1 . Humans have long known that being in nature is good for the mind and body. From indigenous (本土的) adolescents completing the adult ceremony in the wild to modern East Asian cultures taking “forest baths”, many have looked to nature as a place for healing and personal growth. But the question still remains. How can nature make it?

There is no doubt that being in nature reduces the physiological symptoms of stress in our bodies. What this means is that we are less likely to be anxious and fearful in nature, and therefore we can be more open to other people and creative patterns of thought. Also, nature often leads to awe, wonder and respect, all these emotions facilitating everything from physical to mental health. There is also some evidence that exposure to nature impacts the brain. Viewing natural beauty makes specific reward circuits in the brain associated with dopamine release, a chemical that gives us a sense of purpose, joy and energy to pursue our goals.

But, regrettably, people seem to be spending less time outdoors and less time in nature than before. It is also clear that, in the past 30 years, people’s levels of stress and sense of “busyness” have risen dramatically. These joint forces have led environmental writer Richard Louv to coin the term “Nature Deficit Disorder”—a form of suffering that comes from a sense of disconnection from nature and its powers.

Perhaps we should take note and try a course corrective. The 19th century philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote about nature, “There I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity.” The science speaks to Emerson’s intuition. It’s time to realize that nature is more than just a material resource. It’s also a pathway to human health and happiness.

Sauce-flavored or liquor latte, a new drink    1    (advertise) as containing the Chinese spirit baijiu , exploded on Chinese social media on September 4th.

The co-branded product from Luckin, China’s biggest coffee brand, and Moutai, a renowned baijiu brand, has aroused       2    (curious) due to its unique combination of coffee and baijiu. Priced at 19 RMB per cup, that’s about $3; it also makes    3    possible for many customers to have their first taste of the luxury Chinese liquor. “It tastes like liquor-flavored chocolate. Yesterday, almost everyone posted their cup of latte on their SNS(社交网络).“I got one today.” “It’s a bit light for me because I’m an alcohol person not a coffee person. But I    4    (definite) wanted to try this, and the combination is good       5    (try).”

The co-branding marketing campaign has clearly been a success. According to the    6    (late) data from Luckin, it made almost 100 million RMB in revenue (收益);that’s more    7    $13.7 million by selling 5.4 million cups on September 4th alone. But this is not the first time that a Chinese drink brand    8    (team) up with another company. Hey Tea with luxury brand Fendi, Manner Coffee with Louis Vuitton, both triggered(引发) excitement among consumers.

In a highly-competitive market,    9    Chinese customers have plenty of options to choose from, it means drink     10     (company) need to continuously find new ways to dominate the beverage(饮料) industry.

3 . The activities and services that England’s libraries offer are worth £ 3.4 billion a year, says a report by the University of East Anglia. The study found that projects run by libraries — such as improving children’s reading skills — provide valuable benefits to society.

The exact value of libraries is impossible to calculate, but the report’s authors developed a way to work out the financial worth of the activities they provide. The team looked at how much other organisations charge for similar services, for example, and the impact that library services had on people’s lives. Libraries are often run by volunteers and don’t charge people for many of their services.

The report put a value on library services, including helping people to secure jobs (worth £379 per person) and improving their reading (£279 per person). Other services on offer included free yoga classes and teaching older people how to use computers. The researchers also found that people visit libraries to help themselves feel less lonely.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, library use fell because people stayed at home. However, by the end of last year library use was very high. The charity that wrote the report, Libraries Connected, warned that many libraries in Wales, Northern Ireland and England will have to make cuts to services because they aren’t being given enough money by local authorities. Isobel Hunter, the head of Libraries Connected, hopes the report will change how local authorities think about libraries. She said, “The evidence is clear: investing in libraries brings huge returns for local communities and the public purse.”

Although the report focused on libraries in England, the authors say that it could also be useful for libraries in the rest of the UK. In Scotland this month, nine libraries have set up “lend and mend hubs”, where people can learn how to repair items to save money. Meanwhile, the Welsh government has recently announced £ 1.7 million in funding to restore libraries and museums.

4 . Georgianna McKenny’s award-winning podcast (播客) begins with a blaring alarm. It’s an alarm clock, waking her 17-year-old cousin, Mariah. Back in January, living in Jackson meant waking up without access to clean water. No showers, no drinkable water out of the tap, and, for a few days, no school.

Georgianna is the newly-announced high-school winner of NPR’s fifth-annual Student Podcast Challenge. In a year with more than 3,300 entries from middle and high schoolers in 48 states, her winning entry tells the story of the toll that Jackson’s water crisis has taken on the city’s students.

Georgianna struggled, at first, to settle on a subject. Then she mentioned the water crisis, which has troubled Jackson for years, while texting with a friend from another state. “She lives in Georgia,” Georgianna remembers. “I texted her, and she was like, ‘What is that?’ Like, she didn’t know about it. I was really shocked.”

