most of the shortlisted designs are based on fundamentally different technology compared to traditional devices.

The overall winner, announced in November 2021, will be awarded $1 million in prize money. This is when the real challenge begins: convincing the world that traditional air conditioners need replacing. “The current industry is worth more than $100 billion and has a well-established value chain from manufacturing (生产) to distribution to after-sales support,” said Vijay Mhetar, Kraton’s senior vice president. “Any new design will need to have minimum barriers for customer adoption and have a similar supply chain established.”

5 . After being lost for three decades, this tiny deer-like species has finally been rediscovered in the forests of Vietnam. The silver-backed chevrotain — also known as the Vietnamese mouse deer — is about the size of a large rabbit. They are shy, enjoy being alone, appear to walk on the hips of their hooves (蹄) and have two sharp teeth. Chevrotains typically weigh less than 5 kilograms.

Its last recorded sighting was in 1990, when a team of Vietnamese and Russian researchers obtained a dead chevrotain from a hunter. “Then nothing. So little known about it that the species was one big question mark. For so long, it has seemingly only existed as part of our imagination,” said Vietnamese biologist Any Nguyen.

One of the biggest challenges was deciding where to start the search. After several interviews with local villagers who reported seeing a grey mouse deer, a field team set three camera traps for five months. “We had these two areas separated by quite some distance — one in the southern part of Vietnam and the other much further north,” said Andrew Tilker, Asian Species Officer at the Global Wildlife Conservation. This resulted in 275 photographs of the species. The team then set up another 29 cameras in the same area, this time recording 1,881 photographs of the animal.

Tilker also warned that just because this species was found relatively easily, it doesn’t mean it’s not under threat. “This might represent the last population or one of a handful populations, in which case we need to take action immediately to put conservation measures in place to ensure its survival.”

The team is now setting out to determine how large and stable this population of chevrotains is, assess the wider distribution of the species, and explore the threats to its survival. As part of the first-ever comprehensive survey on the species, the team began camera trap surveys in October in two additional areas. They will use all of the information that they gather to set up a project that strengthens the conservation of the species across its range.

New 2021 Monday Night Concert Series Packages go on sale, Friday, January 1 and Individual Shows Tickets go on sale, Wednesday, January 6. These tickets will be available for purchase online.

Prices for the 2021 Packages for 6 times:

Rows A — D = $150.00 per person ($25.00)

Rows E — Q = $144.00 per person ($24.00)

Individual Ticket Price: $26.00

For additional information, please contact Nancy Planck at 520-393-2911, Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:00 am to 5:00 am.

A bus trip will be provided for the Car Show in Scottsdale. The bus boards at the Madera Clubhouse South Parking Lot at 5:30 am and departs at 6:00 am. The Car Show will last from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm. Please feel free to bring your own coffee and breakfast for the trip as the Coffee Bar is not open that day. Water will be available for the trip.

Don’t miss out on the party of the century as the Ballroom Dance Company will host their impressive event Vintage Hollywood at 4:00 pm in the Madera Clubhouse. The Ballroom dancers will be teaching dances like the swing, Charleston and foxtrot. No partner or previous dance experience is needed. Just be sure to dress to impress and get ready to have some fun.

10 . Washing soda is a kind of chemical that can be used to remove stubborn stains from laundry. It also has many uses around the house. And it is used in a range of industrial applications as well. Washing soda should not be confused with washing powder, which is a powdered soap used as a detergent.     1    

Washing soda (Na₂CO₃) is also known as sodium carbonate. It is a salt of carbonic acid, a chemical that produces a wide range of salts known as carbonates. One common source of washing soda is the ashes of plants.     2     Sodium carbonate can also be created from what is known as table salt.

    3     It helps remove a range of stains, and unlike other detergents, washing soda does not usually stain. It is also used to treat hard water, so that clothing will come out clean, without any stain. Sodium carbonate is also used to help fabric have a longer lasting color.

Around the house, washing soda can be used to wash things like coffee machines and bathroom floors which may accumulate mineral deposits as a result of exposure to hard water. It can also be used for other touch cleaning jobs like cleaning the stove.     4     That’s because it can damage your skin.

Many markets carry washing soda, typically with other laundry products. After purchasing washing soda and bringing it home, store it cautiously. Sodium carbonate can be dangerous in large quantities.     5     So keep washing soda out of the reach of children and pets, and clearly label the container to indicate its harm.