Provinces in China are putting efforts into the construction of digital villages. Through e-commerce, the government has taken measures     1     (increase) sales of local agricultural products. The online sales channels have been     2     (effective) expanded through brand recommendations, online and offline agricultural festival     3     (activity). Some farms are equipped with “planting brain”, with the basic conditions of agriculture in the district     4     (display) on the screen. This brings about lower cost and     5     (high) labor efficiency. Xu Yuejin, a 66-year-old grain farmer,     6     (witness) the technological advancement in the past years, and he is now skilled at using not only conventional tools,     7     drones (无人机) and other unmanned machinery to realize automatic farming. Agriculture in the digital village is     8     industry that is more than just     9     (apply) new advanced technology. Villagers’ lives are     10     vital importance as well. Therefore, digital healthcare and digital education have been promoted in villages. Soon digitalization will greatly shape the direction of the rural agriculture and rural modernization.

3 . A bright and impressive bus carrying fresh local produce appeared in a community of North Carolina in June 2022. It was the first pay-what-you-can Mobile Market. As the name implies, shoppers could pay any price out of their own will. Even the suggested price was about 25% less than that offered in grocery stores. This market gave shoppers a dignified way to provide food for their families regardless of their budget.

Seeing the joy in shoppers’ eyes, Will Komegay, the founder of this non-profit program—Mobile Market, felt a sense of accomplishment. He had once witnessed a wasteful and unfortunate reality. At that time, countless pounds of food had to be thrown away by farmers due to the interruption in the supply chain. Meanwhile, millions of people were struggling to afford enough food to feed their families. Kornegay didn’t want to stand by.

With much working experience in food industry and background about how food system was designed, Kornegay decided to use his company’s vast network of farmer and food industry relationships to address the issue. His team used buses to bridge the farmers, the food industries and communities that needed food most. Thousands of pounds of food that was sourced from local partners was placed into homes.

Kornegay still remembered how the first Mobile Market came into being. His team made a detailed plan and chose the colors and images they preferred. Then they purchased a “retired” school bus and renovated it, giving it a new different look and equipping it with refrigerators and freezers. Thus was born the first Mobile Market.

To date, the project has partnered with dozens of local farmers and food producers and has already served an estimated 10,000 families over 150,000 pounds of food. In 2023, the team hope to serve 80 sites across 20 counties in Eastern North Carolina. Their vision is to perfect the project where they live, and scale into every state nationwide.

More than 300 participants     1     were from international organizations, research institutes, universities and enterprises came together at the 6th International Agricultural Research Conference in Beijing on December 15,2022 to exchange ideas on how to make a     2     (contribute) to global food security, calling for more international cooperation in agriculture.

Themed “strengthening agricultural science and technology cooperation to jointly promote global food security,” the conference was hosted by the Center for International Agricultural Research (CIAR) and the Department of International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS),     3     (adopt) the form of virtual lectures and online broadcast.

Wu Kongming, president of CAAS, said that CAAS remains committed to providing Chinese     4     (solution) and wisdom to help address global challenges such as food security, poverty reduction and green development, and to do so through multilateral and bilateral international cooperation mechanisms.

According to Carlos Watson, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Representative in China, the conference offered     5     great and timely opportunity to facilitate(使便利)constructive discussion on international joint actions concerning global agricultural development and food security,     6     the face of challenges posed by the pandemic and climate change.

“Given China’s     7     (success) experience in the eradication(消除)of extreme poverty, digital innovations, and agricultural and rural development, China is     8     (unique) positioned to share its innovation experience, innovative technologies, and best practices with the rest of the world,” he said.

During the conference, experts discussed the current situation and future prospects of international cooperation in agricultural science and technology. They also discussed the policy environment, market environment, investment model and service demand for overseas agricultural investment, as well as strategies and measures     9     (ensure) global food security.

The International Agricultural Research Conference     10     (hold) for six consecutive(连续的)years since 2017.

5 . Canada is home to many of the world’s top universities. Here are some scholarships in Canada that will help reduce some of the financial burden for students.

University de Montreal (UdeM) International Student Scholarship Program

The UdeM scholarship program aims to support international candidates in their university studies. They offer graduate scholarships for students. The scholarship is valued at CA $9,420 per year or CA $3,140 per session. Deadline to apply is March 1st, 2023.

China Scholarship Council—University of Saskatchewan Joint Funding Program

The China Scholarship Council (CSC), partnering with the University of Saskatchewan (USask), is offering outstanding Chinese graduate students the opportunity to pursue PhD and post-doctor studies through the CSC-USask Joint Funding Program. To be qualified, you must be a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. Applicants should not be older than 35 years old at the time of the application. Deadline is February 10th, 2023 (China time).

University of Saskatchewan Graduate Scholarship

If you are not a Chinese citizen but want to pursue your postgraduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan, you can choose this scholarship. Their PhD scholarships are valued at CA $20,000 each; alternatively, their Master’s thesis(论文)is valued at CA$16,000. Deadline to apply is February 22nd, 2023.

Canada-ASEAN Scholarships and Educational Exchange for Development (SEED)

If you are keen to engage in a short-term exchange opportunity for study or research in Canadian post-secondary(中学后)institutions at the college, undergraduate and graduate levels, this scholarship is for you. Do note that only Canadian institutions can submit applications on behalf of candidates. If you are interested in this scholarship program, contact your institution to make your interest known and to request information about the application process. Deadline is March 4th, 2023.