Once she settled on the Jackson water crisis, and specifically, on her cousin Mariah’s experience of it, Georgianna had something just as powerful as experience. She had purpose. “No water comes from the tap.” Georgianna’s podcast is about a few tough days in January, when low water pressure across the city hit families and schools hard.

“Something so simple as using the bathroom has become difficult,” Georgianna says. “They ended up shutting down some of the bathrooms because the toilets could no longer be flushed (冲洗),” says Mariah. The school administrator told Georgianna, the water problems even affected what students were given to eat. If there was enough water，the cafeteria could prepare full, hot meals. If not-sack lunches. Mariah, Georgianna’s cousin, was not a fan. “Imagine getting turkey and ham-and-cheese sandwiches for seven days straight. It felt like we were in prison.

NPR judges loved Georgianna’s entry because she took on a major story in her community, conducted in-depth interviews and made excellent use of sound. Now, in winning NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge, Georgianna Mc Kenny is getting exactly what she wanted: A platform to sound the alarm on behalf of the kids of Jackson.

8 . Since 2016, China has decided to offer training programs to develop traditional handicrafts (手艺). For Liu Menglan and some other women from North China’s Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (内蒙古自治区) , the traditional handicrafts have changed their lives in a good way.

Back in 2015, Liu’s family lived on an income of 5,000 yuan. “We couldn’t ever afford the food for our sheep and didn’t have anything left at the end of the year,” Lju Menglan recalled. In 2017, she began to learn embroidery (刺绣)skills in a training program supported by the local government. Liu Menglan’s family earned almost 40,000yuan last year. Her family has moved into a new home.

According to the local government, 140 such training programs were carried out in 173 villages. “The skills helped 2, 895 women increase more than 6, 000 yuan every year,” said Bai Jingying, a local official.

For some women, traditional handicrafts, such as paper-cutting, sugar-painting and carving, have enriched their daily lives. Feng Suyan is another example. She is a local woman from Tuquan, and attended paper-cutting classes taught by Zhao Rixia, her teacher. “I started learning paper-cutting six years ago with Zhao. And now, when I see a new pattern, I would take a picture of it and cut it out,” said Feng. She is now good at paper-cutting and becomes an artist in this field. Whenever she is free, she will make a piece and share it on social media platforms.

9 . According to the World Food Program, one third of the food of the world is lost or wasted. It’s up to some 1.3 billion tons every year, worth about $1 trillion. Moreover, a report in 2021 Sugests that 8 to10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (排放) are associated with wasting food.

“For our parents and the older generations,‘clearing your plate’ is more about saving some food for a rainy day.”Liu Jichen, founder and CEO of Clear Plate, an anti-food wasting program, told us.

The idea for Clear Plate came to Liu after one dinner at a restaurant in late 2017. The customers who finished all the food they’d ordered would be given a card, and then they could exchange their cards for rewards. “Yet it was limited to one restaurant’s actions, so I thought, why not try it on a larger scale (规模)? And how?” Liu wondered. And then he teamed up with some of his friends,founded a startup and developed the Clear Plate applet.

“The Clear Plate team is trying to deal with the issue (问题) of food waste. After a meal, users of WeChat take photos of their clean plates, post these on WeChat, collect points, and then exchange their points for gifts or charity donations,” Liu explained.

Starting in 2018, Clear Plate has now more than 4.3 million users with about 45 million participations in anti-food wasting actions, reducing food waste by 1,700 tons and carbon emissions by 6,600 tons. Liu’s determination represents a small change of the Chinese lifestyle and more people are turning toward a healthier, greener and more low-carbon lifestyle.

10 . Self-driving technology is expected to have a great effect on public health and reduce the 1.25 million deaths every year on global roads. At the same time, this new technology is a threat to the employment of the millions who are paid to sit behind the wheel — from truck drivers to cab drivers and delivery workers.

Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng, an expert in the world of artificial intelligence, acknowledges the unemployment concerns, but he sees a way forward that offers society the benefits of autonomous vehicles and blunts the negative (消极的) effects of job losses.

Baidu plans to have commercial self-driving cars on the road in 2018. “I feel a strong moral responsibility to try to make self-driving cars a reality as quickly as possible,” Ng said in a visit to The Washington Post. At Baidu, a Chinese tech company where Ng is developing self-driving technology, the number 3,000 has become a rallying call (号召), representing the number of humans killed every day on roads. For Ng self-driving cars are a good example of the benefits of what he calls the golden age of artificial intelligence.

But for humans who could lose their jobs in this golden age, governments could offer a solution. “We as a society have a responsibility to help those whose jobs are displaced by this value — creating artificial intelligence,” Ng said. “I think everyone in this country has a right to the chance of having a great life.”

He is an advocate for basic income, in which governments pay citizens a nominal (象征性的) amount to guarantee a basic standard of living. Several Northern European countries are planning basic income experiments. Ng also suggests an adjustment to basic income — paying the unemployed to study online and prepare for a new career.