6 . A situation in which the student is troubled by his parents pressuring him to go into a job area that makes good money but he doesn’t want to go into that career area, is bad. The question is whether he should go into this job or not.

To start out, you need to go for what is best for YOU even if there would be some negative consequences. You can't be happy unless you make decisions that are right for you. If you do not make your own decisions and make decisions that will benefit you, your life would be a big lie to yourself.

Living a lie would not be a very good life. The truth is much better than living a lie or some fantasy world. If your whole life is a lie, then it is not a very beautiful life at all. In the song Lyin’Eyes, the woman is living a lie by pretending she loves this old man, when in reality" she is just in it for the money. As a result, her life is miserable and a big lie.

And finally, money can not buy happiness. A good example of this is from the song Lyin’ Eyes. The only reason the woman married the old man is for the money and gifts she would receive. This results in her life being not at all happy. This just goes to show that no matter how much money you have your life still might not be happy. It takes a lot more than a bunch of green paper to make your life a good one

In conclusion, doing what you want is best. If you don’t do what you want to, you won’t be happy with your life and your career.

7 . They say procrastination (拖延) is the thief of time — actually deadlines are. New research has found that if you want someone to help you out with something, it is best not to set a deadline at all. But if you do set a deadline, make it short.

Professor Stephen Knowles tested the effect of deadline length on task completion for their research. Participants were invited to complete an online survey concerning a charity donation. They were given either one week, one month, or no deadline to respond. Professor Knowles says although the topic of the survey was about charity, the results are true of any situation where someone asks another person for help.

The study found responses to the survey were lowest for the one-month deadline and highest when no deadline was specified (明确规定). No deadline and the one-week deadline led to many early responses, while a long deadline appeared to give people permission to procrastinate, and then forget. Professor Knowles wasn’t surprised to find that specifying a shorter deadline increased the chances of receiving a response compared to a longer deadline. However, he did find it interesting that they received the most responses when no deadline was specified.

“We interpret this as evidence that specifying a longer deadline, as opposed to a short deadline or no deadline at all, removes the urgency to act,” he says. “People therefore put off undertaking the task, and since they are inattentive or forget, postponing it results in lower response rates.”

He says of the research that it is possible that not specifying a deadline might still have led participants to assume that there is an unspoken deadline. Professor Knowles hopes his research can help reduce the amount of procrastinating people do. “Many people procrastinate. They have the best intentions of helping someone out, but just do not get around to doing it.”

8 . More than half a trillion dollars. That's the estimated value of all the stuff that U. S. shoppers bought last year only to return it—more than the economy of Israel or Austria. We tried new brands with unfamiliar sizes after seeing them on TikTok. We overbought for the holidays, and we shopped overly online, where returns are between two and five times more likely than that from stores.

Where does it all go? Take the blanket I bought on holiday sale for example. I opened the package, only to discover it was just too small for my new sofa. So I returned it. Sorry, blanket! What will happen to it?

“Your blanket is very likely to be in a landfill,” says Hitendra Chaturvedi, a supply chain management professor at Arizona State University. “That is what consumers don't realize—the life of a return is a very, very sad path.” Value is the big threshold (门槛): Is the product worth the cost of shipping back and paying someone to inspect, clean, repair or test? Experts estimate that retailers (零售商) throw away about 25％ of their returns. Every year, U. S. returns create almost 6 billion pounds of landfill waste.

Many others get resold in discount and outlet stores. Some go to sellers on websites. Some get donated to charity or recycled. “These options have increased over the past decade, allowing more and more returns to find a new home”, says Marcus Shen, chief operating officer of B-Stock, a platform where retailers can resell their returns, often to smaller stores.

As companies compete on flexible return policies, technology is also slowly playing a part: helping shoppers buy the right-size sweater or picture a new blanket inside their room. Most importantly, She says, shoppers themselves are getting more and more comfortable with buying stuff that's not exactly brand-new.

“The idea of that is no longer scary for us, right?” he says. On his holiday-returns agenda is an electric, self-heating coffee mug that he has never opened, and he feels confident it will find a happy new buyer.

10 . If you’re gathering your teenage kids in the living room to watch “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” on Disney+, just know there’s a good chance they’d rather be playing “Fortnite”, a popular game.

That could totally be the case according to a new study from a consulting firm in Deloitte, which analyzed the generational divide in at-home entertainment.

The study, based on an online survey of more than 2,000 consumers, showed preferences are changing rapidly between millennials and the younger generation when it comes to how they want to spend their leisure time.

For Gen Z, defined as those born from 1997 to 2007,video - whether movies or television shows - is not a priority, the study found. 26% of Gen Zers in the survey said playing video games as their favorite entertainment activity, compared to 14% for listening to music, 12% for browsing the Internet and 11% for engaging on social media. Only 10% said they would rather watch a movie or TV show at home.

That compares to millennials (born 1983 to 1996),18% of whom chose watching movies and TV shows as their preferred mode of entertainment. Video games were the the entertainment option of choice for 16% of millennials.       

“Gen Z would much rather spend time gaming, listening to music or using social media,” Jana Arbanas, entertainment leader at Deloitte, said. “That was a really alarming contrast that we saw relative to the shift that's happening and how Gen Z will impact this industry.”

“Millennials took the behaviors they developed as teenagers, and they've taken them forward into their early 30s, and so if Gen Z is anything like that, their behaviors may change slightly, but I don't see a complete aging out of their behaviors,” said Kevin Westcott, technology, media and telecom leader.